Super Mario 64
The game that showed the world what 3D could be. Super Mario 64 launched the Nintendo 64 by dropping Mario into an open, explorable castle, and its analog-stick control and swooping camera quietly wrote the rulebook every 3D platformer would follow.
Super Mario 64 arrived with the Nintendo 64 — June 23, 1996 in Japan, September 29, 1996 in North America — developed by Nintendo EAD under Shigeru Miyamoto. It was the first 3D Super Mario game, and it reinvented the series: instead of running left to right, you explored open 3D worlds hidden inside the paintings of Princess Peach's castle, hunting 120 Power Stars across 15 courses.
What made it feel like magic was the control. The N64's new analog stick let Mario move in a full 360 degrees with real momentum — walk, tiptoe, or sprint — while a dynamic virtual camera followed the action, both firsts that became instant standards. Wall-jumps, the wing cap's flight, and grabbing Bowser by the tail to fling him off the arena all felt genuinely new.
It was a monster hit: over two million copies and roughly $140 million in its first three North American months, the best-selling game of 1996 by dollar sales, and eventually nearly twelve million copies sold as the best-selling N64 game. Decades later it's still studied as the template for 3D platforming — and as the birthplace of the debunked "L is real 2401" Luigi myth.
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