You can fly with Winged Hats, yes. (Super Mario 64 (N64))

Member Name: adidadi_young

Product:	Super Mario 64 (N64)
Date:	05/08/01 (2967 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great!, Great!

Disadvantages: Kinda old

Let’s get straight to it. Or, let’s not. Let’s go through the game as slowly as possible. Some people like Short and Sweet, some like Long and Boring. Well, I’m just going to type and you will Very Useful it whether you like it or not <g>.

When the 64 came out (I refer to it as the 64, not the N64 which most people call it, I don’t know why; I don’t go round saying SPlayStation2 or SDreamcast) there were a total of 5 (yes, 5 (five)) games on release. One of these games was called Super Mario 64. The main aim of this game was to show how Nintendo could put Mario into full 3D, etc.

It has another basic storyline. Again.

Mario comes along to a castle.

Peach invites him in.

“Go away! You aren’t allowed in here!”

Mario investigates.

Bowser has kidnapped peach! Save her!

And, well, that’s it. As you enter the game, you are in a garden, and a big castle surrounds you. Peach seems to be trapped in this window directly above you, with an alcove and double doors in front. You could just nip into the storeroom and grab a ladder and smash the glass, but ooohhh nooo. You see, our hero Mario here has to go the hard way and journey across 15 vast lands and collect secret stars to defeat Bowser in his 3 keeps, each more dangerous than the last, doesn’t he?

The levels.

The levels.

The levels come in 15 main ‘courses’, each one gaining in difficulty level each time. The first of these levels being Bomb-omb Battlefield, which is a very ‘greeny’ place, with a lot of weak enemies, etc. It’s big, but can be walked across quite quickly if there are no obstacles. Well, it more or less starts off as a dry area, and in the corner, there is a huge spiral, which goes all the way up to the top of a tall hill, where the bomb-master-king-thingy awaits you… Of course, defeating him will give you a
star, but there are also 5 other stars, which you must obtain on that level. This includes racing a Koopa, collecting 8 sort-of-hidden red coins, and freeing a bow-wow.

The second level is sort of different, it’s suspended in the sky, and again, you need to get to the top for the first star. It’s quite a bright level, fun to play to. It takes longer to get to the other side of this level, mainly because it’s bigger and has more obstacles. Other star challenges include getting an owl and grabbing to his feet, and then dropping into a cage. This can be irritating at times, but at least when you do it it’s more satisfying, depending on how many times you fail. Ok, I’ll talk about the next level with it being so different, but that will be all. OK?

Third Level.

Third Level.

This one is called Jolly Roger Bay. You start with one big, big pool in front of you, which is big. You start on this very, very small bit, which then forces you to go into the water. There, more or less at the end of the pool/lake is a big ‘pirate ship’, which inside is some treasure chests. One of them has a star; the others have energy-loss things. The other stars? Well, you must go into an anti-whirlpool (it sucks (not the pop band kind of sucks, the physical term) you outwards), and it’s you who must go inside of it to collect the star. It’s too powerful to swim into, which is why you must find something heavier <note the clue which blatantly gives it away>.

That’s enough. The other levels go from snowy mountains to magic carpet rides, and a big deadly clock (don’t ask) to an obstacle course with a floor made of lava.

However, there are other mini-levels, 3 ‘main’ mini-levels, these are Cap Courses. You get to the end and press a big coloured switch and the caps are opened in the courses.

OK, OK; I admit it – oops. What I meant was, OK, I’ll
go through it in a good example. You press a red switch in this mini level. Then, you go to the first level. Where there was a see-through cube before, well now it’s bright red and is yours for the head butting. It’s now yours, the flying cap. Guess what that does?

Yes, it makes you fly. Understand? Yes? OK. No? Tough.

Gameplay.

Gameplay.

Gameplay in this game is very, very good compared to the other games, and a lot more moves were inserted than what people expected.

