@ralphdibny Nice. I can sympathize with not really getting to a game you own until it releases on the Switch, although, being kind of neurotic about money, I usually end up just playing it on the platform I own it on anyway.
The audio logs probably were intended to be listened to as you ran around the base, maybe to pad out the emptiness of it, but I'm not really good with multi-tasking, so I know it'd be distracting if I was trying to listen to some engineer cry about how scared he is as demons are ambushing me.
As to the flashlight, I'd have been OK if they'd made it an optional thing. They went the Nintendo route of forcing a change on the game without any option to alter it, though. I guess I could have modded it, but when I review a game, I obviously like to discuss it the way it's available to everyone.
I didn't find the game particularly scary now, but I don't feel bad admitting that it was pretty freaky when it first came out. Different time. Those "cyber-dogs" scared the crud out of me, especially.
Great thoughts! Glad you ended up enjoying it.
@Rudy_Manchego Nice review. I've never actually played either of the Mirror's Edge games, but I've seen plenty of footage, and, honestly, I can't imagine why any developer would think a first-person parkour platformer action thingy would make for a good open world title. It's a pity the new one is so inferior to the original. Maybe they'll remake the original with the improved visuals of the sequel at some point...
Yeah I definitely agree an option about the flashlight would be welcome! I think I am about to become way more neurotic about money now that my income has dwindled so no more rebuying games for me!
To be fair I've found all of the first 4 doom games quite scary. Not sure what it is but maybe I just let myself be scared because it's more fun for me!
@ralphdibny Do you play horror games at all? Just allowing yourself to experience primal emotions without interrogating them is the entire fun of them. I still get pretty creeped out by stuff like REmake and Silent Hill at times.
I get a little too panicked when I can't fight back, though. It's the reason I'm not a huge fan of "run and hide" horror games where something is always chasing me.
@Ralizah I try not to but I've played a few this year such as REmake and Blair Witch. I did have a brief convo with KratosMD in the original game club thread how almost all of the games picked up to that point had some horror tinge to them even if they weren't supposed to be scary, either by association, iconography, themes, atmosphere, characters etc. It's almost inescapable as part of certain blockbuster games. I usually define a blockbuster film as having a combination of all genres and I guess it could be applied to games too.
I was just trying to think of something I've played this year that didn't delve into horror and my mind immediately went to uncharted but even the first two of those games had supernatural enemies toward the end.
Generally (and I know it's a bit shallow) I tend to play games in a series or by developers of that series that I've played as a kid and Doom falls into that category! I do play other games if I think they sound interesting too, I recently played Hellblade which I think at least partially falls into a horror genre because it deals with a personal disassociation with reality even if it's quite realistic in that sense.
It's funny because I don't really find horror films scary but games can be quite immersive in a way a film can't. The scariest films I've seen, to me at least, were Requiem for a Dream and Gone Girl. I know it's a bit random but they both kind of deal with your perceived reality slipping out from under you in different ways. I guess, because these particular films affected me so much, that this sort of thing is something I am scared of!
@RogerRoger Thanks and yes - I have no idea whey they rebooted it one game in. The overall story would still have worked from Catalyst with only the personal relationships differing. It wasn't like they took it into a supremely exciting place anyway. I finished the game and ultimately, it isn't much more than 10 hours for most of the story but... I can see why you put it away.
@Ralizah Yeah... I get it at a conceptual level for a parkour open world. I mean Dying LIght is sort of that but with zombies. But it isn't really open world since you have to go certain routes so ultimately you just do the same things over. If you could get anywhere if you explored and had skill it might have worked but really missed. I can't tell with EA - I'm not even sure why they bothered with Catalyst. I read it sold a solid 2 million copies but it had zero marketing and push from them.
@Thrillho The Uncharted games would make a really good template, especially 4 and Lost Legacy because they have some semi open world areas but also a clear path for you to follow. The story would also have been waaaaay tighter.
Now I may be an idiot, but there's one thing I am not sir, and that sir, is an idiot
Super Mario 64 (via the Super Mario 3D All-Stars Collection) Platform: Nintendo Switch Completion Status: 100%; all 120 stars collected, and I even found the brief post-game Easter Egg
Super Mario 64 is a game I have a bit of a rough history with. I've, of course, heard people talk rapturously about it for ages, but didn't really have the opportunity to play it until it released on the Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console. What I encountered was a game that controlled poorly and looked like a nightmare thanks to the mix of incredibly low-poly character models and a vibrant color scheme that brought out every aspect of the game's deficient visuals. I quit after playing for a few hours and gave my opinion online, but... it kept nagging at me. This game is SO highly praised. So beloved. And I just could not get into it. I've tried continuously, over various platforms to get into this game over the years, and, every time, I ducked out after a point. I let the game get the better of me.
Well, with the 3D All-Stars collection and the game's official re-release as an HD remaster on Switch, I decided I was going to finally complete this game. I had to prove to myself both that I wasn't wrong about this game and also that it couldn't conquer me in the end. It's sort of like Stephen King's It, when the protagonists all reconvene years later to visit the town of Derry to confront the demons of their younger years. In this case, N64-era Mario — all eight polygons of him — was my Pennywise.
So, after a fascinatingly weird start screen where players can use a hand to interact with a shockingly high-poly model of Mario's face, Super Mario 64 starts out with Mario reading a letter Princess Peach has sent him, inviting him over for... cake. It's a children's game, so we'll accept that at face value. Anyway, Mario arrives to find the princess gone. We discover, via the toads in the castle, that the princess has been locked away by Bowser using stars, or something, and it's up to Mario to collect the stars and save the day.
