Featured Image Credit: Nintendo
Topics: Mario, Nintendo, PC, Super Mario, Retro Gaming, Mods
Super Mario 64 is dying for a remake, and while Nintendo clearly doesn’t fancy the challenge right now, fans have it covered.
Nintendo worked some serious magic into Super Mario 64, as while the graphics aren’t there anymore and the gameplay can sometimes feel dated, it’s still a fantastic 3D platformer, and served as both inspiration and competition for many games that followed.
You certainly wouldn’t have games like Astro Bot if it weren’t for Super Mario 64.
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With that in mind, it’s easy to see why fans just can’t let go of it, and if you can get the game working on PC, you can mod it for an entirely different adventure.
That’s what Super Mario 64 Render 96 is, a “remake” that swaps the in-game models for the ones seen on the cover art.
Usually, the models in-game have far less polygons so Mario has some sharp edges, but the cover art is smoother and looks more like the Nintendo mascot we know and love.
With the right mods, you can play as that version of Mario, and even Wario and Luigi like you could in the Nintendo DS version of the game.
There are plenty of videos out there demonstrating how this looks, like one from Project Longplay, which features a full playthrough of the game in this style.
“This is how Mario 64 should've looked like on the Nintendo Switch,” said one commenter, referring to the Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection, which felt like a missed opportunity with how little it changed the actual games.
Other comments were more nostalgic, saying, “This is how the game looked to me when I was a kid,” and, “This is what I expected to see when it first came out … man, I still love the game, precious memories.”
If you’ve got a PC, it’s worth trying to recreate this for yourself, and there are other mods that change the game in different ways too.