Super Mario 64

is a 1996 platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It is the first Super Mario game to feature 3D gameplay, combining traditional Super Mario gameplay, visual style, and characters in a large open world. In the game, Bowser invades Princess Peach's castle, kidnaps her, and hides the castle's Power Stars in different worlds inside magical paintings. As Mario, the player traverses levels and collects Power Stars to unlock areas of the castle, reach Bowser and rescue Peach.

Director Shigeru Miyamoto conceived a 3D Super Mario game during the production of Star Fox (1993). The team spent about one year on design and twenty months on production, starting with the virtual camera system. The team continued with illustrating the 3D character models and refining sprite movements. Yoji Inagaki recorded the sound effects, and the score was composed by Koji Kondo.

Super Mario 64 was highly anticipated, boosted by advertising campaigns and showings at the 1996E3 trade show. It was released in Japan and North America in 1996 and PAL regions in 1997 to acclaim, with reviewers praising its ambition, visuals, level design, and gameplay; however, some criticized its camera system. It is the best-selling Nintendo 64 game, with nearly twelvemillion copies sold by 2015.

Numerous developers have cited it as an influence on 3D platform games, with its camera system and 360-degree analog control establishing a new archetype, much as Super Mario Bros. did for side-scrolling platform games. Its influence can be seen in 3D platformers such as Spyro the Dragon, Banjo-Kazooie, and Psychonauts. He can walk, run, jump, crouch, crawl, climb, swim, kick, grab objects, and punch using the game controller's analog stick and buttons. He can execute special jumps by combining a regular jump with other actions, including the double and triple jumps, long jump, backflip, and wall jump. The player can adjust the camera—operated by a Lakitu broadcasting Mario—and toggle between first-person and third-person view.

Health, lives, and power-ups

Unlike many of its predecessors, Super Mario 64 uses a health point system, represented by a pie shape consisting of eight segments. If Mario has taken damage, he can replenish his health either by collecting three types of coins—yellow, which replenishes one segment; red, equal to two yellow coins and which replenishes two segments; and blue, equal to five yellow coins and which replenishes five segments, by walking through a spinning heart or by jumping into water. Underwater, Mario's health instead represents how long he can hold his breath, slowly diminishing while underwater and replenishing when he surfaces. Finishing a course grants Mario an extra life for every 50 yellow coins the player collected, and extra life mushrooms are hidden in various places such as trees and poles—they may either chase Mario through the air or fall to the ground, avoiding Mario and disappear shortly if not collected.

In absence of the power-ups normally found in previous games, such as the Super Mushroom and Fire Flower, three colors of translucent blocks—red, green, and blue—appear throughout many stages. Three switches of the same colors, found in three secret areas located in either stages or the castle itself, turn their corresponding blocks solid and permanently allow Mario to obtain three types of special cap power-ups throughout all of the stages. The Wing Cap allows Mario to fly after doing a triple jump or being shot from a cannon; the Metal Cap makes him immune to enemies, fire, noxious gases, allows him to withstand wind and water currents, perform on-land moves underwater, and have unlimited air capacity underwater; and the Vanish Cap renders him partially immaterial and invulnerable, and allows him to walk through some obstacles. Another implicit powerup is the shell remains after stomping a Koopa Troopa, which Mario can use to run over enemies, and surf on water, lava, and quicksand.

Setting and objective

The hub world takes place in Princess Peach's Castle, which consists of three floors consisting of the castle's lobby, the main tower, and a basement, plus a moat and a courtyard outside the castle. The player's main objective is to look for paintings that, when jumped into, bring them into courses containing Power Stars, which upon their collection unlock more of the castle hub world. Each of the fifteen courses has seven Power Stars (six from named missions and one gained by collecting 100 coins in the level), and an additional fifteen are hidden as secrets and as bonuses, for a total of 120 Power Stars.

The courses are filled with enemies as well as friendly creatures that provide assistance or ask favors, such as Bob-omb Buddies, who will allow Mario to access cannons on request. Some Power Stars only appear after completing certain tasks, often hinted at by the name of the course. These challenges include collecting one hundred yellow coins or eight red coins on a stage, defeating a boss, racing an opponent, and solving puzzles. The final level is blocked by "endless stairs" similar to the Penrose stairs concept, but Mario can ascend them after collecting seventy Power Stars. The music in the endless stairs before collecting seventy Power Stars resembles a Shepard scale. There are many hidden mini-courses and other secrets within the castle, which may contain extra Power Stars required for the full completion. If the player collects all 120 Power Stars, Yoshi can be found on the roof of Princess Peach's Castle, who will give the player a message from the developers, accompanied by one hundred extra lives and an improved triple jump.

