Board 8 > Worst (main) level in Super Mario 64?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Shifting Sand Land for me. There isn't a single star in that level that I enjoy getting. I hate the level design, I hate the enemies, I hate the terrain, I hate the hazards. The one thing I'll give it is the aesthetic. It looks nice and the music is very fitting. But the music is also in Lethal Lava Land (even though it goes better with the look of SSL), so...

I know this is a popular choice for worst level in the game but far from a consensus, so I'd love to hear why whatever else you hate is your least favorite.

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Agree with SSL. There's a couple other levels that I don't really look forward to playing, but they at least have some sort of redeeming quality, even if it's small sometimes. But SSL has nothing.

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Probably Wet-Dry World. Or maybe Dire Dire Docks.

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Great_Paul posted...

Probably Wet-Dry World. Or maybe Dire Dire Docks.

DDD is just boring, but not actively bad, which makes it better than SSL at the very least.

Unpopular opinion but I actually love WDW and look forward to it every single time. That, Big Boo's Haunt, and Whomp's Fortress are probably my top three.

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Dire Dire Docks

I'm not a big fan of water levels, and none of the stars are that interesting. Also, I hate having to swim through that pointlessly long tunnel at the start so many times.
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Shifting Sand Land is the worst. Maybe unpopular opinion, but Tiny-Huge Island is close.

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1. Big Boo's Haunt has some great atmosphere and fun moments, and it's easily the best level in the game.
2. Lethal Lava Land is a really fun setting with some enjoyable uses of the lava burning mechanic.
3. Shifting Sand Land has a great setting and atmosphere, and some really cool set pieces.
4. Cool, Cool Mountain is largely boosted by the slide minigame, but otherwise it's kind of generic.
5. Whomp's Fortress is generic, but fine.
6. Bob-Omb Battlefield is generic, but fine.
7. Tick Tock Clock is an interesting concept, but it feels so sterile as a zone, and the platforming can get frustrating.
8. Snowman's Land suffers from feeling like a more generic version of Cool, Cool Mountain.
9. Hazy Maze Cave is one of the most forgettable levels in the game for me, aside from Nessie.
10. Tall, Tall Mountain is the most generic level in the game, but it's so big and cumbersome on top of that.
11. Jolly Roger Bay is a water level, so automatically subpar, and it's kinda forgettable too.
12. Dire, Dire Docks is almost entirely a water level, and it feels completely pointless.
13. Rainbow Ride is a cool design, but I hate the platforming in it and the bad camera angles required to complete it properly.
14. Tiny, Huge Island has an obnoxious mechanic required to complete it properly, and it's generic in design otherwise.
15. Wet-Dry World is a water level with an obnoxious "raise/lower the water level" mechanic.

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WDW is probably my favorite too. There's just something about the atmosphere that really grabs me.

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Jolly Roger Bay or Dire Dire Docks, definitely. Wet-Dry World is pretty fun, though.

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Dire Dire Docks. I like a lot of water levels but the challenges in DDD are unintersting, especially all of the ones you get in the whirlpool section.

Lethal Lava Land is probably my second least favorite, but it's boosted a little by the volcano and shell surfing. The main area is a total bland mess but at least it makes for an okay obstacle course for the shell.

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Tiny-Huge Island followed by Wet-Dry World for me.

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Lethal Lava Land

Rainbow Ride

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wallmasterz posted...

Tiny-Huge Island followed by Wet-Dry World for me.

This but maybe inverted. Both of those are more tedious than anything.

Dire Dire Docks has the GOAT Mario song in it so anyone saying that is nuts.

ChainLTTP posted...

Dire Dire Docks has the GOAT Mario song in it so anyone saying that is nuts.

Preach it brother

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I was ignoring music as a factor but honestly it may be just enough to put it up over LLL.

Despite the song's name I still more strongly associate it with JRB. Environmentally it fits better.

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Jolly Roger Bay. Dire Dire Docks at least has the red coins which are great even if the rest isn't too exciting.

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jolly roger bay

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dire dire docks

was between that and lethal lava land, but going into the volcano was kinda cool the first time, so DDD it is

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Easily THI.

JRB is pretty bad but at least you know you have two easy stars to get.
DDD is very consistent even if slow.

THI is just awful - you usually have to get at least a couple stars from it. Red coins isn't bad, but if the box star spawns where you can't jump, then uggghhh. And don't get me started on how RNG secrets and piranha plants can be.


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Tiny huge

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Dire Dire Docks pretty easily.
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For me, toss up between Hazy Maze Cave and Tall Tall Mountain.

Tiny huge is hilariously quick to navigate in the tiny side, and I actually rather kind of like it apart from the Koopa the Quick race.

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Dire Dire Docks. The whole level is just obviously an afterthought that has stuff they decided not to use in JRB.

I'm the guy who loves Hazy Maze Cave, but I really like the Metal Mario power in 64.

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I'm alright with HMC other than the 100 coins, and to a lesser degree 8 red coins. But man fuck that 100 coins.

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Tall Tall Mountain

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Tiny Huge Island is the only one I actively dislike. The size gimmick doesn't mix well with the games physics or even the design of the level for that matter. Rainbow Ride is also down there just for being so boring.

This is ignoring the 100 coin challenge stars because that makes most of the levels bad.

