GTA, while Super Mario 64 is absolutely amazing, super mario world and super mario bros 3 were also incredible.

The 3d gta games are far FAR superior to the 2d gta games.

"It has to be GTA. It went from a successful series to breaking records. It sspawned it's own genre."

this isn't what was asked, though.

C'mon guys have you even played GTA? Between GTA 2 and GTA 3 are so much differents!!!

I'd say the"tales of" franchise is also among the top of best 2d-3d transition. maybe even fighting for 2nd/3rd place.

defined a generation? exaggeration too much? also, open world genre? I don't think that's a genre, but if it was, there were others before gta.

But wii IS better than N64 and GC. it runs gc games besides it's own.

For me, Mario 64. It was the first to do it really, really well and for that it deserves credit. It had to reinvent it's core gameplay, shift perspective, deal with camera control for the first time ever and gave a lesson in how to leverage 3D space for added gameplay opportunities as opposed to something that simply added difficulty to the controls. Zelda is simply built off Mario 64 and Metroid had an extra generation of 3D maturity to help it make the transition.

Haven't played enough of the others to comment.

A lot off people are dismissing gta 3 which created a whole genre and is probably the highest selling franchise which made the transition. For me its gta Mario and Zelda. Rayman didn't do bad either.

No one is dismissing it though it's not asking about sales but transition, GTA may have defined a genre but then SM64 defined the jump to 3D in general for a number of people that's hard to top especially for those who were around in the early 90s when the latter was first shown.

Mario & Zelda.