Most Influential Video Games

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leveskikesko

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Gaming history is pretty rich stuff, so share your thoughts on what you believe to be the most influential video games of our time.

Super Mario Bros. - Before Super Mario Bros. there were mainly simple arcade games, and maybe a few sidescrollers that ultimately weren't that compelling. I believe Super Mario Bros. set a new standard for gaming that has carried on to our time.

Super Mario 64 - Every game after it tried to emulate its advanced camera, its overall style. True 3D gaming started with this game.

Tetris - This game revealed the potential of one of the most addictive genres.

Prince of Persia - Showed the world that games were capable of realistic animation, and its action platforming I believe has influenced future games like the Tomb Raider series.

Myst - It showed us that video games were capable of being extremely immersive, with its hauntingly realistic prerendered graphics and first person view.

Ok, I'll leave the rest up to you guys.
 
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Wolfenstein 3D- This is the game that crafted first person shooting, a genre that has since become one of the most commanding in the market.
 
I think Starcraft has to be on there as well.

With it's influence in the on-line market and creating 3 distinct races for the first time, both set standards for the RTS market.
 
Well, SM64 I think is the most influential, but here are some others

1) Goldeneye N64: Showed that people will play a FPS on consoles
2) Halo: Revolutionized the control for a FPS. It seems obvious now, but no one was doing it widespread before.
3) Halo 2: Showed how to keep an online community together for years on a console (in a non MMORPG format

4) Grand Theft Auto 3: Showed you can make a sandbox game fun (I know, GTA was doing this in its other games, but this was the game that exploded on the scene, and actually changed how other games played.)

I'm sure there are others, but I'll stop here
 
[quote name='H.Cornerstone']I think Starcraft has to be on there as well.

With it's influence in the on-line market and creating 3 distinct races for the first time, both set standards for the RTS market.[/QUOTE]

Starcraft is more popular, but Warcraft II is important as well.

RPG
Japan - Dragon Quest
USA- Final Fantasy VII
 
The Legend of Zelda (NES)- first game to use a save game battery pack and first console game to actually allow "saves" instead of a password
 
zelda ocarina of time
mario 64
super metroid
metroid prime
wario land 2
golden eye, turok
star wars rogue squadron
indiana jones infernal machine
viewtiful joe [gc]
resident evil
 
Ok, I'll bite, why are these influential?

zelda ocarina of time
metroid prime
wario land 2
golden eye, turok
star wars rogue squadron
indiana jones infernal machine
viewtiful joe [gc]

Some good, some great, but none of these are influential in much of anything.
 
[quote name='62t']Starcraft is more popular, but Warcraft II is important as well.[/quote]

I remember playing one of the early warcraft games and thinking "wtf - both sides are essentially mirrors of each other" - was that Warcraft 2?

Colossal Cave Adventure - interactive gaming FTW

Pacman has to be on the list. The pacman's "turn the tables" mechanics were so influential that there's even an economic strategy called the "pacman defense"
 
[quote name='mrcheapo11']StarFox 64- First game to use RumblePak[/quote]

This depresses me because Starfox 64 Wii doesn't even have rumble.
 
[quote name='mike.m']Ok, I'll bite, why are these influential?

zelda ocarina of time
metroid prime
wario land 2
golden eye, turok
star wars rogue squadron
indiana jones infernal machine
viewtiful joe [gc]

Some good, some great, but none of these are influential in much of anything.[/quote]

ocarina of time offered zelda in 3d and how things would work [hookshot for instance as well as z-trigger,....].

metroid prime was an fps action/adventure game that had exploration and didn't really focus on heavy shooting as much. it worked and was successful. it was metroid game in 3d fps.

everyone should know golden eye for n64. play turok on n64 and see why it's influencial. the animation, the gore and violence and everything about fps worked on a console.

star wars rogue squadron is influential as it's to show r&d of a system that pays off. factor 5 tinkered with the performance of the n64 and look at the type of games that they managed to release for the n64.

indiana jones infernal machine is an example of how a console is sometimes able to be better then a pc.

viewtiful joe is to prove that 2d isn't dead yet. at that time people thought 2d was near dead, then capcom releases viewtiful joe for gamecube and the gaming community was inspired. this game had a lot of creativity. look at the ds version as well, very well designed as it uses the ds's hardware in good use.

what about mario galaxy??
 
