What are some games that can definitively be said to have invented certain genres?

Off the top of my mind:

Grand Theft Auto III - Open World Sandbox Crime Genre

Super Smash Bros. - Platform Fighters

Demon Souls - Soulsebournes and Soulslikes?

Any others that you can think of?

Driver came before GTA

Outfoxies came before Smash

King's Field came before Demon Souls 

 Depending on your view either SEGA's Power Drift or Crashing Race in 1976.

Crashing Race also introduced car combat.

Sorry Nintendo fans it's not Mario Kart.

Herzog Zwei 1989, started the RTS genre



Populous 1989, started the God game genre



Eastern Front (1941) 1981, first turn based strategy game



Maze War 1973 first fps game (multiplayer as well)



Elite 1984 First sandbox game



Neverwinter Nights, 1991, first graphical MMORPG

GTA and driver play very differently. and GTA 1 was out before driver.

Police Quest One (1987) had 'open world' driving. You were driving a police car though



Found an evolution of GTA like games, back to 1983

Underground Exploration 1982 I guess it the first JRPG as in RPG developed in Japan. It used text for commands tho most if not all JRPGs in the early 80s were considered ARPGs. The bump system was popular. Famously games like Hydlide and Ys were popular at the time.


Ultima 1981 is one of the earliest WRPGs in video game form and was turn based. Of course, It's heavily taken from DnD.

Here is my take on what game invented a genre.  It isn't the earliest game of that style.  Instead it is the first popular game of that style.  Why?  Because if the game isn't popular enough, then we don't even consider it a new genre.  But if it is popular, then it inspires a bunch of imitators.  For example, FPS games in the 90's were actually called "Doom clones".  Doom is actually the game that created the FPS genre.  It doesn't matter that Wolfenstein 3D came first.  No one would be using FPS or "Doom clone" to name this genre if Wolfenstein 3D was the only example.  And Katamari Damacy is a unique style of game, but no one has come along to call it a "sticky roller genre" or "growing collector genre", because the game hasn't inspired enough imitators.  On the other hand Donkey Kong (1981) should be considered the first platformer.  It doesn't matter that Space Panic came first.  No one liked Space Panic (and it didn't even have a jump button), while Donkey Kong was one of the most popular arcade games and it definitely inspired a lot of other platformers that came after it.

So, the first game that is popular enough to inspire enough imitators to call it a genre, that is the game that I'd say invented the genre.  Here are a few examples:

Pong clones - Pong
Shmup - Space Invaders
Maze Game - Pac-Man
2D Platformer - Donkey Kong
First Person RPG - Wizardry
Top Down RPG - Ultima
Adventure Game - Colossal Cave Adventure
Edutainment - Oregon Trail
Action Adventure - Adventure
Light Gun - Duck Hunt
Action RPG - The Legend of Zelda
JRPG - Dragon Quest
Fighting Game - Street Fighter II
Metroidvania - Metroid
FPS - Doom
Roguelike - Rogue
Racing - Rally X
3D Racing - Pole Position

Flimsy excuse and long winded way to say you don't know to name popular games you know.

The first in a genre is the first in a genre. Future games may become more popular but they learn from what came before.