Every now and again a thread will pop up about Super Mario 64 that is about your memories of playing the game when you were young. One recurring theme in these threads is the "feel" of the game. Usually people felt uneasy or even scared of certain parts. Other people dream about it to this day. I know I do.
I think this strange, dream-like feeling comes from the contrast of realistic stuff with unrealistic. Mario clutches his ass and leaps in the air when he's burned. In contrast, he clutches his throat and floats to the surface when he drowns. There are inoffensive little goombas, and then a giant invincible manta ray. (In the book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, one of the characters having a bad trip sees a giant manta ray coming down on his car and it scares the fuck out of him. When I read that, the first thing I thought of was SM64 because the manta ray scared me as much as the eel.)
There are other things. Draw-distance could be unnerving. When you didn't understand it, it just seemed like things were phasing in and out of reality. The 2d sprites were weird, too; everything else was 3d and could be observed from all sides, so why were the trees always facing you? As a kid, you probably didn't even consciously notice these things, but they surely contributed to the atmosphere.
I still have SM64 dreams that sometimes become nightmares of being stuck in voids after clipping through walls, oversized enemies coming at me with no regard for the games rules or physics, being in water with no surface and my health meter ticking down, all from the perspective of the camera behind Mario as if I am the camera.
So, how has this game stuck with you? What parts of the game had an effect on you that wasn't the effect they were intended to have? And other such things like that. Some will call it autism, but I know plenty of you can relate.
Bought it back in release, I was 11.
I can undestand how some things in the game might be unsettling but I just remember having fun mostly, no nightmares or traumas from it.
Pilotwings, on the other hand...
>>3350560
Bird suit always made me feel like I was on my deathbed or some shit, used to weird me the hell out. Still kinda does, that music...
>>3350549
I cannot tell you how many times I completed that game. I never got tired of it, and even now, if I could find a N64 controller that would have a completely fucking shot analog stick, I would play it right now (I have it on DS, too, but I can't adapt to the controls. I could get it on WiiU, but I'm not sure how that would be). It was my first truly 3d game, and I love it immensely. Got it when it came out, my grandmother bought it for me and it was one of the best presents I ever got.
>>3350560
Pilotwings was amazing. The America map was something really special. I enjoyed finding all these secret places. I wish there had been more sequels after that, instead of what we got on the 3ds. That one was....not that great. Well, anyway. The first time I played Pilotwings 64 was when they had this video rental place open at this little gas station/truck stop down at the end of the main road I live off of, in a really bad part of the county. I rented it at least 12 times, and one weekend, I found a copy at the flea market just a couple miles down the road. I still have it (and all the games I ever bought for my n64, for that matter), and I'd kill for an HD remake. That would be amazing.
The piano gave me a slight discomfort whenever things show up in fixed camera perspective. Playing Resi after this was an experience.
i feel like i need to rip a big shart when i play this gmae
>>3350549
>So, how has this game stuck with you?
It didn't really. I thought it was alright when i played it in the mid 90s. I thought the controls and the camera were well done, but it wasn't anywhere near as cool as the 2D marios.
>What parts of the game had an effect on you that wasn't the effect they were intended to have?
None.
I believe I first played it at a demo kiosk in a Blockbuster. It was amazing. I remember going home afterwards and feeling so excited to play it. The fact that it had 120 stars to collect intrigued me greatly, almost entirely because I expected that to somehow be indicative of the number of boss enemies (of course I was wrong, but yeah).
Still love the game, thought I think the 2D ones are closer to my heart. There is something magical about 64, though I'm not sure if it is the game itself (the graphics, music, weird things like the entrance to the wing castle or how most of the levels were entered by way of jumping into paintings) or the fact that it was the first 3D Mario.
I would love to play that 50% complete build of the game. Doing so would rekindle the magic I felt the first time I played it.
I had an N64, but I didn't had this game, I had DK64 instead and nowadays I'm not really a big fan of 3D platformers.
I used to have a few dreams with this game, like finding secret rooms or halls I wouldn't be able to in the normal game.
