While everyone enjoys videogames for different reasons, we all have one thing in common: we love to play them.
When thinking about this week’s Memory Card, the word “play” kept popping up in my mind. Playing videogames. Are we, as gamers, enjoying videogames because of the stuff that is happening on the screen, or because of the actual act of playing? Is picking up a controller and pushing buttons an enjoyable activity? If a videogame sequence had no specific goal, would you still be interested in playing it?
I know my answer to that last question is a resounding yes based solely on my experience with one game: Super Mario 64 for the Nintendo 64.
Although it may seem simple -- even insignificant to some -- hit the jump to relive one of the most important and meaningful moments in videogame history. A moment that proves how much fun playing a videogame can be.
The Set-Up
It goes without saying that Super Mario 64 is a revolutionary game as it inspired countless videogames that came after it. Even after all these years, the Nintendo 64 masterpiece remains one of the greatest 3D platformers ever made.
Like all the Mario games that came before it, Super Mario 64 is not known for its amazing story. In the game, Princess Peach invites Mario to her castle to enjoy a cake she baked for him. After arriving to claim the tasty dessert, Mario discovers that Bowser has kidnapped Peach and taken her to the top of the castle’s highest tower. Yeah, that’s basically it.
What the game lacks in story, however, it makes up for in amazing gameplay.
But I am getting ahead of myself. To understand how much this game means to me -- and to explain what makes this week’s moment so special -- it helps to get a little background on where my love affair with this game began.
I will never forget the first time I ever heard of Super Mario 64. I saw a blurry screenshot of the game in an issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly. I was 19. And, yes, that makes me very old.
Coming off the Super Nintendo (my favorite console of all time), I was excited about the Nintendo 64. Having only heard news of technical specs, seeing images of some of the first games for the system blew my mind. Taking graphics in a whole new direction, the N64 games were in (gasp!) 3D! It was the future!
While the screenshots impressed me, it wasn’t until I actually got my hands on the system when I realized videogames were officially changed forever.
It seems to be the norm now, but before Super Mario 64 launched with the Nintendo 64, some companies -- in particular, Toys R Us -- decided to put the game out on the floor and let people play it. Not only did they do this with Super Mario 64, but, strangely enough, the entire game was available, with no time limit or set amount of levels imposed on the player.
Even though I was a college student, I used to trek over to Toys R Us every single day to play the game. Every day. If I was lucky, I would find the console station empty, allowing me to play the game as long as I liked. In one play session alone, I think I managed to get all the way up to Big Boo's Haunt. If you know the game, you know that is pretty far to get, especially while uncomfortably standing under some cancer-inducing fluorescent lights.
So what kept me coming back so much? Why was I so obsessed with the Nintendo 64 and Super Mario 64? The answer lies in the next Memory Card moment: running outside the castle.
The Moment
Up to this point, I had never in my entire life played a videogame just to play it. By this, I mean that never in my life had I turned on a game with no other purpose then to aimlessly walk around with no set goal. Even with the first Super Mario Bros. -- as amazing as it is -- I played that game to beat the levels; I never just ran back and forth on the opening screen for no reason.
This all changed with Super Mario 64.
After hitting start, the game begins with Princess Peach reading her letter to Mario (wow, voice acting in a Mario game!). When the letter is complete, it fades away, leaving a bright blue sky in the background.
Suddenly, a Lakitu floats into frame on his familiar cloud. Instead of carrying a Spiny, though, Lakitu is carrying what looks like a video camera (?).
At this point, Lakitu flies off into the distance as the camera pulls back. After revealing Peach’s castle in its full three-dimensional glory, the view shifts to a close-up of the path leading up to the magnificent castle.
Accompanied by the classic sound effect, a warp pipe emerges from the path. From its interior, Mario jumps out and lands on the ground. Before he even finds out that Peach has been kidnapped, the game offers the castle’s garden as a veritable playground to get the player used to the brand-new analog stick controls.
The garden is moderately large and covered in green grass, stone walkways, small trees, a water-filled moat, and rolling hills.
Once Mario jumps out of the warp pipe (and after a quick word from Lakitu) the player has full control. Before entering the castle, Mario can go anywhere he wants: He can swim in the moat, climb a tree, practice some of his amazing flips.
The first time I experienced this, I was blown away. I remember seeing a small tree at the far end of the garden and thinking to myself, I can actually walk there. And I would. Over and over again.
Although it had nothing to do with progressing the story in any way, I would run around for, literally, hours in the garden -- just for the fun of it.
Running outside the castle for the first time was, in a word, inspiring.
Although I am sure you all have seen and experienced this for yourselves many times, in the oft chance one of you just woke up from a decade-long coma, you can watch Mario on the opening level here:
The Impact
This week’s Memory Card is not a normal videogame moment like most people expect from this feature. In fact, nothing significant really happens at all -- there is no dramatic story twist or surprising character development. But that doesn’t make Mario running outside the castle any less important.
