The Super Mario series has seen a lot of great games, enough so that gamers are forever locked in debate over which title was truly the best. If I had to pick one, I’d say Super Mario World for the Super Nintendo is the reigning champion, but Super Mario 64 isn’t far behind.
If it’s been a long time since you’ve played Mario’s first 3d outing (or you – gasp – have never played it), you can play it right now, right on your computer, right in your browser – the first level, at least. Developer Roystan Ross is using his own near-perfect recreation of the first level as a proof-of-concept demo for his Super Character Controller project for Unity, which you play in any browser as long as you’ve got the web player installed.
Assuming you don’t still own a Nintendo 64, Ross’ project will allow you to take a trip down memory lane without having to mess with the legal and technical difficulties of installing a Nintendo 64 emulator. The downside is that you really need some sort of controller, because this game is something of a nightmare to play with a keyboard. The other downside is that Super Mario 64 is so damn addicting you’ll be dying to play more once you beat that first level.