Plot

Princess Peach invites Mario to come to her castle for a cake she has baked for him. When he arrives, Mario discovers that Bowser has invaded the castle and imprisoned the princess and her servants within its walls using the power of the castle's 120 Power Stars. The Power Stars are hidden in the castle's paintings, which serve as portals to other worlds where Bowser's minions keep watch over the Stars. Mario explores the castle and enters these worlds, gaining access to more rooms as he recovers more Stars. Mario unlocks three doors to different floors of the castle with keys obtained by defeating Bowser in hidden worlds. After getting at least 70 of the 120 Stars, Mario breaks the curse of the endless stairs that block the entrance to Bowser's final hiding place.

Once Mario earns all 120 stars, he is able to access the roof of the castle via a cannon on the castle grounds, where Yoshi awaits him. Yoshi congratulates Mario on securing all 120 stars and grants him 100 extra lives to continue playing.

Development

In the early 1990s, Super Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto conceived a 3D Mario design while developing the game Star Fox (1993) for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Star Fox used the Super FX graphics chip, which added more processing power; Miyamoto considered using the chip to develop a Super NES game, Super Mario FX, with gameplay based on "an entire world in miniature, like miniature trains". According to engineer Dylan Cuthbert, who worked on Star Fox, Super Mario FX was not a game but the codename of the Super FX chip. Miyamoto reformulated the idea for the Nintendo 64, not for its greater power but because its controller has more buttons for gameplay. At the January1993 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), where Star Fox made its debut, Nintendo's booth demonstrated a talking 3D polygon animation of Mario's head; this later inspired the creation of the interactive Mario face in the title screen, which was programmed by Giles Goddard. According to Miyamoto, the development team consisted of around fifteen to twenty people. Development began with the characters and the camera system; months were spent selecting a view and layout. The original concept involved the fixed path of an isometric game such as Super Mario RPG, which moved to a free-roaming 3D design,

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Super Mario 64 is one of the first games for which Nintendo produced its illustrations internally instead of by outsourcing. The graphics were made using N-World, a Silicon Graphics (SGI)-based toolkit. The development team prioritized Mario's movement and, before levels were created, tested and refined Mario's animations on a simple grid. In an interview with The Washington Post, Yoshiaki Koizumi recalled that his challenge was animating the 3D models without any precedents.

Miyamoto's guiding design philosophy was to include more details than earlier games by using the Nintendo 64's power to feature "all the emotions of the characters". He likened the style to a 3D interactive cartoon. Mario was made highly expressive to "create the feeling of controlling something that's really alive", which Miyamoto was inspired to do after letting his pet hamster loose in his room. Super Mario 64 features more puzzles than earlier Mario games. It was developed simultaneously with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time but, as Ocarina of Time was released more than two years later, some puzzles were taken for Super Mario 64. The developers tried to include a multiplayer cooperative mode, whereby players would control Mario and his brother Luigi in split-screen. Nevertheless, hardware constraints and the developers' inability to implement the mode satisfactorily led to its removal.

thumb|upright=0.65|Composer [[Koji Kondo|alt=Koji Kondo at Tower Records in 2006]]

The music was composed by veteran composer Koji Kondo, who created new interpretations of the familiar melodies from earlier media as well as new material.

Super Mario 64 is one of the first games to feature Charles Martinet as the voice of Mario, and Leslie Swan—then senior editor of Nintendo Power and English localizer for Super Mario 64—as the voice of Princess Peach.

Release

Super Mario 64 was first shown as a playable prototype in November1995 at Nintendo Space World. This version was only fifty percent complete, and only about two percent of texture mapping was finished. It featured thirty-two courses. Miyamoto had hoped to create more, possibly up to forty, Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi later said: "Game creators can finish games quickly if they compromise. But users have sharp eyes. They soon know if the games are compromised. [Miyamoto] asked for two more months and I gave them to him unconditionally". The game was later shown at E31996 with multiple Nintendo 64s set up for people to play. According to Giles Goddard, the stress of the project caused some programmers to quit or move to different departments.

