pong, and probaly other examples of early home console games
wolfenstein3d, doom, quake, quake3, doom3 because all of them were technical milestones, had lasting impact on the industry and they show the rapid advancement of pc gaming in the 90s and 2000s
the elder scrolls series, as a simmiliar showcase.
final fantasy 1, 6 and 7, as a showcase of jrpgs through various generations and the fmv of 7 and onwards were imho precursors of 3d rendered movies.
half-life, because of the impact of it’s scripted set pieces and its level design
counter-strike and starcraft, as the games that probably gave us professional e-sport.
dota, because its for mobas what doom is for first person shooters.
deus ex and thief, pioneered the “immersive sim” and they are great showcases of the interactive nature of games
Pokémon, cultural impact can’t be denied and the trading aspect is a great example of a non traditional multiplayer experience
various Mario Games, but definitely Mario Bros. Super Mario World and Mario 64 and probably Galaxy as a showcase of the evolution of plattformers in 2d and 3d, maybe throw a spyro or banjo kazooie in there.
Grim Fandango, Kings Quest, Monkey Island, point and click adventures are there very own beast and often feature actual memorable characters. I definitely think more often about Manny Calavera than i do about Gordon Freeman or any Morrowind NPC, even though i played half-life and Morrowind much more than Grim Fandango
Minecraft
super meat boy, fez, hollow knight… lots of interesting indie games and they show how much more accessible game development has become.
Prince of Persia and karateka, the way they were animated alone would be enough, but they also featured an actual story, they were interested in showing and featured music used simmiliar to a movies soundtrack.
probably much more
games that are a product of a very localized culture (gothic could not have been made anywhere else but the ruhrarea for example)
the whole military complex is missing (from Mil Sims like Operation Flashpoint to actual recruitment vehicles like Americas Army)
more modern games, which i just don’t know or that have not been rattling around in my brain for long enough, but baldurs gate 3, the last of us, or alan wake would probably end up on my list in a couple of years.
Videogames are still a young medium, very diverse and changing so rapidly, that i feel like there is no established canon of ‘classics’ or ‘high impact’ works. We’ll probably end up with dozens of lists like this in such a topic, and might end up without a single game that made it onto all of them, besides tetris.
if a simmiliar question was asked in a movies community i’d bet any list with more than 10 entries would include metropolis, nosferatu, citizen kane and star wars, just because those are widely agreed upon movies that had an impact.
To my limited knowledge, it was the first games where true orchestral music was used. It was influential enough to be remade for PS3 and PS4, there are few games to get such a treatment.
i think that honour might go to total annihilation.
i also remember the final fantasies on the psx having an orchestral pieces jn their soundtrack, but those might have not been performed by an actual orchestra originally.
Amazing list. I personally would add couple games, that defined my “gaming hobby”:
XCOM/UFO: Enemy Unknown - not sure how this fits in the list, but it was ground breaking for me: perfect blend of micro- and macro management, strategical decisions, tactical battles, what a great game and so much memories of it (and I’d put honorable mention of Jagged Alliance 1&2 here, 'cause they are very similar concept)
Civilization - genius idea, one of the 4X pioneers, easy to pick up, hard to master, and so much replay value; its overall depth is quite a feat, especially given it’s from 1991, no wonder the franchise is still alive and well now
Fallout - esp. 1 & 2 might not be the best gameplay-wise, but their world building, characters and atmosphere are excellent… and everyone knows the legendary intro “War, war never changes…”
Planescape: Torment - similar to above, amazing world, unbelievable story, one of a kind game
Gothic - mainly 1&2 were simply awesome, there are no barriers (ahem), the world is your to explore, but it’s deadly so you have to plan your progress, nothing is streamlined for you; I can’t remember different game with such a vibe (other than piranha bytes later production)
VtM: Bloodlines - kind of similar to Deus Ex, but also taking from the table top; and in my book it has THE best atmosphere of all the games I’ve played
Witcher - this might be just European thing, but playing especially W1 felt kind of like folklore fairy tale from childhood turned into pretty grim adult game
Disco Elysium - this is probably the only “sort of new” game that I’ve played and which definitely deserves a place in the list, great characters, amazing story and writing
there are plenty of others too, but my brain farts
yes, arcade stuff is lacking on my list. The few i have played where mostly on an atari 2600 and simmiliar home consoles way after the fact and the only arcade i’ve ever seen was in a holiday resort thingy :D
Zelda: yep, was surprised there was no mention of it after i looked over my “finished” list, original Zelda and ocarina of time should probably be there, maybe a link to the past. did not play breath of the wild, so don’t have an opinion on it. But zelda -> altp -> ocarina of time is a nice showcase of 2d games transitioning to 3d, and the item based exploration and progression is found in a lot of games.
