I can't believe we've made fifty episodes of this train wreck of a podcast! And speaking of train wrecks, today we're talking Super Mario 64! (Just kidding!)
Kind of.
I won't lie to you, loyal reader/listener/fellow nerd. The core Mario series is my favourite in all of gaming. But the first foray into the world of 3D just didn't grab me. I remember getting this game as a kid, and yeah, I played the hell out of it. But it never took over my life like it's two dimensional brethren did. I was way more into Mario Kart 64, which we got at the same time. I struggled with the camera, the controller, and just didn't enjoy it as much as I did Mario's other adventures.
Having said that, I came into this podcast ready to rip Mario 64 a new ass. And I just couldn't do it. I think that's a true testament to the genius of this game and just how groundbreaking it was. I wanted to spend an hour trashing it, and every time I tried I found myself bringing up something it did right. Watching clips of the game in preparation for this episode, I was mesmerized by the music and the world Nintendo created for the launch of the Nintendo 64. It's truly a masterpiece. I want to hate it, I think I hate it, I'll tell you I hate it. But....I don't.
Super Mario 64 is one of the most important video games of all-time. I thought it would make a perfect topic of conversation for the 50th episode of "Remember the Game?", and I brought my buddy Mark McCue with me.
Thank you so much for listening to the show. Whether you've listened to all 50 episodes, cherry picked the ones about games you know, or this is your very first one, I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.