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147-630: 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 a large open world. In the game, Bowser , the primary antagonist of the Super Mario franchise, invades Princess Peach 's castle and hides

294-453: 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

441-442: 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

588-407: 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

735-608: A true 3D platformer is a French computer game called Alpha Waves , created by Christophe de Dinechin and published by Infogrames in 1990 for the Atari ST , Amiga , and IBM PC compatibles . Bug! , released in 1995 for the Saturn , has a more conservative approach. It allows players to move in all directions, but it does not allow movement along more than one axis at once; the player can move orthogonally but not diagonally. Its characters were pre-rendered sprites, much like

882-490: 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

1029-450: A 'life'). Examples: In some games, using certain items or abilities requires the expenditure of a resource such as ammunition, fuel or magic points. Some games use a single resource, such as magic points, while others use multiple resources, such as several types of ammunition. Some games also have power ups which increase the player's maximum ammunition or power capacity. Examples: Other power-ups consist of items whose main feature

1176-452: A 1980 arcade release by Universal , is sometimes credited as the first platformer. Another precursor to the genre from 1980 was Nichibutsu 's Crazy Climber , in which the player character scales vertically scrolling skyscrapers. The unreleased 1979 Intellivision game Hard Hat has a similar concept. Donkey Kong , an arcade video game created by Nintendo and released in July 1981,

1323-401: A 2D plane are called 2.5D , as they are a blend of 2D and 3D. The first platformers to simulate a 3D perspective and moving camera emerged in the early-mid-1980s. An early example of this was Konami 's Antarctic Adventure , where the player controls a penguin in a forward-scrolling third-person perspective while having to jump over pits and obstacles. Originally released in 1983 for

1470-401: A 3D Sonic game, Sonic Adventure , for its Dreamcast console. It used a hub structure like Super Mario 64 , but its levels were more linear, fast-paced, and action-oriented. Power-up In video games , a power-up is an object that adds temporary benefits or extra abilities to the player character as a game mechanic . This is in contrast to an item , which may or may not have

1617-455: 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

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1764-462: A balance between open-ended and guided exploration. Another platform-adventure released that year, Pony Canyon 's Super Pitfall , was critically panned for its vagueness and weak game design. That same year Jaleco released Esper Boukentai , a sequel to Psychic 5 that scrolled in all directions and allowed the player character to make huge multistory jumps to navigate the vertically oriented levels. Telenet Japan also released its own take on

1911-481: A bouncing car that jumps on various platforms such as buildings, clouds, and hills. Jump Bug offered a glimpse of what was to come, with uneven, suspended platforms, levels that scroll horizontally (and in one section, vertically), and differently themed sections, such as a city, the interior of a large pyramid, and underwater. Irem's 1982 arcade game Moon Patrol combines jumping over obstacles and shooting attackers. A month later, Taito released Jungle King ,

2058-525: A brief burst of episodic platformers where the first was freely distributed and parts 2 and 3 were available for purchase. The abundance of platformers for 16-bit consoles continued late into the generation, with successful games such as Vectorman (1995), Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (1995), and Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (1995), but the release of new hardware caused players' attention to move away from 2D genres. The Saturn , PlayStation , and Nintendo 64 nevertheless featured

2205-425: 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

2352-587: 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;

2499-502: 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

2646-535: 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

2793-474: 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,

2940-439: 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

3087-481: 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

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3234-503: 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

3381-450: A forward-scrolling effect similar to Sega's 1985 third-person rail shooter Space Harrier . 3-D WorldRunner was an early forward-scrolling pseudo-3D third-person platform-action game where players were free to move in any forward-scrolling direction and could leap over obstacles and chasms. It was notable for being one of the first stereoscopic 3-D games . Square released its sequel, JJ , later that year. The earliest example of

3528-496: 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

3675-609: A high quality of animation. The 1988 shareware game The Adventures of Captain Comic was one of the first attempts at a Nintendo-style platformer for IBM PC compatibles . It inspired Commander Keen , released by id Software in 1990, which became the first MS-DOS platformer with smooth scrolling graphics. Keen's success resulted in numerous console-styled platformers for MS-DOS compatible operating systems, including Duke Nukem , Duke Nukem II , Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure , and Dark Ages all by Apogee Software . These fueled

