Illusion on 11 June 2016
This is a tough one. He has so many masterpieces from the 80's and early 90's that I am hesitant to call Mario 64 his greatest achievement. I think the original Donkey Kong Arcade or Super Mario Bros are probably bigger achievements simply because they essentially took Nintendo from nothing to being a huge worldwide success. Mario 64, while definitely a masterpiece and one of my favorite games of all time, marked the start of a period of major decline for Nintendo.
Mario 64 might be his greatest game from a technical point of view, but from a popular culture point of view I think the relevance and lasting impact of Mario 64 ended up being a lot less transformative then some of Miyamoto's earlier works.
