Psypicasso reviews Super Mario 64 (N64)

The story, in a Koopa shell: Our hero, Mario, receives a note from Princess Toadstool inviting him to Toadstool Castle for a cake...but when he arrives, the castle is deserted and a nasty, disembodied voice tells him to get lost. Yes, Princess Toadstool has yet again gotten her royal keister in the sling, and the bad guy gang of Bowser, Boo, et al, have overrun (and apparently redecorated) Mushroom Castle - hanging a collection of magical, wobbly-membraned paintings/portals that portray scenes from the fantastic worlds to which they're connected. Via Mushroom Castle's enchanted murals, players will find vast alternate worlds: Snowing planes of slippery ice slopes; mist-shrouded lagoons containing sunken ships; archipelagos of airborne islands; haunted castles wrapped in perpetual midnight; and red, seething expanses of lava-flooded obstacles. These worlds are slowly filling with monsters, the Princess herself is missing, and only one man can set things right.