Super Mario 64 Sucks... And Here's Why 

heya! I heard your criticisms, and I will say that I am going to absolutely work on delivery next time around-- this video was actually recorded in October, so I didn't have the best handle on tone, but with experience and all of your help, i can absolutely nail it next time. I understand that this is a... controversial topic to say the least, so thank you so much for hearing me out

Bowser is not the main villain of this game, it's the camera.

Uhh, you played the 3D All Stars version, and the emulator used there can't emulate properly the controlls of the N64 controller

Bro woke up and chose war

Alternate title: A look at sm64 without nostalgia bias

Formerly Chuck's

sneed

Just played the Mario 64 for the first time and really appreciate this video, because these are my feelings entirely. I had to quit at 61 stars to spare the life of my Switch. The game just didn't age as well as people claim, and the controls felt like they only worked against me. And I'm used to speedrunning other platformers like Spyro! At the very least, they should have updated the camera and controls. Given an option for "classic" and "modern" like some other re-releases do. (P.S., The delivery of your video was fine, Nintendo just has some of the most weirdly toxic fandoms alive who equate any game criticism, no matter how mild, to be same thing as insulting their childhood. It's weird. Just ignore them).

I find it funny that when people compare Mario 64 to modern games they get tons of hate. Yet when people make videos about how Sonic Adventure is terrible nowadays and the video gets no dislikes. 🤔

Filtered

as the first 3d platformer game it's pretty good, but then you play better games and go back to this and you feel underwhelmed, loved to see your point of view because everyone keeps telling this game is amazing, but it WAS amazing, at the time, but now it's not great.

I just hate the "sometimes I make a U turn, sometimes not" back turning. It's ridiculous how, a lot of the time, you can long jump and "trick flip" your way right to the star without feeling any threat, BUT when you have to stop to pick an item, you gotta be careful of every button press to not get the fucking U turn that makes Mario go down even from very wide platforms. In Shifting Sands land, the first red coin right behind the starting point is a great example of when the devs should have realized that it's not fun at all, just tedious. I've read on the interwebzz that they fixed the turning in some version? With just that fixed, I would consider the game a classic (still not even close to the NES Marios, but hey, few things in life are...) If the game was released today, they'd probably patch that right away due to backlash.

mario 64 fans when their 25 year old imperfect platformer is put in a negative light at least somewhat: (like to dislike ratio) But in all seriousness this game is beginner hell and can be unforgiving at times. But its got its fans including me and i actually agreed with some points you made like the water controls and some bad level design. Interesting to see someone tear it apart instead of praise it like its the messiah though, good video.

Thank you! This feels so validating! As someone who has played and loved every other mario game (except sunshine), I agree with everything in this video. Mario 64 even sucked in 1996. Even then, people were insisting that it was an "important," "ground-breaking" game. But it was never fun. Give Nintendo credit for the concept, but they pushed it out before it was ready. The camera + the controls = broken game.

Personally I liked the controls, they felt fluid and natural to me! I suppose its a hit or miss thing, depending on movements individuals make. I tend to move and side-flip a lot, so mario 64 controls happened to work well with me... But I struggled massively with mario sunshine controls.

0:50 to 0:55 I wish more people understood that. I have tried playing Mario 64 recently and I used to have little to no issue with the contrlols, but since I played pretty much every other 3d Mario game and I had not played the game in years. trying to go back to these controls is really difficult.

How do you get filtered by Mario 64?

IT'S ALL GRAVY UNTIL THE CARTOON AVATAR DISLIKES YOUR FAVORITE GAME

I honestly agree. People are just disliking because they can’t handle you criticizing their beloved nostalgia game. Mario 64 is flawed and I feel it’s overrated. I gave you a like

That was a great vid, and 64/DS is one of my fav Mario games. Mysterious Mountainside is actually my fav star in the whole game! Didn’t have trouble finding the slide as a kid bc of the ripple effect on the mountain. It was always weird and awesome to me that a mountainside contained a portal to an isolated slide dimension.

To the people saying "the controls don't suck, just look at speed runners" you should know that yes, the controls DO suck. It's just that speed runners adapted to their crapiness.

