It’s not that it’s rare per se. About 20 years ago, my dad used to have a blockbuster-like business of his own with video games. You could rent games and also had consoles in the shop to rent and play.
One of those games we had waaaaaay back was Bomberman Generation for the GameCube. Anyway, my dad closed business eventually, and he sold everything, including the games, equipment and consoles. Fast forward about a decade later, and I end up finding a copy of Bomberman Generation in a local Blockbuster (ironic I know) being sold for cheap. Well, I get it for myself, and it turns out it’s the very same copy my dad had back then. The reason I know is that he marked the disc with his business’ name with thin sharpie (Kind of a crime for preservationists, I know). So it’s not a very rare game per se, but the circumstances surrounding it make it very precious to me. It’s like a time capsule of the past.
I’m not sure if it’s ever been justified per se, but being booted out of levels in Super Mario 64 (and Sunshine) has always been a point of contempt for modern standards, but when you look at it through the lens of the time, the levels are actually tiny, and I’m sure that both from a development and marketing standpoint, everyone knew, and as such made the conscientious decision of milking every bit of resources, and it’s probably why the mission structure was implemented in the first place.
Most people really overlook that prior to this game, everyone and their mothers were just beginning to figure out how 3D works both from a development and game design standpoint.