Yeah pacman and pong were seminal but so was elite on the BBC, and Populous which I think was on the spectrum. Also unreal tournament, silent hill, vice city, homeworld, doom 2016, beam ng, I enjoyed em all but I can’t decide. Ppl here have done much more gaming than me, I’m wondering what you all think is the best game ever. Age, platform, genre, bla bla - what’s best ever?
Ocarina of Time
Yeah I know. Cliche as fuck. But for those who weren’t around when It came out, it’s really hard to describe just how absurdly revolutionary OoT was. Between it and Mario 64 (another Top 5 game for me), you essentially had the foundations of 3D gaming that are still used today.
But besides that…it’s an amazing game that I’m still replaying nearly 30 years later. Ever single complaint I have about this game is a tiny issue that has been solved in other versions (like binding the Iron Boots to the C button).
The last console I had was the Sega Mega Drive, so I don’t have much knowledge of console games, but are you sure Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time “essentially set the foundations of 3D gaming that are still used today?”.
Quake 1, was released on June 1996. Quake II was released on December 1997.
Ocarina of Time was released on November 1998, the same time as Half-Life.
Sure, Mario 64 was released in June 1996, same time as Quake 1, but Quake 1 also had multiplayer - a key milestone for 3D gaming at that time).
You also had Frontier: First Encounters, released in April 1995, with primitive, but full 3D graphics:
Tomb Raider was released in October 1996 (Sega Saturn, DOS, PlayStation):
Mechwarrior II was released in July 1995:
I am just curious, is there something about Super Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time that I don’t know about with respect to their contribution to 3D gaming (either from a technical or game design perspective)? They are clearly great games, I just don’t really understand how they could be the foundation for all 3D gaming.