Nintendo Classics in the Running for Inaugural World Video Game Hall of Fame Honour  

Angry Birds, Doom, Minecraft, FIFA, Tetris, Mario...

There should be a retirement clause for some of these. Angry Birds and Minecraft are far too recent. Might as well induct Mike Trout into baseball's hall of fame based on this criteria.

The inclusion of Angry Birds makes this HoF laughable.

Angry Birds and FIFA don't really deserve such attention. I can make a case for the other titles, but not the former two.

VG Hall of fame.... Y U NO INCLUDE FINAL FANTASY!!!

@WaluPeachyTime
Angry birds was almost SINGLEHANDEDLY responsible for the mobile games revolution.
FIFA Was the first long-running sports game franchise

@Yorumi - I know right? What the hell is Pokémon doing in there? It just ripped off all its ideas from better franchises like SMT and DQ that came before it, it just built on what already existed and became popular but no mention of the games that put those genres on the map and essentially paved the way for those games?

@Yorumi I was surprised the nod went to Doom and not Wolfenstein.

Angry Bird and Minecraft, really? Might as well throw Call of Duty in there while their at it.

OK, now that I've used the last of my brain bleach to unsee MC and AB ......it's really nice to see The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros, and Sonic in the same ranks as classics such as Pong and The Oregon Trail.

I'll admit, I loved Angry Birds Star Wars and I played it a lot,....I just don't think any modern game deserves to be on this list. That's all.

I find it annoying that just because games are popular means it should make it into the Hall of Fame. Mario Bros. should win, not because I'm a Nintendo fanboy, but because it SAVED the industry. Without it, the industry may not still be around, or at least to the scale it has become.
I literally have no idea how Minecraft could be on here. Angry Birds is just the tiniest amount plausible as that launched the mobile phone game industry, but just because Minecraft has become popular in recent years doesn't mean it should be in the hall of fame.

Donkey Kong would look great where Angry Birds is sitting.

@MrMario02 Can you really back that claim? I'm not saying it isn't, I just think it's one of the most popular mobile games due to it's excellent marketing and merchandising.

With it being the first induction surely it has to go to Pong,if not then Space Invaders or Pacman!Anything other than those 3 or perhaps Mario or possibly even Sonic then this can't be taken seriously.I can understand why Angry Birds and Minecraft would be in the running a few years down the line but to include them in the running for the inaugural honour seems nonsensical.

If Angry Birds gets in first then this hall of fame will be a bigger piss stain than the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Angry Birds doesn't belong in any hall of fame, especially against any other title in this case. In fact it be dubious to see a crush the castle clone win against what are some very original, revolutionary and genre defining titles.

@S-Miyahon
I'd sooner say the game Snake deserves a bigger honour in establishing mobile gaming than Angry Birds does. Angry Birds is already starting to burn out fast.

Space Invaders
Pac-Man
Doom
Tetris
Super Mario Bros.

In that order. Space Invaders was essentially the first game that broke through into "hey, you don't just have to play stuff like Pong, you can also shoot stuff." Without Space Invaders and Pac-Man, we wouldn't even have Super Mario Bros or Doom.

Angry Birds shouldn't even be considered. What a waste.

@Quorthon I'd consider Breakout as well, especially if Woz can do some kind of video explanation of how it came to be.

Really great selection in my opinion. Angry Birds and Minecraft are hugely important games for opening up gaming to millions of new people, just as Super Mario Bros did back in the 80s. I'm sure there was a load of people from other mediums of home entertainment that thought Super Mario Bros was mindless trash back in the day too.

Newsflash. Super Mario Bros wasn't the first side scrolling platformer either, but it was the one that reached the most people and made the most impact, just like all the other games on the list.

Minecraft does deserve to be in the Hall of Fame EVENTUALLY... I don't agree with Angry Birds, the reason why it's gotten so big is because of the booming iphone/ipad market.

@Yorumi And how do you judge something is more substantial? By the amount of sequels it gets? Because the decision to make a sequel is just based on sales. Yes, sales play a big part in stuff like this, because that's how the games make a big impact on gaming. It's not an award for the best games, it's a hall of fame. Sales are a pretty good way to judge fame AND the greater impact they have on other games. Nobody rushes to copy a sales flop.

Tetris or Super Mario Bros should be first.

Good list from which to choose. The honor should go to Pac Man, Tetris or Pong though. Without Pong, there wouldn't have been anything else. Without Tetris and Pac Man, arcades in the 80s would have been lame. I'm actually surprised that Donkey Kong isn't in the list; introduced the world to Mario and Donkey Kong. They're still battling it out 35 years later.

