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92-628: The game was developed in 1997 under the name Sarugetchu , and was the first game to explicitly require the DualShock controller. The game was a success, going Platinum, entering the Greatest Hits series in the US, and entered the "Best Of" releases in Japan. It was reviewed positively, and was compared to games such as Super Mario 64 . Ape Escape 2001 was released in 2001. It is the first game in

184-444: A Famitsu magazine with interest in hiring staff for an upcoming game. It contains a picture with four monkeys, with the first holding up Ape Escape , the second holding up Ape Escape 2 , the third holding up Ape Escape 3 and the fourth holding a cover with "?". The fourth entry was in development, but is still unreleased. A tweet by Sony Computer Entertainment Japan on Twitter was posted on January 5, 2016, reading, "2016 Year of

276-456: A Shepard scale . There are many hidden mini-courses and other secrets within the castle, which may contain extra Power Stars required for the full completion of the game. If the player returns to the game after collecting all 120 Power Stars, Yoshi can be found on the roof of Princess Peach's Castle, who will give the player a message from the developers, accompanied by one hundred extra lives and an improved triple jump. Princess Peach uses

368-445: A Silicon Graphics (SGI)-based toolkit. The development team prioritized Mario's movement and, before levels were created, tested and refined Mario's animations on a simple grid. The 3D illustrations were created by Shigefumi Hino , Hisashi Nogami , Hideki Fujii, Tomoaki Kuroume, and Yusuke Nakano , and the game was animated by co-director Yoshiaki Koizumi and Satoru Takiwaza. Yōichi Kotabe , illustrator and character designer for

460-489: A health point system , represented by a pie shape consisting of eight segments. If Mario has taken damage, he can replenish his health either by collecting three types of coins—yellow, which replenishes one segment; red, equal to two yellow coins; and blue, equal to five yellow coins—or by walking through a spinning heart. Underwater, Mario's health instead represents how long he can hold his breath, slowly diminishing while underwater and replenishing when he surfaces. Finishing

552-411: A multiplayer cooperative mode, whereby players would control Mario and his brother Luigi in split-screen . Nevertheless, hardware constraints and the developers' inability to implement the mode satisfactorily led to its removal. The music was composed by veteran composer Koji Kondo , who created new interpretations of the familiar melodies from earlier media as well as new material. Yoji Inagaki

644-473: A subgame or microgame ) is a short game often contained within another video game . A minigame contains different gameplay elements and is often smaller or more simplistic than the game in which it is contained. Some video games consist entirely of minigames which tie into an overall theme, such as Olympic Decathlon (1980). Minigames can also be used to represent a specific experience, such as hacking , lock picking , or scanning an area, that ties into

736-492: A "Maximum Game of the Month Award" before its international release, ranking it the greatest game the magazine had ever reviewed. Digitiser ranked it the best game of 1997 , above Final Fantasy VII as runner-up. [...] if the gaming press was to be believed, Super Mario 64 was going to be the greatest game ever released anywhere, and it might also cure cancer and feed the world's starving children. The rule that

828-407: A 3D Super Mario game during the production of Star Fox (1993). Development lasted nearly three years: about one year on design and twenty months on production, starting with designing the virtual camera system . The team continued with illustrating the 3D character models—at the time a relatively unattempted task—and refining sprite movements. The sound effects were recorded by Yoji Inagaki and

920-458: A Gold award in its initial review, and it won Electronic Gaming Monthly 's Game of the Year for both editors' pick and readers' pick, and Nintendo 64 Game of the Year, Adventure Game of the Year, and Best Graphics. At the 1997 Computer Game Developers Conference , it was given Spotlight Awards for Best Use of Innovative Technology, Best Console Game, and Best Game of 1996. Maximum gave it

1012-588: A coin not possible to be collected in ordinary play. Speedrun techniques include the Lakitu skip, a glitch that disables a dialog box explaining camera movement; the Bob-omb clip, which uses a glitch in a Bob-omb's explosion animation to clip through walls; and the backwards long jump glitch, which involves the player performing a repetitive move, the "backwards long jump" (BLJ), allowing Mario to reach very high speed values and has numerous applications in speedrunning;

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1104-503: A console must have a broad spectrum of launch titles to appeal to the North American audience was generally true, but Nintendo found the exception: a single amazing title, with well-implemented 3D gameplay that most console players had never experienced, could bear the weight of the entire system on its shoulders. —Lee Hutchinson of Ars Technica in 2013 Super Mario 64 was key to the early success of and anticipation for