So, to be clear, this is all expressed in, like, five lines of dialogue. There's pretty much no narrative context to what happens in this game, and virtually nothing in the way of an overarching goal beyond collecting power stars.
Power stars are accessed via a number of magical portraits situated throughout the castle, and Mario will need to complete various activities in order to gain the stars within each portrait. When the player collects a certain number of stars, they can confront Bowser across three boss stages - one early game, one mid game, and one at the end - and subsequently unlock other parts of the castle to access more portraits. The game's structure is extremely open-ended and allows for the player to collect stars in any order they wish.
I figure I'll discuss the game in the context of a handful of its worlds.
World 1 - Bob-Omb Battlefield
Although you do get to run around the front of Peach's castle when you start up the game, Super Mario 64 doesn't feel like it really begins until you jump into your first portrait. This is when the music kicks up and you're presented with a wide open field filled with bob-ombs and goombas. Running around this very rudimentary environment (there's a minimum of platforming beyond some basic jumps and sliding to be had in this world), the game does seem to communicate an infectious joy at the prospect of movement through three-dimensional space. This becomes apparent early on with the game's fixation on flying through the air via both the wing cap and via loading oneself into a cannon. One really does get the impression that one has stepped back in time and is seeing something that must have seemed truly groundbreaking and revolutionary at the time.
The first thing everyone will do in Super Mario 64 is run to the top of this world and have the King Bob-omb challenge them to a fight. And... boss fights in Super Mario 64 are incredibly lame. They mostly involve running around behind an enemy and then throwing them. In the case of King Bob-omb, there's no challenge whatsoever as he slowly and pathetically waddles around trying to face you other than the challenge of getting the game's controls to work like they should.
The player will likely encounter their first red coin challenge here, where they're tasked with collected six red coins throughout the level, usually in hard-to-reach or dangerous locations. In Bob-omb Battlefield, there's this one particular red coin on a slope that is just the damndest to try to collect whenever I play this game. Somehow, I always slide AROUND it. I eventually took advantage of this game's broken physics system (more on that later) and jumped uphill in a sliding position to collect the damned thing.
The player will also likely get their first taste of being fired out of a cannon here, and, boy, is it another massive irritation. When you enter a cannon (after unlocking it via talking to a red bob-omb NPC in the area, which is something you have to do in pretty much all of the worlds), you can aim where you want Mario to fly to, but, crucially, Mario never actually goes where you're aiming the cannon. He, instead, goes under this mark by several feet, so you have to try and mentally correct for this and then aim way ABOVE the target you're trying to hit with the cannon. This would be annoying in the best of instances, but two additional factors serve to drive me up a wall on this matter. First, you're often trying to hit a thin or small target when you're firing yourself out of a cannon, like a tree or a particular location on an otherwise inaccessible ledge, and this bizarre method of targeting makes it incredibly hard to hit your target. What truly infuriates me, though, is how, if you miss your mark with a cannon shot, it's usually going to send you FLYING OUT OF THE LEVEL. So not only does that mean you exit the level, have to jump back into the portrait, and then trudge all the way back to where the cannon is, but you also lose a life in the process. For missing a target you're not allowed to actually aim at anyway!
World 2 - Whomp's Fortress
This is the first would that involves much actual platforming. Unlike the rather cohesive previous world, Whomp's Fortress looks and feels like a lot of platforms, razor thin bridges, and moving parts slapped together haphazardly in order to harass and kill the player. If you don't end up getting on with the game, THIS is likely the first place you'll notice your irritation begin to flair up.
Mario's platforming toolset in this game is complex and acrobatic compared to his movement options in the 2D games of yore, and even, frankly, compared to certain more recent 3D entries. These motions are mostly well-thought-out, although Nintendo also included a punch/kick command, which has... always struck me as odd. Mario isn't a melee fighter outside of Smash Bros., and trying to punch goombas, koopas, etc. in this game just feels wrong when it's so much easier to jump on enemies. It's sort of like the opposite of A Hat in Time: that game had a very limited moveset, but it required you to combine movements in multiple ways to master its platforming challenges. Mario 64 gives you access to a ton of movements, several of which feel like they barely belong in the game at all. Again, this is another way in which Mario 64 betrays its age: it's clear that some of these movements were included in the game just because 3D was new, and they wanted to allow the player to try out a lot of different actions with their fancy new 3D Mario model.
Unfortunately, the rather decent 3D moveset is hampered by how terrible it feels to actually do anything in this game. Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2, Super Mario Odyssey... hell, even Super Mario 3D Land and Super Mario 3D World, all have an immaculate sense of presence to them in terms of how the games control. Movement is intuitive and satisfying. When you mess up in those games, generally, you feel that it's because YOU made a mistake in terms of how well you were controlling the character. Not so in Super Mario 64. Never have I played a game where just the sheer act of moving from one spot to another felt so... fraught, so anxiety-inducing. Mario feels like he's covered in a slick gel that makes him feel slippery at all times, and, as a result, I never felt like I was fully in control of him, no matter what surface he was on. Simply put, there's no sense of traction when it comes to Mario's movements in the game, and the game treats any level of unevenness in the geometry around you as an incline, which means that running too close to a slanted wall, or, god forbid, stepping on a low elevation of grass will send you flying across the level like someone out-of-control in an ice rink. There's also a heavy reliance on momentum when performing jumps, which become downright aggravating when combined with the game's tendency to push the player onto thin platforms and surfaces surrounded by bottomless pits, which are ALL over the place in this world.
