Super Mario 64 is more than a game in the modern day. This videos examines the game’s legacy through its outstanding gameplay, speedrunning, content creation, and obsession over the little secrets we once dreamt were real.
Thumbnail by https://twitter.com/eunaoseibrother
Special thanks to my Dad for allowing me to record him playing Super Mario 64 for the first time. Also, special thanks to my brother for helping me film shots of the controllers.
Speedrunners I featured in this video:
Simply https://www.twitch.tv/simply
Cheese https://www.twitch.tv/cheese
Liam https://www.twitch.tv/liam
GreenSuigi https://www.twitch.tv/greensuigi
KANNO https://www.twitch.tv/kanno
Siglemic (inactive… but I miss the runs) https://www.twitch.tv/siglemic
Xiah https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClNZewYw4FsmbwfzX11-p3Q
Check out Super Mario 64 Beta Archive here: https://www.youtube.com/c/SuperMario64BetaArchive
Check out https://sm64romhacks.com/
Featuring music by
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-yhzrCFsA0 desert sand feels warm at night – 新世界の弟子たち (New World Disciples)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pzus3tNules Wet Dry World 1995/07/29 build by Jim Nopedie
https://youtu.be/HpPYQMnk39g Dire, Dire Docks but it’s underwater.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B82gHjDZO6M Scatman’s World 8-Bit by Xiotrion
HUGE list of sources for this video: https://pastebin.com/1JBmzbhQ
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:37 Development
13:49 The Game
39:05 Speedrunning
52:41 How the Game Has Aged
1:12:29 Beyond the Castle Walls
1:21:22 Enduring Mysteries and L is Real
1:39:03 Every copy of Super Mario 64 is personalized
1:48:01 Conclusion
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This video made me pick up the game again after burnout from trying to complete it. I am now enjoying the game at my own pace instead of trying to speed run it. I am reliving that childhood wonder of exploring the worlds built instead of collecting every star. Thank you!
My first exposure to the Super Mario bloopers was Smg4 videos and I was literally saying swear words in elementary school when I had no idea what swear words were. My parents were not happy and banned smg4
Great retrospective dude ^w^
I had never realized Mario was made in Garry's Mod, and seeing him in Toy Story 2's Al's Toy Barn level was a nostalgic gutpunch. This video was a great look at SM64 and really explained my childhood fascination with the game and how much it's endured in mind. The whole personalized copy creepypasta really brought to mind dreams I used to have about crazy things happening in Mario, like finding secret rooms in the basement where Mario, Luigi, and Wario all fight Bowser together, or having to fight Wario at the top of Tick Tock Clock, it felt good to see I'm not the only one. Great video!
53:45 This is the one thing about Mario Sunshine that feels 100% better than 64 to me without reservation. The sideflips in that game are so snappy. I'm glad you mentioned it.
sm64 a game that i only played in early 2021, overall enjoyed but found it rather quickly because I WAS coming into it having experienced A WHOLE LOT of mario odyssey and other games. never played it since. but this video is touching it really tells me just how many people this game touched in one way or another and its wonderful
really interesting perspective on the whole personalization iceberg thing too which is a thing i used to just scoff at while it was around
Wow those parents are awesome!
Watch Joeseph Anderson's video on Super Mario Odyssey. It really isn't a worthy follow-up to its predecessors.
It's so funny because while you were talking about different solutions to levels during Wall Kicks Will Work, I noticed I've always got onto the final platform on that very level by wall-kicking on the side wall onto the platform. Just goes to show, everyone plays the game different, and that makes it that much more awesome!
Video starts with my favorite track from any video game ever… sick
Can someone tell me the name of artist in the thumbnail? Please and thank you.
Me watching speedrunners: "😐😐😐"
59:26 Me watching your dad air-kick to stay in the air and land on a platform: "😃😃😃"
It like watching a child grow all over again😆. With your dad having previous gaming exp, his growth was exponential.
I would love a Super Mario 64 – 2. No gimmicks like Sunshine, Galaxy or Odyssey. Just an updated 3d Mario Platformer.
Damn this video is good. Also wow already over 100k views. Good job bro.
been watching you for a very long time. this is peak content to see you cover SMG64 with the same love you did for HL
These days every time I hear the end credits theme of Mario 64 I feel like crying. I don't play it much these days, but I have such strong emotions attached to it. It reminds me of being a child more strongly than maybe anything else. I played it a lot as a little kid on the N64 but never really was able to beat it. But I can still remember crystal clear getting a DS Lite with it on Christmas Eve at my grandpa's house, as we all sat in the living room in front of the fire and watched old cartoons together, me half watching because SM64 DS was blowing my FUCKING MIND because it had YOSHI, LUIGI, AND WARIO THIS TIME?! Hearing the end credits music makes me think of memories like that, brings back those feelings so clear. I don't know how but this game really is so special.
And wet dry world always and forever will freak me out as well.
This video is just, beautiful, just got done watching it and i can't say much rn since my mind is just sooo blown away by how great it is overal but… i love this game, and everything the fans have made out of it, and i'm so, so glad there's all this other people who do as much as i do.
1:16:02
8q8
I cried seeing that dudes mom and dad walk in
This is a video I'm definitely going to come back to several times, I can already tell. Super informative and fun and really captures the connection so many people have with this game. I really enjoyed this one a lot!
