Super Mario 64 was a launch title for the N64 and remains one of the most beloved games for the platform, a mind-blowingly innovative open-world 3D platformer that changed the genre and the Mario franchise forever. The plot is pretty much identical to every previous Mario game, but the gameplay is radically different, with Mario traversing a castle while completing a variety of goals and collecting stars in a beautifully-realised 3D world. Though the camera system is horribly dated if you venture back to play the game nowadays, the control scheme had aged surprisingly well, and guiding Mario around these worlds is a mostly slick delight. Even though you only need 70 stars to unlock the final fight with Bowser, there are 120 to collect in total, which adds a wealth of replay value if you so wish, and that's before you've even thought about just playing the game from scratch again - which we've all surely done countless times. Few games have altered the gaming landscape as drastically as Super Mario 64, a classic of not just the N64, but of gaming in its entire history.
Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes).
General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.
