Let's not speak of this abomination ever again. 

Metroid, it blew everyones expectations and delivered one of the best experiences of all time.

I´m a huge Nintendo fan, so please don´t kill me... but I hated the transition for both Zelda and Mario from 2d to 3d.
I´ll explain myself. I was a huge, huge fan of Super Mario World and The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past. Both have worlds so rich in colours, textures and "details", that they were charming.
But then they turned Mario and Link into polygonal monsters.
I´m well aware what a big improvement it was for the entire industry, but back then, I couldn´t stand the changes they made as they just felt ugly to me.
But now, with perspective, I would say that Mario had a better transitioning, Link was even creepy to me, just look at him!

Well, we can agree on something, they both have aged very well, they are like a good wine haha.

That's very hard to say but it's been nice seeing everyone's thoughts. All these games lost a little and gained some too by transitioning. I'm starved for Metroid so to me it's the best to go 3D. I marvel at it's environments the same way I did through the 2D games.Metroid Prime lost the vertical gameplay and added a very annoying double jump.

I hate double jump!

But every other thing about the Prime Series is perfect. Except Corruption and Other M's dialog, When I'm Samus I just want to be left alone.



Mario and Zelda 3D are the most accessible and as deserving of near perfect 100. However they are nothing like their 2D counter parts which is a good thing to me. They didn't get the graphical polish or environmental detail that Metroid received but they definitely have the best gameplay around.

Zelda, but it's close. All the three games are near perfect. But OoT wins because I'm more of a Zelda fan.

I cannot comment on Metroid, but between zelda and mario i would say Zelda.
Ocarina Of Time feels like most modern open world games. the sense of being inside the game was amazing when i first played that game. Mario's transition was good but it feels that it lost some important elements in the transition.
I think that Super Mario World might be the best game of the series but it's not a 3D game so Zelda takes the lead in this one.

I apologize for my previous off topic response.
I misread the topic.

I don't know which one did it better, but it's admirable that Nintendo managed to translate so many franchises to 3D while keeping their greatness. I mean, Super Mario World, Super Metroid and A Link to the Past are remebered as three of the best games EVER. And so do Super Mario 64, Ocarina of Time and Metroid Prime. It's not that easy to do. Many franchises have failed miserably on keeping their quality during this transition. Nintendo is the king in this regard, I think we can all agree with this.

Metroid Prime was the first 3D Metroid after Super Metroid ;)

Mario 64, Zelda OoT and Metroid Prime are probably one of best transitions from 2D to 3D ever. I woud say Zelda OoT, only beacuse IMO is best game ever, but Mario 64 and Metroid Prime are also great once.

I'm going to go ahead and say Metroid. While Super Mario 64 was revolutionary, there wasn't anyone who thought it was going to be bad. Everyone was looking forward to it and it turned out great just like everyone expected it to. While playing Zelda in 3D for the first time was absolutely amazing, 3D was more of a natural transition for Zelda since the older games were pretty much designed like 3D games because of the overhead movement. With Metroid Prime however, a lot of people were worried about and thought it was going to suck. Not to mention making a good Metroid game in 3D seemed almost impossible to imagine. But Retro Studios pulled it off. The game exceeded exceptions. Although it felt like a new experience, it also very much felt like a Metroid game.