[Multiplatform] Revolutionary games

In our continued attempt to amuse ourselves at work, we continue making top 5/10 lists for shits and giggles (and because we like to argue with each other over petty shit). So yesterday we decided to jot down the top 10 revolutionary games. Here's a few examples:



It was THE game that started both the FPS market and the computer gaming market. Before this, there wasn't much of a market for games on a computer short of educational games and crappy mini games.



This one was argued for quite some time. It is deemed the worst game of all time. Every top 5-10 list of worst games ever will always list this as #1, no matter what other games they decide on. Its rare to have the entire gaming industry agree on a #1 of any list. The reason for it being revolutionary? It killed the gaming industry for 10-15 years and forced game companies to tighten licensing and force QA testing for all games that came out. It forced the gaming world to really pay attention to the shit it released.



The birth of the survival horror story video game genre and one of the more popular franchises still going strong.



There's debate as to which RTS game really brought the genre around to popularity. Some will say the first Wacraft was the boost the genre needed. I disagree and say that C&C, with its ability to do multiplayer over a direct modem connection and slaughter your friend with an unlimited sized army really helped get the genre off the ground and paved the way.



Honestly, before this game, the FPS market on consoles was pretty non-existent. This game was nearly an instant hit for N64 owners and drove more companies to develop first person shooter style games for consoles, stemming games like Perfect Dark, Turok, along with dragging existing PC companies to the consoles as well, such as Call of Duty and Soldier of Fortune.

We had a few others on the list, but thats just a brief example. Does anyone have any games they consider revolutionary to the gaming market as a whole?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I'd drop Command & Conquer and put in Dune 2, seeing as how it was the first RTS in the format that has remained largely unchanged to this day. It was a huge hit on Amiga and C&C is pretty much a carbon copy with better PR.

I'd also include Elite for being light years ahead of it's time in terms of scope and graphics and introducing the concept of a trading game, without which you wouldn't have a load of MMORGS or most of those crappy free games on Facebook amongst a ton of other things.

Sim City was pretty revolutionary too, being a game in which you build things rather than kill things and in the original at least, there was little in the way of definite goals. Certainly the forerunner to all the Tycoon games and various Sim off-shoots.

Whilst Wolfenstein certainly kicked off the FPS market, to say it started the computer gaming (I assume you mean as opposed to consoles) market is just plain wrong. Most people I knew played on "proper" computers rather than consoles until the SNES came out and consoles caught up with computers in terms of quality of games.

On that note, Street Fighter 2 should go in the list for perfecting the beat em up and bringing arcade joy into the home on SNES.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Not sure which game it was, but the first one I remember playing with it was Tribes (and doing some quick googling of games I can think of that would have it I hit Diablo), but whatever game was the first to use a centralized server/matchmaking system really changed online gaming for me. You no longer needed to make a call directly to a friend's house, you could instead just call your ISP and hook up with anyone around the world for a game.

Battle.net with Diablo was also pretty great for including chat rooms and a lobby, which was nice when you were trying to set up games with various friends.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Might have to throw in the original Metal Gear (NES or MSX) for creating the stealth genre. Before then there really wasn't anything like it.

Also have to throw in Star Fox 64, but this one could be argued. While it might not have been so much as the game itself, but it was the first game to introduce force feedback with the Rumble Pak. Look at games nowadays...a lot of them include this feature, it's hard to find a game that doesn't. Can't take away from the fact that Star Fox 64 was still a damn good game though.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

You have a soundcard in your computer because of this game.

I was speaking idiomatically.