3822-471: 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

3969-529: 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

4116-507: A monster looks like a chest, but will attack the player when they attempt to open it. This is notably seen in the Seiken Densetsu and Dragon Quest series. Treasure chests provide a means for the player to obtain items without paying for them in stores. In some cases, these chests contain items that cannot be purchased at stores. Chests may be locked, requiring a key of some sort. For certain games, keys can only be used once, and

4263-442: 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

4410-756: 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

4557-631: A number of successful 2D platformers. The 2D Rayman was a big success on 32-bit consoles. Mega Man 8 and Mega Man X4 helped revitalize interest in Capcom 's Mega Man character . Castlevania: Symphony of the Night revitalized its series and established a new foundation for later Castlevania games. Oddworld and Heart of Darkness kept the subgenre born from Prince of Persia alive. The difficulties of adapting platformer gameplay to three dimensions led some developers to compromise by pairing

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4704-479: A permanent benefit that can be used at any time chosen by the player. Although often collected directly through touch, power-ups can sometimes only be gained by collecting several related items, such as the floating letters of the word 'EXTEND' in Bubble Bobble . Well known examples of power-ups that have entered popular culture include the power pellets from Pac-Man (regarded as the first power-up) and

4851-446: 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

4998-441: A quarter and a third of all console games. By 2006, the genre had experienced a decline in sales, representing a 2% market share as compared to 15% in 1998. In spite of this, platformers are still being commercially released every year, including some which have sold millions of copies. A platformer requires the player to maneuver their character across platforms to reach a goal while confronting enemies and avoiding obstacles along

5145-470: A shift in design. Later 3D platformers like Banjo-Kazooie , Spyro the Dragon , and Donkey Kong 64 borrowed its format, and the "collect-a-thon" genre began to form. In order to make this free-roaming model work, developers had to program dynamic, intelligent cameras. A free camera made it harder for players to judge the height and distance of platforms, making jumping puzzles more difficult. Some of

5292-406: A side-scrolling action game some platform elements: jumping between vines, jumping or running beneath bouncing boulders. It was quickly re-released as Jungle Hunt because of similarities to Tarzan . The 1982 Apple II game Track Attack includes a scrolling platform level where the character runs and leaps along the top of a moving train. The character is little more than a stick figure , but

5439-469: 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

5586-414: 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

5733-725: A teenager with a rebellious personality to appeal to gamers who saw the previous generation of consoles as being for kids. The character's speed showed off the hardware capabilities of the Genesis, which had a CPU clock speed approximately double that of the Super NES. Sonic 's perceived rebellious attitude became a model for game mascots. Other companies attempted to duplicate Sega's success with their own brightly colored anthropomorphisms with attitude. These often were characterized by impatience, sarcasm, and frequent quips. A second generation of platformers for computers appeared alongside

5880-435: A video game, in the form of brief comical interludes about Pac-Man and Blinky chasing each other around. The power pellet entered popular culture with a joke on video game controversies regarding the influence of video games on children. In 1984, Sabre Wulf introduced power-ups in the form of flowers which, when blossoming, provided effects such as speed up and invincibility. In 1985, Super Mario Bros. introduced

6027-431: Is "this will increase your X", and this construction is regularly used in areas such as advertising. Pac-Man from 1980 is credited as the first video game to feature a power-up mechanic. Every maze in the game contains four Power Pellets which temporarily give Pac-Man the ability to eat ghosts, turning the tables on his pursuers. The effect of the power-up was illustrated by one of the first cut scenes to appear in

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6174-521: Is also temporarily granted after the player gets hit or loses a life, so that the character will not be hurt/killed twice in quick succession. The effect is commonly indicated by making the player character flash or blink or by musical cues. Examples: Some power-ups consist of items which help the player avoid or escape enemies or enemy weapons. This category includes "speed boosts" and other power-ups which affect time, which can be temporary, permanent, or cumulative, and "invisibility" power-ups which help

6321-488: Is central to the genre, though there are exceptions such as Nintendo 's Popeye and Data East 's BurgerTime , both from 1982. In some games, such as Donkey Kong , the trajectory of a jump is fixed, while in others it can be altered mid-air. Falling may cause damage or death. Many platformers contain environmental obstacles which kill the player's character upon contact, such as lava pits or bottomless chasms. The player may be able to collect items and power-ups and give

