The 20 Most Innovative Games Ever Made
- June 10, 2009 11:55 AM PST
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GamePro's seen a lot of stuff over the last 20 years, and we're unveiling the twenty most innovative games that changed video gaming forever. From BioShock to World of Warcraft, see what games lead our list of ground-breaking titles that rocked the gaming world to its core.
It's come down to this epic moment -- In an industry that sometimes has more followers than leaders, these 20 titles changed video games forever.
#20: Portal
Platform: PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3Year: 2007
Original review score: 5 out of 5 Stars
Few titles can claim to be as original, fresh, or memorable as Portal, a thinking-man's first-person shooter that had no guns at all.
Why It Was Innovative:
Portal's perspective-warping gameplay had players creating wormholes in walls, floors, and ceilings in an effort to escape the bizarre prison of Aperture Science. The fictional research facility blended its architecture with dizzying heights and contorted spaces that showed no clear linear means of escape. Luckily, the Portal Gun gave gamers the ability to bypass the conventional laws of physics, making distance and gravity bend to their will with ease. When you're "thinking with portals," the possibilities are truly limitless. In another innovation, Portal's storytelling used subtle imagery and darkly comedic dialogue to advance the avant-garde plot; Fully half the fun of playing Portal comes from the haunting influence and dry wit of GLaDOS, the rogue A.I. that guides you through the puzzles. Though a short experience, Portal left a huge impression on the gaming industry, with several elements of the story deftly crossing into gaming pop culture, from the Companion Cube to the lo-fi cult song "Still Alive."
#19: Street Fighter II
Platform: ArcadeYear: 1991
Original review score: 5 out of 5 Stars
Street Fighter II not only popularized one-on-one fighting games, it served as the bedrock for almost every fighting game since, from Mortal Kombat to Virtua Fighter to Tekken.
Why It Was Innovative:
Before Street Fighter II's earth-shaking debut in 1991, the fighting game genre largely consisted of the mindless beat 'em up action of Double Dragon or the Zen-like simplicity of Kung-Fu. Street Fighter II shattered these expectations, effortlessly popularizing and pioneering the competitive fighting genre with concepts such as rapid combo attacks and over-the-top special moves. Even Street Fighter II's button layout and attack commands, such as Ryu and Ken's fireball motions, heavily inspired future fighting games whether they were 2D or 3D in design. But Street Fighter II's greatest assets remain its gameplay depth and overall character balance, two qualities that remain widely respected nearly 20 years later.
#18: Dance Dance Revolution
Platform: ArcadeYear: 1998
Original review score: Not Reviewed
Dance Dance Revolution was (and is) a massive hit in its own right. But the real innovation in DDR lies in one simple fact: it paved the way for the entire music game genre and, by extension, the world domination of Guitar Hero.
Why It Was Innovative:
Before DDR, music-based videogames were a virtually unknown niche genre. But DDR changed all of that with its patented "dance platform" that enabled players to bust a move instead of busting their thumbs on a typical game pad. Part jukebox, part karaoke machine, DDR's gameplay consisted entirely of bouncing and stomping to a musical rhythm. Because the game didn't rely on twitchy gaming skills, DDR quietly opened videogames to an entirely new demographic: everyone. This approach was later refined and mastered by the Guitar Hero franchise, but Konami deserves the nod for originally pioneering and popularizing the concept.
#17: Resident Evil
Platform: PlayStationYear: 1996
Original review score: 5 out of 5 Stars
Horror wasn't the genre of choice for many gamers until Capcom gave rise to the original Resident Evil, which proudly displayed its B-horror movie roots while quietly trailblazing a hugely popular game genre now called "survival horror." Alone in the Dark did it first, but Resident Evil made it iconic.
Why It Was Innovative:
Instead of most games where your weapons and health were as numerous as the enemies themselves, Resident Evil put the squeeze on players by severely limiting the ammunition and items they could carry. Knowing that you couldn't afford to waste bullets or healing herbs made each enemy encounter far more dramatic, hammering home the "survival" elements of Resident Evil. After the original Resident Evil revolutionized the industry, every other horror game creator would meticulously recreate the trademarks of the originator: the cramped rooms, the claustrophobic camera angles, the undead enemies, and the bullet-counting tension. That is, until the series re-invented itself with the masterful Resident Evil 4, a game that set the stage for the modern third-person shooter genre and games such as Gears of War.
#16: BioShock
Platform: Xbox 360Year: 2007
Original review score: 5 out of 5 Stars
A sleeper hit with brains and ideas to spare, BioShock was a frightening, action-packed, and gorgeous first-person shooter. But the most important thing about this best-selling Xbox 360 title was that it gave you the choice of being a survivor, a Samaritan, or a malevolent menace.
Why It Was Innovative:
Morality and free will played major roles in BioShock, with the fate of a damned world resting on your feeble shoulders. Would you take the easy path to power and harvest the Little Sisters who fed off the dying world of Rapture? Or would you strive to be Mr. Nice Guy and save them instead? Beyond being a kind of virtual Rorschach test, BioShock is also enormously influential for advancing steampunk chic in the form of its beautiful but decaying Art Deco environments, as well as for condensing highbrow philosophical concepts (particularly Ayn Rand's Objectivism) into a gripping, digestible game experience. But the real spark in the BioShock experience was the realization that you could choose to be the hero or the villain, and that killing the protective Big Daddies would leave you face-to-face with a helpless Little Sister who could do nothing but shiver at you in fear. Rescue or harvest: What would you do?
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- Jun 09 2009 at 03:14:44:PM PST
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Doom!!!!!!Wow!!Good for them:)Good choice Gamepro.When is the newest Doom game coming out for 360 and PS3?
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Out of curiosity, wasn't Wolfenstein the first FPS? I always wondered why Doom got higher accolades then that. Only because Wolfenstein was the first creation of that genre so to speak.
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DJKennethA wrote:
Out of curiosity, wasn't Wolfenstein the first FPS? I always wondered why Doom got higher accolades then that. Only because Wolfenstein was the first creation of that genre so to speak.
It was several years ahead of Doom. Also, Super Mario Bros for the NES should have been #1 on this list. The game created it's own genre (the side scrolling platformer, which influenced many games after it including Sonic, Metroid, Mega Man, Castlevania, etc.). It also almost single handedly resurrected the industry after the great game crash of '83.
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Good point on Mario. Also kinda suprised to not see DMC on this list considering all the games that use those mechanics now
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Why halo instead of goldeneye? Goldeneye got people hooked on fps on consoles way before halo.
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No Zelda(the innovator of the entire action-adventure genre, or the creator of the Lock-On system)?!
Metal Gear Solid?!
Halo higher than Mario?!
Halo instead of GoldenEye?!
No Body Harvest?!
SM64 at #10?!
A FPS at #1?!
This list fails!
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GoldenEye should've been on the list instead of Halo as it was the 1st great console FPS and EverQuest (formally known as EverCrack) pretty much set the standard for fantasy MMO games for 6 years before WoW came out and basically did everything EQ did (and a little bit more) but better.
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I agree that the original Super Mario should be on the list somewhere.
Doom I think is a good choice for #1, I spent many hours of my life blasting demons and dodging fireballs. While Wolfenstein did it first, Doom did it so much better and added gameplay elements that really defined the FPS genre.
IMO Doom really invented the FPS genre and has been cloned and improved many times over to become arguably the most popular genre on consoles today.
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