Spending 24 Hours in VR Super Mario 64

While VR gaming is still in its early stages, it's beyond exciting to live in a time where we can see VR grow and evolve in ways we can't even imagine yet, after watching a Disrupts video about

spending

24

hours

in virtual reality minecraft, that concept really inspired. I'd like to try something that I'm a little more familiar with and that is, of course, Super Mario 64. If you know me, I've played this game maybe a few times already I live, breathe and thrive in Mario 64. So why not take the next? Step, why not become Mario in a sense and see what he's really like in his shoes? that's what we are doing today using the htc vive and a modified version of the game that k's and manuar created, we have the ability to play full

mario

64 in virtual reality now, since I already have a lot of experience, I can usually get the 120 stars in a few

hours

, but with these headphones on it will be a totally different vibe, so here's the game plan.

I start at 4 45 p.m. m. and I stop the next day at 4:45 p.m. m. I moved forward and made room to sit on a chair, as well as some room to stand. I also pushed back my couch because I'll be taking a nap with this headset on and I have some water and snacks, although most of this stuff is off camera, so let's do this, let's live in Mario 64 for 24 hours. We start outside Princess Peach's castle, but it looks a little different since the box is missing this completely. This will be the case for all levels in this game because Case would have had to import 3D sky boxes into each level to make them look decent.

Now this is what's really strange about Mario 64 and VR: you can move your head freely but also move Mario. At first, using a controller was an out-of-body experience because your head and Mario don't feel in sync together, but after a couple of minutes I got it. One thing I noticed that was really fun is how easy it is to spot. The 2D objects in this game, things like these trees, look very flat at certain angles. Now swimming feels really weird, it almost makes you dizzy and I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing. I decided to try the lekkitu.

Skip this. is, of course, where you jump off the edge of the bridge to avoid the lekitou cutscene, but I didn't even get close. I don't have the same precision in virtual reality. I know you can't see it in this footage, but leka 2 looks incredibly huge with In fact, with these headphones on, everything looks life-size and that alone is really mind-blowing and then we enter the castle for the first time and I'm not going to lie, this was truly magical, this room is almost like a second home to me and for the first time. I actually felt like I was there, nostalgia aside, we walked Bob into the battlefield and the first thing I noticed was this flat guy just chilling, I picked up a bomb and it was fun to see him floating in the air, I guess the Mario's hands and arms. it would have obscured my vision too much finally i started running for real and

mario

can really move i mean being in his shoes you really notice how fast rey runs, the bomb was the first star i was looking for and that's when it hit me. how hard it was to turn quickly, it was hard because of how fast the camera moves, you could never know where you were going and it's really hard to describe this without actually being in the headset, so imagine you're spinning around in a chair for two minutes at full speed and then you try to get up and walk normally, that's the perfect analogy for every time mario makes a sharp turn, so after king's defeat bob was the first star and the good lord grabbing it's painful to see it new, it's hard I say it in the footage, but every other frame there was a white flash above the camera shaking and I think I understand what's going on here.

It looks like Mario's star animation was never updated to 60 frames like the rest of the game and now it's crazy. but next up was the Koopa race and I decided to try a shortcut that I usually take when playing at the right speed. You can jump, kick this wall and I guess by pure reflexes I managed to do the same here after beating him. I tried. Riding a koopa shell and this was much harder to control than I expected. Moving was very choppy and a little hard to watch. If I'm honest, I tried the barrel below and it was impossible to aim normally, you can see your target. clearly, but here you just float and have to hope for the best, then I shop for the island and flying through the air is a combination of fascinating and horrible.

Now keep in mind that I don't normally have a problem with heights, but when you're sitting in one place and flying through the sky that doesn't sit well with your brain when you're completely immersed in it, so after that I tried releasing the chain and it actually wasn't that bad, I could see exactly where my Shadow was and I could hit the pole pretty easily this way, that was enough of the bomb battlefield so I moved on to Womp's fortress. That's when I realized how difficult it was to walk in a straight line, maybe my controller was failing, but the only way.