6468-474: Is in a vector game called Major Havoc , which comprises a number of mini-games, including a simple platformer. One of the first raster -based platformers to scroll fluidly in all directions in this manner is 1985's Legend of Kage . In 1985, Enix released the action-adventure platformer Brain Breaker . The following year saw the release of Nintendo's Metroid , which was critically acclaimed for

6615-403: Is nearly always granted as a temporary bonus; otherwise it would negate the challenge of the game. Invincibility (or "invulnerability") comes in two main forms: either the player character merely becomes intangible to harmful things, or can also damage enemies by contact. In either case the character is often still vulnerable to some threats, such as bottomless pits. In many games, invulnerability

6762-619: Is that they are found in large numbers, to encourage the player to reach certain spots in the game world. They have various cumulative effects, often granting the hero an extra life. Examples: Trick power-ups try to trick the player into grabbing them, only to result usually into damage, removed abilities, or player death. Examples: There are many different methods of obtaining power-ups: In many video games, especially role-playing video games , treasure chests contain various items, currency , and sometimes monsters. For certain role playing games, some chests are actually mimics , in which

6909-452: Is the best-selling Nintendo 64 game , with nearly twelve   million copies sold by 2015. Retrospectively, Super Mario 64 has been considered one of 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

7056-465: Is the endless runner , where the main character is always moving forward and the player must dodge or jump to avoid falling or hitting obstacles. Various names were used in the years following the release of the first established game in the genre, Donkey Kong (1981). Shigeru Miyamoto originally called it a "running/jumping/climbing game" while developing it. Miyamoto commonly used the term "athletic game" to refer to Donkey Kong and later games in

7203-585: 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

7350-626: The Atari 2600 , with 256 horizontally connected screens, became one of the best-selling games on the system and was a breakthrough for the genre. Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle was released on the ColecoVision that same year, adding uneven terrain and scrolling pans between static screens. Manic Miner (1983) and its sequel Jet Set Willy (1984) continued this style of multi-screen levels on home computers . Wanted: Monty Mole won

7497-477: 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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7644-707: 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

7791-683: The MSX computer, it was subsequently ported to various platforms the following year, including an arcade video game version, NES , and ColecoVision . 1986 saw the release of the sequel to forward-scrolling platformer Antarctic Adventure called Penguin Adventure , which was designed by Hideo Kojima . It included more action game elements, a greater variety of levels, RPG elements such as upgrading equipment, and multiple endings . In early 1987, Square released 3-D WorldRunner , designed by Hironobu Sakaguchi and Nasir Gebelli . Using

7938-479: 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

8085-530: The Master System with Alex Kidd in Miracle World . It has horizontal and vertical scrolling levels, the ability to punch enemies and obstacles, and shops for the player to buy power-ups and vehicles. Another Sega series that began that same year is Wonder Boy . The original Wonder Boy in 1986 was inspired more by Pac-Land than Super Mario Bros. , with skateboarding segments that gave

8232-694: The Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985, became the archetype for the genre. It was bundled with Nintendo systems in North America, Japan, and Europe, and sold over 40 million copies, according to the 1999 Guinness Book of World Records . Its success as a pack-in led many companies to see platformers as vital to their success, and contributed greatly to popularizing the genre during the third and fourth generations of video game consoles. Sega attempted to emulate this success with their Alex Kidd series, which started in 1986 on

8379-584: The Super Mushroom , which has entered popular culture, being described as "the quintessential power-up". The original game idea was to have an always big Mario as a technical advance, but later the power-up was introduced to make him "super" as a bonus effect. The development team thought it would be interesting to have Mario grow and shrink by eating a magic mushroom, just like in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland . Other power-ups introduced in this game were

8526-545: 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

8673-438: 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 a health point system , represented by

8820-537: The virtual camera , it had to be constrained to stop it from clipping through the environment. In 1994, a small developer called Exact released a game for the X68000 computer called Geograph Seal , which was a 3D first-person shooter game with platforming. Players piloted a frog-like mech that could jump and then double-jump or triple-jump high into the air as the camera panned down to help players line up their landings. In addition to shooting, jumping on enemies

8967-579: 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 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

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9114-599: The 1980 arcade video game Space Panic , which has ladders but not jumping. Donkey Kong , released in 1981, established a template for what were initially called "climbing games". Donkey Kong inspired many clones and games with similar elements, such as Miner 2049er (1982) and Kangaroo (1982), while the Sega arcade game Congo Bongo (1983) adds a third dimension via isometric graphics . Another popular game of that period, Pitfall! (1982), allows moving left and right through series of non-scrolling screens, expanding

