What do you think are the most *important* games of all time?

Super Mario changed everything, Zelda was the first to include a save system, Tetris changed the game for portable gaming and overall gaming as a whole, Mario 64 changed 3D gaming for the better, Ocarina of Time changed everything yet again, Doom and it's shareware model, Quake had unforeseeable influence, StarCraft became the national sport , System Shock was incredibly influential, Half Life changed everything yet again, Counter Strike changed online multiplayer forever, Halo changed console gaming forever, so did it's sequel, Half Life 2 changed PC gaming yet again both for Steam and it's design... Man there's so much to mention, and so many different types of influences. Great video.

I know that's it's supposed to be "Video" games but since the title says "Games" I'm adding Dungeons and Dragons to the list. Due to the influence it had on developing the way that RPGs and their mechanics were eventually incorporated into videogames, it truly deserves to be on any list of important and influential games.

Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. Simply because of the lock on function.

I thought Minecraft would be an obvious choice.For popularizing the open would survival genre, and showing the viability of selling a game before its official release.

Solid video. If there was a number 11 on this list, it would probably be Street Fighter 2.

Mortal Kombat??? That game is the whole reason we have the ESRB and changed parental expectations and how parents monitor what their child plays

My list of top 10 1- Spacewar! : Same reason as you explained in the video 2- donkey Kong: a great arcade game which introduced us to the Nintendo world, profiting enough to make it's character "jump man" get a name for it self, which lead to the creation of super Mario Bros. 3- MegaMan: even though scrolling games such as contra or beat em ups games were already a thing, it introduced us to a very fast paced game with different guns, final bosses, God tier soundtrack and it still see releases nowadays. 4- Doom/Quake: both games did it's part, doom showed how games could be not only for children, and also help pump the industry of videogames on PC, quake I think it's also as important because they showed us a game which had a lot of movement options, including bunny hop, rocket jumps, etc, which are still used in modern FPS games 5- Crysis: as you said on your video they created more expectancy from people on new games, not just gameplay or story, but also hardware demanding graphics to show us beautiful and more detailed environments. 6- Street Fighter 2: this game launched fighting games to be what they are nowadays, fighting games used to be dull or just straight beat em ups, but this games changed the scene when they added a lot of special movements such as de hadouken (fire balls) and shoryuken (invulnerable attacks). Plus they also added the option to make combos, something which was a bug, but now it's a must in any fighting game. 7- Half-Life: not only a game changing shooter, but also a great story, something which many games lacked, it wasn't just a "go save a princess" kind of game, plus it was easy to mod, so it lead to other games being developed like counter strike. Also they added the cross hair before any other game. 8- Tetris: just a puzzle game which could be ported to literally anything, helped develope portable gaming with it's success in the very first Gameboy 9- pong: literally the very beginning of competitive games, nothing else to say. 10- Warcraft: one of the best known RTS games, it lead to many more RTS to be developed like Command and Conquer and StarCraft, also it was the game from which Mobas came from, every since dota to LoL, the biggest competitive Esports scenes nowadays

10: zelda, save system 9: ultima, open world 8: DOOM, games are for all ages 7: mortal kombat, ESRB 6: halo, shooters work on console 5: GTA San andreas: pushed the boundary of what is acceptable in a video game 4: Halo 2, console multiplayer 3: half life, storytelling in an fps 2: half life 2, physics in an fps, graphical powerhouse 1: quake, 3d acceleration.

