Posted April 14, 2021
Finally, after almost 25 years I've finally beaten Super Mario 64, specifically the Nintendo Switch version from the 3D All Stars collection.
I actually played this game briefly after launch at a friend's, later also borrowed his N64 to play it some more and eventually also did two or three approaches via emulation but the farthest I had ever gotten was about 2/3 I guess. My relationship with this game is pretty complicated. As a child I loathed how "badly" Mario handles and I found the structure confusing so I didn't really like the game. Eventually I got the game's appeal and overcame some of my trouble with the controls and came to the conclusion that it's a nigh-perfect masterpiece. And now?
I now actually agree with myself from when I first played the game. Mario's handling is unnecessarily convoluted and difficult and the camera is quite awful. You can attack enemies in a number of ways and not one of them is comfortable to use. Even classics of the series were screwed up - jumping on enemies is so difficult that it's barely viable and you can't throw fireballs (which could have easily solved many of the precision issues from going 3D). This kinda open world with "quests" is okay but it does have some issues like some quests only being achievable if you choose that particular one when you start the level while others always work. And some of them are IMO just badly designed or the instructions are far too obscure. Also, the game is riddled with what I call "asshole design": insta-killing pits and quicksand are placed in the most annoying and unnecessary places. There are lives even though they don't really make any sense - the only situation where they really come into play are the boss levels where running out of lives may force you to replay the whole level before the actual boss which is in itself kinda dickish. And all of these are things that Nintendo fixed in later Mario games so there's really no point in defending them as creative decisions.
That said: for such an early 3D platformer all of these issues are of course forgivable and it's still a pretty darn amazing game that's all in all super enjoyable except for some moments of frustration. The worlds may be comparably small but they are very diverse, some sections are frustrating but most are quite fun, some enemies require fun strategies to defeat them and the "quests" give the game some elements of adventure which make it more than just "Mario 3D". It has IMO aged worse than Banjo-Kazooie which almost perfected the format but it's actually still a very good - if rough - game even by today's standards.
And concerning the Switch port itself: it's very basic but perfectly fine as far as I can tell. I don't see any reason to play the N64 version instead of this one unless you're a speedrunner or something.
I actually played this game briefly after launch at a friend's, later also borrowed his N64 to play it some more and eventually also did two or three approaches via emulation but the farthest I had ever gotten was about 2/3 I guess. My relationship with this game is pretty complicated. As a child I loathed how "badly" Mario handles and I found the structure confusing so I didn't really like the game. Eventually I got the game's appeal and overcame some of my trouble with the controls and came to the conclusion that it's a nigh-perfect masterpiece. And now?
I now actually agree with myself from when I first played the game. Mario's handling is unnecessarily convoluted and difficult and the camera is quite awful. You can attack enemies in a number of ways and not one of them is comfortable to use. Even classics of the series were screwed up - jumping on enemies is so difficult that it's barely viable and you can't throw fireballs (which could have easily solved many of the precision issues from going 3D). This kinda open world with "quests" is okay but it does have some issues like some quests only being achievable if you choose that particular one when you start the level while others always work. And some of them are IMO just badly designed or the instructions are far too obscure. Also, the game is riddled with what I call "asshole design": insta-killing pits and quicksand are placed in the most annoying and unnecessary places. There are lives even though they don't really make any sense - the only situation where they really come into play are the boss levels where running out of lives may force you to replay the whole level before the actual boss which is in itself kinda dickish. And all of these are things that Nintendo fixed in later Mario games so there's really no point in defending them as creative decisions.
That said: for such an early 3D platformer all of these issues are of course forgivable and it's still a pretty darn amazing game that's all in all super enjoyable except for some moments of frustration. The worlds may be comparably small but they are very diverse, some sections are frustrating but most are quite fun, some enemies require fun strategies to defeat them and the "quests" give the game some elements of adventure which make it more than just "Mario 3D". It has IMO aged worse than Banjo-Kazooie which almost perfected the format but it's actually still a very good - if rough - game even by today's standards.
And concerning the Switch port itself: it's very basic but perfectly fine as far as I can tell. I don't see any reason to play the N64 version instead of this one unless you're a speedrunner or something.
Post edited April 15, 2021 by F4LL0UT