Super Mario 64

The Good
It's Super Mario in 3D and as open-ended as gaming can be. IT brought the character into the modern era of polygonal gaming adventures. It came right off the success of Tomb Raider and Resident Evil in 1996 and soon became the best-selling game of the fifth generation: selling 11.62 million copies, beating the Playstation's best-sellers Gran Turismo (10.85 million) and Final Fantasy VII (9.72 million). The game's still impressive on a technical level: here was an open-world game where no loading screens were present jumping from painting to painting, world to world, and still Mario's an absolute blast to control.

The Bad
The speed of the PAL version of the game can mess up the timing of certain 'glitches' in the game which is a little annoying for speed-running purposes. Oh: and of course the camera is still a bit clunky, even for the standards of the time, but it doesn't cripple the experience of the platforming.

The Bottom Line
I'd call this game Super Mario's Greatest Leap: they took a 2D side-scrolling character and made him a seamlessly playable character on a then-brand-new 3D system. Super Mario 64 is a slice of the gaming pie you must try out as soon as possible.