The move list:

The move list:


---Movement
Walk: Walks. (3D Stick forward, not too much)
Run: Runs. (3D Stick forward, all the way)


---Jumps
Jump: Jumps (A)
Double Jump: Double Jumps – Jump, then jump again as soon as you land. (A+A)
Triple Jump: Triple Jumps – Guess. (A+A+A)
Back flip: I won’t describe the moves from now on. (Z+A)
Long Jump: (Run, Z+A)
Side Jump: This one kind of does a high jump, in a backwards way. (Run one way then immediately run the other way, then press A)


---Attacks
Punch: (B)
2-handed Punch: (B+B)
Punch-Punch-Kick: (B+B+B)
After playing the game for a reminder, I remember that Spin Kick is: (Z+B).
Slide Kick: (Run, Z+B)
Uppercut: (A+B)

Um… I think that’s it. It’s enough to defeat your enemies, isn’t it? Yes, it is. Thing is, you can also defeat your enemies with a mere jumping. Ah, how good it is. It’s unnecessary but good.

OK, some extra moves are also included in the caps:

Red: If you triple jump, you fly. Yes. In more detail: If you put on this cap with a wing each side, then some different music starts to play. Then, you do one of those triple jumps, and you go high in the air and soar, like you are free or something. You can hold down to go faster; unfortunately you go towards the ground. But never fear; hold up and you fly up again! Tha
t’s more or less it.

Green: Mario T1000. You get this, he turns into a chrome kind of effect, all over his body, and some music plays, which evidently is probably the best on the game (unfortunately, this is not necessarily good). During this time, you are invincible and can walk on the bottom of a pool/lake floor. Handy for the Jolly Roger Bay star I just practically gave away for you earlier. In my honest opinion, it’s the best powerup you can get in the game. In my honest opinion, that is. Most people do, as well.

Blue: Partial invisibility. This is for certain parts of certain levels only, there aren’t any blue cubes scattered around randomly. It makes you, in appearance, kind of bitty and see through. What does it do? It can make you run through enemies, yes, whichever enemies you choose to run/walk through, and also some weird walls which can be walked through.


So, you can fly, walk in water and run through walls.

So, you can fly, walk in water and run though walls.

Oh, there is the Koopa shell, which is very, very good. Basically you jump on it and control it. It’s fast, can jump high, can defeat basic enemies by charging them, and the best bit is here: It can travel on practically any surface at all. Grass, Gravel, Water (traveling on the surface of water, yes), Ice, Lava… Anything. Except maybe a couple of spikes. Anyway, it’s damn good and that’s the reason they are so damn rare.


I think it’s time to move on to the usual “3rd part” of my opinion: the opinion (and somewhat wEIrd conclusion. I don’t know.


My opinion.

My opinion.


Well, considering my little brother had to go to a car boot sale and find this game for £2 (two pounds, sterling), The person he bought it off must have not liked it. So, he bought it, had a go, got about 4 stars, and then complained because he was stuck. So, I just cre
ated my own game file (you get 4), then got about 25 in a night. I had played this game before, however, so it’s not too bad. I’m currently on 88 stars out of a whole 120, and the difficulty curve in this game is rising in a very unpleasing manner.

Thing is, I have watched my mate get the 120th star, and boy would that be satisfying.

Say, for example, if some boxing gloves appeared in front of you, and Fred Durst just happened to walk in the room and say ‘punch me’.

It’s got great graphics, it’s heard that they tried extra hard on the anti-aliasing jobs, and it does look like it, what with it being from 1995. They are very smooth, but occasional glitches do appear. However, these are only minor. Mainly, they are good, just not pushing the 64’s limits at all. In any way.

So, how long will it last? Well, it’s lasted me about 3 weeks so far; I haven’t done it all yet. But I have explored all the levels. So. All I can really say is, a long time.


Ah, the conclusion.

Ah, the conclusion.

It’s a great game, as you can tell from the 5 stars I awarded it. It’s good in all-round prospects, and despite being a 64-oldie game, this is a classic, which still remains at the top of the best game ever chart. Not at the very top, but near enough to be appreciated.

That’s it. And, to put one very, very last comment in the opinion: jillmurphy and alkaliguru need a very good reading indeed.

Summary: