"What do you mean you don't like Mario 64?"

Gabe Newell is arguably one of the most important people in the games industry right now. He's the co-founder and managing director of Valve Corporation, a company which has created some amazing titles and is behind Steam — a popular digital distribution platform which many predict will become Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft's biggest rival in coming years.

He's also a man of impeccable taste, as he has listed Super Mario 64 as his favourite "non-Valve" game. He delivered the verdict during an Reddit AMA session.

The comment has clearly pleased someone at Nintendo of America, as it has been leapt on by the company's official Twitter account:

https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/statuses/441362130491957248

However, this isn't the first time that Newell has voiced this very same opinion. Speaking with Computer & Video Games back in 2011, he said that Mario 64 was:

Still my favourite game of all time. I still have vivid memories of all the different levels. The control is still pretty much unrivalled. It convinced me that games were art.

Newell's love of Mario hasn't thus far resulted in his company giving Nintendo any development love, but he did say back in 2011 that the Wii U was a "better fit" for Valve's "scalability model".

[source en-us.reddit.com]