10 most important video games of all time...

[Erik Aston]

catofellow said: stewacide said: No Zelda games?!? No title in the Zelda series is deserving. In terms of "importance", Zelda is probably the most overrated. No Zelda was pivotal for the success of the videogame industry, or even the success of Nintendo. Think of it, until just recently with Okami, no company has really imitated the Zelda series in a successful way. Great series, but it just isn't as influential as Mario, FF, Warcraft, Doom etc. I think Donkey Kong Country (though not worthy of top 10 status either) was more important to Nintendo than any individual Zelda game. Other Nintendo games that would come before Zelda are .... Pokemon - Top 20 potential - think of how it made the handheld platform mainstream SMB - Top 15 potential - should be ahead of SMB3, but you have to factor in the movie "Wizard" which makes things closer than they appear at first glance. I remember no game before it which had that level of mainstream hype. Donkey Kong - Top 5 potential - IMO the biggest omission from this list. If the game was a financial flop and Nintendo exited the arcade business who knows what would have happened.

I would put Ocarina in a top 15, and LoZ in a top 30. Ocarina was the most highly regarded game of that generation, and was influential in many many aspects, from its pacing and focus on storytelling, to its targeting system, and its "sandbox" theory of "let the player do whatever he thinks he should be able to do." LoZ was the bridge from RPGs to adventure games, becoming definitive of the adventure genre. The whole concept of guiding the player, yet letting them explore, merging Eastern and Western game theories, was quite important. Few games have tried to directly imitate Zelda, but to deny its influence is foolish. Donkey Kong... Not only did it establish Nintendo as a major industry force, and establish the career of Miyamoto, it was also the first graphical game to feature a fully fleshed out story, with an introduction and conclusion told in primative cut-scenes. Furthermore, the very concept of the platformer, with the gameplay mechanics being running and jumping, are rooted in Donkey Kong. And things like Mario's design, which worked WITH hardware limitations to create a highly defined and recognizable human figure with personality, did a lot to shape art design and game theory itself. Add that all together, and some would say the whole concept of "playing as the hero" is more rooted in Donkey Kong than any other game... Donkey Kong's exclusion is baffling and inexcusable. Pokemon Red/Blue should certainly be top 30, and SMB top 5. Pong should be the first game in... Space Invaders should be given credit for influence in arcades, and being the largest establishing force of the Atari 2600, and in turn, the entire home console market as we know it... FF7, SF2... Hell, even Gran Turismo might make more sense on that list than Sensible Soccer. It not only set a standard of design, it was massively popular, and an establishing force for Sony and for racing sims.