Super Mario 64 (Nintendo 64, 1996)

I really love this game, but one concession I will not give it is that it is the best Mario game ever. In my opinion that honor goes to Super Mario World. I find that the 3-D aspect can make the game annoying and frustrating at times. It's too easy to fall off platforms and too easy to miss a jump and lose a life or five because of that. However, if you can look past those minor flaws you will find a fantastic game that is a lot of fun and entertaining for hours on end. Just like when Zelda made it's leap to the Nintendo 64, Mario is basically the same game play as classic Mario but just with a different perspective. You can run, fly, slide, butt stomp, grab onto things and double jump all over the place. This variety of techniques opens up a whole new world and makes this game a lot of fun because you'll always be discovering new ways of accomplishing goals. One more warning though, like I said earlier if you frustrate easily you are going to get mad at this game.