I am an avid gamer. I have been playing video games since 1996, first starting on a Gameboy Color, and ending…well I hope never.

I am writing this for fun, but under each game I am going to briefly detail why its on this list and in my personal opinion, it will be the biggest video game leap of each series (if there is more than one), and where I believe they revolutionized gaming. Warning: SPOILERS when noted

To start, 

BioShock (2007) — Slight SPOILERS

BioShock was one of the most fleshed out video game worlds. Up until 2007, games gave you objectives, and you followed them to complete the game. This game gave you that comfort, and then made your jaw drop when you realized it was part of the story. Influenced heavily from Ayn Rand novels, BioShock was equal parts a story driven masterpiece and clever video game design and ingenuity. The setting was thought to be something of a dream–a city under the sea, but mere moments into the game we came to realize it instead is a nightmare of greed, power, vanity and overall collapse we couldn’t help but have fun investigating and seeking out the answers to. BioShock is heavily influence by System Shock, Deus Ex, and literally elements beyond just Ayn Rand, that treated the gamer as an intellectual, and games have repeatedly tried to do the same.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 (2000)

Quite a 180, I know (pun intended). THPS2 as some people know it as, took THPS1 and fixed more than just adding the manual. Each addition was perfect and only improved upon the first. The responsiveness and replay-ability of this game makes it an easy choice. The mechanics of this game are the most timeless of the entire series. Skateboarding feels smooth, arcade-y but not super unrealistic. The controls all make sense before they went and overcomplicated them in later games. And honestly this game is probably the most realistic of any game in the series (yes there is a bull running around the final level). THPS3 would’ve been on this list if they didn’t coddle the user with the snap grind, despite also having inferior levels, the addition of the revert and trick variations could be considered a bigger leap than what they did from THPS1->THPS2. But at the end of the day THPS2 was the most well rounded and mechanically sound skating game before EA released Skate. And every other extreme sports game looked to this THPS2 as influence and direction on how to revolutionize their own category.

Bonus: THPS 1+2, was hot garbage. It was just the THPS4 code with better graphics in THPS 1 and 2 levels.

Resident Evil 4 (2005)

This one is a no-brainer. Resident Evil 4 or RE4 struck a perfect balance of gameplay, puzzles, story, and cutscenes. This was the first of the series to adapt it’s trademark over the shoulder camera. It had action, suspense, survival, and so much more. I am a firm believer that without Leon Kennedy, we wouldn’t have Nathan Drake as we know him. 

Bonus: the remake, RE4R, is also a masterpiece. Gets an honorable mention for improving upon almost every element of RE4 and modernizing each dated element.

Super Mario 64 (1996)

Also an easy choice. Literally a year prior we still only had side-scrolling Super Mario games, and this gem came out. It took the intuitive, responsive, and clever gameplay it always had and gave it a 3D stage. Any platformer released after 1996 looked to Super Mario 64 as inspiration, and still to this day does. Without Super Mario 64, who knows if we would have the Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Ratchet and Clank, Jak, Spider-Man games, and more. Still pretty sure we would have Sonic and Mega Man but who knows.

Metal Gear Solid 2 (2001)

This one may get some flack. MGS2 is flawed, but I could make an argument its one of the best in the series. The reason its on this list? Look up MGS1, the characters didn’t have faces, mouths, the cutscenes rely entirely on the voice actors to bring it to life, and yet all the potential is clearly there. MGS2 cashed in on all that potential, and then some. Also most people don’t realize, this game ran in 60FPS on PS2 hardware! There weren’t many 3D games hitting 30 FPS on the PS2 hardware and this game did it, and wow was it fluid motion. The frame rate coupled with the magic of Metal Gear Solid, some really intricate details, and a deeper rabbit hole to the lore of the Metal Gear Solid series makes this game a serious influence. Not only for stealth games but any game looking to have story depth, intuitive mechanics, new cutscene mechanics like eye movement and facial reactions, and so much more.

Halo (2001)

This one was a hard toss-up with Halo 2 and Halo 3. All three brought beautiful campaigns, online multiplayer, an amazing soundtrack that is still sung in locker rooms and stairways, and one of the coolest protagionists to ever grace video games. That said, I had to go with the original. From the release date, Sony, Nintendo, and every game company looking to launch a sci-fi FPS, copied Halo and ignored all the rest that came before it.

Pong (1972)

Pong is on everyone’s list for being the first obtainable video game but it was so much more than that. It was the first sports game, first multiplayer game, first game to have an AI opponent, first game to have different difficulties, and the first arcade game.

Bonus: NBA 2K11. Before the days of in-game currency and card packs existed a lot of damn good sports games, and there weren’t many as good at their respective sports as NBA 2K11. It had upgraded animations, the gameplay looked real, and incorporated both past and present players in entire game modes. Honestly anyone would be ecstatic to get another sports game at the caliber of NBA 2K11, but unfortunately, most seem to just want to focus on psychological elements to increase their profits.