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.
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