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Saturday 26 January, 2008
GAMEPLAY
Second time around, I’m still liking this game. It definitely gets harder as you play, and finding the secret levels and stars are a real joy. Come to think of it, the only way to play this game is to simply go through it on a new file. Playing levels I’ve already beaten has very little effect on me, probably because I think it’s so unnecessary. I really need that drive – the drive to complete the game – to keep me going. I think that’s true of most games for me, though.
Looking further into this exhausted form of gameplay, I realize that there are only a few extra things one could do in the game. You only need 70 stars to win the game, but there are 120 to unlock, and once they are unlocked, you can visit Yoshi on top of the castle. He gives you 99 lives, but that’s not much of a reward as far as Super Mario goes. There are a few secret stages one can find, but they aren’t all that hard to find. Really, one of the only ways of improving this game after 120 stars is timing yourself on the levels. This kind of play, called, “Time Attack”, is kind of pointless because these days, there’s YouTube. On YouTube, there’s a video of some guy who beats this game in 20 minutes with 16 stars. I guess I could try and copy him, but he’s some type of God, and I don’t have that kind of time or dedication.
But the game doesn’t exhaust itself that easily. It’s still fun to go through a level you forgot about, and you have many to choose from. Playing with friends also makes the game a lot better. I had a few people coming and going this time, and it’s really cool to have that interaction, even though it’s just a single-player game. I turned over the controller a few times when my friend challenged me to a time race. That was fun, but I think the game should have a built-in timer anyways.
DESIGN
Super Mario 64 is a pretty basic game… by today’s standards. Back when it came out, however, this game was a revolution. It was the first 3D platformer. It set the bar for every other game that would come after it, and that bar was high. The game may not have that much dimension by today’s standards, but it had EVERY dimension back in the day.
LEVELS – This turns Mario into Super Mario. The level design pretty much defines the whole game (almost. See the next point, 3D). The whole game is planned out so that each level presents its own, unique challenges. Each level is unique, and is set up with its own unique goals. The levels can pretty easily force you to go certain ways, and they have a broad range of things they throw at you. Also, the way the level is presented can have a big change in the gameplay. When you go underwater, you have to watch your oxygen meter, although strategically placed coins can save you at the last moment. Sometimes you have to go across bottomless pits, lava, etc… Sometimes you have to find switches that change the landscape, effectively making a 4-dimensional level! The maneuvers you have to do are pretty spectacular, and very hard to pull off in later levels. This game, like any other Mario, provides a good challenge to the player because it forces you to have good timing. Of course, other than the levels, Mario has very little. There are secret stages, but it’s not so hard to find them, and once you’ve done it all, you’ve done it all. Personally, I don’t really count Time Attack as a good excuse for extending a game because it becomes very redundant, something that I find is the main cause for game exhaustion.
3D - Super Mario 64 was the first Mario in the third dimension. Doing this forced players to think in a whole new way. At the same time, the potential for success in the third dimension was as potent as the potential for failure. Nintendo could have made something that didn’t follow off of Super Mario, but instead, they delivered something that was distinctly Mario, but even better. Basically, it made other Mario’s almost obsolete. Not to mention any other 2-D platformer.
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