Your 5 most influential games

[Brian Tams]

Hmmm, this is going to be interesting. Most influential huh? Might take a bit of thought...

1. Pokemon Red and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

These are going together because they were my first video games. Ever. My parents had gotten a pair of gameboys for themselves as a curiosity, but they eventually ended up in the hands of my brother and I. They had two games for them at the time; a Super Mario game (can't remember which one), and Zelda. They gave them to us one Christmas, and had us choose between Pokemon Red and Blue. I got Red, he got Blue, and we even followed that up by selecting the version mascots as our starters. This part in particular is interesting, as it has spawned a little rivalry between the two of us that has lasted almost fifteen years now, and was continued when I selected Charmander as my second starter in X and he chose Squirtle. Man, I love my brother.

2. Final Fantasy X

I grew up on Nintendo consoles, with my parents following up the purchase of gameboys with an N64. So when my brother got a PS2 for Christmas, I was excited about the prospect of a whole slew of new games I'd be able to enjoy.
One of the first I played was Final Fantasy X, and was also my first JRPG of that nature, and introduced me to... games of that nature, if you catch my drift.

3. Kingdom Hearts

This game, right here, taught me that a great game can be made even from the silliest of ideas (like a Final Fantasy x Disney Cross over event).

4. Halo 2

This is the game that introduced me to online multiplayer and the whirlwind of emotions that comes with it. I loved this game's multiplayer.

5. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

I saved the most influential game for last. This is a game that has had a more profound effect on me as I've grown up. Its one of those rare stories that its effect on a person changes from year to year, and it is, truly, the first game I ever considered a work of art. This is a fantastic game that has taught me about the more subtle intricacies to story telling and gameplay that can take a good game and make it great. I love this game, and it will always hold a special place in my heart.

 

[Guilen-]

I'm going to cheat a little and use ties. There are too many significant games in my life not to.

5. Shining Force 1/2 (I prefer the first)
4. Phantasy Star 4
3. Demon's Souls/Dark Souls
2. The Secret of Monkey Island/Monkey Island 2
1. Final Fantasy 6/Chrono Trigger

I'm definitely an old fashioned gamer, and hope to be a game designer at some point. As much as I truly do love modern games, I loved how earlier eras of games were less influenced by mainstream sensibilities and stood their ground as their own medium. These days everybody competes for the sexiest graphics, sexiest engine, etc. etc. Back then people had no maps and were trying to make things as beautiful as they could with the limited resources they had, and as a result made works of timeless resourceful ingenuity (I often like to compare the original 16-color artwork of the Secret of Monkey Island to the great impressionistic painters). The Souls series, on the other hand, stunned me with its abstract world building and adult immersion, and the underlying feeling that the atmosphere a game is capable of creating can easily rival that of great film (as compared to so much of gaming that is tongue in cheek and too content to play its "un-serious" role in society). I still consider both FF6 and Chrono Trigger to be among the greatest works of art made my man, as important in their respective mediums as the Beatles were to music (I almost compared them to Shakespeare, but Shakespeare created so much of the English language that it's hard to compare him to anything - yet the temptation to make the comparison is there). It was those games that alerted me to the fact that art is profound and worth dedicating your life to, and at the time they came out they made a medium-defying statement about the potential of video games to be more than simply what society viewed them as.

 

[the_great_cessation]

I'm restricting it to a single game per franchise (where applicable) and not listing anything more recent than 2011 or else this might turn into a favorite games list. I found it hard to seperate "nostalgic" and "influential" but I feel I did a pretty good job of that. With that said...

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64) - For better or worse, this game changed my life. It became one of the defining moments of my childhood and almost single-handedly shaped my interest in video games, art and story telling more generally. I won't go into too much detail on this one (as I've waxed nostalgic over this series to death) but suffice to say it completely enraptured my imagination at 9 years old and implicitly influenced both my aesthetic sensibilities and my value systems growing up. While Twilight Princess is probably the most nostalgic game in the series for me, if it weren't for Ocarina of Time it's arguable that those nostalgic memories would exist. Ocarina of Time wasn't the first video game I played, not by a long shot, but it was the first piece of fiction I ever really fell in love with and to this day is the only work to completely immerse me in it's world for years of my life.

2. Beyond Good and Evil (GC) - Beyond Good and Evil influenced my tastes in two majors ways. 1) It showed me the value of character and symbolism in video games. I was about 12 or 13 when I first played Beyond Good and Evil. Up to this point in my life, I had never engaged with a game, movie or book that I would call subversive. The fiction I engaged with was largely archetypal and generally had little value outside of moralizing or existing for escapist reasons (on the surface at least). However, Beyond Good and Evil actually challenged me and my viewpoints. Granted, the subversivness of the game is actually rather tame, but to a pre-teen version of my self it was revolutionary. 2) Beyond Good and Evil showed me that good art is often poorly advertised. Prior to playing Beyond Good and Evil, I almost exclusively engaged with ether a) what my peer group dictated or b) what was advertised best by the mainstream media. However, with Beyond Good and Evil I took a chance with something that is a little more fringe and was rewarded greatly for it. I feel as if BG&E was a watershed moment in this respect as it opened me up into more experimental and out there artistic expressions which could explain my current love of Russian post-modernism and ambient electronica.

3. Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) - Shadow of the Colossus showed me the potential of video games to revolutionize art by holistically blending narrative and mechanics. I won't go too into detail on this one as it is predicated on a discussion of the games ending and structure that could ruin the experience for anyone who hasn't played this game. Add to that the fact that it has a distinctly sad and mysterious atmosphere accompanied by a darkly tinged but gorgeous soundtrack and you have a game that hasn't left my thoughts almost 9 years since it's original release.

4. L.A. Noire (PS3) - L.A. Noire reinvigorated my interest in video games and showed the potential "cinematic" games have in delivering satisfying and engrossing stories. While not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, L.A. Noire impressed me with the sheer scope of it's narrative vision and the confidence in which it reworked the adventure genre. It proved to me that "games" as a medium are still very much in a growing process and it further highlighted to me why it is that video games are perhaps the most exciting medium today.

5. Lastly, I'm going to give the final spot to Yoshi's Story (N64) for the virtue of simply being one the first games I ever owned and being the first I ever played to completion(a bit of a cop out but I had too many other choices fighting for that fifth spot and couldn't choose).

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

1.Worms. Playing this 4 player with my mates convinced me to buy a Playstation. Such fun. I still play on occasion, for old times sake.

2.Dawn of War. Got me back into playing games in the late 2000's...40K without having to paint the little bastards? Sign me the fuck up!

3.Goldeneye. Doom etc never really did it for me, but this got me into FPS' for a good long time although I'm not so keen on them now.

4. Streetfighter 2. Convinced me to buy a SNES. It was the cool game of the time that everyone played.

5.Neverwinter Nights. I like fantasy but all the games I'd played prior to this I really hadn't enjoyed and gave up on pretty quick. Same could be said of the vast majority of 3rd person fantasy games I played after, but I keep buying them because maybe I'll enjoy them as much as NWN.

Dishonourable mention: FFVII. Convinced me not to play JRPGs. Other things over the years have compounded my dislike, but this was the first turn me against them.

 

[JasonKaotic]

Alien Trilogy - Definitely gotta include the first game I ever played. Well, that I remember playing. For a film-licensed game Alien Trilogy is pretty damn fantastic. Scared me shitless as a 2-year-old but I loved it all the same. And still do. <3

Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus - Should also include the first game I ever owned. This was it. Love it. Love it so much. If I didn't I wouldn't have kept getting more games. This one's also my favourite platformer.

Final Fantasy VIII - First story-driven game I ever played, at about the age of 4, and I was in love with it. This game is pretty much the reason I go for story-driven games over gameplay-driven games. The series is also the reason my standards of JRPGs are so bloody high. It's still my favourite game of all time today, although that's mainly down to nostalgia.

Persona 3 FES - This is a pretty recent one for me. Went through a bit of a stage where I was starting to lose interest in games because it had been forever since I'd played a game that I genuinely loved. I'd been trying to get hold of it for ages but I finally got it last June and I'm so obsessed with this game it's not even funny. Got me excited for games all over again, especially since Persona is still going and it's still good. Played Persona 4 not long after and I love that one with all my heart too, but I personally sliiightly prefer Persona 3. It made me question whether FFVIII was still my favourite game after finishing it, and you guys have no idea how insane that is to anyone that knows me. If I wasn't so nostalgia-blind this would easily be my favourite game.

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind - Got me into the massive open-world WRPG scene, which is another of my favourite genres. Although I've never really found anything quite like TES, so I'm not sure what exactly it got me into. But fuck it, this game's great and everyone should experience it, just try to ignore the brokenness of the combat. Or avoid it altogether. You'd be surprised how much of a good time you can have with this game without ever even drawing your weapon. At least, back in its day. Admittedly it's aged pretty poorly.

That was easier than I expected it to be. Heheh.

 

[Whispering Cynic]

Half Life: The first FPS I finished, many good times were had with this one.

Thief: The Dark Project: My introduction to the lovely genre of stealth games. This game was a great lesson in patience, a lesson I've learned well.

Knights of the Old Republic: This was the RPG that really grabbed me and sparked my interest in Bioware games and RPGs in general. Also made me seek out more dialogue-heavy games to refine my English (it's not my first language, and I've learned more of it from games than from any other source).

Deus Ex: What's there to say? This one is a legend and one unforgettable experience to which I regularly return.

C&C: Tiberian Sun: My first heavily played RTS, made me fall in love with C&C games and RTS in general.

There are others, of course, but the aforementioned five are the most defining, influential ones, those most deserving of their places in my personal hall of fame.

 

[WoW Killer]

That's a really tough one, and I must say a wonderful disguise of the usual "best games ever" kind of thread. So I'm thinking of games I liked that happened to be big on influencing other games. If it was just the most influential games then we'd all be talking Space Invaders and Tetris and stuff. And if it was just our favourite games then, well, we'd all just name our favourite games. It's a tough one. I can only think of one definite off the top of my head. Maybe I'll edit and add more later.

