Super Mario 64

About This Game

Gameplay

### Controls Super Mario 64 has been described as a 3D platformer and action-adventure game in which the player controls the titular character Mario through various courses. Mario's abilities are far more diverse than in previous games. He can walk, run, jump, crouch, crawl, climb, swim, kick, grab objects, and punch using the game controller's analog stick and buttons. He can execute special jumps by combining a regular jump with other actions, including the double and triple jumps, long jump, backflip, and wall jump. The player can adjust the camera—operated by a Lakitu broadcasting Mario—and toggle between first-person "First-person (video games)") and third-person view. ### Health, lives, and power-ups Unlike many of its predecessors, Super Mario 64 uses a health point system "Health (game terminology)"), represented by a pie shape consisting of eight segments.

History

In the early 1990s, Super Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto conceived a 3D Mario design while developing the game Star Fox "Star Fox (1993 video game)") (1993) for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Star Fox used the Super FX graphics chip, which added more processing power; Miyamoto considered using the chip to develop a Super NES game, Super Mario FX, with gameplay based on "an entire world in miniature, like miniature trains". According to engineer Dylan Cuthbert, who worked on Star Fox, Super Mario FX was not a game but the codename of the Super FX chip. Miyamoto reformulated the idea for the Nintendo 64, not for its greater power but because its controller has more buttons for gameplay.