Retro games may be a thing of the past, but we shouldn’t forget that they revolutionized gaming. Most newer fans of video games really look down on older titles. Games that are not up to modern standards in terms of graphics or animation quality.
In the following list, we are going to show everyone why retro video games are important. It is because some of them revolutionized gaming.
Games That Revolutionized the Video Games Industry
Metal Gear Solid (1998)
The Metal Gear Solid series is one of the most important video games in the stealth action genre. It originally found life on the Nintendo Entertainment System, when it was a top-down retro stealth game called Metal Gear.
In the first PlayStation era, director Hideo Kojima from Konami got to work on a new rendition of the IP. What he created later revolutionized the gaming landscape in general. Metal Gear Solid on the PlayStation was a cinematic masterpiece.
It did cut scenes and storytelling that we had never seen in video games before. It was the first instance of cinematic gaming that we still see at the forefront of the medium today.
Modern PlayStation games and other AAA games have completely embraced the aspect. This has brought up the reputation of video games in the eyes of a larger audience.
Prince of Persia (1989)
Prince of Persia is an IP that is owned by Ubisoft, which we barely get to see today. It has been largely overshadowed over the years by its spinoff, the Assassin’s Creed franchise. But most people also fondly remember the iconic Prince of Persia trilogy from its glory days.
We are not here to talk about that particular era of the franchise. This time, we want to bring everyone’s attention to the original retro Prince of Persia, which was released in 1998. It might look very unimpressive by today’s standards, as it is just a slow-looking puzzle platformer.
Back in the day, this game revolutionized gaming. Because it implemented rotoscopy techniques never before seen in video game development.
All the while using hardware that was not capable of rendering details in animation. It was a massive technological feat that set a standard for quality in video game animations.
Wolfenstein 3D (1992)
Everyone talks about how revolutionary Doom was for the first-person shooter genre of games. But just a year prior, the same game developers had created the father of first-person shooters. A retro game called Wolfenstein 3D, the franchise for which still survives to date.
This game revolutionized the gaming landscape by perfecting first-person gameplay. First-person 3D games were not something new. But the problem with them previously was that they were slow since the whole map was being rendered simultaneously.
Developers John Carmack and John Romero developed a new technology that allowed the game engine to render only the player’s field of view. This was revolutionary as the hardware no longer needed to render everything.
A first-person game was running with unbelievable speed and smoothness for the first time in history.
Street Fighter II (1991)
There was a point in time when arcade retro games were more popular than home computer games. They looked more colorful and were on hardware dedicated to those types of games. Arcades were a place for competitive video games, but it was never one-on-one.
When Street Fighter was originally released, it was a single-player game, but there was a player vs player mode. In this mode, you could fight your Ryu against another player who would pick Ken. This design was super popular, so developers at Capcom immediately got to work on the next title.
When Street Fighter II dropped in 1991, it changed the history of competitive video games forever. No more was it about players vs CPU; now it had been revolutionized to a point where players were fighting other players. This was a significant landmark in gaming history, and would sow the seeds of what we know today as esports.
World of Warcraft (2004)
Blizzard’s World of Warcraft still survives today, and it may not be as popular as it used to be. There are other popular alternatives, such as Final Fantasy XIV, which people can opt to play instead. But back in the day, when WoW was the only thing around, it was magical.
Multiplayer/ Online gaming was a thing before World of Warcraft released. But there were not too many widely popular games that realized their world.
When WoW was released, it revolutionized the landscape of MMOs. How players would perceive online interactive worlds with several other players. Wow popularized MMOs as a service; it was the first time the mainstream audience was willing to pay for online gaming interactions.
Super Mario 64 (1996)
Video game generational transitions nowadays don’t really hit the same anymore like they once did. The transition from the PlayStation 4 era to the PlayStation 5 was marked by some graphical leaps and increments in technology.
But for people from the retro generation, the leap in video games was special. When games started going from 2D to complete 3D movement. This was reflected in the best possible way through Nintendo’s Super Mario 64.
It revolutionized 3D camera movement in gaming. Previously, gamers were used to seeing the plumber move sideways on 2D platforms. Super Mario 64 blew minds by introducing the analog stick on the Nintendo 64 controller for 3D movement.
The rest is history; the analog stick became a standard for controllers and 3D movement in video games.
Grand Theft Auto III (2001)
Before the Grand Theft Auto franchise became a household name, it was a top-down 2D game. Things were taken up a notch when the devs behind the franchise shifted to working on a 3D GTA.
Fully realized open-world games were just a concept that everyone tried to implement through various tricks. RPGs had an overworld that players could roam around in.
There were attempts on PlayStation with games like Mizzurna Falls that gave the sensation of an open world. But nothing came close to what Rockstar Games achieved with Grand Theft Auto III.
They successfully revolutionized gaming by making a fully interactive open-world game. That too on a hardware where people thought it would be impossible. It is still looked back at as one of the most important landmarks for open-world games with a 3D environment.
Ultima III (1983)
A lot of the JRPGs and RPGs we love from the yesteryears have certain design philosophies that make them similar to one another. Towns and shops, going out in the overworld, getting introduced to huge maps, and dungeon crawling. These are aspects we have seen in games such as the Final Fantasy series and alike.
But have we ever stopped to wonder what pioneered such a kind of game design concept? Surely, Dungeons and Dragons games were the precursor. But who thought of implementing tabletop RPG rules into a computer game?
The answer lies in one RPG franchise created by Richard Garriott, who is also called Lord British by many. He created the Ultima RPG series, which introduced overworlds, dungeons, and all the game systems that have become staples for RPGs.
The third entry in the franchise exceptionally revolutionized role-playing gaming. As it went on to influence Japanese game franchises such as Dragon Quest, Legend of Zelda, and Xanadu.
Virtua Fighter (1993)
We have already talked about how influential Street Fighter II was in the history of competitive games. It also stayed as the king of arcade player vs player games for years. Most other games that tried copying its glory, making original fighting games, never succeeded.
Of course, there were outliers such as Fatal Fury and Mortal Kombat, but nothing came close to actually taking down Street Fighter II. That is, until SEGA introduced the first Virtua Fighter to the world.
It was a 3D fighting game that had polygonal characters and used real-time 3D physics for combat. It revolutionized the gaming landscape and invented the 3D fighting game genre, influencing games like Tekken and Dead or Alive. This was the first time Street Fighter II started losing some of the limelight.
Gran Turismo (1997)
Racing games have been a thing for ages since home consoles were a thing. It was a pretty popular genre from the very early days of video games. But nothing came close to what Polyphony Digital did with the genre.
Racing games of yesteryear were only looked at as arcade video games with emphasis on action. Polyphony Digital decided to turn the tide on the first PlayStation.They went on to make a game that would be the most realistic representation of racing in video games.
Thus, Gran Tourismo was born, and it revolutionized the gaming genre for racers. At the time of its release, it set the benchmark as one of the most realistic-looking video games. Something that racing games still follow today, designing games that look insanely realistic.
