HF Retro Game of the Year - 1996 - Super Mario 64

Game of the year back in 1996?


  • Total voters
    84
  • Poll closed .

Ducks in a row

Go Ducks Quack Quack
Dec 17, 2013
18,004
4,356
U.S.A.
Might as well get the '95 list going.

Here is everything suggested so far, I haven't gone through them yet.
Star Wars: Dark Forces
-MechWarrior 2
-Warcraft II
-The Dig
-Worms
-Full Throttle
-Descent
Street Figther Alpha
Chrono Trigger
DK Country 2
Yoshi's Island
Earthbound,
Front Mission,
Tactics Ogre,
Terranigma,
Phantasy Star IV,
Dragon Quest VI,
Tales of Phantasia,
Suikoden.
Command & Conquer

From that list I would vote for Super Mario World 2 Yoshi's Island
 

Desdichado93

Registered User
Jan 7, 2012
1,292
246
Sweden
Might as well get the '95 list going.

Here is everything suggested so far, I haven't gone through them yet.
Star Wars: Dark Forces
-MechWarrior 2
-Warcraft II
-The Dig
-Worms
-Full Throttle
-Descent
Street Figther Alpha
Chrono Trigger
DK Country 2
Yoshi's Island
Earthbound,
Front Mission,
Tactics Ogre,
Terranigma,
Phantasy Star IV,
Dragon Quest VI,
Tales of Phantasia,
Suikoden.
Command & Conquer

My vote would go to Worms, hilarious game.
 

Morbo

The Annihilator
Jan 14, 2003
27,100
5,734
Toronto
SM64 I get the votes for.

I feel the same way about the original Quake in terms of shooters.
 

Rodgerwilco

Entertainment boards w/ some Hockey mixed in.
Feb 6, 2014
7,231
6,503
Though I never really got into it a whole lot, I have to appreciate SM64 here.
 

Big McLargehuge

Fragile Traveler
May 9, 2002
72,188
7,741
S. Pasadena, CA
So was I the only kid greatly disappointed by SM64?

We've gone through this before, but I didn't realize how little I wanted 3D games until I played SM64. I went from 'this is going to be the greatest thing ever' to 'I just want to play another Super Mario World' within about 30 minutes.
 

Shareefruck

Registered User
Apr 2, 2005
28,875
3,570
Vancouver, BC
So was I the only kid greatly disappointed by SM64?

We've gone through this before, but I didn't realize how little I wanted 3D games until I played SM64. I went from 'this is going to be the greatest thing ever' to 'I just want to play another Super Mario World' within about 30 minutes.
I was disappointed by the whole 3D thing in general, personally, SM64 being a big part of that. The transition from 2D to 3D in general always felt like taking 20 steps backwards to go one step forward to me.

That said, of these choices, I think I'd probably still choose it over the others.
 

The Crypto Guy

Registered User
Jun 26, 2017
26,047
32,756
So was I the only kid greatly disappointed by SM64?

We've gone through this before, but I didn't realize how little I wanted 3D games until I played SM64. I went from 'this is going to be the greatest thing ever' to 'I just want to play another Super Mario World' within about 30 minutes.
Probably
 

Commander Clueless

Hiya, hiya. Pleased to meetcha.
Sep 10, 2008
15,237
2,922
The jump from 2D to 3D was a rough one for sure.

I mean, it was probably a jump that needed to happen for modern titles but back in the day...yikes.
 

RandV

It's a wolf v2.0
Jul 29, 2003
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So was I the only kid greatly disappointed by SM64?

We've gone through this before, but I didn't realize how little I wanted 3D games until I played SM64. I went from 'this is going to be the greatest thing ever' to 'I just want to play another Super Mario World' within about 30 minutes.

Yeah I liked Super Mario World the best... but I never really got to give SM64 a good playthrough when it came out just played/watched occasionally at a friends. Most of us would have been kids or teens at this point and with 3 expensive new generation consoles out and cross-platform not being much of a thing you probably weren't going to get much of a chance to thoroughly play everything.
 

Blitzkrug

Registered User
Sep 17, 2013
25,785
7,632
Winnipeg
That '95 list is interesting. A bunch of amazing games, but none of them really stand out as the clear cut GOTY.

Yoshi's Island gets my vote hands down. My all time favorite game ever. First game i ever beat too if i recall.
 

Pilky01

Registered User
Jan 30, 2012
9,867
2,319
GTA
So was I the only kid greatly disappointed by SM64?

We've gone through this before, but I didn't realize how little I wanted 3D games until I played SM64. I went from 'this is going to be the greatest thing ever' to 'I just want to play another Super Mario World' within about 30 minutes.

I was completely sick of side scrolling games. That is why I don't think I will even vote for the 1995 poll, I didn't play anything. Mario 64 (and Wave Race 64) is what got me back into videogames.

I didn't even really know about the N64. I was completely tuned out of videogames, but my younger brother was crazy hyped for it and I ended up loving the shit of the console.

Playing Mario 64 while listening to Martin Streek on the Thursday 30 are memories I will cherish forever.
 

Osprey

Registered User
Feb 18, 2005
27,090
9,350
So was I the only kid greatly disappointed by SM64?

We've gone through this before, but I didn't realize how little I wanted 3D games until I played SM64. I went from 'this is going to be the greatest thing ever' to 'I just want to play another Super Mario World' within about 30 minutes.

