Super Mario 64 (Nintendo 64)

Best: The jump to 3D was a cultural reset

Super Mario 64’s transition from 2D sidescroller to 3D platformer was a capital-M Moment for video games. Nowadays we rarely see many consoles have a “killer app” that sells you on everything a system is about, but Super Mario 64 did just that in 1996 when it launched alongside the Nintendo 64. It proved popular 2D games like the Super Mario series could exist in 3D spaces and transcend previous technical limitations. Though the Nintendo 64 conceded market dominance to the original PlayStation by the end of its lifecycle, the system still stands tall as a symbol of Nintendo’s ability to adapt old structures into new ideas and Super Mario 64 is a key part to that.

Worst: But by today’s standards, it can feel pretty rough

But like some influential games, Super Mario 64 does feel a bit sluggish compared to everything it helped pave the way for. Even by 1996 standards the N64 juggernaut has a troublesome camera, and Mario doesn’t move with a lot of the same precision he does now, though a lot of that could be attributed to the system’s controller, which was the company’s first foray into analog stick control. A lot of these issues were improved upon in the Super Mario 64 DS remake, which served as a technical showcase for that handheld the same way the original did for N64, but this is the way of things when something truly special is iterated on. Take it easy, old timer, the future games will take it from here.

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