I had played other important 3D games before that. I played a lot of Daggerfall Elder Scrolls shortly before, which was an eye-opening open world game. I had played the original open world game Bethesda designed before their fantasy series, Terminator on DOS in the 1990, which had an open world based on LA that was 10x6 miles in size, and felt like a first-person GTA (going into stores and steal, killing civilians) a decade before GTA3 went 3D. I also had played Crashed Bandicoot shortly before, a fair bit, at a Costco, or the first Need for Speed on 3DO a couple years before. I played a lot... a lot of Wolfenstein and Doom, and also a bit of Quake the same summer before. I had played Jumping Flash at least a few months before, too, though I think it released almost a year before. All of these games were pretty defining in what they did for either 3D or open world.
But the first time I ran around the castle field in Super Mario 64 at the Toys R' Us demo kiosk? The first time I played Super Mario 64 at home, and climbed a mountain... and then surfed a turtle shell down it and through an open field? The first time I swam underwater... and explored underwater caves....
Super Mario 64 was a defining 3D game because of how it changed scope and movement. Other games had 3D and maybe even open worlds. But Super Mario 64's combination of its movement, fluidity of action, camera, world and its elevation, and the overall experience of exploration... It was just a defining 3D moment. For me, it is
the moment that really defines 3D gaming. Bethesda's Terminator and Daggerfall better define open world gaming and Quake is still the game I think of when I think about what really defines the basic idea of the modern first-person shooter.
But when it comes to pure fluid simple 3D movement in an environment? I think Super Mario 64.
