Why Super Mario 64 will never be topped.



Back in 1996 when the N64 came out, all the gaming magazine covers featured one thing: Super Mario 64. Many of them had slogans such as 'Revolutionary' and 'Greatest game ever' and for once the hyperbole was, in fact, spot on.

The game was unlike anything seen before it, the beautiful 3D worlds, the fluid animation, the bizarre but intuitive control scheme, all adding up to the legend that is Super Mario 64. Mario 64 had not only jump-started 3D console gaming, but it had knocked it out of the park on the first try! The game was challenging and addictive, gorgeous to look at and wonderful to play, easy to pick up and play but took forever to master. In short, it ticked all the boxes and ended up the greatest gaming experience up to that point.

So has it been surpassed in the 10+ years since it's creation? Not even close my friends.

As games slip further and further away from the philosophy of action and fun, and more towards 'storyline' and working your ass off, they became duller and duller.

But that is only part of the reason, I mean there are still action platformers today, so why are they all trash? As always it boils down to one thing: Money.

When the N64 was released it was Mario 64 or nothing, the controller's Analogue stick and C-buttons were clearly only there because SM64 required them, Nintendo had essentially given Miyamoto's vision free reign.

Mario 64 can never be bettered because no company will ever again let a creative type (Miyamoto for instance) build a console around creating one perfect game, limited only by processor technology at the time.

This is because it is not commercially viable (let's face it, the N64 got it's ass kicked by the PlayStation, at least in sales), the consoles are becoming more and more generic, with a view to catching the largest audience possible by creating games of as many styles as possible. Even the Wii is designed this way, by a committee who's job it was to think of a way out of the financial hole Nintendo are in. Creation by committee does not good art make.

For me SM64 is the perfect synergy between the console's power, the controller design, and game design. The holy trinity if you will. God knows it's the closest thing I have to a Bible.

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