SM64 or SMO
2 years ago

I need someone's opinion on this, I want to do SMO any% but also SM64 16 star, which one should I do. (This is kinda a dumb forum but yeah)

Basque Country

do both smh nah but idk whatever you like more

Both are almost purely skill, SMO has some of the frame perfect clips, SM64 has the LBLJ, I wanna do SMO more now that I realize it.

Edited by the author 2 years ago
United States

You don't have to do frame perfect stuff for SMO. Also SM64 16 star rus are a lot shorter, so you can do those pretty quick, they just take a lot of practice.

Incorrect and GoodGoomba like this
United States

smo any% is probably easier to get into with the large tutorial series by smallant and tomshi (use tomshis), plus the only real tricks that are important starting out are moon cave skip and fish clip which are both very easy. I learned smo a lot faster than sm64, but its really just preference :)

Incorrect, Ocarinist_Drew and 2 others like this
United States

Just do both

Meath, Ireland

i did both. you can't tell which one you like more until you try both.

United States

So I run SMO, SMS, and SM64, and here are my thoughts: SMO is the best speed game. All three games have great movement and very high skill ceilings, but SMO is the most accessible game in many ways.

1.) It's the easiest game to get a hold of. You don't have to hunt down tons of old hardware. 2.) It has the best resources. As Collin said, there are so many great tutorials. SM64 literally has like... a wiki with some uncommentated videos of each star you can try to copy. SMO has Smallant and Tomshi's beginners guides. 3.) The movement has a very high skill ceiling but it's also very forgiving. In SM64 there is no "course correction". You make a jump, you're locked into that jump. If you messed up the jump, you're probably dead and the run is over. In SMO, if you mess up your jump, you have like 15 ways to correct it and recover from it and only lose a few seconds at most. 4.) None of the advanced tricks/skips in SMO Any% are necessary. Seriously. You could get sub-hour without Nut Clip, Lake Clip, DSS, Snow Dram, Scooter Clip... All these tricks save like 5 - 20 seconds tops. (This is more of a slight on SMS, where every other level has some stupid clip/OoB trick that you HAVE to go for because it saves MINUTES. SM64 isn't quite as bad with stupid tricks.) 5.) The gameplay flow is better, IMO. Not getting booted out of the level after each Power Moon makes it a totally different experience. SM64/SMS feel very "stop-and-go", whereas SMO feels like it flows much better. It's hard to find the words to explain this, but if you've speedrun both games you'll know what I mean. 6.) The 60fps looks incredible. Seriously, switching from SM64/SMS to SMO is always a treat for my eyes. The game is just gorgeous, and I can literally feel my eyes relaxing with the smooth 60fps. (And that's a good thing if you're gonna spend hours looking at it.)

So yeah, I definitely lean towards SMO, as you can tell. But SM64 is a great speed game too. As others have said, try both, and see which one feels better to you.

Tsukumo, GoodGoomba and 4 others like this

Ok, thanks you guys, also I have already tried SM64 16 star and have a 32:55 PB (no video), and SMO just seems more fun. I think I will try it and see if I like it like you guys said.

Oh and since my family uses the switch a lot, are there any emulators you know of?

United States

Emulators are banned due to inconsistency and inaccuracy

GoodGoomba, Incorrect, and Pear like this

Oh, is Switch Lite allowed?

Edited by the author 2 years ago
United States

I don’t see why not.

MinecraftGaming likes this
United States

Yes, Switch Lite is allowed. You would just be forced to play in handheld/tabletop mode, of course.

The rule on handheld vs docked is that as long as the video signal doesn't cut out at any point, you're good. So you can't switch between docked/undocked mid-run. You have to pick one or the other and stick to it.

Incorrect, SpeedIn, and Pear like this

Thanks for your help

United States

I started as a SM64 "speedrunner" I never ended up submitting anything and just messed around in wf trying to get the canoness setup and failing. I picked up SMO watching smallest, and had a lot of fun speed running that game, but after that I dropped of, picking up SM64 again and getting not terrible at 16 star. I love 64 but I personally think it depends on what game you are into, and for me I still think I kinda prefer SMO, just because the movement (in my opinion) is a bit easier and smoother

Incorrect likes this
Texas, USA

i just cannot control sm64 for the life of me, and when im not dying a bunch and messing up everywhere, smo is very fun which is not something i can say for sm64. though i do think that if you are to ask this question, go ask the sm64 forum/discord as well since you're gonna get much different responses for obvious reasons.

GoodGoomba likes this
Texas, USA

should have put this on the sm64 page...

Hong Kong

I think the 3D games are getting friendlier and friendlier to beginner speedrunner for each generation. More and more tolerance. I guess it is because Mario is getting more movesets.

GoodGoomba likes this