I finally did it, after a year of playing it I finally got all 120 stars in Super Mario 64. The sole reason I bought 3D All-Stars was to play this game. A game that I missed out on when I did have a N64 and a game that many of my friends would say is a masterpiece and a must play. It took me well over 20 years to start playing it and now that I’ve finished it, it’s good, but I did put it down a lot while I was playing it.
Now before I get people with torches and pitchforks in the comments let me make something clear. I DO think this game is a masterpiece. When it came out it truly revolutionized how 3D games are made and set a near impossible standard for games after it to overcome. However there are some issues with this game that I have and mentioned when I first wrote about me being a first time player over a year ago (you can read that article right here if you need a refresher). The camera controls are a far cry from being decent, the flight controls are not fun, and I can’t tell you how many times I died because I missed an easy jump. No, that’s not why I’m writing about Mario 64 today, but merely it’s the catalyst for a train of thought I was having while I was finishing up the game. I started playing Mario 64 when I got 3D All-Stars over a year ago and at some point I just put the game down. I was having problems with a certain star so I decided to take a break and play something else. That ‘break’ lasted over 5 months. I played and beaten so many other games before I went back to Mario 64, so it got me thinking. If the game I’m playing is good, and I’m having a great time with it, why am I not playing it?
Mario 64 isn’t the first game where this sort of thing has happened to me, most recently, the victim in question has been NieR: Automata where I’ve been playing that game on and off for well over a year and a half. Yet why do things like this happen? For me it’s because I’m either really frustrated on a level, or I just get sucked into a different game. With Mario 64 however, I’ve noticed there were multiple parts of the game that I was glad I would never have to do again. Such as getting 100 coins on Tick-Tock Clock or Rainbow Ridge. Those courses got me so mad when I would miss a jump or a coin that I almost immediately turn the game off. On both courses I was less than 10 coins away from getting the star when I missed a jump and would have to start all over again. It was annoying to say the least and when I would boot up the game, I would be reminded of my previous downfall. There were times it was hard for me to play the game, but once I got the star, I would want to continue.
The question remains as to what I did when I gave myself a break from these games. I either caught up on some reading or I played other games. While in my Mario 64 run I beat Metroid: Zero Mission, got to Champions Road in Mario 3D World, and played some games online with friends. Metroid I played because I want to go through all the Metroid titles, I was playing Mario 3D World co-op with my girlfriend, and I would just have some fun with my friends on various multiplayer games. Just because we put down good games doesn’t mean we don’t like them. Sometimes life just gets in the way and you don’t feel like playing it. That is perfectly normal and totally fine. Gaming shouldn’t feel like a chore but something you WANT to do. You may forget about the game or just get hyper fixated on a different one. That’s life, your tastes and interests change and the same can be said with video games. Playing something else doesn’t make you any less of a video gamer than you already are .
Ben is a man of many hobbies. Aside from his deep love of video games, he also does 2 podcasts (The Fake Nerd Podcast and Basement Arcade: Pause Menu), reads comics, loves films, and studying up on video game history. His favorite eras in gaming are the Console Wars between SEGA and Nintendo, the early 2000’s, and the mid 80’s when he wasn’t even born yet.