Making this issue infinitely worse is the game's frankly obscene camera. The first major issue crops up immediately, when you realize the camera can only be rotated around Mario in a variety of preset angles, which often makes it impossible to focus on what you need to look at in this game. I understand that it's Lakitu controlling the third person camera in this game, but you'd think a turtle in a clowd could allow for slightly smoother movements of the camera.
But sure, fine, the camera can't be freely rotated. Not a problem if the camera is situated in such a way that it gives the ability to see where you're going. Something like Super Mario Galaxy, for example, gives the player almost no control over the in-game camera at all. But the difference between this game and that one is that the camera in SMG was pretty much always perfectly positioned to give the player a satisfying experience while platforming. I don't ever recall feeling frustrated about the lack of camera control in that game. But the camera in SM64 is almost never well-positioned. Lakitu, frankly, sucks at his job, and it happens more often than I can count that the camera gets 'stuck' on scenery, or isn't positioned in such a way that I can easily gauge where I'm supposed to be jumping, and sometimes can't even be adjusted to allow me to see clearly around obstacles.
In the context of this world, imagine trying to cross an incredibly thin, moving bridge when the camera is fixated on on one of the bricks in the wall behind you. You fall off, of course, both because of this, but also because the way Mario moves was, in the N64 original, intimately tied to slight fluctuations of the tall, stiff analog stick on that console's controller. Nintendo hasn't found a way to adequately emulate the feel of the N64 controller in subsequent consoles, so it can be difficult to make precise movements with Mario. He ALWAYS feels like his movement is out of control.
World 3 - Jolly Roger Bay
This is the first 'water world' in the game, and it's... alright? Weirdly enough, considering how rough around the edges everything else is, I thought Nintendo's first attempt at 3D swimming was perfectly competent. He actually controls much more nicely in H2O than he does on land. It's also sort of thematically interesting insofar as you interact with a sunken (and, in later missions, mysteriously fixed) treasure ship and come face-to-face with a terrifying, kaiju-sized eel underwater.
Mario has a sort of breath meter in this game, although not really: as he stays underwater, his HP slowly drops over time, and then refills once he surfaces for air. There's no dedicated breath meter in this game. The interesting thing about this is that, in other levels that have some water in them, you can actually game the system by diving into water and then resurfacing to fully heal Mario if he takes damage from other sources.
There's another water-themed world in this game, but it sucks (the game ACTUALLY makes you swim through rings at one point like you're playing Superman 64 or something) and feels like a worse version of this. Mario 64 has a mid-to-late-game issue with filler content.
World 4 - Cool, Cool Mountain
This is the first 'snow/ice'-themed world in the game, and it also houses some of my least favorite missions. I hated having to hunt around everywhere to find a baby penguin to bring back to his mother. There's nothing to it other than the irritation of finding the correct baby penguin (the more obviously situated one belongs to another penguin mother, apparently), and then the irritation of dealing with the awful controls and level design as you bring the thing down.
The truly awful aspect of this level, though, is this long, twisting slide you have to go down (first just by yourself, and then, in a crueler twist, racing against a penguin). There's a similar slide in the castle that you'll likely discover earlier in the game, but it has rails on the side and isn't quite as long (although there is a supremely annoying speedrunning star associated with that slide). There are no rails on this slide, though, and LOTS of twisting, which means LOTS of opportunities for Mario to go flying off and plummet to his death if you dare to gain even a bit of speed (which you need for the turns and constantly when you're racing the penguin). Words fail to even convey how annoying this slide is. The music that accompanies the slide feels like it's designed to be rage-inducing as well, especially considering how many dozens of times I had to listen to it over and over, all in a state of near-panic the entire time. This is pure anxiety in musical form, so I suppose, in some sense, it's a good fit.
It's hard not to feel like Nintendo is trolling you when most of its worst, most sadistic worlds and challenges are accompanied by this demented carnival music that makes every missed jump or slightly mistimed turn on a slide, which inevitably sends the player plummeting to their doom, feel that much worse. That also reminds me: there is a massive lack of musical variety in this game, so you'll here the same tunes repeated quite a bit. It's as horrible as it sounds.
It has often been held by fans of the 3D Mario games that Super Mario 64 has the best hub world in the series, and while I'm not inclined to be kind to this game, I do have to admit that Peach's Castle, despite its initially shallow presentation, IS rather impressively dense overall. Through the course of the game, you'll unlock the upper portions of the castle, the courtyard, and the dungeons, which all feature portraits to jump into. There are environmental puzzles to solve if you even want to find some of the worlds, rabbits to catch, secret exits that lead to alternate stars, etc. One of the most interesting choices was making the method of entering Big Boo's Haunt different from how you enter every other world in the game. In this case, you will notice a Boo drifting out through the castle courtyard doors at some point. You'll walk out to be greeted by a number of ghosts drifting around. It takes a while to figure out, but the largest Boo, if you attack it, drops a birdcage that becomes the portal by which Mario is able to access the 'ghost house' world of this game, Big Boo's Haunt.
Thankfully, Big Boo's Haunt stands as one of the least irritating worlds in the game. The frustrating misdirection of Super Mario World's ghost houses is replaced with something more conventional and atmospheric. Instead of platforming, the player will primarily be exploring a haunted mansion, filled with setpieces like a small library where a poltergeist flings books at Mario and a famous jumpscare in the form of a haunted piano that tries to eat Mario.
