First-Person Super Mario 64 Is The Stuff Of Nightmares

Super Mario 64 has earned its spot as one of the most beloved games of all time, so the healthy modding community that has grown around it over the past 20 years shouldn't come as much of a shock. Over the years, modders have done a lot to Super Mario 64, including a recent mod that enables online multiplayer. Kaze Emanuar, the same person behind Super Mario 64 Online, is back today with a new mod, and it certainly isn't one for the faint of heart.

With his new romhack, Emanuar shifts Super Mario 64's perspective from third-person to first-person. As you can guess, this puts an entirely new spin on the game, as Super Mario 64 wasn't developed with a first-person perspective in mind. In a recently published video, Emanuar discusses some of the quirks to playing Super Mario 64 in a first-person view.

To start, he says that Mario's animations – specifically in regards to his head and the implications that has for first-person tracking – quickly turn this into a "challenging romhack." Mario still moves as he does in the regular, third-person game, with all of his special jumps and tricks being available to him. We're assuming most people won't want to keep playing after attempting a triple jump from a first-person viewpoint.

One quirk with Super Mario 64 becomes a more glaring flaw with this mod. Emanuar notes in his video that geometry doesn't render up close, which means that parts of the stage will disappear as you approach them in first-person mode. This has a particularly silly effect on fights with Bowser, who disappears entirely when his tail is grabbed by players.

Seeing this mod in action is enough to make you wonder what kind of design choices Nintendo would make in creating a Mario game for VR. Such a game is still years and years off (if it's ever created at all), so for now, we're left with the oddity that is first-person Super Mario 64. Check out the video above to see it in action, and if you'd like to try the hack for yourself, you can download it from Emanuar's Google Drive.