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Skwalin's Super Mario 64 (N64)
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| [February 23, 2007 03:38:59 AM]
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So I played again and this time I was mainly bent on exploration rather than getting every star in the level before moving on to the next. Honestly, playing through this method made me burn out on the game far sooner than before. I still had a really fun time playing the game anyway. Jumping from level to level, without first getting a hang of the level brought down my enjoyment level. Also, the level where the ground is lava was very frustrating because it seemed that if you slipped ever so slightly, it was an immediate death.
Playing this game for the second time (probably more than that actually) was no where near as fun as the first. It was no longer a matter of figuring out where the stars were or how to get them. Instead, it became a battle against the controls. The retro feeling of the game did hold my interest because playing the game became me wondering if I remembered all the secrets in the different levels. (Many of them I did remember).
I found that this game had great level design, and reuse of the levels. You played through each level at least six times to get all of the stars from the level. Each time you played through it, you discover more and more about the level, and tricks to help you on the next time through. This is a very unique style of gameplay that doesn't exist in many other games. I also think it is a very successful style because of its ability to only have to make a limited number of levels, but extend the gameplay time. Overall, I really do like this game, but the controls are very difficult to get a hold of and many other platformers have much better control schemes.
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| [February 22, 2007 04:35:22 PM]
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Wow, this game brings back a lot of memories. This was the first game that I felt really had a social out of game aspect to it. Because everyone my age got the game at almost the same time, we worked together on how to solve the puzzles and such. The characters in this game are very generic, there's Mario, Toad(who wears a mushroom for a hat), Bomb-ombs that sometimes help you be activating their cannons, Bowser who you must duel with multiple times, then just generic monsters and enemies. The story line is the basic "go save the princess" and the dialog is almost only existent to give you a hint at what to do. This game is a perfect example of a case where storyline doesn't mean a thing. What drives this game is rock-solid gameplay and exploration of the levels.
Another great aspect of this game is the persistent world aspect. When you change something, say activate the red "flying" caps in the levels, it stays changed throughout the game. This makes you feel like when you discover a secret or activate the cannons in the level, you just made your playing experience easier or you opened up more possibilities, more places to go to. In this first hour, I was able to play through the first two levels (The First and the Snow Level) and I found two castle secrets (the flying caps and the slide extra level). After playing I felt very accomplished with myself. This game gives you a good sense of progression. As you gain stars by completing missions, you gain access to new levels and locations of the castle. This gives you the sense that your working towards something, which is very important for a game to keep their players interested. Overall, I find this to be a wonderful game, and I feel that every gamer should play through it at least once.
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Skwalin's Super Mario 64 (N64)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Wednesday 25 December, 1996
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