-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
Gaming before Ocarina of Time; what was the GOAT?
- Thread starter TrishaCat
- Start date
Super Mario 64
Resident Evil 2 (same year)
Metal Gear Solid (same year)
Pokemon Red/Blue
Super Mario World
Resident Evil 2 (same year)
Metal Gear Solid (same year)
Pokemon Red/Blue
Super Mario World
yup, even playstation kids, like me at the time, couldnt believe what we were watching. At the time no 3d game had that freedom of movement - camera control, it seemed kind of a magic trick for my young eyes and brain. That said, its level design never did much for me tbh
I was like 16 when it came out so I have a good frame of reference. At the time the videogame discourse wasnt focused on things like GOTY and "best game ever" it really started with Ocarina because it was the first game to get like all 10s from every magazine and the N64 was seen as the first system to challenge our perception of "this looks real". Yes, I know how dumb that sounds but its true. The only time Ive ever gotten dizzy playing a videogame was the first time playing Mario 64, moving in a 3D space felt THAT crazy
That being said, the game before Ocarina that got MAJOR critical acclaim was Super Metroid. People lost their goddamn shit about that game.
That being said, the game before Ocarina that got MAJOR critical acclaim was Super Metroid. People lost their goddamn shit about that game.
I feel like GOAT talk for Super Metroid didn't begin until the early 00's. I remember being a little surprised that EGM put it at #1 on their second list. At the time, it was overshadowed by Donkey Kong Country.
It got great reviews upon release but so did several other games in that era. Like Chrono Trigger and Earthbound, it gained a bigger following later on.
Genesis/Mega Drive games like Shinobi III, Gunstar Heroes, Sonic games, etc. also got plenty of 9/10s alongside the big SNES titles but that's something that has become increasingly forgotten over time.
I don't remember people ever so much putting any 1 game forward as a conclusive overall best of all time, you more got personal favorites. I love fallout, i love chronotrigger, street fighter until i die, that kind of thing.
There was already +-15 years of amazing games before OoT things def changed after OoT but games before it were also fantastic!
Really?
I remember back when the OOT fans were super militant and obnoxious.
People are _way_ more neutral on it now. See: thread.
100% this. OoT didn't aged well because we had a lot of action adventure game that made the gameplay old.
In the way less crowd 3d platformer, Mario 64 still holds up. Mario Odyssey is a glorified 64. I am still amazed by the little time they needed to make 3D movement feels so good.
Metal gear solid had a bigger impact on the media than OoT too.
Probably Link's Awakening and Mario 3 for me today. Though back then I would have said Zelda 1, but I think Link's Awakening is my absolute favorite 2D Zelda.
Other games I personally find worthy of consideration include Mario 64, Super Castlevania IV, Rondo of Blood, Duke 3D, and (even though it wasn't out in America before OoT) Pokemon gen 1.
Other games I personally find worthy of consideration include Mario 64, Super Castlevania IV, Rondo of Blood, Duke 3D, and (even though it wasn't out in America before OoT) Pokemon gen 1.
This is a good point.
From my point of view, conversations about GOTYs and GOATs in gaming didn't really start taking place until the first gaming Academy Awards (AIAS) started showing up on box arts. The first game to ever win was Mario 64 in 1996 and I think GoldenEye won the year after that, then Ocarina.
There weren't really any generally agreed-upon GOATs before that, at least not as widely agreed-upon as games like Mario 64 and Ocarina. The most critically acclaimed games were games like Mario 3, Super Metroid, Chrono Trigger, and Final Fantasy VII. Other games that were a huge deal were Sonic 1, Sonic 2, Street Fighter II (SFII was like the Call of Duty of its time market-wise), Final Fantasy VI, Doom, and probably some Ultima games. Ultima Underworld and System Shock in particular were extremely influential to a lot of games we're playing today, and they came out in the early 90's.
Mario 64.
But in the previous gen (SNES) I don't think there was a universally agreed GOAT. Mario World, LttP, Chrono Trigger, FF6, Super Metroid were all huge in their own ways. I do think the undisputed GOAT on NES is SMB3 though.