halo: i am not a console shooter guy and on pc it felt like a very good game, but atleast to me not ground breaking. through the lense of console shooters it’s probably a huge milestone.
unreal tournament: if i’d be listing my favourite games it would be there. but it did not have the impact on e-sport cs or the quakes had so it would be another technical showcase. the unreal engines became very important however.
sonic: yes, at the very least to show another take on plattformers.
gta: yeah, 3 onwards as blockbuster movie equivalents. don’t ask me why they are not on the list, no idea.
gran turismo: if we include simulators, we should also list a bunch of microprose work, richard burns rally, the microsoft flight simulators and so on. Definitely an interesting section of gaming, but not one iam part of so hard to tell what to include for it.
chrono trigger: yeah, my list lacks non western games and chrono trigger deserves to be there simply because of its ambitious scale and the fact that its one of the greatest games i’ve ever played, what was i thinking?
earthbound: never played it :(
castlevania: the early metroids and later castlevanias for what we know as “metroidvanias” today. I’ve played castlevania 1 and 2 and there is not much of what makes metroidvanias in them. fun games though.
tetris, because it is tetris
pong, and probaly other examples of early home console games
wolfenstein3d, doom, quake, quake3, doom3 because all of them were technical milestones, had lasting impact on the industry and they show the rapid advancement of pc gaming in the 90s and 2000s
the elder scrolls series, as a simmiliar showcase.
final fantasy 1, 6 and 7, as a showcase of jrpgs through various generations and the fmv of 7 and onwards were imho precursors of 3d rendered movies.
half-life, because of the impact of it’s scripted set pieces and its level design
counter-strike and starcraft, as the games that probably gave us professional e-sport.
dota, because its for mobas what doom is for first person shooters.
deus ex and thief, pioneered the “immersive sim” and they are great showcases of the interactive nature of games
Pokémon, cultural impact can’t be denied and the trading aspect is a great example of a non traditional multiplayer experience
various Mario Games, but definitely Mario Bros. Super Mario World and Mario 64 and probably Galaxy as a showcase of the evolution of plattformers in 2d and 3d, maybe throw a spyro or banjo kazooie in there.
Grim Fandango, Kings Quest, Monkey Island, point and click adventures are there very own beast and often feature actual memorable characters. I definitely think more often about Manny Calavera than i do about Gordon Freeman or any Morrowind NPC, even though i played half-life and Morrowind much more than Grim Fandango
Minecraft
super meat boy, fez, hollow knight… lots of interesting indie games and they show how much more accessible game development has become.
Prince of Persia and karateka, the way they were animated alone would be enough, but they also featured an actual story, they were interested in showing and featured music used simmiliar to a movies soundtrack.
probably much more
games that are a product of a very localized culture (gothic could not have been made anywhere else but the ruhrarea for example)
the whole military complex is missing (from Mil Sims like Operation Flashpoint to actual recruitment vehicles like Americas Army)
more modern games, which i just don’t know or that have not been rattling around in my brain for long enough, but baldurs gate 3, the last of us, or alan wake would probably end up on my list in a couple of years.
Great list!
