Top Most Influential Video Game

[TornadoCreator]

I've been looking around the internet and I can't actually find a definitive gamer response to this question. What are the most influential video games? I have my own opinions but I know I'm extremely baised on this (but then we all are, I'm just man enough to admit it). Here are some of the games I'd consider most influential. i was going to do a top 5 or even top 10 but I only really feel comfortable naming these three.

3. Final Fantasy IV
The turn based RPG may be stagnant at the moment, but RPG elements are one of the most common things people expect when it comes to games nowadays. Sure people will mention earlier games. People will mention Dragon Quest, Ultima or even the first Final Fantasy and they're right of course, but I think this game is more deserving of recognition because it did something few games could. It made storyline the most compelling part of the game. This was the early 90's where the most compelling storylines where "blue hedgehog stops crazy fat guy in hovercraft from torturing woodland creatures" and "italian plumber from new york saves the human princess of a race of mushroom people from a demonic turtle". Final Fantasy IV was the game that made the RPG craze possible. It was the game that opened the flood gates to others such as Secret Of Mana, Lufia 2 and the infamous Chrono Trigger on the SNES. This would spread further to the Gameboy with the Dragon Warrior and the world-shatteringly popular Pokemon games, breaking the genre into Europe which had been denied these great games up until now (yes fucking all of them). It wouldn't be long before the genre became a phenomenon, with games like Final Fantasy VII, Breath Of Fire 3, Golden Sun and Shin Megami Tensei showing what the genre could do. As the 90's came to a close the turn based elements began to fall away but the same elements of storytelling could be found in more active-battle style RPGs from Dragon Age: Origins to Mass Effect. The idea of story driven questing became a gaming trope and in the early 2000s it brought about World Of Warcraft which, while it took much of it's inspiration elsewhere, clearly had elements of the standard JRPG formula and has spawned countless MMO's in an attempt to copy it. The most recent generation sees games like Lost Odyssey, The Last Story and Xenoblade Chronicles bringing the JRPG formula back again but in my opinion, any game that dares to weave a narrative, from Metal Gear Solid 4 to Half-Life 2 owes something to Final Fantast IV, before this game, "save the princess" was the storyline to more than 75% of the games out there, and the rest where usually "blow this up because... sorry we couldn't be arsed to come up with a reason".

2. Alone In The Dark
Yeah, trust me to pick a 3DO game. But think about this, the entire survival horror genre is built from this game. It's pretty poor by todays standards, but it's the grand-father of the modern game. Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Dead Space, Fatal Frame and Eternal Darkness are examples of some of the games to come from this genre, but it's more far reaching than that. Survival Horror has moved it's way into other genres. The most played genre of today, the FPS would be a boring list of military shooters if it where not for horror elements perfected in the 5th generation due to this game. Games like FEAR, STALKER and Fallout 3 took horror elements first introduced in Resident Evil, which was directly influenced by Alone In The Dark. Often considered the best FPS game ever, Half-Life 2 uses horror as a driving force for the story which have a clear suspense element similar to that of Resident Evil. If we continue to follow the path Resident Evil took we see a resurgence of the light-gun game (or rail-shooter) which Dead Space followed suit with in modern times. Zombies became a staple enemy because of Resident Evil, with games like House Of The Dead sharing a similar design to Resident Evil and propelling the arcade forward a few years. Hell Resident Evil 4 even started the over-the-sholder camera which would later be used by Dead Space and others, but more importantly, would allow for a 3rd Person Shooter outbreak directly influencing games like Gears Of War and Vanquish. The reaches of Resident Evil are far and wide as the Resident Evil franchise spawned a spin off which later became it's own series, few people are even aware that it started out as a Resident Evil spin off... Devil May Cry. This game set the framework for other games such as Shinobi and Ninja Gaiden with the hard-as-nails 3D hack-n-slash, but also, as Devil May Cry was the direct influence to God Of War, the biggest 3rd person action influence in modern gaming, it directly influenced pretty much the entire genre. With the far reaches of Resident Evil one would wonder why I don't site that game as most influencial, but that would ignore the more subtle horror games. Amnesia: Dark Decent, Silent Hill 4 and many more took their visual cues and gameplay styles from Alone In The Dark. Resident Evil was patient 1, and infected the most people, but Alone In The Dark was patient 0 and it's only fair to say, without Alone In The Dark almost every modern game you play would not exist.

