| Augen said: Technically? Mario 64 Culturally? Grand Theft Auto 3 Mario 64, despite being my least favorite Mario main line game basically showed the industry "here is how moving 360 degrees in a three dimensional space as well as manage the camera. GTA3 to me when the less stereotypical gamers dominated the industry zeitgeist and we moved towards what is now the Call of Duty culture of massive 8 digit sales expectations. |
This is the correct answer.
People do forget too in a lot of ways, Mario 64 was the first "big" 3D game to use an analog stick too for a lot of people. I can't speak for everyone but I doubt very many people had used an analog stick before then in a video game (and yes I'm well aware Sega did shoe-horn in a new analog controller for NiGHTS at the last minute).
Though GTA3 shaped in a lot of ways what the industry is today.
But "influential" doesn't neccessarily mean better. I think people are confusing the two in this thread.
The first Mortal Kombat for example is one of the most influential games in history (it basically forced the creation of the ratings system and ushered in the age of hyper-violent console gaming), but I wouldn't call it one of the best.
