IGN Top 100

[Chilltown]

The original SMB hold up decently well. Its true that Mario 3 is indisputably superior but SMB to me at least is more challenging and differs enough from 3 to be its own game. Give Nintendo credit. Mario 1>3>World all feel completely different but its just Mario going from point A to point B.

And Ocarina is not obsolete now. Far far from it. The puzzles and dungeons are still spectacular. I still think the Spirit Temple is the most brilliantly designed level in any game ever. The only knock on Ocarina now is the graphics. 3D games from the PSX/N64 era are kind of ugly to look at. I'd rather look at sprites from SNES games because I accept them for what they are. I still think Mario World 2 looks gorgeous.

And as for innovation, it was pretty much the "how to" to all 3D adventure type games alike for years to come. How to make a 3D world, how to design levels, make all these little side quests and mini games, its influence on boss battles is evident. Just Z targeting is kind of a stretch...hell Z targeting alone had a huge influence on other games.