What is the most important game of each generation?

[Edward1]

Every generation has a defining game.  Here's my list of them. What do you think they are?  I'm starting in the 8 bit NES era, because I was born in 1986.  I'm not very knowledgeable about games before then.  This is for games that defined the generation, not the best games. Infact, there are a couple of games on this list I don't like that much.


8 - bit defining game -  Super Mario Bros  - This one is kind of a gimme. I think everyone would agree this is this generation's defining game. This isn't the first mario game, or even the first game for the NES.  However, this game made Nintendo a power house, made Mario a house hold name, and stopped the video game crash.  Not bad for 1 game.

8bit runner up - Super Mario bros 3  - Another mario game as the runner up.  This shows Nintendo's dominance of this era.




16 bit defining game - Sonic the Hedgehog - This era is much tougher to think of a defining game then the NES era.  However, the 16 bit era was an era of chaos and rivalry.  Therefore, I chose the Sonic the Hedgehog as the spark for the rivalry.  It came out 2 years into the Genesis's lifespan, but was the first game to threaten Nintendo. This game made 16 bit war an even battle, and showed that Nintendo was no longer the unbeatable giant.


16bit runner up - Mortal Kombat -  Some people might think Street Fighter 2 is more important.  However, Mortal Kombat has much importance as well. It was censored on the SNES but not as much on the Genesis furthering the console war.  Also, Senator Joesph Lieberman got ahold of the game furthering its importance.

32-64 bit defining game - Final Fantasy VII -  This was one of the games that established the PS1 as a powerhouse.  It was also a huge blow to Nintendo, as this game was originally supposed to be on N64.  Regardless of if this game is better or worse than the SNES final fantasy games (I don't really care for that debate), this was the game that established RPGs in the west and also established the importance of CDs.   The PS1 was flooded with FMV heavy JRPGs after this game was successful. 


32-64 bit runner up  - Half Life.  The late 90s was the best time ever for PC games.  No better game showed the quality of online and modability that the PC offers. It would be years before consoles had these abilities, but Half Life thrived because of it.



PS2 - Xbox - GC - DC era defining game  - Grand Theft Auto III - This is almost as much of a gimmie as Super Mario Bros is for the 8 bit era.  This game made the PS2, as it would be 2 years until the xbox would get a port.  This game was insanely popular and controversial.  Nearly every game franchise from Jak and Daxter to the Simpsons copied this game in this era as well.  During this era, almost every game wanted to be grand theft auto III.


PS2 - Xbox - GC - DC era  -  Halo  -  This game made Microsoft a worthy foe to Playstation. It also established a huge new successful franchise.  However, Sony still won this generation by a wide margin, and thats why the master chief is only runner up.


360,ps3,wii era defining game -  Wii Sports -  This is now the best selling game of all time for better or worse.  However, this game is responsible for finding a new audience for games, and reviving Nintendo.  It also launched the trend of casual games, which have no made their ways to phones in games like Angry Birds.  Whether you like Wii Sports or not, few games had the impact it had.

360, PS3, Wii era Runner up -  Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare -   This game changed the first person shooter to focus on set pieces and high production values. Every first person shooter, and even games outside its genre, duplicated this game.  This game made Call of Duty a huge franchise.  It looks like Call of Duty's popularity may be dying off somewhat in this generation, so that makes it so it defines last generation even more.

[Sut1]

Pretty much agree with your list there, I would add that Call of Duty also made online multiplayer more popular on consoles as it was pretty PC - centric prior to that.

Regarding pre- NES

Space Invaders - The game that escalated gaming above crude simulations of 'real life' games. Now you were fighting aliens from space and the fate of the world depended on you. Sounds generic now but this fantasy setting and taking a player to another world is what ignited gaming.

Pong - It may not have been the first, but it was the first good and popular game which launched the industry without Pong there would probably be no video game market.

[N64Dude1]

I'd replace Final Fantasy VII with Super Mario 64 or Tomb Raider for being practically the first lush 3D games to really hit the mainstream. I might even bump up Tomb Raider over 64 just because of the big icon Lara was. She was part of the big push to turn video games into something a bit more adult, even that wasn't the creators intent.

