Over the years the gaming industry has seen many titles that set new standards for the developers to follow. Whether through innovative gameplay mechanics, groundbreaking storytelling or other features, these titles flipped the paradigm on how the games should be made.
Games like Super Mario Bros., Legend of Zelda, Tomb Raider or The Sims have written themselves with golden letters into the gaming history. In our list, we will present these and other important titles, which not only received critical acclaim and became highly popular with the fans, but also changed the gaming industry landscape in one way or another.
| Game | Release | Genre | Developer | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Doom Classic Complete | 1995-04-30 | Action & Shooter | id Software |
 | Half Life | 2016-09-30 | Action & Shooter | Michael Pelletier |
 | Half Life 2 | 2004-11-16 | Action & Shooter | Valve |
 | Grand Theft Auto III | 2002-05-21 | Adventure | Rockstar Games |
 | Grand Theft Auto San Andreas | 2005-06-06 | Action & Shooter | Rockstar Games |
 | Minecraft Windows 10 Edition | 2015-07-29 | Adventure | Mojang Studios |
 | Grand Theft Auto V | 2015-04-14 | Adventure | Rockstar North |
 | World Of Warcraft Shadowlands Base Edition | 2020-11-23 | MMO | blizzard entertainment |
 | Resident Evil 4 Remake | Deluxe Edition | 2023-03-24 | Action | CAPCOM |
 | RESIDENT EVIL 2 / BIOHAZARD RE:2 | 2019-01-25 | Action | Capcom Development Division 1 |
Super Mario Bros.
| Release date: | 1985 |
| Genre: | platform game |
| Developer: | Nintendo |
When the first installment of Super Mario Bros. debuted in 1985, no-on could’ve suspected the massive success it’s going to become.
Years later, we can see how much the adventures of a friendly plumber saving a princess from the hands of a monstrous lizard have influenced the gaming industry and became a pop-cultural phenomenon.
The game’s that more or less directly copied Mario’s style and mechanics, couldn’t be counted on the palms of two hands, and the series as a whole kept flourishing as well, developing in many different directions. It’s the newest installment – Super Mario Maker 2 – allows the player to create their levels and challenge their friends in the same way Shigeru Miyamoto challenged us more than 30 years ago.
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Doom
| Release date: | 1993 |
| Genre: | first-person shooter |
| Developer: | id Software |
Doom brings up fond memories in many gamers, who spend nights fighting through endless corridors of Martian ruins, eliminating monstrous creatures with a whole arsenal of weapons, including the iconic shotgun.
The game has become an instant classic, and inspired a variety of first-person shooters including System Shock, Quake series and Duke Nukem. After a meager success of the sequels and spending more than a decade in hibernation, “the father of all FPS” has returned stronger than ever.
2016’s Doom received a positive reception from fans and critics, and the upcoming Doom Eternal might prove to be an even better game.
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Legend of Zelda
| Release date: | 1986 |
| Genre: | action-adventure |
| Developer: | Nintendo |
Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda series is proof that when you have one system selling franchise, nothing’s stopping you from having another one.
Link’s adventures in Hyrule have become another classic Nintendo game, with a host of dedicated fans and decades-spanning series of continuations. The game’s simplicity combined with a well-written story and a fantasy setting, inspired by Shigeru Miyamoto’s childhood adventures, were the main factors that lead to its success. After three decades,
Link’s quest to free Hyrule from Ganondorf’s influence continues in critically acclaimed Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – a game that allows the player to fully explore Hyrule for the first time in the series history.
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Metal Gear Solid
| Release date: | 1987 |
| Genre: | action-adventure, stealth |
| Developer: | Konami |
While MGS is not the first game in the Metal Gear series, it is quite possibly the most memorable. It is also the game that introduced the mechanics that follow the series to this day – a stealth-focused action-adventure with a dose of shooting.
Metal Gear Solid is the opus magnum of Hideo Kojima, who went through hell and back to keep the series as close to his vision as possible.
This resulted in a series that established the stealth games genre and gave the gaming world one of its most recognizable heroes – Solid Snake. The most recent installment Metal Gear Solid 5: Phantom Pain, was released in 2015 to “solid” reviews.There’s no denying that Metal Gear series is one of the most revolutionary games in history.
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Mortal Kombat
| Release date: | 1992 |
| Genre: | fighting game |
| Developer: | Midway |
MORTAL KOMBAT! Admit it, you’ve read it in the voice from the track, didn’t you? That is one of the reasons the series has become an icon of the fighting genre.
