Super Mario 64

UPDATE 20/9/17: Nintendo has taken down the videos of Super Mario 64 Online posted on its creator's Patreon and YouTube.

The Nintendo 64 came out in Europe on this day 20 years ago.

Few video game protagonists keep to strict working hours, and how could they? When there's a war to win, a world to save, a lover's heart to ensnare and all the other grand and arduous problems that a game designer asks us to solve, it would be practically irresponsible to clock off a five for a pint of lager, a packet of crisps and a prestige TV box set. Even if they did have time to unwind then, just as we rarely see Tony Soprano bobbing away at the urinal, or Donald Draper questingly exploring a nostril, surely these parts of the game would be first for the editor's chop. What Lara Croft does to relax (eating caviar off her butler's extended arm while listening to Brahms, I like to imagine) is rarely relevant to the story at hand. Aside from the indulgently barmy Final Fantasy XV, what your character eats for dinner rarely has a place in the core gameplay loop.

20 years ago, Channel 4 broadcast GamesMaster's most infamous incident.

Super Mario 64 has a number of impossible coins - that is, coins that are impossible to collect. Well, it looks like the mystery around one of them has been solved 20 years after the groundbreaking platformer came out.

I hate summer. Man's natural state, as far as I'm concerned, is not one spent constantly sticking to oneself, one's clothing, one's loved ones, passing vehicles, or anything else.

The N64 launched 20 years ago today in Japan.

A hardcore Mario fan has decoded the hidden RNG system in Super Mario 64 - and discovered how it affects nearly every frame of the game.

Star Fox Zero has finally launched, with Martin Robinson finding the game enjoyable but spread a bit thin. News of the slightly underwhelming dogfighter (foxfighter?) got me and Aoife thinking - 19 years on, how does Star Fox 64 hold up?

There's a cool $1k up for grabs - if you can recreate a particular glitch in Super Mario 64.

The Wii U re-release of Super Mario 64 seems like the perfect time for a retrospective, especially when you realise it's been nearly 20 years since its release in 1996. But there's something about the idea of a retrospective that doesn't quite fit this game. Hindsight is often ahistorical, free of the day-to-day chatter and contemporary context. A pioneering work like Super Mario 64, on the other hand, is impossible to divorce from its context because those same factors made it more than a great game.

Speed runner Siglemic set a new world record by completing Super Mario 64, collecting all 120 stars, in one hour, 43 minutes and 54 seconds - narrowly beating his previous world record by seven seconds.

We've already taken a look at some of the less impressive games to debut alongside consoles past in our Five Terrible Launch Titles video. But of course, they weren't all terrible (in fact some of them weren't that bad at all, eh, vociferous Kameo fans?), so here's our guide to five of the best.

Plus, coming soon: Five Launch Titles You've Probably Forgotten About That Were Quite Good Actually, Come To Think Of It. We're just trying to remember what they are.

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A new PC mod for Super Mario 64 allows two players to tackle its challenges cooperatively online.

25 years, not one u-bend fixed.