Super Mario 64

Title: Super Mario 64
Studio: Nintendo EAD
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre: 3rd Person Platformer
Platform: Nintendo 64

Premise
You are trying to rescue a princess who has been captured (yet again) by an evil king, by recovering power stars from various levels.

Character
You play as Mario, a plumber-turned-hero, who arrives at the castle because of an alluring letter sent by the princess, promising baked goods, only to find that she has been kidnapped by Bowser. Mario is one of the many famous, "silent heroes". A player character who has no speaking part in the game, apart from a few grunts. Other famous ones include Gordon Freeman and link. Even though Mario never talks, he still is in control of what the main goal is in the game.

Engagement
The game is not very engaging from the story point of view, as we get no back story for Mario or princess peach and her whereabouts, but gameplay makes up for this. This game has a very many levels to play though, each one different from the last, and each time you play through a level, you can choose a different objective. This results in a very engaging gameplay.

Story
The story begins when you arrive at the castle via one of Mario's trademark green pipes, and a letter is read by Mario from Princess Peach saying that she has baked Mario a cake, and wishes him to go to the castle to view/eat said cake. Upon entrance of the castle, you learn that Princess Peach has been kidnapped by Bowser and you have to get all the power stars in order to rescue her. From then on, the story is pretty much gone from the game, and your main concern is getting the power stars.

Resources
The resources include, coins, stars, time in some levels, health, and lives.

Challenge
The game starts out at a very manageable level, with an integrated tutorial to help the player along, and then gets steadily difficult, climaxing in a very difficult end boss battle. While the player can choose their mission for each level, in order for them to get the required amount of starts to win the game, they will have to complete most of them, forcing the player to get better at the game.