Created by Ed Boon and John Tobias, Mortal Kombat broke ground in many ways, including the ludicrous amount of gore, which made more conservative parents write a lot of angry petitions. What should we thank Mortal Kombat for?
Maybe for proving that fighting games can have an overarching plot? Or for gracing our screens with ionic characters, like Scorpion, Sub-Zero and Liu Kang? Or maybe for the not-too-bad action movie with an awesome soundtrack? No matter how you look at it, Mortal Kombat is a legendary title, with each released title being better than the last. Except for Shaolin Monks, we don’t talk about them here.
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Tomb Raider
| Release date: | 1996 |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Developer: | Core Design |
No list of the most influential games could do without mentioning the First Lady of Gaming.
Lara Croft entered the landscape dominated by the ultra-masculine characters like Duke Nukem, and knocked them out cold taking her rightful spot as THE heroine of action-adventure games.
Lara became an overnight sensation, an instant icon and the love of millions of players around the globe. Her glob trotting adventures took her from one end of the world to another, from scorching Egyptian deserts to tropical jungles and frozen Arctic wastes. Throughout her reign, Lara underwent several makeovers, with the most recent one being 2013’s Tomb Raider trilogy. In it, the player could experience Lara’s first steps as an archaeologist whom we all know and adore.
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Resident Evil
| Release date: | 1996 |
| Genre: | survival horror |
| Developer: | CAPCOM CO., LTD. |
Resident Evil is one of that games that no one can imagine not existing.
Can you believe that a series about a viral outbreak turning people into zombies could simply not exist? Well, of course not!
Capcom’s series remains one of the first titles that took its subject seriously, building up the gameplay mechanics with a decent story. As Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine, the player had to clear the corridor after corridor of undead and mutated monsters, minding the dwindling ammo count. Resident Evil gave birth to a flourishing series and several remakes, with upcoming Resident Evil 2 said to be the culmination of the developer’s ambitions.
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The Sims 4
| Release date: | 2014-09-04 |
| Genre: | Simulation |
| Developer: | Maxis |
The Sims series let the player play God in the best and at the same time worst meaning of the phrase.
Building a house, populating it with a family and observing their day to day activities is a fun thing to do.
However, things stop being so fun when a fire caused by a sim with poor cooking skills burns the place to the ground and kills everyone. That is just one of the scenarios that can occur in the game and one of the reasons for the series’ popularity. The latest installment – The Sims 4 – doubles down on the possibilities, with a variety of professional/personal pursuits and a multitude of expansions, letting the player’s sims, and to an extent the player themselves, to experience the life outside the confines of their home.
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Grand Theft Auto V
| Release date: | 2013 |
| Genre: | action-adventure, open-world sandbox |
| Developer: | Rockstar North |
The series that put the “open” in the open-world genre.
Grand Theft Auto combines the action-adventure mechanics, with world exploration, completing story missions and side quests and participating in a variety of activities and encounters.
In the newest installment, GTA V, the player can roam the city of Los Santos and neighboring Blaine County, filled to the brim with content. Nothing stops you from visiting a gas station and robbing the clerk, engaging in a police chase across the city streets and making a daring escape in a stolen plane. What’s more, thanks to GTA Online, the player can do it all with their friends.
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World of Warcraft
| Release date: | 2004 |
| Genre: | MMORPG |
| Developer: | Blizzard Entertainment |
World of Warcraft is the crowning achievement of Blizzard’s monopoly of the MMORPG genre.
The game has practically become synonymous with the genre, and for a good reason, too. At this moment, WoW is one of the best open-world, online hack‘n’slash titles available on the market, with an ever-growing player base and stellar reviews to vouch for it.
World of Warcraft was one of the biggest games of the 2000s, and years laters it is quite clear that it is also one of the most influential video games of all time, by the sheer virtue of its impact on the MMORPG genre.
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Street Fighter
| Release date: | 1987 |
| Genre: | fighting |
| Developer: | Capcom |
Street Fighter brought the arcade fighting gameplay under the player’s roofs with its technical mechanics relying on using both the buttons and sticks of the gamepad to perform gravity-defying combos.
Thanks to a roster of unique and characteristic fighters, including Ryu, Chun-Li, Guile, Sagat and M.Bison among others, the game gained popularity with fans who spent countless hours, as well as quarters in the arcade days, mastering the correct combination to perform a perfect Hadouken.
