Does the topic creator not know his history very well. There were SEVERAL 3D platformers that preceded Super Mario 64. The difference is Super Mario 64 was the most technically sophisticated platformer when it was released and it created a lasting formula that the entire industry borrowed from. The other games before it did not. Besides, it's not like one person or one company had the idea and everybody else just ripped off that idea. Is it no coincidence that Super Mario 64, Crash Bandicoot, and the ill-fated Sonic X-treme were in development around the same time? It was a race and while Nintendo wasn't first, they still won that race (not the console war mind you).
It reminds me of people who say Resident Evil was the first survival horror game. It wasn't. It's just the most recognizable because it was the first to revolutionize the genre. Although in Resident Evil's fairness, Capcom did coin the term survival horror even though that type of game has existed since Haunted House on the Atari 2600.
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