When comparing Super Mario 64 vs Super Mario 3D Land, the Slant community recommends Super Mario 64 for most people. In the question“What are the best Super Mario games?” Super Mario 64 is ranked 4th while Super Mario 3D Land is ranked 6th. The most important reason people chose Super Mario 64 is:
Super Mario 64, as a free-roaming, open-world game, was a precursor to later groundbreaking games such as Grand Theft Auto, and has been [cited by Peter Molyneux as one of the 5 most groundbreaking games of the last 20 years](http://thekartel.com/video-games/14067405-fable_creator_picks_his_top_5_most_revolutionary_games/) for this reason
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Free-roaming, open-world game
Super Mario 64, as a free-roaming, open-world game, was a precursor to later groundbreaking games such as Grand Theft Auto, and has been cited by Peter Molyneux as one of the 5 most groundbreaking games of the last 20 years for this reason
Pro Developed a proper camera and control scheme for 3D games
3D games prior to Mario 64 were somewhat all over the place with their control schemes, and game developers were still struggling to use the third dimension they now had access to. SM64 is a freeform game that makes the most of its 3rd dimension with fantastic control and camera orientation that we take for granted these days, but was highly innovative in its own time.
Pro Incredible amount of polish
Super Mario 3D Land is the flagship title in the 3D Mario series, and as such has a ton of polish with attention paid to every little detail.
Pro Tons of levels
There are a total of 96 levels and 16 worlds, although many of them are re-hashes.
Cons
Con Lackluster street pass support
The only thing street pass does is add a very short one room bonus level.