Guinness World Records top 50 Influential Video Games in History

[8th lutz]

http://kotaku.com/5160745/super-mario-kart...game-in-history

 

1. Super Mario Kart

2. Tetris

3. Grand Theft Auto

4. Super Mario World

5. Zelda Ocarina of Time

6. Halo

7. Resident Evil IV

8. Final Fantasy XII

9. Street Fighter II

10. GoldenEye

11. Super Mario 64

12. Tomb Raider

13. Metal Gear Solid

14. Call of Duty 4

15. Sonic the Hedgehog 2

16. GTA San Andreas

17. Super Mario Bros

18. Zelda: A Link to the Past

19. Gran Turismo

20. Final Fantasy VII

21. Pro Evolution Soccer 4

22. The Orange Box

23. Lego Star Wars Complete Saga

24. Tekken 2

25. Wii Sports

26. Pokemon Red/Blue

27. Guitar Hero

28. Project Gotham Racing 4

29. Super Mario Galaxy

30. Resident Evil

31. Ico

32. Chrono Trigger

33. Gunstar Heroes

34. Soul Calibur

35. Advance Wars

36. Ridge Racer

37. Super Metroid

38. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

39. GTA Vice City

40. BioShock

41. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

42. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

43. God of War

44. Sega Rally Championship

45. Starfox 64

46. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

47. WarioWare Inc

48. Saturn Bomberman

49. Crash Bandicoot

50. Outrun 2

 

That list is from the Guinness World Records 2009 Gamer's Edition.

 

That list is terrible imo.

Edited February 26, 2009 by 8th lutz

[+FujiSkunk]

Dude, what?

 

This list fails.

[xZanU]

Worst List Ever.

[+Cafeman]

When I read the subject about the "most influential video games", I immediately thought of Pong, Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Tetris, and either Castle Wolfenstein3D/Doom.

 

This list fails!

[fdurso224]

Hi Lutz,

 

Thanks for the information. But Unfortunately, Guinness (IMO) has to either remove some of those games, or reshuffle the order lineup. Super Mario Kart at No.1? Its certainly a influential and fun as sin game. My girlfriends enjoys the franchises wacky & comical humor in go kart form (Thunderbolt anyone, or a heat seeking red shell?) But not 1st place. I would probably put it at No.9-12.

 

Anthony....

[pinball22]

How can a list of the most influential games in history fail to include anything before 1985? Or be primarily of things since 1995? Or include multiple things that are less than two years old? Yes, this is a list of good games, but it's a complete fail at matching the title.

[Kripto]

Wow. No Quake? MANY other major omissions...

 

Who made this list, a granny in some other country?

 

Whoever's responsible should be fired for lack of qualifications and incompetence.

[darthkur]

Whoever's responsible should be fired for lack of qualifications and incompetence.

 

 

That's for sure. How pathetic. Tetris was about the only one one there that belonged. Not one mere mention of the actual games that created the entire existence of video games in the first place. Pong, Space War, Space Invaders, Pac-Man, etc. I think whoever was put in charge decided to delegate the task to their 16 year old son.

[+Ransom]

I think I'll make a list of most influential record books, and leave Guinness off it.

 

(I suppose it's too much to ask that people publishing such lists work with someone who's past his teen years.)

 

Honestly, to me, the list seems like they were pulled out of someone's ass. There's no rhyme or reason to it as far as I can see. I can't fathom the basis upon which they were judging games. Clearly it wasn't influence on the gaming industry.

[xZanU]

That's for sure. How pathetic. Tetris was about the only one one there that belonged. Not one mere mention of the actual games that created the entire existence of video games in the first place. Pong, Space War, Space Invaders, Pac-Man, etc. I think whoever was put in charge decided to delegate the task to their 16 year old son.

I think you may be on to something!

[carmel_andrews]

Dude, what?

 

This list fails.

 

 

 

 

 

This list is 'Epic Fail....times or to the power of infinity...Perhaps a 16 year old has just taken over the publishing of this once great book

[Emehr]

And what library of games has Bioshock influenced in its one year (or whatever) of existence? What a load of bullsh!t.

[iwan-iwanowitsch-goratschin]

This list was made by bloody amateurs........

[fdurso224]

No argument here! :D

 

Anthony....

 

This list was made by bloody amateurs........

[rpgfaker]

Ahh..I see the problem here

 

 

so we invited a crack team of industry experts to form a judging panel - and the result is a "top 50" list of games ranked both on their importance and on how fun they are to play."

 

 

I always hated industry experts

[Rybags]

+1 fail

 

The list was probably contracted out to some Generation Y wannabee who has never played a 2D game in his life.

 

There are certain (some already mentioned) older games that would remain unmovable on any "influence" list, such as:

 

Pong, Space Invaders, Pacman. Even E.T. (2600) could rate a mention as it could be regarded as a catalyst of the '83 crash.

[supercat]

Wow. No Quake? MANY other major omissions...

 

Tetris certainly belongs on the list, though it should rank behind Super Mario Bros (a game which drove the second video game revolution, targeting those who already had home computers). Off the top of my head, here are some important games:

 

Odyssey -- First home console.

 

Pong -- Certainly in the arcade; knock-offs were by far the most common home video machines until ROM-cartridge systems took over.

 

Combat -- Launch title for the first massively successful game console.

 

Space Invaders -- Major arcade license that dwarfed what came before.