Advertising and sales

Peter Main, Nintendo's vice president of marketing at the time, stated Super Mario 64 was meant as the killer app for the Nintendo 64. The million marketing campaign included videotapes sent to more than five hundred thousand Nintendo Power subscribers and advertisements shown on MTV, Fox, and Nickelodeon.

Super Mario 64 was officially released in Japan in June1996, During its first three months of sale in North America, it sold more than twomillion copies and grossed $140million in the United States, becoming the best-selling video game of 1996 by dollar sales. During the first three months of 1997, it was the second-best-selling console game at 523,000 units, behind Mario Kart 64. According to the NPD Group, it was the fifth best-selling video game of 1998 by unit sales, behind GoldenEye 007, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Gran Turismo, and Banjo-Kazooie. By early 2001, it had sold 5.5million units, and 5.9million by September2002.

At the 1999 Milia festival in Cannes, Super Mario 64 won a Gold ECCSELL prize for earning revenues above million in the European Union in 1998. It had become the second most popular game on Wii's Virtual Console by June2007, behind Super Mario Bros. By March2008, Super Mario 64 sold 11.8million copies worldwide, being the best-selling Nintendo 64 game. By 2015, Super Mario 64 was the 12th most sold Mario game, with 11.91million copies sold.

Re-releases

Super Mario 64 DS

An enhanced remake, Super Mario 64 DS, was released for the Nintendo DS in 2004. As with the original, the plot centers on collecting Power Stars and rescuing Princess Peach from Bowser. In contrast with the original, Yoshi is the starting character, with Mario, Luigi, and Wario as unlockable characters. It features improved graphics, slightly altered courses, new areas, powerups, and enemies, more Power Stars to collect, touchscreen mini-games, and a multiplayer mode. Reviews were mostly positive, with critics praising the graphics and add-ons to the original game but criticizing the controls and multiplayer mode. By September2021, 11.06million copies had been sold worldwide.

Other re-releases

A version of Super Mario 64 was used as a tech demo for the Nintendo 64 Disk Drive (64DD) floppy drive at the 1996 Nintendo Space World trade show. Like Wave Race 64, Super Mario 64 was re-released in Japan on as Super Mario 64 Rumble Pak Version which fixed various bugs, added support for the Rumble Pak peripheral, included the voice acting from the English version, among other changes.

In November2003, it was ported to China's iQue Player as a limited-release demo. which added enhanced resolution and compatibility with the GameCube and Super Famicom Classic controllers. In September2020, Super Mario 64 was one of the three Super Mario games to be included in the Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection on Nintendo Switch. This version was based on the Rumble Pak iteration, and updated the presentation to display at 720p resolution in both the Switch's docked and handheld configurations, in addition to using upscaled user interface assets and textures. It also features a new control scheme that accommodates the wider button array of the Nintendo Switch Joy-Con and Pro Controller, and was later patched to add compatibility for the Nintendo 64 controller used with the Nintendo Classics service. It made another Nintendo Switch appearance in October2021 as part of the Nintendo 64 lineup for the Nintendo Classics service.

Reception

Critical reviews

Super Mario 64 received enthusiastic pre-release reception. GamePro commented on the 1995 prototype's smoothness, and how the action "was a blast", despite it being only fifty percent complete.

Super Mario 64 received critical acclaim, with a score of 94 out of 100 from review aggregator website Metacritic based on thirteen reviews, Maximum found its strongest points were the sense of freedom and its replayability, comparing it to Super Mario World and citing its similar gimmick of allowing access to new areas upon finding switches. In contrast, Corbie Dillard claimed that the camera did not have any problems, and that it succeeded at helping the player traverse complex environments. Game Informer, Official Nintendo Magazine, Electronic Gaming Monthly, and Nintendo Power. Electronic Gaming Monthly awarded it a Gold award in its initial review, and it won Electronic Gaming Monthly Game of the Year for both editors' pick and readers' pick, and Nintendo 64 Game of the Year, Adventure Game of the Year, and Best Graphics. At the 1997 Computer Game Developers Conference, it was given Spotlight Awards for Best Use of Innovative Technology, Best Console Game, and Best Game of 1996. Maximum gave it a "Maximum Game of the Month Award" before its international release, ranking it the greatest game the magazine had ever reviewed.

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Super Mario 64 was key to the early success of and anticipation for the Nintendo 64. Lee Hutchinson, a former Babbage's employee, notes how it was spurred by a feverish video game press, and how the success defied the rule that a wide variety of launch games was necessary for broad appeal.

