10 Greatest Programming Milestones In Gaming History

6. The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time

Link's first 3D adventure is a landmark achievement in many ways. It managed to bring Nintendo's long-running Legend Of Zelda series into a new dimension whilst also retaining everything that made it great in the first place. Not only that, but its groundbreaking Z-targeting system (towards and away from enemies) revolutionised controls in 3D games. Just by holding down the Z button players were able to lock the camera onto an enemy, leaving them free to move, dodge and attack without having to worry about it suddenly having a hissy fit. In one fell swoop, Nintendo veteran Shigeru Miyamoto swooped in like an omniscient game designing ninja and solved an issue that the industry had been struggling with for years. Once Ocarina Of Time was released, almost every 3D action game implemented a similar system to Z-targeting. In fact, it's still used in thousands of titles today.