Super Mario 64 made a lasting impression on the field of 3D game design, featuring a dynamic camera system and 360-degree analog control. While doing so, it still preserves many gameplay elements and characters of earlier Mario games, and the same visual style. In the evolution from two dimensions to three, Super Mario 64 places an emphasis on exploration within vast worlds that require the player to complete multiple diverse missions, in addition to the occasional linear obstacle courses as in traditional platform games. The game established a new archetype for the 3D genre, much as Super Mario Bros. did for 2D sidescrolling platformers. As one of the earlier 3D platform games, Super Mario 64 is based on open world playability, degrees of freedom through all three axes in space, and relatively large areas which are composed primarily of true 3D polygons as opposed to only two-dimensional (2D) sprites. In the game, Mario explores Princess Peach’s castle and must rescue her from Bowser. An enhanced remake, Super Mario 64 DS, was released for the Nintendo DS in 2004. It is the best-selling game on the Nintendo 64, with more than eleven million copies sold. It was released in Japan on June 23, 1996, and later in North America, Europe, and Australia.

Along with Pilotwings 64, it was one of the launch games for the console.

It is the first Super Mariogame to use three-dimensional (3D) graphics. With that said, the game adds new gameplay elements such as a minimap, new levels, extra playable characters, and a multiplayer mode. The limitations of the Nintendo DS gave Super Mario 64 DS lower quality graphics compared to 3DS games. Super Mario 64 is a 1996 platform video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. Had this game released for the Nintendo 3DS, there's a strong chance it would have placed higher on this list.

Super mario 64 3ds remake