Only Up 64

Only Up 64 is a hack of Super Mario 64 by Kaze Emanuar where you climb upwards over a variety of models from all sorts of N64 games. It was released on 29 Jul 2023 for the SimpleFlips’ Troll Hack Competition.

To play the rom, download the patch from the download page by using the password fallingwithstyle or from Romhacking.com. You can then patch a ROM called Super Mario 64 (U) [!].z64 by using FLIPS.

Only Up 64 style & gameplay

The concept is very simple. There is no story or plot of any sort, you just start at the beginning of Bob-omb Battlefield. However, once you reach the top of the stage, you’ll find a long path of platforms made of various models from all sort of N64 games, not just Mario games.

The game is based off of “Only UP!”, a PC game using the Fortnite engine. The concept is pretty much the same thing – it’s a 3rd person platformer where you (you guessed it) climb up and up and up.

List of items

These are only the ones I could identify. They are in order of appearance on the stage. They usually appear in clusters from the game that they originate from, so I’ll group them by game as well.

And once you reach the star at the very top, you get a happy ending.

Review and Conclusion

Only Up 64 is quite possibly the longest and largest level on the Nintendo 64. It takes about 30 minutes for a seasoned Mario 64 player to complete, but it’ll take much more if you make a mistake and lose your progress.

The game itself is quite reminiscent of Jumping Over It because of its difficulty and its tendency of punishing mistakes with having to do the whole level over again. The stage is so long and there isn’t much in terms of ‘checkpoints’ (unless you luckily fall on an object by chance), so it’s unlikely that you can make it all the way up without falling painfully. Save states are broken so you can’t even cheat your way up.

I do like the variety of objects, I never thought I’d see Mario jumping on a Kakuna or Lanky Kong. It does help to keep the game interesting, but there are some objects like the Jiggy that are almost impossible to climb over. I personally got stuck on the mossy platforms in the SM64 section since there is a thin bridge that is almost impossible to tiptoe across – and you’re supposed to land on it after a sequence of wall jumps.

Not for the faint of heart, Only Up 64 gives a punishing challenge to all but the most expert of Super Mario 64 players.