I've tried multiple times to get into SM64 and it's just never clicked for me, either. It's definitely not an aversion to 3D games, since I ate up every 3D game to come out in the 90s, even other "platform" games like Tomb Raider. I even bought a first-generation 3D accelerator card for my PC on the day that it was released in 1996. I've always loved 3D games. It's just that Mario in a 3D world has just always felt strange to me. I grew up with SMB1-3 and World, so, to me, Mario is a side scroller and that's what I want and expect when I play a Mario game. No doubt, being a kid during the NES generation and already being an adult in 1996 played a huge role in that. Younger gamers who didn't binge for a decade on side-scrolling Mario and were still kids in 1996 probably had a much easier time accepting SM64 as Mario (well, most; you didn't, obviously).
 
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SuperScript29

Registered User
Nov 17, 2017
2,069
1,673
So was I the only kid greatly disappointed by SM64?

We've gone through this before, but I didn't realize how little I wanted 3D games until I played SM64. I went from 'this is going to be the greatest thing ever' to 'I just want to play another Super Mario World' within about 30 minutes.

I would not say I was disappointed, I did think the 3D aspect was cool, but coming from the previous Mario games where they really took you on a journey, this one felt like a giant 3D demo rather than an adventure.
 

member 157595

Guest
Personally, I tend to think of 96 to the early 2000s as the dog days of videogames, and it's the start of when I completely lost interest in the appeal of the medium as a whole, outside of a few blips here and there.

At the time I thought was just growing out of it and rebelling in that immature "that stuff's for kids!" kind of way, but in hindsight, I think I just legitimately just dislike the direction that the medium went in after that, with a focus on polygons, first person shooters, online multi-player games, etc. and everything moved towards bigger, more customization, and less minimalism.

1990-1995 is when it gets really good, IMO-- to me, it's the golden age, where charm, minimalism, and big-budget polish, talent, and production values all intersect, and multiple masterpieces seemed to be coming out every year (although I didn't really appreciate them at the time as a kid). Whereas nowadays it feels like AAA games have all the polish/production/talent but none of the charm/personality/soul and indie games have all the charm/personality/soul but none of the polish/production/talent.

Slow.

f***ing.

Clap.

I think I love you. :laugh:
 

Do Make Say Think

& Yet & Yet
Jun 26, 2007
51,157
9,903
So was I the only kid greatly disappointed by SM64?

We've gone through this before, but I didn't realize how little I wanted 3D games until I played SM64. I went from 'this is going to be the greatest thing ever' to 'I just want to play another Super Mario World' within about 30 minutes.

I have no idea how anyone can use the word "disappointed" prior to saying "Mario 64".

The game is a legit masterpiece and still is despite being one of the first fully 3d games on console. I never had trouble with the camera once I fully grasped how it worked (and it isn't that hard to wrap your head around it, anyone complaining about the camera in Mario 64 today is bad at games, full stop).

Is SMW better? I think it's arguable for sure, but SMW is another pillar of the industry (I mean a lot of Nintendo games are).
 

syz

[1, 5, 6, 14]
Jul 13, 2007
28,849
12,239
It was hard not to be disappointed with SM64 and the N64 in general after how much Nintendo was talking the system up. Absolutely did not deliver at launch.

Things went from the pinnacle of console 2D to the pre-school stages of console 3D, and Mario was definitely the first example of like "well they haven't figured it out yet."
 
Last edited:

The Crypto Guy

Registered User
Jun 26, 2017
26,047
32,756
It was hard not to be disappointed with SM64 and the N64 in general after how much Nintendo was talking the system up. Absolutely did not deliver at launch.

Things went from the pinnacle of console 2D to the pre-school stages of console 3D, and Mario was definitely the first example of like "well they haven't figured it out yet."
lol
 
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RandV

It's a wolf v2.0
Jul 29, 2003
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I have no idea how anyone can use the word "disappointed" prior to saying "Mario 64".

The game is a legit masterpiece and still is despite being one of the first fully 3d games on console. I never had trouble with the camera once I fully grasped how it worked (and it isn't that hard to wrap your head around it, anyone complaining about the camera in Mario 64 today is bad at games, full stop).

Is SMW better? I think it's arguable for sure, but SMW is another pillar of the industry (I mean a lot of Nintendo games are).

I wouldn't call it disappointing, but a critique I would have made at the time which in hindsight probably isn't fair is that you basically went from Super Mario World to Super Mario Castle. Back then the switch to 3D just made me want an open world game, I wanted to take Mario and head over and roam freely beyond the mountains that block you in. I say it's unfair now because they didn't have the storage capacity to make anything like that.

I had a fairly similar criticism of Ocarina of Time back then as well, where with A Link to the Past Hyrule Field was this interest overworld to explore, OoT it was just a circle in the middle you cross through to get places. What I would have envisioned was something more like what Twilight Princess did.

And of course this all sounds really ironic or spoiled now with how tiresome 'open world' games have become :laugh:
 

Do Make Say Think

& Yet & Yet
Jun 26, 2007
51,157
9,903
I'd have Mario 64 over Mario World (but not Mario 3) but I definitely have Link to the Past over Ocarina of Time.

I see what you are saying and agree, I guess that for me, I felt more restricted in OoT than in Mario 64? I still boot up Mario 64 and have fun but last time I played OoT I finished the Forest Temple (the highlight of the game: great design and that music is just so on-point) and quit out of mostly boredom.

Mario in Mario 64 moves about as well as he does in Odyssey which is really impressive to me.
 

Shareefruck

Registered User
Apr 2, 2005
28,875
3,570
Vancouver, BC
Mario 64 over Mario World sounds nuts to me, especially when you factor in aesthetics. I don't think any Mario game feels as nice to control as World does, personally.

I can see the argument for 64 over Yoshi's Island, despite aesthetics, though.
 

crowi

Registered Loser
May 11, 2012
8,173
2,790
Helsinki
I spent an absurd amount of time in all the first 5 games. Would've went with Quake by a tiny margin over Diablo and Civ II.
 

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