I have good memories of both but I've got to give the nod to Zelda: Ocarina of Time. It felt epic and the music was awesome.

Also, thank goodness Goldeneye won.

Zelda: Ocarina of Time is a better game overall, but Super Mario 64 had a bigger impact.

That's still a vote for Ocarina of Time.

Bonus: I like both series a lot for different reasons. I can't choose.

Ocarina of Time is considered one of the best games ever made. Mario 64 arguably isnt even the best Mario game made.

Hands down - Zelda : OoT

mario

Zelda.

Some might think this is an easy debate, and that's their call. But personally, even though I'll readily admit that Zelda 64 is my favorite game of all-time, and that I'm a Miyamoto-fan-boy, and NOT a Nintendo-fan-boy, this still is an incredibly hard choice for me. Here's why...

Super Mario 64 is like Zelda 64 on drugs. It cuts out any story or dialogue bullshit, and taps into a part of humanity that encapsulates why people -- anybody -- can like games. Miyamoto has a skill of creating pure and unadulterated FUN. To make Zelda 64 might have been incredibly challenging, but in my opinion it's even harder to make a game that's twice as big and nothing BUT fun. Every single step and jump and movement or action in Mario 64 is fun. end of story. Any human being can pick it up, without having any prior Mario knowledge or any prior gaming experience at all... and they'll instantly have fun.

As CHAD-MAZING as Zelda 64 is, there's still plenty of idle walking for minutes on end from one place to the next. Its Epona and efficient musical portal system paved the way for how to get shit done in an adventure game, but it still comes NOWHERE close to the devastating percentage of time that people had fun while playing Mario 64, which is, like, 99.99%

Let me put it this way. Zelda 64 is that cool guy in class who everybody likes, but he just also happens to be a straight-A student. He goes to parties and has a lot of fun and gets laid all the time, BUT, he's always the second person to finish tests. The first person to always finish tests is Mario. He's a fucking freak of nature.

It's truly a gameplay versus story debate. On paper, Mario 64 IS the better game. And in every other debate I try to cast votes purely on what works better on paper. But I can't this time.

Zelda's gameplay was spot-on, and unlike Mario, you cared about character. Hell, you cared about material objects. When the ocarina got thrown into the Hyrule Castle moat, I wanted to reach into the screen and grab it. When the Deku Tree petrified, I felt sad. When I broke pots, I felt bad for making a mess. The world was REAL. And no matter how amazing and solid and successful your gameplay is, I will always vote for the one that is almost as good in every single way, AND has a story that evokes strong emotions in its players.

VOTE: Zelda 64.

BONUS VOTE: Without a doubt the Mario Series. Zelda 64 was sadly the first Zelda game i ever played, and after finishing it I quickly jumped into the older games in its series, only to be disappointed. Zelda 64 is only as fucking amazing as it is for one reason -- for the most part it only perfects what had already been accomplished in the past in its series. In my opinion the Mario series as a whole completely blows Zelda and any other game series out of the water, into the sky, out to space, and to distant stars where Mario can dance around it in the Galaxy forever and ever. Mario ALWAYS wins... except this once :)

Ocarina of Time is the clear winner in my book. While Mario is the mascot of Nintendo, Link is their hero. For me, it's about the story and the adventure. With the Zelda series it is the classic story of good versus evil in the truest sense. The Mario games are great fun, but Zelda is just as fun, but adds a real sense of purpose.

Bonus: Also Zelda.

Mario for sure without a doubt. I feel Zelda never really added much to its franchise while Mario has continued to grow throughout its days. Even in just these two titles I feel Super Mario 64 reached more people.

WOW zelda zelda zelda........

zelda

bonus: zelda

Mario 64 is better of the two but Zelda is a better series.

You and me both DanlHaas. The first time I stepped foot onto Hyrule (after a highly annoying yet cherished chat with an owl), I was impressed at first, but unaware at how blown away I was about to be. I only took a few steps out into the open before I stopped, my jaw dropped, and I put my controller on the ground for the next 5 minutes doing nothing but stare at the TV screen. The sun... it was moving. I HAD to see what would happen when it set, and sure enough, the environment completely changed, as did my childhood and career choice in life. Games trump novels and movies and music all thrown together.

Zelda 64 made me realize that games are truly the perfect medium to tell a story in, so I said fuck journalism and writing novels, I can try to do that on my own without a degree. I want to make games for a living. About exactly 10 years later, I have a degree in game design, and am a pseudo-journalist for one of the coolest sites on the Internet :) Hopefully the next decade is just as exciting.

Mario

That's a toughie. Mario 64 was the quintessential introduction into the third realm of videogames, but Ocarina of Time was the template of perfection that most modern videogames stem from in terms of revolution and forward thinking.

I'm going to go with Zelda: Ocarina of Time for its ability to completely meld and entrance me with it's combination of storytelling, gameplay mechanics, and graphics. It's just a solid package, timeless to me even to this day.

