#Super mario 64 blast away the wall series#

It's why Super Mario 64 feels so much more like a puzzle game with the way the criteria for completion could shift significantly between each Power Star, though one could argue that this was a natural evolution from Super Mario World given that game's huge number of hidden exits and secrets.Īnyway, I recently got a hankering to play through the whole thing again (I blame the Game Grumps), and it's surprising how much of its content sticks with you.

Therefore, almost all the weird, off-the-top-of-their-heads notions the designers conceived would find themselves included in the game, rather than the usual handful. With Super Mario 64, no-one really had any idea what the game should include other than extremely concise 3D controls (which I imagine were difficult enough to implement on their own) and maybe a big blocky goomba or twenty. Designers on big projects like these are often encouraged to be as wild with their notions as possible, because it's better to pare down a giant list of incompatible ideas (due to myriad concerns with a game's budget, the desired time frame of development or simply because it's not possible with the current tech) than to not have any innovations or distinctive features worth capitalizing on. Y'see, at many points during a game's conception and development, the designers will get together to have a pow-wow about what they want to add to the game. I have a small theory based on my (limited) experience in the game industry as to why this is: What tends to get overlooked amid the accolades for its trailblazing of numerous 3D platformer conventions is just how inventive it is when setting up goals and obstacles to overcome.

#Super mario 64 blast away the wall series#

It was Nintendo's first true bold step into 3D gaming, launched Mario into a new dimension without sacrificing an iota of the quality the core Mario series is known for and ensured that the fledgling N64 system started off in the best of circumstances. It's fair to say that Super Mario 64 is a monumental game for many reasons.