The Top 5 Most Important Video Games of all Time

[AuburnAlumni]

In terms of development, creativity or mass market appeal.

My Top 5

1. PONG - it started it all.

2. Super Mario Bros - The Father of Modern gaming. Nintendo reenergized the console market after an Atari and Intellivison backlash.

3. The Legend of Zelda - It really sparked a new movement in Fantasy/Action/RPGs, paving the way for games such as Final Fantasy and Oblivion. Has turned into an instant money maker franchise along with the Mario franchise.

4. Guitar Hero - an absolute phenomenon. Easily one of the freshest, most creative, and fun video game franchises of all time that has spanned a wide range of ages and gender as well.

5. I couldn't decide on one here, but I truly believe Mass Effect will be it. Looks to break totally new ground in a wide range of areas and truly take gaming to the "next generation".

[ExtremeGamer]

Re: The Top 5 Most Important Video Games of all Time

Top 5 ever?

In no order

-Sim City (started the "sim" games)

-Pac Man (the game that started the 80's surge)

-Super Mario Brothers series(the game that started the console game surge, SMB 3 took it to all new heights)

-Doom (the grand daddy, king of FPS, and the first online LAN game I ever played)

-Tetris (THE puzzle game of all time)

[fistofrage]

Re: The Top 5 Most Important Video Games of all Time

1. Super Tecmo Bowl - Real Players, Real Stat Tracking(Afterall we're on a sports website)
2. Space Invaders - For whatever reason, it propelled a generation of gaming
3. Mario Brothers - It brought in a new generation of gamers
4. Zelda - First epic adventure that appealed to the masses
5. Madden - Hate to say it, but even Mom's and Grandparents know about Madden football.

[Uhfan]

Re: The Top 5 Most Important Video Games of all Time

1. Final Fantasy 3/Final Fantasy Tactics- Just loved these games and introduced me to the videogame world, before that I was a total idiot at picking videogames. A couple great titles I used to rent from Blockbuter was the Chester Cheetah videogame were you collected cheetos and the 7 UP spot character videogames for the SNES. I had no clue..........

2. Starcraft- played like 5 games religiously during my senior year in high school and up to my first year in college.

3. Grand Theft Auto 3- Honestly this game was a total sleeper for most videogamers. No one really covered it, no real hype, and then the game dropped and people were like OH MY GOD THE TRIADS AND THE MAFIA ARE GOING AT IT, THE STREETZ ARE A WARZONE!!! The game just redefined everything.

4. Resident Evil- Resident Evil introduced me to next gen back in 1998. I didn't understand how big the leap was from Snes/Genesis to Sega Saturn/N64/Playstation till I played this game. The night before I had been playing some crappy 2-d game on my SNES and then the very next day I am being scared out of my mind from roaming zombies and doggies jumping thru windows. I didn't even know what Resident Evil was about, had no clue it was a survivor horror game, I just didn't wanna play MADDen.

5. Final Fantasy 7 and Hot Shots Golf- Final Fantasy 7 was epic when it dropped. Too bad everyone knew that Aeries died since Squaresoft leaked that famous scene in every single damn preview, idiots. Hot Shots Golf was crack for me, i dunno why, game was so much better until Camelot decided to Americanize all the golfers with generic sterotypes of american cultures, sad.

[Beantown]

Re: The Top 5 Most Important Video Games of all Time

-Super Mario Brothers
-Doom
-Halo (strictly in-terms of online matchmaking/party play. Nothing else even comes close to their party-system)
-Zelda
-I'd have to agree with EG and say Tetris. Pretty much everyone knows what Tetris is.

[Jistic]

Re: The Top 5 Most Important Video Games of all Time

Pong
Space Invaders
Mario Brothers
Doom (Wolfenstein was first, but Doom MADE the 1st person shooter what it is today)
Madden Football

[Bornindamecca]

Re: The Top 5 Most Important Video Games of all Time

Pac Man
Mario
Doom
Street Fighter II
StarCraft

[Pared]

Re: The Top 5 Most Important Video Games of all Time

Super Marios Bros., Zelda, Street Fighter 2, Tomb Raider, Doom, Resident Evil, Mario 64, Sim City...

Maybe even GTA3.

[MizzouBravesFan]

Re: The Top 5 Most Important Video Games of all Time

Pong
Donkey Kong
Pac-Man
Super Mario Bros.
Halo

[jmood88]

Re: The Top 5 Most Important Video Games of all Time

3. Grand Theft Auto 3- Honestly this game was a total sleeper for most videogamers. No one really covered it, no real hype, and then the game dropped and people were like OH MY GOD THE TRIADS AND THE MAFIA ARE GOING AT IT, THE STREETZ ARE A WARZONE!!! The game just redefined everything.

I had played GTA 2 on the Dreamcast but I had no clue about GTA 3 until I went to my cousin's house and stayed up literally all night playing it. That game was crazy.

[Hooe]

Re: The Top 5 Most Important Video Games of all Time

From games not listed in the original post, Doom, Halo, and Madden have to be considered (Doom put the FPS on the map, and Halo and Madden are more of cultural phenomena than video games at this point), and also Mortal Kombat for being the first really popular violent video game.

I'd post a top five if I didn't have to be in class in two minutes.

[Blzer]

Re: The Top 5 Most Important Video Games of all Time

5. Pac-Man

4. Street Fighter

3. Sim City

2. Mario

1. Grand Theft Auto



All completely different styles of play, and it was tough to rule out an FPS in this... but I feel these games were a little more influentially important.

[ExtremeGamer]

Re: The Top 5 Most Important Video Games of all Time

5. Pac-Man

4. Street Fighter

3. Sim City

2. Mario

1. Grand Theft Auto



All completely different styles of play, and it was tough to rule out an FPS in this... but I feel these games were a little more influentially important.

GTA and Street Fighter were the 2 games I really toyed with putting in the top 5 of all time. You can go wrong with either and I could see the argument for both.

Doom and Tetris were the last 2 games I added to my list, and those 2 you have above were the 2 I was debating on with Doom and Tetris.

[Pared]

Re: The Top 5 Most Important Video Games of all Time

You can't put the originals though, IMO. SF wasn't that grounbreaking: 2 characters, limited moves and combo system, poor controls...

Same goes for GTA.

[DaveDQ]

Re: The Top 5 Most Important Video Games of all Time

Top 5 ever?

In no order

-Sim City (started the "sim" games)

-Pac Man (the game that started the 80's surge)

-Super Mario Brothers series(the game that started the console game surge, SMB 3 took it to all new heights)

-Doom (the grand daddy, king of FPS, and the first online LAN game I ever played)

-Tetris (THE puzzle game of all time)

Good list. Each has significance for its time and played a huge role in how games were made.

I love the history of video games. Good topic.