Topic: Super Mario 64 overrated?

Well this will be an unpopular topic....but think about it....isn't the whole star collecting thing just a way of making each stage artificially longer than it really is? I'd rather have more stages and environments to explore, rather than just 15 of the same.

Super Mario World and Super Mario Bros. 3 may have been linear, but you got a lot more variety.

Super Mario 64 set a very high standard for 3-D platformers at a time when we were just beginning to see this new genre take off. I think it will always remain one of the most influential 3-D titles and was a fantastic game. So while I still prefer Super Mario World and Super Mario Bros. 3, I would never take anything away from what Super Mario 64 did for the new era of 3-D gaming.

Nonsense! Super Mario 64 is one of the best games ever made!

I was never a huge fan of the game but I absolutely get the praise that it receives. I mean, it's basically what Corbie said. You have to crawl before you walk and Mario 64 was the gaming industry learning to crawl with the 3D graphics. Now the gaming industry can walk because of the advancements Mario 64 brought.

I loved Mario 3 (personally more than 64) and World but they expanded on a format that already existed. 64 was ground breaking.

I've never thought Mario 64 was any good. Crash Bandicoot was the proper direction platformers should have taken upon moving into 3D. Mario 64 and the countless clones it spawned felt more like pure exploration games that had barely anything in common with the sidescrolling platformers I grew up loving.

Super Mario 64 changed my life forever.
Nuff said.

No

I never could get into that game super mario fetch quest I mean 64 just isn't the type of game I like

want me to tell whats overated... HALO! Mario 64 changes my thought of gaming completley!

@RJay: remember that back then, they were dealing with storage limitations... I do believe I read somewhere that they did in fact have more levels planned out for the game, but they just couldn't fit them all onto the cartridge, so they had to leave them out. for what it was, it was great.

Just because technical limitations prevented it from being bigger doesn't mean it wasn't less fun as a result. If someone releases a game that should have been bigger on an inferior medium when there were better options for Nintendo at the time, I don't think they should be cut any slack for that. Seems like their own fault.

About stars... I enjoy having extra goals per levels. Super Mario Brothers Deluxe greatly benefited from similar Red Coin and Yoshi Egg challenges. But Mario 64 ends up with far fewer levels than previous Mario games because of this, and the levels just aren't as interesting. If they were done as optional challenges a la Mario Deluxe, that would have been great, but forcing players to replay the same levels constantly is a bit annoying after awhile, and that is one standard I wish the game had not set.

Yes, it did set the standard for 3D platforming... but where has the genre gone since? Aside from Mario Galaxy and a select few levels of Sunshine, I can't think of another good 3D platformer. And a game can hardly be influential if it primarily influences its own sequels. So yes, I do think it's overrated. I like the game and still play a few levels once a year, but I never feel like finishing it because it is just too long and repetitive.

Urk.... somebody just dissed my favorite game.

This game is awesome. A timeless classic. I played through this game 16 times, and it hasn't once felt repetitive. And the game's length is great. I don't see how a good game can be too long. This game is pretty much flawless in my opinion. Super Mario Bros. 3 and World and all the other Super Mario games all come in tied at an extremely close second.

No, not really. Not to me, anyways. I never really liked it, but that's just due to my tastes. It's still a great game, a classic even, and it deserves every word of praise. It's just not always that fun...

I'm not saying games that are too long are bad. I'm saying this game was made artificially long with the star quests, when perhaps additional levels would have been more interesting. But as someone else said, maybe it was the technical limitation.

I mean think about it...in Super Mario Bros. 3 you had 10 different levels in each stage....all of them different enough. World 1-1 isn't exactly like Word 1-2.

In Super Mario 64, you are playing the exact same environment multiple times, and the only reason you are is because of the star quest.

Banjo Kazooie and Banjo Tooie were much better, as was Conker's Bad Fur Day. All of them 3D platformers.

So I guess you don't like Banjo-Kazooie, either? Who cares if you are in the same environment? The stars make you explore the whole place so you go to a different area in the world.

The whole story of the game revolves around the stars. They weren't just thrown in there to make the game longer. There are 15 unique courses and a bunch of secret levels.

And true, there were many levels in the worlds in Super Mario Bros. 3, but they have the same theme. You are still in the same world, just in a different area. As in Super Mario 64.

You are getting it wrong, in Super Mario 64 you have the same enviorements where you do many different things to get a star, while in Super Marios Bros. 3 you have a lot of different levels where you do the same thing: go ahead jumping until you reach the end of the level.

But you're seeing something different. Like the first level we all know what World 1-1 looks like....well then a few levels later in that same world you're in some grassy level....then a few levels later you're in that level where you're up in the sky and the screen automatically moves.....it's something different at least 9 or 10 times for each world.

Take the Haunted House in Super Mario 64....I mean yeah you unlock certain places within the house with each star quest goal, but you're still playing the same house overall and you see the same things over and over again. You have to backtrack more often in Super Mario 64 over the same places you already traveled over, while in Super Mario Bros. 3 you never have to backtrack over something you've set foot on already. I'd rather see something different

There's nothing wrong with backtracking if you are doing something new.

Super Mario 64 set a very high bar, one that only Nintendo (and maybe Rare) have reached since.

I LOVE collecting stars! And only 7 per level isn't too bad at all, I mean who got tired of scaling Tall Tall Mountain, or traversing Rainbow Ride, or exploring Haunted House not me! Wahoo!