The untouchable 64

So, unless you really care about Super Mario or Nintendo, you probably won't care about what I'm about to say, but it's my blog and I'll write whatever I want to! Hoohah for free speech!!

So, anyways I was playing Super Mario Galaxy when my roommate came in and said "I wish they would make a sequel to Mario 64." To which I said, "Thats what Mario Galaxy is." He then said no, I want a mario game just like Mario 64, with paintings and flat levels." I said, "this is the same thing, your just on planets not flat levels and instead of paintings you just beam up to little universes." He still disagreed.

I then realized it wasn't so much the game he was in love with, it was just the memory of Mario 64. I've seen this happen with tons of Nintendo 64 games. For some reason people have it in their heads that they are just the best and there is no beating them. They see the new Mario Kart and say "this is good, but it's no Mario Kart 64" or they see a new Zelda game and go "well this is good, but it's no Ocarina of Time."

In this day and age of gaming the Nintendo 64 seems to have gained some legendary status between pop culture gaming and hardcore gaming. This ends up with most of the games seemingly untouchable. People never want to hear anything bad about mario 64 or Golden Eye because they have such fond memories of them.

Truth be told, I never had a Nintendo 64 till I got one at a thrift store a few years ago and I finally got to fully play through those old games. I played Super Mario Sunshine and Zelda: Wind Waker before I played through Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time. While these old games are great and have quite prominent points in gaming history, I didn't have the fondness for them. As for Ocarina, I understand, since its quite possibly one of the best complete story ever told in video game history. As for mario 64, I'm still a little baffled. See, a game like Super Mario Galaxy is pretty much the same, only with better controls, better visuals and more levels. There isn't as much hidden materials but it's made up by sheer variety in level design. When I go back to Mario 64, the controls feel clunky and the camera seems to get stuck on everything. I can't tell you how many times I flung my little mario off cliff after cliff simply because of the combination of camera and control.

So, yes I understand that they are apart of gaming history, but I just want to state that that doesn't mean they should be untouchable. We should never forget them and never stop playing them, but we should also remember to never make them out to be something they aren't.