which game was the most revolutionary for its time?

The N64 gave birth to many iconic games that inspired many games in the modern era.

Ocarina of Time, Super Mario 64 and Goldeneye are 3 of the most referred games in history.

Pong.

Mario 64 is arguably the only revolutionary title out of those. It is a rare title to be had.

There's a lot of games being mentioned which simply make no sense being here.

I'd like to argue that Goldeneye revolutionized First Person Shooters on Consoles. I can't name one FPS other than Goldeneye that can even come close to the likes of Quake or Doom on PC.

Ocarina of Time I would argue too because of Z targeting, but I'll agree with you on one thing, Mario 64 is the most Revolutionary title out of the entire N64 library.

@Heirren

To be fair TC did say "...Created/Defined/Changed..."

So pretty much any game thats even nailed a minor accomplishment will make the cut.

Revolutionized? I'm not sure I am disagreeing, but the FPS genre was there, already. Was it that much of a difference or was it just a step in a new direction? I'd say more evolutionary than revolutionary. Ocarina is one that can go either or, imo. The Z Targeting is a solid point and one that I'd make, myself, but the foundation of movement was put in place by Mario 64. Now, again, there are things like the 3d aspect of dungeons and puzzle solving that I'd say are revolutionary.........................okay right now I'm going to agree on Ocarina.

I also agree on the N64, in general. The most revolutionary game console that will ever see the light of day.

Eh, sure we'll go with Evolutionary. Glad we both agree that the N64 had a lot going for it.

I'll rock the boat a little with a modern game.

Shadow Of Mordor. It may not be the greatest game, it may not even be revolutionary way to play, but there nemesis system with how the enemies level up when time progresses if you've done nothing. How enemies remember you after they've killed you (even if it's just a small simplistic phrase), the fact they level up and become a more difficult enemy, it may seem very simple and not very out of the ordinary, but it actually is, and for me looking at that system, it's a system which needs to be delved deeper and become more complex and actually become a standard in most games, at least a system similar to that.

Space Invaders (1978, Arcade)

Not only did this game create the shoot 'em up genre and set the basic template for most action games released since then, but it was also responsible for transforming video games into a mainstream hobby and multi-billion dollar industry. The huge impact this game had on video games cannot be understated.

Doom, Mario 64 and Halo CE.

A few come to mind:
- Super Mario Bros. on NES
- Mario 64
- Zelda OoT
- Pong
- Wii Sports
- Halo 2 (mainstream online gaming for consoles)
- Tetris
- And one of the earlier games like Spacewar!

There are plenty more, but which one is the "most revolutionary" is a bit hard to judge.

Whether you like the series or not it did elevate RPGs along the way.

Street Fighter 2 was crazy popular when it came out, pretty much gave birth to the fighting game scene, or at least helped it a lot.

Street fighter 2/pac man/shenmue

A shit ton of them..

King's Quest (iirc the first graphical adventure game, might be wrong, though if not, then definitely one of the first. Be that as it may, it was one of the most influential adventure game that led to the creation of the standard adventure game formula)

Pong/Pac-Man/Space Invaders/Asteroids/various popular arcades from the 70s/early 80s (led to the foundation of the industry of video games as a whole)

Street Fighter II/Virtua Fighter (one built upon its shitty prototype and created the standard 2D fighter genre, the other created the 3D fighter genre)

Wizardry/Ultima - created and defined the video RPG/JRPG (Dragon Quest took heavy inspiration from Ultima)

Wolfenstein 3D/Doom - (one created the foundation, the other caused an explosion of clones that led to the mainstay of the genre and forever popularity of it)

Ultima Online/Everquest (streamlined and essentially created the standard MMORPG model that was later polished in World of Warcraft)

DOTA has also deserved a spot in my book. Created one of the most popular video game genres on Earth, with LoL and DOTA 2 being the juggernauts of gaming.

Except it didn't. Certainly not its cinematic presentation, quality CGI, and high production values, backed by a huge budget. And certainly not its main plot, which was almost like a Fight Club before Fight Club.

