I thought all 3D games looked way worse than the 2D games I had, and as far as I can remember, all games, amazing and awful, just kinda melted into a general category of "fun."
I was grounded when I first saw the commercial for Mario 64. My mom just looked at me and said "boy it'd be great if someone weren't grounded, wouldn't it?"
i don't even remember, this was what, back in 96?
My first N64 exposure was Banjo Kazooie at a cousin's house, and that was my "OH SHIT, that looks AMAZING!"* moment, so by the time I saw Mario 64 (rented from Blockbuster at some point) my reaction was "eh, Banjo looks better."
*Not in those words, of course. lol
I memorized this issue's massive SM64 feature, fulllll of screenshots, well before I stumbled upon a playable kiosk at a Blockbuster Video. I'm pretty sure I refreshed N64.com a few times a day just in case any news about it came up. I was absolutely obsessed from the moment I saw what looked like a truly 3D character moving around a truly 3D environment, complete with free camera rotation as an option. It translated really well to magazine screenshots in ways that 3D fare like Nights and Jumping Flash never could.
"There's never going to be a better 3D mario than this.. This is peak of gaming"
And i was right
My local game store got it imported and had it on display months before many in the US even knew what it was. I still think it's the best launch game ever and buying the N64 alone just for that game was worth the price. The closest game to come close to blowing my mind the way Mario 64 did was when I first played Astro Bot VR
Same for me. Although I was already a big fan of GTA 1 & 2. So when coverage of GTA 3 started early on and it was first revealed it would be fully 3D instead of top-down, I was immediately hyped out of my mind, I knew what the implications were for that type of game. I was still gobsmacked when I finally got my hands on it.Couldn't believed it.
The only other time, with a little bit less impact, was GTA III.