5 Donkey Kong (1981)
Donkey Kong (Original) Full play through (JP Arcade Version)
In 1980, Nam co released a little game called Pac-Man, and every developer scrambled to catch up. At the time, Nintendo was trying to break into the North American market, and Pac-Man’s success only pushed them harder toward that goal. Initially, Nintendo wanted 0to release a Popeye game, but couldn’t secure the license.
Nintendo opted to create new characters, so Shivers Miyamoto got to work. He came up with characters and a backstory, which he based on elements taken from Popeye, King Kong, and Beauty and the Beast. Miyamoto was just getting started in the industry, but he was already innovating in ways that would shape video games forever.
One of the things that make Donkey Kong “so” special is the story Miyamoto crafted. Before the player can play, a quick cinematic reveals that a giant gorilla kidnapped the hero’s girl, and it’s up to the player to rescue her. This was the first time a video game featured any type of cutscene, and it was the first game to prioritize the story before gameplay.
Before Donkey Kong, any story attributed to a game or its characters was added as an afterthought. Miyamoto changed that with his first game, and the legacy of Donkey Kong can be seen in every video game that came after it.
4 The Legend of Zelda (1986)
The Legend of Zelda (NET) – 100% Full Game Walkthrough
When gamers first got their hands on the gold cartridge for The Legend of Zelda, they had no idea what they were about to experience. In the ’80s, video games didn’t feature an open-world concept like they do today. Zelda changed that, establishing a norm found throughout the action-adventure RPG from that point forward.
To be fair, Zelda isn’t the first open-world game, as the concept first arose in the 1970’s Jet Rocket. Zelda used games like Jet Rocket, Courageous Perseus, and Hydride to refine it into a far more immersive and enjoyable experience. Still, the open-world adventure wasn’t the only innovation Zelda brought to the table.
The gold cartridge held something sacred inside — an internal battery-powered RAM made it possible to save a player’s game progress. Before Zelda, NET titles created long and complex passwords players had to enter to resume their previous games. Still, it wasn’t anything like saving a game to pick it up later.
The Legend of Zelda’s innovations in open-world mechanics and the inclusion of an ability to save made it one of the best games ever released on the NET. Additionally, it spawned a massive franchise and influenced every open-world action-adventure RPG that followed.
3 Tetris (1984)
Evolution of Tetris Games 1984-2020
In 1984, Alexey Pajitnov created a little puzzle game on the Soviet Academy of Sciences’ Electronica 60. The game had no real graphics, leaving Pajitnov to render what he could by using spaces and brackets. The game had no scoring system, but its addictive gameplay was apparent from the beginning.
Tetris became incredibly popular throughout the U.S.S.R., but Pajitnov wanted to export it to other countries. The process was far from easy, but after a great deal of work, Tetris made its way to the United States in 1987. The game was quickly ported to other platforms, but it wasn’t until Nintendo came along that Tetris really took off in the west.
Nintendo developed a version of Tetris to be packaged alongside the Game Boy, which it released in 1989. The innovation of making the game portable and competitive (with the Game Link Cable) hooked people who had never played video games. The Game Boy was a success, but a lot of that had to do with Tetris.
Millions of people bought the system just to play that game, making Nintendo the absolute king of portable gaming. Tetris has since spawned numerous ports and adaptations, with more than 125 million copies sold worldwide by its 25th anniversary in 2009.
2 Pac-Man (1980)
Arcade Game: Pac-Man (1980 Nam co (Midway License for US release))
Throughout the 1970s, the vast majority of video games were shooters of one type or another. Players controlled a ship and blew up enemies, which appealed to men more than it did to women. Seeing this, Tore Iwatani wanted to do something different, so he focused on creating a game featuring cute, cartoonish characters.
Pac-Man was developed with all of that in mind, and the game was an instant success. With its cute pie-shaped protagonist and the adorable ghosts, Pac-Man was a game anyone could enjoy, and it quickly became a cultural phenomenon.
Pac-Man’s impact on popular culture is widespread, and the image of Pac-Man himself has since become synonymous with all types of gaming. What’s so fascinating about Pac-Man, besides its enduring legacy, is the fact that more than 40 years after it was released, it’s still the highest-grossing game of all time.
More than 400,000 Pac-Man cabinets were sold worldwide, and they brought in a total of $2.5 billion by 1990. That’s the equivalent of 10,000,000,000 quarters, and when you adjust the numbers for inflation, Pac-Man grossed a whopping $5.1 billion as of 2021.
1 Super Mario Bros. (1985)
Super Mario Bros. (1985) Full Walkthrough NET Gameplay [Nostalgia]
There are well over 700 games on the NET, but none have had as much of an impact on the industry as Shiver Miyamoto’s beloved title, Super Mario Bros. The game had something no other game had at the time it was released in 1985 — it was a launch title for the Japanese Family Computer and the NET.
Super Mario Bros. features an impressive soundtrack, bright and well-rendered pixelated graphics, and entertaining gameplay. Its scoring system offered up competitive play for a second player, and the game was packed with tons of hidden items, secret areas, and warp zones.
While Super Mario Bros. influenced side-scrolling games, its most significant accomplishment centers on how it saved the video game industry. In 1983, the industry suffered a major crash. It looked like video games might be more of a passing fad than the eventual juggernaut it evolved into.
The release of Super Mario Bros. and the NES changed all that by showing there was still a market for consoles and well-made titles. Many credit the game with saving the industry, making it one of the most important games of the 1980s and of all time.
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