For starters, the garden area around the castle is designed perfectly, containing the right amount of tress, hills, water, and space to help the player get acclimated to the controls.
A lot of us “retro” people complain about the overabundance of forced tutorials in videogames nowadays. This opening section doesn’t really force anything on you at all. True, there are a couple times Lakitu will inform the player how to control the camera and stuff, but that is more out of necessity and unfamiliarity than anything else.
Instead of forcing the player to participate in a tutorial level, Super Mario 64 just lets you run around in the garden and have fun. You can jump on a tree and learn to climb it yourself; you can dive in the moat and figure out how to swim. Think about it: this is the first time the world had even touched analog controls. Of all games to have a tutorial in it, this would be the one. But, no -- the designers trust the intuitive nature of the 3D controls to let the player just familiarize themselves with them at their own speed. It’s a gutsy move, but works perfectly.
How much less memorable would experiencing Mario in 3D for the very first time be if the opening level was bogged down in constant tutorial messages and dialogue? I think the answer is obvious.
Like the first time there was sound in film (“You ain’t heard nothing yet!”), the garden scene in front of the castle in Super Mario 64 single-handedly started a new era in videogames. Looking back, it is a pretty incredible and significant milestone.
Funny enough, I don’t think I ran around a videogame for hours with no other goal until the recent Super Mario Galaxy, the true spiritual successor to Super Mario 64. Not to talk about that game too much, but there is a level with these floating, flat(ish) metal plates. By performing a long jump, Mario can flip to the underside of them in this long arc, almost floating out into space until gravity takes over and the agile plumber is pulled back to solid ground.
Like Super Mario 64, the experience is hypnotizing; it’s remarkably simple, yet endlessly rewarding and hopelessly addictive.
I don’t know if I will ever experience another videogame in my lifetime that fills me with the same wonder that Super Mario 64 did for the first time. I hope there is, but the feeling produced from the combination of my age and the introduction of a fluid, 3D videogame for the first time (with one of my favorite characters) may never come along again. Because of this, I look back at this wonderful memory with a nostalgic smile on my face.
Running around the castle in Super Mario 64 is an iconic moment in my videogame life and one that I will never forget as long as I live. There will always be a special place in my heart for this moment -- one that reminds me that, above all else, playing videogames is all about having fun.
The Memory Card Save Files
.01 - .20 (Season 1)
.21: Crono's final act (Chrono Trigger)
.22: Ganon's tower (The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time)
.23: It was all a dream? (Super Mario Bros. 2)
.24: The assimilation of Kerrigan (StarCraft)
.25: A McCloud family reunion (Star Fox 64)
.26: The return of Rydia (Final Fantasy IV)
.27: The battle with the Hydra (God of War)
.28: Fight for Marian's love! (Double Dragon)
.29: The Hunter attacks (Half-Life 2: Episode 2)
.30: The Phantom Train (Final Fantasy VI)
.31: The end of The End (Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater)
.32: In Tentacle We Trust (Day of the Tentacle)
.33: Peach dances with TEC (Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door)
.34: Learning to wall jump (Super Metroid)
.35: A leap of faith (Ico)
.36: The Master Sword (The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past)
.37: Thinking outside the DS (Hotel Dusk: Room 215)
Contest:
4:29 PM on 06.05.2008
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I remember the first time I started up Mario64, I did exactly what me and my best friend had hyped ourselves giddy over in checking out all the promo info we could find:
I ran Mario around in a circle.
It seems silly now, but that was *the* coolest thing in the world at the moment in time. Mario was running around in 3D space, and this was the first time I could make him run in a circle, like a village idiot. he didn't control like a tank, or a plane, or an X-Wing, or a car in Rad Racer. It was MARIO, just as agile and happy looking as you'd expect him to be.
I must have just done that for about a minute, right there in there in the first clearing. It was just one of those amazing moments in my gaming history that I'll never forget, and something I still most of the time when I get free control of a 3D character. Especially Mario.
I can't wait until the next game surprises me like this game did and gives me that feeling.
I think I saw people doing the same thing in a video I got from Nintendo Power. way back when
Chad, I never knew anybody else felt the way I do about this game. It's great to see the write up and to read everyone's agreement about how fun this game is.
I let me 3-year-old daughter run around outside the castle. Talk about a tutorial! She loves it, (even though she sucks.)
I dunno, I doubt that. Not even you, Mr. Concelmo, could enjoy that for HOURS. 30-60 mins perhaps, but not HOURS.
I didn't like this memory card, but i still like you chaddy :)
It's a me, Mario!
I had my mom drive me to Blockbuster, where she would sit out in the car and write checks to pay the bills, and I would play Super Mario 64 on the kiosk there for literally hours. And the kicker?
It was just a 15 minute demo.
I too remember being so completely amazed at how the analog stick worked, and I too spent way too much time running around outside of Peach's castle.
My mom bought me an N64 for my birthday that year (it was the year that those were almost impossible to find), but it wasn't after multiple sessions of play at Blockbuster.
