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| This is where I dump my half-baked projects and any other wiki-relevant things.
| | Super Mario 64 is a 3D platforming game. The player controls [[Mario]] in a variety of open environements of varying size and complexity, ranging from [[The Secret Aquarium|a small cubic room]] to large self-contained worlds populated by enemies, items, and friendly NPCs who can either provide limited assistance to Mario or are subject of one of the game's task. |
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| ==Reception and sales guideline draft==
| | To progress, the player must collect [[Power Star]]s by completing a variety of missions, ranging from tasks such as defeating a specific enemy, completing a puzzle, collecting a set amount of items, or besting a NPC in a friendly competition. There are a total of 120 Power Stars in the game, though only 70 need to be collected in order to complete the game. The Power Stars are split between the fifteen main courses, nine secret courses, and other objectives. The main courses contain six numbered missions each plus an hidden power star for collecting 100 [[coin]]s. Though missions for a level are numbered, most missions can be performed out of order. Other missions, however, may only be completed by selecting a specific scenario from the course selection screen, as to prompt the appearance or dissapearance of a character or object needed to complete the task. |
| While detailing the fictional minutiae of the ''Mario'' franchise is great, illustrating its real-world impact and popularity is just as important.
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| ==Reception==
| | The game is primarily set inside and around [[Peach's Castle]], itself divided in multiple rooms containing paintings that lead to the game's courses. Initially, the player can only access one of the painting and a limited section of the castle, but as the player collects Power Stars, the player will be able to unlock doors leading to the other courses and open up other sections of the castle by collecting a certain number of stars and completing a [[Bowser]] level. |
| Ideally, sections about the critical reception should describe what the consensus about a given game is by isolating recurring statements in professional reviews, rather than simply throwing up a list of scores. If one or more aspects (such as the music or a game mechanic) are frequently praised or criticized, it is a good idea to highlight said frequency by quoting at least one outlet and linking to other publications that express a similar sentiment, via the <nowiki><ref></ref></nowiki> tags, preferably with a quote next to the link in the reference itself. It is also a good idea to showcase a wide variety of opinions- even in the case of widely acclaimed game, it is preferable to quote at least one outlier as to ensure the section is not too one-sided.
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| Review aggregators such as [http://www.metacritic.com/ Metacritic] or [http://www.gamerankings.com/ GameRanking] are useful tools for writing reception sections, as they give a collection of reviews that can be used as a starting point. However, they rarely, if ever, feature pre-2000 content, which means finding historic reviews for anything that came out before ''[[Paper Mario]]'' require more extensive research.
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| User score on larger publications and Nintendo's own built-in systems (such as on the 3DS or WiiU) eshop can also be used, especially if there's a noticeable discepancy between critic and player reception.
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| It's generally unadvisable to make qualitative statements such as "The game was well-received on [[Miiverse]]", as these statements are prone to weasel-wording and can hardly be "proven" one way or another.
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| Of course, reviews are not the only things that can be used for reception sections. Ranked lists, post-mortem article and the like can also illustrate a given game's legacy.
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| ==Sales data==
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| Finding reliable sales figure can be problematic, thanks to the videogame industry's notorious secrecy toward financial data. Here's some pointers to what you should and should not use.
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| Several independent firms such as the [https://www.npd.com/wps/portal/npd/us/industry-expertise/video-games/ NPD Group] (North America), [http://www.chart-track.co.uk/ Chart Track] (United Kingdoms) and [http://www.m-create.com/ Media Create] (Japan) track game sales at retail chains. While these organisations do not have access to 100% of any given region's sales data, they're one of the very few authoritative source of hard data, and are often used by video game companies. Though most of the data is not available to non-subscribers, the trackers frequently publish monthly reports.
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| Press releases from [[ Nintendo]] and other corporate sources are also accurate, and occasionally include digital sales numbers, which the aforementioned trackers do not factor in. However, said press releases frequently give the numbers of copies ''shipped'' to retailers rather than actual sales, so users should examine the wording before citing them.
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| ===VGChartz===
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| Due to its popularity and being the most immediatly visible sourcee when researching sales data, it's hard not to address VGChartz
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| Much<ref>http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=18919]</ref><ref>[http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2008/06/why-we-dont-ref/</ref> has been written about VGChartz reliability. As explained [http://www.vgchartz.com/methodology.php on the site's methodology page], it has access to data from an undefined sampling of "retail partners" and guess the rest based on various trends (while the aforementioned trackers do not have access to every retail chain and do some number of "filling in the blanks", they are proven to track a substantial amount of retailler, unlike VGChartz). The fact that VGChartz numbers have frequently been contradicted by more official channels and other anomalies (In one instance<ref>[http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/949770-arc-rise-fantasia/55457719</ref>, the site reported the game ''Arc Rise Fantasia'' as a best-seller for June 2010 despite the game not being released until the end of July) have led to several sites banning it as a source. As far as the wiki is concerned, '''VGChartz is not reliable and should not be used as a reference for sales data'''.
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| ==References==
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| <references/>
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Super Mario 64 is a 3D platforming game. The player controls Mario in a variety of open environements of varying size and complexity, ranging from a small cubic room to large self-contained worlds populated by enemies, items, and friendly NPCs who can either provide limited assistance to Mario or are subject of one of the game's task.
To progress, the player must collect Power Stars by completing a variety of missions, ranging from tasks such as defeating a specific enemy, completing a puzzle, collecting a set amount of items, or besting a NPC in a friendly competition. There are a total of 120 Power Stars in the game, though only 70 need to be collected in order to complete the game. The Power Stars are split between the fifteen main courses, nine secret courses, and other objectives. The main courses contain six numbered missions each plus an hidden power star for collecting 100 coins. Though missions for a level are numbered, most missions can be performed out of order. Other missions, however, may only be completed by selecting a specific scenario from the course selection screen, as to prompt the appearance or dissapearance of a character or object needed to complete the task.
The game is primarily set inside and around Peach's Castle, itself divided in multiple rooms containing paintings that lead to the game's courses. Initially, the player can only access one of the painting and a limited section of the castle, but as the player collects Power Stars, the player will be able to unlock doors leading to the other courses and open up other sections of the castle by collecting a certain number of stars and completing a Bowser level.