In 2012, Super Mario 64 was among the 80 entries in the Smithsonian American Art Museum's The Art of Video Games exhibit.

Influence

Super Mario 64 set many precedents for 3D platformers as one of the most influential video games. The game is known for its nonlinear, open freedom, which has been acclaimed by video game developers and journalists. 1Up.com wrote about its central hub world, which provides a safe tutorial and a level selector, and is now a staple of the 3D platformer genre. Its mission-based level design inspired game designers such as GoldenEye 007 (1997) producer and director Martin Hollis and the development team of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. Dan Houser, a prominent figure in the development of the Grand Theft Auto series, stated, "Anyone who makes 3D games who says they've not borrowed something from Mario or Zelda [of the Nintendo 64] is lying". Tom Hall, co-founder of id Software, said it "defined the 3D platformer as a genre", and that "the industry hadn't really figured out 3D platforming yet, and here it was, a masterwork that set the standard". Square Enix has stated that a coincidental meeting with Disney employees resulted in the creation of the Kingdom Hearts series, inspired by Super Mario 64 use of 3D environments and exploration. Michael John, designer and producer on Spyro the Dragon, cited Super Mario 64s controls and environmental design as influences. Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag director Ashraf Ismail based the open world design on Super Mario 64s hub world with pockets of maps full of content.

Super Mario 64 introduced a free-floating camera that can be controlled independently of the character. This camera system became the standard for 3D platformers. Nintendo Power praised the camera movements along with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time addition of the lock-on camera and concluded that the two games were trailblazers for the 3D era. PC Magazine K. Thor Jensen considers Super Mario 64 to be the first truly realized 3D platformer with the integration of camera control into its core gameplay, which he called the medium's true evolutionary leap.

Super Mario 64 use of the analog stick was novel, offering more precise and wide-ranging character movements than the digital D-pads of other consoles. At the time, 3D games generally only allowed the player to either control the character in relation to a fixed camera angle or in relation to the character's perspective. Super Mario 64 controls, in contrast, are fully analog and interpret a 360-degree range of motion into navigation through a 3D space relative to the camera. The analog stick allows for precise control over subtleties such as running speed. In 2005, Electronic Gaming Monthly ranked Super Mario 64 the most important game since they began publication in 1989, stating that, while there were 3D games before it, "Nintendo's was the first to get the control scheme right".

In July2021, a pristine, sealed copy of Super Mario 64 was auctioned for , the largest amount ever paid for a video game. Heritage Auctions's video games specialist said, "It seems impossible to overstate the importance of this title, not only to the history of Mario and Nintendo but to video games as a whole".

Successors

A sequel was planned for the disk drive add-on, under the codename Super Mario 128. In July1996, Nintendo insiders stated that Miyamoto was assembling a team consisting mostly of developers who had worked on Super Mario 64. Miyamoto affirmed that work on the sequel had only commenced at the time of the E31997 convention. The project was canceled due to its lack of progress and the commercial failure of the Nintendo 64 Disk Drive.

Super Mario 64 successors include Super Mario Sunshine for the GameCube and Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii, building on its core design of power-ups and its 3D, open-ended gameplay. Super Mario Galaxy 2 includes a remake of Super Mario 64 Whomp's Fortress level called Throwback Galaxy. Super Mario 3D Land and Super Mario 3D World are departures from the open-ended design, instead focused on platforming reminiscent of 2D games.

The Nintendo Switch game Super Mario Odyssey returns to Super Mario 64 open design; it includes numerous references to the latter. The "Mario 64 Suit" and "Mario 64 Cap", which change Mario's appearance to his in Super Mario 64, can be purchased after completing the main storyline. Additionally, Mario can travel to the Mushroom Kingdom, which includes Princess Peach's Castle and its courtyard. The Kingdom's Power Moons resemble Super Mario 64 Power Stars.

Rumors

Rumors spread rapidly after the game's release. The most popular was a pervasive rumor that Luigi existed as an unlockable character. In 1996, IGN offered a prize of $100 if a player could find Luigi, to no avail.

Glitches and speedrunning

Since its original release, players have discovered multiple glitches that allow them to reach previously unreachable parts, including, in 2014, a coin not possible to be collected in ordinary play.

