When Super Mario 64 was first released for the Nintendo 64 in 1996 many people were very impressed at the job that Nintendo did in terms of visuals and gameplay.   The idea of only having Mario as a playable character was something that many people had initially ignored because they were so excited to have a 3D game in the series.  While the story along with the overall adventure of Mario 64 was great some people believe that Nintendo could have added a multiplayer similar to 2D Super Mario Bros games.

 In the older Super Mario Bros games of the 80’s and early 90’s when one player lost a life as Mario the second player was able to play as Luigi on that same level.  Also, having two people play simultaneously on a platform game like Super Mario was not common back in the 80’s or 90’s like it has been in the 00’s and the 10’s.  

The  simultaneous multiplayer gameplay that is utilized in games such as the New Super Mario Bros for the Wii or Super Mario 3D World was something that Nintendo probably would had trouble creating on the Nintendo 64.   Unlike the Wii or the Wii-U the Nintendo 64 most likely placed limitations on the designers of the game.  With a 64 bit console the designers could only do so much in terms of gameplay and actual development.  Some would say that if Luigi was included in Super Mario 64 the game would have been a huge success regardless.  However, having a multiplayer mode in Super Mario 64 along with having Luigi as s playable character could have definitely added to the overall replay value of the game itself.