This game Literally changed the face of gaming! :idea:
User Rating: 10 | Super Mario 64 N64
Before this game came out, there were several attempts to go 3-D that didn't quite pan out. The first early examples were the early "Star Wars" shooting games. Sure, there was flying forward in vector based graphics while objects were coming towards the screen, but it left a lot to be desired. And while the movie "Tron" itself was very 3-D, the video game left a lot to be desired. "Q-Bert" had a better concept (at the time) and made one of the first isometric 3-D games. Although limited in the places it could go, it could still move around in a 3-D environment in multiple different ways. It wasn't until "Roadblasters" came out that the graphics and the gameplay looked and handled well enough for psuedo 3-D gameplay. Although primitive by today's standards, it was the first 3-D racing game. Yet 3-D games dropped off the radar for quite some time and didn't start coming back in popularity until the early 1990's. The first example of this genre was the introduction of what was called Mode 7. First appearing in "F-Zero," it allowed 2-D racing games to play out like 3-dimensional ones, allowing the objects to stay 2-dimensional on a 3-dimensional track! "Out of This World" was the first game to be programmed mainly from polygons, and not only that, the game was engineered by actions from real people, through an advanced version of rotoscoping! So it felt like the actions of real people for the first time! "Sonic the Hedgehog 2, 3 and Knuckles," also got into Mode 7 by providing 3-D bonus courses in their games. "Super Mario Kart" improved Mode 7 even further by diversifying their tracks and fleshing out the characters racing on those tracks to an even greater degree than "F-Zero" did. The pinnacle of Mode 7 however, was the game of "Star Fox." It brought polygon graphics to the main stream, and was one of the first popular video games to have this capability. And the reason why this was popular, was all thanks to the Super FX chip, boosting the Super NES' already great graphical and sound capabilities up even further and solidfying Nintendo's role in pushing the boundaries of 2-D and 3-D. Then Isometric 3-D games came back. In "Sonic the Hedgehog 3-D Blast," and "Super Mario RPG," the freedom expressed in those games were definitly an improvement over their predecessors, but there was still no true 3-D game. Until this game came out, and video games were changed forever! The first free-roaming 3-D game, Mario could move, perform, and go anywhere that it was possible for him to go to, and was no longer restricted by the boundaries of 2-D gaming or isometric 3-D games. Now he could beat and defeat his enemies in ways that weren't possible before, and new methods of gameplay were opened up a brand new possibility of ways that were truly revolutionary. If Mario wanted to walk underwater and be unharmed, he could! If Mario wanted to pass through walls and enter sealed cages, he could! And if Mario wanted to fly anywhere he wanted, he most Definitely could! What was even better, is that the characters and enemies in this game expressed more different types of personality then they ever had before, making them much richer as video game characters. During the lifespan of the N64, this game modeled all the possibilities of what was possible in 3-D gaming, and to this day still remains a technological feat of engineering not just for Nintendo, but for video game designers everywhere! And it is for that reason that I salute this game! :idea: Enough said! ;)
