Phack1

Yeah, this game ****. Repetitive and artificially dificult to extend the gameplay time because of its shallowness.

This review was written after I played the game in July 2026. There is no nostalgia factor involved, as I did not own an Nintendo 64 during my childhood. My first experience with the N64 was in 2025. I give this game a score of 5/10, and I'm being generous out of respect for how innovative it was at the time. The biggest problem is the camera. Its angle often breaks the gameplay and makes the game much harder than it should be, because the camera determines how the control stick must be moved to make Mario go in the direction you want. Since the camera is frequently awkward and sometimes cannot be positioned correctly, you often end up moving Mario while trying to guess the correct direction, leading to mistakes. Sometimes those mistakes are very costly because many areas are difficult and time-consuming to reach. Today, the game has been thoroughly explored and documented, so it's easier to know what to do. However, back when it was released, I feel sorry for the players who had to discover some of its secrets on their own. Many of them are not intuitive at all and provide little to no indication of what the player is supposed to **** game does have many great ideas. The Wing Cap and Metal Cap are fun additions, this is where the triple jump originated, and Mario could punch and kick, mechanics that unfortunately did not return in later games. Mario's health system is also interesting, consisting of six segments that can be restored by collecting coins. The graphics are undoubtedly innovative for their time. Being mostly rendered in 3D, they still hold up surprisingly well today and maintain a solid visual quality. The gameplay, however, leaves much to be desired. Mario slips far too easily in certain areas, and once he starts sliding, he continues for an annoyingly long time. The level design is not particularly creative, and the decision to place multiple objectives within the same stages makes them feel repetitive. The game's length is also artificially inflated through unfairly difficult challenges that, if failed, often require the player to repeat long, tedious, and frustrating routes just to attempt them again. Many enemies are also quite unintelligent. Their main threat is not that they attack or defeat you, but that they get in your way and cause you to fall into a pit or off a platform. Peach's Castle, where the player selects stages, is also frustrating to navigate. Finding the level you want can be annoying, and it's easy to get lost and waste time wandering around without accomplishing anything. Overall, the game is fun and entertaining, but it relies on cheap and frustrating design choices to extend its total playtime. This perspective comes from a player attempting to collect all 120 Stars. Perhaps someone playing only to defeat Bowser and finish the game as quickly as possible would come away with a different impression. It differs significantly from Super Mario World, where the difficulty increased gradually and organically and felt just right. The progression felt smooth, and you knew what you needed to do to overcome a challenge. In Mario 64, on the other hand, many things are done through trial and error or by simply taking a guess. One aspect I consider excellent is the game's music and sound effects.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

This game is really overrated. The gameplay is very simple, but the levels and puzzles lack creativity. The stages feel empty and lifeless, and there are sudden extreme difficulty spikes that come across as pure sadism and disrupt the game's flow, such as the sixth star in The Ark Revisited. Some levels are far too long and become tiring to play. Honestly, I finished The Ark Revisited and started Kingdom of Sorrow, but I ended up quitting after about 20 seconds—not because of the difficulty or frustration, since I was still at the very beginning of the level, but because I had simply lost interest in the game, and no longer felt any desire to keep playing. It's no surprise that this franchise has always sold poorly.

This is a must play platformer, some collectibles are a little pain but the game is pure gold.

The game is beautiful, the lore is nice, and the collectibles are in a balanced amount. However, the upgrades are confusing, some puzzles are really a chore — boring and irritating — and some bosses are just unfairly hard.I’m the kind of player who likes fun, not difficulty. I don’t like playing games on “easy”, so I usually play everything on “medium” difficulty. But I have to say that I was literally softlocked at The Maven. I had to lower the game difficulty to easy just to get through it.Ormstunga is a mini-boss and is also stupidly hard. To me, bosses are not fun or enjoyable; they’re simply unfair — artificially hard just to keep the player playing longer and to inflate the total hours of gameplay, so the game can gain a reputation for being “challenging”.When I finally kill a very hard boss, I don’t feel relief or accomplishment — just feel that went by a f***** hell that I never have to come back again. Also, Atreus parts of the game are really boring.

This game is brilliant,it brigs good vibes, it makes you happier. It has some really hard challenges for adults or kids willing to do. So it is very well balanced. Awesome looking, and lots of fun

Playing right now, dec/2024, 24 years after launch. This game is an absolut gem, fun and challenging, and the graphics hold on still nowadays.