I love hearing little stories like this. SM64 DS was definitely one of the main games with playground rumors when I was a kid. I remember literally being on the school playground and my friend telling me that Dry Bones was the 5th unlockable character and he was behind the grey door in the character select room. Of course it wasn't true, but stuff like that totally captured my imagination as a kid. The game's ACTUAL secrets gave some credibility to the rumors, because you never knew what was hiding in each level. Boo's Haunt itself felt like a huge discovery to me as a kid. I really enjoyed this video. Keep it up!

while I MOSTLY agree, some of the secrets in old games were absolutely absurd Like how was ANYONE supposed to find Regigigas in OrAs? At least the OG regi-trio puzzles had actual clues 😭

Unrelavant to discussion at all but holy bot game

Why not play limbus company

I was already familiar with this game to a certain degree before ever playing it, because I was fascinated with it. Even before knowing about SM64, I had a classmate who would play this game, and it looked like the coolest thing ever. I saw some of the levels on her DS, like the race against the penguin, the maze cavern, and especially the fact you could play as Mario, Luigi, Wario and Yoshi, that was the most mind-blowing thing to me. It took me a few years before I realized this was actually a remake of a game older than me, and that's when my fascination with SM64 started. Still, my nostalgia with the DS remake was always stronger. So when I actually managed to play it for myself, I think it was just three years ago or so, I had some expectations. I had tried SM64 before that, I had a nice time with it, but it was on a mobile emulator, so anything involving tricky jumps or precise movement was a pain, and when I realized that the precision of a controller was pretty much a requirement for any momentum-based platformer, 2D or 3D, I stopped playing. This basically means I was kinda afraid I would suck at the Basement courses, like Lethal Lava Land and Shifting Sand Land. But when I actually played Lethal Lava Land, I was surprised by how smooth my playthrough was going. So my epiphany moment wasn't a "figured it out" moment like yours, but rather a "holy shit this is a lot more fun that what I could've ever anticipated, I get it now" moment. And that exact moment came when I hopped onto a koopa shell. The entire time I spend lava surfing was literally exhilarating. I was having a ball, the time of my life! I was surfing towards the silver stars, but also over those curved and toppled platforms, with 1-Ups and coins, and I was doing it well, without hitting any walls! I was even giggling uncontrollably all the time, as goofy as that sounds. This might be something I can safely say: SM64DS literally made me feel like a kid again. This feeling I felt was unmatched by any game. What else can I say? I feel it's hard for me to say what my favorite game of all time is, because I like so many. But this one was truly special to me. It think I can say it really is my favorite game of all time.

The only reason I was ever able to unlock luigi and wario was because my dad had this one event where 2 other kids my age at the time brought their own ds and showed me how. If they never did i probably wouldn't have ever unlocked them until i got my first phone at 14

6:27 i don't think that's a good analogy anymore

Nostalgic videos like this hit home. I remember having a strange false memory if a nephew of mine unlocking Waluigi in the game (not true) and a spent years wondering why he wasn’t in the game.

lmao i remember being afraid of a goomba. A FUCKING GOOMBA. i think it was that toad described them as “monsters” and my brain was like “monster = scary” so yeah i would always hide behind the cannon at the start of bob-omb battlefield.

I have so many similar memories with this game, this video really made my nostalgia come back

Bro when he finds out about game faqs

This is a fascinating story. I'm really curious as to how you managed to beat 64 DS without both Luigi *and* Wario. Crazy trial and error, maybe? You should get a medal for that tbh.

gosh, i'm so happy i wasn't the only one brute forced the majority of this game with unlocking the pure bare minumum, the first time finishing this game i didn't unlock either of the other characters OR the ? switch. i think it took me a bit into postgame (and accidently, mind you) to find the ? switch, and eventually, after practically clearing out EVERYTHING you could with just yoshi, mario, and the ? Blocks to finally figure out there was a third floor in BBH and, you know, finally unlock Luigi and immediately after, Wario. I think the funniest part was my brother was older than me by 5 years (for reference I was 6, he was 11) and even he didn't have any clue on how to find the progression stuff in SM64DS either. Our parents would sometimes get us the strategy guide for games we'd get but this one in particular was one we didn't have that luxury lol I honestly don't remember how *long* it took to get to that point, but it probably was a year or so? The younger years of my life are obviously far past me haha, so my memory on my progression is hazy xD But I vividly remember the sheer joy of telling my older brother that I finally, finally found Luigi, and finally being able to clean out the rest of the Power Stars that taunted us for so long. Playing games utterly raw with zero availability for outside help is something I miss, to be honest.

