Although Super Mario 64’s PC port was recently victim to a copyright complaint from Nintendo, players have already taken the opportunity to create mods for the premiere Nintendo 64 title. And, boy, are some of them quite impressive.

Take, for instance, a video from a YouTube channel called Unreal (unrelated to the Unreal Engine in any official capacity) displaying an HD version of Super Mario 64. The video provides an overview of some redone texture work and a facelift for Mario.

While the textures in the above video have been improved, with more pronounced shadows and lighting, it’s the Mario model that takes center-stage. As opposed to his more polygonal 1996 appearance, this redone Mario appears more like his Super Mario Sunshine or Super Mario Galaxy iteration, despite some blockiness in the torso area.

One video involving a change to texture filtering makes the game appears as though it were an original PlayStation game. The mod trades in the Nintendo 64’s linear filtering for a modified texture filtering.

Another video from the Unreal channel shows improved textures to everything besides Mario. Ground textures, as well as paintings, wall textures, and more have been changed. As seen in the thumbnail, the mural of Princess Peach is far more defined than the mural seen in the original Super Mario 64.

Overall, everything just looks a lot more vibrant and crisp in the above video.

As the original Super Mario 64’s textures are obviously dated, everything is given a more distinct appearance and is more impressive.

All of this goes to show the wonder that modders can create when they put their noses to the grindstone. The results can be quite praiseworthy, to say the least.

Super Mario 64’s legacy holds strong to this day, with many players still beholding it as their favorite entry in the series. When one sees mods like this, it can’t help but be thought that there is still a lot of passion for and dedication to the game. It is rumored that the game will be getting a Nintendo Switch release in a collection featuring it, as well as Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy. Nothing has been confirmed yet, though it would certainly be a Switch highlight.

Source: VGC