For instance, outside the castle, just huge ass plains and some sort of staircase in the ground leading to multiple corridors, some sort of maze with multiple paintings on the walls. Like wandering around into the same corridor where you find the big boo, but instead being a giant almost neverending maze with paintings I couldn't get into. It could be perfectly doable thanks to romhacking these days, but it was just weird.
>>3350549
I feel exactly the same way about the ps1 Spyro games.
I was 16 back then, played it casually at a friends house for a few nonconsecutive days and some months later he lent me his N64 with all his games (which amounted to that one and Waverace 64) for me to try out. There wasn't any sort of magic feel from the game or anything special. All I remember is having a hard time adjusting to the controls as first because I was used to Tomb Raider and the likes, and moving with anything other than the d-pad was like playing god. Then after expending the right amount of time I finally caught up on them, tought they were really comfortable and had a fun time with the game, but that's it. Played it, liked it, forgot it.
I didn't even get the 120 stars up until my late 20s because I don't enjoy exploration platformers all that much, either 2D or 3D.
I remember my sister watching a trailer for this in one of those VHS tapes from a magazine and she really wanted it, so we got it along with OoT.
I actually loved the controls a lot, but some things felt pretty unique about this game at that time. I didn't think almost anything was creepy though some secrets alongside with the level design and the castle layout felt pretty weird.
I think I got the creeps more from something like ocarina of time, where some parts really felt unsettling. I was more immersed into it than SM64, as I did feel genuine fear the first time I visited the royal tomb with all the redead and I really felt relaxed in places like the zora's domain.
>>3350653
>if I could find a N64 controller that would have a completely fucking shot analog stick
they're easy to find on ebay if you aren't retarded. if you grease up the stick with white lithium grease or something it'll easily last for 1000 hours of gameplay as long as you use an alt controller for spinning (bowser throws, mario party bullshit.)
you can also get gamecube to n64 adapters (raphnet is the best brand) or hori mini pads.
don't buy 3rd party replacement joysticks, or any 3rd party controller aside from Hori. they're trash.
Curious question. When you were a kid, did the borders to levels on early 3D games fool you into thinking there was depth or did you some how know and feel it was just a fake flat wall?
>>3351303
I was a kid but I wasn't stupid, of course i recognised the borders as painted walls, but that was okay, I thought of them like a scenery in a theater, like they form a big playground for me to play in, the level, and that was fine, with the inevitable video game elements the whole thing felt more like a movie and the characters like actors anyway than than feeling real pressure by the story or anything.
Like in DK64 the fact that no matter how long you took K.Rool never did anything in the meantime.
>>3351303
I remember when my brother was about 4 he was playing the Arctic level on Goldeneye and said "those trees are just painted on".
>>3350549
>I still have SM64 dreams that sometimes become nightmares of being stuck in voids after clipping through walls, oversized enemies coming at me with no regard for the games rules or physics, being in water with no surface and my health meter ticking down, all from the perspective of the camera behind Mario as if I am the camera.
When I was a kid I had a dream about SM64. The castle was completely filled with those black spheres that explode into a flame. I thought it was some sort of punishment for doing something bad in-game (like dropping the baby penguin) and I was afraid I could not get the normal castle back.
>>3351979
Man I miss dreaming about video games
>>3351303
I tried to jump through them more with the idea that I could get high enough to glitch beyond them than that they were actual trees and I thought there might be something cool behind them
>>3351182
Man, Spyro 2 left a mark in my subconscious...
I replayed it recently to remember what where actual stages and what were dreams that i kept having.
>>3350549
That eel scared the shot out of me as a kid. Just watching him swim around from the surface of the water freaked me right the fuck out. Still kinda freaks me out to this day, also have a serious distrust of water levels.
I am the person that usually rants about SM64's lack of quality, but I will say this for the game: the fucking atmosphere and environmental feel of the game was really done well. There is a weird sense of happiness combined with bleakness in the levels and I can see it sort of getting to people like OP describes.
See, I can say good things about the game too.
>>3353112
To this day I still don't know how to get into the sunken ship without that fucker hitting me.