Good list! It doesn't have a ton of overlap with mine, but even though I'd quibble with quite a few of your choices, all of them were very well reasoned. I find learning about video games and how they effect later games in the medium really fascinating, and I think it's an element of how we conceptualize the medium that most people sadly don't really think about. My one real gripe with your list is that I feel that it focuses a bit too much on market trends and developer practices over game design elements that certain games pioneered. There were certain games you included that I agreed should be on the list, but I felt that your reasoning as to why they were so important was incomplete. Super Mario Bros, for instance, was talked about in the context of reviving the video game market and making video games into a medium for boys, but you didn't talk about Mario's impact on how movement works in games. Mario set the standard for how a character should move in a video game, and every action game since has taken influence from that standard. I'd argue that that is the real impact of Super Mario Bros, but you kind of glossed over how that game, and many of the other games on your list, actually played. I don't know if I could come up with a list of ten games that I'm confident are the most important ever, but here's some you didn't cover that I think would definitely make my personal list: Donkey Kong: This game changed the industry in more ways than you might expect. Nintendo's first game to feature Mario was fun, flashy, and a technical marvel. Obviously, the game was the first platformer*, but it also innovated in a number of other respects. It was one of the first arcade games to present you with a series of levels that each presented a brand new challenge. When levels were used in earlier arcade games, each level presented a slightly harder version of the last one. Level 2 of Space Invaders started with the aliens a little lower, Pac-Man's ghosts increased in speed, etc. Donkey Kong presented four levels that each presented a brand new challenge to the player. Donkey Kong popularized this new format of each level being a new experience. If you're a fan of games that noticeably change as you progress through them, you can thank Donkey Kong for that. Donkey Kong was also massively influential in video game storytelling. It was one of the first action games to have an actual story. It's not a particularly great story, but that didn't matter. It gave you a villain to fight and enhanced the sense of progression throughout the game, and that was enough. Compared to earlier arcade icons like Pac-Man, the trio in Donkey Kong were the most charismatic characters in gaming up to that point. Donkey Kong showed that even if the gameplay is the main draw of a game, that gameplay can be elevated by the inclusion of even a simple story. Dragon Quest: A ton of people in the comments are saying Final Fantasy belongs on this list, and while I don't disagree, I think if any jrpg deserves a spot, it's Dragon Quest. I'd argue that it's a strong contender for the most important rpg of all time, rivaling even the games that inspired it. Dragon Quest wasn't the first role playing game made in Japan, but it was the first jrpg. The games that came before it in the Japanese market were well meaning, often ambitious, but ultimately confused, not quite sure what the made rpgs that inspired them like Wizardry and Ultima tick. Dragon Quest was the first to not only figure it out, but improve upon how those games functioned in many ways, making the beloved but relatively niche genre more accessible and causing a full-on rpg craze within the country. That would make Dragon Quest a very important game on it's own, but it also had a massive impact on genres besides rpgs as well. The massive craze for the genre caused developers from all genres to take notice, incorporating rpg elements into their own games. While the first action rpgs predated Dragon Quest, the games it left in its wake paved the way for all future games in the genre. One particular rpg element, inherent character progression where your character acquires new, permanent skills and upgrades as you progress through the game, was so widely used in imitation of its use in Dragon Quest and other rpgs that it transcended the genre and became part of the fabric of game design in general. *Incidentally, Donkey Kong is one of the few games I'm aware of that people commonly say started a genre that actually did. Most popular games that people say invented a genre really just built upon an earlier, primordial game that was the genre's true beginning, but I've yet to find a game that came before Donkey Kong that meets all of the criteria of a platformer. Space Panic and Frog and Flies come the closest, but Space Panic doesn't let you jump or otherwise propel yourself through the air, instead focusing on dropping from one platform to another, and Frog and Flies only allows you to jump between two spots in a fixed arc, lacking any means of controlling the trajectory or location of your jump. This isn't fully relevant, but it's been banging around in my head ever since I realized it, so I figured I'd share it here.

These Talks continue to be awesome. I never realized how influential Madden was and its effect on the gaming industry till I watched your video. That was actually pretty awesome. The only game that I would add to your list would be Legend of Zelda ... and possibly one of the Final Fantasy games for their influence on JRPGs. Can't wait for the next Talks and as always great job, Moriarty, Eren and War.

lists get me rock hard M thankyou for real though great work the flow of this is good shit. i almost want to play crysis again, almost.

Minecraft was a game changer. It exploded independent gaming ever since its release.

Micro Transactions didn't revolutionize the gaming industry. It's killing it. It only revolutionized how how much more corporate the video game industry as become. Much like the crash of 83"

I would put in Mario 64 for nailing 3D, and the original Zelda for its open world themes.