Otherwise I'm in agreement for the most part 

[darkrage61]

I'd vote for Mass Effect for last gen, as that was the first game to really make your decisions matter in regards to how the sequels play out.

[Duncan1]

8 bit - Super Mario Bros (Runner up: Super Mario Bros 3)

16 bit - Street Fighter II (Runner up: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 or Super Metroid)

32 bit - Grand Theft Auto III (Runner up: Tomb Raider)

64 bit - Super Mario 64 (Runner up: Goldeneye)

128 bit - Resident Evil 4 (Runner up: Shenmue or Silent Hill 2)

Playstation 3/Xbox 360/Wii - The Last Of Us (Runner up: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare)

Super Mario Bros probably helped save the industry and was a very well made game, which holds up even by today's standards. Super Mario Bros 3 probably perfected it and on a wide stream level.

Street Fighter II was a phenomenon at that time and the discovery of a combo system by the designers, which wasn't immediately intended, changed fighting games and the industry as we know it. Sonic helped further change perceptions and delivered fast gameplay. Super Metroid would create its own genre and impact Castlevania.

Grand Theft Auto III for the open world sandbox that changed everything. Tomb Raider was another phenomenon and would become a Sony mascot, with perceptions being changed in the public about gaming for adults. Lara even spilled over into mainstream media, not seen since Mario and Sonic. I still remember the Lucozade advert. Metal Gear deserves an honourable mention as it expanded in 3D the stealth genre (which nearly every game then hoped to copy, but I'd argue that genre has had less longevity than the open world sandbox of Grand Theft Auto III).

Super Mario 64 changed everything for 3D games and Goldeneye showed a FPS game could be brought successfully to a home console, with its multiplayer inspiring other games.

Resident Evil 4 changed everything and impacted other games (from a camera perspective mainly). I'd argue Shenmue was equally as important for open world and the creation of QTEs, which RE4 used).

The Last Of Us for the possibilities it showed for games as a serious narrative driven medium/art. Call of Duty for its huge impact, but I'm a bit biased as I've never played it so it could have come first if I had.

[TheLastNightmare1]

1st Generation: Pong. It's gaming at it's most skeletal. Two paddles. One ball. No AI. Too primitive to entertain most audiences now even as a free download, it was the Wii-Sports of it's age, breaking out into the mainstream, and inspiring endless consoles dedicated to a single game. For gamers who didn't even know what gaming was, this was the first sign that a new entertainment option had been born...

Runner Up: Colossal Cave Adventure. With just a few lines of text for a graphics engine, it invited those able to access university computers to collaborate in the creative process. Inspiring everything from Zork to Atari's Adventure, and evolving into the visual novel and LucasArts style adventures that continue to this day. The Walking Dead proves this genre is still going strong...

2nd Generation: Space Invaders. The first cover based shooter. The first time one enemy at the end of the stage would be more dangerous than all of the rest. Taito's tense hit was the reason you needed to own an Atari 2600. Without Atari's tragedy, what would the market look like today?

Runner-up: (Tie) Pac-Man and Rogue. Each provided a maze. Each provided treasure to collect. One, a neon bright cartoon, was the first game to break out into mass culture, the other, cruel and unforgiving, inspired a hardcore grind that would take gamers further and further away from their friends and family.

[Cream1471]

8-bit: Super Mario Bros. - speaks for itself.
The Legend of Zelda - the first really big game to do the open-world exploration thing. It was kinda unheard of before.

16-bit: Street Fighter 2 - Enter the fighting game.
Super Mario Kart - Oh yes.

Gen 5: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - How has this not been mentioned? Every 3D action-adventure game stands on the shoulders of this one.
Final Fantasy VII - not my kind of game, but it really popularised the RPG in the West

Gen 6: Halo - While sandbox games were the big deal at the time, it's Halo in the FPS category that in my opinion had the longer lasting effect on the industry. So many shooters now. All of them want to be this one.
Grand Theft Auto III - I wanted to choose the sequel Vice City as it is a superior game in my opinion, but couldn't quite justify it. Inspired so many clones, but none of them matched up to GTA.

Gen 7: Wii Sports - Won the generation almost single-handedly for Wii. Popularised motion controls. Lots hate it. I love it.
CoD 4 MW: Builds on Halo. Popularised online in a massive way. Lots love it. I hate it - but with a begrudging respect.

