• Publisher: Nintendo
  • Release Date: Sep 26, 1996
Super Mario 64 Image
Metascore

Universal acclaim - based on 13 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 214 Ratings

  • Summary: Mario is super in a whole new way! Combining the finest 3-D graphics ever developed for a video game and an explosive sound track, Super Mario 64 becomes a new standard for video games. It's packed with bruising battles, daunting obstacle courses and underwater adventures. Retrieve the Power Stars from their hidden locations and confront your arch nemesis - Bowser, King of the Koopas! Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 13
  3. Negative: 0 out of 13
  1. As the first true 3D platform game, the game does everything right. Super Mario 64 is a masterpiece in the truest sense of the word.
  2. It has quickly grown to become the standard by which almost all other games are measured.
  3. This is definitely a game no game collection should be without...Seriously!
  4. While we've seen some more creative and impressive world design, no game yet has had this kind of crystal clear 3D graphics, remarkable texture mapping, absence of pixillation, and a frame refresh rate that makes your PC look like the toy.

See all 13 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 89 out of 96
  2. Negative: 5 out of 96
  1. RolandJ.
    10
    If you want to play the very best 3D platform game that has been made, play Mario 64. This is the flagship title for the console at the peak of console gaming. It is not just a superb game; it's a piece of history. If you want to know about videogames, you must play this game. Console gaming grew up around platformers and this is the only thing resembling a blueprint for platforming in the 3D era. You don't know where videogames have got to unless you play this. Expand
  2. Was my first game on N64 and it is indeed a great 3D Jump ´n Run. Mario was at his peak when this game was released with perfect controls and a great world to explore. Expand
  3. JoeS.
    5
    An okay game, but ultimately boring if you're not a die hard Mario fan. The enemies are as goofy as always, the levels are small to moderate in size with little to look at except green and brown walls, and ultimately you're just doing the same thing over and over again as you try to grab stars. I am totally lost as to why people call this the best game of all time. I stopped playing after half an hour and have never played it since. Expand
  4. I'm sure we've all heard about Super Mario 64, one of the world's first 3D Platformers. The story is the usual unoriginal Mario storyline. Bowser has kidnapped Peach so go rescue her. The gameplay involves collecting items called Power Stars across 15 levels by completing different tasks. However, it is brought down by bad controls and a terrible camera which make the game more difficult than it should be. The graphics are smooth and there is a decent amount of variety in level design. The music is mostly your generic happy platforming music although Bowser's Road and Dire Dire Docks are exceptions to this. Super Mario 64 suffers from some of the worst voice acting I have ever heard in my life. The worst part? The worst voice acting in the whole game is the first thing you hear when starting the game.

    Overall, while Super Mario 64 was innovative and mindblowing when it was released in May 1996, it aged very quickly and time has not been kind to it at all, making what was once amazing back then, a bad game now.
    Expand

See all 96 User Reviews

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