[Courtney]

Super Mario 64



vs.

Yie Ar Kung Fu

[Byrntrigan]

Damnit! Yie Ar Kung Fu was a great arcade game! But it draws fucking Mario 64?

It's dead Jim...

[Batman]

Yeah, I know. I'm the one who nominated it, and even I wavered a little.

Loved Mario 64, it was the first console game I ever got into. The first 3D game I ever liked, too, for that matter.

But the thing that Yie Ar Kung Fu has going for it is this-- it's the model for the type of fighting game where you have a variety of opponents each with their particular strengths and weaknesses. The opponents were incredibly cool, and you had to really work to figure out their weakness to defeat them and get to see the next one. Defeating an opponent you'd never managed to before and then getting to see the next guy for the first time (and doubtless getting your ass kicked) was such a rush.

I miss that game.

[salmonjunkie]

You know, I had mad nastalgia for Yie Ar Kung Fu. I really liked it as a kid. I loved how each opponent was different. Then I got it on my Game Boy Advance in the Konami Arcade Classics.

Sorry guys, the gameplay doesn't hold up. Mario 64's does, and is pretty much where all 3D platformer games take their cue from.

[National Champion Chris Cole]

I mentioned in another thread I bought the N64 for Wrestlemania 2000. Well the Christmas after I bought it my Mom bought Mario 64. I seriously could not beat Level 1. I had no idea what the point of the game was and played it for maybe a total of 2-3 hours. But apparantly the game is a big deal to a lot of people. I do have plans to buy it on VC and give it another try when I finish Galaxy but I'm going to need to lookup how to beat level one and what the goal of each level is. Yeah, I'm a sucky gamer and I know it.

[Lucky]

I would guess it wouldn't confuse you as much now as it did then, but it also won't be as mind blowing as it was for us. It was a whole other kind of game when it started and I think we all struggled with that first level. I clearly remember standing in front of the fucking portrait and spending WAY too much time trying to figure out how to back flip into that fucker. And I remember having a lot of early trouble grasping the 3D elements of it and getting Mario to move how I wanted him to. Because all of that stuff was new. You'd spend a bunch of time just trying to figure out how all the new Mario moves worked and get them right. And then finding out how to deal with the free roaming worlds instead of the clear and linear mission/level.

But the thing is that once you got the hang of it was just this huge new game world. But these days its not new, its pretty standard. So while it does hold up as a fun game to play it probably isn't the blow away game that it was.

[National Champion Chris Cole]

It didn't help that I was a High School kid that didn't find the Mario games very cool anymore. Now I've come full circle on a lot of things and Nintendo and especially my fondness for Mario games is one of them.

[punk/core]

Super Mario 64 is the most revolutionary game to come out in the past 12 years. It absolutely changed the way games are made, and its ideas are still being used.

And you guys couldn't get past the first level? Terrible.

[National Champion Chris Cole]

I admit to being a terrible gamer. I can't stand struggling in games. I frustrate very easily. Now when I get stuck I love having the internet to give me the tips I need to push through and keep going. I didn't have that back then (or didn't know how to utilize it).

[Lucky]

I never said I couldn't get past the first level. I said that I remember struggling early just getting comfortable with the 3D format and the new moves Mario had. But I did, fell in love with the game, and then realized that the sun had come up.

I was merely empathizing with MKid's early struggles and assuring him that it wasn't just him who struggled early.