LogFAQs > #889167751

Here's an old post of mine that's pretty relevant: "When I was Young, Sunshine was my favorite Mario game."
https://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/198848-super-mario-64/75287898

Between the epic scale of the game, its advancements from SM64, graphical and control-wise, its overall excellent design, and the general hard-on I have for the GameCube, Sunshine has always had a legendary status to me.

Moreover, SM64 was always overshadowed by Rare's adventure platformers, to the point where I never even collected the 70 stars needed to face Bowser (my older brother did, so I had access to the whole game). But I've recently played both games as an adult.

And oh man was SM64 amazing. I'd actually put it in my top 10 games of all time, and that's with no nostalgia factoring in.

Sunshine, indeed, was a great adventure collect-a-thon. But it felt closer to Banjo-Kazooie than Super Mario. It was very story driven, with a robust, lively world and many different styles of objectives. (not that those are bad things!) But SM64... between its basic, straight forward objectives, which basically consisted of straight platforming, and the design theory and atmosphere of the levels and worlds, felt 100% Mario from begining to end, and you bet I didn't stop till 120 stars. I will never even have the notion to go for 100% on Sunshine.

Don't get me wrong, Sunshine was great. A solid 8/10 for its time, which is a score I'd give some I'd my all-time favorite games. But for it's time, SM64 was a total 10/10. Sunshine had a lot wrong with it. I won't get into it, this list the place. But the only real criticism I have for 64 is its camera, and its design is completely justifiable for two reasons:

A) the idea was not to have a free moving camera. The camera was supposed to emulate the static camera of 2D Mario games, which is why you could only rotate in 90 increments. So, once you resign to the idea that you can't really control the camera and play the whole game without touching the camera buttons, you get an experience closer to a static camera, and the camera stops fighting you and works with you, quite smoothly. (usually)

B) this should go without saying, but SM64 was pretty much the first fully realized 3D world with a dynamic camera system. This was the industry's first attempt, and while it was a little rough around the edges, it worked, and his been improved upon ever since.

So, yeah. I can safely say Super Mario 64 is, hands down, my favorite Mario game. And I'm glad I can confidently say that without nostalgic hang-ups.

Before I go, one final shout out for a feature that went entirely unappreciated: the Mario cam. To those unaware, at any time, you could press the R button to put the camera up close, right behind Mario. I don't think anyone who didn't get SM64 around release can appreciate it's application, but when you'd grown up with Mario's 2D outings, and now in this new, huge 3D adventure, you have the option to experience it from Mario's point of view? Holy cow! It was mesmerizing. If SM64 was released on this day and age, you can be sure it would've just been an FPS view button, like Bethesda games have.
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