Another WTF: Most Influential Games List

smkThroughout the years, there have been any number of games that proved to be influential to both gamers and developers alike. Games that dropped and made an impact on gaming culture as we know it, and things were never the same. Whether you like them or love them, it’s hard to deny the power of games such as Halo or Grand Theft Auto III, simply because of what they did to the business.

Guinness Book of World Records have now come out with their own list of most influential games of all time. And what tops it? Well, uh… Super Mario Kart. While not a bad game in the slightest, I’m confused at how this has been dubbed the most influential game to ever be released, over titles like Doom or Super Mario Bros.

So what else does the list say? Find out after the jump.

1. Super Mario Kart
2. Tetris
3. Grand Theft Auto
4. Super Mario World
5. Zelda Ocarina of Time
6. Halo
7. Resident Evil IV
8. Final Fantasy XII
9. Street Fighter II
10. GoldenEye
11. Super Mario 64
12. Tomb Raider
13. Metal Gear Solid
14. Call of Duty 4
15. Sonic the Hedgehog 2
16. GTA San Andreas
17. Super Mario Bros
18. Zelda: A Link to the Past
19. Gran Turismo
20. Final Fantasy VII
21. Pro Evolution Soccer 4
22. The Orange Box
23. Lego Star Wars Complete Saga
24. Tekken 2
25. Wii Sports
26. Pokemon Red/Blue
27. Guitar Hero
28. Project Gotham Racing 4
29. Super Mario Galaxy
30. Resident Evil
31. Ico
32. Chrono Trigger
33. Gunstar Heroes
34. Soul Calibur
35. Advance Wars
36. Ridge Racer
37. Super Metroid
38. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
39. GTA Vice City
40. BioShock
41. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
42. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
43. God of War
44. Sega Rally Championship
45. Starfox 64
46. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
47. WarioWare Inc
48. Saturn Bomberman
49. Crash Bandicoot
50. Outrun 2

And there you have it, I guess. Thanks for a truly WTF inducing list, Guinness. I’m not sure how Super Mario Bros isn’t even in the top 10, and Wolfenstein isn’t even on the list at all!

So what would your top 10 most influential games list have on it?

Source- Kotaku

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I write about samurai girls and space marines. Writer for Smooth Few Films. Rooster Teeth Freelancer. Author of Red vs. Blue, The Ultimate Fan Guide, out NOW!

17 thoughts on “Another WTF: Most Influential Games List”

  1. And where is Half Life on that? Starcraft? Baldur’s Gate? I could go on. Way too many modern games, too. Of course COD4 is one of history’s most influential games ever. It’s been out for all of a year, after all. (It was great, but there’s no way it deserves #14) And I honestly hope that Wii Sports isn’t as big a trend-setter as they say it is. Also I couldn’t help but notice there are three Zelda games there, one of which I agree with.

  2. As usual, the big name list of awesome games is all over the place. Yeah, Mario Kart was incredible, but it wasn’t the most influential game of all time! Far from it! And it’s certainly unfair to say that Halo is more influential than, say, D&D because of the generational and genre difference. Until we can say which genre is the best, we can’t say which game was most influential. Plus, influential in what way? Story? Graphics? Gameplay? The only way this sort of list can seriously be constructed is by having several categories for each genre, time, and affected aspect of the game/genre.

  3. Wow…. okay… that is about 80% BULLSMURF

    Halo as #6!?! What!?! And how is Goldeneye lumped down at #10? That game pretty much MADE 3D FPS.

    Also, where the hell is Counter-Strike? Hello, wasn’t that (and isn’t it still) one of the most popular games on the web? People have been playing for, what, almost 10 years if not more?
    Half-Life 2 and the Source engine? Well I guess they forgot that (hard to see how).
    What the Hell is KoTOR doing way down the list? It won game of the year when it was released, didn’t it? And isn’t it considered by many to be Bioware’s (and in some cases the entire RPG genres) biggest hit?
    Zelda OoT I can dig, cause that pretty much put Zelda onto the mainstream of gaming and made it really popular as a title.
    Also, shouldn’t Super Smash Bros or Mario Party be before the likes of Crash Bandicoot?
    Lastly, what about World of Warcraft? I would think that game was very influencial.

    So, this list is bogus is you ask me.

