Mario 64 was the first game released for the Nintendo 64 and as a result had very high expectations placed on it. Not only was it expected to keep gamers busy until the next flood of games came out, it was the first fully 3D game in the Mario series. Thankfully, Shigeru Miyamoto didn't spare one detail in this fantastic game, and the Mario series translated into 3D surprisingly well.

Graphics: The first time I played this game was at my local Blockbuster, and I couldn't get over how real everything looked. That was when I only had my SNES, so maybe I was a bit over-excited, but now that I can play this game on a regular basis it still impresses me. The game's overall look is basically great except for a few minor problems. First, the water effects in the game are great. The transparency effects are very good, until you swim deep and, sometimes, the water seems to vanish and leaves you swimming in mid-air. But when you swim on the surface and the water ripples around you, the graphical effect is very well done. My only complaint with the water is when you dive in, the water reaction looks kind of fake. But the rest is extremely well done. Other good graphical touches are how leaves fall from a tree when you climb it. The snow levels also look fairly good. Although the snow on the ground does look kind of generic, the falling snow is a great touch. Another minor complaint in the graphics department is how sometimes the polygons don't fit together right. You see this a lot when you struggle with the camera, or when you jump in a cannon. Also, the game has bad pop-up problems. Coins and enemies often just show up out of nowhere. This is frustrating when you're searching for coins and don't check a remote corner because there doesn't appear to be anything there. But overall, not many details in the game are left out. Brick patterns on the moat bridge, the falling lava in the volcano, and the intricate glass window of the Princess on the castle are good examples of how not much was left out. 8.5/10

Enemy Intelligence: The enemies in the game are not very smart. Probably the least intelligent in a Mario game yet. You can very easily run circles around a goomba without it seeing you, and also with a Bom-Omb. And there is a terrible lack of bosses. King Bob-Omb is so easy he shouldn't even be called a boss, and the first two Bowser's are also pretty easy. The last Bowser is the toughest in the game, but only because he stomps away the platform into a star shape, making it hard to throw him at the now distant mines. Speaking of Bowser, he has a very limited amount of moves. He walks really slow, making it fairly easy to grab him. Sometimes he continually spins, making it harder to get behind him, but it's still fairly easy to trick him. The only real danger is his blue flame, which follows you and gets really annoying. The Bowser in Super Mario World was harder than this one. I would have liked to see a boss for each level, and with better intelligence, but hopefully that will come in the next Mario game. They were probably experimenting with how much they could put on the cart with this game and something had to be left out, and sadly they chose AI. Let's hope this gets fixed for the next game. 4/10

Control: Since this game is 3D the control was definitely going to be a big issue, and this game handles it well at most times. For the amount of moves Mario has, they are all pretty simple to pull off, but tough to keep track of. The one thing that makes controlling Mario a chore is the camera, which is probably the only sub-par element in the game. When you're trying to creep along a thin plank and you have to fight the camera to stay where it is, it gets very frustrating. If any of the moves are tough to use at times it is most likely because the camera doesn't give you a good enough view. But again, the control is usually simple. By the time I conquered the game I could easily do repeating back flips or wall kicks. The only move I had consistent trouble with was the long jump. It uses the same button as the duck maneuver does, so often if I didn't press the z-trigger at the exact right time I'd just duck instead of jump. Finally, the flying controls are pretty tough to learn and should have been better. Having to make Mario take a nose-dive to make him gain speed was a very tough thing to do, and since you're elevation slowly goes down as you fly, you have to either try to pick up more speed or complete your task very quickly. 7/10

Sound: The game has a lot of nice sound effects in it. The sound of splashing and the bubbles reaching the surface when you swim is great, and there are nice outdoor sounds outside the castle, like the chirping of birds. The rush of falling water at the waterfall gets louder as you near it, and the rustling of the trees as you climb are all great effects. Unfortunatly, most of the enemies just make small chirps when they see you, and some don't make any noise at all. Peach's speech at the beginning and end of the game is good, and her dialogue is varied, but Mario has the same 'ya-hoo' and 'here we go' that he did during the game. More speech for our favorite plumber would have been good. Other sounds, like Mario's scream when he takes a really high plunge and his grunt when he gets hit are good at the beginning, but they get really old really fast. In all, there could have been more variety in the sounds, like different enemy sounds and maybe even speech for Bowser, but overall the game handles sound effects fairly well. The music is great. Most of the levels have their own music, although the water and snow levels share music. The only bad part is that a few unrelated levels, like Bob-Omb Battlefield and Tall, Tall Mountain also share their music. It would have been better to see new music in each level. 8/10

Replay: Really, this game is a mixed bag with replay. Getting all 120 stars is definitely challenging and will keep you busy for a while. But once this monster task is done, there's nothing really left to do. The reward for getting 120 stars (meeting Yoshi, getting 100 lives and a new triple jump) is pretty good. And some of the level elements will change. For instance, after you grab 120 stars, the penguin you race in 'Cool, Cool Mountain', is much bigger, and the final Bowser has different dialogue, but these are the only real additions. So really, the only tasks after the game is conquered are to try and beat your best coin scores, and to have some fun on the three slides in the game. 6/10

Fun: That's what video games are supposed to be in the first place right? Fun is when you can get into a game and occasionally die without throwing the controller at the wall, and just have a good time while playing. Mario 64, for the most part, is fun. It doesn't have many challenges that are unbearably hard and frustrating, just ones that make you think a little on what to do. The game is cartoony, like all Mario games, but it isn't cutesy or anything. Oh yeah, and it's a Mario game. Come on now, how can a Mario game not be fun? If you have no problem playing a game that is completely unrealistic, that has you in the role of a plumber out to save a beautiful princess from a big lizard, and if you don't think twice about shooting yourself out of cannons, you'll like this game a lot. If you don't like anything that isn't dripping with realism, you won't like it, and you probably won't like many games at all, really. 10/10

Mario 64 is still one of the best games available for the system, and is a must-have for three key reasons. 1) It's Mario 2) It's a classic 3) It's in the Player's Choice group and is fairly cheap now. Go and get this game.

Chamby