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Forums - Gaming Discussion - The 20 Most Innovative Games Ever Made

theRepublic on 10 June 2009

This list is for the most part, a failure.

One example being Halo. I just had that discussion with someone today. They called it innovative, I asked why, they gave me reasons, and for just about everything the game did, some other game did it first. The only thing truly innovative was the recharging shields.

The article seems to assume that trend setting equals innovative, which is not the case.



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megaman79 on 10 June 2009

My feelings on this list tells me core gamers f----ed it up. What a bunch of sad and pathetic journalists, no integrity.



“When we make some new announcement and if there is no positive initial reaction from the market, I try to think of it as a good sign because that can be interpreted as people reacting to something groundbreaking. ...if the employees were always minding themselves to do whatever the market is requiring at any moment, and if they were always focusing on something we can sell right now for the short term, it would be very limiting. We are trying to think outside the box.” - Satoru Iwata - This is why corporate multinationals will never truly understand, or risk doing, what Nintendo does.

misterd on 10 June 2009
tarheel91 said:
Halo is more innovative than Wii Sports and Super Mario 64. What?

Because it was the first FPS to be fun on teh consoles! Except Goldeneye 64.

 

And Perfect Dark.

 

And Duke Nukem 64.

 

And Doom 64.

 

But other than those...



misterd on 10 June 2009
theRepublic said:
This list is for the most part, a failure.

One example being Halo. I just had that discussion with someone today. They called it innovative, I asked why, they gave me reasons, and for just about everything the game did, some other game did it first. The only thing truly innovative was the recharging shields.

The article seems to assume that trend setting equals innovative, which is not the case.

Even then, the plethora of FPS titles that have fallen in Halo's wake pales in comparison to the saturation of 2D platforms with colorful mascots that chased Super Mario Bros for a decade.



megaman79 on 10 June 2009

@theRepublic, trend setting? Dude theyre selling games with this list. SF4,RE5,H3, thats what they are doing here. Its an advertisement.



“When we make some new announcement and if there is no positive initial reaction from the market, I try to think of it as a good sign because that can be interpreted as people reacting to something groundbreaking. ...if the employees were always minding themselves to do whatever the market is requiring at any moment, and if they were always focusing on something we can sell right now for the short term, it would be very limiting. We are trying to think outside the box.” - Satoru Iwata - This is why corporate multinationals will never truly understand, or risk doing, what Nintendo does.

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theRepublic on 10 June 2009

By the way, I remember being able to do anything you wanted in GTA 2, why is GTA 3 being praised for "innovating" that?



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burgerstein on 10 June 2009
theRepublic said:
By the way, I remember being able to do anything you wanted in GTA 2, why is GTA 3 being praised for "innovating" that?


GTA3 was more popular. That's pretty much the only reason.



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The Ghost of RubangB on 10 June 2009

It's missing Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros., Tetris, Ocarina of Time (invented Z-targetting), Mario 64 (invented camera controls), ya know, like, innovations that have become industry standards.

Also, the list is a joke.

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved on a list of most innovative games? The game has "RETRO" in the title becauseThe game is 2-D. It follows Smash TV, Robotron, and Asteroids. I love all these games, but Geometry Wars is not innovative by any stretch of the imagination. It's a very solid tribute to a classic arcade genre. It's possible to really love a game without blindly hailing it as innovative when it clearly isn't. (cough cough FF7)



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CAL4M1TY on 10 June 2009

I think innovation also has to take into consideration impact (i.e copy cats) as well.

In that regard, CoD4 deserves to be barely in this list, probably in the top 30 because it's "RPG" like customisation system has been ripped off and copy catted since and will be for a long time to come.

In that same train of thought, Geometry Wars, Bioshock, FF7 and SoTC don't deserve to be on the list.

The only thing that FF7 introduced was 3D to the FF series and Materia (and the system of equipping to weapons). SoTC only tugged at the heart strings and had atmosphere, both of which existed in gaming before this games release. Bioshock is the same (except I think the story twist was quite original).

Also, there's massive omissions of Ocarina of Time and Goldeneye (probably more deserving than Halo of it's spot).



twesterm on 10 June 2009

Not really a good list, a pretty shitty list actually.

It's like whoever wrote just got into gaming this gen, picked a few games they liked, and then found a few games with sequels so they just picked some of the earlier ones.

Also, why the fuck is FFVII on this list and Chrono Trigger isn't!?

Why It Was Innovative:

It's more than just big swords and spiky hair. Final Fantasy VII was a rare game that pushed each of its separate components - music, story, graphics, and character building - to soaring new heights. The story was a multi-disc novel that touched on serious concepts such as death and rebirth, while the graphics stunned players with an elegant combination of 3D action and steampunk-inspired cityscapes. Top all that off with an unforgettable cast of characters, including one of the most famous villains in video game history, and you've got a classic that touched an entire genre of gaming....and an entire generation of gamers. Furthermore, there's a fair argument that Final Fantasy VII's status as an early PlayStation One exclusive gave Sony the edge it needed to compete in and eventually dominate the video game industry.


Characters? You mean the small cast of characters with only three of them fleshed out?

One of the most famous villains? He may be famous but that doesn't mean he's any kind of a good villain. Instead of having a thick stalky sword he has a long skinny one. Woohoo.

Music? Not bad but then compare it to any epic RPG on the SNES and it just doesn't compare.

Story? You mean that confused garbled mess?

Character Building? What? You mean placing materia on their weapons? Yeah, that's definitely new concept fuckwits.

But OMG it's in 3D!!!!!!!

God this list is fail.

NOTE-- I won't even comment on the hilarity of Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved being on that list.  By their reasoning the first game, first cartridge game, first CD game, first DVD game, and first BluRay game should be on there.