In the first level, it just shows you these green guys who you can dispatch in one hit. Then, it will throw in the blue guy. If you don’t know the difference you’ll know after you try to kill him the same way as the others. You don’t really lose any progress if you die. This is right at the beginning.

Then, when you see a red guy down the road, you know to look out and learn his patterns because you know that the colors mean they’re different. This is the case in every level. It slowly amps up the difficulty after you’ve learned some things about each level.

There’s also a bigger enemy in every level that takes multiple hits and some clever tactics to take down. Each one you see one of these for the first times, it’s always in an isolated situation where you can focus on just this one guy. Learn his patterns and take him down. This is an awesome part in level 4. Check this out. You could see this really buff dude with a sword below you. Looks super menacing and tough to beat, right? You’re scared to go down there because you don’t know how he moves yet. When you jump down, he sees you, runs toward you and dies in this lake of fire. Now, you’ve learned his pattern, and it was in a situation with no threat.

At least yet. Oh, man. A similar things happens in level 2. You see the red frog guy down below and you don’t know his patterns yet but you know that he’s the hardest version of this enemy. The thing is, he’s so far back in his owl cove that if you drop down, you have enough time to react when you see him slide across the floor. It gives you an environment where you can succeed instead of fail. Even in the last bonus level. It’s still teaching you about your obstacles. When you go down this rope and drop down, it triggers this down slash, because you were still pressing down when you let go. They wanted you to do this because then, you hit this glowing ball and you learn that it bounces you up when you down strike it. You didn’t have to start this level by going down a rope, but they did it intentionally to show you what you’re supposed to use these balls for. In the final level, after you’ve learned about all these different enemies and how to kill them.

Then, it puts you through several floors of all the enemies put together. It tests your memory and reflexes in a big cauldron full of your past experiences. I think it’s a nice touch even though it is a bit long. Then, when you reach the final boss, it gives you all the power ups for free. This lulls you into a false sense of security thinking it will be a breeze, but you need those power ups because this boss is tough. After braving your way through treacherous levels and dying over and over again, this is the final exam in this ridiculously hard game. It ends on a high note making you feel really accomplished, until you see that this isn’t the true end of the game. After you beat the game, it gives you this coded message through pictures about how to continue your journey. You have to play exceptionally well to see these hard bonus levels.

These are called the Valcory levels. They’re basically restructured harder versions of the levels you’ve gone through. Now, from the very beginning, it doesn’t mess around with isolation. It throws you directly into a level chock full of enemies and death. It’s okay because you’ve already learned about these enemies and know how they behave. It’s just a true test of your skill, nothing more. I thought this hard mode of the game would be impossible because you have a certain amount of lives this time around. If you use them all, you have to go back to the regular game and start over. With a lot of patience and determination, I did finally make it to the secret level at the end and beat the true final boss. You’re rewarded for your skill. I’ve only felt that sense of accomplishment in a few other games.

When you first pop into this world, it gives you this wide, open area to test out what the buttons do on this crazy new three-pronged do-dad. Instead of a tutorial level or something, this is a fully interactive hub world, something fairly new at the time. Other than telling you about the camera controls because this was also new for the time, they needed some explaining. It just lets you roam around and test out what this whole 3D experience has to offer. There are no other instructions or button control screen. They expect you to mess around and figure it out on your own. This is important to the whole feeling accomplished thing, so remember that.

There’s basically no threat of danger here, so you can run around until you feel comfortable enough to enter the castle. Now, being one of the first 3D games ever, they assumed people are going to want to explore these expansive worlds, and that’s why the first level is so important. It starts you off in another big, open area, but this time, with enemies to put your skills to the test. You feel small in this giant new map, and a lot of what you see on your screen might seem foreign to you, so they start you off with things that are familiar.

The first enemy you see is a Goomba, all in his 3D glory and uglier than ever. You know what to do. This is the first enemy you see in Super Mario Bros. You jump on his head. After seeing another familiar enemy, the Bob-omb up next is a bigger, much scarier enemy, albeit, another familiar one, a Chain Chomp. Luckily, this one is tied down, so it’s not too much of a threat. You can run by this scary thing without being in much danger. Keep in mind, no one is telling you this. You’re intuitively figuring out how to get past these hurdles.

Then, when you cross this bridge, you see it, your next obstacle, a huge mountain. Remember earlier how I said my friend feels accomplished when he climbs a mountain? Well, the devs must have thought the same thing because your first real test in this new 3D space is to hike all the way to the top of this thing. Symbolically and literally, this is the first mountain you must overcome. After dodging some bubble bombs, you reach your first real fork in the road. You can go right, and try and, dodge these huge boulders, or you can go left and try to climb this steep hill.

Now, you may be different, but the first time I played, I opted to go up this hill on the left. This is important because it teaches you that you have choices and it’s completely up to you which direction you decide to go in this journey. 3D is much less limiting than 2D, and they created this level to really make you feel and understand that. If you’re especially explorative, you might find this hidden teleportation wall that takes you up the rest of this mountain. You’re rewarded for finding this shortcut in the second star of this level, but we’ll get to that in a second.

You reached the top, and this huge bomb dude is waiting for you. He gives you a little hint and says you need to grab him from behind to throw him. Even if you didn’t read the text, he picks you up if you get too close, so you can assume you have to do the same to him. This is a good time to practice your new abilities running around trying to chuck him. Three times, and you did it. The first goal in this game is a fully fledged boss fight, and you took him down. Granted he’s an easy boss, but you need this experience to fight Bowser later on.

After you’ve gotten one star, your very next challenge is to do the exact same thing, but faster by racing Koopa the Quick up the mountain. They’re teaching you how to use the same abilities you’ve just learned, but under pressure. This helps you grow as a player, and like I said before, you’re rewarded for exploring if you found the shortcut, so you get a few more stars, and the game tells you it’s time to fight Bowser. Already? I just started.

