The most influential games

Thousands of games have been released over the years. Which do you consider to be the most important to video game history? Which games and series are the most significant, or influential? Let us know!

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Doom and Wolfenstien 3D. The dawn of the first person shooter.

Final Fantasy as a whole. Setting the bar for turn based RPGs.

And Earthbound for setting that bar even higher.

Pong - The game that truly introduced home consoles.
Pac Man - Without a doubt one of the most important games ever and a key in making arcade games popular in 80s.
Super Mario Bros. - Without this game, where would games be today? This game brought video games back from the brink of death.
Tetris - The most important puzzle game ever made.
Final Fantasy - The first RPG to truly change the way RPGs worked. The systems introduced in this game are still used today.
Street Fighter II - Not the first fighting game, but the fighting game upon which all other games compete. One of the most successful arcade games of all time.
Doom - Part shooter, part horror, all original. A key game in the shooter genre.
Goldeneye - The FPS game that defined how console shooters should work.
Super Mario 64 - The first 3D platformer of any considerable mention and still one of the best in the genre.
Super Metroid - The platforming-exploration game that is half of a self-named genre.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - The other half of the Metroidvania formula.
Mario Kart 64 - Not the first kart racing game, but the one that all others are compared to.
Final Fantasy 7 - I may despise the story, but this game helped launch the Playstation into super stardom.
Peggle - Part Pachinko, part Plinko, part pinball...all fun. A casual game that appeals to almost all hardcore gamers.
Wii Sports - The game that defined the Wii and made the system an instant hit.
Dance Dance Revolution - Not the first rhythm game, but certainly the one that made them popular.
King's Quest - One of the most recognizable adventure games series of the 80s, it was one of the first to use bitmap graphics.
Myst - The adventure game that revived the genre in the mid to late 90s and still one of the best games in the genre today.
Starcraft - One of the most influential RTS games ever made and a game that is still played competitively 10 years after it was released.
Everquest - Everquest was the game that made MMOs what they are today. Without it, the genre might not even exist.
World of Warcraft - Everquest might have launched the MMO genre, but WoW perfected it.

I may add more later, but that's what I can come up with off the top of my head.

Guitar Hero: probably, the best music game series in history, or that would be Rock Band.
Kingdom Hearts: first RPG with Disney characters, it also had a few Final Fantasy Characters.
The Gran Turismo series: to me, are the games with the best graphics for that certain system.
Alex Kidd: probably the best video game and character before Sonic the Hedgehog came out.
Halo series: defined both XBOX systems.
Donkey Kong on the arcade, was used for making world records and stands out as one of the most important arcade games in that area.
Bookworm: A word game that really can confuzzle your mind, probably the best game from PopCap games.
Madden series: Made sports fans turned into sport gamers.
Mario & Sonic At the Olympic Games: First game to feature both Nintendo and Sega characters.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl: First to feature Nintendo, Sega, and Konami characters. Also SSB game to feature the Kid Icarus reference.
Super Smash Bros. Melee: First SSB game to feature Fire Emblem characters.
Tecmo Bowl: Marked the beginning of the Sport arcade games.

If you think there are any errors or if there's anything that needs to be added to a game or series, please tell me, and I might add more later as well.

Duke Nukem, Doom, and wolfenstein 3D: granddaddys of all first person shooters.

grand theft Auto 3, Vice city, san andreas: Increased the playstations 2's Popularity.

Street fighter II: one of the many games that started competivite gaming.

Mortal Kombat: dawn of the Rating system. (which parents ignore)

Team Fortress Classic: Started the class-based Multiplayer games.

Phoenix Wright: Shows that Lawyer Simulator games can be FUN.

Legend of zelda Ocarina of time: Labled as the best game ever made. A fun Action Adventure game that was Also the best game on the N64.

Halo Combat Evolved: a FPS that saved the Xbox and also started one of the best Halo Machinima's out there called Red V.s Blue.

YGR wrote:

Guitar Hero: probably, the best music game series in history, or that would be Rock Band.

Actually I would say Drummania & Guitarfreaks are the best and they invented the whole guitar and drums controller idea, but even they weren't the first music/rhythm games, but i can't think of the first off the top of my head.

Parappa the Rappa was the first game of any note in the rhythm genre, though Bandai's dance aerobics using the NES powerpad came out nearly 10 years prior.

