Mario 64 was more impressive to me because it released so much earlier. By the time Zelda OoT released I had already had my mind completely fucking blown by Mario 64 so the impact wasn't as huge even though it was just as good of a game.

That first time I held an N64 controller and was able to run Mario around in actual circles in a fully 3D world is a moment I still haven't forgotten all these years later.

Mario 64 was released 1 year before I was born, and Ocarina of time 1 year after... so I was so young when I first played them, AND they were the first games I ever played so idunno xD

I would say maybe Mario 64, because I completed that game more times then Ocarina of time.

Ocarina of Time without a doubt

They were of equal impact imo, SM64 really launched the modern 3d era while OOT went on to show how to build games on what SM64 brought.

At launch? Mario 64. It was totally different to anything else.

I remember going to the local Blockbuster at every opportunity prior the the N64's launch; they had a station set up with the game. God knows how many times I played through the first couple of stars.

OoT came out a couple of years later, so it didn't have the same 'wow' factor as Mario 64 had. I'd been playing around in big 3D worlds for a while by then, and had already played through Mystical Ninja, which did a lot of the things OoT did before OoT did them.

Nowadays I'd take OoT over Mario 64 though. Really magical game!

It showed what the future of many games could be but I won't count out SM64 simply because when I saw it back in 94 on the Games Master TV show every other game looked so inferior to it, SM64 is essentially the foundation while OOT was the future.

Zelda was more magical, but Mario gave me way more replayability. I liked Mario more in one way, but zelda more another.

You're pitting two of the best games ever made against each other. It's a hard choice. Both games, are pretty much as close to 'perfect' as a game can be in my opinion. Both were mind-blowing when they were released, both have withstood the test of time and are as good and as fun today as they were day one.

That said, Ocarina of Time wins. Mario 64 opened up the 3D world splendidly, but Ocarina of Time came with a scope, lore and marvel I'd never seen before.

M64 was one of the most overrated platformers ever produced. OoT was a masterpiece and it even managed to age well.

As a series, IMO Zelda will always be superior. Also the first truly great 3D mario game was Galaxy.

No game will probably ever match the insane wonder of when you first see and run through the 3D environments of Super Mario 64. Ocarina of Time was a wonder but the amazing fun of the "freedom" Super MArio 64 offered during the early window of its release was a feeling you only feel when you first start playing games and can feel joy just running around the field or castle jumping and doing backflips. The closest thing to match it ironically was GTA3 but nothing really since has had the ability to instill that feeling in veteran gamers like Super Mario 64 did to me and my fellow gamers at the time.