The five clearest examples are Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Pokémon, Animal Crossing and Metroid. Their changes are not all the same: Mario changed how players move and make levels, Zelda changed how progression works, Pokémon expanded from a handheld RPG into a broad connected platform, Animal Crossing gave players authorship of the environment, and Metroid translated exploration into first-person 3D. Together, they show how Nintendo repeatedly rebuilt familiar series for new hardware without abandoning their identities.
What “changed the most” means here
There is no official score for generational change, so this is a comparison of four practical shifts: the player’s role, the structure of the world, the core mechanics and the hardware context. The strongest cases are the franchises in which at least one of those foundations was substantially redesigned while recognizable characters and themes remained.
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| Franchise | Earlier model | Later-generation shift | Largest change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Super Mario | Fixed-screen and side-scrolling courses | 3D exploration, compact 3D stages and user-created courses | Movement, camera and level authorship |
| The Legend of Zelda | Overworld travel and item-gated dungeon progression | Open-ended wilderness, physics, climbing, cooking and equipment management | Progression and problem solving |
| Pokémon | Handheld role-playing game built around local exchange | Multi-platform, network-connected and cross-media ecosystem | Platform reach and connectivity |
| Animal Crossing | Living in a prepared town | Planning and constructing a customizable island | Control over the physical world |
| Metroid | 2D maze-platforming on home consoles | First-person 3D exploration and portable adaptations | Viewpoint and spatial interaction |
1. Super Mario: from authored 2D courses to 3D sandboxes and player-made levels
The original design contract
Early Mario is built around precision in a sequence of designed courses. The camera is largely fixed to a side-scrolling plane, movement is readable at a glance, and the challenge comes from timing jumps, enemies and hazards in the order Nintendo placed them. Super Mario Bros. (1985) and Super Mario World (1991) define that model in Nintendo’s official timeline.
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Super Mario 64 (1996) did more than add another dimension. Analog movement, a freely controlled camera and open areas made navigation itself part of the challenge. Sunshine (2002) and Galaxy (2007) then explored different forms of 3D space: Sunshine layered a water-powered movement tool onto its levels, while Galaxy built set pieces around unusual gravity and spherical worlds. The later 3D Land and 3D World games compressed 3D movement into more compact, course-like stages, showing that the series could move between exploration and tightly authored challenges rather than choosing one permanently.
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From playing levels to designing them
Super Mario Maker made the biggest agency shift explicit: players could assemble and share their own courses. The series therefore moved from a designer-led sequence to a model in which the audience can become the level designer. That is a different kind of generational change from simply upgrading graphics; it changes who authors the challenge.
Reggie Fils-Aimé described Super Mario Odyssey’s goal in a 2017 TIME interview as creating an experience in which a player says, “Wow, I’ve never done that before with a Mario game.” Odyssey’s sandbox approach is less radical than Zelda’s reinvention, but it still combines large 3D spaces with layered movement and experimentation in a way the NES and SNES-era games did not.
2. The Legend of Zelda: progression itself became a system
What older Zelda asked you to do
The Zelda formula traditionally organized adventure around an overworld, a sequence of discoveries and dungeons whose items opened previously inaccessible routes. Link, Zelda, Hyrule and the recurring mythic roles remained stable even as individual games changed their eras and settings. The structure, however, generally told players which tool and dungeon came next.
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Breath of the Wild removes the prescribed route
Breath of the Wild is the clearest generational break in the series. Nintendo’s description centers on a vast landscape where players can climb rather than follow roads, discover more than 100 shrines, gather ingredients, cook food and improvise with weapons. More than 180 weapons can wear out, turning equipment into a resource to manage instead of a permanent set of upgrades.
Players can head directly toward the final confrontation, and encounters support different solutions rather than one required item sequence. A steep surface, a weather problem, an enemy camp and a locked route become situations to analyze with the available physics and materials. Reggie Fils-Aimé called Breath of the Wild “a dramatic departure from the conventions of a Zelda game” in the same 2017 interview.
