What's the single best game Nintendo has ever created?

[Jumpin]

It’s currently Breath of the Wild, without a doubt. But there are a lot of others throughout time worth mentioning.

• ~1986-1990, Super Mario Bros was Nintendo’s first mega-hit. While Donkey King put them on the map, SMB was something else.
• 1990-1992. Super Mario Bros 3 exceeded the first one in every way possible and, to this day, remains one of the biggest releases in history.
• 1992-1998. Link to the Past - this Zelda game changed the way we looked at games. It was well-paced, fun, and while it lacked the difficulty of earlier iterations, it stopped on everything in terms of satisfaction.
• 1998-2007. Ocarina of Time - there was a gap of time where IMO Nintendo wasn’t quite the #1 studio they were in the past. While Mario 64 was great for what it explores, it was RARE that was winning the platformer war with DKC and Banjo Kazooie, and then they had GE007, which became a significant hit. All of this paled in comparison to Ocarina of Time.
• 2007-2017. Super Mario Galaxy came next. After many dark years of mediocrity, Nintendo came back into the light with the Wii. At the end of the first year was SMG, which was Nintendo’s most exceptional game to date, and IMO still their second most excellent game of all time (all though there are levels in SMG2 I like more). The two SMG games remain my favourite platformers to date.
• 2017-PRESENT. Breath of the Wild - and the current reigning heavyweight champion. Breath of the Wild extended much of what I ever expected from a video game. Dragon Quest 9 was the first game I played a single save beyond 100 hours, and also 200 hours - and a lot of it had to do with multiplayer co-op. Animal Crossing on 3DS was another, Xenoblade Chronicles on Wii was another I surpassed 100 hours playing. But it was Breath of the Wild that became the first game I played over 300 hours on in a single save. The pacing and designed fixed my most significant issues I’d had with Zelda since the series went 3D, and it is also the first Zelda game to fully realize the potential of 3D by exploring a vast 400 square kilometer world with vast biomes, diverse towns and peoples exploring the world, many stables that act as settlements... and despite all this time there’s still land to explore (though not much left at this point). Breath of the Wild 2 is on the way; but like SMG2, I am expecting more of an extension of the first game rather than a giant step up.

Last edited by Jumpin - on 29 September 2019