Everything in this game is enjoyable EXCEPT for controls, they really could change it for 3D All-stars

You played on the Switch, which is the worst version of the game, with a control stick that isn't accurate to how it feels to play on an original N64 controller. The Shindou version that they used is terrible to play, I absolutely hated how it played on the Switch and how they changed Mario's voice pitch, I could not stand this version either, so no wonder you have such a bad impression of the game. Mario is not slippery, he doesn't continue to slide when you stop pushing the stick forward, but the random u-turns are terrible, I'll give you that. The wall jumping complaining is just you not being used to the timing. The moment you see Mario hit the wall, push A, that's it. The wing cap is just like a plain without a motor, it makes you glide as you said. If you could just go anywhere with the wing cap, it would be boring to use and way too easy. Building up speed from diving and then rising can build fast momentum and it is extremely fun once you understand it. The random wall on Tall Tall Mountain is literally shaped into a square to make it stand out but not giving the obvious entirely away. The Bowser fights made you take advantage of the control stick, which was not common at the time, and when people came from 2D and D-Pad's, it wasn't easy the first time around to hit the bombs with Bowser and it was a good way to get people to engage with the new way to play. Galaxy also has identical Bowser fights, so I don't understand why that is such a big problem for you. The textures isn't enhanced, except for the text and HUD icons. The resolution has been raised due to the emulation and the game looks bad in high resolution, where the technical limitation of the television back in the 90's masked those in the original game. 3D all-stars just plays and emulates poorly. You asked for people to be civil in the comments, but you use vulgarly language to describe your issues with the game out frustration and anger, and it makes it harder to take your critique seriously. It all just sounds like you apply modern controls and standards to a game that is 20 years older than Odyssey and you are frustrated over the game doesn't play like that more than anything. But the camera, that is true, it's bad when you need adjusting. It sucks that this was your first playthrough, because it's just a bad way to experience it.

It's clear that the Lakitu on the camera is a rookie

Absolutely feeding and seeding rn

I agree. Did you try the DS version of this game? Feels different for me.

the amount of times I wanted to do a long jump and instead Mario randomly did a ground pound when he already was on the ground which lost literally all momentum made me wanna blow a gasket

*Open Video* "its probably some zoomer ranting at SM64" *hears voice* so easy to spot these lil guys

At the end of the day it’s your opinion, and you’re entitled to that. After all, it is okay for people to have wrong opinions.

Funnily enough I first played it on Wii U virtual console which was long after it came out but since I was really young at the time (9 years old) I have just as much nostalgia and love for it as an older fan and I ignore the flaws most people my age embrace

I had the exact same issues, and at the end Iplayed the PC port of it, in which you can customize a lot of things. This game needs to be remad or something because if we exclude the actual gameplay, everything else is pretty good! The concepts, the art, the music (god, especially the music).

i do plan on making review on games and this is what i was gonna say for mario 64 but honestly i grew to love it

The wing cap took inspiration from a single line used in Toy Story: “Falling with style”

I think it definitely would of helped if this was one of the first games I played as a kid, because then at least the nostalgia would've held me back from not liking this as much as I do, but man this game just doesn't hold up to me. I know for the time it was created it was revolutionary but it did not age well at ALL. I don't like the graphics, everything feels so clunky, and it makes it so unenjoyable. I'd love to see what this game would look like remastered

"It's my opinion so you can't criticize it"

Hollow Knight poster- Checked "These are my opinions"- Checked Trying to sound fun and don't be- Checked yep, its reddit time

zoomer

Did everyone notice? 0:49 Edit:I do like Mario 64 so don’t say I hate it

I feel like it's the game that will never go away from the internet.

Ahh, the game grumps wannabe zoomber.

I wanna leave a comment because I found this in the “people also watched” section while searching up “gaming in the Clinton years super Mario” The absolute irony is too much

First time playing the original, my problem is not the camera and controls because for me it's not hard performing the tricks the problem is the stars collecting them to proceed is tedious as heck

The pyramid is also a royal pain, sinking sand, a pain to get inside and a damn gate

Based and posting on 4chan.org/v/catalog for attention pilled. You've played the 100 IQ population of 4chan.org/v/catalog for fools, I applaud you for this.

The thing here, i played Mario Sunshine, i played Mario Galaxy 1 and 2, I played Mario Odyseey, I loved all of those. But Mario 64 is just so goddamn horrible, It looks like shit, the controls feel like shit, the levels seem bland AF in comparison to other games and its even shorter than the other games. The people that really like this game just have their nostalgia-glasses glued on. Amazing Video.

As someone who play's the rom hack's Im already passed all these basic arguement's these no longer effect me im to good at the game now that this stuff just don't happen to me no more so I can't relate bro.

What version are you playing?

