The iceberg is a composite of a lot of different aspects of the game and its surrounding discourse, both diegetic, hypothetical, and esoteric. I really adore this stupid, stupid image, primarily because it hits upon so many of the elements specific to the community surrounding this one game. I could get into speculation of the “why” of this a bit later, but first we should look into the “how”, and the “how” in this question could best be summarized by the “ Mario 64 Iceberg”, pictured here But more oddly, there’s been a recent resurgence of interest in this game from an audience that’s a bit more casual. Truth be told, the community surrounding this game has been off the walls for quite a while, specifically the speedrunning community, which I’m convinced is fully full of insane people who break the barriers of reality for breakfast. I’m not alone in a specific sort of love for this game either, an entire subculture has germinated around this game, and it’s off the fucking walls. Then I can watch an actual speedrun and start developing an inferiority complex about it. Or maybe I could just stretch my not-at-all-a-speed-runner muscles and try to blow through a mission at the highest speed possible. And because of how flexible the game is I feel like I can still, after 20 years, approach the same mission with a slightly different tack that keeps the experience feeling fresh. No matter where I pop into that game at, I’ll have a pretty solid idea of all the different things I can do at that given moment. It’s a game that’s so easy to return to – like a warm and familiar hoodie. Something about the environment, the atmosphere, the free-form progression, and limber flexibility of the game’s control scheme has only stood up more mightily after my recent experiences with Odyssey, Sunshine and Galaxy. In fact, if you can believe it, compared even to when I wrote my piece in the Great Games series about it, my appreciation has only swelled. Mario 64 – would you believe it? I enjoy it! Shocker of shockers. That’s my controversial and unpredictable take as a millennial-aged Nintendo fan. As I’ve documented earlier on this blog, I’m a big fan of Mario 64.
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