Ultimately the answer depends on your tastes unless you're going for the most likely to be influential on future games, which is usually the most popular games and those there are numbers on so no reasons are needed. In some cases we can make an educated guess or find revealing info in developer interviews about the games that influenced the biggest hits in each genre. Some 1980s games I think are important: Quest For Glory I: So You Want To Be A Hero (PC, 1989) - Merging contemporary adventure games' interactive dialogue w/ RPG conventions and an open world w/ avoidable encounters. This and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (PC, 1989)'s dialogue trees seem to have had the most impact on changing later WRPGs. Ultima IV (Multi, 1985/C64, 1986/AMI, 1988) - Also pivotal in making RPGs interesting Super Mario Bros. (1985) and Mega Man (1987) - Led to better platformers and action platformers Adventure (Atari 2600, 1980) - Led to Dragon Slayer (PC-88/PC-98/FM-7/X1, 1984)(according to Jeremy Parish; Some other sources say Tower of Druaga and Panorama Toh are DS's main inspirations and the former was in turn based on Wizardry, D&D and Pac-Man) which combined it with Sokoban, and that in turn led to Zelda 1 (with some additional influence from Ultima and Black Onyx, possibly also Hydlide) Knightmare II: Maze of Galious (MSX, 1987) - CV2->CV: SotN via Zelda, possibly Wonder Boy 3/Monster World 2 (WBiML/Monster World 1 was influenced by Wizardry as well as Tower of Druaga and Dragon Buster which Nishizawa wanted to improve upon) and Zillion (was probably also influenced by Impossible Mission), La-Mulana Starflight (PC (1986/MD, 1991) - Star Control 1-2, Mass Effect, Dwarf Fortress Laser Squad (Spectrum/C64, 1988/AMI, 1989/PC, 1992) - X-COM (via Civilization and Populous)->Fallout Thunder Force II (X68K, 1988/MD, 1989) and Zanac/Zanac EX (MSX, 1986) - Their success helped lead to more accessible and fun shoot 'em ups like the Aleste series, Gun Nac, Elemental Master, rest of the TF series, Hyper Duel and the of Thunder games, plus the hybrids Guardian Legend and Golvellius Tempest (ARC, 1981) - Buck Rogers, Major Havoc and Gyruss which then led to Space Harrier, After Burner, Galaxy Force II, etc. Populous (PCs, 1989/SMS, 1991) - SimCity 2000 and Powermonger, X-COM's perspective Knight Lore (PCs, 1984/FDS, 1986) - Solstice, D/Generation, Landstalker, Light Crusader, Mario RPG, Dark Savior, Alundra 2 SimCity (AMI/PC, 1989) - Dune II, Warcraft, Caesar series Military Madness/Nectaris (PCE, 1989) - Langrisser, Dune II Kid Kool (NES, 1988) and ​Psycho Fox (SMS, 1989) - Sonic the Hedgehog (acceleration style, multiple routes, water skipping, springs, anthropomorphic player char)

GTA 3 for sandbox gaming. Ultima online for mmos. Quake, and to an extent quake 2, for online deathmatch. Outrun for arcade racing.. and to an extent Daytona USA. Final fantasy for popularizing nearly every single jrpg trope around. Daggerfall for building the first real lived in feeling open world. Wave race 64 for water physics. Gran turismo for sim racing. Rainbow six for squad based tactical combat. Also the first ghost recon.

Final Fantasy, Baldurs Gate, Daggerfall (yeah daggerfall had books filled with lore long before deus ex), Star Craft and World of Warcraft

Great video! I think Street Fighter 2 is definitely a game that's worthy of a mention, a look into that game compared to the first is pretty interesting.

Doom is much more important than Half Life. If not for Doom - Half Life and Steam would never exist.