You've done it again Concelmo.
Got it over a week before its release in fact, right on my birthday. I remember coming downstairs getting ready for school, and I just saw the box laying in front of the TV with "Happy Birthday!" written on a paper taped to it. I had to do a triple take, I had no idea I would be getting one, but my parents knew how badly I wanted the thing. Totally out of left field...I was like "WHAT THE FUCK!?"..but I remember walking to the box and inspecting the hell out of it just to make sure I wasn't dreaming I had one. I about goddamn had a fucking heart attack...that was seriously the longest day of school ever though.
I remember telling my buddy he had to come over after football practice, which was thankfully shortened because of the varsity game that night (which I'll be damned if I was attending, I had more IMPORTANT shit to do). When we got back, it was already hooked up, and since my birthday was that Friday, I spent all weekend playing the living shit out of Mario with him as we took turns going through all the different worlds. We had no guide so it was basically exploration on our own, but we racked up a good amount of stars in the thing. But, before all of that, we did exactly what was discussed here. I bet we didn't walk into the castle until an hour or two after just fucking around in the garden...that was how amazed we were and discovering and getting used to Mario's movements. It was perfect; tutorials definitely kill pacing, and this is a nice little memory of how things could have been.
Seriously, I don't think any gaming memory ever tops that one. Whenever I decide to start a C-Blog, I think that'll be my first story.
Mario 64 is a masterpiece. Not perfect, but it is a masterpiece. Ocarina of Time is the only other 3D game I can think of that reaches Mario 64's level of influence, and even that ran on a newer version of the Mario 64 engine.
Great Memory Card, Chad!
It's sad, but true. So sad in fact, that I would actually create my own games outside the castle: I would time how long it would take to run from one tree to the next, compete with my friends to see who could jump the farthest in the moat from the drawbridge. I even tried to play hide-and-seek with Mario, which, looking back, makes no sense. Ha ha. :)
I'm glad you still like me, though. Sorry this one wasn't your cup of tea. :) :) :)
when did you start calling video games videogames, and did you take that from the page of collegehumor?
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1803646
It was amazing to me.
A stretch of the best time of my life was spent playing this game with my little brother and older cousin. We all took turns and just wandered around, and we'd see a star and go "Oh!, let's try to get it!". I can't even remember when the game came out, but we played when it was snowing like crazy outside.
Good memories.
I was absolutely blown away that if I moved the stick just a little bit he WALKED! OMG! This is awesome! The first time I triple jumped I landed in the water and I just sat there stunned. That was sooooo much fun! Did you see my ups?! I was flying through the air practically! And sweet jesus, just look at the water! Holy shit! He's swimming! Almost everything I did in that garden just floored me. Why is he humping a tree? Oh sweet! I can climb! DUDE!! A handstand! YES! Ohhhh man this is great!
I remember my brother walking past as I played and I looked at him with big eyes full of wonder and a slacked jaw with drool, "we NEED this!"
Chad, you nailed it. I'm sure I'm one of seven billion people on here who will bring up where they played their first big-store display version, but what the hey. It was at a Target by my grandmother's house, and I'd walk every day I was there to wait in line and try not to cum everywhere when the game started. I remember the kids in front of me who would laugh hysterically when Mario yelled "Mama Mia!". And the older gamers behind me, breathing heavily in wait. Probably my most unforgettable video game playing experience.
I've had this debate many times, but I do believe that Super Mario 64 is the most important video game of all time. Go ahead and give it up to Pong or even the first Mario, you probably have your point, but I believe it was SM64 that took the industry by the hand and showed it what it would need to do to continue. It's like Superman. Sure, there were comic book characters before him, but he's the one that set the standard for the industry. Or at least the standard that worked.
Birth is easy. Surviving is what's tricky. I never thought I'd be so grateful to an Italian plumber.
Please keep Memory Card around. It's the best thing going today.
Brought back many cherished Mario 64 memories...
My friend actually had his N64 imported! We were fortunate enough to play the Japanese version of Mario 64, for a few months, before the U.S. release.
As soon as the delivery truck came to the house, we freaked with anticipation. We knew what was waiting inside the package, yet we had no idea how much fun this system would be.
We couldn't get the damn thing set-up quick enough, it seemed. The feel of the anaolog-equiped N64 controller was inspiring, I couldn't put it down. The very moment we heard Mario's voice, we knew we were in for something extremely special.
For the first half-hour, or, so we'd take turns jumping off trees, back-flipping from the Castle's drawbridge into the moat and sliding down hills into the water.
It was truly amazing and a video game memory I will never, ever forget!
We played the game until, probably, six in the morning! I remember we fell asleep, with the game still running. I woke up to birds chirping, in real life and birds chirping in the game... And there was my friend, sound asleep. As was Mario! I couldn't believe my eyes! Mario was finally real... Like Pinocchio coming to life.
Awesome Memory Card, Chad! Thanks for re-awakening mine! This is one of the best parts of the this amazing site.
Dtoid! Yeah!