As far as the best series overall, so long as we are speaking of the main Mario series and ignoring spin-offs, our favorite plumber takes the cake (or mushroom). You have to applaud the consistent gameplay innovation that occur every generation with Mario at the center of the medium. Zelda, on the other hand, is rooted in the same style of play and story for the past two decades, though the formula is hardly broken, it is far less enticing as a whole.

@Samit -- Ok, let's make a deal. Tell me what your all time favorite game is, and I will play it to the very end if you play Zelda 64 to the end. It's THAT good. I have to find ways in which to force my friends to experience it :)

I'm dead serious. We can podcast are experience if you want. You HAVE to play it. Name the game...

I'm voting for Zelda, because Mario wants to raise your taxes, take away your guns, and ship your jobs overseas.

Seriously, though, these are both excellent games and it was a very tough choice. But, there has been better Mario games since then, but I've yet to see a Zelda game match this one. It's made such an impact in gaming -- just say "water temple" around a group of gamers and see what happens.

Zelda: OOT. Introduced Z-targeting, context sensitive buttons and actions, had a better camera overall. Mario 64 does get props for a first smooth transition to 3D, but more game mechanics from from OOT ARE STILL used in games today.

Also, to the bonus, I gotta say Zelda simply because the characters aren't whored out to the extent Mario is. Its a tough call though because each Mario game ACTUALLY MANAGES TO DISTINGUISH ITSELF FROM THE OTHERS.

No choice here for me, Zelda.

Um. Super Mario 64. It was the game that brought games into 3D and did it right. Ocarina of Time did bring the series into 3D, and did it well, but it never seemed quite as elegant as Super Mario 64.

Mario 63 was pretty groundbreaking, but my vote goes to Ocarina of Time. The game had an unparalleled level of depth for its time, and I also found it to be the more enjoyable game.

Oh wow. Jesus, I bet a lot of us could fill pages with our arguments. I'll say right now, my vote goes to Super Mario 64, but this is almost as close as you can make it. SM64 was the first console game I owned. I played it consistently for years, and even to this day I still play it as regularly as any other game. I can honestly say there is no nostalgic bias involved here. It's just that fucking good. Of course, the same can be said about OoT. I don't play it as much as SM64, but I still play it. This is pretty much unprecedented. Both games are over 10 years old, I have played both in the past 4 months, and I play both of them each year. As for how much ground both games broke when they came out, how much they raised the bar for future games, I can't even describe it. Frankly, they set that fucker so high that only 3 games since have been able to bring me that much fun. Mario 64 was fucking 3D. Nuf said. Zelda 64 was also 3D, but it was about 5 times as big and epic as anything before it. In terms of controls, both were fantastic. They both made the transition from 2D to 3D flawlessly, and they both introduced several incredible control aspects. They both had stunning graphics, and some of the best music in video games. Basically, both were literally everything that I could possibly ask for. But, SM64 takes the win. Don't get me wrong, these 2 games have switched places in my top 10 multiple times, and both have occupied the #1 spot on more than 1 occasion. Ranking these 2 was almost impossible for me. But I think SM64 has finally beat out OoT for good. The thing that put it over the top, the thing that may very well make it my favorite game ever, is the total freedom of the experience. I have never felt so free to do whatever I want in a video game than with SM64. OoT has a more rigid level design, and a more concrete set of rules governing your actions. With SM64, they basically built a level, tested it a few ways, and then said "If you can find another way to get the star, or some awesome bug, or another way to have fun that we didn't think of, go for it." That's it. They created a set of rules governing the controls, put together some levels, and then just let you run fucking wild. I am still finding new things to do in this game. Last year, I made it to the top of the castle where Yoshi is supposed to be with 0 stars. A year before that, I found out about the long jump glitch on the endless staircase. Before that, I found out a fun new game using the mushroom that follows you in Bomb-omb Battlefield. The list goes on back to 1996. And I know that I'm going to keep having fun with this game for years to come. It's the fucking epitome of a damn good game. 50 bucks bought me 12 years of fun.

I'm not sure I'll ever see another game like SM64. The combination of factors that came together to make it the best game ever would probably also make some of the worst games. Levels that are thrown together, loosely defined rules governing how your character interacts with the world, and a shit-ton of bugs doesn't sound like it would make a good game. I guess that this is just the kind of thing only Nintendo can pull off, and even then only maybe once in a generation.

Vote: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Series: Zelda

Why: I love the mario series, however tA very big part of my childhood was spent playing the various Zelda games.
With the exception of Zelda II, the series has never let down. Even after turning the main character into what appears to be a power-puff girl. ;>.>

Mario reinspired me with Galaxy, but I think my opinion has been too diluted by all the random mario games like hoops 3 on 3, baseball, or strikers.

@Infinite Obscurity:
Dude, if you liked 63, you have to check out 64. It had everything 63 did, but it added a hat to Mario and got rid of the annoying grinding that plagued 63's leveling system.

Zelda, hands down.