1196-537: A course grants Mario an extra life for every 50 yellow coins the player collected, and extra life mushrooms are hidden in various places such as trees and may chase Mario through the air or fall to the ground and disappear shortly if not collected. In absence of the power-ups normally found in previous games, such as the Super Mushroom and Fire Flower , three colors of translucent blocks—red, green, and blue—appear throughout many stages. Three switches of

1288-409: A cult following, spawning many fangames and mods , a large speedrunning presence, and enduring rumors surrounding game features. Super Mario 64 is a 3D platformer in which the player controls the titular character Mario through various courses. Mario's abilities are far more diverse than in previous games. He can walk, run, jump, crouch, crawl, climb, swim, kick, grab objects, and punch using

1380-477: A disembodied Wario head. Some fans believed that the Wario head remained in some copies of the game. Conspiracy theorists also spread the rumor that "every copy of Super Mario 64 is personalized", claiming that certain bizarre phenomena existed in only certain copies of the game. In the years since the game's release, players have used glitches to reach previously unreachable parts of the game, including, in 2014,

1472-441: A dynamic virtual video camera that turns and accelerates according to the character's actions. This camera system became the standard for 3D platformers. Nintendo Power praised the game's camera movements along with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 's addition of the lock-on camera and concluded that the two games were trailblazers for the 3D era. PC Magazine 's K. Thor Jensen considers Super Mario 64 to be

1564-487: A field of teenagers "jostling for a test run". Super Mario 64 received critical acclaim, with a score of 94 out of 100 from review aggregator Metacritic based on thirteen reviews, and a score of 96% from review aggregator GameRankings , which ranked it the eighteenth best video game of all time based on twenty-two reviews. The design, variety of controls and use of 3D gameplay received praise from video game publications . Maximum found its strongest points were

1656-504: A fixed camera angle or in relation to the character's perspective. Super Mario 64 's controls, in contrast, are fully analog and interpret a 360-degree range of motion into navigation through a 3D space relative to the camera. The analog stick allows for precise control over subtleties such as running speed. In 2005, Electronic Gaming Monthly ranked Super Mario 64 the most important game since they began publication in 1989, stating that, while there were 3D games before it, "Nintendo's

1748-498: A golden rabbit, named "MIPS" after the Nintendo 64's MIPS architecture processors; the rabbit was included in the final game as a Power Star holder. Super Mario 64 features more puzzles than earlier Mario games. It was developed simultaneously with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time but, as Ocarina of Time was released more than two years later, some puzzles were taken for Super Mario 64 . The developers tried to include

1840-536: A large open world. In the game, Bowser , the primary antagonist of the Super Mario franchise, invades Princess Peach 's castle and hides the castle's sources of protection, the Power Stars, in many different worlds inside magical paintings. As Mario , the player collects Power Stars to unlock enough of Princess Peach's castle to get to Bowser and rescue Princess Peach. Director Shigeru Miyamoto conceived

1932-627: A larger game. Some games are made up of many minigames strung together into one video game, such as Nintendo 's WarioWare series (which are called microgames in the series), Universal 's Video Action , David Whittaker's Lazy Jones and the mobile game Phone Story . Some similar games specifically developed for multiplayer are considered party games , such as the Itadaki Street series by Square Enix and Nintendo's Mario Party series. In party games, minigames usually involve performing an activity faster or collecting more of

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2024-472: A letter to invite Mario to come to her castle for a cake she has baked for him. When he arrives, Mario discovers that Bowser has invaded the castle and imprisoned the princess and her servants within its walls using the power of the castle's 120 Power Stars. The Power Stars are hidden in the castle's paintings, which serve as portals to other worlds where Bowser's minions keep watch over the Stars. Mario explores

2116-531: A level selector, and is now a staple of the 3D platformer genre. As the genre evolved, many of the series's conventions were rethought drastically, placing emphasis on exploration over traditional platform jumping, or "hop and bop" action. Though some disputed its quality, others argued that it established an entirely new genre for the series. Its mission-based level design inspired game designers such as GoldenEye 007 (1997) producer and director Martin Hollis and

