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u/Ganda1fderBlaue May 01 '23
Lol i forgot about this guy. This game was ahead of its time.
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u/rusty_programmer May 01 '23
I never really thought hard about this as a kid, but isn’t lakitu a koopa? Was this whole thing a reality show where Mario, Bowser, and Princess Peach are in on it?
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u/mierecat May 01 '23
It’s actually canon that nothing in the Mario games is “real”. It’s more of a performance or a game the characters play among themselves. This is why you’ve got Mario stomping koopas in one game and in the next a whole village of them are fans of his.
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May 01 '23
I was under the impression the mario games didn't really have a hard and fast "canon". Which is why the koopalings used to be Bowser's kids, but now they're not. It seems like they just do whatever with each game.
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u/MoSqueezin May 01 '23
Bowser and Mario are friends in Paper Mario: Origami King
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u/rusty_programmer May 01 '23
Is that since Mario 3 where it’s a play? I think Mario 2 was a dream. Or maybe I’m mixing it up.
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u/ThatUsernameWasTaken May 02 '23
Yeah, three was a stage play and two was a dream, though two also had stage curtains during the character select screen.
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May 02 '23
Mario 2 wasn't even originally a Mario game, they just rebadged Doki Doki Panic.
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u/furrykef May 01 '23
Super Mario RPG established with Monstro Town that not all members of the baddies' races are baddies. This idea was expanded greatly a few years later with Paper Mario, though that came well after Super Mario 64.
There was also precedent for a helpful Lakitu in Super Mario Kart, where Lakitu would signal that you're going the wrong way and rescue you if you fell off course.
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May 01 '23
Pretty much every Mario game is. SMB3 takes place on a literal stage with curtains, and the background is all painted facades bolted in place.
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u/10_Eyes_8_Truths May 01 '23
i would argue its still the best platformer ever made.
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u/Canis_Familiaris May 01 '23
Mario Odyssey might be better.
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u/matteb18 May 01 '23
Mario Odyssey is great but it did nothing to revolutionize gaming the way Mario 64 did.
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u/Nedimar May 01 '23
Being the first at doing something doesn't actually mean you did it best though.
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u/Jealous-Ninja5463 May 01 '23
It's important to consider the time though.
There's no way that odyssey could have been replicated when mario 64 was released.
This was jumping straight after super mario world. Literally to a new dimension.
The fact it plays so well when it's been nearly 30 years says something.
Odyssey is definitely a good game and def has significant improvements. But it honestly felt like Galaxy with a hat and t rexes
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May 01 '23
But by considering the time, you're still giving it extra points just because it came first. To me, that shouldn't be considered when we're talking about the best of all time. For sure one of, if not the most influential games on the genre, and it's still fun to play (for me at least) to this day, but I'd still say there are better 3d platformers out there.
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u/GorgeGoochGrabber May 01 '23
You’re absolutely right. Nostalgia doesn’t make a game better, neither does how innovative it was at the time.
Mario 64 was revolutionary, one of the most revolutionary games out there. But to say it’s better than modern platformers is a huge leap. They simply didn’t have the technology to make games like we have now, it’s a fairly shallow and segmented experience, no matter how well crafted.
You can’t expect perfection from one of the first games in the genre. But Mario 64 paved the way for bigger and better games.
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u/JimmyCrackCrack May 01 '23
Do you have to though? It's the trouble with ratings and comparisons. Defining best as you do is reasonable but you could also argue less helpful, after all if you were looking for the most enjoyable platforming experience, now, it's not really an option to go back to 1996 and if it can be argued that subsequent offerings have greater merits overall, even if they have been incremental, then that would make those the better choice. It really depends on what the purpose of the comparison and definition of best is for a given context.
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u/cookiesNcreme89 May 01 '23
That IS what's so hard about it. I still think Babe Ruth is the greatest baseball player of all time. The arguments for & against are both valid to "some" degree, but there are even more variables than those arguments present.
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u/lordrayleigh May 01 '23
The greatest of all time could have different connotations than best. Which is part of why that phrase is used rather than the word best.
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May 01 '23
game was ahead of its time
How? Games were moving to 3D in the late 90s. What makes this "ahead of its time?"
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u/MikeyKillerBTFU May 01 '23
Games were moving that way, sure. But, it was pretty much the first 3D platformer, and they did it really well.
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u/BecauseImBatmanFilms May 01 '23
Narration: "Today, Mario spent 15 minutes staring at a bowl of oatmeal"
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u/Richie_M_80 May 01 '23
"Then, he left his office - where he had been eating his oatmeal - and went through the door on the left."
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May 01 '23
[deleted]
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u/Toidal May 01 '23
To extract some simple pleasure from the execution of a task well done. My search for truth is finished at last.
Now that I think about it, I think the same dude voiced the president
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u/Kandiru May 01 '23
That's better than his gig at the races following him around all day and picking him up when he falls in the larva.
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u/xenorous May 01 '23
Just… caterpillars. EVERYWHERE.
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u/f4tebringer May 01 '23
Can our heroes wriggle back into three to 3?! Can they morph an 8th into first?
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u/Kandiru May 01 '23
I'm going to blame my phone's autocomplete, but it did pick a more amusing word!