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[quote name='pochaccoheaven']ocarina of time offered zelda in 3d and how things would work [hookshot for instance as well as z-trigger,....].

metroid prime was an fps action/adventure game that had exploration and didn't really focus on heavy shooting as much. it worked and was successful. it was metroid game in 3d fps.

everyone should know golden eye for n64. play turok on n64 and see why it's influencial. the animation, the gore and violence and everything about fps worked on a console.

star wars rogue squadron is influential as it's to show r&d of a system that pays off. factor 5 tinkered with the performance of the n64 and look at the type of games that they managed to release for the n64.

indiana jones infernal machine is an example of how a console is sometimes able to be better then a pc.

viewtiful joe is to prove that 2d isn't dead yet. at that time people thought 2d was near dead, then capcom releases viewtiful joe for gamecube and the gaming community was inspired. this game had a lot of creativity. look at the ds version as well, very well designed as it uses the ds's hardware in good use.

what about mario galaxy??[/quote]


Hm, I don't think I agree with any of those except for maybe Goldeneye. They may be excellent games or milestone games, but I definitely wouldn't call them influential. To be influential, they'd have to introduce something that no other game had done and something that had been copied throughout gaming for the next years after its release.
 
[quote name='62t']Starcraft is more popular, but Warcraft II is important as well.

RPG
Japan - Dragon Quest
USA- Final Fantasy VII[/quote]

Problem with Warcraft II is that it had the same two race set up as Red Alert and C&C, and maybe even dune II (can't say, never played it)

However, Starcraft came along, had three distinct balanced races, free on-line play through battle.net that have changed RTS (and other genres) forever.

I would also like to add

wolfenstien 3d (first FPS)

Quake First FPS to use mouse look and have extensive on-line play, and most importantly, Mods as it had the original Team Fortress.

And support those who said GTA III and Goldeneye. Goldeneye proved that licensed games could be good and popular, and that FPS on a console would work.
Metal Gear Solid
Tetris
Solitaire, the original casual game?
Super Mario Bros.
God of War to an extent, I don't know if it necessarily did anything new per say, but it's still a game that almost all 3d action/adventure games are compared to these days.
Heavenly Sword, just for it's voice acting and cut scenes. The motion capturing and voice acting is something that I see copied in almost all games now.
Devil May Cry. When it came out it completely changed action games.
Final Fantasy VII. As much as it's considered overrated by most people, you can't deny how it brought RPG's to 3d and popularity in the western markets.
Resident Evil. Never played them, but understand their importance.
Gran Turismo.
 
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pochaccoheaven

Can you only list Nintendo games?
Still talking about the Infernal Machine? Have you played any of the older Indiana Jones games....i.e. the Last Crusade now that was an influential game! Anyways, Turok you think it was influential (b/c of gore?, I'm sure it was also influential b/c of the fog due to weak hardware...

Rogue Squadron was not influential, it was an aging port of a pc game.

Resident Evil very influential, I also agree with Goldeneye, Wolfenstein and Quake, DMC, and GTA III.
I would also say Tetris, Doom, Everquest (big mmo), Half life, Sonic, and Super Mario Brothers.
 
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Super Mario Bros
Super Mario 64
Tetris
Doom
Goldeneye
GTA3
Counter-Strike
Half-Life
Diablo 2
Everquest
Resident Evil
Metal Gear Solid
Legend of Zelda (nes)

That about does it..
 
Max Payne (bullet time)
Resident Evil 4 (Over the back view for third person shooters)
Donkey Kong (An actual story in games and gameplay which didn't involve shooting things)
Grand Theft Auto 3 (sandbox gameplay)
F-Zero (futuristic racing games)
Geometry Wars Evolved (gave us a ton of shooting games on XBLA)
Gran Turismo (realistic racing games)
D&D (the birth of the RPG genre)
 
[quote name='kube00']pochaccoheaven

Can you only list Nintendo games?
Still talking about the Infernal Machine? Have you played any of the older Indiana Jones games....i.e. the Last Crusade now that was an influential game! Anyways, Turok you think it was influential (b/c of gore?, I'm sure it was also influential b/c of the fog due to weak hardware...

Rogue Squadron was not influential, it was an aging port of a pc game.

Resident Evil very influential, I also agree with Goldeneye, Wolfenstein and Quake, DMC, and GTA III.
I would also say Tetris, Doom, Everquest (big mmo), Half life, Sonic, and Super Mario Brothers.[/quote]

i was late for the ps1 era and when i finally game on it, i wasn't to awed by it and just forgot about it. so i can't really comment on ps1 games.

ff7 - the only thing they did was made a traditional 2d game into a 3d game with movies. i don't really see that as something spectacular. there were games that used movies in the 16bit days [lunar and vay]. the only thing left was for 3d. square got into 3d first because they spent a lot of time trying to make it 3d. other companies would have done the same thing but no one took the time to invest in making it 3d.

metal gear solid?? i don't know how it was influential as i don't play many of those spy like games. maybe hitman was better as it has more influence, but i wouldn't know as i don't play much of these stealth games.

gran turismo - i can't compare but they probably made it main stream for consoles to have pc like simulation for consoles as well as the license cars. you'll need someone who has played simulation game for pc and compare it with gran turismo to see if there are others that are equal to it. btw, is it a driving simulation or a racing simulation??

r&d is needed for ps3 and there aren't many companies [or maybe there aren' any companies] that are doing it. so i sucks for them. that's why you have 360 first before ps3.
 