I would say Elite is quite important

Halo ce mot being on here is crazy especially the way it helped evolve console fps

Nice vid. I'd like to mention that COD doesnt really become COD until 4MW and Madden doesnt become Madden until the Genesis/Mega Drive game

Ha, the "millennials of gaming" line got a laugh from me. Glad you covered a list of games rather than focusing on just one! It's interesting that shooters took a plurality of this list - potentially because of them often being your preferred genre? Each one deserves recognition though, don't get me wrong! I will say that your focus on CoD for its narrative is one I'd disagree with in particular. If anything, I would give credit to Medal of Honor for that shift in focus that _led_ to CoD, and then give CoD separate credit for absolutely blowing the genre to the stratosphere when it came to online multiplayer. Others off the top of my head that could use some love: GTA III, Shadow of the Colossus (if nothing else than for starting the precursor to the games-as-art movement), and obviously Life of Black Tiger.

Awesome video. I'd say that metal gear was a big one too.

Great list! I would add Command & Conquer (RTS), Diablo (RPG), Everquest (MMORPG), and Mortal Kombat (Fighting)

Not sure how you avoided any MMO titles that were groundbreaking and revolutionary for gaming in their time.

What about Pac-Man? He was gaming’s first mascot, paving the way for other game mascots.

Here's a list: pong, pacman, Mario (of course!) tetris, metroid, zelda, doom, metal gear, mario64, demon minecraft, demon souls.

Aww, no love for Thief? :( Honestly, I feel as if Looking Glass themselves were a massively influential studio, just because of the ideas and gameplay options they put forward.

Metal Gear Solid pushed the industry further than any other game till this date. Id say the holy trinity of game influence would be super mario bros street fighter 2 and metal gear solid

Nice video man, teached me all I didn't know in very short time, except pdp 1 measurements tho.

awesomeness loved this so much :D

5:00 Who unfortunately didn't ocver them as well as they could have.

I do wonder how much is actual influence and how much is just... The first ones to do something that would always have happened anyway. For example, I can't see Madden NOT having happened at some point, or with some other sport. Although I wouldn't consider Street Fighter 2 that broadly influential (it stablished only one specific game genre which didn't have that much influence to other genres), I can definitely see how, without it, fighting games as we know them now (with their depth, charismatic characters, competitive focus, melee focus, 2D face-to-face combat, motion inputs, COMBOS...) might have not even been a thing. So I say all this to preface: I don't think Half-Life is nearly as revolutionary as people say. I might even say it's rather overrated and that its influence on the gaming creation might have been more annoying than helpful. I know, if someone reads this comment despite the age of the video, I've probably already been swatted and I'm about to be dragged into the street and shot. But before my inevitable, imminent demise, I'll try to defend my statement. Half-Life's innovations are a deeper, more engaging story as opposed to just an excuse to shoot demons what fight good in hell, and said story being told fully in-game. Is that really THAT influential, though? In this medium that blends artistic and technical ambitions, nobody was ever going to get tired of lackluster stories in FPS and try something more engaging? I don't think Half-Life's ambitions were innovation, they were an inevitability. Besides, whenever story needed to be presented, you still were in control of the character... but that's WORSE. I can skip a cutscene. But in Bioshock, or Fallout (3 and onwards) and so on, when I'm being presented with narrative fluff, I can't skip it. I can only just move the camera or maybe my character if I'm lucky, and just hop around while I wait for everybody to shut up and let me get back to the gameplay. I'd rather have skippable text boxes or cutscene over that.

Actually surprised you didn't include System Shock (and 2), as I would say they're both big titles, though of course, it's a debatable point. I certainly appreciated the Deus Ex bit, as it was, is, and will always be one of my favorite games of all time for a multitude of reasons, from the depth of the character development and storyline arcs right down to the tiny bits of sarcasm and humor throw in amongst the serious conversations (IE the skul-gun, if you know of it). Another I would be curious about your thoughts on would be the Grand Theft Auto series. What started simply and evolved has, in my opinion, become one of the biggest benchmarks for making an open world that is alive and believable for a player to become lost in. Perhaps an idea or talking point for the future?

The most important game of all time would have to go to Deus Ex, undebatably.