This story is so charming. I remember on the Nintendo 64 that same ledge in Big Boo's Haunt gave me trouble too. Not only did it take me forever just to find it like you but it even took me forever to get up there too. I love that Super Mario 64 and Super Mario 64 DS have both been a place of wonder for people. There really is something special about playing video games as a child in specific, or exploring something completely new in general, when you have no idea how things work or what to expect. It's not the same - maybe not necessarily worse but definitely not the same - when you're an adult and the world isn't as magical anymore. As I've gotten older, the world has gotten more predictable and lost some of its wonder. I still love video games, but I admire them as works of art now, or analyze them as computer science projects to pick apart - I engage with them from afar. I feel like I'm no longer able to truly be _in_ a video game's world anymore. Don't get me wrong, I'm not sad about this; I've found whole new lenses to love games through. But it's something to think about, that you only have so much time to know this feeling, and then you can never go back. Thank you for sharing this.

Somehow I managed to collect all 150 stars as a kid, and nothing about it stuck out to me as taking forever for kid me to figure it out. Instead the mario game who's secrets eluded me for years was mario sunshine, and because you can't skip episodes in that game I remember it wasn't until years later that I would be able to beat the game legitimately. Never got the sandbird shine cause I didn't know I had to survive until reaching the pillar where the last coin was. I could never figure out the yoshi-go-round secret or mysterious hotel delfino, heck I couldn't even figure out the proper way to cool off the chain chomps (I remember spending at least 30 minutes trying to get them to chase me into the water instead)

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I loved that level too! And I went back and beat it as Luigi lol. Mario 64 DS was an amazing game.

It took me so long to figure out the ? Switch! I already beat the game without it and even cheesed some stars that were supposed to be done with those power-ups without it. Just like you, I just randomly looked up at the light one day and bam!

More than once doing random things can help you

I think I had a similar experience with unlocking the Power Flowers. I can’t tell you how much time I spent trying to get on the roof from the castle’s courtyard and reading the manual’s page about the flower being on the roof. Like five or so years later, I realized I could look it up on the internet and finally unlocked it. Never had any trouble with Luigi or Wario though 😅

It's amazing how a video game can make you feel as a kid. It's like our brains are just designed to be super easy to please at that stage in life.

Dang bro your determined. Good job.

I feel like the struggle is what makes the payoff worth it. It's really rare for me to stick with something till i just figure it out on my own in a game without just looking it up, but it feels awesome to do. The most recent game i played that felt like this almost the whole time was animal well. It gives you just enough to want to keep going to find and figure out new things simply by exploring. It just kept going deeper when i thought about giving up, so theres a balance that the dev hit just right for me. Would recommend lol. Also probably why the souls games are so great sometimes, nothing beats overcoming a true challenge that you struggled on for hours.

The same scenario happened to me. I no longer have my ds from when i was 12, and i know it doesn't matter because even if i did, i still wouldn't feel the same as i did back then. It's still fun remembering this, though.

first - i love to listen to people rambling second - i feel you one reason i don't get into nearly as many games today is - besides the sheer amount of choice - that if i can't solve/beat a game without the internet i feel it's really stupid. unless it's jjust one small part of it i might use it but when it comes to zelda games - as great as they allegedly are - i can't get into them since i seem to be unable to grasp most if not all puzzles. and if i need a whole glorified strategy game to - well - beat a game i feel it's not woth it nor the point of playing the game in the first place

I play Zelda Minish Cap right now and I tried to do it without help and it worked out so far (I used a lets play a few times, cause a few times I was either mindlessly running around or forgot what I need to do to progress)

Back in the day (before Internet was easily accessable) these moments all felt so rewarding! I miss times like those! Thanks for sharing your story! Brings back some amazing memories!

For me, it was mario and luigi dream team, in NEO bowser castle, where you had to flip all the switches to open the next door. I spent about three hours trying to figure out why the door would not open despite flipping all the switches. Two years later, I picked it back up, realized I missed one because I didn't use a bros move to get up somewhere, and went on to beat the game over the rest of the week. The last few fights were really fun and challenging thanks to my two year hiatus, best stupidity moment I ever had in a game.

