Finding New Games in Old Titles: Introducing the Super Mario 64 Challenge

It’s not often that the N64 makes headlines nowadays. Sure, it’s often remembered for its influence on the world of consoles — but is ultimately left in the past. Yet, late last year a video titled “The Super Mario 64 Challenge” surfaced, just recently getting some significant attention. Essentially, a group of Japanese gamers have invented a new way of playing Super Mario 64, and it seems they might inspire a Nintendo 64 renaissance (well, at least, one concerned with Super Mario 64, that is).

This ‘challenge’ is simple in its rules: “Activate a 1-Up mushroom from a tree[,] then attempt to gather all 8 red coins on a level and collect the star without letting the 1-Up mushroom reach you.” Though, this new perspective on Super Mario 64 offers quite bit of difficulty due to the mushroom being omnipresent and incessantly following Mario around.

A YouTube series (see below) divided into three parts shows off their concept of the challenge; and although narrated in Japanese, it is very interesting to watch these gamers tactfully navigate the environments of Super Mario 64 while yelling out of fear and excitement because of a tiny green mushroom chasing them.

Implementing one’s own rules within the larger rule set of a video game is actually something we all probably do as gamers. Whether doing a “no rush 15″ in StarCraft or playing an honor-system-based round in Counter-Strike with only knifes, gamers are always taking games in new, often unpredictable, directions. Even mods — whether being total conversions or simple server-based mods like WarCraft III in CS 1.6 — to some extent embody this notion of getting the most out of a game’s framework.

Indeed, gamers will always love a particularly well-crafted video game for the experience it was meant to create. Though, as the “Super Mario 64 Challenge” suggests, they most likely feel a stronger connection to that which they re-invent.