Back in the age of the Nintendo 64, Super Mario of the 64 brought out a fun new 3-D style gaming platform where you collect the power of the stars to save Princess Peach. In this version of Mario's epic tale you will adventure to whole new worlds, collect stars and battle bosses. Mario is alone this time but with your skills and his jumping specialty you'll defeat Bowser and save the day!

The Story
Dear Mario... the first of the last words written by Princess Peach in an invitation for Mario to visit the castle and this time it's not for the broken plumbing. You adventure into Princess Peach's Castle and learn that Bowser is waiting at the top of the Castle. Your epic journey begins when you step into the magical paintings in each of the different rooms as you progress your way to Bowser.

+2.5 - I really liked that this adventure was inside Princess Peach's Castle. I thought that this made it unique compared to the past Mario games where all you did was travel the land to search for Bowser's Castle. Too many Mario games do that and it's no longer unique.

+2 - Any adventure with Bowser at the end of the game has to be a great game.

+2 - I liked how you could speak with each of the Toads which added to the story a bit. At the beginning you also had Lakitu and Peach's letter so it was pretty cool.

+1.5 - I liked how the game started you out with Peach's letter. It really pulled you into the game and you immediately became interested.

+1 - I even enjoyed the credits and there was an ending after you defeat Bowser. This is something that I'll always like.

+1 - I liked that the story involved the use of paintings because it was unique and out of the ordinary but I wasn't necessarily thrilled about it either.
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10

Graphics
This time around the graphics have taken a step up from the Super Nintendo and I'll be grading these graphics compared to Nintendo 64 games. What I liked about these graphics is that it was a strong push for the Nintendo 64 and helped get people into the console. Strong graphics with great colors.

+2.5 - The design of the levels was absolutely amazing. Each level was very detailed and looked really eye popping. It grabs your attention and keeps a hold of it.

+2.5 - I really enjoyed the different abilities Mario has at his disposal when you progressed later into the game. Some of these were absolutely cool and I could get enough of it.

+2 - At the time I really liked the look of Bowser when you fought him. I really thought he looked somewhat evil and it was cool to see a 3-D version of Bowser (Not including the 3-D model of Super Mario RPG).

+2 - The graphics made for some interesting game play. I was never used to wall jumping or even fighting as Mario. I liked that it seemed realistic or tried to without going overboard on it.
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9

The Sound
I really enjoyed some of the music of this game. It really felt like it was cutting edge when my ears first heard some of the songs and effects that went into this game. This really helped making my experience playing the Nintendo 64. I was really happy.

+2.5 - I loved the music that was played for the different caps found throughout the game. It was energetic and exciting.

+2 - I really liked playing through the different levels. Most worlds had different songs and helped make each world stand out.

+2 - My favorite song in the game had to do with Metal Cap. This was fun and I thought it was one of the greater songs in the game.

+.5 - I never really cared for some of the sound effects. Nothing really stood out in my mind and I thought that this was pretty weak and could have used some work.
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7

The Depth
My favorite part of any game review. What I liked about this game the most was just how vast the levels were. Levels seemed to be more complex and open to a larger world than another Mario game I can think of. I liked how levels were built and how you needed to play them. This really stands out from older games and sets the path for future games.

+2.5 - There was a wide variety of worlds with different elements that effected the overall play style of the level.

+1.5 - I really liked the use of the different caps. Each cap had a special ability that made these parts of the game stand out but I was disappointed that these weren't used all that much and more could have been done.

+1.5 - I liked that the game had you collect 120 stars that took awhile to find but I never really cared for finding the 100 coins to earn a star. I disliked that and it really seemed like a waste of time.

+1.5 - I liked that you didn't find each star the same way as the others. There are several stars that are pretty unique and even some are harder to obtain than others. I usually found myself finding stars out of order which I think helped complete the game.

+1 - I liked the concept with the cannon blasting you off to other areas of the world that might not normally be reachable.

+1 - I liked that after you completed a certain star in some of the worlds, the world would change slightly and offer other places to reach or explore.

-1 - The game was lacking in enemies and number of enemies. I would have liked to see more of the normal Mario feel in the game and with what they did with the enemies was disappointing.
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8

The Difficulty
The game is both kind of hard and kind of easy. I don't know how I would describe this because it isn't really about the difficulty of playing the game, it's more based on puzzle solving and getting used to the controls which would act up at times. There really isn't anything that would stand out that I liked about the difficulty of the game except for the final boss, however, it wasn't even that difficult. This is something that I may put more thought into and come back later. The most difficult part of the game might have been collecting the 100 coins in each world but even that wasn't technically difficult. This is an odd one to describe my thoughts on. I'm too inbetween to decide.

The Addictiveness
Unfortunately I can't say that the game was very addictive to me. I found it interesting and liked several aspects of the game but it didn't appeal to me in an addicting way. I found myself playing other games once I beat it. I was never really into going back through to do the same things over. I was more into the strategy style games because they felt like you could play different games.

+2 - I liked certain levels more than the others but I was also very annoyed as well with some levels and it was very disappointing at times.

+2 - I liked that the game had a lot to offer at first but I realized other games I had around the house offered more and eventually I quit playing the game altogether. There's not much fun in collecting 120 stars over and over again if nothing changes.

+1.5 - Graphics and Sound is pretty good in the game but it wasn't anything too memorable.

0 - You didn't really earn anything special once you completed the game fully. This is actually disappointing because usually the ending should be the best part.

-.5 - Overall disappointed that I could see there was plenty more potential to this game. I enjoyed it but at some point it just faded away unlike other games.
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5

Overall
I enjoyed playing the game and fully completing it but there were several things that I didn't really care for in this game. I didn't really care for the enemies because there were too few to count but there were more obstacles than anything else. Mario normally has a ton of enemies that you stomp your way through the level and to the end. I did like the music and graphics but I thought that the game was lacking something to maintain my interest for longer. This was my first Nintendo 64 game and at the time I loved it but after I had games like Banjo Kazooie and Tooie, Command and Conquer 64 or Diddy Kong Racing I was stuck playing those games a lot more. Even the difficulty of some of these games had more challenging aspects which appeals to me but Mario 64 didn't have the challenge appeal. In the end I give this game an 8.3.
8.3

Wow.. You wrote a Walkthrough AND a review.. Sweet..

Happy posting long posts!

About time you got a review on this game. It was inevitable, and you know it. Well, a walkthrough and a review for a game goes well together, especially games like Mario 64, so well done.

I didn't type a walkthrough for this game and that might not be for awhile. I don't quite remember everything on this one.

Fireproof : Nice review. I  noticed that you were playing this game a while ago, and I was playing the same time you were. But keep up the good reviews, Fireproof!

PixelBrick : I never played this game and if my brother played it... it must've been months ago... stalker

Wow this is another great review, I am not in the least bit shocked, I expect this sort of stuff from you! But nevertheless, this is an amazing review and you do a great job of describing the game, making it sound interesting. I enjoy playing this game and I like super mario games. I like the organization that you have on your review for each category, you have it nice and organized and easy to read while you also clearly have you point and explanation on your scoring of the game clearly there. So overall, nice job, keep it up and keep making more awesome reviews! I wouldn't be shocked if this became featured anytime soon!