The 10 Most Important Video Games

[robocelot]

Now this guy knows his games!

I would also include: Pacman, Bubble bobble, Robotron etc etc.

Super Mario on the N64 does deserve to be up there though... this game was simply amazing when it first came out.

For me the most important game ever would have to be Street fighter 2! ...it has influenced so many other games and still holds it own to this day. Perfection!

Heh, you know... I keep coming back to that list with new games. :-) Pac-man was originally on my list and I removed it to make space for Ultima. In terms of far reaching influence I think Mario 64 and Half Life are possibly the two most important modern era games. It was a tossup between Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat and I went for the latter mainly because of legacy of controversy, finger pointing and litigation MK has left us. I wouldn't be opposed to having both SFII and MK on the list though.

I think the hardest part of making up such a list (other than having to come up with only 10 games) is that you have to find a balance between those blockbuster games that changed the industry and spilled over into other media (like movies) and the lesser known titles that changed things behind the scenes. I specifically cited Activision's Hunter because it's one of those 'way before it's time' games that pretty much gave you the 3D free roaming jumping into vehicles experience a full decade before GTA III. It's pretty obscure and unknown today though. The king of all 3D free roaming games is Elite, which takes you back yet another full decade. So where do you draw the line?

I'm very tempted to add Metal Gear Solid and Snatcher to these lists, not that i'm a Kojima worshipper or anything, but I think these titles helped cement the games-as-cinema (and vice versa) revolution that we are currently in now -- where cutscenes are seamless with gameplay and multi layered stories with good character motiviation.

[Cap'n 1time]

Quake... Of course Unreal Tournament killed Quake... but Quake was a very important game.