Comment on Best game ever?
EarlGrey@discuss.tchncs.de 1 year ago
Ocarina of Time
Yeah I know. Cliche as fuck. But for those who weren’t around when It came out, it’s really hard to describe just how absurdly revolutionary OoT was. Between it and Mario 64 (another Top 5 game for me), you essentially had the foundations of 3D gaming that are still used today.
But besides that…it’s an amazing game that I’m still replaying nearly 30 years later. Ever single complaint I have about this game is a tiny issue that has been solved in other versions (like binding the Iron Boots to the C button).
The last console I had was the Sega Mega Drive, so I don’t have much knowledge of console games, but are you sure Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time “essentially set the foundations of 3D gaming that are still used today?”.
Quake 1, was released on June 1996. Quake II was released on December 1997.
Ocarina of Time was released on November 1998, the same time as Half-Life.
Sure Mario 64 was released in June 1996, same time as Quake 1, but Quake 1 also had multiplayer - a key milestone for 3D gaming.
Not all 3D gaming obviously (I mean they aren’t First person shooters, like most of your examples), but effectively the Action, Adventure, Platforming, etc angle (which makes up a fairly massive chunk of games today).
What I’m talking about is the fundamental gameplay of both. Online Multiplayer was revolutionary, but it wasn’t really a fundamental change to the gameplay itself (Like with Marathon introducing mouse control)
It’s interesting that you mention Tomb Raider though because that’s a perfect comparison. It was a fairly indicative of the industry as a whole with its stiff controls, static cameras, and dodgy combat.
Mario 64 brought a full range of movement and action to games. It was really the first 3D game where just moving was fun (which is why they started the game in a peaceful courtyard, they wanted you to just have a fuck about). It also brought the user controllable camera to games (It hasn’t aged well, but that camera system was amazing when it came out). Also, while it didn’t invent the Hub world (it had been used in 2D games) it pretty much set the standard for it.
OoT built on Mario64 with two major bits of gameplay. Target lock-on (Then called “Z-Targeting”) and contextual buttons. Both of which are just so fundamental to games these days it just feels obvious. More relevant back then (but not now), it created the template for how you could faithfully transition a series from 2D to 3D while perfectly maintaining the feel of the 2D series.
Now, neither of those things alone would justify it being in my Top 5. The fact that they’re both so aggressively fun and well made does that.
I see. I still think claiming that Mario 64 and Zelda 98 are the foundation for most 3D action and adventure games doesn’t really align with reality.
Especially the piece about Mario 64 being the first 3D game were movement was fun. I understand that the definition of fun is subjective, but this is basically false.
Beyond Quake, in Frontier: First Encounters you could literally fly between solar bodies, do planetry landings, fly between cities. This is far more difficult to pull off well than the relatively primitive movement in Mario 64.
Same with setting the standard for player hubs. I haven’t played Mario 64, but I have seen friends play Mario Galaxy and the hub area in Galaxy well designed, but simplistic and with no dynamism related to gameplay.
Not sure about how exactly target lock-on functions in Zelda 98, but target lock-on definitely existing long, long before Zelda and in more complex, dynamic environments.
Don’t get me wrong, you like what you like and clearly Mario 64 and Zelda 98 are good games, but it is strange to put them on the pedestal in this manner. Especially when many of your statements almost approach a PR level of what I assume is hyperbole (e.g. “first 3D game with fun movement” - this is clearly false).
Mario 64 was the first use of the analog stick in a console game. Push it a little bit to walk, push it all the way to run, and several states in between. Maybe you can find a simulator that had analog control, but I’m sure you can see the difference.
Ocarina of Time was a solution to that type of game in 3D space that, as discussed above in things like Tomb Raider, was far more awkward in its predecessors as the industry was figuring out how to make games work in 3D. It’s very similar to how Halo wasn’t the first console FPS, but it was the first one smart enough to put guns, grenades, and melee all on their own buttons, among other innovations.
mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
Yeah, OoT feels dated by modern standards, but that’s largely because it set the standard for 3D games. Future games have built upon the mechanics, but OoT was what paved the way.