A Mario 64 ray tracing mod? Sure

That water though

I don’t think I can accurately assess how many times I’ve played Mario 64. Whether it’s on the original hardware, the DS, or various collection/Virtual Console means, every level is burned in my brain. But not quite like this.

In the provocatively named video “I bought a $1500 GPU (an RTX 3090) to play Super Mario 64 with RTX,” YouTuber Dario showcases Mario 64 with ray tracing. Now this video showing off Wet-Dry World is a tad old, but it represents a project in progress, which could eventually see the light of day.

No matter how much time tries to keep the classics down, it’s a losing battle. People will hold water for these types of games forever, and I have to say it’s a blast to see the game’s wonderful level designs preserved like this a million times over.

Of course, the community is very polarized in terms of how much the ray tracing effects actually add to the game. It’s a tad more advanced than a lot of other mod projects over the years (that “enhance” the look of Mario 64), but it looks great to me. A diverse array of projects is never a bad thing.

[Thanks Chris!]