I could scarcely imagine what wonders it could bring. It was a combination of being at the perfect age and the mindblowing prospect of what was to come - a Mario game in 3D. The screenshots I pored over, the magazines I bought just to get a little bit more information on this brave new world, just envisaging how it would feel to play it. I personally don't recall anticipating any one individual game more. And, more excitingly than the console itself, its flagship title, Super Mario 64. At that time, the new kid on the block, the Sony PlayStation, was surprisingly trouncing SEGA's Saturn sales-wise, but the one we'd all been waiting for, Nintendo's new N64, was on the horizon. The move from the 16-bit era to the 32/64-bit one was the biggest shift gaming has known. It hooked me from start to excruciating, five-and-a-half hours' worth of solid attempts final-level finish. But with Super Mario 3D World, Nintendo EAD went above and beyond and constructed something which overlaps perfectly my template for a sensational videogame. So any half-decent Mario game always has a good chance of being one of my favourite games of any given year. No other character embodies the essence of gaming more. So any half-decent I will come clean - I adore Mario.