2208-502: A multiplayer mode. Reviews were mostly positive, with critics praising the graphics and add-ons to the original game but criticizing the controls and multiplayer mode. By September   2021, 11.06   million copies had been sold worldwide. A version of Super Mario 64 was used as a tech demo for the Nintendo 64 Disk Drive (64DD) floppy drive at the 1996 Nintendo Space World trade show. Like Wave Race 64 , Super Mario 64

2300-758: A new control scheme that accommodates the wider button array of the Nintendo Switch Joy-Con and Pro Controller , and was later patched to add compatibility for the Nintendo 64 controller used with the Nintendo Switch Online service. It made another Nintendo Switch appearance in October   2021 as part of the Nintendo 64 lineup for the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack. Super Mario 64 received enthusiastic pre-release reception. GamePro commented on

2392-470: A special Power Star which gives him the Wing Cap, and he flies back to the castle's courtyard. Peach is released from the stained-glass window above the castle's entrance, and she rewards Mario by kissing him on the nose and baking the cake that she had promised him. In the early 1990s, Super Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto conceived a 3D Mario design while developing the game Star Fox (1993) for

2484-524: A specified item than other players to win; some may be entirely luck. The Final Fantasy series includes minigames in every entry, since the first Final Fantasy (1987), in which a 15 puzzle in the form of an Easter egg can be uncovered by entering a specific sequence of inputs while piloting a ship. It was added into the game by programmer Nasir Gebelli despite it not being part of Squaresoft 's original game design. The PocketStation for PlayStation and VMU for Dreamcast accessories allowed

2576-416: A statue in the courtyard of Princess Peach's Castle, thought to say "L is real 2401". This was disproved in 1998, when a fan received a letter from Nintendo that the programmers included the text as a joke and it was not supposed to say anything. In July   2020, 24 years and 1 month after the initial release of Super Mario 64 , unused assets for Luigi from the scrapped multiplayer mode were discovered in

2668-420: A very similar fashion to classic JRPG random enemy encounters. Super Mario 64 Super Mario 64 is a 1996 platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64 . It was released in Japan and North America in 1996 and PAL regions in 1997. It is the first Super Mario game to feature 3D gameplay, combining traditional Super Mario gameplay, visual style, and characters in

2760-588: Is to look for paintings that, when jumped into, bring them into courses containing Power Stars, which upon their collection unlock more of the castle hub world. Each of the fifteen courses has seven Power Stars, and an additional fifteen are hidden as secrets and as bonuses, for a total of 120 Power Stars in the game. The courses are filled with enemies as well as friendly creatures that provide assistance or ask favors, such as Bob-omb Buddies, who will allow Mario to access cannons on request. Some Power Stars only appear after completing certain tasks, often hinted at by

2852-479: The Boos are based on assistant director Takashi Tezuka 's wife, who, as Miyamoto explained, "is very quiet normally, but one day she exploded, maddened by all the time Tezuka spent at work". Super Mario 64 was first run on an SGI Onyx emulator, which only emulated the console's application programming interface and not its hardware. The first test scenario for controls and physics involved Mario interacting with

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2944-710: The GameCube and Super Famicom Classic controllers. In September   2020, Super Mario 64 was one of the three Super Mario games to be included in the Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection on Nintendo Switch . This version was based on the Rumble Pak iteration, and updated the game's presentation to display at 720p resolution in both the Switch's docked and handheld configurations, in addition to using upscaled user interface assets and textures. It also features

3036-481: The Mario series, made a 3D drawing of Mario from various angles and directed the creation of the character models. In an interview with The Washington Post , Yoshiaki Koizumi recalled that his challenge was animating the 3D models without any precedents. To assist players with depth perception , the team positioned a faux shadow directly beneath each object regardless of the area's lighting. Yoshiaki Koizumi described

3128-546: The Super Nintendo Entertainment System . Star Fox used the Super FX graphics chip, which added more processing power; Miyamoto considered using the chip to develop a Super NES game, Super Mario FX , with gameplay based on "an entire world in miniature, like miniature trains". According to engineer Dylan Cuthbert, who worked on Star Fox , Super Mario FX was never the title of a game, but

3220-399: The game controller 's analog stick and buttons. He can execute special jumps by combining a regular jump with other actions, including the double and triple jumps, long jump , backflip , and wall jump . The player can adjust the camera—operated by a Lakitu broadcasting Mario—and toggle between first-person and third-person view. Unlike many of its predecessors, Super Mario 64 uses

