Sydney Morning Herald's 20 most influential games ever

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mdf

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#28820 12-Dec-2008 20:15

The Sydney Morning Herald has published a list of its "20 most influential games ever".

Its also available on stuff at: http://www.stuff.co.nz/4789591a28.html

In order:

1. Pong
2. GTA III
3. Space Invaders
4. Super Mario 64
5. The Sims
6. Tomb Raider
7. Doom
8. Pac Man
9. Tetris
10. Half Life
11. SimCity
12. Super Mario Bros
13. Elite
14. Dune II
15. World of Warcraft
16. Wii Sports
17. Metal Gear Solid
18. GoldenEye
19. Street Fighter II
20. Parappa the Rapper

SMH has identified the following games as missing out:
Legend of Zelda
Wolfenstein
Civilisation
Ultima Online
Myst
Alone in the Dark
One on One: Dr J vs Larry Bird
Brain Training
Halo 2
Metroid
Final Fantasy VII
Nintendogs
Populous
Pole Position
Spacewar
Adventure
Zork
Testdrive
DonkeyKong
Pokemon

Personally, I would have had Dune II much higher, and Populous, Prince of Persia and Ultima VII would have been in my lists. Also surprised that no sports or driving games. Could probably make an argument for Guitar Hero too.

Edit: fixing paragraph spacing

Edit 2: fixing forum title - quotation marks don't seem to agree with it

Adamal

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#183789 12-Dec-2008 22:40

I love it how people pass opinion as fact :)

Eg, what is the basis that GTA 3 ranks higher than say, Doom? Or even beats out Wolfenstien 3D onto the list at all?
If you're talking about a genre defining game, then the original GTA did bigger things than 3 did.
Wolfenstein defined the first person shooter. And then id managed to go even further with Doom. It had much more impact on gaming as a whole than The Sims or Tomb Raider! I don't even know why Tomb Raider is on there! People don't get nostalgic over T.R.
The test is 'Man, remember when ______ came out? I used to play that for hours!" Doom fits in the blank, Tomb Raider doesn't really :P

Parappa the Rappa shouldn't be on there either. It might have been a genre breaker for the whole 'hit buttons in time' thing, but its not a big genre. Something like Final Fantasy 7 should be on there. And probably a lot higher than most of the games on there. It brought Japanese style RPG gaming into the spotlight in the western world. Sure, there were others before it, but FF7 was a phenomenom world wide. People queued for hours, days even to get their copy.

But then again, thats all just my opinion. Is it? ;)

r0bbie

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#183971 14-Dec-2008 09:20

wow thought Civilisation would be on there?!

tonyhughes

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#183975 14-Dec-2008 09:37

One on One: Dr J vs. Larry Bird

OH MY GOD I had totally forgotten about that game. I have never been a huge gamer, but that soaked up a large part of my childhood on the C64.

eXDee

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#183984 14-Dec-2008 10:36

Tomb raider way too high imo.
GTA III is influentual but doesnt deserve 2nd place.

Mark

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#184101 14-Dec-2008 19:16

Ha! Obviously a list decided by someone vastly younger than me!
Where is M.U.L.E. ?

NonprayingMantis

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#184197 15-Dec-2008 10:03

Adamal: I love it how people pass opinion as fact :)

Eg, what is the basis that GTA 3 ranks higher than say, Doom? Or even beats out Wolfenstien 3D onto the list at all?
If you're talking about a genre defining game, then the original GTA did bigger things than 3 did.
Wolfenstein defined the first person shooter. And then id managed to go even further with Doom. It had much more impact on gaming as a whole than The Sims or Tomb Raider! I don't even know why Tomb Raider is on there! People don't get nostalgic over T.R.
The test is 'Man, remember when ______ came out? I used to play that for hours!" Doom fits in the blank, Tomb Raider doesn't really :P

Parappa the Rappa shouldn't be on there either. It might have been a genre breaker for the whole 'hit buttons in time' thing, but its not a big genre. Something like Final Fantasy 7 should be on there. And probably a lot higher than most of the games on there. It brought Japanese style RPG gaming into the spotlight in the western world. Sure, there were others before it, but FF7 was a phenomenom world wide. People queued for hours, days even to get their copy.

But then again, thats all just my opinion. Is it? ;)

What does nostalgia have to do with being influential?

I'd have to agree with Tomb Raiders inclusion - it basically started the whole 3rd person adventure genre, which is still going pretty strong today.
It's been successfull enough to spawn god knows how many sequals, a couple of reasonably successful movies (more successful than most video game movies), and it is one of the few games where the principal character is really well known outside of gaming. How many people have never heard of Lara Croft?

And as far as Parappa the Rappa's 'hitting buttens in time with music' not being a big genre. Have you ever heard of Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution? Both massive games in that Genre.

One game that I'm surprised is missing from even the 'missing out' list is Resident Evil.

I agree with the OP - Dune 2 should be much higher. It started the whole RTS genre which is still going strong today, although arguably Command and Conquer was more influential. You don't necessarily have to start the genre to be the most influential game. (probably why Doom was included over wolfenstein)

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ryank

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#185391 20-Dec-2008 23:01

Wolfenstein 3D should be in the first list.

I'm surprised they don't mention Myst, people usually go on about how groundbreaking that was.

rygrass

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#186490 29-Dec-2008 11:48

Wow i should i read stuff twice,

Doom should be #1 or close.. Really it was the turn for FPS or eve Wolf 3D

Sites / paper's shouldn't do stuff like this its really fail

Dratsab

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#186492 29-Dec-2008 12:16

ryank: Wolfenstein 3D should be in the first list.

Agreed. I still have a play on it occasionally using DOSBox...

clevedon

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#186508 29-Dec-2008 14:10

Defender / Stargate was groundbreaking with the 5/6 button config, not many people could ever master or clock those games, they were huge earners for arcades and shops. It would have to be in my top 10.

Mozart

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#186677 30-Dec-2008 14:03

And what about Leisure Suit Larry? One of the first games to incorporate adventuring, humour, puzzles and cheese in a 3D game environment aimed squarely at a more "adult" audience. Could even be said to have inspired today's massively popular "Second Life" virtual environments, where people basically go to shmooze attractive women and get laid. Virtually.

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DrGr33n

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#186772 31-Dec-2008 00:31

clevedon: Defender / Stargate was groundbreaking with the 5/6 button config, not many people could ever master or clock those games, they were huge earners for arcades and shops. It would have to be in my top 10.

With you there mate..I spent a fair bit of lunch money on those two games.

Cheers ;-)

Only dead fish go with the flow...

paulchinnz

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#186788 31-Dec-2008 09:05

Still going strong after 10 years (sure most of it's driven by one country but still...), the gaming equivalent of chess: Starcraft anyone?