Mortal Kombat series showed the world of how violent and bloody a game could be with special finishing moves such as fatalities, animalities, and brutalities.

Ronso158 wrote:

Phoenix Wright: Shows that Lawyer Simulator games can be FUN.

That series can also be taken as what NOT to take examples from if you plan to be a lawyer.

I'm going to end up repeating what others have said, but here's what comes to mind:

Pong - The granddaddy of gaming.

Super Mario Bros. - Saved the gaming industry from collapse and established how a good 2D platformer should be made.

Tetris - The game that pretty much defined the puzzle genre.

Dragon Quest/Warrior - The game that gave rise to the now very popular JRPG genre. Although most people outside Japan think Final Fantasy when they think of JRPGs, in the land the genre originated in Dragon Quest is king.

Final Fantasy - Saved Squaresoft, which is now half of the RPG-producing juggernaut called Square-Enix, from financial doom, and also began the series that is now practically synonymous with the term RPG outside Japan.

Wolfenstein 3D & Doom - These two gave rise to and popularized another highly popular genre - first-person shooters.

Super Mario 64 - Established the model for 3D platforming games.

Final Fantasy VII - This is what turned JRPGs from a niche genre to a mainstream one outside Japan.

Halo: Combat Evolved - The success of this game is a large part of what made Microsoft an actual contender in the console market.

Wii Sports - The game primarily responsible for the introduction and popularization of casual games, which attracted a large new group of gamers that otherwise would likely have never touched a controller.

EDIT: The information I posted earlier about Dragon Quest IX beating Halo 3's first week sales record turned out to be false. DQIX is second overall for opening week sales in Japan (behind Final Fantasy VIII) and fourth worldwide (behind Halo 3 and Halo 2 in the Americas as well as FFVIII in Japan), however this is largely due to it being released on a a Saturday. Since each sales week goes Monday-Sunday, being released on Saturday meant it's opening "week" was only two days long. FFVIII, the only game in Japan to achieve higher opening week numbers, had a four day opening week, and it's suspected DQIX would have surpassed it if it had an opening week of the same length.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and throw out 3 that haven't been mentioned

Legend Of Zelda - I'd like to say this had an effect on Creation concepts of Western style RPGs, and yes i do know it also counts as an Action adventure game =p

Pokemon - A simplistic RPG that was one of the most successful Game Boy titles, and helped get RPGs to a wider audience , not as much as say FF7 but it definitely had an impact at any rate...

Sonic The hedgehog - Not Sega's first mascot but it's most popular, Gave a rise to a not so well known company, and helped establish a new competitor for Console Dominance, I honestly wouldn't think the genesis wouldn't have much of a chance without this game

but i agree with a lot of the titles mentions mainly: Pong, Super Mario Bros, and Doom [not the first 3-d shooters but definitely one of the most well known of the early era of the genre]

I will agree on a few things but here are my list of influential games:

Pong - The game that started all games, shame that kids these day will never play this x.x

Dance Dance Revolution - The game that made dance pads more popular and has been 'cloned' by other dancing games since (though I am not sure if there was a dancing pad game before DDR)

Beatmania - The other konami game that helped the music game industry, though not as popular as DDR

Doom - A early day FPS that has given birth to tons of newer FPS's since

Lemmings - Fun game that spawned a few sequals/remakes

you know what i'm surprised noone said yet?

DONKEY KONG- Brought MARIO into existence!

How could you all forget about that?
You who posted should be ashamed

YGR wrote:

Donkey Kong on the arcade, was used for making world records and stands out as one of the most important arcade games in that area.

AzurillKirby wrote:

you know what i'm surprised noone said yet?

DONKEY KONG- Brought MARIO into existence!

How could you all forget about that?
You who posted should be ashamed

ORLY? You should be ashamed for not paying close attention to the posts.

YGR wrote:

YGR wrote:

Donkey Kong on the arcade, was used for making world records and stands out as one of the most important arcade games in that area.

AzurillKirby wrote:

you know what i'm surprised noone said yet?

DONKEY KONG- Brought MARIO into existence!

How could you all forget about that?
You who posted should be ashamed

ORLY? You should be ashamed for not paying close attention to the posts.

ohh sorry, i checked like 7 times to see if anyone posted it.
ohh well, other than the insults, i still think it was a VERY VERY influencial game.