"Super Mario 64" on the N64Now I remember the arguments, marios better than sonic, no sonics better than mario, and if you don't agree I am gonna kick in you in the fucking head you fucking asshole etc. anyway prior to mario64 I was firmly up for kicking the shit out any stupid nintendo kids.....sonic fast, kick ass, mean, kicking tunes etc. mario fat, cheesy character design, made for kids etc. well all that maybe true, but marios game design in the end just fucking pissed all over our mean street cred friend sonic. I still know people who to this day wont play a mario game because he's a shit kids character...
this is how it went down, my techno music loving buddy had an n64, I had a PS1 he wanted wipeout and I fancied a go at mario, so we traded consoles for a few weeks. his friends all told him that the ps1 was better whilst watching the intro movie for wipeout and dropping acid (at that stage FMV was still relatively new, and it was hard to explain to people that the machine wasn't actually doing all those fancy graphics at the start, and that a fuck load of presentation didn't necessarily mean the game was any good...although in wipeout's case it was fucking awesome) anyway so I get mario home and plug him in for a little special time together....the game starts and you are in a grove outside the castle, nothing can hurt you you just run around and climb trees and stuff, there is actually nothing to do outside the castle at the start, however I think I probably spent a good half hour just running around, jumping off things, walking slow and fast with the analogue stick etc. it's hard now to see just how groundbreaking this game was, at the time the PS1 only had a digital controller, (it really is shocking to hold one of these now they are so unbelievably crap!)
the saturn had had a go with the knights 3D pad but no one had bought it...so this was really the first universal experience players ever had with analogue sticks. Mario really made you use the thing too, with narrow ledges at weird angles, and full 360 degree flying sections, controlling mario was better than playing wembley...so once I started playing I couldn't stop I played it nearly every day till I had all the stars (plus an extra one which I honestly got, but can't prove, and sadly I don't know how I got it...) during the process of playing a crazy thing happened, I found my self getting attached to the stupid fat plumber, and now for better or for worse we will be intertwined for ever. the flying hat music actually brings a tear to my eye every time I hear it, its beautiful, and when I flew in this game it was the nearest to actually flying I have ever felt, no really I know I play evil shit rock, but I always wish I could fly around on my guitar, but I can't and so had to make do with the mario64 flying hat...what always made it so great (and why it made me feel sad) was the fact it only operated for a short time, like all good things in life it was a fleeting moment hard to ever recapture....almost all 3d platformer games since have tried to copy the mario formula, they all somehow lack the action that made mario rock so damned hard (even mario sunshine isn't as close to this as it should be), another thing to point out is that the camera in mario 64 is near perfect, every pother platformer seems to struggle to deliver the goods but mario 64 did it first time, and has only been bettered once by jak and daxter on the PS2 5 years later!) when I gave the console and game back I felt pretty down about it, still I had crash bandicoot to play didn't I....yup that made me feel a whole lot better.
the uk box, instruction book and cart....
the german soundtrack won no prizes for beauty, and goes down as one of mankind's greatest graphic design disasters..
if you have ever wondered what the mario track titles were in german, here they are. (tracks 28 and 29, bowser boogie, and bowser woogie are particular non german favorite track titles of mine)
that flying hat tune that makes me cry is here
sludgefeast doing the main mario theme is here