1. Super Mario Bros.
OK, I'll admit it. I may be a SEGA fan but it was Mario that popularised the platformer and perfected multiscreen gameplay in 1985. Not the best example, hell I'd even say it's bland by todays standards. I still prefer Alex Kidd in Miracle World and Kid Chameleon but if I'm honest neither would be here if it wasn't for Mario and Super Mario Bros. 3 is still one of my favourite games of all time. But even then, it's not just what I enjoy. Without Mario, the NES wouldn't have sold so well, Nintendo wouldn't have revitilised console gaming in USA and we'd probably not have consoles now, we'd just be dominated by PC gaming which was considerably more popular in Europe. Often sited as the savour of video games, I think that's a bit strong, but it's certainly one of the most influential games ever. Without Mario there wouldn't have been a Sonic, Crash Bandicoot, Jak & Daxter or pretty much any other platformer. The 3D craze would have focused on shooters instead of platforming and even the likes of Tomb Raider or Prince of Persia wouldn't exist... and let's face it without Mario, the NES wouldn't have sold nearly as well and video gaming would be just another niché hobby like Comic Books, Extreme Sports and Animé... all three of these where bigger than video games in 1985, look at them now. To Super Mario Bros. we owe a lot.

Well those are my three picks. I'm sure there are loads more people could name, so go ahead, I'd love to see what people think are the most influential games ever. Remember though, we're not talking best, we're talking influential.

[emwearz]

DOOM
Kings Quest
PONG

[TornadoCreator]

DOOM
Kings Quest
PONG

I was kinda hoping for more involvement than simply a list... also Pong seriously. I mean sure, it was an early game but why not just say Spacewar and quit entirely. As for DOOM, that you need to justify. Wolfenstein 3D came first and was practically the same game, only one had alien-moster-things and the other one had the enemies from Doom in it. But seriously, other than alien-demons vs. nazi's how is Doom any more influensial than Wolfenstein 3D, after all, there are more nazi's in modern FPS games than there are alien-demons.

[deathsled]

2. Alone In The Dark
Yeah, trust me to pick a 3DO game.

you didn't.

It's a PC game that was ported to 3DO two years later lol

[TornadoCreator]

2. Alone In The Dark
Yeah, trust me to pick a 3DO game.

you didn't.

It's a PC game that was ported to 3DO two years later lol

True, but I like to give the 3DO some extra love where I can, it doesn't half get a rough deal from the Sega Saturn, Playstation and Nintendo 64 and for the most part it didn't deserve it. Sure it had the weakest library of games but considered on its own, it had a fantastic port of Street Fighter 2, Samurai Shodown, Road Rash, Lemmings, Gex, Star Fighter, Total Eclipse, Theme Park, Incredible Machine, Puzzle Bobble and a couple more but I don't want to go on too long... sure it wasn't the best console, but dammit I like it.

[emwearz]

DOOM
Kings Quest
PONG

I was kinda hoping for more involvement than simply a list... also Pong seriously. I mean sure, it was an early game but why not just say Spacewar and quit entirely. As for DOOM, that you need to justify. Wolfenstein 3D came first and was practically the same game, only one had alien-moster-things and the other one had the enemies from Doom in it. But seriously, other than alien-demons vs. nazi's how is Doom any more influensial than Wolfenstein 3D, after all, there are more nazi's in modern FPS games than there are alien-demons.

We are talking about influence are we not? I also left SMB out as you mentioned it all ready. While Alone In The Dark and FFIV were both influential games, RE and FFVII made a bigger impact and would go on to have far more influence in the long run.

PONG
Pong was pretty much the first mainstream arcade unit as well as the first commercially successful home video game. It put Video games on the map, I dont see how you can have a bigger influence than png.

Wolfenstein
While Wolfenstein came first, it did not have the same impact as DOOM, Wolf3D may have showed the world FPS (I know there were games before it) but DOOM was the first FPS to take the world by storm. Sure now we have many big FPS releases a year, they are normally the biggest sellers of the year. DOOM was the first of these. Think of how many games mimicked DOOM back in the day, DOOM Clone was the key phrase used for almost every FPS released after it.

