Upon release, Super Mario 64 blew away every gamer. The Nintendo 64 had exceeded everyone's expectations; and with it, Mario 64 did as well. At the time, this game was groundbreaking in many categories like: Graphics and the 3D worlds, gameplay, and fun factor. The game was (and still is) aweinspiring. Mario 64 has created a whole new genre and platform for games.

Storyline
Just as in every other Mario game, Princess Peach has been kidnapped by the evil Bowser. To make matters worse, Bowser has stolen all of the Power Stars from the Mushroom Kingdom Castle and trapped the Princess within her own castle.

You are Mario. You are to unlock secrets of the castle, find all of the Power Stars, and beat Bowser to rescue the Princess. Sounds easy, right? Well, not totally.

Gameplay
With the new 3D technology, Mario was able to learn a few new moves to beat Bowser and his legion of baddies. Some of his new spiffy moves are the long jump, triple jump, and bottom smash. All of his new moves can be learned in an hours time and learning the main controls of the game will take even less.

Unfortunately, this game only has one game mode; and that is to find the Stars and beat Bowser. Even though there is only one game mode, this game will have you drawn to it for a long time. You are able to beat the game without finding all of the Stars, but who wants to do that?! Until you find all of the castle's Stars, this game has some great replay value. But after that, you get bored of the game quickly and put it aside for awhile. There is a special present waiting for you if you can get all 120 Stars... But I'll let you figure it out.

A new feature instilled in this game is the use of caps. Mario can obtain different hats that allow him to do different stunts. You can get a hat to fly (which is one of the most fun things I have ever done in a video game), a metal cap to let you walk on the bottom of oceans, and an invisible ca
p that lets you walk through certain kinds of walls and be invulnerable for a short time.

There is a plethora of levels, seeing as how the Mushroom Kingdom has a basement, three more stories, and a garden to explore. These levels will range from pirate ships and the sea, to pyramids and the desert, to rainbows and the sky, to a land floating in the sky, to a baron ice wasteland, to even a ghost house. This game has unbelievably huge, fun levels.

Mario 64's game set-up has definitely allowed many other great games to come out. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Donkey Kong 64 are a couple examples. The idea behind free control of the character and going to any level without any particular order is a new, and awesome feature. This is the new genre of one player games.

Graphics
Now, as I mentioned before, graphics in Mario 64 had never been seen before. This included the amazingly smooth animation, huge detailed 3D worlds and characters, the variety of levels, all the beautifully colored and designed levels, and even this room in the castle where there is a mirror in it, and Mario stands looking at his reflection! It is just phenomenal.

Overall
This game is really great. There is no violence in it and everyone all ages can enjoy it. The game has great 3D graphics, a great storyline, superb gameplay, and fun new features (like flying). The game is very fun. I feel it is a must have for any Nintendo 64 fan