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Civilization
| Release date: | 1991 |
| Genre: | turn-based strategy |
| Developer: | MicroProse |
Civilization has a lot to offer for those who have a lot of time on their hands.
With the gameplay spanning entire centuries and many roads leading to victory, the player could spend months building their civilization and leading it against other nations in an age-old struggle for power over the world.
The series is considered one of the great grand strategy games, and owns its success and legacy to expansive gameplay mechanics, letting the player experience the ups and downs of a leader.
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Diablo
| Release date: | 1996-12 |
| Genre: | RPG |
| Developer: | Blizzard Entertainment |
What World of Warcraft has done for MMORPGs, Diablo did first to the hack’n’slash genre. The world of Sanctuary welcomed the players with open arms, offering them gameplay combining action and RPG elements.
The player could create their character, choosing from various available races and classes and send them against the monsters plaguing the Sanctuary, gaining new equipment and skills in the process.
The game was met with crucial acclaim and paved the way for three sequels, many more expansions, as well as other games, inspired by its success.
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Tekken
| Release date: | 1994 |
| Genre: | Fighting |
| Developer: | Namco |
The first Tekken was a revelation – a fighting game that took fighting seriously, trying to faithfully represent various martial arts from all over the world.
The mechanics were also innovative – relying on the juggling system, which allowed the player to shower their opponent with a barrage of kicks and punches. Throughout the years, the series expanded adding new mechanics and characters, but its core remained the same.
Now, Tekken is one of the most popular fighting series in the world, with active online player base counting in millions, and tournaments gathering a massive number of viewers.
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Superhot
| Release date: | 2016-02-25 |
| Genre: | Action & Shooter |
| Developer: | SUPERHOT Team |
Superhot was a sort of an odd beast when it came out.
A game that defied expectations and easy labels, it managed to become one of the best-selling titles of 2016. What drew the players in? Perhaps the novelty of gameplay, which combined FPS and time-shifting mechanics. Or maybe minimalistic presentation, with pristine surroundings and simplistic character design.
One thing is certain – Superhot turned out to be a huge indie hit, and a good example to follow when it comes to game design.
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Minecraft
| Release date: | 2011 |
| Genre: | RPG, sandbox, adventure |
| Developer: | Mojang Studios |
Much has been said about Minecraft – a sandbox game that combines the elements of action-adventure, RPG and survival horror.
How a title where everything is made of square blocks managed to become one of the best titles of the current generation will be a mystery for future generations to solve.
The undeniable truth is that Minecraft flipped the switch on the gaming industry scene, giving the player a game that seemed to be a bit of everything but never nothing at all.
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Half-Life
| Release date: | 1998 |
| Genre: | first-person shooter |
| Developer: | Valve |
Half-Life changed a lot in terms of how players view first-person shooter games.
Instead of being a “shooting gallery”, the game introduced puzzles, which required the player to think before acting. Moreover, H-L didn’t include cutscenes, instead of relying on scripted events to push the plot forward. That way the player remained in control throughout the entire game.
Both this game and its sequel were a great success and shot Valve into the developers’ top players. With the VR-oriented Half-Life: Alyx around the corner, it’s good to remind how many of the current FPS mechanics do we owe to Gabe Newell’s opus.
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Overwatch
| Release date: | 2016 |
| Genre: | first-person shooter |
| Developer: | Blizzard Entertainment |
Another multimedia success for Blizzard – Overwatch – is perhaps one of the most lore-oriented arena shooters in recent history.
While most of the storytelling occurs in the supplementary materials, like comic books and animated shorts, the gameplay itself is pretty straightforward. Well, except the player can use superpowers, too.
Overwatch became an overnight sensation – with critical acclaim, fan adoration and an e-sports league of its own. Like many popular titles, it spawned a slew of copycats, including one of the most popular free-to-play games– Fortnite.
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Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
| Release date: | 2012-08-21 |
| Genre: | Action & Shooter |
| Developer: | Valve |
A crash course in building success from scratch, Counter-Strike: GO was born as a mode for Half-Life and went through a lot of trials and tribulations to reach the status it holds now.
The game owes its success to simplicity – the gameplay mechanics are as uncomplicated as they get, pitting two teams of players against each other in a variety of matches. Another feature that keeps the players glued to the screens for hours is the ever-enticing elitism – by winning matches, they move up through the ranks, gaining access to better equipment and gaining respect and jealous looks of other players.
Thanks to that, CS: GO has made a name for itself on the e-sports arena and its tournaments are one of the most widely broadcasted events in the industry.
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