Super Mario 64- Tips N' Tricks

Welcome, internet! It's Monday again, and you guys know what that means. Tips N' Tricks for everyone! Let's Take a look at something that everyone knows about. A game that absolutely screams “E for everyone” at us, and shows us why it's not just for adults with bright, poppy colors, upbeat theme songs, and family friendly fun. That sounds like a Super Mario game. Well, let's take it a step further, and make it one of the Mario games that hit the shelves as a single player game. Let's do some tips and Tricks on Super Mario 64!

Like I said just a bit ago, Mario games don't usually tend to be sad, depressing, or gloomy games (except the Luigi's Mansion games. That's how we know he's not just a second fiddle anymore.) Super Mario does, however, like to have fun with us, just as we do with it. It has some minor details which aren't originally noticed until you take the time to observe them. Nintendo is good at making the people observe their surroundings. Super Mario 64 is no exception to this rule. It has tons of fun, juicy, even gossipy references and easter eggs which, when simply playing through the game with no knowledge of their existence, are incredibly easily overlooked, as in most Mario games.

Now, before I get into the actual Tips N' Tricks, I'd like to touch base on one of the biggest things in the game. When you go out to the courtyard, where you'll later find all of the boos and the entrance to Big Boo's Haunt. If you look at the star statue in the middle of the fountain, you'll see some jumbled pixels below it. For the longest time, it was thought that these pixels read “ L is real 2401.” It's long been speculated, and often trolled, that Luigi can be unlocked as a playable character in the game. It's also been long confirmed that he actually CAN'T be unlocked in the game, but you can color swap a few traits of Mario to make him look like Luigi via Gameshark.

The realization of this disappointed Luigi fans everywhere. But did you know that He was originally Intended to be in Super Mario 64? They originally intended to have both Mario and Luigi playing at the same time, with the camera zoom relative to the distance between the players. The camera would zoom in more if the players were closer together, and pan out if they were farther apart. Nowadays, it would be a painfully simple thing to fix, but back in the days of the Nintendo64, this was more of a challenge. The limitations of the N64 made it difficult to accommodate all of the things that went into Mario 64, as well as adding a multiplayer function. This wasn't an impossible feat, but it would have been much more difficult to do, so he was eventually taken out of the picture,

What was that rumor all about then, you ask? Well, you probably didn't ask, because this is a rather old Rumor to begin with. But, on the off chance that you really are asking, The whole thing started from a misconception. It was originally just a jumble of pixels designed to look like words, but, as can be expected with the internet, it was dragged into something else. I'll admit, though, that there was once a more plausible idea. Some people thought the idea thought that “L is real 2401” meant that Luigi was real in Paper Mario, which he actually is. You can sneak into your own house and read his diary. The only real problem with this one was that the intended release date was actually February 5. the “2401” in the rumor is agreed on as the release date for Super Paper Mario (Feb. 4 of 2001) when the actual release date was the next day..

While it's more reasonable than Luigi being unlockable, I still don't see how Nintendo could have predicted something like that for themselves before the game was ever even thought of. Unless Miyamoto was already working on Paper Mario, I doubt he would have put something like that in the game. Then again, He has tons of weirder things hidden away in Nintendo games. Who's to say these older ones were any different?

As far as different goes, let's get into those Tips N' Tricks that are actually useful. Let's start at the start of the game, when you erupt from a classic warp pipe. First thing you should note is that this is one of the very few times you will see a fully functional warp pipe in the entire game. There are some in Tiny-Huge Island, but we'll get to those later. First, go ahead and walk over to the bridge right across from Peach's castle. Let the Lakitu talk about what he's doing as your camera man (a very bad camera man, at that) and then make a 180. Yep, completely ignore the first and most useful way into the castle, and all of the levels, stars, hats, and coins within, and go to a tree. But not just any tree. Specifically, the third tree from the waterfall at the right of that 180 of yours. Climb to the top of that tree by jumping toward it, and you'll be rewarded with not a star, not a coin, not a super interesting easter egg that may or may not rip the fabric of Mario's world apart, causing an apocalypse that even Bowser would be afraid of! Nope! You get a 1-UP mushroom!just one! Can't let you have all of them, can they? Actually, they can. If you go into the castle from the front door that we deliberately 180'd, and then immediately exit, and go back to that exact same tree, that 1-UP will be there again! As long and arduous a process as this may seem, it's actually very helpful if you want to stock up on lives. And you're going to want to stock up on lives around the end of the game, especially the levels that require you to get the wing caps for certain stars. These will be especially useful in the final fight against Bowser, where he has tons of little traps and abilities backing him up, and you're limited only to the jumping and platforming skills you've harnessed throughout the game

It's not the only way to get extra lives. In fact, there are some you can do even after completion. Once you have all 120 stars, go back to the front yard of the castle. While out exploring, did you notice the little cannon near the lake? That one, which was caged up the entire game, is now free for you to use. You can shoot yourself from the cannon up to the roof of the castle, where you'll find a number of good things. First is a wing cap block behind the tallest tower. Second is three extra lives, which are kinda useless, considering the third thing here, Yoshi! You can't ride on him, but if you talk to him, he'll read off a note from the developers to you, Give you 99 lives and a super triple jump that prevents fall damage, then jump away into the skybox! And you're free to run, jump, and explore with virtually no limitations (except those 99 lives, gravity, and all the other things that kill Mario in the game.) This is the ONLY time you will see Yoshi in the game, so cherish it, or just take the 99 lives and go mess around. Nobody would blame you.

I think that's enough for now. Super Mario 64 will always be remembered as a classic in many different aspects. It, much like the other Nintendo games, is loaded to the brim with controversy, mystery, and fun. While this one didn't really age that well, it had loads of content, and people will always remember this game (those who have played it, anyway). It also had a successor, Super Mario 64 DS, which had many of the things that the original didn't. It also had some of things that nobody expected, like Wario. There are tons of easter eggs and interesting oddities in both of these games, but we'd have to cover them at a later time. For now, happy hunting, and see you guys soon! ^^