My father used to tell me that when I was young, people were black and white. For a long time, I didn’t think to question it – after all, every piece of historical evidence I had from the 1950s onwards was black and white. Unfortunately, I grew up and realized that my father – as all dads are used to – was pulling my leg. However, I could never imagine my past as anything more than sepia tones, even when analyzing colorful photos and videos from past eras.
I think if I ever have children, I will try to tell them that the third dimension was invented in 1996 by Shigeru Miyamoto. Super Mario 64 was one of my first games and it blew my tiny mind: Mario could go in almost any direction and you could even move the camera around him like a kind of Spielberg video game. Sure, Mario’s first 3D adventure wasn’t the first 3D game – although exactly which game has that title is debated, so I’ll just say it was some time in the early ’90s – but it was the first time many people experienced the new Z-axis in a video game.
Back then, 3D was so new that even developers didn’t know what to do with it. The idea of a camera that the player can control is so ubiquitous nowadays that we barely record it, but in Super Mario 64 it wasn’t just a passive vision of the player – it was Lakitu, the bastard turned cameraman (and the occasional headlight start) from the Mario series. It was a charming little addition to make it easier for players to come up with this new room idea that follows the character around them, but – I’ll be honest – I’m glad I removed it so quickly. It was always a little creepy to be followed everywhere by a camera turtle.
But the best moment in Super Mario 64, for my money, was possible only by adding a new axis: the secret level of the sky that could only be accessed by looking up at the ceiling.
For most of the 1990s, when news of the game was spread by the twin forces of magazines and rumors, the playground was the ideal place. A child promises that his uncle who works for Nintendo has heard about a new Zelda game in which you could play the role of Epona; another would swear he read in a magazine that if you press START three hundred and fifty-two times, then you can unlock Luigi in the Red and Blue Pokémon.
It was difficult to separate the facts from fiction and even more difficult when the only way to confirm these rumors was to own the game and replicate the exact conditions – maybe you only pressed START two hundred and fifty times? You’re kind of lost in the middle.
The Super Mario 64 trick of sitting at the entrance to Peach’s Castle and looking up was easy to try and worked instantly, cementing it as one of those great secrets of all time. In fact, it was so timeless and memorable that it made its way both into Super Mario Sunshine – where the trick is used to access Noki Bay – and into Super Mario Odyssey, where the entrance to Peach’s Castle and the view Up in the sky, the Moon gives you the Power. . The last example is one of those things that everyone they tried it instantly as soon as they discovered Peach’s Castle in play – and the fact that it works is like a shake of nostalgia that takes us right back to the first time it worked.
The secret level of the sky itself is not particularly memorable, except that it let Mario fly in full 3D, but there is no time to show quite the new dimension, just like the brilliant achievement you can, for the first time, to show up. Nintendo has always been great unexpectedly – I’ll almost certainly write about it in the Phantom Hourglass with the map at some point (if you know, you know) – and there is a reason why there have been so many rumors surrounding their games.
I knew, even as a child, that Nintendo games were full of secrets, surprises and hidden tricks. From Warp Whistles and the Wave Wave commentator to Chris Houlihan’s Zelda camera, many of these tricks were either accidentally found by us as children, or were the result of experimentation and the answer to the question “I wonder what happens if I do to stay …? “
The fact that Nintendo has always encouraged this question shows that they are still children at heart, in the absolute best way. Rewarding curiosity is one of the ways in which their games bring us such joy and why people still find small details in Breath of the Wild, four years after its release.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to look at the sun, where it will open up a new level for me to fly.