I do also want to briefly mention that, despite the accusation of laziness on Nintendo's part when it comes to how this package was assembled, that they did take some care to improve the presentation a bit. While this really would have fared better with a full on remake ala Super Mario 64 3D, a variety of texture work has been updated throughout, and the effort is most noticeable, IMO, in this world. The UI is sharp. Linework on the coins you find, portraits/designs on the walls stand out. The effect isn't overwhelming, but it does help to avoid the razor sharp HD polygons of the characters clashing with lower-res environments ala lazy efforts such as Final Fantasy VII's HD remaster on PS4. The game is still incredibly primitive looking, but it's, at least, a clean, sharp sort of primitive.
It's worth mentioning that the game only runs at 720p in both handheld and docked modes, though. I have no idea why, but I felt like it was probably worth mentioning. This isn't great for a remaster, but it's still obviously a big upgrade over the original resolution the game ran at on the N64.
World 6 - Hazy Maze Cave
Hazy Maze Cave is, per the name, dark and labyrinth-like in spots. It's a mostly unremarkable world, but I do want to use it to kickstart a discussion about the 100 coin challenges in this game.
The interesting thing about doing a completionist run of Super Mario 64 is that it becomes evident how oriented the structure of Mario 64 is around building the player's sense of mastery over their environment. This is primarily due to the 100 coin challenges. Each level has six listed star challenges (five that involves completing various tasks and then, always, a red coin challenge), and then a seventh unlisted 100 coin challenge. Each star throughout a level will introduce you to, usually, a small aspect of that level's design. In this way, the game's locations are offered up piecemeal to the player. 100 coin challenges, though, require the player to master completing various areas of the level one after another, because collecting that many coins usually means engaging in multiple activities that each reward the player with a star. And considering most enemies in a level typically need to be killed to reach the required coin threshold as well, it makes a lot of sense to think of 100 coin runs as master runs of a level. Your master run will task you will completing the entire level in such a way that you can quickly and expertly dispatch most enemies and complete most tasks because you've spent so much time previously engaging with the level design in order to collect the other stars individually.
Some worlds are overflowing with coins, and this is a piece of cake. But in other worlds, there are so few coins that literally one wrong move or missed enemy will cause the player to be unable to finish the challenge. I found this to be particularly true of Hazy Maze Cave, where I felt like I was constantly looking for new ways to bleed coins out of the sparse, poorly-lit environment. I suppose these levels with tighter coin restrictions force a greater level of mastery from the player, but, like so many of this game's other challenges, it feels like padding to cover up how uneventful the world itself truly is.
This is also one of the worlds that features one of Super Mario 64's two signature transformations: the metal cap. The metal cap turns Mario into... metal, which makes him stomp around and slowly sink in the water. It's as lame as it sounds, although, in the Hazy Maze Cave, it allows Mario to traverse environments filled with a toxic vapor without taking damage.
World 8 - Shifting Sand Land
One of the more interesting worlds in this game, despite the kind of generic desert theme it goes for. A large portion of the world is filled with quicksand, and the level itself is structured around a large pyramid in the center. This is the first world that really requires some level of mastery of the wing cap, the game's other primary transformation, which is... well, it allows Mario to fly, sort of. What is actually does is send Mario careening through the air uncertainly, and every flight with the hat is a terrifying ordeal where Mario feels like he's out of control and seconds away from crashing into something. This is primarily due to the deeply weird method of maintaining altitude and speed with the wing cap, which requires Mario to fly toward the ground and then violently pull back up, which sends him see-sawing through the air in a nauseating fashion. Flight should and could have been liberating in this game, but instead, like so many other aspect of Mario 64, it's just frustrating.
There are a number of interesting setpieces and gimmicks in this level. For one thing, a giant bird flies around the outside of the pyramid and will grab at Mario if it gets too close. For another, the pyramid itself can actually be entered, and is a large structure filled with platforming challenges, and even the only halfway decent boss encounter in the game! There are also large pillars that Mario will have to stand on top of to finish one of the world's missions: I initially flew to them because I was still thinking of it as a game with a semblance of consistency to its physics or environmental interactions, but, as it turns out, Mario can run vertically up these pillars without a care in the world, even as the slightest bit of unevenness in a bit of grass will see him flying across the level and, usually, to his doom.
A weird, one-off inclusion in this game that never seemed to return for future entries was Mario being able to lose his hat. In specific levels, environmental interactions can lead to Mario losing his hat. In most levels, this isn't a big deal, as, if the hat is blown off his head, it can easily be recovered. In Shifting Sand Land, however, the large bird that terrorizes the entire level can swoop down and snag Mario's cap with its claws. Interestingly, even if Mario dies, his hat will still be missing: Mario has to navigate his way deep into the level and make a point of snatching the hat back from the bird. The loss of his hat makes him take way more damage from enemy attacks, so, as you can imagine, it was a wonderful move on Nintendo's part to force the player to trudge through a level filled with uneven terrain and infuriating instadeath traps to recover it.