9261-407: 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

9408-468: The Enchanted Castle , which was only modestly successful. That same year, Capcom released Strider in arcades, which scrolled in multiple directions and allowed the player to summon artificial intelligence partners, such as a droid, tiger, and hawk, to help fight enemies. Another Sega release in 1989 was Shadow Dancer , which is a game that also included an AI partner: a dog who followed

9555-480: The Hedgehog into 3D. Their project, titled Sonic Xtreme , was to have featured a radically different approach for the series, with an exaggerated fisheye camera and multidirectional gameplay reminiscent of Bug! . Due in part to conflicts with Sega Enterprises in Japan and a rushed schedule, the game never made it to market. In the 1990s, platforming games started to shift from pseudo-3D to "true 3D," which gave

9702-486: 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

9849-464: 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

9996-483: 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

10143-589: The Super Mushroom from Super Mario Bros. , which ranked first in UGO Networks ' Top 11 Video Game Powerups . Items that confer power-ups are usually pre-placed in the game world, spawned randomly, dropped by beaten enemies or picked up from opened or smashed containers. They can be differentiated from items in other games, such as role-playing video games , by the fact that they take effect immediately, feature designs that do not necessarily fit into

10290-479: The Super Stars and Fire Flowers , which gave Mario invincibility and the ability to shoot fireballs at enemies, respectively. Konami 's 1985 game Gradius had the first use of a selection bar where the player could select which power-up effect to trigger, instead of having a fixed instant effect. In 1986 and the years after, the concept of permanent power-ups appeared in the action role-playing genre in

10437-469: The United Kingdom press. Examples include referring to the " Super Mario mould" (such as Kato-chan & Ken-chan ) as platform games, and calling Strider a "platform and ladders" game. The genre originated in the early 1980s. Levels in early platform games were confined to a single screen, viewed in profile, and based on climbing between platforms rather than jumping. Space Panic ,

10584-534: 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

10731-404: The Year". Another term used in the late 1980s to 1990s was "character action games", in reference to games such as Super Mario Bros. , Sonic the Hedgehog , and Bubsy . It was also applied more generally to side-scrolling video games , including run and gun video games such as Gunstar Heroes . Platform game became a common term for the genre by 1989, popularized by its usage in

10878-529: The acrobatics evoke the movement that games such as Prince of Persia would feature. B.C.'s Quest For Tires (1983) put a recognizable character from American comic strips into side-scrolling, jumping gameplay similar to Moon Patrol . The same year, Snokie for the Commodore 64 and Atari 8-bit computers added uneven terrain to a scrolling platformer. Based on the Saturday morning cartoon rather than

11025-474: The bar, so that more effort is required to obtain them. The selection bar was first used in Konami 's 1985 game, Gradius . "Perks" are a variation of the power-up mechanic, but permanent rather than temporary. The concept of permanent power-ups dates back to the early NES action RPGs , Deadly Towers (1986) and Rygar (1987), which blurred the line between the power-ups used in action-adventures and

11172-415: The basis for the non-linear mission structure found in most open-world, multi-mission, sidequest -heavy games. Another Capcom platformer that year was Bionic Commando , which popularized a grappling hook mechanic that has since appeared in dozens of games, including Earthworm Jim and Tomb Raider . Scrolling platformers went portable in the late 1980s with games such as Super Mario Land , and

11319-661: 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

11466-432: 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

11613-597: 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

11760-448: 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

11907-526: 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 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

12054-518: The console as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in North America, along with Super Mario World , while Sega released Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Genesis . Sonic showcased a new style of design made possible by a new generation of hardware: large stages that scrolled in all directions, curved hills, loops, and a physics system allowing players to rush through its levels with well-placed jumps and rolls. Sega characterized Sonic as

12201-421: The criteria of a platformer, and was billed as an action adventure . It used true 3D characters and set pieces, but its environments were rendered using a rigid engine similar to the one used by Wolfenstein 3D , in that it could only render square, flat corridors, rather than suspended platforms that could be jumped between. Sega had tasked their American studio, Sega Technical Institute , with bringing Sonic

