How Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie laid the groundwork for 3D platformers

Banjo-Kazooie and Super Mario 64 are both at this moment available to play on Switch via Nintendo’s online service. It’s great to see those two together considering how important they were for early 3D gaming. I decided to revisit them recently and I was impressed by how well they still hold up.

In today’s video, I talk about the different ideas that Banjo-Kazooie and Super Mario 64 brought to the industry, how they understood the best ways to bring the full potential of 3D environments, and also how they failed in some aspects due to how early ideas and the technology were at the time. You can check the video down below.

Last week, we reflected on what we feel is Nintendo’s greatest acquisition ever in Monolith Soft, the developer of the Xenoblade series – check it out here. We also put up a video about Pokemon Legends: Arceus not too long ago here. Finally, you may want to watch our video here that goes over Metroid Dread and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, which we feel are Nintendo’s best 2.5D games.