This level is much more linear, so it definitely feels like you’re leading up to something epic. Then, when you finally reach him, Bowser looks huge and scary. Again, you have to think of this through the eyes of someone who’s never seen this before. He’s faster than King Bob-omb, but you’ve learned all the skills you need to take him down from your first fight. You swing around and grab him by the tail.

Now, assuming you have no idea what to do at this point, the game allows you to mess around a bit by not letting Bowser break free after a certain amount of time, so you start moving around the control stick, and whoa, you can swing Bowser around. This is so cool. You’ve never done anything like this in a Mario game before. Normally, you can’t touch Bowser at all. You have to throw stuff at him or pull the bridge out from under him. You don’t know what those spiky things do, but if you hit one with Bowser, you’ll definitely understand. Man, it just felt so good when you did that for the first time. So accomplished. Now, obviously, Bowser isn’t dead for good, but it’s now taught you everything you need to know about Bowser for the rest of the game.

As you progress in the game, new levels unlock after you beat a Bowser fight, and these levels increase in difficulty as you go, but the ones that are unlocked in groups are about the same difficulty, which I think is nice because you could pick any of them and feel like you can succeed. It slowly amps up the challenge as you grow as a player until finally, you’ve reached the last Bowser level. By this point, you’re a master of this new 3D platforming stuff. You can jump and dive better than, well, you could earlier in the game.

In this last level, it really tests your skill and pulls out all the stops. Unlike the other Bowser levels, this one builds on top of itself, so if you fall off, sometimes you’ll get a chance to keep going. Well, sometimes, but after besting this entire game, you have one final bout standing in your way. Bowser looks meaner than ever, and this fight is nothing to mess around about. It really feels like a final boss. Bowser has some new moves, you have to hit him three times instead of one, and the whole platform starts falling apart after a while.

I remember watching my dad beat Bowser for the first time and watching him have that sense of accomplishment I strive for so bad, I knew I had to complete this task as well, and I did. After a heart-pounding, sweat-inducing, long, long fight, I finally lined up my throw enough to launch Bowser into that final bomb. I jumped and danced around the room for the entire ending. I had never felt more accomplished at my young point in life.

You see, this game lets you discover what methods worked best for you and grow your own ability as you play through these memorable levels. There wasn’t a perfect way to play. You figured out all the secrets and tricks on your own. This led to one of the most triumphant feelings I’ve ever had from a game before. It laid out the challenge right away by giving you a taste of Bowser early on and kept you striving to reach him again until you bested this foe.

Part of this could have been the fact that I was so young or that the graphics were so revolutionary, but Super Mario 64 has a special place in my heart because it’s really the first time I think I truly fell in love with video games. I wasn’t particularly amazing at anything else at the time. This was how I could feel accomplishment with something. Maybe you’ve had an experience like this before as well. Have you ever beaten a game or part of a game and felt such overwhelming accomplishment you just felt your heart wanting to leap out of your chest? Tell me about it in the comments below. I want to hear it.

Now, assuming you have no idea what to do at this point, the game allows you to mess around a bit by not letting Bowser break free after a certain amount of time, so you start moving around the control stick, and whoa, you can swing Bowser around. This is so cool. You’ve never done anything like this in a Mario game before. Normally, you can’t touch Bowser at all. You have to throw stuff at him or pull the bridge out from under him. You don’t know what those spiky things do, but if you hit one with Bowser, you’ll definitely understand. Man, it just felt so good when you did that for the first time. So accomplished. Now, obviously, Bowser isn’t dead for good, but it’s now taught you everything you need to know about Bowser for the rest of the game.

As you progress in the game, new levels unlock after you beat a Bowser fight, and these levels increase in difficulty as you go, but the ones that are unlocked in groups are about the same difficulty, which I think is nice because you could pick any of them and feel like you can succeed. It slowly amps up the challenge as you grow as a player until finally, you’ve reached the last Bowser level. By this point, you’re a master of this new 3D platforming stuff. You can jump and dive better than, well, you could earlier in the game.

In this last level, it really tests your skill and pulls out all the stops. Unlike the other Bowser levels, this one builds on top of itself, so if you fall off, sometimes you’ll get a chance to keep going. Well, sometimes, but after besting this entire game, you have one final bout standing in your way. Bowser looks meaner than ever, and this fight is nothing to mess around about. It really feels like a final boss. Bowser has some new moves, you have to hit him three times instead of one, and the whole platform starts falling apart after a while.

I remember watching my dad beat Bowser for the first time and watching him have that sense of accomplishment I strive for so bad, I knew I had to complete this task as well, and I did. After a heart-pounding, sweat-inducing, long, long fight, I finally lined up my throw enough to launch Bowser into that final bomb. I jumped and danced around the room for the entire ending. I had never felt more accomplished at my young point in life.

You see, this game lets you discover what methods worked best for you and grow your own ability as you play through these memorable levels. There wasn’t a perfect way to play. You figured out all the secrets and tricks on your own. This led to one of the most triumphant feelings I’ve ever had from a game before. It laid out the challenge right away by giving you a taste of Bowser early on and kept you striving to reach him again until you bested this foe.

Part of this could have been the fact that I was so young or that the graphics were so revolutionary, but Super Mario 64 has a special place in my heart because it’s really the first time I think I truly fell in love with video games. I wasn’t particularly amazing at anything else at the time. This was how I could feel accomplishment with something. Maybe you’ve had an experience like this before as well. Have you ever beaten a game or part of a game and felt such overwhelming accomplishment you just felt your heart wanting to leap out of your chest? Tell me about it in the comments below. I want to hear it.