12348-482: 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

12495-642: 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

12642-450: 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

12789-419: The earlier Clockwork Knight . The game plays very similarly to 2D platformers, but lets players walk up walls and on ceilings. In 1995, Delphine Software released a 3D sequel to their 2D platformer Flashback . Entitled Fade to Black , it was the first attempt to bring a popular 2D platformer series into 3D. While it retained the puzzle-oriented level design style and step-based control, it did not meet

12936-401: 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,

13083-521: The first award for Best Platform game in 1984 from Crash magazine. Later that same year, Epyx released Impossible Mission , and Parker Brothers released Montezuma's Revenge , which further expanded on the exploration aspect. The first platformer to use scrolling graphics came years before the genre became popular. Jump Bug is a platform-shooter developed by Alpha Denshi under contract for Hoei/Coreland and released to arcades in 1981, only five months after Donkey Kong . Players control

13230-687: 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

13377-421: 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

13524-485: The foreground and background, and the camera panning and curving around corners. Meanwhile, Pandemonium and Klonoa brought the 2.5D style to the PlayStation . In a break from the past, the Nintendo 64 had the fewest side scrolling platformers with only four; Yoshi's Story , Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards , Goemon's Great Adventure , and Mischief Makers —and most met with a tepid response from critics at

13671-498: The form of perks . Power-ups can be classified according to the type of benefit they give the player. Power-ups can give players a new weapon, or transform the player character into a more aggressive form that increases its attack power or makes some enemies vulnerable. This also includes "nukes", which are weapons that destroy every enemy on the screen at once; these are prevalent in many different genres including vehicular combat , run and guns , and platform games . The effect of

13818-422: 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

13965-470: The game a greater sense of speed than other platformers at the time, while its sequel, Wonder Boy in Monster Land added action-adventure and role-playing elements. Wonder Boy in turn inspired games such as Adventure Island , Dynastic Hero , Popful Mail , and Shantae . One of the first platformers to scroll in all four directions freely and follow the on-screen character's movement

14112-647: The game world (often used letters or symbols emblazoned on a design), and are found in specific genres of games. Power-ups are mostly found in action-oriented games such as maze games , run and guns , shoot 'em ups , first-person shooters , and platform games . The term "power-up" is an example of wasei-eigo (Japanese pseudo-Anglicisms); the sense was coined in Japanese as a compound of "power" ( パワー , pawā , noun) and "up" ( アップする , appusuru , verb) , literally "to up someone's or something's power or abilities". The general meaning of X-up in Japanese

14259-509: 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

14406-498: The gameplay from its precursor but traded the frog-like mech for a cartoony rabbit mech called Robbit. The title was successful enough to get two sequels and is remembered for being the first 3D platformer on a console. Rob Fahey of Eurogamer said Jumping Flash was perhaps "one of the most important ancestors of every 3D platformer in the following decade." It holds the record of "First platform videogame in true 3D" according to Guinness World Records . Another early 3D platformer

14553-457: The genre continued to maintain its popularity, with many games released for the handheld Game Boy and Game Gear systems. By the time the Genesis and TurboGrafx-16 launched, platformers were the most popular genre in console gaming. There was a particular emphasis on having a flagship platform title exclusive to a system, featuring a mascot character. In 1989, Sega released Alex Kidd in

14700-413: The genre, such as Super Mario Bros. (1985). Donkey Kong spawned other games with a mix of running, jumping, and vertical traversal, a novel genre that did not match the style of games that came before it, leaving journalists and writers to offer their own terms. Computer and Video Games magazine, among others, referred to the genre as "Donkey Kong-type" or "Kong-style" games. "Climbing games"

14847-441: 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 the time made it look "infinitely better than

14994-406: 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

15141-428: The key is destroyed during its use. For other games, having a particular type of key means that the player can open any of the chests with a matching lock. For most games, once a chest has been opened, the contents remain empty, although they may be repopulated with possibly different items during different stages of the game. This is different from perishable containers, such as crates and jars, which tend to reappear if

15288-527: 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

15435-433: 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

15582-454: The levels were open and had objectives. Completing objectives earned the player stars, and stars were used to unlock more levels. This approach allowed for more efficient use of large 3D areas and rewarded the player for exploration, but it meant less jumping and more action-adventure . Even so, a handful of boss levels offered more traditional platforming. Until then there was no settled way to make 3D platformers, but Super Mario 64 inspired

