Most influential game list

General Gaming
1

If you had to pick 10 most influential games, what would you pick? These are mine with a brief reason for each. In no particular order.

  1. Pac-Man - Made arcades popular and video games a cultural phenomenon.
  2. Super Mario Bros. - Platforming perfection. Revolutionized the way we see games.
  3. Tetris - Popularized the GameBoy/Handhelds and opened a huge market of non gamers and adults.
  4. Doom - Most things we see in FPS games have something to thank this game.
  5. Super Mario 64 - Showed how 3D platforming and camera is done.
  6. The Legend of Zelda - Exploration, non linear gameplay. Changed the way we saw games from arcade or action to exploration and discovery.
  7. Metal Gear Solid - Made stealth games mainstream, voice acting and cutscenes made you feel like you were playing a movie.
  8. Street Fighter 2 - Popularized fighting games and setup a formula for everyone to follow.
  9. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Just like Mario 64 it brought adventure games into 3D. Target locking, story telling and exploration.
  10. Minecraft - Simple yet captivating game that let people express their creativity.

There are so many, more influential, others less, feel free to add your own or include these in your list.

2

Hmm…

Yea I think I’d have a lot of the same.

  1. Tetris, I mean… how many clones aren’t there? Plus it shows that a game doesn’t need any special graphics or anything like that. Tetris seems simple enough but once you start playing, it’s hard to stop.

  2. PacMan & Ms PacMan: For sure, these were everywhere. I mean, my Pizza place in Puerto Rico had one! lol. I added Ms PacMan because it was just better. I forget the name of the original PacMan game, but that’s why it’s not in the list lol

  3. Space Invaders: I mean, this may have started a whole damn Genre lol. I’m not sure but it may have been the first game to keep a high score too.

  4. Pong: I mean, would we even have video games without this?

  5. Super Mario Bros: to your point, this game became the blueprint for most (if not all) side scrollers.

  6. Legend of Zelda: Technically, as far as I know, even though I never played it, the first Open world game. I could be wrong but technically it is open world.

  7. Super Mario 64: I’ll agree with this one also since not only was it the blue print for many other 3D Platformers in the future, I just personally remember how impressed I was with it.

  8. Final Fantasy 7: Why? It may not have been the first, but it was the first that I remember giving me a real cinematic experience. It was my first real RPG and it was probably the first time I really felt for a character. That Aerith scene… it’ll be in my memory for ever.

  9. Wii Sports: Not necessarily a new idea, sports games had been around for ever, but the idea of using video game as a type of exercise was pretty new. Although I don’t think this is still as relevant, soooo maybe not? Lol

10: Tomb Raider: Again, maybe not the first but I tend to enjoy a lot of these 3rd person games with some action and some story and some climbing, so I’m gonna give it to Lara lol.

Since Wii Sports is kind of Iffy… I’ll add Fallout 4 (for me anyway) because of the building mechanics that I’ve seen used in other games like Valheim.

3

Nice list! I agree pong is probably the most influential for home consoles. It was imo one of the first popular consoles even if it only had one game.