Handheld honourable mentions (don't fit into generations the same way, so a separate list required):
Tetris - Of course
Pokémon Red/Blue - The Pokémon series is so massive it justifies its own inclusion on the list
New Super Mario Bros. - sparked the revival of the 2D platformer
Brain Age - sold DS's in mass to the elderly

And The Sims very much deserves a mention as well

[LoganRuckman1]

1st Gen- Pong
Runner Up- Space Invaders

2nd Gen- Pac-Man
Runner Up- Donkey Kong

3rd Gen- Super Mario Bros.
Runner Up- Tetris

4th Gen- Sonic The Hedgehog
Runner Up- Donkey Kong Country

5th Gen- Super Mario 64
Runner Up- Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow

6th Gen- Halo: Combat Evolved
Runner Up- Grand Theft Auto III

7th Gen- Wii Sports
Runner Up- Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

My favorite from each generation:

1st Gen- Space Invaders

2nd Gen- Donkey Kong Jr.

3rd Gen- Super Mario Bros. 3

4th Gen- The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past

5th Gen- The Legend Of Zelda: Majora's Mask

6th Gen- Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door

7th Gen- The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess

[JWK1]

I like that others are recognizing the difference between "the most important" and "your favorite" games from each generation.  I'll give it a shot:

3rd generation: Super Mario Brothers
Runner Up: The Legend of Zelda

4th generation: Sonic the Hedgehog
Runner Up: Super Mario Kart

5th generation: Final Fantasy VII
Runner Up: Metal Gear Solid

6th generation: Grand Theft Auto III
Runner Up: Halo

7th generation: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Runner Up: Wii Sports

My personal favorites (off the top of my head):

3rd generation: 
1. Mega Man 2
2. Super Mario Brothers 3
3. Contra

4th generation: 
1. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
2. SMW2: Yoshi's Island
3. Chrono Trigger

5th generation: 
1. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
2. Mega Man X4
3. Final Fantasy IX

6th generation: 
1. Half-Life 2
2. Resident Evil 4
3. God of War
4. Persona 3 FES

7th generation: 
1. The Last of Us
2. Dead Space
3. Bioshock

[scotland171]

[QUOTE=Cream147]8-bit: The Legend of Zelda - the first really big game to do the open-world exploration thing. It was kinda unheard of before.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=TheLastNightmare]Colossal Cave Adventure. With just a few lines of text for a graphics engine, it invited those able to access university computers to collaborate in the creative process. Inspiring everything from Zork to Atari's Adventure, and evolving into the visual novel and LucasArts style adventures that continue to this day. The Walking Dead proves this genre is still going strong...

Rogue. Each provided a maze. Each provided treasure to collect...cruel and unforgiving, inspired a hardcore grind that would take gamers further and further away from their friends and family.[/QUOTE]

Legend of Zelda is a wonderful game, but we should see it with perhaps more perspective. In the world of home consoles it seems more innovative than it is, as the influence of other game media may be under appreciated. In some ways Zelda is also a step in a limiting direction.

TheLastNightmare has pointed out several games that hold pre-Zelda DNA, especially Infocom games and other text adventures. Zelda had a battery save - innovative for a cartridge but family computers could save for years. First big open world exploration? Been there, done that, eaten by a grue. Not turn based? I think turn based is pretty good, but even so, Venture and Adventure or Gauntlet had done that too. So many great games like rogue, telengard, tarmin, etc that came before on mainframes, family computers or the arcades.

Also, Zelda is supposed to be an RPG. RPG - role playing game, as in derived from tabletop paper and pencil games like Gygax and Arneson's Dungeons and Dragons. Zelda is not like that in that you cannot role play anything but the script (or failure). Can I be evil? Where is my well balanced party? Where are so many features of an RPG? At best its like the vastly more limited gamebooks of Jackson and Livingstone. Fun, but if you are constrained by such a script, its not an RPG. Maybe computer RPGs will never match tabletop, but you should have choices. Choices that were explored better in games like Ultima.

Zelda and Neutopia and their ilk are loads of fun, but lets not forget their lineage, and their limitations in looking at the best of the 8 bit world.