Its hard to believe that its been 30 years since the very first 3D Mario game was released from the Nintendo 64. Super Mario 64 is considered to be legendary because it was one of Nintendo’s first major platform titles for a series that thrived on 2D gameplay during the 80’s and early 90’s. Super Mario 64 was an open world platform game which was far more creative than the 2D installments. Super Mario 64 started off inside of Princess Peach’s castle where players had access to various different levels by jumping through paints. Players were able to gain access to different paintings and levels by collecting Power Stars in order to access different parts of Princess Peach’s castle. Super Mario 64 had around fifteen main levels and various boss battles with the likes of Big Bob-Omb, Whomp King, Wiggler, Chilly Bully and Bowser. While Super Mario 64 was adventurous and seemingly set the bar for 3D platform titles during the 90’s the game did have its far share of flaws.

The camera system in Super Mario 64 has been looked back upon as a point of frustration due to its clunkiness. Also, the graphics for Super Mario 64 has aged poorly mainly because they looked blocky and polygonal opposed to smooth and refined. Super Mario 64 was also criticized for its lack of multiplayer gameplay with the exclusion of Luigi who was included in previous 2D installments within the series. Also, while Yoshi was in Super Mario 64 he was a non-playable character who made cameo appearance towards the end of the game after players collected 120 Power Stars. There were definitely many things that Nintendo could have done to make Super Mario 64 a better game than it actually was.

It almost a crime that Super Mario 64 did not get a direct sequel on the N64 with better graphics and multiplayer gameplay that included Luigi & Yoshi in addition to Mario. Despite, the criticisms that Super Mario 64 has faced over the years the game had a very successful launch selling more than 11 million copies on the N64. Super Mario 64 ended up being the best-selling game on the Nintendo 64 and sold far more than Crash Bandicoot on the PS1 which also came out in 1996. As revolutionary as Super Mario 64 its not quite as iconic as the 2D entries in the Mario series that preceded it. Even though, Super Mario 64 is three decades old its still a very fun game to play today and is more interesting than many modern day games in this day and age. Super Mario 64 was released during a time where Nintendo was beloved by its fanbase and their standards were higher. While the graphics for Super Mario 64 are inferior to modern day games it still has a replay value with online mods still being created by fans to this day.