Zelda 1 invented the save system in cartridges and wasnt complete garbage like ultima. It had a world to explore and items to collect and bosses to fight. And then OoT did something similar but in 3d. Z-targeting changed 3d gaming Mgs is super important (for all of the wrong reasons) but it was still super important. It left its mark Gta 3 was huge as well considering so many games strived for "open world" design. I dont even like those last two but they're importance cant be understated And lastly Halo ce. Its the backbone all console fps games are built on. It had a story, huge levels, varied vehicles, and great multiplayer, it was as important of a game as any on here. And it wasn't clunky.

Transport Tycoon. Obviously.

Metal gear solid should be on this list

Pong Super Mario Minecraft Space Invaders

I'd make an argument for Knight Lore or JSW on the ZX Spectrum. How about Elite on the BBC?

I'm unclear on how small the pdp 1 was. Weird measurements, are those country specifics?

Good list but I find not including Super Mario 64 and Halo CE questionable

This list needed to be longer. What about Twisted Metal inspiring vehicular combat? What about Guitar Hero's impact on the world? Dragon Quest's impact on console RPGs?? Very well done video, but too much focus on certain genres with such a short list.

Wow this was fuckin awesome, keep doing more essays like these and I'll put you in my top 5 gametubers Mandaloregaming Superbunnyhop Ross's game dungeon MrBTongue Darksydephil

What about halo? It made the xbox what it is

Street Fighter 2 babyyyyyy

Feel like you gotta add a MMO.... Classic WoW would've been a good fit.

I would have probably included Dark Souls, as it set the stage for masochistic video games.

Remember quite well about the fps craze in the 90's just got into pc gaming early 90s and played doom and its clones a lot. Won't ever argue against its influence and important, but going back to it I really feel is an average game, it was the blood, the carnage and demons what made it fun, but then again I'm not keen on fps, with the exception of Bioshock which I love, I think are games for crazy hyperactive kids, and at worst recruitment tools sponsored by the government (call of duty).

I think I'd have have to have the first Final Fantasy and The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time on the list. I don't have a great depth of knowledge about the gaming industry, but I do know those two games were very influential. I think the gaming world would be a very different place if neither of them had existed. Not so sure about some of the other titles on your list.

so football made suprise mechanics?

Tetris ? Street Fighter 2 ? Starcraft ?

I am surprised you didn't identify one game that set the stage for (j)rpgs. That is a huge genre and it felt like it was missing. Super video, though!

I'd disagree with toys assessment. Handkerchiefs were originally make-up removal tools and then they naturally, by markets demand evolved into running nose remedy. Pre NES games already appealed mostly to males, so Nintendo didn't make flipping coin decision, it reacted to market with addressing games to boys. Modern attempt on appealing to woman get "reactionaries" not because of hatred mostly but because most people involve in protesting are aware of it being forced upon by vocal and easily echoing(being supported) in mainstream media ideologues.

Half Life 2

I remember ending up doing a project in early secondary school where I researched and wrote about Space Wars, what surprised me when I mentioned it was how few people know about it. Call me a Zelda fan person, but Ocarina of Time is pretty important. It's a lot less impressively systemic than say Half Life, but it basically defined 3D action/adventure game design. It's one of those weird games where everything shortly after it was a bold faced clone, and everything long after it doesn't resemble it at all but owes it a lot in subtle ways. You can see it in Harry Potter for the PS1 and the Last of Us on PS3. I think that's pretty important.

What about gta 3?

Aw but sport games suck and EA charges 60 dollars for ever new game that is the same

WERE IS HALO CE if we didn't have halo ce we wouldn't have COD.

Half-Life 2?

I dont even know why you you put loot boxes on a fantastic list like this... yes I understand your trying to be objective but... holy fuck dude because of the success of that shit... its fucked up the industry for a decade or more.... ITS EVEN IN GAMES THAT COST MONEY TO BEGIN WITH..

gta

This started out great. But I think you lost your way. Bare with me... Call of Duty is POPULAR, but is it Important?... Can you really justify that?

Missing Pac-Man, Street Fighter, literally ANY of the many RPGs like Ultima or Wizardry ffs. Did you ever play Tetris and read about its reach beyond 'gamers'? Donkey Kong. WoW.