Super Mario 64: 10 Facts Every Nintendo Fan Needs To Know
1. Development Was A Nightmare
Making the N64's debut game was so strenuous, it's amazing it turned out as well as it did.
First off, the developing team only consisted of 15 people. By comparison, almost everyone in Nintendo worked on Ocarina of Time at some point. Not only did this tiny team have to create a game of the most popular video game series of all time, they also had to transition the franchise into 3D AND perform this Herculean task on a brand-new system.
Just to make it even harder, Super Mario 64 didn't have a controller for six months.
Originally, programmers had to try and perfect Mario's movements with a keyboard and a modified Sega joypad. Although they did eventually receive a controller, it went through over a hundred modifications before it resembled the N64 controller we know today.
Due to memory limitations and last-minute changes, the game was delayed by over a year (which sadly became a staple for Nintendo games). One of the game's main programmers, Giles Goddard, stated the team couldn't stop panicking and two developers found the experience so exhausting, they quit making video games forever.
Quiz: How Well Do You Remember Mario Kart 64?