3312-501: The greatest video games of all time . Numerous developers have cited it as an influence on 3D platform games , with its dynamic camera system and 360-degree analog control establishing a new archetype for the genre, much as Super Mario Bros. did for side-scrolling platform games. It was remade as Super Mario 64 DS for the Nintendo DS in 2004, and has been ported to other Nintendo consoles since. The game has attracted

3404-409: The 1995 prototype's smoothness, and how the action "was a blast", despite the game being only fifty percent complete at the time. Ed Semrad of Electronic Gaming Monthly agreed, praising the new 3D animation of Mario characters shown in only 2D before. Larry Marcus, a source analyst for Alex. Brown & Sons , recalls Super Mario 64 being the most anticipated game of E3   1996, remembering

3496-508: The Gotcha Box, but here the stage-clearing was more important, yet it did not mean it would be based on the percentage on the player's record. In Ape Escape 3 , because coins were far more abundant than Ape Escape 2 and the fact that players could hold coins past 999, the prices went up for the mini-games as well. Also, in this game it was based on the player's percentage, so clearing stages, beating time attacks, or purchasing things from

3588-604: The Loose , a remake of the original game was released globally as one of the launch games for the PlayStation Portable. In 2005, Ape Academy (also known as Ape Escape Academy ) was released for the PlayStation Portable. Eye Toy: Monkey Mania was a party game inspired by Mario Party which was only released in Europe and Japan. In mid-2005, Ape Escape 3 was released to positive critical reception. After

3680-517: The Monkey. Today, SCE will begin working! #Monkey #YearofMonkey" alongside an image of a Pipo Monkey". In 2019, the 20th anniversary of the franchise, for the first time in more than 5 years, the official Japanese website for the Ape Escape series was updated and an official Japanese Ape Escape 20th anniversary account was made on Twitter. Ape Quest , a role-playing game, was released in 2008 on

3772-490: The Mushroom Kingdom, which includes Princess Peach's Castle and its courtyard. The Kingdom's Power Moons resemble Super Mario 64 's Power Stars. Rumors spread rapidly after the game's release. The most popular was a pervasive rumor that Luigi existed as an unlockable character. In 1996, IGN offered a prize of $ 100 if a player could find Luigi, to no avail. Fueling the rumor was a very blurry message on

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3864-469: The Nintendo 64 Disk Drive. Super Mario 64 successors include Super Mario Sunshine for the GameCube and Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii, building on its core design of power-ups and its 3D, open-ended gameplay. Super Mario Galaxy 2 includes a remake of Super Mario 64 's Whomp's Fortress level called Throwback Galaxy. Super Mario 3D Land and Super Mario 3D World are departures from

3956-488: The Nintendo 64. Lee Hutchinson, a former Babbage's employee, notes how the game was spurred by a feverish video game press, and how the success of the game defied the rule that a wide variety of launch games was necessary for broad appeal. Eventually, the Nintendo 64 lost much of its market share to Sony's PlayStation , partly due to its cartridge and controller design decisions, which were reportedly implemented by Miyamoto for Super Mario 64 . In 2012, Super Mario 64

4048-648: The PSN store in North America and Europe and in March 2009 in Japan. It was co-developed by Shift and Alvion and published by Sony Computer Entertainment worldwide. It was the first game in the series to be a PSN-only game, excluding Asia, where it received a physical release. In 2009, a game titled Ape Escape was announced along with the PlayStation Move . Critics speculated that it was the fourth entry in

4140-538: The Vanish Cap renders him partially immaterial and invulnerable, and allows him to walk through some obstacles. A shell remains after stomping a Koopa Troopa , which Mario can use to surf on water, lava, and quicksand. The hub world takes place in Princess Peach's Castle, which consists of three floors, a tower, and a basement, plus a moat and a courtyard outside the castle. The player's main objective

4232-605: The best-selling Nintendo 64 game. By 2015, Super Mario 64 was the 12th most sold Mario game, with 11.91   million copies sold. An enhanced remake , Super Mario 64 DS , was released for the Nintendo DS in 2004. As with the original, the plot centers on collecting Power Stars and rescuing Princess Peach from Bowser. In contrast with the original, Yoshi is the starting character, with Mario, Luigi, and Wario as unlockable characters. It features improved graphics, slightly altered courses, new areas, powerups, and enemies, more Power Stars to collect, touchscreen mini-games, and

