Game Vs. Game! This week: SA1 Vs. SA2

[daemoth]

Super Mario 64's athletic abilities were established in 1994's Donkey Kong remake for Game Boy... but besides that, "tap this button three times" isn't all that complex. The athletic abilities made the game harder? No, they made it much easier. They gave the player a greater range of control over their movement, which was needed to allow them to properly navigate in 3D space.
The point i was trying to get to by listing all the ability is fact that its hard to master given the fact there are so many. Especially compared to the oldies. 

Even though the game has missions (which aren't cryptic at all... "Go Kill the Bob-Omb with a Crown That We Just Showed You" is not even a little bit cryptic), you clear those objectives by... running and jumping from platform to platform on an obstacle course. Just like in every other Mario game. They even brought back a significant number of weight-based platforms, which you might notice are from the original SMB.
Not cryptic, but a lot more complex than run to the right side of the level.
Green Mushrooms mean 1up. 100 coins means 1up.

Star Power was limited. The SM64 power-ups are all limited.

Stomp on Goombas to kill them. Stomp on most bad guys to kill them. Don't walk under a Thwomp. Kick a Koopa out of its shell. Stay the hell away from Bob-Ombs and Bullet Bills. Boo chases when you aren't looking. Fight Bowser, save Peach.

It's... It's utterly Mario.

Then again, what was Mario at that point? When Super Mario 64 debuted, there was already the Donkey Kong arcade trilogy, the Super Mario Bros. trilogy, Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2 (Doki Doki Panic), Super Mario World, Super Mario Land 1 & 2, Donkey Kong's enhanced remake, Wrecking Crew, Super Mario Kart, Mario's Tennis, Dr. Mario (three times), the educational Mario games (Mario is Missing, Mario's Time Machine, etc.), Game & Watch Gallery, Mario & Wario, NES Golf (which you may have noticed is the precursor to Mario Golf), three cartoon shows (four if you count the Saturday Supercade segments), a terrible movie, an anime film and an OVA, Super Mario RPG....

...and all of those things are very different and had very different ideas about what it meant to be part of the Super Mario franchise.
My point is people expected the main game of this new console, the N64, to be as easy to play as every other Marios entry games.

It was probably the best game they could produce at the time, given the novelty of 3d and exploration. But it had a lot of flaw as a "Mario" entry game.