I would add KSP, Guitar Hero and/or DDR, Beat Saber, WoW, and Portal.
Kerbal Space Program is awesome :)
Videogames are still a young medium, very diverse and changing so rapidly, that i feel like there is no established canon of ‘classics’ or ‘high impact’ works. We’ll probably end up with dozens of lists like this in such a topic, and might end up without a single game that made it onto all of them, besides tetris.
if a simmiliar question was asked in a movies community i’d bet any list with more than 10 entries would include metropolis, nosferatu, citizen kane and star wars, just because those are widely agreed upon movies that had an impact.
I’d add the Shawshank Redemption to that list as well, and probably the Godfather part 2.
I would add Rogue for sure.
oh, absolutely, rogue and nethack, they are the foundation of crpgs and dungeon crawlers.
i just fear we’d need increased security to break up the fight between groups with various definitions what ‘roguelike’ means.
Shadow of the Colossus should be in there too. It has pioneered orchestral music in video games and gad a huge impact on them as a whole.
shadow of the colossus seems like a great game, but i’ve never heard its music referenced as pioneer work, what did it different in that department?
To my limited knowledge, it was the first games where true orchestral music was used. It was influential enough to be remade for PS3 and PS4, there are few games to get such a treatment.
i think that honour might go to total annihilation.
i also remember the final fantasies on the psx having an orchestral pieces jn their soundtrack, but those might have not been performed by an actual orchestra originally.
Possible. Might warrant more reserch on my part. Still, there is very few games to be remade for 3 consecutive console generations.
From my quick search, looks like it would be The Lost World: Jurassic Park, in August of 1997. Total Annihilation was released in September of 1997.
I would add the OG Mortal Combat gave us the MSRP rating system.
Probably shouldadd Mike Tyson’s Punchout, Tekken 2, and Marvel vs Capcom.
Double dragon, Street Fighter, the original Simpsons arcade game.
Amazing list. I personally would add couple games, that defined my “gaming hobby”:
there are plenty of others too, but my brain farts
Good list.
Vampire the masquerade bloodlines also deserves a honourable mention
Maniac Mansion was the OG in the category, at least with graphics.
Myst deserves a place for is graphics too, even if it was mostly static renderings.
Awesome effort.
Missing Space Invaders it started a coin shortage in Japan.
Others I can think of off the top of my head:
yes, arcade stuff is lacking on my list. The few i have played where mostly on an atari 2600 and simmiliar home consoles way after the fact and the only arcade i’ve ever seen was in a holiday resort thingy :D
Zelda: yep, was surprised there was no mention of it after i looked over my “finished” list, original Zelda and ocarina of time should probably be there, maybe a link to the past. did not play breath of the wild, so don’t have an opinion on it. But zelda -> altp -> ocarina of time is a nice showcase of 2d games transitioning to 3d, and the item based exploration and progression is found in a lot of games.
halo: i am not a console shooter guy and on pc it felt like a very good game, but atleast to me not ground breaking. through the lense of console shooters it’s probably a huge milestone.
unreal tournament: if i’d be listing my favourite games it would be there. but it did not have the impact on e-sport cs or the quakes had so it would be another technical showcase. the unreal engines became very important however.
sonic: yes, at the very least to show another take on plattformers.
gta: yeah, 3 onwards as blockbuster movie equivalents. don’t ask me why they are not on the list, no idea.
gran turismo: if we include simulators, we should also list a bunch of microprose work, richard burns rally, the microsoft flight simulators and so on. Definitely an interesting section of gaming, but not one iam part of so hard to tell what to include for it.
chrono trigger: yeah, my list lacks non western games and chrono trigger deserves to be there simply because of its ambitious scale and the fact that its one of the greatest games i’ve ever played, what was i thinking?
earthbound: never played it :(
castlevania: the early metroids and later castlevanias for what we know as “metroidvanias” today. I’ve played castlevania 1 and 2 and there is not much of what makes metroidvanias in them. fun games though.