4324-436: The camera "would almost be considered broken". Nintendo Power also noted the learning curve of the shifting camera. In contrast, Corbie Dillard claimed that the camera did not have any problems, and that it succeeded at helping the player traverse complex environments. This sentiment was shared by Total! , claiming that there were very few occasions where the camera was at a suboptimal angle. Paul Davies acknowledged that he

4416-601: The camera was sometimes blocked by or went through objects. Electronic Gaming Monthly 's Dan Hsu, Shawn Smith, and Crispin Boyer all removed half a point from their scores, claiming that the camera sometimes could not move to a wanted angle or rapidly shifted in an undesirable manner, a criticism that returned in Electronic Gaming Monthly 's 100 Best Games of All Time list. Game Informer stated in their 2007 re-review by present-day standards

4508-451: The castle and enters these worlds, gaining access to more rooms as he recovers more Stars. Mario unlocks two doors to different floors of the castle with keys obtained by defeating Bowser in hidden worlds. After getting at least 70 of the 120 Stars, Mario breaks the curse of the endless stairs that block the entrance to Bowser's final hiding place. After Mario defeats Bowser in the final battle, and Bowser escapes, swearing revenge, he obtains

4600-486: The development team consisted of around fifteen to twenty people. Development began with the characters and the camera system ; months were spent selecting a view and layout. The original concept involved the fixed path of an isometric game such as Super Mario RPG , which moved to a free-roaming 3D design, with some linear paths, particularly to coerce the player into Bowser's lair, according to Giles Goddard. "There [were] no jumping actions in 3-D we could reference at

4692-646: The development team of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater . Dan Houser , a prominent figure in the development of the Grand Theft Auto series , stated, "Anyone who makes 3D games who says they've not borrowed something from Mario or Zelda [of the Nintendo 64] is lying". Square Enix has stated that a coincidental meeting with Disney employees resulted in the creation of the Kingdom Hearts series, inspired by Super Mario 64 's use of 3D environments and exploration. Chris Sutherland, who served as

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4784-403: The feature as an "iron-clad necessity" which "might not be realistic, but it's much easier to play". Miyamoto's guiding design philosophy was to include more details than earlier games by using the Nintendo 64's power to feature "all the emotions of the characters". He likened the game's style to a 3D interactive cartoon. Some details were inspired by the developers' personal lives; for example,

4876-693: The first three months of 1997, it was the second-best-selling console game at 523,000 units. By early 2001, it had sold 5.5   million units, and 5.9   million by September   2002. At the 1999 Milia festival in Cannes , Super Mario 64 won a Gold ECCSELL prize for earning revenues above €21   million in the European Union in 1998. It had become the second most popular game on Wii 's Virtual Console by June   2007, behind Super Mario Bros. By March   2008, Super Mario 64 sold 11.8   million copies worldwide, being

4968-422: The first truly realized 3D platformer with the integration of camera control into its core gameplay, which he called the medium's true evolutionary leap. Super Mario 64 's use of the analog stick was novel, offering more precise and wide-ranging character movements than the digital D-pads of other consoles. At the time, 3D games generally only allowed the player to either control the character in relation to

5060-489: The first year since 2002 that no Ape Escape game had been released and the first year that no game had been announced within each region. A white-haired monkey named Specter obtains a helmet known as the Peak Point Helmet (Pipo Helmet for short), which boosts his intelligence. After equipping an army of monkeys with Pipo Helmets, and using an enhanced helmet for himself, Specter sends his monkey army to take over

5152-425: The freedom, but suggesting players "skip all the sign posts". Super Mario 64 also received praise for its graphics. GameSpot praised the graphics for being "clean yet simple" and not detracting from the details of the game world. GamePro particularly praised the combination of unprecedented technical performance and art design, calling it "the most visually impressive game of all time". Paul Davies described

5244-511: The game's development files, in an event known as the Nintendo Gigaleak . Satirical conspiracy theories about the game became popular in 2020, and were grouped into the " Super Mario 64 iceberg", an Internet meme of an iceberg , with the less likely theories representing places closer to the bottom of the "ocean". One popular rumor involves a "Wario Apparition", based on an E3   1996 presentation with Charles Martinet voicing

5336-399: The graphics as "so amazing to see, you find yourself stopping to admire [them]". Jonti Davies called the visuals phenomenal, and the frame rate respectable. Doug Perry found the graphics simple but magnificent, a sentiment shared by Next Generation . Hyper reviewer Nino Alegeropoulos called it the best-looking console game to date and opined that its high resolution and frame rate for

