[leepowers]

Super Mario 64 and The Ocarina of Time elevated open-world 3D game play. So much of gaming to this point, even 3D gaming, was dungeon crawling, or traversing linear paths and story lines, or killing opponents in a closed arena. SM64 and Ocarina really transported the player into a whole new world.

The camera work was almost perfect, and the subtleties of the system were revolutionary. The Wikipedia article[1], and this picture in particular[2] provide a good description.

25 years later I think of SM64 as the Citizen Kane of video games. Citizen Kane provided a glimpse of what the medium was capable of; it changed peoples perception of what a movie could be. Virtually every movie since has either been directly inspired by CK or has internalized its zeitgeist. Super Mario 64 played the same role for video games.

Or - it could that since I grew up playing SM64 I've anchored to it and feel it's influence more deeply than history warrants :D

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_64#Influence

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_64#/media/File:Sup...