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[quote name='kube00']What about the original Donkey Kong?[/QUOTE]

Absolutely. I was just giving a few examples :)
 
[quote name='pochaccoheaven']
viewtiful joe is to prove that 2d isn't dead yet.

what about mario galaxy??[/QUOTE]
What about it? Super Mario Galaxy didn't revolutionize anything, it was just really good. Also, wouldn't Viewtiful Joe prove 2D gaming was dead because, if I remember correctly, it didn't sell too hotly.

Add Guitar Hero because it allowed a brand new spectra of games for the casual player.

Ninja Gaiden for the NES I think was the first game to use cutscenes to tell the story.

Mario Party influenced all of those damned party mini-games.

Starfox for the SNES was really the first game to be in 3D.
 
Super Mario Galaxy IMO set a new standard for level design, but I don't think it really changed how games are made.

I wish it did though....sans the easy difficulty.
 
[quote name='Predator21281']What about it? Super Mario Galaxy didn't revolutionize anything, it was just really good. Also, wouldn't Viewtiful Joe prove 2D gaming was dead because, if I remember correctly, it didn't sell too hotly.

Add Guitar Hero because it allowed a brand new spectra of games for the casual player.

Ninja Gaiden for the NES I think was the first game to use cutscenes to tell the story.

Mario Party influenced all of those damned party mini-games.

Starfox for the SNES was really the first game to be in 3D.[/quote]

Starfox wasn't the first 3D video game, although it was one of the first console games to use 3D graphics. I believe Battlezone, an arcade game by Atari, was the first 3D game and it used 3D vector graphics, and that was back in 1980 believe it or not.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghIPGXs3LAo[/media]
 
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[quote name='Predator21281'] Also, wouldn't Viewtiful Joe prove 2D gaming was dead because, if I remember correctly, it didn't sell too hotly.[/QUOTE]

Yeah and more to the point, VJ didn't exactly kick off a 2D renaissance, unless I missed it. So, it's hard to call it influential despite its many virtues.
 
Hmm. A lot of the things I want to mention are games that sort-of created fads in gaming. Like Max Payne, as ananag mentioned, which had a decent number of now-forgotten imitators. That's not exactly revolutionary, but it pushed the direction of a number of games for some time - I'd call that influential.

The Legend of Zelda: Helloooooo save system!

Mario Bros: You want to make a platformer on an 8- or 16-bit console? You base its gameplay on this.

Assorted Sonics (mostly Sonic 2): Sadly, you're probably going to base its "attitude" on these. Yes, I'm placing the blame for Bubsy, Gex, Aero the Acrobat, and really pretty much every early platformer aside from Mario and Rocket Knight Adventures on Sonic.

Mortal Kombat: First big game to use violence as its main selling point. Hey, nobody said this list had to be of games that were influential in a good way.

Tomb Raider: First big game to use sex as its main selling point?

Descent: Wolfenstein 3D and Doom were both mentioned already, but we shouldn't forget about this first-person pioneer. Or Ultima Underworld, for that matter, especially if you look at it as a precursor to the likes of The Elder Scrolls and Deus Ex.

Alone in the Dark: Survival horror pre-Resident Evil (also, pre-sucking).

Final Fantasy VII: Single biggest factor in the popularizing of RPGs in North America. Also broke all sorts of RPG rules by killing off a usable character (and not in the pussy FFIV way), pissing off premature level grinders to no end.

Goldeneye: First big console FPS. And yet...

Halo: ... exploded the genre.

Metal Gear Solid: Gave birth - or was at least midwife to - the stealth genre.

Mario 64: Hey, developers. Stop. Stop that, whatever it is you're doing. This is how you do 3D. See what they did over there? Yeah. Do that. And when the next Zelda comes along, you do that, too. Trust me.

GTA III: Not the first 3D sandbox game, but nobody remembers the other ones for a reason.

Everquest: The GTA III of MMORPGs. Sure there was Ultima Online, but c'mon...

Metroid Prime 3: It wa- "Hey, wait a minute! That's not influential!" Well, sort of, sort of not. It's certainly not gonna change everything like Mario 64, but it has completely changed how FPS' are done on the Wii, despite not being one itself. That there aren't more of them is a god damn shame, 'cause MP3 and Medal of Honor sure as hell showed how well they can work.
 
[quote name='GuardianE']Hm, I don't think I agree with any of those except for maybe Goldeneye. They may be excellent games or milestone games, but I definitely wouldn't call them influential. To be influential, they'd have to introduce something that no other game had done and something that had been copied throughout gaming for the next years after its release.[/quote]

Yep, Turok was a piece of shit. I can't fathom how anyone would think one of the many early garbage games on N64 was influential. Like I said, all those games are good, maybe great, but not influential.