I could clear this narrow path by looking towards my shadow and slowly making my way. It's probably very difficult because I can't see which direction Mario is facing. My only frame of reference is this translucent square in front of me, but that's it. It doesn't really help, I loved how giant the womp king looked, but it would have been much more intimidating if I hadn't been able to smash through his body with a ground slam after a couple of stars. I had to climb up here. Usually you just jump over the wall. your way up, but jumping the wall is incredibly disorienting in VR, first you run head first into the wall which makes it hard to see, then you have to predict when to time your jump and the camera immediately spins around, giving you almost no time to prepare your descent.

I can't imagine anyone could do this without a lot of experience with Mario 64. It took me several minutes to accomplish now. Yes, you're supposed to use a canon to get here technically, but it would have been harder since we can. I don't see where we aim and then fly with the owl and firstly I didn't like that close up of his butt and secondly controlling him just felt like luck, it's usually pretty easy to aim with your movement, but here I just had to guess where to go and hey, I somehow got the cage star on my first try, I'll grab it before I leave, although it was time to take down the wall, that was easier said than done since again there is no way to aim your shot afterwards.

I broke the wall on several attempts, but my stomach didn't like seeing Mario fly through the air so much at once. I finally had enough stars to take on the first Bowser, so I thought I'd better do it. This was my first time collecting all the red coins and normally after doing so the camera panned the star, but in VR you just freeze in place and can still move your head which honestly was quite nice. The strange thing about fighting Bowser is that his text box didn't appear and He just stood there doing nothing so it was probably some kind of glitch and I took advantage of it as soon as I started wagging his tail I immediately hated him look how fast he spins, but fortunately there is an easy method to defeat Bowser. by spamming the hit button, I can throw it bit by bit without having to move the camera, although this takes forever, this saves me from throwing up, so it was worth it.

I tried flying for the first time and it wasn't that bad. as i thought it would be aiming for the red coins it wasn't horrible as long as i kept my focus in the middle of the screen and then i got into jolly roger bay that's when things started to go downhill most of the stars weren't like that challenging, but something about being in the water for long periods was starting to make me nauseous. It is very difficult to describe this feeling without experiencing it yourself. When you ascend and descend in real-life water, your body feels the force of what is happening and reacts to it. but here Mario 64 is essentially playing tricks on me as it felt like I was there but I wasn't physically moving and the fact that a game from the 1990s can convey something like this is really fascinating after trying to shoot it. cannon and missed the pole like 10 times in a row I was feeling really bad and needed a break the only way I could do this was to close my eyes for several minutes while sitting in the chair or lying down doing that at least it took I walked away from this world for While I was still playing, I realized that the only way to last 24 hours was to take several breaks and close my eyes as often as I could.

Doing this was really helpful in helping with the nausea. especially when I was grabbing a star as it was always so painful to look at, but at least when I got to the cold cold mountain I was out of the water and feeling a little better. I even managed to pull off some sick moves while charging the star. from little penguin to big mommy, I got some stars there and moved to Big Boo's lair. Looking around the big house was really cool because the camera is usually fixed in this room, so being able to see everything so easily was pretty cool.

I've made some good progress so far, but now my stomach was starting to get really upset. By this time I was taking breaks at least two or three times an hour, the dizziness getting worse and worse. I ate very light and stayed hydrated, but that didn't matter, going through this just wasn't the best idea, but unfortunately I forced myself to live by the statement of "no pain, no gain", that's how I roll, so that in addition to feeling like trash, some of these stars were a pain in the ass. the butt i took out the boo on the balcony that puts the star on the roof actually getting up there without falling was much easier said than getting it to the basement catching mips was much harder than i expected the lack of seeing mario does Grab Stuff was really complicated, I basically had to imagine what Mario looks like at every moment so I could perceive when to tie my dives into the nips, the deadly lava land was the next challenge and the black sky really makes this place that much creepier.

