Jose from Bit Cultures writes: "It’s strange when we look back at a series, a franchise that we’re so used to, yet we fail to notice the massive leaps one entry took to revolutionize the entirety of the series. This list is for those games, the titles that looked at its predecessor and blew it, and our expectations, completely out of the water. Some of these games even managed to revolutionize a genre on top of their own franchise, which is just a testament to how important some of these sequels actually were."
Super Mario 64 DS was offered as a launch title for the Nintendo DS, a remake of the classic platform game with a few original tricks.
These groundbreaking video games changed gaming forever and drew in scores of fans in the process.
From first-person espionage thrillers to the original installments of beloved franchises, check out the greatest retro video games we recommend for anyone.
I’d have taken a few of those out. Prefer Sonic over Sonic 2. Outrun should be in there. Maybe even Pong as millions of people had fun with that even if it was repetitive. Final Fight pipped any Streets of Rage game, although Streets of Rage had the better soundtrack. Too many to list l guess. To me, retro gaming is the 1980s, maybe going into early 1990s.
Agree that the generational gap is too broad to really make a strong list. Need to tighten the years a bit. Hard to compare Pac Man with N64 games.
Street Fighter II
While many games on this list I agree with, I will start the discussion of a few I think should have been on the list.
Final Fantasy VII:
While it is no where near my favorite entry, it did so much to change the series and the developers have not looked back with their main entries. It brought the series into the 3D world and introduced the awe inspiring summon animations. It also was the first entry Nomura directed and while he has done both good and bad for the series, he brought it into the spotlight and increased the audience for the series. And expanded the idea of mini games in the series with chocobo racing, snow boarding and casino games with the Gold Saucer.
Mass Effect 2:
I liked the first one immensely., but there is no doubt that the series grew in popularity with it's second entry. It took the Bioware Formula and perfected it. What it lost in it's RPG elements, it made up in it's action and personal relations with your companions.
Uncharted 2:
The first Uncharted was awesome in it's beautiful graphics, charismatic characters and film like qualities. Uncharted 2 though, help the series ascend into a AAA game series as it gave purpose to the characters and increased the grandeur and epicness of Nathan Drake's adventures. It also tightened up the combat and somehow had even more beautiful graphics.
Good list and unlike some websites, I didn't have to click through 10 pages just to read it
Resident Evil 4 threw the franchise into the gutter. It was like the first step off the edge of a cliff... the freefall was enjoyable, but the sudden stop at the bottom really hurt. Capcom should have listened to Mikami and let him make Resident Evil 3 the way he'd wanted to. If that'd happened, it would have had the Devil May Cry gameplay style and a protagonist like Alice from the films. In hindsight, this would have been better in the long run for the franchise than RE4's changes were.