I do agree in lots of areas. I will admit for the time it was unforseen but even during the N64's lifespan the Dreamcast and PS1 released, which are both way better examples of how 3d spaces should be handled. It's like if a chef created a brand new groundbreaking way of making pasta and at first the reviews are all amazing but when you step back you realize all the faults that the different ingredients have and the only reason why people still talk about is because of the aging 30 year old critics who eat pasta for a living and they still want to keep their childhood dish in the spotlight, or something along those lines.

I didn't think this video was going to get so many dislikes. To be honest Mario 64 isn't for everyone. It's not super beginner friendly and has shown its age,but when it does click it's a really fun title. Dont be upset about not liking the game. It's not for everyone.

Wrong

I just played through this game on n64 online and I just wanna say that you're right. People say games like crash 1 or sonic adventure haven't aged well but they'll say this far worse game that isn't fun in any way is perfect and as someone who only saw this through RU-vid , playing it for the first time was just disappointing.

mario 64 is janky in some aspects and I agree that the wing cap sucks (and I really feel your paint here 4:06) mabye try the pc port it has all kinds edits to choose from that make the game better movement wise and make the camera a real camera plus you can have HD models and textures if you want (or mabye emulate the game and use savestate)

This dude really is comparing 2 games 20 years apart.

I will admit the controls are a bit wonky but you address it as a whole issue of the game and it just makes it something to get a bit used to but it was 1996 so eh

I want to say that i agree with all these points so bad but i know that some mario 64 stans would try to pin my age and how old the game is against me so i would just keep it to myself

If your not a fan of the controls, try the ds remake

I have to agree with you, however. I start to believe it gets bad after the first bowser fight. The first few levels, except Jolly Roger Bay, are quite fun.

My first 3D Mario game. 3 things killed it for me. • The terrible graphics (Nintendo basically copy and pasted this onto Switch) • Controlling Mario just doesn’t feel good to me • The absolutely abysmal camera. Tried Super Mario Sunshine and was simply blown away by how smooth and seamless everything felt.

I definitely agree, I love platformers, 2D & 3D but I tried Mario 64 multiple times and I just couldn’t play most of it, not because of difficulty, but because it got kinda boring redoing the same level a lot of times. The controls were also not great and I agree with your critiques of them. people have a really strong bias towards this game and I guess I can’t blame them, it was revolutionary for it’s time, but people need to listen to reason honestly. The game has aged, it’s been 20+ years people. You can love a game and understand that it’s not perfect.

When you're in a big open area like Bob-omb Battlefield the controls can feel like magic, but most of the game wants you to do stupid tight platforming with them

Mario 64 fans be mad you all need to chill out I know seeing your favorite game getting bashed is Tuff but it gives you no right to be toxic as a fan of Kirby star allies I've been there ( sorry for bad spelling or errors)

Honestly I had an amazing time with the game playing it for the first time last year, the controls were a bit annoying in some areas but I adapted quickly, and after that it was immensely fun to run around the worlds. There's just so much charm pouring out of the game that I can't help but love it. My second favorite 3D Mario game behind Odyssey.

I feel all your complaints, besides a few cryptic stars, all stem from the poor controls. I don't understand how the level designs are inherently bad. I'd be curious to hear about criticisms you have of them besides them being unjustly difficult due to unresponsive controls. I do agree with you about the ground controls being poor and some stars being way too hidden such as the examples you gave. I personally think the level design is the redeeming factor in the game so I'm super curious if you could elaborate on the level design portion.

Even though Super Mario 64 is my favourite game of all time the god damn controls ruined the experience on the levels in the 2nd and 3rd floor. So then I played Super Mario 64 pc port in render96 with Odyssey Mario's moveset running at 60fps, and the controls are so much better then the original. I feel like Odyssey Mario's moveset makes some of the later stages like tick tock clock, and rainbow ride a little easier to navigate through. As a person that has mastered the slippery controls I like the challenge of having slippery controls with some precise platforming, and narrow platforms.

"Don't be an ass", he says immediately being an ass for 15 minutes.

i'm trying out this game rn, and i don't like it either so far, seems like all the praise it gets is pure nostalgia, and the fact that the first level is your second favorite, and i think it's mediocare at best, concerns me for the later levels

I have a question does crash bandicoot 1 have better 2.5d platforming then Mario 64 since Mario 64 is more full 3d then crash bandicoot 1?

What are your feelings on Sonic Adventure?