5428-409: The interaction, and described the control scheme as intuitive and versatile. Total! hailed the gameplay as being so imaginative and having such variety that their reviewers were still "hooked" after one month. Writing for AllGame , Jonti Davies commented on the diversity of the gameplay and the abundance of activities found in each course. Nintendo Life 's Corbie Dillard agreed, calling

5520-530: The latter was patched in the 1997 " Shindō " re-release (Rumble Pak version). The Super Mario 3D All-Stars re-release also patched this as it was based on the Shindō version. In 2013, YouTuber Vinesauce posted a compilation of various corruptions of the game, replicated with a program named naughty . Another YouTuber, Pannenkoek2012 , creates highly technical and analytical videos of Super Mario 64 glitches and mechanics, which have been covered many times by

5612-435: The lead designer for Banjo-Kazooie , agreed that Super Mario 64 set the benchmark for 3D platformers and claimed that any other game in the genre on the Nintendo 64 would inevitably be compared with Super Mario 64 . Super Mario 64 introduced a free-floating camera that can be controlled independently of the character. To increase freedom of exploration and fluid control in a 3D world, Super Mario 64 designers created

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5704-537: The left stick moves the character while the right operates whatever gadget the character has its possession. Again, unlike many games which use [REDACTED] to jump, both the R1 and R2 buttons are used, while the 'shape' buttons are used to cycle through the available items in the inventory. In the PSP spin-offs, a more conventional control scheme must be used, due to the lack of a right analog stick. The main objective through

5796-418: The main series, there are three unlockable minigames that can be played at the hub. These can be accessed by clearing the necessary number of stages and/or having the necessary amount of coins. In Ape Escape and Ape Escape: On the Loose , the player had to collect a certain amount of Specter Tokens to unlock a minigame. In Ape Escape 2 , the player could obtain these three minigames by betting ten coins in

5888-469: The majority of the games is to use the available array of gadgets to locate and capture monkeys. When a monkey has been found, it must be caught with the Time Net gadget. On the first playthrough, players will have a set number of monkeys to catch before progressing towards the next level. Once each level has been completed, they can be reentered with the gadgets necessary to catch the remaining monkeys. In

5980-473: The name of the course. These challenges include collecting one hundred yellow coins or eight red coins on a stage, defeating a boss , racing an opponent, and solving puzzles. The final level of the game is blocked by "endless stairs" similar to the Penrose stairs concept, but Mario can bypass them by collecting seventy Power Stars. The music in the endless stairs before collecting seventy Power Stars resembles

6072-425: The open-ended design, instead focused on platforming reminiscent of 2D games. The Nintendo Switch game Super Mario Odyssey returns to Super Mario 64 's open design; it includes numerous references to the latter. The ' Mario 64 Suit' and ' Mario 64 Cap', which change Mario's appearance to his in Super Mario 64 , can be purchased after completing the main storyline. Additionally, Mario can travel to

6164-406: The player must defeat. The villains change from game to game. It is up to the game's protagonists, equipped with various gadgets, to capture or defeat monkeys/characters, to save the day. The Ape Escape series is notable for its radical departure from the tried-and-true control method in many other games. It was the first PlayStation game to require the use of a DualShock or Dual Analog controller;

6256-487: The release of Ape Escape 3 , Sony Computer Entertainment Europe showed interest in publishing Ape Academy 2 and Ape Escape: Million Monkeys ; however, Sony Computer Entertainment America showed more interest in developing its own game. Ape Academy 2 was released in 2006 for the PlayStation Portable to mixed success and sold very well in Japan, entering the "Best of" category, but failed to perform well in Europe, due to Sony focusing on Million Monkeys . Million Monkeys

6348-494: The same colors can be found in secret areas that turn their corresponding blocks solid and allow Mario to obtain three types of special cap power-ups. The Wing Cap allows Mario to fly after doing a triple jump or being shot from a cannon ; the Metal Cap makes him immune to enemies, fire, noxious gases, allows him to withstand wind and water currents, perform on-land moves underwater, and have unlimited air capacity underwater; and

6440-520: The score was composed by Koji Kondo . Super Mario 64 was highly anticipated by video game journalists and audiences, boosted by advertising campaigns and showings at the 1996   E3 trade show. It received critical acclaim, with reviewers praising its ambition, visuals, level design, and gameplay, though some criticized its virtual camera system. It is the best-selling Nintendo 64 game , with nearly twelve   million copies sold by 2015. Retrospectively, Super Mario 64 has been considered one of

