Ten Genre Defining Games Listicle
I’ve been thinking about this piece for a while and I’m excited to bring you my Top 10 Genre Defining Games Listicle. I’ve been looking at a lot of discussions about best games of the year, past few years, and I wanted to spend some time reflecting on history and doing a brief highlight of ten games which defined genres and captured mainstream attention.
Rules:
-Every series can only have one title in this list.
-I try to limit genres to one title per genre. This is a little imperfect because multiple games in a number of series have been genre defining but I want to have a wider influence.
Dark Souls 2
Dark Souls is its own genre. FromSoft, a company who grew to fame making the Armored Core series, branched out and created Demon Souls. Demon Souls and Dark Souls 1 attracted a niche audience. Dark Souls 2 was the first time I felt that Dark Souls was getting a more mainstream audience. I’m terrible at Dark Souls games, but Dark Souls 2 impressed me with the dedication to a deliberate pace and mechanics-based gameplay. Many older video games were extremely difficult and had a lot of mechanics and hidden secrets in order to beat the game. Dark Souls has a great flow in battling enemies and moving toward bosses. The Campfire mechanic to restore health and spend souls has been replicated in a variety of other titles as well.
XCOM 2
XCOM is part of a genre of games focused on quasi turn-based gameplay but with a lot of reactions and environmental destruction. XCOM 1 was a more niche game, but XCOM 2 became more mainstream. I haven’t found another game like XCOM 2 but have seen many games take inspiration from XCOM: Diofield Chronicle and Mario/Rabbids: Sparks of Hope are a couple examples. XCOM 2 has exceptionally tight gameplay, a great starship mechanic, and a well-weaved research and development track to help you hunt down aliens. Overall, a top-notch game I would highly recommend.
Final Fantasy VII
It is hard to be brief when talking about the magic of Final Fantasy VII for me as a child. JRPG’s were such a niche genre in the late 90’s and the release of Final Fantasy VII grabbed strong mainstream attention. And what a game, it had a great story, memorable characters, turn-based combat affected by the Dex stat, and 3D models. For 1997, this was impressive, especially with older computer monitors or TV’s. It looks rough now on modern devices, but back in the day, it was perfect. Final Fantasy VII paved the way for many more JRPG’s to receive a bigger audience in America. (Now, this is a Western phenomena, if I were writing from an Asian perspective, I would probably point to Dragon Warrior III and the effect that game had on growing a RPG market in Japan. Dragon Warrior III is a great game in its own right and I definitely have to finish that one.)
Pong
Gaming was difficult and obtuse in its early stages because programmers and devs were mostly building games for people with a shared interest. Computers were not mainstream in houses in the 1980’s and it took basic coding skills to even access games. Pong was the first example of a game where there were no secrets to gaming well, no difficult mechanics to learn, just move a lever up and down to prevent the pong from passing. Pong invited a lot of people previously uninterested in games to gaming. While most of us would laugh at the limitations of Pong now, it was a game which paved the way for a huge growth in 40 years of the casual gaming market. Candy Crush Saga, Farmville, and many free-to-play casual games have Pong to thank for beginning the journey.
Civilization
Sid Meier’s Civilization brought the magic of games such as Risk or Axis and Allies to a turn-based empire building format. Logging onto Civilization from MS-DOS was an adventure but the gameplay was so good. Having multiple difficulty levels and a number of different empires to control was cutting edge for its time. Hard coding that many variables into an engine took a work of genius from a dedicated team. Civilization had multiple unit types which grew as technologies advanced and town improvements used both hard number and percentage increases to buff production, economics, and military units. Every empire builder is catching up to the magic of Civilization and while many are good, Sid Meier’s Civilization still defines the genre almost 40 years later.
Zelda: A Link to the Past
Zelda had a few entries before Link to the Past but Zelda 1 was good but relatively simple in its design and Zelda 2 was the odd child in the series, even now, because of its dark world and unique approach to enemies and towns, was not well received. (I do regret throwing away my gold Nintendo cartridge for this game.) Zelda: A Link to the Past is really the first Zelda game where more of an audience accessed the game and is the game many people point to as a first entry into the Zelda universe. For me, this Zelda is special because the entire world feels unsafe and the art direction is extremely unique. There are a lot of great gadgets which are introduced and remain with the series through later iterations. Of course, there is always the rescuing of Zelda.
Super Metroid
I am very late to playing Super Metroid. I first played it through the SNES online offerings on my Switch. That being said, I loved this game! After playing Metroid Dread, it was really nice to see the roots of the series. Super Metroid gives the player the opportunity to explore a lonely and depressing world. It has threats galore and many paths to follow to get all of the items you need, as long as you don’t softlock yourself. I’ve looked at Metroid 1 and 2 on regular NES and they just don’t have the charm which Super Metroid does. It is also why a cartridge for Super Metroid goes for at minimum $150, sometimes even more.
Hades
Roguelikes are often difficult, niche games. I hemmed and hawed between putting Dead Cells or Hades on this list and ultimately chose Hades. Roguelikes do not get nominated for Game of the Year ever, so seeing Hades get a lot of bids for Game of the Year a couple of years ago was very unique. The gameplay is so smooth with a variety of different weapon types and the story/gifting mechanic adds a lot of fun interactions amongst the Greek gods and demigods. The method of progress is also well themed with Greek mythology and this game was more accessible than previous Roguelikes. It used a lot of mechanics developed in games such as Rogue Legacy and Dead Cells but put the puzzle together differently in a game which reached mass interest. Still haven’t completed ten runs yet but I actually completed a few which I was happy with.
Starcraft
I am super bad at Starcraft. I definitely bought Starcraft 1 and 2 and played to try to become good. It definitely did not go well, there are a lot of things to do simultaneously. I love the gameplay but it is not friendly to newer players. However, Starcraft is on this list because it is the game which grew a love of RTS games for so many players. Games like DOTA and League of Legends have drawn from the RTS mechanics invented for Starcraft. Halo Wars utliized similar territory placements and unit combat as Starcraft. I would love to see a Starcraft 3 to see how modern advances and advanced AI would make for a high-level game.
World of Warcraft
This is the original MMO. The only reason I avoided this game is having friends disappear for months at a time while playing World of Warcraft. I never wanted to feel out of touch all because I loved a game so much for me personally. Games like Final Fantasy XIV and Guild Wars 2 all owe their success for the market which World of Warcraft created. Online events to kill quest monsters and party mechanics with people all over the world created a revolution in gaming. Live-service games also get their audience from the foundation World of Warcraft laid. If only I was less afraid of being sucked up for months at a time I would play more, because I know I would get that into the game.
I’d love to hear your thoughts about your top genre-defining games. This was a fun piece to write and if you like my lists, please comment on my Twitter @whatcouldbeingb.