But in the previous gen (SNES) I don't think there was a universally agreed GOAT. Mario World, LttP, Chrono Trigger, FF6, Super Metroid were all huge in their own ways. I do think the undisputed GOAT on NES is SMB3 though.
Sony has never had a GOAT for me, though it's been my favorite ecosystem since PS1. Nintendo puts out a GOAT or two every decade, but then there is this huge drop in quantity and quality. Sony just consistently gets a dozen great games per year and Nintendo might get 1 must play game per year on average at least according to my tastes.
Bottom line I get Nintendo platforms for the GOATs and portability and Sony for everything else....or PC.
Well for myself it was Super Mario World + Yoshi's Island. Don't ask me to separate them because you know you can't.
Also I'm sure a lot of people saw Mario 64 as the GOAT for awhile.
Also I'm sure a lot of people saw Mario 64 as the GOAT for awhile.
doom
quake
mario 64
sid meier's civilization (or colonization. or civ 2. kind of before my time to know which one to pick)
lots of good 2D action/rpg-ish games, but the value over replacement for any one of those is super low. not really GOAT status
quake 3 arena was the real 90s GOAT though. ocarina of time is a nice package of things, but few of its pieces are really the best version of that kind of game. 20 years later after thousands of FPS games came out (not even an exaggeration), none of them ended up better than quake 3
quake
mario 64
sid meier's civilization (or colonization. or civ 2. kind of before my time to know which one to pick)
lots of good 2D action/rpg-ish games, but the value over replacement for any one of those is super low. not really GOAT status
quake 3 arena was the real 90s GOAT though. ocarina of time is a nice package of things, but few of its pieces are really the best version of that kind of game. 20 years later after thousands of FPS games came out (not even an exaggeration), none of them ended up better than quake 3
Considering OoT was a 3D take on LTTP, it's difficult to say it's the GOAT of anything, even in 1998 and within its own franchise.
I think Yoshi Island 'Heroes are born' fighting Raven on the moon, turning into a train and riding the baby drawings on the wall... how good was that? One of the first games that got 'the feels' for me.
I think Super Mario Bros. 3 was the closest thing there was to this at the time, but OoT was really more of a consensus GOAT than anything that came before. Or after, I suppose, because honestly OoT in the 2000s is probably the most highly a game will ever get praised in terms of its placements on "best of" lists. It was a game that everyone could agree upon as a landmark game before the medium became more diverse in terms of genre and scope.
Super Metroid is the easy answer for me. There could be arguments made for other games, but nothing really matches the perfection of that game for me.
Doom, and no that wasn't only a PC thing, it was everywhere on every platform and influenced so many other games that its importance can't be overstated. Even Quake couldn't really dethrone it and the original version still holds up, probably will forever. Also Doom 64 > OoT, fact.
This is a solid list. I'd add Doom, maybe swap Warcraft for Red Alert (Westwood for life!). There would be others if we go back to pre NES games but I didn't live through that time so it would just be speculation.
For Sega, they had the arcade scene on lock with games like Daytona and Virtua Fighter 2 being considered the greatest in their genres. They also predated Nintendo's 3D games by several years and had truly unapproachable presentation.
I feel like back then there wasn't just one GOAT. It was about being the very best in a particular genre. I still look at things in the same way.
Yeah how could I forget Doom, doh.
Yes the arcades, but I don't feel like that ever came up in favorite games ever discussions, but I have to say it's a very long time ago. Sonic 1 mentioned earlier was not a bad pick though, if I put Goldeneye there which would have been in the GOAT discussion for all of 1 year before OoT, so too would Sonic before SF2 got released.
Yes the arcades, but I don't feel like that ever came up in favorite games ever discussions, but I have to say it's a very long time ago. Sonic 1 mentioned earlier was not a bad pick though, if I put Goldeneye there which would have been in the GOAT discussion for all of 1 year before OoT, so too would Sonic before SF2 got released.
In terms of public mind share.
Street Fighter 2
Doom
Final Fantasy VII
I would have to go with Doom, it felt like it ushered in a new era of video games.
Street Fighter 2
Doom
Final Fantasy VII
I would have to go with Doom, it felt like it ushered in a new era of video games.
