3-D gaming was a major leap for the industry, and led many games to change their design altogether. The fact that the world was no longer limited to side-scrolling or a top-down view opened a door of almost limitless possibility. Even so, some were skeptical at first, fearing that some of their favorite titles would undergo too drastic of changes to the point of being ruined. Super Mario 64, while vastly different than any previous Mario title, made huge waves with its design.
The story is pretty much the same as any previous (and future) Mario games: Princess Peach is kidnapped by Bowser (or King Koopa, as some old school gamers know him) and Mario must pass through various levels to rescue her. Super Mario 64 was host a huge number of levels, each radically different in its design. Some, such as Lethal Lava Land and Dry Dry Desert held separate sublevels within the main level. Wet-Dry World forced players to use different locks to raise the water level, allowing them to access certain areas. Tiny-Huge Island made players shrink to enter certain areas and grow to access others. Hidden around the castle were mini-levels that allowed the player to acquire new power-up hats and hidden stars. Each boss fight against Bowser even had a level preceding it, which were often some of the more challenging levels in the game.
The star system not only upped the replay value, but also forced the player to look at the core gameplay from several perspectives. At its most basic form, Super Mario 64 is about beating the respective boss of each world in order to advance towards the final fight against Bowser. Players collect stars from various challenges as they go. But collecting eight red coins, racing Koopa the Quick, and keeping trekking through a poisonous gas-filled maze to retrieve other stars made each play through a level feel unique.
The graphical capabilities were really pushed to the limit for the time of the game's release. While the soundtrack is comprised largely of variations on songs from previous games, new inclusions like the Metal Mario theme were catchy and memorable, even if they weren’t very musically complex.
Super Mario 64 is both one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful games of the late 1990s, and played a pivotal role in the push for 3-D gaming. Allowing players to choose which way to meet the star requirements made the game accessible to a larger audience, while its free-roam style set the bar high for the competition.
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