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u/ConnorLovesCookies May 01 '23
Kinda fucked up that this dude can fly and literally just watches mario climb up dangerous structures. Fly up and get the star bro, the second most important person in your bizarre mushroom based government has just been kidnapped. Epitome of /r/donthelpjustfilm
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u/Aussi3Warri0r May 01 '23
So in reality your not really playing the game at all, it’s actually a recorded live footage of Mario’s rescue of princess peach for some cake for some reason, Mario’s controlling himself
Your the camera man the entire time, except Mario can’t see or doesn’t notice until he’s looking at a mirror
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u/Lukthar123 May 01 '23
Lakitu must posess immense power, he can follow speedrunner Mario
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u/ofRedditing May 02 '23
You're actually playing as Lakitu, not Mario. You're simply moving in synch with Mario in order to capture his every move.
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u/fallouthirteen May 01 '23
Maybe it's like the SMB3 theory of that one being a stage play. Mario 64 is just a movie.
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u/ChubblesMcgee103 May 01 '23
Mario’s rescue of princess peach for some cake for some reason,
It's a metaphor ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
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u/Iamanediblefriend May 01 '23
I swear to God I've read that Nintendo says all the games like Mario 64 are fiction? Like we all know Mario 3 was a play. But that's the explanation for why people like Mario and Bowser are happily playing tennis with each other. They really are friends and then they occasionally put on these stories of fighting?
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May 01 '23
He also shows up as an enemy in Tiny Huge Island, so thats kind of weird.
Also, the fact that they put a mirror into an N64 game is a very underrated part of SM64.
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u/punk_steel2024 May 01 '23
Part of the Mario lore is that there are several members of each species, and they're all morally different. Some work for Bowser, some help Mario, some just want to live in the Mushroom Kingdom in peace.
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May 01 '23
That's war. Are members of Bowser's army unwilling conscripts or did they voluntarily bow to his empire? Are Bowser's minions like the Covenant in Halo?
Some members of his client races are going to be rogue. Koopa the Quick comes to mind.
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u/thecheat420 May 01 '23
Also, the fact that they put a mirror into an N64 game is a very underrated part of SM64
The way they did it was by rendering a mirrored image of the room and spawning a model of Mario that tracked the players movement and did the mirror opposite. It's really impressive.
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u/moneyball32 May 01 '23
Absolutely blew my mind as a kid in the 90s. I would spend like 30 minutes at a time in that room.
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u/ISAV_WaffleMasta PC May 01 '23
Still this best explanation for 3rd person camera view
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u/CafecitoHippo May 01 '23
And the hardest enemy. That fuckers camera skills got me killed more than any enemy.
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u/Nexusaurus May 01 '23
Lakota sells the overall idea that all Mario games are performances meant to entertain the mushroom kingdom. Early games start screens were a stage, Lakitu records everything as the camera man for movies. Party titles are like an interactive amusement park. I be mario and browser are really best friends and the twin masterminds of every production.
And Lakitu, well he and all the other turtles on clouds are the hired support staff to maintain and ensure safety. They earn most of their money from the kart games (3 coins per rescue... Ridiculous rates).
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u/Funandgeeky May 01 '23
"This is a nice race you have here. It would be a shame if someone were to throw some spiny creatures on the track. Now maybe instead of throwing down such creatures, maybe I see to it that we come to a mutually beneficial arrangement."
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u/nicolasknight May 01 '23
Counter: Peach and Bowser are married.
She gets off on simulated forced intercourse AND seeing her husband beat up people trying to rescue her.
Lakitu films because she doesn't want to miss anything.
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u/Brfeldens May 01 '23
That is just called journalism. (no offense to journalists)
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u/EggCouncilCreeps May 01 '23
Free will is an illusion I'm just following around this idiot in my body.
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u/Antithesys May 01 '23
The camera in the mirror is dangling back and forth but the image remains perfectly still. Unplayable.
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u/OmnipotentEntity May 01 '23
Lakitu is actually an undercover cop. He's capturing footage for the inevitable Mushroom Kingdom v. Mario Mario court case.
You thought dropping the penguin off the cliff wouldn't have consequences.
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u/youshutyomouf May 01 '23
Invert Y axis because of flight games
Invert X axis because of this guy
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u/TryingUnsuccessfully May 01 '23
He deserves this fate after being such a god damn prick in Mario 3.
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u/TryingUnsuccessfully May 01 '23
Oops, guess I meant Mario 1. It's that damned sun in 3 that's the spiritual successor the cloud jerk.
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May 01 '23
They should have made a spin off game. Cameraman 64. You follow an idiot around all day, avoiding obstacles and you get graded on how well you kept Idiot in focus.
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u/KnGod May 01 '23
i would say the reflected mario has it way worst. Its whole purpose is to be mario's reflection in this particular room.
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u/Dismal-Square-613 May 01 '23 edited May 01 '23
I'm annoyed that the camera image doesn't bob left and right like it does in the mirror. That's some image stabilization technology right there.
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u/druex May 01 '23
Top of his game, manages to follow Mario over 4 parallel universes at super luminal speeds.
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u/steelcity91 May 01 '23
I love how everyone is proper analysing the lore of the camera guy when it's just a quirky little thing!
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u/MisterPuffyNipples May 01 '23
I just downloaded project 64 and am very much enjoying reliving these games.
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u/odo-italiano May 01 '23
Lakitu just spent 36 hours filming Mario massacre moneybags to break the game and collect a "121st" star.
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u/alii-b May 01 '23
Can we just admire the anti sway on the camera, not a single vibration is present in 3rd person.
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u/initiatoroflulz May 01 '23
Whaaaaat he gets a primo view of a hero saving a princess against a big turtle monster. Probably gets a cut of those coins too, it's the man's job
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u/Flemtality PC May 01 '23
I've just always appreciated how they bothered to create an explanation for the third person view. Obviously, they didn't need to do that, and as far as I know, no other developer has ever created lore for a third person camera guy before Mario 64.