Invited to Princess Peach's castle, Mario discovers that she has once again been kidnapped by Bowser and his minions. However, something has changed... This time the adventure is in 3D!

Leaping through pictures hanging from the walls, Mario searches for 120 Power Stars stashed away in vast, magical worlds teeming with daunting obstacle courses, hidden items, puzzles and an army of enemies! Mario has a huge repertoire of moves, including running, jumping, swimming, stomping and punching, and performing a backward somersault that can help him reach even the highest platforms. Special caps give him short-lived powers, including the ability to fly - and if troublemakers swipe Mario's cap, he'll have to grab it back!

Mario runs freely in a grassy meadow, tiptoes through a gloomy dungeon, climbs to the top of a snow-covered mountain, hot-foots it over lava lakes and swims in the castle moat. He can explore an ancient pyramid and even race Koopas for fabulous prizes. And, of course, he must fight his arch-nemesis Bowser, King of the Koopas - not once, but three times!

Original N64europe Review:

Yahoo! Mario 64 rules! At the same time as the N64 arrived in Europe (the 1st of March 1997), Nintendo released their eagerly awaited Super Mario 64, at that time the best game ever.

I think everybody knows the story, for the 500th time Bowser had kidnapped Princess Peach and invaded her castle, and the most famous plumber of the world, Mario, has to safe her. Okay sounds familiar, perhaps Nintendo should get some new story writers 'cause this one begins to bore me very much. But in a game it isn't the story that counts, the look and the gameplay of the game are the things that count, what about those things?

I don't have enough words for it, the game is great. The graphics are fantastic, the sounds are good and the gameplay is super. Like I said, Mario has to save the Princess, he must do that by defeating Bowser. To get to Bowser, Mario has to collect stars, which are all spread out over the 15 huge great-looking levels. Each level contains 7 stars which Mario can get by doing certain things, like racing with "Koopa the fast", or bringing back a baby-penguin to his mum. If you collect 100 coins in a level, you'll also be rewarded with a star. On the whole there are 120 different stars, 15 stars are hidden somewhere in the castle where the whole game takes place. You have to defeat Bowser three times before the Princess is free again, to defeat Bowser you've got to grab his tail and throw him on a bomb, he'll explode then. It's very, very cool.

I've got two tips for you, the first one is: if you see a turtle, jump on his back. Now his body will get out of the shell. Jump on the shell, now you can surf with it! The second tip is: buy this game if you haven't got it yet, it rules.

- by Gerben Stavast