>>3353348
Swim down to him, swim back up to the surface, swim back down.
>>3350549
Whenever I lucid dream, I triple jump like Mario with the wing cap in order to start flying around.
I struggle to stay up in the air for too long, much like in the game as well.
Yeah I've had dreams about it before, like exploring parts of the castle I haven't seen before, going into new worlds. I definitely feel there's something about it, the surrealism and simplicity
>>3350549
I think a lot of it has to do with the fact it was probably the first, true 3D platformer a lot of people played. It was immersive in a way that nobody had experienced before. The game was played with a camera, and there are now things that can come at you from all directions, even outside of your field of vision, brought a new level of atmosphere to gaming, and it was a bit unsettling at times, especially if you were barely 10 years old, as I'm sure most of the target demographic was back then.
![Mario-64-Cake[1].png](https://i.imgur.com/DmuM2iR.png "Mario-64-Cake[1].png")
>>3350549
I have such warm feelings for this game. Playing it when I was 8 years old was mind-blowing. I remember spending many minutes in the courtyard when playing it for the first time, just having fun with the controls. Controlling Mario in three dimensions felt incredible, and it still feels very satisfying, even to this day.
There was something magical about the atmosphere in this game. The mist covering Jolly Roger's Bay before you collected your first star there, with a sunken pirate ship at the bottom. Falling down a pit in Big Boo's Mansion, being relived that you didn't lose a life, only and to discover an eerie, haunted merry-go-round. Uncovering a sunken city in Wet-Dry World, the inhabitants all gone, or even worse, drowned. Encountering Nessie at the underground lake in Hazy Mazy Cave, with her aiding you by giving you a ride on her back.
There was this genuine awe and wonder of discovery with this game. Exploring a 3D wonderland, finding wonderful things around every corner. Still to this day, the file select theme will play in the back of my head on occasion. Not because I live for Mario 64 as a game, but because it's a tune that represents the optimism of adventure, to cast aside fear of unknown, and to embrace the joy of the change.
It is with great sadness that I state that I find it a little hard to enjoy Mario 64 as a game nowadays. I greatly admire its influence on every 3D game that followed it, and I still do enjoy it on a certain level, but the same feeling of joy that I got when playing it as a kid, simply isn't there anymore.
But you know what? It's alright. Mario 64 was part of my childhood. And if there's one thing the game showed me, it was the joy of discovery. Mario 64 was a star of my childhood, but it's a star I've already collected.
I'm off to find some new stars.
>>3355037
I appreciate the nostalgia but ..that last sentence is cringe man
>>3355037
Just play Galaxy. It gave me the same feelings 64 gave me.
The only parts that really creeped me out was the eel, the piano, and the final bowser fight. Otherwise it was one of the best experiences of my entire childhood and still one of the best games I have played. Im against the idea of Nintendo softening up Mario and Zelda for the kids. I say keep it creepy.
A couple things did creep me out in this game. The chain chomp, but only when I was first playing it. The eel, which still kind of does because it's deep underwater. Big Boo's Haunt did when I was 8, but the haunted piano there did for some time.
The abandoned city of Wet-Dry World gives me the heebie-jeebies, as does the skybox texture for that level. Remember those threads on /v/ claiming a texture of a brain diagram was hidden in the ROM with the assets for Wet-Dry World? Gave me a solid spook.
The Thwomps in this game always creeped me out.
>>3355437
>Galaxy
>>3355301
I know. I would have never posted that if it wasn't anonymously.
I still meant it though. And OP encouraged autism, so I provided autism.
I used to have nightmares involving a severed mario head coming out of the toilet as I sat down to use it and tentacles grew out from behind it. The tentacles would wrap around me and try to pull me in to the toilet. I would look to the doorway to see my mother, she would ignore my cries for help as she walked by.
My parents never understood why I would wake up fucking crying and panicking.
