Historically significant titles
A list of landmark titles which significantly altered future games in their genre or the industry as a whole, forming a canon of the medium
101 Games
One of the first text adventures, and one of the first computer games in general, Oregon Trail even pre-dates Pong.
Originally just a flashy attraction to generate quarters, Pong became the first arcade game of all time, with its later home video releases also creating the console market. Its release is a reasonable date to mark the genesis of video games as a medium.
Although perhaps better known as Snake, it was first released as Blockade. Nokia would later propel it to mainstream ubiquity by including it in a line of their mobile phones.
The name speaks for itself- although simplistic, the release of Adventure on the Atari 2600 marked the beginning of the Adventure genre on home consoles. It also contained quite possibly the first easter egg in a video game, with the designer sneaking in a secret room crediting himself against Atari's corporate policy.
Battlezone was one of the first 3D games of all time, standing out in the arcades for its (at the time) cutting-edge graphics.
One of the most well-known games of the NES era, the original Super Mario Bros. propelled the Mario franchise to superstar status and ushered in a golden age of 2D platformers.
Originally marketed in the West as "the Russian mind game", Tetris is one of the few games that can be called perfect. Its genius gameplay premise of falling blocks is the pinnacle of "easy to play, difficult to master", propelling it to being ported to almost any system imaginable and becoming one of the highest-selling games of all time.
One half of the "Metroidvania" subgenre, it was also one of Nintendo's major flagship franchises before being mostly abandoned.
One half of the "Metroidvania" subgenre.
Although it innovates very little on its predecessor, Mega Man 2's wide success would become a massive influence on action-platformer games. Its specific brand of running and gunning gameplay can be found in the modern Run 'n' Gun genre, including games like Cuphead and Gunman Clive.
The smooth, detailed animation of the characters in Prince of Persia was unlike anything else on PC at the time, setting the bar for years to come.
Although it wasn't the first Mario platformer, even on the NES, it pushed the console's limitations and introduced new features like a world map and smooth two-dimensional scrolling.
A cornerstone of the Adventure game genre.
The game that solidified SEGA in the console market by bringing the SEGA Genesis to mainstream success, the first major competitor to Nintendo's NES and SNES, and catalyst to the original Console Wars. Its unique combination of 2D platforming and pinball physics also set the standard for the "momentum platformer" subgenre.
A seminal work in the survival horror genre, leading to the Resident Evil franchise.
Revolutionary in its ability to handle smooth multi-directional scrolling on PC to match that of the console games at the time, such as Mario 3. It was also the game that caused ID Software to form, which would alter the industry for decades to come.
Although the game itself would most likely have been forgotten to history otherwise, Night Trap's inclusion in the Congressional hearings that led to the creation of the ESRB in the U.S. has solidified it in gaming history.
At one point in time, the most installed piece of software on PC was DOOM, getting more installs than the newest release of Windows. Due in part to its original release as shareware, DOOM is one of the most played games of all time, and has been ported to almost every platform imaginable, including somehow running on things like calculators, potatoes, and a colony of stem cells. In addition to also birthing the speedrun community, it also pioneered the first-person genre and 3D games as a whole, forever altering the gaming landscape.
Although it remained a cult classic in much of the west for decades, Earthbound would later set off a wave of "quirky Earthbound-inspired indie RPGs" in the late 2010s, and its lasting influence can be felt in games like Undertale, Omori, and YIIK.
A classic of the original Playstation and seminal adventure game, Tomb Raider was also one of the first widely popular 3D games.
Few video games have had the raw influence of Half-Life. The debut title of industry giant Valve, it introduced their signature ultra-linear, story-focused design, which combined first-person shooting with puzzle elements. To say nothing of the massive presence its many offspring would have in their own right, Valve's novel strategy of publishing modifications to Half-Life directly spawned franchises that still exist today, including Team Fortress, Day of Defeat, and Counter-Strike.
A popular RTS game, StarCraft also made strides in competitive gaming and e-sports.
During a boom of games that simulated taking care of animals, NeoPets set itself apart from Pokémon and Tamagotchi by being completely in-browser. It hosted a wide array of minigames awarding fake currency, which would set the stage for the next generation of browser games, MMOs, and predatory business models.
One of the major "life simulator" games, Animal Crossing's influence can be seen in Stardew Valley and Harvest Moon.
Although it wasn't much more than a glorified tech demo for the Wii's motion controls, Wii Sports was the first introduction to motion-controlled games for many people. Its success justified Nintendo's new blue-ocean design strategy, and turned motion controls into a fad that the competing Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 would both try to piggyback off of.
One of the more popular Flash games. Its unique gameplay premise can also be seen in Getting Over It and Octodad.
The highest-selling video game of all time, Minecraft changed the gaming landscape with its near-universal appeal. It has had heavy influence on other sandbox games, like Terraria.
Of the wave of video games spewing forth onto mobile devices in the late 2000s and early 2010s, Angry Birds was one of the most lucrative ones. It was wildly popular with casual audiences and was also adapted into a feature film.
Demon's Souls paved the way for its sequels, such as Bloodborne and Dark Souls II, and has a genre named after it - the Soulslike.
A popular PC game that made its way to casual players.
A game that reached heights of popularity so high that more people know what "Skyrim" is than the franchise it came from, The Elder Scrolls. Re-released too many times to count, Skyrim pushed new boundaries in open-world games and brought fantasy RPGs into the modern age.
The most popular and influential game in the clicker genre, Cookie Clicker spawned a genre of copycats that replace the word "Cookie" with about any noun you can think of.
Although its tough-as-nails 2D platforming gameplay had been seen in the past in games like Super Meat Boy, Celeste also introduced a set of subtle, under-the-hood gameplay mechanics that became ubiquitous in contemporary 2D platformers almost immediately.
A popular arcade game which would lead to the "physics platformer" subgenre.
Although the "battle royale" gameplay loop existed beforehand, PUBG made it a major fad for several years, becoming one of the highest-selling games of all time and influencing others, such as Tetris 99 and Fortnite.
Its 2018 release put Among Us in the perfect place at the perfect time during the Covid quarantines of the early 2020s. Numerous games attempted to clone its gameplay premise, including a mode in Fortnite.
Beyond justifying RPGMaker as a viable engine, Yume Nikki also demonstrated that a serious, emotional story could be told through gameplay alone, influencing future RPGs such as the Lisa series.
The first release from Telltale Games to add their signature flair to the adventure game formula, which led to a revitalization of the genre before Telltale eventually went out of business.
Nintendo's first arcade hit, and the game that put both Donkey Kong and Mario (then called Jumpman) on the map.