That's the bulk of what I wanted to discuss. I mean, I could discuss the horrible, cruel lategame levels, like the one where you're inside a giant grandfather clock, and every missed jump sends you back to the bottom of the clock, and the way the platforms move differently depending on what in-game time it was when you jumped into the clockface (sometimes the platforms will move sporadically and with no clear pattern, which, as you can guess, is a real joy); or the one where you're standing on a magic carpet in the air the entire time and have to precisely jump over obstacles to avoid falling into the bottomless void which takes up roughly 95% of the world around you; or the hidden wing cap level where, every time you fail to get all the coins in the allotted time frame, you go back to the very beginning area of the game, and have to spend several minutes climbing the castle to get back to the stupid level; I could discuss all of that in detail, and innumerate the ways in which this game irritated the hell out of me, but I think I'm largely done complaining about it now. There's an odd sort of pride and peace that comes with fully completing a game like this, though. Hell, I'm even at the point now where, like older fans, I've largely adjusted to its eccentricities and can now clear the majority of its challenges with a minimum of trouble. I even, having moved on to Super Mario Sunshine, kind of miss its acrobatic long jumping.
There are also two interesting worlds I didn't mention, but which are unique enough to merit mention. In Tiny-Huge Island, you're either tiny or huge compared to everything around you, and the perspective change dramatically changes how you approach the level. It's really quite neat, because you can enter the world in either form via two separate portraits, one normal one for the tiny perspective, and one portrait that's HUGE in comparison to the player. The game uses some weird perspective trickery to pull this off, because the portrait looks like it grows in size as you approach it. It's very neat. There's also Wet-Dry World, in which you have to interact with objects to change the water level of the world, which impacts what stars and challenges you have access to. It recalls Ocarina of Time's famously annoying Water Temple, except, here, it's actually executed fairly well.
With that said, I'm... done. I'm done. It's over. I can't really imagine myself ever revisiting this game again. It's a relic of an earlier time that I'll happily leave in the past from now on. I may or may not check out the revamped NDS version eventually, but otherwise, that's it.
Burn in hell God rest your weary soul, Super Mario 64, because it's time to go on to much better games.
I love how in depth you've gone here @Ralizah, detailing most of the levels/worlds and the design choices of them!
I've finally got a decent picture of how the fabled Mario 64 actually plays and puts the previous reviews by Mooky & RR529 into a much clearer perspective for me who's never had the... Pleasure of playing this game.
Well done for finally beating it and putting this particular bugbear of yours to rest. It was a truly enjoyable read so I hope that feels somewhat gratifying to hear after the hours of torment it took for you to guide that slippery Italian plumber through this game 😅
@Ralizah, excellent SM64 review. I can appreciate what the game did for it's time, and can admit there is still a certain appeal to it's open ended objective structure, but it's just such a rough game to go back to these days (though like you I actually did like the water worlds), and while I'm certainly glad I finally saw it through to the end (though I don't have the patience for a 100% run), I don't think I'll be itching to go back to it anytime soon.
Currently Playing:
Switch - Blade Strangers
PS4 - Kingdom Hearts III, Tetris Effect (VR)
@Ralizah Yeah, that’s a pretty fair review. It’s important to note that this was still one of the pioneers of 3D platformers so it makes sense that issues would be ironed out in later games. It’s weird, I find myself getting annoyed at Mario 64 but I’d still say I was having fun, a bit like Dark Souls or Cuphead.
@nessisonett Definitely. The game is legendary, of course, and it's massively impressive how much Nintendo managed to get right in one of the first fully 3D games ever made, especially when you compare it to games that came out around the same time, like the original Crash Bandicoot, which didn't embrace 3D freedom and openness to nearly the same degree.
But I do think the people who see it as some unimpeachable masterpiece of game design are perhaps allowing their nostalgia to cloud their judgment. As such, it's not really a surprise to me that so many people are replaying it now and discovering that, hey, this really didn't age very well. The lack of precedent for nearly everything in this title is precisely why it's so rough today, even compared to other, later platformers on the same system, like Banjo-Kazooie or Conker's Bad Fur Day.
@RR529 Same. There's a lot to admire with Mario 64, and it's fascinating as a historical piece, but Nintendo really should have honored its re-release on Switch with a significantly more touched up release. The N64 original is massively showing its age.
I'm not sorry I played it, though.
@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Thanks! I hope it wasn't too long (I never really realize quite how overboard I've gone with a write-up until I go to post it in this thread and the website basically refuses to allow me to publish it in one post, lol). I wasn't sure about the structure of it at first, but I felt like something that walked through the game and mirrored my experience with it a bit was the way to go.
It's all a bit cathartic, honestly, considering how many times over the years I've had people tell me: "no, the game still really holds up. You'd know that if you played the entire thing!" Well, I've played it all now. Kind of like how you were disenchanted with FFVII since you have no nostalgia for it, I was a PS1 kid and developed no lasting fond memories for the N64 or its games, so I have no cushy memories on which to situate the rough edges of Nintendo's polygonal classic.
@ralphdibny Have you ever watched Jacob's Ladder? It's a classic psychological drama, and sounds right up your alley.
@Ralizah nah I haven't seen it but I have had the dvd for 13 years because my media studies teacher in sixth form recommended it to me ages ago but I never got around to watching it! 😅 The trailer looks great though!
I forgot to mention in my thoughts on Doom 3, reading the emails in the PDAs had the perfect contrast on it. I know it's a weird thing to praise a game for but so many games now have text based lore that I just can't read because it burns an unbearable after image into my eyes and stops me being able to see the game properly for a good while afterward. I didn't have that problem with Doom 3! I just got reminded of it because of the text in Doom 16, which didn't have time to burn an after image in because it was too small for me to read from the distance I sit from the monitor 🤦🏻♂️
@Thrillho Don't worry, I'm sure I'll be bringing even more obscure Sonic games to your attention before I'm finished with all these retrospectives! But I hear you; even I took a break from the franchise, thanks to SEGA's fall from hardware grace. At least Sonic kept himself busy, I guess!
