Anniversary: Super Mario 64 is Now 20 Years Old

Way to make me feel like an old man!

Have just started playing this recently, so many awesome memories! And such great gameplay and mechanics, even to this day!

We need more Mario games like 64. Tons of secret stars and a fun hub world. I miss the exploration aspect of Mario 64 the most. Glad I have it on my Wii u!!

Such a great, classic game! Happy Anny to SM64~

It's not my favorite 3D Mario, but it is still legendary. Here's to another 20 years!

Use to love the game until super Mario Galaxy 2. Mario wants a challenge he's not a explorer. Leave the exploring to link

Love this game, it was so fun and immersive and really took Mario in a new direction. Really wish we could see a return to this style of game.

First big purchase I made after high school and out in the real world.....or so to speak. The 64 cost me $299.99 and Mario 64 was $59.99. I got 3 more controllers not long after. It is still my favorite console with it's great library of single and couch coop titles.

LOL @ how many "news" about Super Mario 64 on Nintendo Life recently...

Here's hope that next 3D Mario game is similar to 64 and Sunshine, with open worlds and exploration.

It's a significant landmark and should be celebrated more than it probably will be. I still enjoy the DS version and would be interested to see a HD version too one day.

I remember when my brother had this game on the N64 back in the day and how blown away I was by the graphics and gameplay. I made sure to get it for my N64 along with Goldeneye a couple of years ago.

Played this so much when I was 12

Happy Birthday Super Mario 64 truly wonderful game.

Still an absolute classic. I remember playing it quite a lot back then. I still remember being absolutely stumped on how to do the Snowman's head mission. I managed to get most of the stars, but that one, and I think just a few more, I was unable to get. Nowadays I can play through this game (and the DS version) with quite a bit of ease.

Happy Birthday SM64.~

Happy B day SM64!

Thanks to you, the 3D gaming is here to stay!

oh man im 19, i been playing this when i was 5.
times do fly with this game

Time sure flies in.I was 18 when this came out so I was old enough to fully appreciate what a remarkable game and huge step forward it was.Without doubt one of the most important and iconic games ever made.

Wow, 20 years since the hype bubble that was the Ultra 64, later Nintendo 64, finally popped and changed the face of gaming? Wow, don't I feel old now. I was born in the same year it was released. ^_^ Super Mario 64 have me my first world to explore, the game is now a foundation for my favourite genre!

Ouhh the memories.

They should have remastered this. This game is legendary and deserves that treatment.

What great childhood memories. This game really did redefine what videogames were. The late Eighties and early-to-mid Nineties provided some excellent and refined games based almost entirely only on the principles and mechanics of their predecessors. I dearly loved and do love so many of the then-conventional types of games from then, indeed. But Super Mario 64 positively innovated the entire medium to an enormous degree, effectively leading me to (unintentionally) abandon Sega's home consoles for Nintendo's. As impressive and breathtaking as they were, Mario 64 didn't thrive because of its improved visuals but truly because of its expansive and kinetically-sensational gameplay and aesthetics.

Today, we live in a mediocre version of the time before Mario 64, with rehash after rehash and companies depending mostly on nostalgia and style to sell their games. Very few games released in the last ~8 years or so feel extraordinarily interesting enough to be memorable. Perhaps Zelda: Breath of the Wild or some such will drive us out of the rut we're in right now with fantastic new feelings of immersion and wonder, but until then, happy 20th Anniversary, Mario! We'll bake a cake for you.

@LeRaposa That almost happened! http://www.sm128c.com/april2009/

How cool, today is my birthday, even though is not in the same exactly date.

Wow, I remember when I played for the first time the demo kiosk at Wal-Mart right before the launch of the N64. It was a promotional kiosk installed to build hype for the system. I was amazed but at the same time I felt that gaming was getting "too far" with real 3D worlds. My old-school 2D gaming mentality would no allow me to fully embrace it at first. Now, I can't go back to sidescrolling gaming. As for SM64, is my second favorite console game after OoT. 😁

Here's to you, Mario! Cheers!
("What a family" is a drawing by Yves "The Bourgyman" Bourgelas. Check his artwork out, it's awesomely reminiscent of official 2D Mario character art.)

I'd feel old but 20 years later and I still a nintemdo fan. My 5 year old was hooked on minecraft until that Mario Dlc came out, then he saw me playing Mario 64 and thought it was same game. He has found 16 stars on his own. A timeless game.

Rented an import N64 before it was released outside Japan. It was hard to believe it was real even while playing it. The ease of jumping and leaping and the fun Mario seemed to be having was contagious. Nintendo did the transition to 3D gaming like no other company and established so many norms we expect today. I wasn't a "child" when it released though so let's not talk in decades so much.