Tears of the Kingdom expands the new foundation
Tears of the Kingdom did not simply discard the previous world. Nintendo’s developer interview explains that the known Hyrule map was reused so the team could build new forms of play above and below it, adding sky regions and underground spaces. The important generational lesson is that Zelda’s new identity is systemic: a familiar map can support a different adventure when movement, spaces and player-made solutions change.
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3. Pokémon: the core loop stayed recognizable while the platform became an ecosystem
Continuity is the point of comparison
Pokémon is the least radically reinvented of these five in its central promise. Catching creatures, training them, battling with them and trading them remains the recognizable loop across generations. That continuity is why the series can feel familiar even when its hardware and presentation change.
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Nintendo’s corporate history tracks Pokémon across Game Boy, Nintendo 64, DS, 3DS and later systems. The franchise began with a handheld role-playing foundation, then gained different interfaces, connectivity options and spin-off forms as Nintendo’s hardware generations changed. Local link trading was an early defining social feature; later generations expanded the idea into broader networked and service-connected play.
The Pokémon Company’s own history records the creation of Pokémon Center in 1998 and The Pokémon Company in 2000. Those milestones matter because they show organizational expansion beyond a single game line. Pokémon became a coordinated ecosystem spanning games, hardware platforms, merchandise and other media, even though its collection-and-battle identity remained stable.
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That makes Pokémon a different kind of transformation from Zelda. Its largest change is structural and commercial reach rather than a complete replacement of the battle or collection loop.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.4. Animal Crossing: the resident became the town planner
Earlier games placed you inside a living town
In earlier Animal Crossing entries, the player moves into a prepared community. Daily routines, seasonal events, collecting and relationships create a calendar that unfolds around the resident. Animal Crossing: Wild World became a DS bestseller, and Animal Crossing: New Leaf moved the player into a more formal civic role by making them the mayor of a town.
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New Horizons makes construction the headline activity
Animal Crossing: New Horizons changes the premise to a deserted island and foregrounds crafting, decorating, collecting, community building and visits to other players’ islands. Instead of mainly adapting to an existing town layout, the player plans the physical space: where homes, paths and facilities go, how areas are decorated and what kind of community the island expresses.
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The social calendar and collection systems remain important, but the balance of agency has shifted. Earlier games are primarily about living well in a designed place; New Horizons makes the player the principal architect. Other players can visit and see the result, turning personal arrangement into a shareable form of expression.
5. Metroid: exploration moved from a 2D map to a first-person world
What changed beyond the graphics
Metroid’s early identity comes from side-scrolling exploration, maze-like routes, upgrades and isolation on home consoles. The player reads a largely 2D map, returns to blocked passages after gaining abilities and treats every room as part of a connected puzzle.
Prime re-expressed the formula in 3D
The Metroid Prime games translated those ideas into first-person 3D navigation. Instead of viewing the character from the side, players occupy the helmet view, inspect spaces at a different scale and use scanning and environmental observation as part of exploration. The basic emphasis on discovery and upgrades survives, but spatial understanding becomes more immediate and immersive.
Hardware context broadened the series
Nintendo’s official history places Metroid across its home-console lineage, Metroid Prime Hunters on Nintendo DS and Metroid Prime Trilogy on Wii. Those releases show two distinct transitions: a change in viewpoint and a move between dedicated home systems and portable hardware. The evidence supports describing Metroid as a successful re-expression of exploration across formats, rather than assigning it an unsupported sales or critical ranking.
How the five changes differ
- Biggest movement change: Super Mario, which progressed from 2D precision to analog 3D space and then player-created courses.
- Biggest progression change: The Legend of Zelda, where route choice, climbing, cooking, combat improvisation and equipment durability became central systems.
- Biggest platform and ecosystem change: Pokémon, whose familiar loop expanded across hardware, connectivity and media.
- Biggest agency change: Animal Crossing, where the player moved from resident to designer of the environment.
- Biggest viewpoint change: Metroid, which translated 2D exploration into first-person 3D play and portable adaptations.
So, if “changed the most” means a complete redesign of how a game is played, Zelda and Mario are the strongest answers. If it means a change in the player’s authority over the world, Animal Crossing is the clearest case. Pokémon changed most in reach and connectivity, while Metroid changed most in perspective and spatial presentation.
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