Bullies are much more difficult. back up because again I have to visualize what Mario looks like since he can only jump with a punch or hit the ground. These pole climbing bastards also suck because the camera spins so fast and you can't even aim properly unless you lift Mario to the top. I almost fell here too, but somehow I grabbed onto the ledge instead of going for the disappearing red coins. I had to be very careful as I couldn't see what was coming. I've played this level so much that I know which ledges have the coins. but it was still disorienting, but then we got to these stupid mobile platforms.

Trying to identify your jump was just ridiculous. I couldn't look down and use my shadows to check my accuracy since everything was moving all the time, so I had to do it. use trial and error to figure this out and now we are in the misty maze cave and only at the four hour mark, something really strange about being on mario 64 for so long is losing your sense of time. I felt exhausted but wide awake. at the same time and I can't really describe why that was the case, maybe it's because our bodies naturally get sleepy when it's darker and wake up when it's brighter.

This headset basically eliminated any feeling of that, so I guess that could be the reason after receiving a few. The stars in the misty mace cave next was quicksand running down these pillars it looked very sticky from Mario's perspective but I honestly don't have much to add. I was already quite used to moving in virtual reality, but I still had to be very patient. I didn't move too fast because I would feel really bad or die from something, but after a while I started to understand things and my stomach felt better and then I had to go to Dire Dire Docks, another water. level, this was much worse than jolly roger bay because this level is a little harder and forced me to move a lot more.

I got over it but this was pretty much the ultimate misery, my brain was so disoriented my stomach hated me and it was terrible. To start with dogs is just a horrible level, after slowly getting some stars there I moved on to the second fight with Bowser and it was pretty funny when I got to Bowser he once again stayed in place and his text box never showed up, so I used the same one. strategy like last time, mix b and wait until it hits the bomb in six hours. I was really getting desperate to get rid of this dizziness so I resorted to just standing up now, I apologize you can't see my head as the camera is a bit Doing this too low made me feel a bit unbalanced for the first few minutes, but for some reason IIt helped with the nausea now, maybe it was just the placebo effect.

I honestly couldn't tell you if standing or sitting makes any difference at all. After trudging through a wet, dry world and snowman land, I was ready for a nap. I was so mentally exhausted that I didn't even care to take a nap with the headphones on and that's how the nap started and I was out for a few hours waking up. Going into Mario 64 isn't the most pleasant experience and I barely felt like I had gotten any sleep, but I got up because I wanted to make sure I had enough time to get all these stars.

Snowman Land had a couple of difficult stars, especially the fourth. where you're supposed to fly across this frozen pond, but instead I jumped off this cliff three times, did some kicks until I gained some speed sliding down this hill, and headed for the star. This trick is hard to do normally, so I'm being gentle. Surprisingly, I achieved this in VR after it was a high and tall mountain and it was another round of endurance as it takes a long time to climb to the top and don't even get me started on catching the monkey which was another layer of the hell, the next one was small. huge island, another stage that was really difficult, Koopa's rematch was the hardest part because you couldn't take your time you really had to reserve it to beat him to the flag when I got to the windy bridge I somehow got stuck on the edge moving at snail's pace, so the chicken coops just passed me to compensate for that.

I got a couple more stars, then tried Koopa again and was successful. The next step was the ticking of the clock and I was not ready for this, it was time for another nap, uh wow, that was a pretty long nap, I didn't mean to sleep for six hours, what I had left to do today It was the rainbow ride of the ticking clock and the hundred coin stars not much. It has to be said about the ticking clock, it was nothing short of brutal, each jump had to be incredibly precise and getting it wrong means falling which made me feel bad plus I lost progress so it was a double whammy and after That was the rainbow ride and this.

It was by far the worst level. It was very easy to fall. The wait on the mats felt very long and much of this level was just black. Honestly, it was very depressing to be there. I also felt like shit, so my frequent breaks were long lasting. Even longer now, looking at my star count, I was worried I wouldn't be able to finish this game in 24 hours, so for the next five hours I went back and finished the 100 coin stars I ended up losing. All the missions were pretty long, so I was taking breaks every two stars.