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How is nobody saying Snowmans Land

so unremarkable I almost had to look up the name

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Can't think of any that I actively disliked. Tiny Huge Island was kind of a pain in the ass I guess.

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DDD or Snowman's Land for sure

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Mario 64 in general feels like one of those games with an incredible opening that just gets more bland and tedious as it goes on. Those first few levels are legitimately godly and always get me, though!

Thinking on it Tiny Huge Island is probably the one that I always dread the most.

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Xiahou Shake posted...

Mario 64 in general feels like one of those games with an incredible opening that just gets more bland and tedious as it goes on

I somewhat agree but then the final level is just the absolute best and it makes you forget about everything else. Easily my favorite stretch of any Mario game.

Water levels in general just strike me as the worst, and specifically JRB and DDD (DDD being the worse of the two).

By contrast, wet-dry world I actually like cause of the water height setting mechanic; you can do pretty much the entire level without swimming if you want to.

In terms of levels that aren't JRB or DDD...probably Snowman's Land? Doesn't have a unique motif, and doesn't have like...any stars that stand out to me as particularly good, and several stars that are really quite badly designed.

For example...the star that you're supposed to go through an internal ice maze to get to, but which literally everyone just jumps on top of the maze and drops to the finish line; reasonable star for an early level, but for an upstairs level it's just too easy to ignore the maze they made and grab the star. Also, the intended way of getting to the star on top of the snowman, you're supposed to stand next to the penguin to not get blown off, but this always felt really buggy, and I usually end up not relying on the penguin at all.

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Dire, Dire Docks, no question.

Shifting Sand Land is good, actually.

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Lethal Lava Land followed closely by Snowman land

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WazzupGenius00 posted...

How is nobody saying Snowmans Land

so unremarkable I almost had to look up the name

It's better to be bland than bad.

DDD is bad btw.

Snowman's Land isn't great either but it's saved by the fact that you can ride a shell around, and climbing the snowman is kinda fun.

From DDD through the upper level, all of the worlds kind of feel rushed, or like they were cutting room floor ideas. Like, the first 8 worlds in the main floor and the basement each feel really strongly considered and carefully designed to be really interesting, then DDD feels like a JRB copy, SL feels like a CCM copy, WDW really strongly feels like some weird beta level that they were fucking around with and made into a full level, and neither TTM nor THI really feel like fully baked ideas. It all feels like filler until TTC and RR which are strong finishers.

Tiny-Huge Island.

Other candidates include basically everything on the top two floors besides Wet-Dry World, the water stages, and Shifting Sand Land.

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Snowman's land for me personally. I seem to keep falling off climbing the snowman or getting into the igloo. The shell is kind of fun but once it's gone, it's gone.

I kind of like DDD, though the 100 coins are a big problem if you don't know about the couple at the very beginning.I remember getting 97 or so with a friend, which took awhile, and then the only coins we could find were the ones by that death-suction thing, and we ended up dying.

I kind of like Hazy Maze Cave 100 coins too, except for the blue coins, which are easy to miss and come late in the level.

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WF > SL > WDW > TTM > LLL > HMC > DDD > RR >= TTC > SSL > BBH > BOB > JRB > CCM > THI

These are randomizer rankings.

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I was gonna say either Jolly Roger or Dire Dire - and I usually like water levels but these are bad but are saved by the music.

So I'll go with Snowman's Land. Every star on that level sucks, except killing the ice bully is fine I guess.

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Tiny Huge or Rainbow Ride are the worst.

Big Boos Haunt, Whomp's Fortress, or Lethal Lava Land are the best

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metroid composite posted...

By contrast, wet-dry world I actually like cause of the water height setting mechanic; you can do pretty much the entire level without swimming if you want to.

This is pretty much what I do.

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Shifting Sand Land is fine except for the insta-death quicksand. Id probably rank it high if not for that.

I legit dislike Tiny Huge Island though. Whether or not I feel like doing all 120 on a play through usually depends on whether or not I feel like suffering through it.
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Paratroopa1 posted...

Snowman's Land isn't great either but it's saved by the fact that you can ride a shell around

Eh, I'm not that enamored by the shell.

It's okay I guess, but the real strength of SM64 is in Mario's baseline jumping controls. In terms of alternate control schemes...Flying > Slides > Shells > Swimming I guess, something like that? I still prefer the core jumping mechanics over all four. And...overall I don't find myself liking a level more if it has a slide or if it has a wing cap or if it has a shell. It adds some variety, but doesn't make me like the level more.

(Not like you can use the shell to do most of the stars in Snowman's Land anyway; you can do like...8 red coins, which is the star the shell was built for, and I guess you can do the bully with the shell if you want to. That's pretty much it. Maybe you can use the shell to reach the igloo, but that sounds harder than the normal route. It's not like Lethal Lava Land or Shifting Sand Land where the shell takes you literally everywhere).

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Underleveled posted...

I'm alright with HMC other than the 100 coins, and to a lesser degree 8 red coins. But man fuck that 100 coins.

Spot on. I rage quit at some point because I got them but the final one was from climbing and then the star spawned above the roof so I couldn't grab it and had to start over.

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Tiny Huge Island is the one I've always liked the least.

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tick tock clock or rainbow ride

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Tiny, Huge Island is just such a slog

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