This although add GTA III, Quake, Half-Life, Space invaders and pong.

Solid list

How did it exactly elevate storytelling?

Ride to hell of course.

Battlezone

I don't know if it's the first game to be played with a 3D environment. But, it's the first I played at a time when most other games are sidescrollers.

Another is Populous on the Commodore Amiga. Forerunner of modern RTS games. It pre-dated even Dune 2 and Warcraft.

Still another is Sim City on the Mac.

Goldeneye didn't even remotely come close to stacking up to Quake or Doom.

On freaking Consoles?

Uncharted.

Ride to Hell Retribution. Those sex scenes are ahead of their time!

Like I said above, "cinematic presentation, quality CGI, and high production values, backed by a huge budget." In other words, it helped redefine the presentation of storytelling in video games.

As for the plot itself, there was that infamous death scene. This was the first time there was a public outcry over a character's death in a video game, with many admitting they cried at that scene while others tried in vein to prevent her death or revive her. Such a reaction over a character's death in a video game was unheard of back then. Also, like I said above, it was almost like "a Fight Club before Fight Club." Its other big plot twist, regarding Cloud's delusional psychological disorder, was somewhat groundbreaking in its own right, something that most gamers seem to have forgotten. But from there, we can see a progression to similarly psychological stories like MGS2, Silent Hill 2, BioShock, etc.

And lastly, believe it or not, but countless game critics in the late 90's were actually hailing FFVII as the best video game story ever told, with some even hailing it the greatest game ever made. It's easy to look back on it today and dismiss it all as exaggerated hyperbole, and point to other games at the time with better stories, but that doesn't change the fact that this was how the game was largely perceived in the late 90's. And as a result, the wider industry began taking video games seriously as a viable storytelling medium. In other words, it elevated the public perception of video game storytelling.

The **** does it matter? They were completely outclassed and pedestrian in comparison. At least with something like Mario64 the reach is 3D gaming period, and platformers period. The other shit you have to make an asterisk for consoles. Wolfenstein? no asterisk. Half Life? no asterisk.

For me personally a couple spring to mind: Elite & Mercenary back in the early 8-bit days. Elite place in the history books is well documented (I think), however Mercenary for me was the first truly open-world game I'd encountered, and from what I understand it was the first game that you could fly to a distant space station in (maybe on) a piece of cheese. I could however be mistaken.

Fondly remembered:

Didn't Goldeneye the more open ended fps genre? I don't recall other fps games stressing that you could play the way you wanted. Not only that but I also don't remember the fps genre stressing ai and hit boxes. I could be wrong but I was a big pc gamer back then and it was mostly just twitch shooters(which I really like btw).

Super Mario 64

Also, I'd put Gran Turismo on this list.

Wolfenstein 3D (the original one). Tomb Raider, the game that brought 3D to the masses. Not the first but the most eye catching. Ultima. Dungeons and Dragons. Pong and Tetris both have claims to fame. All the games Nintendo 'immortalised' were done by someone else on a C64 or something even more basic. Nintendo didn't 'invent' anything, they just looked at the other stuff and made it much better. Just IMO of course.

A lot of good games mentioned from arcade classics to modern, but somehow one game wasn't dropped yet.

I'll say it, even if it brings some heat:

Metal Gear Solid

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Edit, scratch that. One person listed MGS which I caught just now, I was looking for Metal Gear Solid, but it was under MGS.

Since I bothered to edit I'll list a few more:

Adventure, Return to Castle Wolfenstein 3D, Command and Conquer, Populous, Super Mario Bros 1, Space Invaders, Grand Theft Auto III, Tetris, Dragon Warrior, Final Fantasy 7, Pac-Man, Street Fighter 2, Pitfall, Metroid, Pong, Mario 64, and Everquest.

this is where everyone gets be pretentious

@jun_aka_pekto said:

Battlezone

I don't know if it's the first game to be played with a 3D environment. But, it's the first I played at a time when most other games are sidescrollers.

