I see what you did there. nice job

Ok, the battery save was a technological advance that would have occured in another Nintendo game had Zelda not existed. It is more of a cartridge advance than anything else. PC games have "save files" for years. Just because you really like a game does not make it influential. The series is nowhere near as influential as Mario. It came well after Mario and other great 3d games...... So Nintendo influenced themselves? Z-targeting isn't really the advance you think it is, many FPS fans hate Metroid because of it. Do you think that the industry is any better financially or mainstream than it would have been if Zelda never existed? Nintendo's first 3 systems launched Mario before Zelda. Mario is more important. What he did was make a childish argument "Zelda is great and I really love it therefore it was instrumental for the industry. To hell with the fact that we are talking about the top 10 most important games across all systems and all time.!"

Well Said!

Cato... Being "good for the industry" or whatever isn't the only reason a game can be important. And yes, of course Mario is more important than Zelda. SMB should rank near the top of the list, and SM64 should rank above Ocarina as well. But Zelda is still hugely important. Maybe not top 10... But not far off... Of the choices... * Spacewar! (1962) I suppose this is deserving of its top 10 spot, for really being a breakthrough moment in commercial release of games... * Star Raiders (1979) Is this here for early demonstrations of "3D"? It doesn't make much sense as an inclusion to me... Certainly not over Pong!! * Zork (1980) I can't see a text adventure making the top 10. * Tetris (1985) Obvious top 10, probably top 5 inclusion, for its GB incarnation. * SimCity (1989) I could see this in the top 30-40... * Super Mario Bros. 3 (1990) Despite being the most popular standalone game of all time, I can't see this in the top 30 or 40... A game has to do more then sell a lot and build on its predecessors... * Civilization I/II (1991) I could also see this in the top 30-40... But they seem to be overranking certain PC games from genres not quite pervasive enough to rank in the top 10... * Doom (1993) I could see either Doom or Wolfenstein in the top 30... * Warcraft series (beginning 1994) WoW probably outranks Warcraft at this point... * Sensible World of Soccer (1994) This one really baffles me... Sports games would go 3D shortly after this, and there were iconic and important sports games, like Tecmo Bowl, WELL before it. How on earth does this belong in the top 50? I must be missing something...

Yup...I'm quite sure this list has been completely debunked.

No cat man, it wasn't a childish argument. Just because you don't like Zelda doesn't mean it's not important. Also, I never said it was as near influential as Mario, so don't assume things. That argument about another Nintendo game would have come up with it was childish. The point and fact is Zelda was the first console game to do it and from there other games followed. It doesn't matter that PC had it because no CONSOLE game had done that yet. Zelda is arguably a better transition from 2-d to 3-d than Mario was. The fact that Ocarina of Time is still considered one of the best games in history today should be influence enough. It's not only a fan favorite, it's a critic favorite which is hard to come by these days. Z-targeting may have not been the most important thing ever, but it was genious for camera control at the time. You also say FPS fans hate Metroid because of it. I have news for you, Metroid isn't considered a full fps game. It's more of an adventure game. Most of it has to do with exploring and figuring out how to open doors. Most fights have to do with scanning your enemy. Why do you think you have to stop before you shoot. It's not a full blown out fps. And please don't be offended that my "childish" argument is better than yours. It's obvious that you were thinking, "To hell with Zelda, I like Mario better especially since it sells better." And if you hadn't realized by now, I never said Zelda should have been on the list but not Mario. Besides that, I didn't know a game had to sell as well as Mario did to be influential.

Interesting list. Any list like this is always going to be controversial, and the list not being an abomination I can give the creators credit for. Of course, that doesn't mean that personally I wouldn't pick better choices, because I would. I'll replace Star Raiders, Zork, SMB3, WarCraft and Sensible World of Soccer (sorry Europeans!) with more important games like Pong, Super Mario Bros., Space Invaders, Pac-Man and Street Fighter II. I'd also replace Doom with Wolfenstein 3D, even though Doom is more famous, because of course Doom is merely the successor to that game.

I like Zelda, it just isn't all that influential. It is one of the greatest series of all time, however there isn't a sector of Zelda type games the way there is Doom, Warcraft, Mario, etc. Also no Zelda was pivotal for the industry. Until Twilight princess, Zelda was always launched in the peak period of the console cycle. The problem is that this save type was a convenience thing only. The game could have existed with a password system typical of other games of the era. Yeah, but Mario got there first. In fact Banjo Kazooie was a damn good 3-d game as well. As a matter of fact, the Zelda engine was a modified Mario 64 engine. Never said Metroid was an FPS. Just that many consider z-targeting to be "cheating" as it makes things too easy. Z-targeting would be important if it were broadly copied, but it just isn't. I never said I like Mario better, nor did I say that the fact that Mario sold better makes a difference. I called your agrument childish because of your lame sarcasm. This why you are childish, you argued with my post in a condesending sarcastic way.

How does this not imply Zelda was not as important because it didn't sell as well. The fact that Ocarina of Time was one of the best 3-d games is of huge importance, even if the series is not a blockbuster like Mario. Sure it was a modified Mario engine, but the fact that people are still comparing if games today are as good as Ocarina of Time shows how much influence it has. It's a timeless classic. And if you never said Metroid was a fps, why would you even bring up fps players not liking it. If it's not a fps, fps player's opinions on it don't matter. And if my sacarsm is so lame, why are you getting offended by it, or better yet why are you even responding to it.  Case closed.