The Genius Of Super Mario 64

It's hard to believe it's been 15 years already, but that's how old the Nintendo 64 will be this week. It was a decade and a half ago when the Big N's third console first went on sale in America, and that means, of course, that the system's launch titles are also celebrating the same anniversary -- like the 3D platforming masterpiece Super Mario 64.

Anyone who was around and paying the least bit of attention to gaming in the mid-'90s remembers their first time seeing this game in action. It was magical. Majestic. A truly mind-blowing shift, as gaming took its first real steps into the third dimension. Polygonal gaming had been done before, sure. But Super Mario 64, with its go-anywhere worlds and innovative controllable camera, made any previous attempt at 3D in the industry look archaic by comparison.

So let's celebrate this latest milestone, shall we? To honor the game that truly ushered in the 3D era with its awe-inspiring visuals and control, here are our top 10 picks for Super Mario 64's most sensational, most breathtaking, most absolutely genius moments.

All you had to do was flip on the power switch to be instantly greeted by one of Super Mario 64's most outstanding moments -- the now-classic "It's-a me, Mario!" title screen. Nintendo literally pushed Mario's face to the forefront for its latest machine, using the plumber's iconic image to showcase the 3D modeling and rendering power running under the system's hood. What made the moment even more memorable, though, was that it was fully interactive. If you held off on pressing Start and stuck around for a few seconds instead, a cursor would appear and allow you to manipulate Mario's features. Tweaking his mustache, squishing his hat and pulling out his nose like Pinocchio could keep anyone entertained for minutes on end -- and the game hadn't even started yet.

Once you were done mutating Mario into an out-of-proportion freak and finally pressed Start, the game's second major moment unfolded before you -- finding yourself standing in front of Peach's Castle. The simple courtyard with its climbable trees and the revelation that a camera-toting Lakitu would be documenting the adventure were both wonderful as you got your first chance to push the new Analog Stick and see Mario run around. The Castle then served as the hub world, another new concept, for the entire journey to come, and was filled with its own gameplay challenges and secret areas. The whole quest came full-circle back to this starting spot, too, when you collected all 120 stars -- because then you got to cannon-shoot yourself up to the castle's roof to visit with Yoshi.

The first real stage of Super Mario 64 is Bob-omb's Battlefield, and that certainly could have been a worthy pick for our list. But we're giving the early-game nostalgic nod instead to the second stage, Whomp's Fortress. This floating level introduced the hazard of dropping to your death off the side of the structure, a high-flying owl who'd carry you way up into the sky if you grabbed him by the talons and a new concrete-slab enemy species for the series, the Whomps -- a gigantic version of which resided at the top of the fortress waiting to flatten the pint-sized plumber in an epic boss battle encounter. Whomp's Fortress is such a great level and so well remembered, in fact, that Nintendo brought it back for an encore appearance just last year as the "Throwback Galaxy" in Super Mario Galaxy 2. J

ust upstairs from the Whomp's Fortress room in the Castle's main hall is a door that seemingly takes you nowhere important -- until you leap straight through a stained-glass window and end up discovering Princess Peach's Secret Slide. Jumping on and dashing down it at breakneck speed -- on either Mario's rump or stomach -- is one of Mario 64's most joyful, purely fun moments. The developers must've loved the sliding sequence enough to expand upon it a little later, too, as a second slide shows up for Mario to ride in the icy Cool, Cool Mountain level. That one's even more intense, too, since you have to race against a penguin and beat him to the bottom to earn a Star.

Rounding out the game's perfectly balanced set of introductory worlds is the watery Jolly Roger Bay, a tranquil cove where players got their feet wet with the game's swimming mechanics (if they didn't jump into the moat outside earlier). The sheer depth of the bay is impressive -- and tense, since Mario's air is constantly depleting as you swim further and further down. But the best moment happens when you finally approach the bottom and investigate the sunken ship sitting there -- an enormous eel attacks! The size and scope of the game's enemies excels yet again.

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