This reminds me of Spectre VR.

Not really we can all see defining points in videogame history. Why has nobody mentioned space invaders? Some games DID change how we view entertainment. There actually was a time when videogames weren't a 'thing'.

Edit: just noticed the huge space invaders screen shot lol. I fail epicly at being pretentious.

I did. ^

Yep noticed it too late sorry pal.

So FF7 is the game that started the whole "cinematic" trend? And people call it the "elevation of storytelling" in the medium, not "that fucking game that started the whole cinematic-bullshit-cutscenes-galore bandwagon"?

Let me give a filmic example of "elevation of storytelling," since you all seem to be so enamored in the concept of "cinematic-ness". Basically, the revolution came when Griffith (or Porter, but I personally think he was more transitional figure) used cinematographic close-ups and elaborate editing within scenes to tell the story. Before then, stories were presented like a theatre production, but captured on camera, with dialogues replaced by intertitles, and not shown through visual representation.

Same with gaming. The true elevation of storytelling should be not when it barely copies another medium in a very rudimentary fashion (compared to its source of inspiration), but when it actually tells story through the medium's actual strength, i.e. the ability for the audience to directly interact. If narrative gaming has one thing to learn from cinema, it's the philosophy of focusing on the medium's strength.

Also your point about the whole psychological storyline is not "storytelling," it's just the narrative content.

Tomb Raider on PS1 and GTA 3 on PS2 come to mind as revolutionary for their time.

It's all copacetic fellow Space Invader gamer. :)

@funsohng: Don't get your panties in a bunch.....your tears aren't going to change a thing. Square DID innovate with their FF games back in the day and that includes FF7.

I was waiting for someone to say this. SF 2 revolutionized competitive gaming, defined the arcade scene of the 90's and gave birth to one of the biggest genres of that era. Definitely deserves more credit than it is getting in this thread.

Surprised to read something like this on the forum. This goes along with what Miyamoto was talking about in regards to games being overly cinematic. Adding too much story/detail/whatever it may be can take away from the player/world connection. There's a gap that needs to be filled by the player in some form. That is the unique aspect of games. I remember as a kid playing Super Mario Bros on the NES. I wasn't playing a side scroller or platformer--I was somehow there in the mushroom kingdom.

and I'm asking how, cuz the examples given by these people are just pathetic. What they essentially are saying is that FF7 made game more like movies, instead of bringing the narration through gameplay into a new territory. That to me seems like a step sideways, if not a step backward. If you wish to convince me otherwise, please, feel free to do so.

Also, it's not like I hate FF or Square, FF6 is one of my favourite JRPGs of all time (if not THE favourite), and definitely one of the games I hold dear to my heart. Yes, I think SE nowadays can't really make a good game to save themselves (thought FF14 seems to be doing pretty well now), but I'm not stupid enough to think that makes their older games bad. Hell, I don't even think FF7 is a bad game. I just don't think introduction of cutscenes constitutes an "elevation" in storytelling in a medium I love. That's like saying Star Wars films elevated storytelling with its great special effects.

p.s. In fact, cutscenes are not even invented by FF7, the FMV cutscenes existed in PC gaming before FF7 was in stores (Wing Commander, C&C, etc.).

@Heirren: Well I did say the same thing in that Miyamoto thread too.

I am a cinema studies student myself, and the more I learn about it, the more I realize how gaming is unique from it, and needs to break from its chain. Because cinema became an art by exactly doing that against theatrical productions.

Of course they innovated and they deserve applause for reinventing the wheel with every sequel but I agree with funsohng, there's nothing particularly revolutionary about Final Fantasy VII.

I could go on and on. I don't fully agree with the last statement but no big deal. Ironically, "cinema" is sort of going through the same things at the moment. There are next to no critical reviews anymore and there isn't a general understanding of the craft that make up the whole. A certain set of 3 films come to mind...

E.T. The extraterrestrial