IGN - Why Super Mario Bros. is the GREATEST AND MOST IMPORTANT GAME OF ALL TIME

[DivinePaladin]

pokoko said:

Wyrdness said:

You're arguing a point that's irrelevant to SMB's importance because when SMB launched gaming was dead for a second time this is why Pacman and SI aren't held as high up as SMB because the era the latter created is still running today, Pacman and Space Invaders were great games for their times but only inspired clones of themselves instead of inspiring new approaches. They're legendary games yes but the are aspects both technical and commercial that SMB did that only Pong can match, SMB inspired multiple genres, development approaches, games and so on that has built modern gaming to what it is today and the era is still going today, the hasn't been a crash since SMB. People like Carmack have come out and said how it inspired them to take a new approach, the fact that SMB can inspire Metroid, Zelda and Wolfenstein to name a few which themselves became templates for entire genres highlights importance.

Revenue doesn't indicate importance to the industry, Pacman and SI are iconic but what else did they inspire in the same regard and that's what it comes down to when looking at influence on the industry.

Gaming was not dead.  I have no idea what you're talking about there.  Arcades did not die and, quite honestly, the popularity of arcades in Japan is why the home console industry rose again and would have done so even without Nintendo.

Also, if you're saying that nothing that came later in the industry was inspired by Space Invaders or Pac-man ... well, there really isn't anything else to say to that, because that's ridiculous.

I don't think the home console industry would've bounced back in North America without Nintendo's strategy. No parent, period, was willing to buy another console after the crash. Without ROB and the toy approach we're talking at least five to ten years before consoles might resume their path. No other company even seemed to have the idea of using the toy approach, because every other game company was chiefly interested in games at the time. 

 

I can agree that if not Mario it could be Space Invaders as the most important game, but to say Pac-Man is to twist history. Pac-Man was popular as all hell but it was NOTHING compared to Mrs. Pac-Man. That's the game that kept the series relevant, and technically it was illegally made by Midway. Namco had no idea how to manage the franchise at the time, as all of the garbage sequels showed; that fact alone doesn't necessarily mean Pac-Man doesn't deserve to be considered but the lack of a clear branding approach hurt the lasting appeal of the franchise. Mrs. Pac-Man as a game had more of an effect on the industry both in terms of money and appeal - the first female protagonist helped make the entire industry marketable to women. But again, Mario has the distinct feature of being THE game that led to developed, well-thought out genres and unique approaches to development. Pitfall was the first platformer, but Mario was the Rome to Pitfall's Greece.