@Rudy_Manchego That was the biggest kicker; that the story in Catalyst would've worked as a sequel regardless, if they'd just changed a few of the names and character models. The EA executives must've been on a buzzword mission the day they gave the go-ahead. "What's that? It's a reboot, and it's an open-world sandbox?! Wow! It's everything gamers love!"
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@Ralizah No, please, tell us what you really think of Super Mario 64.
That was epic, there's no other word for it. Your personal preface set the scene really well, and put your comments in a crucial context which I really appreciated. Your descriptions of mechanics (and your frustrations with them) paint a vivid picture, to the point where I feel like I've grappled with the game myself in parts; this is helped by your comparisons to other Mario games, and other games in general (some fresh in your memory, like A Hat in Time, and others better known for their infamy, like Superman 64). As somebody who has formed his gaming opinions via "the other mascot", I also can't believe that they screwed up an ice level. They're usually my favourites!
Considering the other perspectives put forward of late, I think it'd be fair to conclude that Super Mario 64 is rapidly becoming the dictionary definition of "you had to be there" and so, of course, Nintendo wouldn't put any extra effort into its latest port. It's a shame that such a seminal moment in gaming history isn't being properly treated by its creators; I guess we'll all have to wait for the 40th Anniversary and see if Nintendo come around to the idea of a proper remaster.
What a review. This was your War and Peace, and it really delivered. I'll bet you'll be looking for something small and simple to review next... "This was a game I played recently. I thought it was good, but others might not agree. In conclusion, the end." Nobody would blame you!
Just don't take it out on the penguins, okay? They're innocents in all of this!
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@JohnnyShoulder Someone remade Jacob's Ladder? I had no idea. Nothing is sacred in the late-stage capitalist hellhole we call modern American society.
@ralphdibny It's not really a weird thing to praise. It's important for any game with significant amounts of text to make it easy for players to read said text.
@RogerRoger I actually read War and Peace in High School. Suffice to say, I did not leave HS a Tolstoy fan. Dostoevsky, though? I can read his dense, 1000-page tomes all day.
Anyway, I always appreciate when people take the time to actually read my word dumps. As you can probably tell, I didn't really like the game, but I did want to do it justice. Regardless of my endless capacity for exasperation with this game, it's still one of the most important video games ever made. But yeah, I think people who weren't privy to the excitement of 3D Mario back in the 90's just permanently miss out on a huge layer of this game's appeal. Kinda like you'll never really understand how awesome FFVII was in the late 90's. And how all of us here will probably never understand how mindblowing it was to grow up with silent films and then to see a talkie in the cinema for the first time.
Again, thanks for the kind comments! I promise I won't be mean to any penguins who don't deserve it.
I'm planning on doing another big piece on DOOM 2016 soon-ish, actually. Maybe I'll go light with my Ys I + II piece, though. It's not like there's a ton to say about those games anyway.
Was going to start writing up my Sunshine piece, but my Switch is having connection issues and won't let me upload my screenshots (it's just an issue that pops up from time to time, and it won't let me access the eShop either when it does it).
Currently Playing:
Switch - Blade Strangers
PS4 - Kingdom Hearts III, Tetris Effect (VR)
@Ralizah I don't think I ever enjoyed anything I was forced to read in school, so I hear you!
Same, in both appreciating those who read my reviews and in wanting to be fair in criticism. It's been fascinating to read everybody's recent takes on Super Mario 64 because of the collective agreement and also disappointment, playing under the shadow of its reputation (although I'm always sorry to hear when somebody doesn't enjoy a game). Your point about FFVII is well-taken!
Looking forward to your next pieces, whatever they cover! As much as I enjoy seeing whether people agree with me, I think I prefer reading about total unknowns.
@RR529 Eep! Hope you can get those screenshots soon, and looking forward to your review!
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
RogerRoger's Random Sonic the Hedgehog Retrospectives
Part Five: SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG
November 2005 / GameCube, PS2 (version played) and Xbox
This might be a tough one. I apologise in advance, as I may get a little verbose about Shadow the Hedgehog, one of the most notorious and yet misunderstood entries in the Sonic franchise. Just to offset what I'm about to type up, let's watch a video; specifically, let's watch the opening cutscene from the game itself. Doing so should set the tone rather nicely.
Even I need to take a second to recover from that marketing team's fever dream. It's everything focus groups told us that we wanted in the mid-00s, isn't it? Guns! Vehicles! Ambiguous morality! A metal soundtrack! It's a wonder Grand Theft Auto didn't sue, and it's no wonder Shadow has become synonymous with being an "edgelord" (a personality SEGA have subsequently embraced for him in recent years; why bother fighting against public opinion, especially when the all-powerful internet doesn't like being told that its preconceptions are inaccurate).
The truth is, Shadow isn't an edgelord at all... or at least, he didn't start out being one. He's actually a confused, naïve individual who's scared of his own power and is desperate to use it properly. That's the entire point of this, his own standalone game; you're here to help a walking weapon of mass destruction figure out who he really is. Quite a tall order, considering that Sonic Adventure 2 had deliberately left many questions about Shadow's past unanswered. To make matters worse, the cartoonish Sonic Heroes had since appeared in 2003 and resurrected him in a brief series of unclear cutscenes, throwing more mud into the already-cloudy waters.
