Super Mario 64 - Reception

Reception

Super Mario 64 has been commercially successful and is the best-selling Nintendo 64 game. By May 2003, the game sold eleven million copies. Super Mario 64 had become the second most popular title on Wii's Virtual Console by June 2007, behind Super Mario Bros.

The game has been praised in the gaming press, and is still highly acclaimed. It has collected numerous awards, including various "Game of the Year" honors by members of the gaming media, as well as Nintendo's own best-selling Player's Choice selection. In addition, Super Mario 64 has been placed high on "the greatest games of all time" lists by many reviewers, including IGN, Game Informer, Edge, Yahoo! Games, GameFAQs users, and Nintendo Power. Electronic Gaming Monthly awarded the game a Gold award in its initial review, and in Edge magazine, Super Mario 64 was the first game to receive a perfect score. Game Informer initially rated the game a 9.75, but re-rated it a 9.0 a decade later in a "Retro Review". GameSpot called it one of the 15 most influential games of all time, and rated the Nintendo 64 version a score of 9.4 and the Wii Virtual Console version an 8. The Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu rated Super Mario 64 a 39/40. Common praise focused on the presentation while criticism was directed at the camera system. Nintendo Power lauded the graphics, sound, and gameplay, but commented the shifting camera angle took getting used to. Game Informer commented that even a decade later the game still offers hours of entertainment. They also commented on the camera system stating that by present day standards the camera system "would almost be considered broken". Game Revolution referred to the graphics as "beautiful", but criticized the camera angles, saying "it doesn't work as well as it should". Next Generation Magazine praised many aspects of the game: musical score, graphics, lack of loading times, and the scale of the game. Though they commented that the game is less accessible than previous Mario titles, citing the camera's occasional, erratic movements and lack of optimal angle as frustrating. It was deemed the 3rd best 'Mario' game of all time by ScrewAttack. The game placed 6th in Official Nintendo Magazine's "100 greatest Nintendo games of all time". However, the GamePro media Games.net rated Super Mario 64 third on their "Ten Hugely Overrated Games" list. In 2009, Game Informer put Super Mario 64 13th on their list of "The Top 200 Games of All Time".

Video game publications and developers praised Super Mario 64 for its design and use of the 3D gameplay. The game is counted by 1UP.com as one of the first games to have brought a series of 2D games into full 3D. In the transition to 3D, many of the series conventions were rethought drastically, placing an emphasis on exploration over traditional platform jumping, or "hop and bop" action. While its quality was disputed by some, it has been argued that it established an entirely new genre, different from that of previous games in the series. Official Nintendo Magazine referred to the game as a "masterpiece of game design" and stated that Nintendo was able to take its "number-one 2D franchise and convert it flawlessly into 3D". Michael Grayford of Liquid Entertainment stated he was initially "very turned off" by the openness of the game the first time he played it. Upon playing it later, he was "highly pleased" and stated "each level brought some new unique cool gameplay element and I was never bored". Warren Spector, former lead designer at Ion Storm, stated it was "not possible to squeeze this much gameplay into a single game" and "no game has done a better job of showing goals before they can be attained, allowing players to make a plan and execute on it". He also praised the exploration aspect of the game, commenting that " explore the same spaces several times while revealing something new each time is a revelation".