My father used to tell me that when he was young, the world was black and white. For a long time, I didn’t think to question – after all, every fragment of historical evidence we had from the 1950s and before was black and white too. Unfortunately, I grew up and realized that my father – as all parents usually do – was playing with me. Still, I could never imagine the past as anything more than in sepia tones, even when I look at color photos and videos from past times.
I think that if I ever have children, I will try to tell them that the third dimension was invented in 1996 by Shigeru Miyamoto. Super Mario 64 was one of my first games and it surprised me: Mario could walk in almost any direction and you could even rotate the camera around him like some kind of Spielberg video game. Of course, Mario’s first 3D adventure wasn’t the first 3D game – although it’s debated exactly which game has that title, then I’ll just say it was sometimes in the early 90s – but it was the first time that many people tried the new Z axis in a video game.
At that time, 3D was so new that even the developers didn’t know what to do with it. The idea of a camera that the player can control is so ubiquitous today that we barely registered it, but in Super Mario 64, it was not just a passive view of the player – it was Lakitu, the villain who became a cameraman (and occasional holder of lights of the Mario series. It was a charming little addition to make it easier for players to come up with this new idea of a camera following the character, but – to be honest – I’m glad we got this over with so quickly. There was always something a little scary about being followed everywhere by a turtle with a camera.
But the best moment of Super Mario 64, for me, was only possible with the addition of a new axis: the level of the secret sky that could only be accessed by looking at the ceiling.
During most of the 1990s, when news of games was disseminated by the twin forces of magazines and rumors, the playground was the place to be. A boy promised that his uncle-who-works-for-Nintendo had heard of a new Zelda game where you could play as Epona; another would swear that you read in a magazine that if you pressed START three hundred and fifty-two times, you could unlock Luigi in Pokémon Red and Blue.
It was difficult to separate fact from fiction, and even more difficult when the only way to confirm these rumors was to own the game and replicate the exact conditions – perhaps you only pressed START two hundred and fifty times? You kind of lost count in the middle.
The Super Mario 64 trick of standing at the entrance to Peach Castle and looking up was easy to try and it worked instantly, consolidating it as one of the greatest secrets of all time. In fact, it was so timeless and memorable that it came to Super Mario Sunshine – where the trick is used to access Noki Bay – and Super Mario Odyssey, where entering Peach Castle and looking up at the sky gives you a Power Moon. The last example is one of those things that Worldwide I tried it instantly, as soon as they discovered Peach’s Castle in the game – and the fact that it works is like a shock of nostalgia that takes us back to the first time it worked too.
The secret level of the sky itself is not particularly memorable, except for letting Mario fly in 3D, but there is no moment that shows the new dimension as the brilliant realization that you can look at for the first time. above. Nintendo has always been great in the unexpected – I’ll almost certainly be writing about it in Phantom Hourglass with the map at some point (if you know, you know) – and there is a reason that there are so many rumors about your games.
We knew, since we were children, that Nintendo games were full of secrets, surprises and hidden tricks. From Warp Whistles and the mean Wave Race commentator to Chris Houlihan’s Zelda room, many of these tricks were accidentally found by us as children or were the result of experimentation and the answer to the question “I wonder what happens if I do this. ..? “
The fact that Nintendo has always encouraged this question shows that they are still children at heart, in the best way. Rewarding curiosity is one of the ways in which his games bring us so much joy, and why people are still finding little details in Breath of the Wild four years after its release.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I will look at the sun, in case it opens a new level where I can fly.