Mario 64's innovation and legacy is all well and good, but a little plumber and all his platforming prowess just couldn't hold a candle to the potent mix of one of the most gifted developers of all time, and a character more lovably '90s' than Limp Bizkit breaking stuff at whilst watching Kenan & Kel. It wasn't all in the aesthetic though, Naughty Dog had a whole load of tricks up their sleeve that proved they're always thinking of the gamer's experience above all else - which for Warped meant multiple camera-based rendering tweaks ensured everything ran butter-smooth, regardless of how much action was on screen. As was now customary for the franchise, levels had more variation than ever as you went from doing flips on jetskis to riding bikes and tigers, deep-sea diving and even trekking through a futuristic cityscape. Boss fights were against some of the best characters they've ever designed, and were the perfect mix of revolutionary new-age animation and old-school lifebar-depleting targeted strikes. Oh, and as you progressed, you eventually got a bazooka that fired death-bringing apples at your enemies. It was GLORIOUS.
