/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.4437082]

Blog post incoming. Just wanted to jerk off to this game a little.

I started playing Super Mario 64 again after not touching it for probably 15 years, and I just realized how much different and better it is than the other games. I think this is mostly because, it's one of the only Mario games that has a real atmosphere.

For example, when you're outside of the castle, there's no music playing, just the sound of the wind, birds chirping, the pattering of Mario's feet on the ground... it's all very ambient. Most Mario games are extremely over the top, but SM64 has a very subtle vibe.

It's not that the game doesn't have typical wacky, happy stuff like the other games, but there's a very pervasive feeling of solitude and mystery, and some of the levels are almost creepy and unsettling. Exploring the lonely castle with only ghostly Toads here and there, dark caves with forgotten water monsters, abandoned cities, etc. It's really unlike anything else in any of the other games. Even the music is totally different and befitting the subdued vibe.

It's really hard to put a finger on, but there's just something offbeat and strange about SM64 that makes it so great. I think this is a classic example of how primitive technology can actually result in a better game, because the building block-style environments, saturated colors and abstract/surreal enemy designs just wouldn't look the same with modern technology. Just look at the DS port -- it has none of the same charm despite sharing the same basic gameplay/design.

What are some of your best memories you have with SM64, or some particularly strange things you've found while playing?

[Anonymous No.4437272]

I personally love how the environments and textures felt so alive in the game. Instead of going for the classic style of prior games, they tried something new and made a world that felt so foreign, in a good way. A way of describing what I mean is with modern Mario games. Odyssey aesthetically got so damn close to what I mean in some of it's levels, first coming to mind being the Wooded Kingdom. It feels staight out of 64. Odyssey was rife with npcs and gimmicks though so it doesn't quite catch that feeling of lonliness 64 envokes, but I feel like it was at least visually in my eyes feeling like it's predecessor. Something like 3D World however just does not capture that look at all imo. Too sterile, too much like to OG 2D games. 64 really is lightning in a bottle in terms of that ambient isolation and unique enivonments, at least in a Mario game.

[Anonymous No.4437409]

>>4437082
I have these exact same feelings, anon.

I've been playing a lot of Odyssey and it just seems so... empty. I can't think of a better word for it. The game was fun as hell when I first got it, but now that I'm slogging through for max moons it just feels like a chore.

Thinking back on it, all the 3D Marios post 64 have given me the same feeling. They were all a blast to play but felt so bland after I started trying to 100% clear them. Galaxy felt like I was just retreading the same ground again and again (as does Odyssey) with nothing new, 3D World had amazing post-game content but once I beat all of that I felt like it was pointless to go back, Sunshine was just.... Sunshine, and I skipped Galaxy 2.

Maybe it's the nostalgia talking, but 64 actually felt like it was a real, living world. The levels were small, sure, but I felt like I was able to make accomplishments and be rewarded for them. And the incentive for 120 stars, while minor, was still achievable while being a fun challenge.

I just trip over moons in Odyssey and several of them feel so unrewarding.

It's almost like 64 captured that perfect sandbox/infinite possibilties feeling that I wanted in Odyssey, but find so much more in just revisiting 64? It's a hard feeling to describe, but 64 brings me so much joy every time I replay it. There's so many ways to beat the game, collect stars, and just goof around. It's endlessly charming and I would love to see some of the more prominent romhacks out there be a little more accessible for me to play, since I get a kick out of the few I've seen or played.

I really just want Mario 64 all over again but with more levels. 64 DS didn't deliver that, but the romhacks certainly do.

[Anonymous No.4437425]

>>4437082
>it's one of the only Mario games that has a real atmosphere. For example, when you're outside of the castle, there's no music playing, just the sound of the wind, birds chirping, the pattering of Mario's feet on the ground... it's all very ambient. Most Mario games are extremely over the top, but SM64 has a very subtle vibe.

Bingo, you nailed it. This is a big reason why Mario 64 is so great and why it will probably remain unsurpassed by any future Mario game (because Nintendo is obviously never going to make a Mario game again that's all bing bing wahoo flashing lights and sounds).

As you point out, I wonder how much of it was intentional, and how much of it was just caused by the N64's technology. I also can't deny that nostalgia plays a role. When I first experienced Mario 64 as a kid, everything in the world was objectively more strange and mysterious, because I was a little kid that didn't know anything. But none of the other games I remember from that time still give me those kinds of feels, while Mario 64 still does.

[Anonymous No.4437446]

>>4437082
https://youtu.be/pppxRVTcQjE?t=2m56s

I know vaporwave and the whole "a e s t h e t i c" meme isn't for everyone, but I think this remix of the file select screen music really encapsulates a lot of the feelings that people in this thread are talking about.

[Anonymous No.4437454]

>>4437446
Fuck off tumblrina retard.

[Anonymous No.4437498]

I don't really associate SM64 with lonelyness, because the worlds are so richly interactive and each world is so unique with almost no repeating gimmicks. Even seemingly sad or scary worlds like Jolly Rogers Bay and Boos Haunt are not really unsettling.

Tiny-Huge Island and Wet Dry world are definitely uncanny valley territory though just because they are so bizzare