This game is more of a sequel to the former than the latter, although it does spend time explaining and dismissing the potential plot points Heroes introduced as well. By journey's end, you're left with a crystal-clear picture of who Shadow is, but it isn't smooth sailing along the way. The poor 'hog is used and manipulated at every turn; Eggman lies to him out of selfish vanity, whilst an alien threat called Black Doom drip-feeds him scattered fragments of half-truths for nefarious purposes. There's also a military commander who vows to kill him, believing him responsible for a terrible crime. Heck, even Sonic sees him as a mere rival, constantly talking trash about Shadow's abilities in relation to his own and framing every encounter as a challenge. With all this piled atop a recurring childhood trauma, it's no wonder Shadow doesn't crack a smile very often.
The only consistency throughout is Shadow's determination to figure out his identity, so that he can regain control of his frightening power and do right by it. The outcome being "good" or "bad" isn't as important to him as it being accurate. During one key confrontation with that accusatory military commander, Shadow calmly turns to him and says "If what you say is true, then I will respectfully accept my fate." This I approve of. This I approve of a lot.
"...but wait, did you just call me the E word?!"
Considering all the directions he's pulled in, though... well, that's a lot of personal conflict to squeeze into a game. The developers revel in Shadow's confusion by structuring 32 unique levels and boss fights into a branching "choose your own adventure" template. Tapping into the rising prominence of choice-based gaming (before it became fashionably overused during the PS3 era), each level provides Shadow with multiple objectives and, depending on which one you decide to achieve, you'll be sent forward along a different path. Help the heroes and you'll eventually rise up against Black Doom to defend humanity, but co-operate with the villains and you'll unlock one of the game's darker endings, where Shadow can wind up killing Eggman or, in the worst scenario, Sonic.
Apologies for the phone photo of my television screen, but you get the idea.
You can also just plough through and treat each level like a classic Sonic stage, whereby Shadow shuts out any and all distractions and just races towards the end. This'll net you one of the blandest, most predictable undertakings which misses the more memorable locations; most of the fun comes from picking a side, represented in each level by characters who'll follow Shadow around and encourage (or chastise) his actions. Suddenly, instead of running fast to win, you'll be hunting hidden collectibles, or working to destroy a target before it escapes... and, it's got to be said, the freedom to sideline annoyances is liberating. I don't think I've ever completed Amy Rose's objective for her!
(It should be noted that these objective-specific characters can be controlled by a second player, turning the game into a couch co-op experience providing Shadow doesn't go it alone. There's also a two-player deathmatch arena mode, but it's very disposable.)
This makes the game's replay value tremendous, providing you don't mind repeating the first stage over and over again (luckily, it's one of the better ones). There are ten different endings in which Shadow proclaims "This is who I am!" and yet the vast majority are total bull. He isn't a clone, nor an android, and he certainly isn't an alien. Only by seeing all of these obfuscating conclusions do you unlock the Last Story, a triumphant crescendo to which every random tangent leads. Everything is made clear and, after a final timed blast through the enemy stronghold, Shadow goes Super and fights a skyscraper-sized monster. It's compelling stuff, in a punch-the-air sort of way.
No, it isn't. Read the box, Eggman. This is literally Shadow's own game.
Just like your least-favourite characters, you can often neatly sidestep any trouble spots and stick to your preferred places. There's a superb selection of environmental themes to choose from, with both the real-world aesthetic from Sonic Adventure 2 upheld alongside wacky stages reminiscent of classic Sonic games; the latter frequently wind up being my favourites, and include the haunted Cryptic Castle, the joyful Circus Park and two trips into an abstract representation of cyberspace. In a first for the franchise, there are also a couple of flashback stages players can stumble across, placed at crucial points to underscore Shadow's ordeal of an origin story aboard the Space Colony ARK.
Everywhere is absolutely huge. It's difficult to get lost because of the general linearity inherent in Sonic Team's level design, but you can certainly miss a heck of a lot, especially when tracking an objective other than the neutral path. Because of these wide-ranging demands, checkpoints take the form of teleportation pads, which allow Shadow instant access to backtracking; this encourages exploration in a way not seen since Sonic 3D Blast and its Flicky hunting mechanic. When accompanied by a character you like, poking around some locations can be a genuine pleasure.
Good advice.
All of this unique innovation is constructed around a familiar core, however, and anybody who's played either of the Adventure games (or Heroes, for that matter) will be able to get to grips with Shadow pretty quickly. He is a little more temperamental to control on account of his rocket-propelled sneakers, so building up momentum should only be reserved for the obvious "go nuts" sections (wide open highways, loop-de-loops and the like) because otherwise, Shadow can easily end up faceplanting an enemy. Or an environmental hazard. Or even a really big and obvious wall.
The gunplay isn't as refined as Sonic Adventure 2 either, simply because almost all weapons lack a lock-on feature; this forces you to squeeze off a few rounds in order to draw a bead on... well, on where Shadow's drawing a bead. Enemy hit detection is very generous to compensate, with a soft auto-aim guiding shots to targets, and the sheer variety of the pick-up-and-put-down arsenal guarantees that you'll be able to find something that works for you (there are also swords, spears, flaming torches and even medieval lances scattered about for Shadow to swing, if you'd rather not shoot). As for the vehicles, you can largely ignore them. They're useful in a pinch, and act as semi-decent weapons in their own right, but they feel like one tool too many. Shadow retains his homing attack and can perform a punchy combo when his hands are empty, and he also has two special moves at his disposal, Chaos Blast and Chaos Control. Occasionally a level will cram him into a necessary vehicle (usually for a semi-scripted flying sequence) but otherwise, they're nothing to write home about.