Man, so many memories with this game. It was always fun swinging Bowers around and throwing him on a bomb.

Remember getting my hands on this game for the first time at a Walmart demo kiosk one evening. Super Mario 64 was pure magic.

My fondest memory of SM64 was of finishing it on the Wii (a nostalgia trip in itself) while riding the Galaxy hype train. Shortly after the credits finished rolling, got a Mario-soundalike phone call from Gamestop telling me that my Galaxy pre-order was ready.

I'd love to play another game like SM64, but hopefully with better camera control. Galaxy at least had its levels designed so it was seldom necessary to wrestle with it, though I did miss the relative openness of the levels.

i am also 20 years old thanks mario

This game and Chrono Trigger are my 1A and 1B favourite games of all time. I remember taking 3 days off from school and driving around with my older brother just trying to find a store with a N64 in stock.

Nothing will ever blow my mind the way this game did. It was magical future technology that aliens brought to Earth. The graphics and the variety of controls were simply unreal.

Also I think it's funny (and also terrifying in an "I'm old" sort of way) that I have a clear memory of the remastered version coming to DS, and more time has passed since the DS one than the time between the original and DS.

My friend got this game and system..plugged it in and spent 5 minutes just playing with Mario's head, lol..good times..

Oh wow didn't even realize it. I just recently hooked the N64 up to the old tv on the porch to show my three year old what that magic box full of daddy's game was n mario is what I showed him first. I learned something also. The older systems play and look better on the tvs they we're designed for. That n mario64 is still amazing to this day

While not my favorite game (Super Mario Galaxy), nor my favorite Mario game (Super Mario Galaxy), nor even my favorite 3D Mario platformer (Super Mario Galaxy), Super Mario 64 really is a fun game, if a bit clunky.

Here's for another 20 years of 3D Mario!

I never played this game when it was released as around this time I started to play games on our home PC complete with voodoo 3DFX card!
I also never got around playing it either but it layed the groundwork for and inspired 2 other great N64 games that I hold dear, Banjo Kazooie and Conker's bad fur day so for that I alone I praise it!

And it only looks about 15 years old.

But, it is a genuine classic and was a total genre-defining masterpiece in its time. It's one of the rare games where the moments of seeing and playing it for the first time where truly paradigm shifting for me personally, and an utter joy.

N64 and Super Mario 64 are the only console and game I've ever stayed up till the wee hours in the morning to purchase the second it launched from Game (I think it was Game) at a special early opening.

I only wish Nintendo was at the forefront of the industry again like it was back then, and making the kinds of games that basically no else could even touch at the time.

Best Mario 3D experience= super Mario Galaxy 2

The Citizen Kane of video games.

I feel very old now...

Happy 20th anniversary, Supee Mario 64! (Even though, I'm much more fond of your DS remake)

Congratulations ! 20th anniversary.
Man.... i was graduated Primary student Grade 6 back 20 years ago.

The most important game ever made in my opinion.

Almost all of its pioneering technical ideas define every 3D game we all play today. It took the concept of 3D and made it not only competent, but truly wonderful.

Tremendous game that still plays, looks, sounds and feels magical.

I remember renting this game shortly after launch, my sister's first job was at a local video store, we rented the N64 and this game, along with Pilotwings 64 and Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey, it was a time that I'll never forget as a kid.

I got this a while ago... And I absolutely hate it. It's not the game that's the problem for me; the graphics, worlds, etc, are all great, but I feel that the mechanics are awful. The camera isn't very good, and Mario isn't just as precise or smooth as he is in other games. If they make an NX HD remake, I'll buy it day one, but for now, I won't be touching it,

Usually these type of things don't make me feel old, but man do I feel old now. It's hard to believe I was 5 or 6 when I first played Super Mario 64 in a Kmart. I was FLOORED by it. Just jumping around that castle was amazing and I don't know if kids will ever feel that way about a game again. My mom asked me a whole bunch of times "Are you sure this is the game you want with the system?" and I was like "This is the only game I want!!!" And for christmas that year I got a N64

@LegendOfPokemon You should check out the DS version. To me it is far superior than playing the OG on N64. It plays especially well on 3DS with the circle pad.

@McGruber Nice to know! 😉

I remember seeing this being played in a video game store a few months before release (import console) & just watching it for around 2 hours in a stunned state of disbelief. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was mind blowing at the time. This was the future & my god was it exciting. The first few years of the N64's life were easily the best I've had in my many, many years gaming. What an an incredible time to be alive!!

Well, I feel old now. I would love to see this one remade with a modern camera. I can't replay this anymore because it drives me crazy.

