A Mario Retrospective - Part V

Super Mario 64
Lo and behold, mere mortals! Bow your heads in shame, as you could never accomplish what this 64-bit piece of hardware did for 3D platforming, and the game industry as a whole! I speak, of course, of Super Mario 64, one of Miyamoto’s greatest achievements and one of the greatest games of all time (Notice a pattern with these Mario games?).
I would have included Yoshi’s Island here; after all, it is subtitled Super Mario World 2. However, I could never do that game justice, as I never owned it for the SNES, and despite the fact that I own the Game Boy Advance version, I just don’t feel acquainted enough with the game to delve deeply into it.
SM64 is another story. The game is absolutely huge, and by God, I’ve played it so many times I nearly want to puke whenever I hear “Thank you so much for-to playing my game-a.”
The story follows the core storyline established in earlier games, i.e. Princess Peach has been kidnapped. The Princess invites Mario over to her castle to have some cake, and Mario shows up only to find a deserted castle occupied only by the creepy laughter of Bowser. It turns out Bowser has hijacked the castle and robbed it of its power stars, and it’s up to Mario to defeat Bowser, restore the castle’s power and rescue the Princess. We’ve seen stuff like this before.
The game spans several worlds, each containing 7 stars, and a few bonus areas, each containing a variable number of stars as well. There is an assigned task to accomplish for each star in the game, ranging from defeating a boss to simply collecting 100 coins in the level. There are 120 total power stars to collect; when you collect all of them, you’re rewarded with a slightly different ending and 100 lives from Yoshi, who resides at the top of the castle.
Mario is armed with more than his jump this time around. The familiar Super Mushroom/Fire Flower tandem from the earlier Mario games has been eliminated this time around, making way for the more modern Cap system, which features the Wing Cap, Metal Cap and Vanish Cap. The Wing Cap famously gives Mario the ability to fly by either executing a triple jump or being fired out of a cannon. The Metal Cap turns Mario into living metal, making him invulnerable to enemies and allowing him to survive underwater or in a cloud of poison gas. The Vanish Cap makes Mario, well, vanish, allowing him to pass through enemies and certain walls. Mario has also been gifted with new athletic abilities, such as a mastery of punches, kicks, flips, and breakdancing maneuvers. Of course, Mario’s trademark jump can still be used as a potent weapon.
The boss fights make up one of my favorite aspects of the game, as they’re more varied and creative than ever before in the series. Each boss is assigned a different strategy, ranging from picking up and tossing King Bob-omb or pushing the Big Bully into the sea of lava in Lethal Lava Land. The three battles with Bowser are the most fun and challenging, with a lot of thumb endurance and accuracy needed to take down the big guy. The first battle is pretty easy; Bowser moves slowly and practically presents his tail to be grabbed so you can swing him around. The second battle takes place over a lava pit, with the arena wobbling as Bowser’s weight pounds down upon it. Bowser’s a lot faster here, so you’ll have to be pretty dogged in your pursuit of his tail. In these first two battles, hurling Bowser into a bomb lining the arena once will defeat him. The third and final Bowser fight is by far the most intense; Mario has to fling Bowser into a bomb three times to secure victory. This time around, though, Bowser is faster than ever with a formidable arsenal of fire-based attacks, with many of them lingering to pester you as you pursue Bowser’s tail. After you’ve hit Bowser twice, the arena will collapse into a giant star shape, making it more difficult to throw the Koopa King into the bombs.
The interesting thing about this game is that it’s the first game in the main Mario series to give Mario a voice. It’s the debut of Charles Martinet in a true-blue Mario game, and from the beginning the man gave the little plumber a lot of soul. His voice work is goofy, but just human enough to make you feel bad when Mario gets hurt. The “huulgh” sound Mario makes when he takes a hit is both hilarious and a little shame-inducing when you hear it. When Mario falls a big distance, he utters a silly shout that makes it hard to realize you’ve just sent a man careening to his death.
Hands down, the game is good. Just good in every aspect. A little glitchy, sure, but this was the N64. The early years of the N64. Glitches at that point were inevitable. Of all the 3D games of the mid-90s, Mario 64 was easily the most polished and enjoyable, and continues to be one of my favorite games to this day.
Up next, we’ll deal with the other black sheep of the Mario family (more like the redheaded stepchild), Super Mario Sunshine. We’re almost done!