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Forums - Gaming Discussion - The 20 Most Innovative Games Ever Made

megaman79 on 10 June 2009

Halo is there bcoz without it MS's contribution would be severely lacking.



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--OkeyDokey-- on 10 June 2009

I'd like to call it a crap list but I can't think of anything they left out. Except TLOZ. I think that was the first game to try and create a large seamless world.

Pokemon, Chrono Trigger and Metroid Prime were pretty innovative for their time as well.



Sontikka on 10 June 2009

No World of Goo?



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brute on 10 June 2009

^World of Goo is great, and different, but there are some games that deserve ti more(not all the ones on the list though).



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WereKitten on 10 June 2009

This list suffers of the same fundamental flaws many of them have:
- chronological bias, as in giving way too much merit to recent games (COD IV? Really?)
- popularity bias, as in giving credit to the popular games instead of the real innovators (Halo CE instead of Goldeneye? Doom instead of Ultima Underworld? Bioshock instead of System Shock?).

Where is Elite? Where is Zork? Where is Ultima Online? What about Populous?



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Plaupius on 10 June 2009

I agree with the posters, that list is ridiculous. It's not much about innovation and more about mainstreaming certain ideas copied from earlier games. They did get some games right but they missed some of the most influental and innovative games ever made. It's kinda sad since they could have picked a few of the best game designers out there, you know, those who have gotten lifetime achievement awards, and taken a look at their games to make the list.



Plaupius on 10 June 2009
WereKitten said:
This list suffers of the same fundamental flaws many of them have:
- chronological bias, as in giving way too much merit to recent games (COD IV? Really?)
- popularity bias, as in giving credit to the popular games instead of the real innovators (Halo CE instead of Goldeneye? Doom instead of Ultima Underworld?).

Where is Elite? Where is Zork? Where is Ultima Online? What about Populous?

Quite right. What makes it funny and sad at the same time is that in many cases they acknowledge that the listed game didn't really innovate (for example RE copying Alone in the Dark, Warcraft copying Dune II etc.) and they still listthe copycat asone of the most innovative games ever.

The games you ask about should most definitely be on the list, though I'm kind of on the fence between Populous and Civilization. They are not in the exact same genre, so maybe both could make the list? Heck, maybe we at VGC should compile our own list of the most innovative games that really defined a genre.



Garamond on 10 June 2009
The Ghost of RubangB said:
It's missing Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros., Tetris, Ocarina of Time (invented Z-targetting), Mario 64 (invented camera controls), ya know, like, innovations that have become industry standards.

Also, the list is a joke.

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved on a list of most innovative games? The game has "RETRO" in the title becauseThe game is 2-D. It follows Smash TV, Robotron, and Asteroids. I love all these games, but Geometry Wars is not innovative by any stretch of the imagination. It's a very solid tribute to a classic arcade genre. It's possible to really love a game without blindly hailing it as innovative when it clearly isn't. (cough cough FF7)

Not that I disgaree with the list being a joke, but Mario 64 is number ten on the list. Personally I'm overly biased for it and would put it higher simply because it more or less helped define what 3D platformer gaming really is. At least, I think it did.

The list is pretty bad, like day old sushi or the Los Angeles Clippers.



amp316 on 10 June 2009
misterd said:
amp316 said:

Doom, which was an upgrade to Wolfenstein by id is the most innovative game of all time?

You learn something new every day.


Didn't BattleZone do the whole first person perspective thing first (or nearly so)? All Wolfenstein did was delete the tank!


I suppose that you could say that.  I was just giving my reason why Doom wasn't the most innovative game.

I liked it when it came out but most innovative game ever?  C'mon.

 



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Samus Aran on 10 June 2009

Metroid prime is pretty innovative. Atleast, I don't know many first person adventures.