To start off with...everyone and their cousin is doing a top ten of the decade...but...you really can't do that. Well, I mean you can...but, it's pointless. You can tell your favorites, but that only tells of your personal taste, not really anything about the industry and the games that really caused things to happen and progress. As such, in honor of the occasion, I decided to put together a list of the ten games I saw as being the most influential on the market, the ones people were talking about for a while, and still talk about fondly today. So, here we go.
One last note, though...franchise rule isn't in effect.
#10 - Uncharted: Drake's Fortune - Naughty Dog's follow up to their success of the Jak series, this was the first game to incorporate many aspects from many other games, and make them seamless. I know, Uncharted 2 is better, but Uncharted came first, thus gets the spot here, as it inspired the sequel...go figure.
From a perfect soundtrack, to amazing visuals, to nearly perfect gameplay, it was a perfect game and one of the first to truly begin to blur the line between film and gaming.
#9 Halo 2 - Console multiplayer wouldn't be what it is today with out this gem of a game. My least favorite in the entire series, no one can say that this game hasn't had an effect on the industry. Basically being the backbone for Xbox Live for almost three years, nearly anyone with an Xbox has played it, and if you haven't, well...you didn't or don't own one...sorry.
Without it though...I doubt Modern Warfare 2 would never have even faced a boycott of any sort, as it would have been solely developed for the PC market. Weird isn't it.
#8 Final Fantasy X - In game CG and Voices went a step beyond with this great title by Squaresoft. Some of the cutscenes are just amazing, and when you think about it coming out in 2001...wow.
Square Enix now has such an amazing CG department that the handhelds are looking better than their counterparts. Don't believe me...go look at the opeing to the SNES Nomad...I mean the Gameboy Advance game, Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories and keep in mind that it's using the same tech that Chrono Trigger was made on. They, and other developers can do some incredible work when they work at it.
(if you got what I meant with the reference...you get a cookie)
#7 Grand Theft Auto III - Anyone who's kept up with my writings knows I don't generally like GTA as a rule. There are a few reasons for that...mostly, I liked Body Harvest and well...if you haven't played it you wouldn't really understand, but...GTA with aliens and magic weapons in full 3D five years before GTA made the same leap.
However, it did bring Sandbox gaming up as a major genre to be played by the masses, and I adore them. Spider-Man 2 is one of my favorite games ever...and it's one of the earlier titles in the genre but it's held up...very few games can say that. But if GTA didn't exist...I probably wouldn't have gotten it. Then again...
#6 Shenmue - The other reason I'm not fond of the GTA series, as the true start of the sandbox gaming revolution. An RPG-sandbox-fighting game...yeah...weird. Think if that adventure mode in most of the newer Mortal Kombat games was actually fun and had a good story with minigames built in that were actually classic Sega arcade games. Yep...that's Shenmue, well, some of it.
What started out as a similar concept, but for Virtua Fighter, this game progressed in to something much different. Now they just have to finish the series and make Ryo a playable character in Virtua Fighter 6.
#5 Street Fighter IV - Speaking of fighting games, the culmination of retro gaming and competitive play finally brought gamers SFIV, and with it, the reemergence of fighting games as a major field of interest.
Any game that can in part get me to spend over a hundred dollars making a custom arcade stick for the 360 automatically makes it on the list, but because it brought with it BlazBlue and MvC2 along with it's upcoming sequel...I foresee even more competitive goodness on the way, and maybe even more retro wonders.
#4 Wii Sports - The Wii has been the butt of many a joke in gaming circles. It was a risky move by the old dogs Nintendo, and it worked. Motion controls were a good idea, and no game better showed that off that Wii Sports...and it came bundled with the system.
Starting a series of games that have ranged from moderately fun to "what the fuck is this shit, Nintendo...have you lost your ever loving minds" (and why didn't it get a nomination for a SAGY of the Decade). And seriously...if you don't think it's because of pictures of old guys being able to box their grandsons or grandmas getting to bowl without their arthritis crippling them or little kids getting to enjoy slamming baseballs out of the park that Sony and Microsoft have changed a lot of their major business model coming up, you're insane...and all of those were from Wii Sports.
#3 Guitar Hero 2 - Peripherals are a bitch, and this game is to blame. GH2 wasn't the first peripheral game, but it was the first to put one in nearly every home. Nine out of ten of my gaming friends have plastic guitars in their homes because of this one game's phenomenal success.
Now we have plastic drums, plastic skateboards, and plastic scratch tables. What's next? Plastic keyboards? Wait, I'd actually like that.
#2 World of Warcraft - I HATE THIS GAME! Really, I do. But any game that can form a lifestyle unto itself like that of Trekkies or Wookies deserves some major recognition. When someone has died due to marathon gaming one game...it deserves even more.
What is probably the number 1 best-selling game of the decade, this game has taken over the MMO market, and is nearly every gamer's secret addiction. We hate it. We love it. We can stand it. We want to beat it.
#1 Halo: Combat Evolved - Oh, yes. The game that started the console FPS craze that has dominated the market had to be number one on this list. It is directly responsible for the deluge of crap games we've had to put up with because developers want to make what sells, and FPS' do.
Easily the best in the series story-wise (and thus my favorite), it was the first to mesh vehicle combat and on-the-ground combat together well, and for that, it automatically would've made the list. However, it started a phenomenon, and for the three elements combined, it has to make the top of the list.
Now, I'm sure there were others, but keep in mind, this was my list first and foremost, and this is what I feel are the 10 most influential games of the decade. Do you agree? Why or why not? What would you add? What would you take away? Let me know.
-Sara
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