"The legendary platformer that never gets old" sums up this game.
The story begins when Princess Toadstool (Peach) sends Mario a letter saying that she baked a cake for him. Mario shows up via warp pipe to accept Peach's invitation. Strangely, when he gets there, everything is quiet and the front door is locked! After Mario finds the key, he goes inside to find all the doors have been locked using star power. Bowser is obviously behind this scheme, so it's up to Mario to find all the power stars, defeat Bowser, and discover what's happened to Peach.
The gameplay is simple, yet extremely entertaining. Mario can perform a regular jump, double jump, triple jump, long jump, backflip, and side jump. He can also swim through water with ease, punch, kick, and blast out of cannons. Without a doubt, some of Mario's coolest actions involve him donning a winged cap and flying through the air, putting on a metal cap and walking underwater, and wearing a special blue cap that turns him invisible. All of this is mixed into the main game, making for an interesting time.
Whenever the game starts, Mario is always found outside of the castle. After entering the castle, you can choose one of the many doors to enter. Behind these doors are picture frames that show a different world. To enter these worlds, simply jump into the picture. These worlds can range from a shipyard to castles to caves to the sky itself! From here, you are shown a list of missions you can complete. Each mission has its own star to collect, but it's up to you to figure out how and where to find it. The cool thing about the missions is that they're all creative and they require you to go to different parts of the level each time you come back. To access the upper and lower parts of the castle, you need to collect a certain amount of stars, then fight Bowser to get a key that unlocks one of these places. It takes time but you'll have lots of fun working towards the top of the castle.
There are plenty of mini-bosses in the game, but the best "bosses" are the three levels leading to the Bowser fights, as well as the fights themselves. The levels are the most challenging in the whole game, with the sole purpose being: keep Mario from reaching the goal. When you finally get to Bowser, you'll have to toss him around a bit to get your prize. You fight on a circular arena, surrounded by floating spike bombs. Your task? Grab Bowser by the tail and throw him into the explosives. KABOOM! These fights are lots of fun and they give the game that extra challenge all players are looking for.
The graphics are really good for an N64 game, and a lot of the environments push what the system can do. Every world is huge and colorful in the game, and the frame rate is excellent. The music is catchy and can get stuck in your head if you're not careful. The sound effects are really good too; Mario's jumps are given height quality, Mario's flight has him rushing through the air, and goomba stomping has never sounded cooler.
Overall, this is an awesome game that anyone can pick and have a great time with. The simple controls mesh with deep gameplay, resulting in a game that has lots of pick-up-and-play value. I recommend this game to everyone. Enjoy!