GAME VS GAME / N64 PLATFORMER RIVALRY · N64 TURNS 30 IN 2026
Super Mario 64 vs Banjo-Kazooie: The Best N64 3D Platformer
Mario invented the genre on this console. Rare's answer a year later is still frequently cited as having refined it.
Foundational vs Refined
Mario 64 essentially invented the modern 3D platformer's camera and movement conventions from scratch, and its influence on every 3D platformer that followed is hard to overstate — playing it today means playing the template. Banjo-Kazooie, arriving about a year later from Rare, built directly on that foundation with a more collectathon-focused structure and a level of polish that benefited from Mario 64 already having solved the hardest problems.
What Each Still Does Best
Mario 64's controls and camera, while occasionally stiff by modern standards, still feel more directly responsive than many contemporaries. Banjo-Kazooie's world design and character-ability progression are frequently cited as a more generous, varied moveset that made exploration feel rewarding in a slightly different way than Mario's more minimalist toolkit.
Which to Buy First
Mario 64 is the essential historical purchase and arguably the more important game to understand the genre's roots. Banjo-Kazooie is the pick if you specifically want the more content-dense, collectathon-style experience that later influenced games like Donkey Kong 64. Both are relatively affordable, common N64 cartridges.
Where to Buy
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