King Quest
Kings Quest not only created a genre it recreated story telling in video games, pretty much every adventure game after it took what it did and built on it piece by piece.

[Erik_Twice]

any game that dares to weave a narrative, from Metal Gear Solid 4 to Half-Life 2 owes something to Final Fantast IV, before this game, "save the princess" was the storyline to more than 75% of the games out there, and the rest where usually "blow this up because... sorry we couldn't be arsed to come up with a reason".

I think you are really exaggerating. There are dozens of games with a far better focus on or simply better storylines that were released before Final Fantasy IV.

I also wouldn't credit any game with something as broad as bringing narrative into the medium, it's a too natural step so to claim Half Life has a story because FF did. It would be silly to claim that every game owes their music to Rally X because it was the first game with it!


Also note that while Alone in the Dark was very influential, Resident Evil main inspiration comes form an earlier Capcom NES game. It was supposed to be a remake of it, IIRC.

also Pong seriously. I mean sure, it was an early game but why not just say Spacewar and quit entirely.

Pong is far more influential than any other early videogames. Breakout is a direct evolution of it, which may seem an evolutionary dead end until you realize that it was the father of Space Invaders. And hence the shooting genre was born.

It's also the first really succesful game. It sold thousands, it had clones, it made Atari the king it was. Pong meant videogames weren't an experiment anymore.

Wolfenstein 3D came first and was practically the same game, only one had alien-moster-things and the other one had the enemies from Doom in it. [...] how is Doom any more influensial than Wolfenstein 3D, after all, there are more nazi's in modern FPS games than there are alien-demons.

Wolfestein is mostly a first person Wizard of Wor. There's a progression, sure, but it's not radically different from Maze Wars or any more fanciful than the previous FPS made by Id.

On the other hand, Doom had everything except aiming up and down, which isn't as relevant when you remember that most people still played Quake without a mouse. It introduced strafing, which is half of the foundation of the genre and something that Wolfestein lacked.

It's level, monster and weapon design are the root of everything included in modern FPS. I understand Quake as the final refinements to the Doom formula, adding the thrid dimension, which isn't as key as strafing but still quite important.

Doom's theme was also highly influential. The Space Marine became a cliché that still persists to this day. What's Halo but an evolution of Bungie's previous games, which were nothing but Mac's answers to Doom?

And the player inmersion is amazing. It may seem silly but "it doesn't have a name, becuase he is supposed to be YOU!" is more influential than it looks at first glance.

The music that alternates between hot-blooded metal and ambient soundscapes, the lighting, the maze-like level design that was surprisingly easy to navigate thanks to strategically placed big rooms...It all looks simple but it had to be developed conciously, like smears in animation.

It also launched LAN parties, shareware publishing and modding. With more copies around than Windows 95 it was everywhere and pioneered cultures we take for granted now.


I think that we can discuss influential videogames but ranking them or otherwise claiming "this one was more influential" is an exercise in futility that can only end up in subjective opinions being thrown like knives.

[TornadoCreator]

any game that dares to weave a narrative, from Metal Gear Solid 4 to Half-Life 2 owes something to Final Fantast IV, before this game, "save the princess" was the storyline to more than 75% of the games out there, and the rest where usually "blow this up because... sorry we couldn't be arsed to come up with a reason".

I think you are really exaggerating. There are dozens of games with a far better focus on or simply better storylines that were released before Final Fantasy IV.

I also wouldn't credit any game with something as broad as bringing narrative into the medium, it's a too natural step so to claim Half Life has a story because FF did. It would be silly to claim that every game owes their music to Rally X because it was the first game with it!

I'm not so sure. Final Fantasy IV was the first game with a North American and Japanese release to have such an influence as to open up an entire genre based on approaching gaming differently. Honestly, I'm basing it largely off second hand information as in Europe we didn't have the influence of FFIV but with games like Secret Of Mana and Chrono Trigger doing so well in USA and often being sited as the greatest games on the system I felt it was unfair to put Final Fantasy VII down as being the main influence here as, while it probably was the game that did it for Europe, FFIV did it for North America and secured the business model for the first time. FFIV marked a point where Japanese RPGs where regularly considered for North American release and other games where created solely to capitalise on the new trend. Games like Pokemon, one of the best selling games ever, wouldn't exist if FFIV hadn't paved the way for it 5 years earlier.