6532-472: The sense of freedom and its replayability, comparing it to Super Mario World and citing its similar gimmick of allowing access to new areas upon finding switches. One of GameFan 's four reviewers, E. Storm, cited the water levels as "overjoy[ing]" and showed how Super Mario 64 delved into an "entirely new realm of gaming". Official Nintendo Magazine called it "beautiful in both looks and design". Doug Perry of IGN agreed that it transitioned

6624-409: The series to 3D perfectly. Electronic Gaming Monthly discussed the levels in their initial review, praising them for their size and challenge, and later ranked it the fourth best console game of all time, arguing that it had breached the entire genre of 3D gaming while working virtually flawlessly. Computer and Video Games editor Paul Davies praised the 3D environment, and said that it enhanced

6716-416: The series to have been developed for PlayStation 2. The next year, Ape Escape 2 was developed by Sony and published in Japan in 2002 and in Europe and North America in 2003. In 2003, SCEI worked on a multiplayer party game and the sequel to Piposaru 2001 . Ape Escape: Pumped & Primed was released in Japan through Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. and the US through Ubisoft in 2004. Ape Escape: On

6808-622: The series, after Sony's 2006 advertisement. In Q3 2010, PlayStation Move: Ape Escape was officially announced under the party genre, and with a different name for every region. It was released in Japan in December 2010, Asia in January 2011, and the UK and Europe in mid-2012 as a GameStop exclusive. In the US, the game was only made available on the PSN store. After the release of PlayStation Move: Ape Escape , no games were announced in 2012, making it

6900-476: The shops would make the mini games available for purchase sooner. The minigame Mesal Gear Solid seems fuller and more of a game of its own rather than just a simple unlockable. This game has a plot and more traditional gameplay of the AE series, and could be the start of more fuller minigames based on a series already established, like Metal Gear Solid . In Ape Quest , the player randomly encounters mini-games in

6992-474: The time made it look "infinitely better than a cartoon". Total! said that the graphics' lack of pixellation and jagged edges made it look like they were from a "top of the range graphics workstation". The camera system received mixed reviews. Next Generation found that Super Mario 64 was less accessible than previous Mario games, frustrated by the camera's occasional erratic movements and lack of optimal angle. Nebojsa Radakovic and Doug Perry added that

7084-459: The time, so we shared in the enjoyment of going through all the trial and error with Mr. Miyamoto and other team members. It was arguably tough work, but that feeling was overtaken by the joy of innovating in a new field." —Yoshiaki Koizumi, 2020 The Washington Post , interview Super Mario 64 is one of the first games for which Nintendo produced its illustrations internally instead of by outsourcing . The graphics were made using N-World ,

7176-409: The variety the game's "greatest genius". Writing for GameRevolution , Nebojsa Radakovic described Super Mario 64 as one of the few "true" 3D platform games. N64 Magazine likened it to an enormous playground which was a pleasure to experiment in, but opined that the exploration element was slightly brought down by how many hints and tips there were. Victor Lucas of EP Daily agreed, praising

7268-519: The video game press. The game has also inspired challenges that attempt to beat it with certain restrictions, such as not being able to press the A button, requiring deep understanding about the game's mechanics and bugs. In May 2024, a player named Marbler managed to beat the entire game without pressing the A button. Super Mario 64 has led to the creation of fan-made remakes, modifications and ROM hacks : Minigame A minigame (also spelled mini game and mini-game , sometimes called

7360-523: The voice of Mario, and Leslie Swan—then senior editor of Nintendo Power and English localizer for Super Mario 64 —as the voice of Princess Peach. Super Mario 64 was first shown as a playable prototype in November   1995 at Nintendo Space World. This version was only fifty percent complete, and only about two percent of texture mapping was finished. It featured thirty-two courses. Miyamoto had hoped to create more, possibly up to forty, but

7452-467: The world, and Space. The protagonists, equipped with various gadgets, must capture the monkeys and restore order to the world. The party video games take place outside of the original continuity. Specter and the Monkeys take over the world, or try to sabotage players in "Pumped and Primed". In both games, Specter does not end up being the main villain and there are usually darker forces behind Specter that

