20 Incredibly Important Video Games That Shaped The Industry

3. The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time

Why It Is Important: Ocarina Of Time invented Z targeting and context-sensitive controls - two mechanics that continue to appear in games today. Link's first foray into the third dimension was praised almost universally by critics when it released in 1998. Apart from the Water Temple, it was an amazingly well designed game with so many different mechanics that worked flawlessly. There were stealth sections, epic bosses, brain-teasing dungeons, a humble steed to speed across Hyrule Field on... It did so many things right, but it was its Z targeting system that changed gaming forever. Z targeting made combat in a 3D game feel cinematic and controllable in a time where it often felt frustrating and clunky. Pressing the Z button made the camera lock onto the enemy, allowing the player to freely move around while facing them at all times. It looked cool and made it much easier to take on multiple enemies at once. Z targeting has since been copied by a countless number of games including the likes of Grand Theft Auto, Devil May Cry and Assassin's Creed. It innovated in other areas of control, too. There were many ways to interact with the world of Hyrule and its citizens, but there were just a few buttons on the Nintendo 64 controller to map them to. Nintendo's solution was context-sensitive controls. Basically, the A button had many uses depending on the situation, from reading signs to rolling, attacking and grabbing objects. Its use was constantly updated on-screen so that players alway knew exactly what it would do in any situation. Thanks to this ingenious system, Nintendo were able to fully realise their ambition for the game. Context-sensitive controls have since become a standard feature in video games, just like Z-targeting. These two simple ideas solved major design problems that plagued early 3D games. From Ocarina onwards, games started to feel a lot less clunky.