SM64 may not have aged all that well, but it brought us the best Got Milk commercial

A lot of these issues were fixed in the DS version idk why the hell they thought it was a great idea to downgrade when porting to the switch. I can see why this game is important but it doesn’t stop me from hating the hell out of it. The highs are high but the lows are very very low and there’s more lows that highs

Mario 64 deserves respect for doing it better than anyone before it (and there barely were any third person 3D games before it besides racing and fighting games), but various games iterated on its formula and made small but important adjustments here and there. Already in the same gen there are some better playing games like BK and Spyro 1-2 I think.

I can’t agree more with you! I played this game briefly as a kid and I didn’t like it-I was more of an ocarina of time kid. I bought 3d all stars for sunshine and galaxy primarily, but I decided to play Mario 64 first thinking maybe now that I’m an adult I can appreciate Mario 64 more. Nope... Mario is slippery, the camera is soooooo frickin annoying, and collecting stars after a while just gets boring. I’m gonna complete this game (with the 70 stars only) just to say I did for once in my life, but I can’t see myself revisiting it again anytime soon. The only thing I absolutely love about this game at this time is the music in the first bomb level. Probably one of the finest pieces of music I have ever heard... so catchy! But overall, how can people actually like this game!?

Locked.

This video should be titled: I suck at Super Mario 64.....And Here's Why

Mario 64 is a game you can enjoy. And you can hate. Personally I think the game is OK. It's not good it's not awful. It's ok. That's it. I do agree with you with a lot of what you say but I can still play it and have some fun.

One of the things about super mario 64 is that everyone says that, “It’s an incredible game because it was so revolutionary at the time” but the problem with that is if you are reviewing or talking about it as a good game hold it up to the games that come out today 1. The graphics: Yes I know that the graphics can’t be good because it’s on the N64, but if you’re holding it up to other games that have come out today like odyssey, you can’t just say, “it was incredible when it came out” but that defeats the purpose of comparing two games 2. The fucking camera 3. The movement is so stiff and slippery, so combined with the camera you can’t move or see anything 4. The water is so slow and stupid so it’s annoying to get to any place underwater 5. Imo the level design feels very boring and repetitive, and as someone who was an Xbox gamer until the switch so I didn’t have an N64 this is my first time playing this game I just don’t know where to go in some situations. There will probably be more reasons soon

I think a significant amount of issues with control in this game come from the rereleases and and not the game itself. Mario 64 definitely is not as tight and kind of bizarre compared to any platformer released today, but 3D all stars and most other rereleases have some issues. For one, the analog stick is configured very poorly on all of Nintendo's N64 emulators, making it incredibly sensitive. This is terrible as the 64's analog stick is quite percise and even is constructed like an old computer mouse. Also there's significant input lag. The Wii U release was the worst, and while the Switch version is a bit better, there's still a decent amount on top of the Switch's universal 6 frames of input lag. I've had a huge amount of fun playing with this game's movement and environments for years and it's unfortunate that these invisible issues have put many people off from the game. I'd say the best way to play is playing the N64 version on an old crt TV, or trying out the fan made PC port which I'd assume doesn't have these lag or control problems.

Ya I agree I also dont like the controlles and camera and I would rather play any other 3d mario game but if they would remake it I think I would enjoy alote more.

All these things were found out about and mentioned in the original reviews of Super Mario 64. Those reviews came with laundry lists of suggestions for Super Mario 64 2 - which we never got. All this hype is nostalgia. Nobody was talking about Mario 64 in 1998. Mentioning that game would get you eye rolls. It was simply a valid first attempt and a product of its time. Same goes for the N64s Zeldas. Nobody cared about those anymore before the rise of RU-vid hype channels. Most of my friends never finished both games because they were so bad at guiding the player on what to do. Very obtuse design.

I have more issues with the camera in odyssey then the one in 64, the one in odyssey can start slowly slipping away (it won’t anchor) and it moves in a way that messes with my eyes and makes me feel dizzy and because of that I can never play the game for longer then half an hour

When super mario 64 got released back in the day I didn't like it at all. I was just a kid back then but I realize now as an adult (revisiting super mario 64) that it's the controls and camera that sucks. Banjo Kazooie 64 is my jam

while i dont think its bad, the game is definitely overrated as hell. Most the people that claim its the best are just stuck on their nostalgia in all honesty, and thats okay, but i'm not gonna pretend the game is a masterpiece.