>>3350549
>Every now and again = At least every other day
I can see how this game produces the feeling of mystery and doubt. Like, there could be some sort of big secret that nobody has found yet. Even after finding all of the worlds and stars, you feel that there has to be one last world hidden in the castle, perhaps behind a bookshelf or something. Banjo Kazooie produced those same feelings for me as a kid. Except Banjo actually HAD crazy hidden shit that nobody has ever found, such as the stop and swap eggs.
Damn, games dont really do that anymore.
>>3351997
I had a dream the other day I was Big Boss and I had to assassinate Rick Owens.
I hated the underwater areas because I had a crippling fear of fish and underwater creatures in general.
To this day, I still haven't beaten SM64 because of this.
Honestly for me it was the 3d aspect. my only real exposure to it was reboot on tv. imagine seeing a telephone, or color tv for the first time. its kind of like that
>>3359343
I first saw 3d in Butt Ugly Martians as a kid. I genuinely thought that 3d CGI was projected into the world and that I could go meet the martians.
>>3356662
Because data mining is a thing and the internet rumors are restricted to fake leaks that can only last until the game is launched.
Also better graphics leave little to the imagination while something about pixels and fog made things seem more mysterious and otherworldly.
>>3360279
>>Also better graphics leave little to the imagination while something about pixels and fog made things seem more mysterious and otherworldly.
Maybe, maybe not. I do think that realistic graphics makes the experience of the game feel more dry, and games should instead rely more on style than realism.
>>3355037
Thanks, anon. This was well-written and touching.
>>3350549
When Shigeru Miyamoto imagined Zelda, he pictured a 3D world with which you could interact. It took Nintendo until Ocarina of Time to achieve that vision.
Super Mario 64, I can imagine, is the breakthrough moment when we were finally able to traverse a virtual reality with a similar enough "male gaze" such that we could superimpose our own perspective.
With Super Mario 64, we became more than players - we simultaneously became directors.
Those awkward yellow buttons on a controller that was outright daunting to a kid whose first console was the NES suddenly became a hidden source of power - you could stop and look around, plan a strategy, explore your surroundings. It literally and figuratively added depth.
The challenge of platforming became somehow more authentic-feeling, as the 2D pitches of our former characters across absurd hyperbola of bottomless pits (like, why couldn't you just walk around, man?) became calculated climbs; the world became both more and less real behind and beyond the screen.
And somehow, with some of the imagery that edges into the Jungian collective unconscious, you begin to wonder... am I playing this game, or is it playing me?
>>3361838
Okay, now you're just trying way too hard to be intellectual and using words you don't understand.
"Male gaze" is a feminist term referring to the objectification of women for fuck's sake.
>>3362239
>this
>>3362239
probably a student who writes for The Tab
>>3360338
no. stop. this is why every WOW clone follows the stupid " Lol Characature! , lol colors!, lol cutsie unique style" Call of duty may be a cancerous franchise but Ill be damned if 007 Wouldnt have made my childhood a smige better it they ran of the frostbite/foxfire engine.
>>3362301
VICE
ITS A TV CHANNEL.
>>3350549
This post is becoming a common occurrence.
There weren't any reviews of Mario 64 that talked about its 'dream-like' feeling. It never had any of that. This is a second wave of nostalgia posting. The old "anyone played Mario 64?" topic is tired so people look for other approaches. There is nothing unsettling about the game other than your own imagination.
>>3362327
>The old "anyone played Mario 64?" topic is tired so people look for other approaches.
Maybe you should take a break from the internet if you really think that people are coming up with elaborate ways to nostalgiawank over SM64 instead of just, you know, nostalgiawanking over SM64. Neither are against the rules anyway.
These threads are a tad more interesting than that at least.
>>3362309
I would rather see a "cutsie, unique style" than something that looks like it has the personality of a wet mop. I'm not saying realism doesn't belong in game, but I'm not saying it needs to be everywhere.
>>3362327
There's also the matter of perspective differences between an adult who's playing games for some level of a living and has a large range of experiences to draw from, and a child who's full of imagination and wonder because they get 4-5 games a year to own and can only rent others and doesn't have such a wide experience base.
