I remember when I first got my Nintendo 64 as a young girl, this was, next to Banjo-Kazooie, one of my favourite games on the console, and for good reason, because the game was outright amazing back then, and over ten years later, it's still as amazing now as it was back then. Now it's on Virtual Console, many gamers who didn't get to experience this game on it's original format may get to experience it now.

Let's start from the beginning regarding the game - the story. Basically, Princess Peach asks Mario to come to her castle, as she has baked a cake for him. Mario, as you can expect, goes along to the castle, only to discover things are not what they seem. Bowser has not only kidnapped Peach again, but he has also stolen the power of the Stars, sealing every room in the castle... except one, which is where you start.

One great feature about this game is exploring Peach's castle. As a child, I was fascinated by exploring the castle and that has not changed now. Once you gain more Stars and open more doors, more of the castle is of access to you, and you can get into more worlds. The castle acts as a big overworld, with the many levels of the game hidden in paintings, which you jump into. Each of these worlds are massively unique and colourful.

There are six Stars per world, in which you need to collect to progress further in the game. Some doors require you to use Stars to open them, and once you do, you can access more worlds. Once you gather enough Stars, you can face Bowser to get a key to access another part of the castle. There are 120 Stars overall in the game, so you'll be busy for a while, but thankfully you don't need all 120 to beat the game - 70 is the minimum amount needed. This is a nice addition as it enables you to choose where you want to go and pass on a task if you find it too difficult.

Mario has gained some new moves in this game after his 2D games. In this game he can triple jump, punch and kick, do various other kinds of jumps, slides and flips... he feels fairly varied in moves he can perform.

The graphics probably don't look as nice now as they did back then, but they're okay and while not very detailed still manage to capture the overall feel of the game. The music is lively, memorable and fits the levels very nicely.

The one bad aspect to this game is the camera. You can move it around at your convenience, but the problem is, moving the camera or changing the camera type does not always help. But this problem isn't as bad as it sounds, though it can be annoying sometimes. I'm also questioning as to why Luigi is not in this game.

Overall, if there is one game I strongly recommend to anybody for the Wii Virtual Console or their old N64, it's this one. It's an amazing platformer as well as Mario's first foray into the world of 3D, it's fun and I have to say, if you have never played the original version of this game, do so. The DS version is very good, but nothing compares to how this game was originally. Definitely try this out if you can.