Each segment should get posted as its own episode as well, very well done dude
Holy shit Fleskhjerta??
Somehow, someway this is still the only home console Super Mario mainline platformer game I have yet to play. And ironically I've probably watched more videos about it than any other mainline entry.
I remember playing super Mario 64 DS as a kid and I’ve always wondered if Waluigi was playable in the game. I would look up videos on how to unlock Waluigi and trying them on my own and not knowing all of them were fake. It was pretty crushing when I figured out all of those videos were fake. Damnit.
I experienced just that back in the fall of 1996 during my medicine school days, I’ve seen twisted metal and other ps1 games, but this was just awesome and the control was magic
I still remember vividly the Christmas morning when my brother and I got an N64 and Mario 64.
I first got the game on the Wii U. I remember not being able to get past the basement.
Then, when Super Mario 3D All Stars released, I played SM64, and after weeks or months, I beat SM64. I don’t think I 100%ed on 3D All Stars, though I could be wrong.
Then, we get to the good stuff. I got a Pikachu N64 with Banjo-Kazooie, and later, Super Mario 64. I rebeat the game and, eventually got all the stars.
Then when the Switch Online Expansion Pass released, I said I wouldn’t get it. And then I did get it because I’m an idiot. 100%ed SM64 in 2 or 3 days. That’s the fastest I ever beat and 100%ed the game.
I just couldn’t get over the camera. I didn’t play it much when it came out because of it. I got the remake on the switch and I am baffled they didn’t fix the camera. I know it was the first of its kind but it just made me give up playing it.
37:50 no fuckin way did he just edgebug
So, nobody gonna talk about the, “from your dreams and desires,” to the source of the gameplay
beautifully done
Bubsy and Crash both released after Mario 64.
I swear, each of theses sub sections could have been a video on its own. mis clicking on this video is one of the best mistakes I have made. 7 fully fleshed out video in one.
I was first introduced to SM64 via the DS port. I don't think the controls are that bad. Then again, I grew up on Spyro, which was a 3D platformer primarily using the d-pad for controls.
This is my first and favorite video game of all time. I might be bias but how mario handles in 64 is still my favorite. I also find it odd when younger gamers complain about the camera. Idk if were spoiled now adays or what but i hardly find it that bad. Especially when its a camera from freaking 1996
☮️
Amazing video.
And Wet-Dry World is unironically one of my favorite levels. Even back then I loved the gimmick, the platforming and the underwater town (reminded me of the mock town they built in the salt mines of Parajd, Transylvania). But now with all the info… yeah. The atmosphere is like in Portal, a desolate chamber in the middle of nowhere to test technologies like the water level manipulation and all the mechanical enemies. The mishmash of nonsensical structures adds to that. It's all surreal and awesome. And yes, all the stars are fun, and there are so many ways to approach most of them from the moment you choose the initial water level.
The Bee Movie is the best movie.-
great video, only missing a simpleflips shoutout
9/10
I was 20 years old when I walked into a small independent game shop in the late summer of 1996. I had been out of touch with the gaming scene for a few years now. Got busy with other things and just drifted away from the hobby. Imagine my shock upon seeing a Japanese N64 running Mario 64 with absolutely no warning the console or game existed. Having never seen a real 3D game right in front of my face. It was a moment I will never forget. Even the controller was a perplexing shock. What is that? The N64? What the hell?
Now imagine my surprise when the guy running the store tells me he’s renting it out with the game for $35 a night. That was a lot of money for 20 year old me but I didn’t hesitate. My friend and I hurried back to my parents house and booted that thing up for the first time. Seeing Mario pop out of that pipe for the first time.😮I will never forget the weird feeling I got the first time I ran Mario towards the castle bridge and jumped into the moat. My brain had never processed something like this before and it literally made me feeling my stomach drop. I tried doing it again to see if that feeling happened again, and I couldn’t make it happen again.
We stayed up very late that night playing and just being all around blown away by what a surprising experience this all was. We returned the rental the next day, and I got f course pre-ordered a U.S console days later. That day sparked my love of gaming again, and it hasn’t left me since.
Ironically, the very first game I saw as a child that made me say “holy shit, video games can be amazing” was Super Mario Bros on the NES. Walked into a friends house in 1987 and had my mind blown seeing that game for the first time. So yeah, Mario games are very special and each new one that comes out is a very special moment for me.
My plantation from my pass family owner has finally told me that i am the real Mario with genetics. I am one of the 7 fallen angels.
Kick-out is a good thing in general because it encourages a long-term focus on substantial objectives that change and evolve the level design in meaningful ways as you progress through them.
Having a few relatively self-contained objectives that can be tackled out of order is no bad thing if they are still significant in their own right, and considering these makes it understandable how the genre could go either way after SM64. However, you can see the effects on the non-kick-out style in e.g. Rare's N64 platformers as they became increasingly focused on collectation elements and away from interesting major objectives. Conversely Mario Sunshine and Galaxy maintained full kick-out to develop increasingly distinct level variants and fleshed out challenges for each Shine/Star.
Odyssey limiting the kick-out to only rare major objectives isn't really a clever optimization as much as an admission of how insubstantial the majority of Moon objectives are, often being rewarded for tasks that would have been a 1-Up, Blue Coin or even just alternate dialog text, if that, in previous games.