15729-451: The main character new abilities for overcoming adversities. Most games of this genre consist of multiple levels of increasing difficulty that may be interleaved by boss encounters, where the character has to defeat a particularly dangerous enemy to progress. Simple logical puzzles to resolve and skill trials to overcome are other common elements in the genre. A modern variant of the platform game, especially significant on mobile platforms,

15876-489: The maze game, Namco's 1984 Pac-Land is a bidirectional, horizontally-scrolling, arcade video game with walking, running, jumping, springboards, power-ups , and a series of unique levels. Pac-Man creator Toru Iwatani described the game as "the pioneer of action games with horizontally running background." According to Iwatani, Shigeru Miyamoto described Pac-Land as an influence on the development of Super Mario Bros. . Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. , released for

16023-405: The more linear 3D platformers like Tork: Prehistoric Punk and Wario World used scripted cameras that limited player control. Games with more open environments like Super Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie used intelligent cameras that followed the player's movements. Still, when the view was obstructed or not facing what the player needed to see, these intelligent cameras needed to be adjusted by

16170-471: 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

16317-534: The new wave of consoles. In the latter half of the 1980s and early 1990s, the Amiga was a strong gaming platform with its custom video hardware and sound hardware . The Atari ST was solidly supported as well. Games like Shadow of the Beast and Turrican showed that computer platformers could rival their console contemporaries. Prince of Persia , originally a late release for the 8-bit Apple II in 1989, featured

16464-423: 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

16611-408: The platform-action game, Valis , which contained anime -style cut scenes . In 1987, Capcom 's Mega Man introduced non-linear level progression where the player is able to choose the order in which they complete levels. This was a stark contrast to both linear games like Super Mario Bros. and open-world games like Metroid . GamesRadar credits the "level select" feature of Mega Man as

16758-416: The play area. Nintendo 's flagship Super Mario Bros. (1985) was a defining game for the nascent genre, with horizontally scrolling levels and the player controlling a named character—Mario, which became a mascot of the company. The term platform game gained traction in the late 1980s, as did the alternate form platformer . During their peak of popularity, platformers were estimated to comprise between

16905-561: The player around and aid in battle. In 1990, Hudson Soft released Bonk's Adventure , with a protagonist positioned as NEC 's mascot. The following year, Takeru's Cocoron , a late platformer for the Famicom allowed players to build a character from a toy box filled with spare parts. In 1990, the Super Famicom was released in Japan, along with the eagerly anticipated Super Mario World . The following year, Nintendo released

17052-533: The player avoid enemies. Examples: Some power-ups help the player enter new or previously inaccessible areas, or " warp " to another level. Access abilities, depending on the game, can be required to progress normally or be entirely optional. Examples: Health-restorative power-ups typically consist of items which restore lost health (most typically in medical kits, food, or as energy), or items which increase health capacity and 1-ups (which give an extra chance to continue playing after losing, commonly called

17199-482: The player exits the area and then returns. Instead of having players collect a power-up that is instantly activated, the players may be allowed to select which power-ups they want to use. This is commonly implemented through a 'selection bar' which contains a number of power-up effects. To access the bar, the player must collect power-up items; the more they collect, the further along the bar they can access. The more powerful power-ups are traditionally placed further along

17346-405: The player more control over the character and the camera. To render a 3D environment from any angle the user chose, the graphics hardware had to be sufficiently powerful, and the art and rendering model of the game had to be viewable from every angle. The improvement in graphics technology allowed publishers to make such games but introduced several new issues. For example, if the player could control

17493-993: The player. In the 1990s, RPGs , first-person shooters , and more complex action-adventure games captured significant market share. Even so, the platformer thrived. Tomb Raider became one of the bestselling series on the PlayStation , along with Insomniac Games ' Spyro and Naughty Dog 's Crash Bandicoot , one of the few 3D games to stick with linear levels. Moreover, many of the Nintendo 64 's bestsellers were first- and second-party platformers like Super Mario 64 , Banjo-Kazooie , and Donkey Kong 64 . On Windows and Mac , Pangea Software 's Bugdom series and BioWare 's MDK2 proved successful. Several developers who found success with 3D platformers began experimenting with titles that, despite their cartoon art style, were aimed at adults. Examples include Rare 's Conker's Bad Fur Day , Crystal Dynamics 's Gex: Deep Cover Gecko and Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver , and Shiny Entertainment 's Messiah . In 1998, Sega produced

