From: Demon HunterX | #242
Implying that Mario Galaxy 1/2 is better than:
Mario 64
Galaxy 1 and 2 are so much better than Mario 64 it's silly.
Mario 64 is not a game that has aged well, at least not to me. About half of the worlds are just average at best. You've got a few standout worlds, but the level design just isn't that great for some of them. I mean, I don't really fault it because the N64 was a brand spankin' new thing and they were still learning how to use it, but it definitely shows sometimes with Mario 64.
I don't know where people get this "I like the open-ended exploring of Mario 64!" idea from, because it doesn't exist. There's very little to explore, to the point that I basically end up trekking over the exact same territory 6 times over. Look at places like Lethal Lava Land, Shifting Sand Land, Snowman's Land, Dire, Dire Docks...There ain't a lot to those worlds, just a bunch of open space (water, quicksand, lava). Heck, Rainbow Ride is probably more linear than anything you find in Galaxy. The best parts of the game were when you entered those little worlds inside the world that were separate from everything else (like the volcano in Lethal Lava Land). Well, the Bowser levels were pretty cool, too. But I don't really care about the "exploration" aspect of Mario 64 anyway. I still enjoy the game anyway, but that's one thing people use to say Mario 64 is better that I don't get. Mario Galaxy may have been more "streamlined," but it never really felt like it because I wasn't going over the same territory every single time. I was constantly getting to explore new areas.
But I felt Tick Tock Clock was easily the best designed world in Mario 64, mostly due to the gimmick of the clockwork's speed being determined by what time you entered the clock, which really mixed things up. Plus, it really integrated the idea that "You're inside a clock" pretty well because it was very crazy and active (as long as you didn't go in at the point where the clock was stopped). Great world, that one.
