Pics from Kirby GC, The new Zelda, and Mario Baseball. Yeah, Mario Baseball.

[A Black Falcon]

You can call it a ham sandwich for all I care. 2.5D is how most people describe those types of games, whether you want to or not.

But it designates a big difference in a place where I would say that there really isn't one...

Oh yes it was, it was hailed as the first 3D game. Of course, people who knew better didn't consider it as such, but the main gaming community considered it to be a 3D game. There was none of that 2.5D talk. When Quake came out it was like "ok wait now THIS is 3D".

Maybe when it came out people thought Doom was 3d, but they realized not too long after that it wasn't... and technically of course I don't think it ever was. Duke 3D (the Build engine) is much more "real" 3d, but it still has aspects that 'fake' it as well...