I don't mean to say games couldn't have a storyline at all before FFIV, but a character driven storyline following a group of people saving "the world" or something of equivalent importance for that setting, that was new, and whether it's Pokemon, Golden Sun or Mass Effect, I think that type of storytelling is very dominant in gaming. Even Half-Life is about someone trying to "save the world" in a manner of speaking. Video game storylines don't seem to have shifted very far from the FFIV model, and that's why I claim it's got such a strong influence.

Also note that while Alone in the Dark was very influential, Resident Evil main inspiration comes form an earlier Capcom NES game. It was supposed to be a remake of it, IIRC.

I wasn't aware of that... interesting. I'd still claim Alone in the Dark is an extremely obvious inspiration for Resident Evil though.

also Pong seriously. I mean sure, it was an early game but why not just say Spacewar and quit entirely.

Pong is far more influential than any other early videogames. Breakout is a direct evolution of it, which may seem an evolutionary dead end until you realize that it was the father of Space Invaders. And hence the shooting genre was born.

It's also the first really succesful game. It sold thousands, it had clones, it made Atari the king it was. Pong meant videogames weren't an experiment anymore.

True, I can see the logic there... the idea that Pong is effectively the grandfather of the shmup is interesting and it definitely adds to the claim that Pong is extremely influential. As for the claim that Pong made video games successful, yes true, but come 1984 everything Atari built up was dying. I'd say Pong's legacy ended when the NES took over simply because the NES doesn't seem to be inspired by the Atari games. Many NES games lack a high score and many are based on anything but sports (Pong being basically Tennis).

Wolfenstein 3D came first and was practically the same game, only one had alien-moster-things and the other one had the enemies from Doom in it. [...] how is Doom any more influensial than Wolfenstein 3D, after all, there are more nazi's in modern FPS games than there are alien-demons.

Wolfestein is mostly a first person Wizard of Wor. There's a progression, sure, but it's not radically different from Maze Wars or any more fanciful than the previous FPS made by Id.

On the other hand, Doom had everything except aiming up and down, which isn't as relevant when you remember that most people still played Quake without a mouse. It introduced strafing, which is half of the foundation of the genre and something that Wolfestein lacked.

It's level, monster and weapon design are the root of everything included in modern FPS. I understand Quake as the final refinements to the Doom formula, adding the thrid dimension, which isn't as key as strafing but still quite important.

Doom's theme was also highly influential. The Space Marine became a cliché that still persists to this day. What's Halo but an evolution of Bungie's previous games, which were nothing but Mac's answers to Doom?

And the player inmersion is amazing. It may seem silly but "it doesn't have a name, becuase he is supposed to be YOU!" is more influential than it looks at first glance.

The music that alternates between hot-blooded metal and ambient soundscapes, the lighting, the maze-like level design that was surprisingly easy to navigate thanks to strategically placed big rooms...It all looks simple but it had to be developed conciously, like smears in animation.

It also launched LAN parties, shareware publishing and modding. With more copies around than Windows 95 it was everywhere and pioneered cultures we take for granted now.

Wow... OK, you make a good case for Doom. I'll have to agree with you on that one then.

I think that we can discuss influential videogames but ranking them or otherwise claiming "this one was more influential" is an exercise in futility that can only end up in subjective opinions being thrown like knives.

I wasn't really suggesting we rank the games as such, after all it's really hard to truly quantify "influence", I just thought it's make for an interesting chat and I wanted to share my opinions on what I think would make the list of "most influensial" games, but like I say, I could only really pinpoint 3 games where I feel they are the defining influence of a genre or style, there's loads more to consider... Grand Theft Auto 3 for example is probably the most influential example of a sandbox game I can think of and I'd probably site Sim City as the most influential game, even the start of the strategy builder games for PC but I'm not entirely confident on those claims.

[NintendoLegend]

My top list list.

[Gnashvar]

What about PacMan?