    I don’t have a top ten (too hard to rank so many big games, but I’d start with a list like this:
    1) Goldeneye: The breakout FPS in my opinion. Responsible for openning the genre to a wider audience.
    2) Hald-Life 2: First realistic physics engine, as well as advanced AI set the bar higher for games that follow in its footsteps.
    3)Command & Conquer: Do I really need to explain this one?
    4)Counter-Strike: correct me if I am wrong, but wasn’t this game the patriarch for online FPS? The fact that many people still play it over the source version is a testament to its influence.

  4. This list was crap. They need to explain how they got to this point.

    My most influential games:

    1. Pac-Man
    2. Super Mario Bros
    3. Dragon Quest (for rpg gameplay)
    4. Final Fantasy (for putting story at the forefront)
    5. Doom

  5. like any list, there are a lot of “missing” games.

    I kind of miss Doom, CS, Starcraft, Fallout etc.

    But that gives us no reason to critizise them. If you made a list yourself, im sure that you would be covered in shouts of
    “OMGzors! wTf? why r there no (insert game here)”

    They like some games, and problem is that all the 12-13 year old gamers would complain if it was composed of mainly classics. I think the list is fine, wasnt expecting a perfect one anyway

  6. What is Mario kart influencing? The use of bananas as a road rage weapon? Pet turtles are now flying off the shelves, I hear. Their shells are a hot commodity, especially the red ones.

    I have no idea how they got this list. Maybe they interviewed some game designers and got them to list their favorites? And where the hell is StarCraft and Diablo and Command and Conquer?

    My top five (in no certain order) would be these: Halo: CE, Metal Gear Solid, StarCraft, Super Mario World and Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

  7. I though I’d gotten used to how horrible these lists are. I was wrong. This list was just painful to read.

    Personal top 5:
    1. Super Mario Bros. – Duh
    2. Dragon Warrior (Or Dragonquest) (RPGs are fun! Yay!)
    3. Doom – Duh
    4. Warcraft: Orcs and Humans – Revolutionized RTS’s imo.
    5. Guitar Hero or DDR- It pains me to put this on the list because I don’t like GH and I suck at DDR, but these 2 games have made the rhythm-game genre boom.

    Anyways, my opinion.

  9. OMG! OMG! DESTROYED!

    I can’t express myself here, because, you can’t make text screams. I mean WTF?

    The most influential game must be the half-life franchise, it’s engines and mods. God dammit, Counter strike is the most popular game at the place where I live. The Source engine is the biggest thing after Golden Eye, in my opinion, just because of the realistic gameplay. It was one of the first to implement pixel shader based graphics engine, Havok physics engine, inteligent A.I. and a story that blows your mind. This is the biggest BS I’ve ever read.

  10. Niceman, you’re too nice. As gamers we have every right and reason to critique their picks – that’s the whole reason they published the thing!
    If everyone just nodded their heads and agreed whole-heartedly, what would be the point of publishing a list? Everyone would already agree, and a list would be little more than a formal gesture.

    This list makes me feel sad… and angry. What’s that word you use Ellis?
    “Butthurt”
    Yea – butthurt! 🙂

  12. I’ve got to throw in my lot with the haters on this one. This list reads like a poorly organized list of some guy’s favorite games, off the top of his head. I’m not sure where they lost track of the meaning of the word influential…maybe somewhere around Final Fantasy XII, certainly by the time they hit Wii Sports. Seriously?!? Most influential to what, the festering dungheap of derivative third-party Wii shovelware?

    Ok, I guess maybe they were going for the top “video games”, in the strict console sense. Which is dumb, as I’d say some of the greatest influences and challenges came from across the aisle during the tensest period of the PC vs console battle for supremacy, but at least it would explain some of the glaring omissions from the list. Still, a crappy list by all counts.

  14. To me, one word tops the list as THE most influential game of all time: Pong.

    Also, what about Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt? Or Super Mario Bros. 3? Donkey Kong? Donkey Kong Country? Mortal Kombat? Duke Nukem? Wolfenstein? Ninja Gaiden? Mega Man series? I could go on and on if I wanted to.

  15. They took one gamer, 3 random people of the street, a monkey and jigsaw from the saw series locked them in a room and said MAKE “A LIST OF TEH MOST INFLUENTIAL GAMES WHILE WATCHING RERUNS OF THE FRESH PRINCE OF BELAIR” and this is the result

    A FAIL!

  17. Wow..even Guiness? Come on! Someone seriously has to find the cure for whatever this higher-up stupifying virus is that’s going around in the gaming world. First Nintendo, now game magazines, now Guinness, what’s next!

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