Played through a bunch of this tonight. I was surprised how little I cared about goofing around outside... I know where the real fun is, I guess.
It's kind of crazy how well I still know this game. It's not surprising, I played the [dukar] out of it, mostly because the N64 in the early years was so sparse. I got all 7 stars on the first two worlds, 2 on the next two worlds, got three secret stars, switched on the wing cap switch, got the red coin star in the first Bowser level, tossed his ass into a bomb, and caught MIPS before I realized I'd blown like two and a half or three hours. If my N64 controllers weren't so crusty and worn, I'd probably have played even longer.
I'll never forget the crushing disappointment of not getting an N64 the year it came out. I was devastated. My parents wanted to hint to me that it wasn't happening by letting me rent the system a couple days before hand. Either I didn't figure it out or I was too horrified to understand what was going on. That was rough. I got it a couple months later for my birthday though, which was awesome. I got Mario Kart 64 with it, which was annoying at first, but I had played the [dukar] out of Super Mario 64 during rentals (I actually beat it... not 120 stars though), so it was probably a smart move on my parents' part. And of course, MK64 is ****ing amazing. Plus I found out later they stayed up all night the night before my birthday playing it themselves.
I remember during one of those rentals, when my sister was in her "cool" phase and liked to rip on my for playing video games, she and her boyfriend sat together on the couch and watched me play Mario 64. For a WHILE, too. I don't think they were screwing around, because I was literally setting like two feet away from them, but I was probably too engrossed in the game to notice. I mean, I would have noticed, I think they were just kind of digging the game. It was such a weird, new thing at that time, and before her cool phase, my sister and I played the [dukar] out of Mario 3 and World together, I think this kind of threw her for a loop.
When I booted up my game to play tonight, I still had two save files with 120 stars on them. I think I just copied my 120 star files for "safety" but it was pretty cool seeing them still there. It was amazing how much came back to me. Little things, neat little surprises and tricks I had committed to memory. The owl that pops out of the tree on the second level, the treasure chests the electrocute you if you pick them in the wrong order, where to place the cannon aiming reticule to get a perfect shot to the tree on the floating island, luring the big ugly eel out of his cave. Awesome stuff.
I've been kind on a huge Mario Kart kick lately, and since this is the N64's birthday too, I'm thinking about booting MK64 for old time's sake...