7544-498: Was among the 80 entries in the Smithsonian American Art Museum 's The Art of Video Games exhibit. Super Mario 64 set many precedents for 3D platformers as one of the most influential video games. The game is known for its nonlinear , open freedom, which has been acclaimed by video game developers and journalists. 1Up.com wrote about its central hub world, which provides a safe tutorial and

7636-604: Was critical of the camera, saying that in some occasions it was difficult to position ideally, but ultimately dismissed it as "one hiccup" of a "revolutionary" game. Super Mario 64 won numerous awards, including various "Game of the Year" honors by members of the gaming media, and in Nintendo's own best-selling Player's Choice selection. It has been placed high on " the greatest games of all time " lists by many reviewers, including IGN , Game Informer , Edge , Official Nintendo Magazine, Electronic Gaming Monthly , and Nintendo Power . Electronic Gaming Monthly awarded it

7728-569: Was later shown at E3   1996 with multiple Nintendo 64s set up for people to play. According to Giles Goddard, the stress of the project caused some programmers to quit or move to different departments. Peter Main, Nintendo's vice president of marketing at the time, stated Super Mario 64 was meant as the killer app for the Nintendo 64. The US$ 20   million marketing campaign included videotapes sent to more than five hundred thousand Nintendo Power subscribers and advertisements shown on MTV , Fox , and Nickelodeon . Super Mario 64

7820-579: Was officially released in Japan in June   1996, North America in September, and in Europe and Australia in March   1997. During its first three months of sale in North America, it sold more than two   million copies and grossed $ 140   million in the United States, becoming the best-selling video game of 1996 . It was also the best-selling game overall from 1995 to 2002. During

7912-469: Was planned for the disk drive add-on, under the codename Super Mario 128 . In July   1996, Nintendo insiders stated that Miyamoto was assembling a team consisting mostly of developers who had worked on Super Mario 64 . Miyamoto affirmed that work on the sequel had only commenced at the time of the E3   1997 convention. The project was canceled due to its lack of progress and the commercial failure of

8004-577: Was re-released in Japan on July 18, 1997 as Super Mario 64 Rumble Pak Version which fixed various bugs, added support for the Rumble Pak peripheral, included the voice acting from the English version, among other changes. In November   2003, it was ported to China's iQue Player as a limited-release demo. In late 2006, it was released on the Wii Virtual Console service which added enhanced resolution and compatibility with

8096-808: Was released in Japan in July 2006, making it the last official PlayStation 2 game in the series. The game was planned to be released in the United Kingdom in late 2006, but the game was postponed and later canceled. Its impact in Japan led to the inclusion of its iteration of series protagonist Spike in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale in 2012. In late 2006, PipoRacer was released in Japan for PlayStation Portable. In 2008, Japan Studio and h.a.n.d. developed Ape Escape: SaruSaru Big Mission . Both titles were never released outside Japan. In 2006, Sony placed an advertisement in

8188-428: Was responsible for the sound design, tasked with producing hundreds of sound effects. He and Kondo felt that music and sound effects were equally important. According to Inagaki, the average Nintendo 64 game had about 500 sound effects, and made comparisons to Ocarina of Time , with 1,200, and The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask , with 2,000. Super Mario 64 is one of the first games to feature Charles Martinet as

8280-662: Was the codename of the Super FX chip itself. Miyamoto reformulated the idea for the Nintendo 64, not for its greater power, but because its controller has more buttons for gameplay. At the January   1993 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), where Star Fox made its debut, Nintendo's booth demonstrated a talking 3D polygon animation of Mario's head; it returned in the start screen, programmed by Giles Goddard . Production of Super Mario 64 began on September 7, 1994, at Nintendo's Entertainment Analysis & Development division, and concluded on May 20, 1996. According to Miyamoto,

8372-401: Was the first to get the control scheme right". In July   2021, a pristine, sealed copy of Super Mario 64 was auctioned for $ 1,560,000 , the largest amount ever paid for a video game. Heritage Auctions 's video games specialist said, "It seems impossible to overstate the importance of this title, not only to the history of Mario and Nintendo but to video games as a whole". A sequel

8464-507: Was ultimately reduced to fifteen. According to Nintendo of America chairman Howard Lincoln , Miyamoto's desire to add more was a major factor in the decision to delay the Nintendo 64 release from Christmas   1995 to Summer 1996. Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi later said: "Game creators can finish games quickly if they compromise. But users have sharp eyes. They soon know if the games are compromised. [Miyamoto] asked for two more months and I gave them to him unconditionally". The game

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