Runoff 2016, Game of the Year

[The_Liquid_Laser]

HoloDust said:

The_Liquid_Laser said:

Street Fighter 2 established the fighting game as a genre.  It wasn't the first fighting game, but it was the first fighting game that really mattered.  Fighting games as a genre exploded in popularity after Street Fighter 2.

Final Fantasy IV established the story based JPRG as a genre, although only in the west.  In Japan, they would have played DQ 3 & 4 first, but outside of Japan, most RPG fans at the time experienced Final Fantasy IV as the first JRPG with a heavy narrative.

EDIT: Come to think of it Eye of the Beholder may qualify too.  It was an early Real Time, First Person Dungeon Crawler.  Not sure if they did it first or one of the Might and Magic games though.

Hm, I don't know - I'd say that SF2 revitalized the genre - I grew up with Yie Are Kung Fu, The Way of the Exploding Fist, International Karate and similar games...SF2 was important in revitalizing and revolutionizing the genre, but I wouldn't say it established it.

Can't really comment on FFIV - JRPGs were already established genre by that time.

Eye of the Beholder is continuation of what Dungeon Master did 3 years before it. Actually, I remember Dungeon Master at the time was much more "oh wow" moment than Eye of Beholder in 1991, although being overall better game.

CIV was actually "my mind is blown" moment, especially if one has never been anywhere near boardgames, and not many were 4X to start with at that time.

It kind of depends on what you mean by "establish".  I consider Doom and Super Mario Bros to have established their respective genres even if they weren't the first FPS or 2D platformer.