I had the complete opposite experience. I also didn't know how to activate the red ?-blocks. Standing in the lobby, pressing X and looking up should have been easy and there were many hints. But I never pressed the X button, because I didn't like how your character blocks most of the view when doing that. It just wasn't useful to me so I forgot it existed. I found the other 2 switch palaces in the game, but since this is the DS version, there are no blue and green switches there. At the time, I had no way of playing the N64 version at all and didn't know what I was missing out on. When I finally discovered what was keeping me away from so much content of the game, I was furious. All this time, I was collecting wingcap stars by shooting myself through the cannon in Bob omb Battlefield over and over, or dropping myself from the owl into the floating coin rings in Tall, Tall Mountain. This is the only game I wish I could ever forget my first playthroughs of and experience it the intended way.

What a cool story, thanks for sharing! C:

I love moments when i figure things out in a game by myself, and if it takes hours or days, i sometimes look at a walk through.

As a kid who’s a Nintendo kid a bit younger I was like what you were saying at the start

1:55 Bruh am i the only one who doesn't do that?

Took me 2 years to find the red Gyarados in Pokemon Crystal. I have no idea why it took that long, but it did. After that, it took me about a year to beat the rest of the game. Nowadays I could probably beat that game in a few days but when I was a kid exploring Johto was just so magical. Then I learned that Kanto was included as well.. Holy shit

Same thing happened here

awesome story :)

When I was trying to figure out how to unlock the red blocks, I would read every sign in the castle and there was this one sign that said that I had to look up at the light with the “original plumber”, so I knew I had to use Mario. I only knew the word plumber because of the Super Mario cartoon. I looked up and I enter the wing cap level and pressed the button. I was so mind blown I love this game

As someone who owned Playstations and Xboxs growing up, I can say without a doubt that I prefer the Nintendo games when it comes to gameplay, so I wouldn't say you missed out on older gen or anything

While they didn't last as long, I've run into the issue of struggling with a game that has nothing helpful online several times the past few years. I've played through games before their official release date so none of the guide websites have anything up. I've also played really niche stuff that either no one talks about or at least no one has talked about them online in English. It's weird to get in the situation where you've looked everywhere 3 times and now it feels like you're just banging your head against the wall.

I grew up with the n64, DSi, wii, and 2DS growing up. Now I'm 22 years old. I got the xbox One s back in December 2021 and i got the xbox series x in December 2023. I remembered my brother had his DSI XL with Super Mario 64 DS and i remember me and my firends played multiplayer together and stuff. Also i finished the game at 82 stars. I unlocked all the characters and it was fun and i miss those days.

Yo imma be real this actually happened to me, too, as a kid. Like this exact obstacle and beating the game w/ just Mario and Yoshi and all of that. I don't think it took me three years to figure it out, but the day when I found out that there was a red box in the corner of the room w/ the ledge to get to the roof was a very good day. IG the game design just wasn't that good if multiple small children can't figure it out for the game made for small children.

Hey all. This is the OP on his main because logging in on the alt is a chore. Interestingly enough KZbin has started heavily promoting this video. While I appreciate the support just know this channel doesn’t have a dedicated topic or purpose. This is where I upload anything I want for anyone who is willing to listen. So unless you just want to hear me yap, don’t subscribe. You’d be better off treating this video as a pleasant listen before promptly moving on. Unless you just really, REALLY want to hear more from me personally. In which case. I’m flattered. Alright. That’s all. Take care everyone.

I know friends of mine that will google any solution to a game, and not try to discover and lean the issue, whenever we play a game together, luckily enough they respect my preferred way and will not google solutions, I just don’t find it being the true and intended way to play. Though, I will admit, if were truly are stuck I will eventually concede as it’s clearly not fun for them.

I came into this video knowing exactly what was gonna be the subject. I honestly feel surprised that so many people didnt know how to unlock Luigi and Wario until recently. I really hope that Nintendo remasters this. It’s clear they haven’t forgotten it since there’s a WarioWare slider minigame based on SM64DS

As a kid I figured out the white light to get the wing cap cause I just ... saw the light and was like "WHAT'S THAT?!" like a snot nosed bwat that I was. I also remember going to one of my Kindergarten friends' house, and he still didn't get the cap so I showed him how to do it. I felt like a genius, even though I couldn't read.

3:22 did the same thing back in the day. I always knew that they were unlockable, but I never even found out how to get to the fucin balcony in bbh so I never saw the Luigi painting. I'm also not even sure if I unlocked the caps at all. But I do know that I couldn't figure out what the hell this stupid sun wanted from me for the LONGEST time