Since I enjoy sales so much I have to disagree with your choices with Super Mario 64 and Halo.


Super Mario Bros.: Started modern video games pretty much after the big crash.

Sonic: Started console wars and lead to competition, which of course brought more good things to the industry.

FFVII: Yet another successful competitor joins due to this one game. PS1 had a very slow start until this game, and then it ends up dominating the generation, spawning many more successful Sony consoles.

GTA3: Similar to FFVII, really hardcore driver of hardware that spawned one of the most successful franchises in gaming. Heck this game came out right before Gamecube and Xbox even launched and managed to become the best selling game on 2001 and 2nd best selling game of 2002! Imagine if GTA didn't launch? With GTA and a pricecut the PS2 was even competitive with the GBA. But the handheld generations are a little bit different.

Cod4MW: I never played this game but apparently it was a big deal and started the FPS culture craze. Helped PS3 and 360 to become competitors with the Wii, and it's sequels are still helping PS4 and XB1 today.

8th gen: no idea yet, might say an indie because of the success of indies but not going to say anything yet.

3rd Gen - Super Mario Bros (1) or Super Mario Bros. 3, both insanely large impact on the gaming world. (honorable mention: Legend of Zelda)

4th Gen- Super Mario World or Donkey Kong Country- both best selling games of that generation and were revolutionary for the time and spurred a lot of copy-cats. SMW in particular was somewhat revolutionary with its mix of platforming and overworld map selector

5th Gen - this is a tough one. Torn between Ocarina of Time and Final Fantasy Vii. Both were hugely significant for the adventure and RPG genres. (Honorable mention: 007 Goldeneye as it popularized the FPS genre which would become debatably the biggest genre in video games, sorry but the likes of Doom and Wolfenstein at that point had not been massively popular)

6th Gen- Metroid Prime or Halo. I consider them the pinnacle of that generation (honorable mention: SHadow of the Colossus) 

7th Gen- maybe the Last of Us? just in terms of acclaim and significant use of newer technology to really immerse the user in a story and gaming experience

5th gen Super Mario 64, Final fantasy
6th gen Halo, God of War, GTA
7th gen COD MW 2, GTA 5, RDR, Wii sports, Heavy Rain

8th gen The Witcher 3, Destiny

these are in my opinion the most influential games of their gen

The Witcher 3 maybe, besides the division and destiny are bringing fps MMO on consoles to light

You claim you enjoy sales so much but if this site is to be believed, SM64 sold more than FF7. 11.89 million versus 9.72 million, respectively.

What would you make of this?

As I said FFVII basically caused the PS1 to outsell the N64. SM64 might have helped N64 greatly, but FFVII helped more. It was a turning point in the sales competition so to speak.

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=7679072

If TLDR, should read the 4th graph onwards.

selling can mean anything, i meant selling in revenue not units

Good list and I would mostly agree, with one difference. Change Halo to GTA 3. The formula GTA 3 managed to create is still copied and keeps up the series, growing by every numbered entry. During the 6th generation there where so many GTA copies, that it is mesmerizing, and that trend still goes on.

Halo was not only dethroned in 6 years time, the series is also dwindling in popularity and it quickly became the one which copies from other shooters.

2nd gen- Tetris: It didn't make it big until it released on the Game Boy, but the fact this title is played across so many generations is telling

3rd gen- Super Mario Bros: This game along with the NES helped save the industry

4th gen- Zelda: A Link to the Past: A lot to choose from this gen but this stands out for the large world and intuitive controls. On PC, Elder Scrolls Arena introduced Day/Night cycles in a massive open world that set a template for many games to come.

5th gen- Too many to choose from in the 2D-to-3D transition:

Final Fantasy VII introduced jRPGs to Europe
Metal Gear Solid influenced narrative driven gameplay
Goldeneye showed FPS' could work on consoles
Half-Life showed a different method for narrative driven gameplay and raised standards in AI
Resident Evil popularized survival horror
Gran Turismo set a standard for realistic racing games
Mario 64 made an impressive transition from 2D to 3D and set standards for 3D controls

6th gen- GTA III: Set a standard formula for 3D open world games that many have emulated and continue to do so

Honorable mentions to Unreal Tournament for being the first game marketed as an online MP shooter, Deus Ex for merging different genres into an influential narrative based on player choice and Everquest for showing MMOs could work.

7th gen- Call of Duty 4: Revolutionized online FPS'

Honorable mention to Uncharted 2 which set standards in TPS/adventure games

8th gen- So far Witcher 3 for setting standards in open world narrative driven games.

So my game the generations. Hmmm

Super Mario Bros. 3 - The best vlsuals and level design of that gen

Zelda 3 - A link To The Past - The most engrossing adventure game of that gen

Zelda OOT - Not just the best game that gen, but best of all time.

Halo 2 - Not only the best technical achievement of that gen, But an amazing multiplayer console shooter.

Halo 4 - Quite simply the best visuals of the gen and fantastic scifi storytelling

So far Halo 5 - Amazing technical achievement, Great story twist and the best multiplayer shooter Ive ever played.