I wish they'd do more games like this. Collect 100 coins for a star, different routes through big levels - objective based rather then just reach the goal.

Would also be a day one purchase if they did an NX ground up remake of this. This time make every painting in the castle a level!

Xmas 97 memories! That Peach Slide level music!! I recently got an NTSC RGB modded N64 console and picked up the Japanese Shindou edition of Mario 64. The Rumble Pak support is great, and I also have a Hori 64 mini pad with a modern analog stick, playing this on a CRT is the absolute best experience I've had with this game, sharp graphics and perfect controller response times! I found the VC re-releases poor, lots of controller lag, and the UK Wii edition was the terrible PAL version!

Ah, happy anniversary SM64. The music to Jolly Roger Bay/Dire Dire Docks still to this day brings me back to being 8 years old and I didn't even own a copy of the game (or even really like it that much) until VC on Wii 17 years later. I agree that Nintendo should make another Mario game with similar ideas such as large explorative worlds with numerous objectives and secrets. No Mario game has felt as free as Mario 64, though Galaxy did come close.

The 20 year anniversary is today for Japan specifically. It's September 29, 1996 for North America, and March 1, 1997 for Europe. I shouldn't have recycled my old Super Mario 64 Player's Guide, should have donated it to the local second hand shop intact... Well, at least I still have the Next Generation magazine issue of the Super Mario 64 preview! Might post some images from it later today!

Super Mario 64 was a revelation, and I doubt much else will ever top it's profound importance on the direction of gaming.

@VanillaLake Retro Nintendo is more interesting than Modern Nintendo, anyways.

@Project_Dolphin Hah, funny... We've already had this conversation before, but I'll say it again: Super Mario 64 was one of those vaunted technical powerhouses of the time period. It was the combination of everything coming together that made it truly special- not just the great controls, gameplay, and camera work for the time, but also great graphics, frame rates, music, sound effects, and character/level design. And of course... Almost no loading times compared to CD's!

This was the game changer for me for sure. I had the 64 first thing, then later a PlayStation which I enjoyed a bit, but never as much as I did the 64. Many other great games after it for sure, but Mario 64 was just the start of it all to me.
SEGA had just died to me once these consoles came out. I didn't trust in buying another one of their consoles, though I did wish I could have played some of their games at the time.

This was my childhood, beautiful game

Christmas day 1996 after months of driving my poor parents up a wall begging for one of these systems... They were kind enough to get me one and this game. One of the real 'holy sh*t' moments in gaming, imo. I had seen some cool stuff on PlayStation and Saturn at that time but nothing that I thought looked as good as this and it was Super Mario so of course it was just plain fun. Been playing the game, regularly for almost 20 years now just like I've been playing Super Mario World regularly since 1991. Two of the greatest platformers ever, although while I'd put SMW at the top of the 2D Mario platformers, I think 64 was surpassed by both Galaxy games in the 3D realm.

20 years and it's still the best Mario game I've ever played, the Galaxy games came very close to matching it before the largely disappointing 3d World. Please Nintendo give us a HD makeover of this game instead of average Zelda titles

Never had a game made a console so desirable! I remember when the N64 was a tough mother to buy, it was sold out everywhere and you had to wait months for more stock to arrive. I really liked SM64 but I always felt Banjo-Kazooie was a far superior game, it was Rare that made the N64 such an amazing console with their games.

@PlywoodStick True.

@Honelith Agreed! Where are Nintendo Life's tributes to Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, etc.?

@Gamer83 Agreed. Super Mario World is still the best 2D Mario game and Super Mario 3D World was disappointing. Also, when Super Mario 64 was released it looked great, I mean, Nintendo really cared about visuals and technology back then.

I remember playing it for the first time at a Demo station at a local Blockbuster.

@Project_Dolphin Even for young'uns, though, Super Mario 64 has several charms to it that make it more palatable than, say, the original version of Ocarina of Time, which was also considered legendary for it's time. Super Mario 64 has done a much better job of standing the test of time- Ocarina really needed that 3DS remake.

That being said, Ocarina is still among the best performing and lasting of the time in hindsight. There are tens of PS1 and Saturn games that had awesome top of the line gameplay, but they're just god awful to look at (and wait for loading times) now... Ape Escape in particular comes to mind. All the jaggies and lack of anti aliasing were not at all kind to the PS1 and Saturn. The N64 is much better off, and Super Mario 64 is a crown jewel of that timelessness.

@AlexSora89 Oh God... I can see it now... "What A Family: The Mario Bros Sitcom!"

Happy B-Day!!

@PlywoodStick
Thing is, Mario's parents look pretty believable. Same for the "royal in-laws". And the youngest generation is downright "d'awwwww".

My very first video game ^^ Ah memories !!