I basically played every Mario game except for SM64 growing up because my parents bought a PS1 instead of an N64. I finally tried SM64 when it came out of the Mario collection on the switch and dear god it was a total nightmare. Wonky controls, shoddy camera, and some pretty terrible level designs imo.

my thoughts on each of the games of the collection! (keep in mind that the switch version is my first experience with all of these games) 64 - 8/10 - Would be a 9 but I find that the camera and slippery controls killed it for me a little.. It's still fun but the camera and controls made things a lot more complicated than it should have been Sunshine - 9/10 - lots of fun! i really liked the graphics as well as the setting. controls were sometimes a bit wonky but overall a very nice experience. Galaxy - 10/10 - my favorite game out of this collection and in general. definitely controls the best out of the 3 and is just pure bliss for me to play!! i loved this game from the get-go

Haha, people dislike this video because someone has an opinion other than "Super Mario 64 is a great game". I'm not one of those people.

Zoomer absolutely btfo by a game 6 yr olds could figure out easily on 1996. Brutal embarrassment.

I own the 3D all stars collection and I couldn’t even finish this game. I instead 100% Galaxy. That game is beaut.

I personally didn’t go into this game expecting the greatest sandbox game ever. I expected a good game and nothing more which is what I got

I can see Nathaniel Bandy coming.

I pretty much agree with everything, I have problems with the game as well, and everyone seems to praise this game and it's controls as the magnum opis, but something to also mind is that it is the first 3D Mario game, it's not gonna be perfect

I got all stars when I was 13, did I just blame myself for the games terrible controls or were they actually better on an N64?

Super Mario 64 DS is still superior

I do agree with most of what you're saying but there's definitely a lot of delivery of what you're saying that I'd say's pretty bad. For example your anger and language through the video comes off as more whining that you were bad at the game so you don't like it than a critique of the game. Especially because multiple times in the video you say you're explaining why you're mad at the game rather than why the game is bad. There are also multiple points where you compare it to modern 3d platformers, which for a 24 year old game that started the genre is pretty unrealistic expectations wise. Expecting it to have the same polish and precision of Odessy is insane. Again I agree with most of what you say. The camera and controlls of the Mario games don't really get good until Galaxy I'd say, and of the course the level design is rough and can't compare to modern platformers (which isn't to say that all of it's problems are justified by it's age. Some of the design decision are just bad as you say). The delivery and script just really work against you in this video though unfortunantely. I understand that a lot of it probably made it's way in for humor, but ultimately it just doesn't really come across that way and works to lessen the argument. Normally I wouldn't comment something like this, but I do like your videos and I just think this one has a lot of flaws that bring down it's quality as a critique video. Which I assume this is. Looking forward to the next video.

Sounds less like you complaining about a bad game and more like you complaining that you're bad at the game.

I've played Super Mario 64. I've never completed it because of some of the controls and tedium of repeating each stage just to get more stars to progress. I've played *Bubsy 3D* and it's *FANTASTIC!* The levels are designed around the tank controls (which, speaking of the controls, they're not bad at all), there's ZERO repetition unless you miss a rocket or something, the camera is nice and even aims down while platforming so you can see where you are going to land, graphics are simple yet incredibly clean and surreal, the soundtrack is FANTASTIC, etc. And because of all these things, I LOVE Bubsy 3D. I've beaten Bubsy 3D 100% around 15 times to this day, and I still want to do a 16th playthrough.

I’ve only played to dire dire docks, and it’s kinda not really been that fun to me.

nostalgia really is blinding for some. the games controls are its downfall.

I absolutely adore this game but you bring up a great point. This game is very clunky, excusable since it's the first 3D mario game, but clunky nonetheless. With the slipperiness of Mario, I felt the same with the original Mario on NES. The whole game feels like an ice level, and I really dont like it. Definitely a hot take but you brought up good points and the animation, critique, and overall production quality is fantastic.

11:43 I didn’t know that

Exactly. Sometimes respect is all that's needed. But people are really out here trying to say Mario 64, Ocarina, and/or Goldeneye are "the best game ever made" or that Link to the Past or Zelda 1 are "objectively worse" than modern games 🙄 and holy sht is that a bees nest of a concept, let alone a claim. Little bit like deciding the best painting ever made... it's just an entirely absurd and irrelevant debate. Gonna be a little bit of a shill here and recommend MauLer if you hadn't yet heard of him. Whether or not you agree with his opinions, I've found his videos to be a great baseline for the future of video game discussions... and just the way we discuss things in general. ... We'll never get anywhere unless we get on the same page and lay down a few guidelines, right? 😉👍