Hell, Bionic Commando introduced a form of the hookshot first didn't it? :)
 
Think everything has been covered, so I'll just pick a handful of ones that were influential to me getting into games, changing tastes etc.

Super Mario Bros. This was the one that made me a gamer. We had an Atari 2700 before but I was young and didn't play it that much.

Super Mario World, A Link to the Past, Super Metroid. Of all the great SNES games, those were the ones that solidified me as a gamer and created a love of having a (semi) open vitual world to explore. Final Fantasy 3 (VI) also played a role here.

Super Mario 64--further expanded on this exploration by successfully moving to 3D. Also add in Zelda: OOT, FFVII.

KOTOR (and Mass Effect this gen)-after playing these there was no going back to JRPGs for me.

Gears of War- started my love of shooters. Playing it was the beginning of the end of my interest in the Wii.

Bioshock--solidified my love of FPS games a genre I didn't care much for until this generation. CoD4 and the Orange Box hammered it home.
 
A few I haven't seen yet

Final Fantasy Tactics. I know not the first SRPG, but without it Disgaea would have never seen light of day in the US, much less becomming a greatest hit, and Disgaea 3 is highly anticipated.

Little Big Planet - my prediction for the future. If it's successful it could change the console universe.

Wii sports/fit - :puke: No denying their ability to ruin the future of gaming.
 
Like many others, I agree so much with Super Mario 64.

I also want to put aside any fanboyism for now, and say "The Wii". The general concept of what it was before it came out, was to play games differently..and sadly this hasn't happened. The only games that I really felt into the game (using the wii controls) are both Trauma Centers. It seems like a lot of Wii games are like "!!! SHAKE Wii REMOTE!!"..and thats really YAWN. In TC, however, you are really into it.

This can also be said with the DS.
So I'm going to add Trauma Center to the list because it shows how unique games can be when they aren't shovelware.
 
Adventure for the 2600 was the first game to have an easter egg hidden in it.

E.T. and Pacman for the 2600 were big factors in the fall of atari, which, good or bad, was very influential. Of course, E.T. didn't teach anyone not to buy licensed games, because they all still sell like hotcakes. :roll:
 
[quote name='pochaccoheaven']i was late for the ps1 era and when i finally game on it, i wasn't to awed by it and just forgot about it. so i can't really comment on ps1 games.

ff7 - the only thing they did was made a traditional 2d game into a 3d game with movies. i don't really see that as something spectacular. there were games that used movies in the 16bit days [lunar and vay]. the only thing left was for 3d. square got into 3d first because they spent a lot of time trying to make it 3d. other companies would have done the same thing but no one took the time to invest in making it 3d.
[/quote]

Watch your tongue!!! :lol:

FF7 added FMV's into games, 3D, crafted the genre story wise, Graphics were top notch at its time, the technology used to create one of the best RPG's of our time was breath taking
 
[quote name='leveskikesko']Did anyone mention Parappa the Rapper. Pretty sure that started the craze for rhythm games, did it not?[/QUOTE]

I agree with you on that.
 
[quote name='bigfans']Some good, some great, but none of these are influential in much of anything.
this is also what i want to say[/quote]


I have no idea what you just said.

If you're implying that none games in general are influential, keep in mind that we're not talking about societal standards, but rather industry standards. What helped to mold the industry into what it is today?

But then again, I seem to remember you simply being a troll, so this might just be a wasted comment.
 
Halo pioneered the regenerating shield which made shooters much more widely accessible. Now its almost a standard in the genre.

Its also a convention I hate
 
I love regenerating shields/health. Removes the frustration of having to wander around, back track for health packs that just happen to be laying around etc.

But I'll freely admit that I fucking hate hard games.
 
Well FF VII was influential on the U.S. market. It was what led to all of those JRPGs coming stateside. If it weren't for that, the PS1/N64/Saturn generation to the present would be very different.

The original Zelda kind of pioneered sandbox-style games no?

Super Mario was influential, I think it brought the market out of a crash and redefined console gaming.
 
Off the top of my head, the first game I can think of is Half-Life (or maybe Half-Life 2, more so). I don't recall it doing too many "firsts," since plenty of FPS games came out before it, but it did everything so well. The immersion it achieved by keeping you in first-person during the cut-scenes and the scripted events helped set the bar for future FPSes that tried to create a story with any true depth.

Also, Scientist Hunt was pretty fun.
 
3D Platforming - Mario 64
Action - Devil May Cry
Music/Rhythm - Guitar Hero
FPS - Goldeneye
RPG - FF VII
Puzzle - Tetris
2D Fighter - Street Fighter II
3D Fighter - Virtua Fighter 2
 
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