Ha GTA made 1st not suprising.

HawkTheSlayer - Tetris is in there but way too far down the list....

My guess would be the author / authors are about 25 years old with not much of an idea of much of the non-japanese/ non-american games out  there and very little interest in the history of computer games.

I can't believe the amount of FPS in the list, they cannot all be infuential to gaming history, maybe Wolfenstien, Doom, quake or Halflife and Halo possibly, but Halo 2 as well, I don't think so. I would agree with DayDream, Elite should definately be in the list and I don't recall seeing Tetris in there either, a definate milestone in the puzzle genre. 

as an example
Body Harvest(N64) > Shenmue(DC) > GTA3, but is GTA

but it's fun to see titles like ET, wich indeed is the responsable o the vidgame crisis in the 83

What happened to Double Dragon? Wasn't that influential for 2 player cooperative beatem ups, and beign able to actually grab people and pick up dropped weapons, as well as the style and music?

And where are the shoot em ups?

And what about hyper sports? A blue print alot of companies use for track n field games. 

The list is very personal - showing the author's backgrounds and is by far not objective or even close to mainstream ideas of what should be in the list.

What happened to titles like lemmings, shadow of the beast or even Moorhuhn - or at least duckhunt - speedball - hardly any Amiga/ Atari ST games made it into the list - yet they where huge in Europe.

And honestly a list without Elite - no not the Elite Beat Agents (you youngsters) - the space shooter/ trader game from the C64-days - is not a complete list.

A wide area of computer games has been left out - which is a pity and makes this list like most list compiled before a hot topic and basis for discussion but nothing lasting. 

This list sucks.
Nintendo really isn't given enough credit here.
They defined several genres and are more or less the company that all games today are at least somewhat influenced by.

I agree with FrankieSmileShow that Guitar Hero is not "influential"... if anything Guitar Hero is an extension of gameplay perfected in DDR. 

GTA3 may not have been unique with its "sandbox" or being open ended (hell, pretty much all RPGs made in the last 20 years have those elements), but it is clearly the game most ripped off in the past few years. Dozens of games have tried to use GTA3's exact style of gameplay and none have been successful except Rockstar itself with the excellent Bully.  I would put GTA3 in the high teens or twenty's since there hasn't been one developer "influenced" enough to make a decent freaking game.

Is it just me or does anyone else think that some here seem to misunderstand what sort of influence the article is about?

Ultima 1 was the first commercial game to ever use tile-based visuals. That is a very major influence on pretty much all 2d games that followed.

Super Mario Bros should be much higher, it pretty much singlehandedly saved console gaming from extinction, and created hop and bop games, which ruled platformer gaming for a very long time afterwards.

Also, american style RPGs had open-handedness way before GTA3. GTA3 just sparked more interest in that sort of gameplay., as well as a relatively short lived wave of me-too GTA games...
The text on the list seems to call them the INVENTORS OF NON-LINEARITY. Sandbox games existed way before.

Also... Guitar hero? Wii sports? Im sorry, but you cant call such recent games "influencial" yet, thats stupid. In a few years maybe, okay.

did someone saw warioware? katamari?metal slug?space channel 5/parappa rapper..... that list really ... 
(should also rename it as "list of the most important games that reached planet america..)

Is clear we all have different taste. I'm glad i could find my StarCraft ... im still playing it :)

Yay they've got Halo in it (offcourse!) Only its on the first page... well its good enough for me :)

Edit: They should have told more about Halo's new way of using vehicles etc... thats te coolest part :D even cooler than dual-wielding two needlers :P hehe

super tecmo bowl kicked maddens ass 3 ways til sunday.

Really, its tough to put something like these in order of importance; its very possible they just threw them in a box, shook up the box, and picked them out and listed them as so   

GTA3 wasn't unique. belgh. as soon as they went 3d i lost interest.
Worms should have been on the list. Halo is shite. They could have at least spell checked the friggen list. What has the Sims influenced? err... the Sims 2?
What a waste of time. If you're going to create a list of inflential games, pick games that are influential rather than a list of games that you like to play. And don't correct people about things like pong being the first game when you can't even get it right yourselves. What a load of wank.

Yeah, SFII and 007!! Wonderful.
I'd totally agree with number 1; GTA III. It was totaly unique for anything like that, and still does it better than a lot games now.
Only missing Poke'mon, me think. ;p

The list is a good idea, but the picks are a mess.  I agree with Jalonso that Madden SHOULD be up high. How could it not be?  It's sold more games than any other series on just about every console in the past decade.

A few absolute headscratchers for me...

47. Duke Nukem 3D (see LucasArts adventure games for games that are actually funny)
38. Mortal Kombat II (the first MK had a much, much larger impact -- it made national news!)
37. Devil May Cry  (huh?)

And my biggest gripe... how the hell are both Halo and Halo 2 on this list?  I know they were hugely popular, but to leave Battlefield 1942 off this list for TWO console (i.e. mediocre) FPS games from the same series? Weak.

Stupidest list ever.

I think a list missing out on a pokemon game is skewed. The game was the original product and that game has had more influence than dozens of those games. Didn't the latest two break records for ds game sales opening weekend? And heck, influence terms it started a cultural world that spread to all different ages and mediums.

 I think a bit more research should have been done, but interesting nonetheless.

Interesting. I'll be the only one to think Madden is correct at #2. Tetris/Pong tied at #1.

I was surprised at number 1.

Nintendogs made the list, yet Pokemon/Dragon Warrior or any "Monster Hunt" game appears to be missing

this list seems way to contriversal

The only one i don't quite agree with is Madden. Sure, it made Sports games the way they are, and tried to make them realistic, but it's not THAT influential.

I'm a little annoyed that the author keeps contending "[game x] wouldn't exist without this [game y]".  Oh well, some interesting picks in there.  Resident Evil 4 is a bold pick and I definitely agree -- it hits every note perfectly.

some i agree with, others, not so much.

zelda should get more credit, as with  mario.

gta should get credit, but not first =/ 

tetris 12th?
pacman 6th?
GTA 1st?
Madden 2nd?!

John Maddens NFL Football is second? The hell?