My father used to tell me that when I was young, the world was black and white. For a long time, I didn’t think about questioning it; after all, all the remnants of historical evidence we had from the 1950s and earlier were also in black and white. Unfortunately, I grew up and realized that my father, as all parents usually do, was pulling me by the leg. Still, he could never have imagined the past as anything more than sepia-toned, even as he studied color photographs and videos of bygone 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 mind: Mario could walk in almost any direction and you could even spin the camera around him like a sort of Spielberg video game. Sure, Mario’s first 3D adventure wasn’t the first 3D game, although it’s debated exactly which game has this title, 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 quite know what to make of it. The idea of a camera that the player can control is so ubiquitous these days that we barely record it, but in Super Mario 64 it wasn’t just a passive view of the player: it was Lakitu, the bad guy turned into a camera ( and occasional headlight holder) from the Mario series. It was a lovely little addition to make it easier for players to get this new idea of a camera that followed the character, but I’ll be honest, I’m glad we removed it so quickly. There was always something a little creepy about being followed everywhere by a turtle with a camera.
But the best moment of Super Mario 64, for my money, was only possible thanks to the addition of a new axis: the secret level of the sky that could only be accessed by looking at the ceiling.
For most of the 1990s, when news about the games was spread by the twin forces of magazines and rumors, the playground was the place to be. One boy would promise that his uncle, who works for Nintendo, had heard of a new Zelda game where he could play as Epona; another juror who read in a magazine that if you press START three hundred and fifty-two times, you could unlock Luigi in Red and Blue Pokémon.
It was difficult to separate 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 just pressed START two hundred and fifty times? Account lost.
The trick of Super Mario 64 to stand at the entrance to Peach Castle and look up was easy to try and worked instantly, consolidating it as one of those great secrets of all time. In fact, it was so timeless and memorable that it came to Super Mario Sunshine, where the trick is used to access Noki Bay, and to Super Mario Odyssey, where entering Peach Castle and looking at the sky you get a moon. powerful. . This last example is one of those things that everyone they tried it instantly, as soon as they discovered Peach’s Castle in the game, and the fact that it works is like a jolt of nostalgia that also brings us to the first time it worked.
This secret level of the sky itself is not particularly memorable, except to let Mario fly in full 3D, but there is no time to show the new dimension in the same way as the brilliant realization that you can, for the first time, I will see up. Nintendo has always been great for the unexpected: I’ll almost certainly write something in Phantom Hourglass with the map at some point (if you know, you already know) – and there’s a reason there were so many rumors surrounding their games.
We knew, even as children, that Nintendo games were full of secrets, surprises, and hidden tricks. From Warp Whistles and the average Wave Race commentary to Chris Houlihan’s Zelda Room, many of these tricks we accidentally found when we were kids or were the result of experimentation and the answer to the question “I wonder what if I do this …? “
The fact that Nintendo has always encouraged this question shows that they are still kids at heart, in the absolute best way. Rewarding curiosity is one of the ways his games bring us so much 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, in case a new level opens up where I can fly.