Castlevania: SOTN: The first game I remember where nearly the whole of gaming journalism was wrong and more importantly I was right. This was a game made specifically for the oldschool crowd, with it's retro graphics and 2D gameplay. Every review I read on release called this a bad game, probably from its retro styling. And yet I saw a video demo for this game long before its release (on VHS, because we didn't have t'internets in them days) and just from those few glimpses I knew the reviewers had it wrong. This was the game that proved (eventually, by being a massive success) that oldschool mechanics can still be extremely relevant so long as they are applied right. In fact the game wasn't all oldschool, it was a brilliant blend of old and new ideas, for instance putting a progression system and loot hunt into a traditional platform style, and adding beat-em-up button commands. Because the media got it so wrong, and to satisfy the inner hipster within me, I'm going to have to go out on a limb and call this the most important game ever made.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt (NES) This is more than likely the first video game that I ever played. As I mentioned on a different thread, possibly in a different forum, I've played this game in a time when I was so young I hadn't developed enough to have clear, linear, progressive memories (as opposed to muddy, skipping, fragmented ones).

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Super Nintendo) This is not the first game I was able to beat but it was one of the first few (Super Mario World was the first one I beat). Beating this game though was a whole lot more satisfying. I felt like I really, actually accomplished something by beating this game, especially considering that I was a single-digit age and had found most of the secrets (including the Fat Fairy which I thought was hilarious at the time)

Dance Dance: Revolution It WAS revolutionary. This was the first game I played with a group of people and after-school...Hell, this game kind of got me female attention during a time when I wanted that kind of thing. It was a major gaming thing that wasn't Pokemon and I was in on it. This game also got me into J-Rock before Final Fantasy began importing Gackt into the US so there's another point in its favor...sure, I got into Guitar Hero too but Dance Dance Revolution is closer to my heart and makes my Nostalgia Bladder quiver in a sort of melancholic feeling that I'm too sleepy to properly define.

Halo: Combat Evolved This game is by no means my favorite but it did show me how amazing playing through a game cooperatively can be. One summer, over a decade ago, my cousin and I beat this sucker on Legendary and it's just going to stick in my memory as being one of the greatest times in my life.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Despite having played multiple Final Fantasy titles (among other JRPGs and story-driven titles) by this point, this was the first game I played that made me really care about the plot, characters and, universe in which the game took place. Thanks to this game, I got into extended Star Wars lore such as the Dark Horse comics and, the novels by Drew Karpyshyn.

Spoiler: Bonus, somewhat NSFW but not really

Guitar Hero 2 - Because playing through Buckethead's Jordan on hard (no, I can't do expert and have never been able to) got a past lady I dated to toss her panties at me...heh...I scored (and feel like I sound kind of cunty in this post...)

 

[McElroy]

GTA: San Andreas: It was the first game I ordered online ("ordered" as I was 13 at the time) and I've played it so much, had so much fun with it, learned to be a gangsta from it , and rustled my parents' jimmies with it (y'know, the game's rated 18).

Commander Keen: Goodbye Galaxy and others too, because it was one of the first games I played at my friend's place. It was also impossible to us back then.

Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped: Screw FFVII this was The Video Game for PlayStation for many years back then. What made it legendary was that we didn't own a PS so I always had to play it elsewhere thus never really getting a full playthrough until much later.

Heroes of Might and Magic III: Me and my dad are experts at this one with over a decade of experience. Both of us still enjoy it even though we've mapped most of its secrets now. There have been times when I've been sick of it and even said it sucks (so edgy), but I've probably spent a thousand hours at HOMM III. I'm a bit surprised I'm the first one to mention this.

The Witcher and Miniclip 8 Ball Pool Multiplayer These two are here because of their pure RECENT influence on my gaming habits. The Witcher made me realize I don't really have the patience for such a slow-paced game and it has led me to avoiding TES games for example. The second is in the same spot because it's probably the opposite of what The Witcher is and completely hooked me with its ease to play, win, and ragequit in frustration.

The was some honorable mention to give out but I forgot.

 

[FPLOON]

In no particular order:

Kingdom Hearts 1 (PS2) - Well, that escalated quickly close to the end... ("When's the sequel?" says my younger self... mainly to X-Play at the time...)

Rayman 3 (GBA) - First time actually getting 100% completion... (Also, platforming that wasn't Mario...)

Tales of Symphonia (GC) - So, this is a JRPG? ...Awesome! (Many more followed, including Persona 3 FES...)

Rez (Dreamcast) - Barely had a Dreamcast... but, this was the first game that connected me and my cousins...

Time Crisis 3 (Arcade) - The only first-person anything I would play for a LONG time... (until Portal came around...)

Honorable Mentions (in no particular order):
Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga
Portal (PC version)
Rayman Origins
Pokemon Emerald
Persona 3: FES