"Metroid Prime" was the best, but Nintendo also had a whole extra generation to figure that game out. "Mario 64" and "Ocarina" are excellent games, and Nintendo had the best transition to 3D of any major publisher.

Really tough poll, but i went with Metroid, because not only did Samus go 3D, but 1st person, which required the world to be more immersive than zelda and mario needed to be.

I can't give an opinion with Metroid since I haven't played either the 2D games or 3D games.

But out of Mario and Zelda, in terms of still feeling like the games before it, Zelda wins. Except with Ocarina of Time, for me I never want to explore much, but I feel obligated to do it with something like A Link To The Past and obviously the original Zelda.

I think Ocarina of Time nailed it best. SM64 feels clunky to me today. Only the water temple feels clunky in the original N64 game.

All three were monumental transitions for the gaming industry. But Super Mario 64 was the first to pave the way and it did it flawlessy. The camera controls, the music, the worlds, everything was so perfect...

Metroid Prime cheats by being a GameCube game. Meanwhile it can't be exaggerated how influential Ocarina of Time was, not to mention how fantastic for a first foray into the world of 3D for the series. So Zelda.

all were done very very well, benchmarks in their genres transitioning into 3D gaming however I definitely feel as if possibly Ocarina of Time was the most dramatic and groundbreaking for its time

you can't name one game remotely like it even from its own generation in terms of the free roaming and the scope

Metroid Prime really captured the essence of the original games the best imo so Metroid for me

n64/psx to ps2.
NFSU and GT3 were groundbreaking graphically to me and a lot of fun.

I would it's actually that, at this point, any Metroid game would do. The drought is real.