 

Adventure/Superman -- Pioneered the use of a world larger than the screen (Superman was published first, but it was derived from preliminary work on Adventure).

 

Kaboom! -- Put Activision on the map.

 

Pitfall! -- First game to try to create a realistic running-man animation (Donkey Kong had good graphics, but Mario shuffled around, while Pitfall

Harry ran smoothly). Perhaps the first game to create the illusion of a world which was too large to be fully tracked, but which allowed one to revisit previously-seen areas.

 

Wolf3d -- Not the first 3d texture-map game on the PC (id software's Catacombs 3d predates it) but the first such game to become popular.

 

Doom -- Introduced a new style of texture-mapped gaming, with arbitrarily-angled walls and variable-height floors and ceilings.

 

Quake -- Introduced a new style of texture-mapped gaming, with full support for arbitrary 3d angles as well as real-time lighting and precomputed shadows.

 

Are there even a dozen games on Guiness' list that were as influential as even the least significant of the ones listed above?

[supercat]

Pong, Space Invaders, Pacman. Even E.T. (2600) could rate a mention as it could be regarded as a catalyst of the '83 crash.

 

An inescapable cause of the '83 crash was the fact that there were so many companies trying to develop games that the amount of money spent on development exceeded the total revenue customers had to spend. Things might have happened differently were it not for Atari's mis-steps with Pac-Man and E.T. but the crash was going to happen regardless.

[Mirage]

++

 

Truly about the worst possible effort I can imagine for a list of top 50 most Influential Games in History. Obviously this kid's knowledge of "history" (or logic) is extremely limited.

[+remowilliams]

[kevincal]

WTF @ Super Mario... KART!?!? haha, it's a great game but not even close to number 1. Super Mario Bros. 1 should be #1 because that one and only game brought videogames back from the dead and the videogame business has been BOOMING ever since!

[STICH666]

Whoever's responsible should be fired for lack of qualifications and incompetence.

 

 

That's for sure. How pathetic. Tetris was about the only one one there that belonged. Not one mere mention of the actual games that created the entire existence of video games in the first place. Pong, Space War, Space Invaders, Pac-Man, etc. I think whoever was put in charge decided to delegate the task to their 16 year old son who is not a gamer.

Fix'd

[STICH666]

http://kotaku.com/5160745/super-mario-kart...game-in-history

 

1. Super Mario Kart

2. Tetris

3. Grand Theft Auto

4. Super Mario World

5. Zelda Ocarina of Time

6. Halo

7. Resident Evil IV

8. Final Fantasy XII

9. Street Fighter II

10. GoldenEye

11. Super Mario 64

12. Tomb Raider

13. Metal Gear Solid

14. Call of Duty 4

15. Sonic the Hedgehog 2

16. GTA San Andreas

17. Super Mario Bros

18. Zelda: A Link to the Past

19. Gran Turismo------GT2 was much more influential

20. Final Fantasy VII

21. Pro Evolution Soccer 4--------Why the fuck is this on the list?

22. The Orange Box

23. Lego Star Wars Complete Saga

24. Tekken 2

25. Wii Sports

26. Pokemon Red/Blue

27. Guitar Hero

28. Project Gotham Racing 4-------Not even close to as good as 3 or 2

29. Super Mario Galaxy

30. Resident Evil

31. Ico

32. Chrono Trigger

33. Gunstar Heroes

34. Soul Calibur

35. Advance Wars

36. Ridge Racer

37. Super Metroid

38. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

39. GTA Vice City-----------Notice how they failed to mention III. That was more influential than any game in the past 10 years

40. BioShock

41. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

42. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

43. God of War

44. Sega Rally Championship

45. Starfox 64

46. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion----------Again why the fuck is this on the list? This game should just be called "this game will fuck your 360 over IV"

47. WarioWare Inc

48. Saturn Bomberman

49. Crash Bandicoot

50. Outrun 2

 

That list is from the Guinness World Records 2009 Gamer's Edition.

 

That list is terrible imo.

There I highlighted the games that had nothing to do with gaming culture as a whole and the ones that nobody would have known the difference if they weren't made. Half fails are on italicized.

Edited February 27, 2009 by STICH666

[Mirage]

I sure hope a lot of people write to these jokers. Nice that it's from a "Gamer's Edition" pffft. And what does this have anything to do with World Records anyway? They should stick to just recording actual records.

[Reaperman]

where's elite?

sim city? (or hell, sim anything)

dragon warrior?

zork?

hard drivin'?

robotron?

space invaders?

dance dance revolution?

rampart?

 

what the list needs in terms of games are the first significant titles of their kind, really revolutionary titles, not just the latest evolution of an idea. Not to mention titles old enough that we can see how they've influenced gaming, instead of just guessing. Without dragon warrior, I don't think there'd be a final fantasy 12 (or a hundred other good games for that matter), but without final fantasy 12, all we know for sure is that we wouldn't have final fantasy 13...

 

(I *really* do agree with tetris though. it's a game, it's a genre, the world is a better place because it was created)

 

so we invited a crack team of industry experts to form a judging panel - and the result is a "top 50" list of games ranked both on their importance and on how fun they are to play."

what the hell, aren't we "gaming industry experts?" I've got 25 years of gaming experience that says the list is mostly bunk.

Edited February 27, 2009 by Reaperman