And neither is the performance of the PS2 port. Don't get me wrong, it's playable, but I've seen footage of the GameCube version and it's obvious which development kit SEGA preferred. This was also the case with Heroes (and many other multi-platform games from the sixth console generation) and betrays the lack of power Sony's platform had at its disposal. The framerate does okay, but can and will tank, particularly when the game's good-looking graphics get busy. Loading times are also longer than they should be. I hate to say this but, if you have a choice, go with the GameCube.
If he really was the "ultimate" lifeform, you'd think he could Superman himself around.
What is worth mentioning (no matter what controller you're holding) is the sound design. We'll meet some music in a minute, but first I want to acknowledge the upgrade in voice-acting that this game boasts. Because the choices available in each level would require three separate scripts, creating one of the most talkative Sonic games of all time, the decision was made to replace the inconsistent cast from previous 3D ventures. Upsetting a few fans in the process, SEGA hired the actors who were dubbing Japanese anime import Sonic X at the time and... well, when you consider that Mike Pollock is still the voice of Eggman to this day, having survived several subsequent re-castings, you know that it was the right call in hindsight. It's a shame that they haven't been able to retain some of the other Sonic X actors since; whilst I slightly prefer his replacement behind Sonic's microphone, Jason Griffith remains my definitive Shadow.
So anyway, the soundtrack. You'd be forgiven for presuming that every track would be riddled with overdriven guitars (especially in light of that opening cutscene) and, fair's fair, there's an inescapable rock / metal backbone running throughout much of the game, but it isn't a constant presence and it's often enhanced by the techno trend started in Adventure 2. Not only that but, in many places, there's been a concerted effort made to ensure that Shadow's state of mind is mirrored in the music. Head towards heroism and things are decidedly more upbeat than some of the sombre stuff you'll hear as you descend into darkness. The flashback levels also fall back on quieter, more reflective songs which reinforce the intended atmosphere.
But they're kinda boring, so here's a boss theme which samples a Speak & Spell.
It's not my favourite album, not by a long shot, but there's plenty here which I keep coming back to regardless. Sometimes I can't tell whether I love or hate a particular track, but it'll hold my attention whilst I loop it a couple times anyway.
"Final Haunt" is the last level of the most heroic story path. Compared to its counterpart from right before the most villainous of outcomes, the message is clear; both are slow and deliberate tracks, conveying the determination of a mind made up, but the other is practically a funeral dirge by Sonic's usual standards. It's very subtle signposting, but it's there.
***
Maybe these points explain the negative reaction towards this game. After the surprisingly complex and layered Adventure 2, somebody tried really hard to make Sonic more kid-friendly and disposable with the release of Heroes. Arguably, fans weren't expecting any kind of depth in its paper-thin wake, so they didn't even look for it, even though it's totally there. I can't help but wonder what would've happened to the franchise had Shadow's shot in the spotlight immediately followed Adventure 2. Who knows? It might've allowed people to look past its focus-group-approved veneer and "get" it.
Because, with the benefit of hindsight, more and more folks are doing just that. I keep seeing comments from those who actually completed Shadow's story back in the day, who understand that he wasn't always supposed to become "Edgy the Hedgy" and who have grown up into a fanbase fuelled by misconceptions and memes. You can be an anti-hero without being a stereotype. This game proves it, so long as you don't just sprint head-first at it like any other Sonic outing.
I know this to be true, because it's what I did. First time I ever played with Shadow (stop sniggering) I ran through one story, went "I don't get it" and promptly ejected the disc. My unfamiliarity with his Adventure 2 backstory probably didn't help, but it was only years later, once the Sonic series meant more to me, that I went back and played through several stories. Suddenly the game's intentions sank in. It was only happenstance which prevented me from sticking with it and unlocking the Last Story and, as can unfortunately happen, it fell by the wayside through no fault of its own.
Returning to it recently and finally seeing its true ending, I was left pretty stunned by how much I enjoyed myself. Oh sure, I was polishing off my PS2 port, so those aforementioned rough edges tested my tolerance at times, but it also wasn't objectively broken in any way... unlike Sonic '06 or Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric. So why does it have almost as bad a reputation?
Personally speaking, I have no idea.
Shadow the Hedgehog is one of gaming's biggest misunderstandings. Its angst-riddled elevator pitch hides an experience which can admittedly be derivative, but remains mostly innovative. It rises above its "lol, edgelord" legacy with a depth and maturity there for those who want to see it, no matter which ten of the 326 different story paths you end up walking on your way to the Last Story.
Should this wall of words change one person's perspective, then I'm calling it a win. If not... well, at least I've hoisted my colours. Two points deducted; one for making everybody replay the opening level ten times, and one for the PS2 port's poor performance.
If you're playing it on GameCube, this game is a nine.
Shadow the Hedgehog = 8/10
All this reminds me of when SEGA doubled down on the concept of rivalries, and released a pair of oft-overlooked games for a handheld many have subsequently forgotten about; in other words, it's back to the obscure with me.
Sonic the Hedgehog will return.
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@RogerRoger It was an interesting read given that I’ve played really quite a lot of Shadow the Hedgehog growing up despite it being a genuinely rubbish game. It’s just rubbish, too many mechanics blatantly don’t work including the shooting, the buggy objectives, the bizarrely vast levels that still manage to be too linear and the horrific plot. I respect that you somehow got some sort of fun from it but I probably would have played any other game if I had money back then to buy a new game on the PS2. Even going back to it a year or so ago, it’s just a mess, same as every console Sonic game post-Heroes. I’ll just leave this here 😂
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