The game's speedrunning community has developed many techniques over the years, including: the Lakitu skip, a long jump that bypasses Lakitu's dialog explaining camera movement; the bloated Bob-omb glitch, where a Bob-omb is grabbed mid-explosion in a bloated state, which makes Mario be pushed by its large hitbox and allows him to clip through walls; and the "backwards long jump" (BLJ) glitch, where the player performs multiple long jumps backwards on a steep slope, which allows Mario to reach very high speed values and has numerous applications in speedrunning. The BLJ glitch in particular was patched in the Rumble Pak re-release in 1997, as well as the Japanese Virtual Console and Nintendo Classics re-releases, and the Super Mario 3D All-Stars compilation (due to the latter being based on the Rumble Pak version's codebase).

In 2013, YouTuber Vinesauce posted a compilation of various corruptions, replicated with a program named naughty. Another YouTuber, Pannenkoek2012, creates highly technical and analytical videos of Super Mario 64 glitches and mechanics, which have been covered many times by the video game press. The game has also inspired players to do challenges like beating it with certain restrictions, which requires deep understanding of its mechanics and bugs. One of those challenges, completing the game without pressing the A button, was beaten by a player named Marbler in May 2024.

Fan projects

Super Mario 64 has led to the creation of fan-made remakes, modifications and ROM hacks:

Super Mario 64: Chaos Edition, a PC-emulated version of the original that loads codes which cause bizarre behavior. It received coverage after streaming ensemble Vinesauce posted a playthrough.
Super Mario Run 64, converting Super Mario 64 into a 2.5D running game in the spirit of Super Mario Run.
Super Mario 64 Online, enabling online multiplayer. It was taken down after a copyright strike by Nintendo. It was later reuploaded and renamed to Net64.
Super Mario 64 Maker, a Super Mario Maker-like level editor
Super Mario 64 Odyssey, featuring levels based on Super Mario Odyssey and adding its mechanic of possessing enemies by throwing Mario's hat
Super Mario 64: Last Impact, an original game that incorporates elements from other Mario games, such as the Fire Flower from Super Mario Bros., the F.L.U.D.D. cannon from Super Mario Sunshine, and the Bee Mushroom from Super Mario Galaxy
Super Mario 64: Ocarina of Time, in which the world of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is recreated in Super Mario 64, with new gameplay elements, puzzles, and a story
Open World Mario 64, a battle royale–style mod set on a huge map made up of all Super Mario 64 levels, in the style of Fortnite Battle Royale and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds
First Person Mario 64, a modification that fixes the camera configuration on first-person, often making the game much more challenging due to how the game demands acrobatic movements, and how the game does not render objects when they are too close to the camera.
Super Mario 64 FPS, a first-person shooter remake of the original, speedran by YouTubers Falsepog and Alpharad
Super Mario 64 HD, a high-definition remake of the first level of Super Mario 64, Bob-Omb Battlefield, using the Unity game engine. The project was taken down following a copyright claim by Nintendo.
B3313, a ROM hack based on beta content and urban legends surrounding Super Mario 64. Mario and Luigi are placed in a version of Peach's Castle with bizarre and surreal architecture, branching out into a complicated and nonsensical plexus.
Super Mario 64 Coop Deluxe, a source-available mod that restructures the original game to support online cooperative gameplay for up to 16 players, adding playable characters such as, Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, Yoshi, Peach, Princess Daisy, Rosalina, and Toad

Decompilation

In 2019, fans decompiled the original ROM image into C source code, allowing Super Mario 64 to be natively ported to any system. The next year, fans released a Windows port with support for widescreen displays and 4K resolution. The port would allow for more graphical mods and forks, such as Render96, which implemented the original high-resolution source textures and created new character models and environments resembling those seen in the CG renders, and Super Mario 64 Plus, a fork of the Windows port featuring a new permanent death option, bug fixes, and an improved camera system. Fans have also created ports for several different platforms, including the Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Vita, Dreamcast, and Android. Nintendo has enlisted a law firm to remove videos of the port and its listings from various websites, taking them down via copyright claims.

Medical literature

In 2013, a study was conducted to see the plasticity effects on the human brain after playing Super Mario 64—chosen for its navigation element and the ability to play in a three-dimensional environment—for at least thirty minutes every day for two months. The study concluded that doing the previously mentioned activity caused the gray matter (a major part of the central nervous system) to increase in the right hippocampal formation and the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex—brain areas thought to contribute to spatial navigation, working memory, and motor planning.