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[Parazels]

Sega Model 2 is the correct answer.

 

[TintoConCasera]

Sega Model 1 is the correct answer.

 

[Durin]

Mario is pretty valid, but I'd go with DOOM:

It was enough of a sensation for Bill Gates to get in a trench-coat for a cringe ad because it would move more copies of Windows itself.

It established such basic conventions in its genre in both design + tech that others after for the next decade were called Doom-clones.

It built core aspects of online multiplayer, establishing netcode conventions and game modes like deathmatch.

Mostly though, it was the first game to create robust tools to make modded content that lives on to this day, whole new games were made out of those tools, and it created more NEW game designers than any other single game can possibly influence now.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

 

[falconhoof]

Never heard of them.

 

[Hero_Select]

Mario, Zelda, Doom

In that order.

 

[Grildon Tundy]

It's got to be Super Mario Bros. Without that massive mainstream appeal, the industry wouldn't be what it is today.

Granted, home video games are such a natural result of human ingenuity and desire for entertainment that if it weren't Mario, something else would've been the zeitgeist harbinger.

 

[Knucklepux]

The answer is Fortnite

In all the worst ways. It has influenced games from COD to even impacting Sony and MS at a executive level. Fortnite's success has literally been the downfall of so many developers as publishers continue to chase them

 

[Dr Bass]

It's dependent on genre obviously.

But the very first Legend of Zelda on the NES was that genre defining open world adventure game, which still shapes games like current Zelda's, Assassin's Creed, Ghost of Whatever, and many others.

 

[Jinzo Prime]

You can really make an arguement for most of these. Very good list.

If I were to rank them in terms of influence:

1. DOOM
2. Tetris
3. Ocarina of Time
4. Super Mario 64
5. Pong
6. Metal Gear Solid
7. Super Mario Bros.
8. *Pokemon R/G/B/Y
9. Final Fantasy VII
10. The Legend of Zelda
11. Grand Theft Auto III
12. World of Warcraft
13. Half Life
14. Morrowind
15. Halo
16. Modern Warfare 4
17. Street Fighter II

* Added because it's important.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

FF VII is the greatest game of all time. So good the remake is shit in comparison.

 

[Enzo88]

It's super mario bros and mario 64 for 3d games....and i don't think it's even close.

 

[Porcile]

Metal Gear Solid

Heavy emphasis on presentation with visuals, sound, story often being the main talking point.

Gameplay is fun but ultimately very shallow and easy unless the difficulty is arbitrarily inflated.

It's almost 30 years later and this is the template for almost all mainstream games.

 

[ConkerTheSquirrel.]

It's basically the Star Wars of video games

 

[kevboard]

Metal Gear Solid

Heavy emphasis on presentation with visuals, sound, story often being the main talking point.

Gameplay is fun but ultimately very shallow and easy unless the difficulty is arbitrarily inflated.

It's almost 30 years later and this is the template for almost all mainstream games.

it absolutely isn't
MGS 1: doesn't hold your hand. 2: has no forced slow walking. 3: is entirely mechanics driven and has barely anything context sensitive.

also, for a PS1 game it was really damn complex when it comes to the gameplay. it was "shallow" (it wasn't btw) because it's a PS1 game, required to work on a D-Pad + 8 buttons.

 

[existensmaximum]

Pac-Man? Donkey Kong?

Well out of these games it's Super Mario Bros. There's just no competition.