Not saying you're entirely wrong, but I remember being very curious about the "outside world" of some of these courses, or if they simply existed in a void, or this and that while looking around at the backgrounds and other things. Jumping in and out of painting worlds that literally would not exist if these paintings weren't made, or maybe don't really exist at all and they're merely figments of imagination brought about by the power of the stars. But, then some of them have outs into the "real" world, like Course 9's tunnel to the outside pool, or the dropout of the one sky hidden star level.
Of course, it doesn't seem so mysterious as an adult because I've played more games, seen more shows, books, other media, etc, and seen weirder ideas and more cultivated representations of the ideas this game brought on, but there's definately ways it is "dreamlike" to a child at the very least, which are mostly the people who say it was "dreamlike"
>>3362239
That's what I used to think, until I found out it was actually a Cinematic Theory term used to refer to the objective perspective of the camera. Look things up before you assume you know what you're talking about. You might learn things.
>>3363084
>The male gaze, coined by feminist film critic Laura Mulvey, is the way visual arts depict the world and women from a masculine point of view and in terms of men's attitudes.
>The male gaze occurs when the camera puts the audience into the perspective of a heterosexual man.
inb4 you derail the thread with endless pedantry about how that's actually not what it means
>>3356109
Is hating galaxy cool to hate now that it's uncool to hate sunshine?
>>3365884
Who's hating Galaxy? It just isn't as goid as 64.
>>3365884
It's not a bad game, it's just kinda boring and gimmicky. movement is stiff, slow and boring as fuck and 1/4 of the game is retarded wiimote minigames.
Not specifically Mario64, but I think this game is a big culprit- I think early 3D games like this are responsible for instilling the fear of water into a lot of gamers.
I used to have the most pure and abject terror of water in games. I still sort of do- I have to psyche myself up before diving in, I can do it, but it feels taxing. But up until a few years ago and for most of my adolescence water was a sheer NOPE, if a game needed me to go through water, that was generally where I would stop playing.
Mario's eel. Tomb Raider's sharks and crocs. Half Life's icthyosaurs. hat was it that dictated if you have water and swimming in your game, you must also have the most terrifying enemies to lurk in those depths, where you are typically helpless and unable to attack?
Thing is it's rather common. It's strange when you think about it but plenty of people have this weirdly specific phobia of the water, in games. These people are usually pretty okay with swimming IRL too, it's just in games.
What gives Anons. Why did they do this.
>>3366764
When I was a kid we used to hold our breath when Mario went underwater (even onlookers of the game). It made underwater levels all the more interesting.
>>3363084
Oh shut up you ultra pretentious dickhead.
>>3367413
Imagine calling someone pretentious because you said something stupid and they proved you wrong.
Imagine being that much of a giant faggot.
>>3367648
You said something stupid and others proved you wrong, and you are pretentious.
>>3350549
https://youtu.be/cTl0ky4DcHA
This will always remind me of those evenings I spent exploring Dire, Dire Docks while watching those 'Short-Circuit' CG animation shorts on YTV in between episodes of Reboot & Superhuman Samurai late at night.
>>3366764
I don't know if the enemies are any more terrifying but since almost all of your abilities are limited when swimming and your movement is slowed, swimming becomes more dangerous and the enemies more fearsome. I was twenty times more afraid of Mad Monster Mansion and Grunty Industries than I was of Clanker's Cavern or Jolly Roger's Lagoon.
>>3366764
I dunno, I feel like long before I ever played any 3D game, water levels still had a foreign aspect to them. Maybe a part of it is the hindered movement like you mentioned. And I can't think of how to adequately describe it, but it's like, a lot of games I played seemed to have obligatory water levels so that the developers could mix it up a little, or have enough variety to keep it interesting--a real "here's this level we know you won't like but we had to put it in anyway, just make it through this and things will go back to normal for a while" kind of feeling.
Try the namco museum games on PS1 if you want to explore an eerie otherworldly area. I played one of them forver ago at a cousin's house in some nerdy adult's room. Didn't play any of the included arcade games, but the weird atmosphere of the museum stuck with me for a long time. Rediscovering it a few years ago sure was a trip.