This is where I made a fatal mistake. A couple of my breaks lasted between 30 and 60 minutes, which was a waste of time and I haven't felt this sick since I was playing a lot less. I didn't realize how quickly time was passing. I finally got around 100 stars only to realize I had two hours left on the clock. He needed to pick up the pace and he needed to do it now that he really What he had left now were the hard stars, one of those being a hundred red coins in a wet and dry world. The biggest obstacle was getting the coin on the roof of this building.

It usually requires wall jumping or a precise triple jump to get up while jumping. obviously out of the question here, so basically I have to make this jump. It took me a few minutes, but I finally managed to get there and you want to know what else was really strange during these last few hours. My stomach stopped hurting and the nausea stopped. It disappeared, I'm not sure if my brain learned to adapt to Mario 64's frame rate or what, but it honestly felt perfectly fine. Also, I barely ate anything in the last 20 hours, so maybe that was the reason too, but either way I felt like I had what it took to finish this: one hour left and 10 long stars to go.

It was time to test my skills. The hundred coins were terrifying in the ticking clock because I needed to get these coins from the switch and the only way. What I was able to do was turn around very carefully before even going for them. Luckily, it ended up working out and I only missed one blue coin, which was more than enough, so I got the 100 coin star and was planning on getting the one on top. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a way to reach him. Now I know you can do the triple wall jump in this place to get there, but there was no way to do it in VR and not this level. moving so I couldn't use the minute hand to cross.

I tried this level again with the stage moving this time only to get 80 of the way and fall to my death. I was really running out of time so I was forced to Keep Going, I still needed a lot of Rainbow Ride stars and I already knew that 100 coins are out of the question because I would have to get most of these blue coins from the switch which requires us to jump the wall several times without making a mistake, so forget it. That idea, however, I managed to complete the complicated triangular star, which I thought would be too difficult to do, but I managed it quickly enough.

The red coins were a lot harder than I thought, that's because of all the textures on the walls. It looked exactly the same, so I couldn't tell what was heatable and what wasn't. I had 4 stars left and only had about 15 minutes on the clock, just for the heck of it I thought I'd try jumping over this wall for a few. times and this happened well, so achieving that was completely unexpected. I suppose maybe a hundred coins would have been possible, but now I don't have time to try since I got there, although I talked to the rose. bomb, so at least I was able to go to star six.

The cannon shot actually seemed pretty clean, but after a few seconds I realized that I had completely overshot the island. Now I only had about 10 minutes to complete the third Bowser on the red coins, so I headed to the right. There to finish this off, the red coins really weren't that bad because a lot of this level was just muscle memory for me, Bowser, once again, let me have a free shot at him. I have to say I've never been more grateful for the text box bug so I used the same spam strategy as before for the first launch.

Bowser stood up and spit fire everywhere, but I grabbed his tail anyway and by some miracle none of the fire hurt me, so I hit him a second time and now it was the hard part, the third throw I couldn't use the same strategy since none of the bombs would be close enough, so my only option was to spin the controller like crazy and pray that the launch works and would you look, Bowser barely scraped the tip of the bomb and I completed Mario 64 completely in VR since i took so many breaks that i couldn't get all the stars in time and i actually went through the 24 hours by a few minutes but its done there was nothing better than watching mario fly across the stage and wrap it all up even the credits were really cool because the camera zoomed out and showed the full layout of each stage, so it was worth

spending

24 hours on mario 64. no, no, no, no, no, I think I had PTSD thinking about this one I play in VR now, seriously, I feel dizzy just imagining myself playing this and even after finally taking off the headset I felt dizzy again for the next six to eight hours, so I felt the consequences for quite a while, but despite The pain, I'm glad I got over it and did this, it's made me appreciate playing Mario in third person a lot more now and I also realized why Nintendo created Mario Odyssey's VR mode in that camera angle, it was to avoid what I just watched, I hope you enjoyed this video and thank you all very much for watching.

I'll talk to you all very soon and I hope you have a great day.