17640-420: The power-up can be time-limited, have a limited number of uses, last until the player is hit, last until the player is killed, or last until game over . Examples: Defensive power-ups typically consist of items like shields (usually a " force field ") surrounding the character that deflects projectiles or absorbs a certain amount of damage, or invincibility/invulnerability. In the case of invincibility, this

17787-493: 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

17934-469: 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

18081-406: 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

18228-457: 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 ,

18375-489: The time. Despite this, Yoshi's Story sold over a million copies in the US, and Mischief Makers rode high on the charts in the months following its release. The term 3D platformer usually refers to games with gameplay in three dimensions and polygonal 3D graphics. Games that have 3D gameplay but 2D graphics are usually included under the umbrella of isometric platformers , while those that have 3D graphics but gameplay on

18522-540: The top down perspective, Frogger (1981) as climbing games. In a December 1982 Creative Computing review of the Apple II game Beer Run , the reviewer used a different term: "I'm going to call this a ladder game, as in the 'ladder genre,' which includes Apple Panic and Donkey Kong ." That label was also used by Video Games Player magazine in 1983 when it named the Coleco port of Donkey Kong "Ladder Game of

18669-406: 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

18816-437: The video game industry internationally. The following year, Donkey Kong received a sequel, Donkey Kong Jr. and later Mario Bros. , a platformer with two-player cooperative play . It laid the groundwork for other two-player cooperative games such as Fairyland Story and Bubble Bobble . Beginning in 1982, transitional games emerged with non-scrolling levels spanning multiple screens. David Crane's Pitfall! for

18963-466: 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 : Platformer The genre started with

19110-455: The visual flash of 3D with traditional 2D side scrolling gameplay. These games are often referred to as 2.5D. The first such game was Saturn launch title , Clockwork Knight (1994). The game featured levels and boss characters rendered in 3D, but retained 2D gameplay and used pre-rendered 2D sprites for regular characters, similar to Donkey Kong Country . Its sequel improved upon its design, featuring some 3D effects such as hopping between

19257-518: 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

19404-428: The way. These games are either presented from the side view, using two-dimensional movement, or in 3D with the camera placed either behind the main character or in isometric perspective . Typical platforming gameplay tends to be very dynamic and challenges a player's reflexes, timing, and dexterity with controls. The most common movement options in the genre are walking, running, jumping, attacking, and climbing. Jumping

19551-413: Was Floating Runner , developed by a Japanese company called Xing and released for PlayStation in early 1996, before the release of Super Mario 64 . Floating Runner uses D-pad controls and a behind-the-character camera perspective. In 1996, Nintendo released Super Mario 64 , which is a game that set the standard for 3D platformers. It let the player explore 3D environments with greater freedom than

19698-505: Was a primary way to attack. This was the first true 3D platform-action game with free-roaming environments, but it was never ported to another platform or released outside Japan, so it remains relatively unknown in the West. The following year, Exact released their follow-up to Geograph Seal . An early title for Sony's new PlayStation console, Jumping Flash! , released in April 1995, kept

19845-493: 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

19992-595: 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

20139-473: Was found in any previous game in the genre. With this in mind, Nintendo put an analog control stick on its Nintendo 64 controller, a feature that had not been seen since the Vectrex but which has since become standard. The analog stick provided the fine precision needed with a free perspective. In most 2D platformers, the player finished a level by following a path to a certain point, but in Super Mario 64 ,

20286-564: 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

20433-677: 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

20580-569: 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

20727-555: 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 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

20874-426: 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

21021-712: 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,

21168-418: Was the first game to allow players to jump over obstacles and gaps. It is widely considered to be the first platformer. It introduced Mario under the name Jumpman. Donkey Kong was ported to many consoles and computers at the time, notably as the system-selling pack-in game for ColecoVision , and also a handheld version from Coleco in 1982. The game helped cement Nintendo's position as an important name in

21315-413: 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 was planned for

21462-504: 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

21609-540: Was used in Steve Bloom's 1982 book Video Invaders and 1983 magazines Electronic Games (US)—which ran a cover feature called "The Player's Guide to Climbing Games"—and TV Gamer (UK). Bloom defined "climbing games" as titles where the player "must climb from the bottom of the screen to the top while avoiding and/or destroying the obstacles and foes you invariably meet along the way." Under this definition, he listed Space Panic (1980), Donkey Kong , and despite

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