25 of Nintendo's greatest hits

Super Mario 64 (1996)

One of the best N64 games, and the first to bring Mario into the third dimension. Super Mario 64 took less than two years to make, but rumours suggest this was because creator Shigeru Miyamoto came up with the idea five years before, while working on Star Fox. And its impact was widespread – Rare's iconic shooter GoldenEye 007 was influenced by Mario 64's huge variety of missions within a level.

Game Boy (1990)

When the Game Boy launched, and put Tetris on the map, its power was mind blowing. Now our minds boggle at how on Earth it handled the games with those specs – a mere 8kB of RAM, a 160x144 resolution screen, and 256-byte ROM cartridges. These days, it'd look underpowered next to a wristwatch. But it started the mobile gaming movement that gave us the Sony PS Vita and Nintendo 3DS XL we know and love today.

Metroid Prime (2002)

Probably the best game on the GameCube – Metroid Prime brought Samus Aran into a graphically impressive world with huge levels, palm-sweatingly difficult bosses and myriad awesome weapons. It’s still good now so if you’ve got a Nintendo Wii pick up a copy on eBay and give it a go.

Wii Fit / Balance Board (2007)

Yet another stroke of genius, Nintendo took the health aspect of the Wii one step further with the Wii Fit / Balance Board. This slab of plastic was designed to monitor not just your weight, but your weight distribution, suddenly raising the possibility of video games that made you healthier. Now, you no longer need to rely on those rubbish bathroom scales to see if your spirited Wii Fit workout was having any effect.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (1991)

As with so many of Nintendo’s greatest titles, Shigeru Miyamoto was the man behind A Link to the Past, the third Zelda game and probably the best-loved of the whole series. A compelling story drove the game forward, and its use of two huge parallel worlds, with the ability to travel between them, was a mind-blowing concept.

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