# Super Mario 64

37 Hacker News commenters recommended Super Mario 64 and 7 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** A groundbreaking 3D platformer praised for smooth movement and its camera design, still fun to play today. Critics point to texture clipping and an imperfect camera.

## Why people recommend it

- Shaped 3D platformers and camera design (6 comments): "Nintendo really seemed to go with a technically imperfect camera that allowed for great gameplay." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46326936)) "every modern platformer and adventure game owes its basic camera and control to Mario 64" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50056096)) "cameras being the main issue of its successor, Mario Sunshine, make Mario 64 even better" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50059845))
- Mind-blowing when it launched (5 comments): "Super Mario 64 was a real watershed moment. Seeing Mario's face deform in real time made a lot of jaws drop." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50058600)) "my mind was blown regularly with the leap to SM64 easily being the biggest" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50187777)) "felt so mindblowing when it came out, like walking into a whole new world" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50058620))
- Smooth, responsive movement and controls (4 comments): "a super intuitive analogue control stick rather than tank controls and tons and tons of polish" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50056759)) "The developers spent a ton of time on the movement, making Mario feel snappy" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50183419)) "The feeling of Mario's movement in Mario 64 is excellent." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50059324))
- Still playable and fun today (4 comments): "Despite being one of the first big 3D platformers, I still think it's one of the best." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50180308)) "Even now it's very playable even though it's not "fully modern"." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50056379)) "Same reason Mario 64 still looks good and Goldeneye doesn't." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49348827))

## What people warn about

- Texture warping and clipping issues (3 comments): "The distorted textures and weird triangle clipping issues are exactly what you'd expect from an unoptimized port" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46223146)) "looking closer now the wandering textures actually seems more to be more of an clipping issue" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46234971)) "seeing the texture warping and glitching reminds me of why I was team N64" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46224353))
- Camera angle causes problems (2 comments): "the camera angle, would, from time to time, totally screw you" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49280545)) "the camera caused me to mess up" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50187073))
- Rough visuals and low resolution (2 comments): "I think the resolution makes it particularly rough though." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46226290)) "it is really hard to look at for me" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46224191))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Prince of Persia](https://hackerapproved.com/p/prince-of-persia.md): 37 recommend
- [Celeste](https://hackerapproved.com/p/celeste.md): 19 recommend
- [Flashback (1992 video game)](https://hackerapproved.com/p/flashback.md): 8 recommend
- [Cave Story](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cave-story.md): 7 recommend
- [Super Mario Odyssey](https://hackerapproved.com/p/super-mario-odyssey.md): 7 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Super Mario 64", https://hackerapproved.com/p/super-mario-64/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).