I get all the hostility towards Angry Birds but IMO Angry Birds kind of put cell phone gaming on the map. I think it's probably too soon for that game to be put into a "hall of fame" and that's the issue. I kind of feel the same about Minecraft. Probably the game on the list that boggles my mind the most is FIFA. Why not Final Fantasy or Dragon Warrior.....or even better, Donkey Kong! Why not either Metroid or Castlevania, each of which has been the inspiration for countless other games?

Doom should be on it for the same reason Super Mario Bros is on it. It became the template that everybody tried to copy. That is the definition of significant.

I now have a better understanding of why these games are all together on this list! Makes more sense now.

I can understand why most of these games are here, other than a handful that I have very limited knowledge about (both the game itself and the genre it represents). Eventually I hope that just about every one of these games makes it into the Hall of Fame at some point. We need to remember that this Hall of Fame, at least to my understanding, isn't (or shouldn't) be choosing games purely on popularity, nor on the absolute first game to do X or get X right. This is meant to display influential games, consoles, etc. I doubt there will be any mention of the Microvision, the first handheld to use interchangeable cartridges, releasing almost a decade before the Game Boy, simply because the Game Boy popularized this idea (and the idea of portable game consoles in general). Heck, Pong isn't even original, it was a copy of the Magnavox Odyssey's Table Tennis/Ping-Pong game, but Pong became the popular one (and popularized the arcade game format/video games in general). Popularity is vital for a game to be influential, it has to be the game that widely introduced an idea. This isn't meant to be a video game history museum, but a collection of the important/impactful ones. [End Mini-Rant]

I'll be rooting for Pong for this year, due to its importance in popularizing video games (and not being the first video game) in general. I feel like it's a massive oversight to not have Wii Sports on this list though.

You're not eligible for the Rock and roll hall of fame until 25 years after your first album,It would be smart if the VGHOF made it so a series couldn't be added till its been around 10 years,If Angry birds gets in over any of the other nominees it's laughable.It already doesn't deserve to be nominated over the likes of Metroid and Megaman and the lack of Donkey Kong one of the most influential games ever is just stupid.

If they are only choosing one, it should be between Pac-Man, Pong, SMB, or Tetris.

@LavaTwilight Yeah you're right, I must have missed Space Invaders. Ya know though. I almost think that Donkey Kong should also be in the lineup. Pretty revolutionary in not only arcade games but platforming.

pong

space invaders
tetris
mario (should probably be OG donkey kong instead)
pac man
sonic

zelda
oregon trail

doom
pokemon
world of warcraft
fifa

angry birds
minecraft

All important games but the first hall of fame pick needs to go to pong. Show some respect.

Minecraft & Angry Birds make this look like a joke. But nice inclusion of Oregon Trail.

Minecraft and Angry Birds: true classics, people! True classics!

@Geonjaha And so did Bravely Default, Mother 2, Final Fantasy, ect and those games get tons of praise. That statement has died a long time ago for a lot of reasons and I really wonder why people still uses it.

How can it not be Super Mario Bros.? I'm not saying that most of the other weren't influential in their own right but without Mario the others might not exist at least in the same way

mario wouldnt exist if pong didnt exist

So many great game but Tetris is pratically on every posdible platform spacing from nes to dvd Players and hasn't aged at all and it even improve your brain!
P.s.
What the ...(insert what you prefer) are Angry Birds and FIFA doing in that list!!!

Does anyone remember the definition of 'fame'? How could you call Angry Birds or Minecraft anything but famous or popular?

Please God, do not let Angry Birds win. If Angry Birds wins, I will be very mad.

I will take this seriously if the winner is chosen seriously, that means no Angry Birds, Minecraft, WoW, or Fifa.

FIFA....really?

LMAO FIFA!? Seriously!? That should win just to troll the world

Everything else has a place here... Except Angry Birds, which stole the exact same game design from Crush the Castle.

If the Sims has managed to make it, then Lemmings at the very least deserves an honourable mention.

But hey, I'm biased.

@Chaoz - It's funny because you got mad instead of realising the point of my post.

For all those WoW haters. It really is probably the best and most popular MMO ever and has been running for a long time.

As long as FIFA is in this list, I can't take it seriously. Angry Birds and Minecraft are huge but too modern to be classics.

My pick for first is 4 of @quorthon 's 5. Pong, space invaders, pac-man and super Mario bros. Those seem to have the most influence out of all the choices in the list.

I can see angry birds in particular for the impact it had on the mobile gaming industry, but definitely not as the number one entry.

Pong... They started it all.

1st. Pong
2nd. Super Mario Bros.
3rd. Pac-Man
4th. Space Invaders
5th. Tetris
6th. The Legend of Zelda
7th. Pokémon
8th. Sonic the Hedgehor
9th. DOOM
10th. World of Warcraft

The Top Ten of what I think should go. Not in order of MY preference, rather the order of which ones I feel deserve number 1 in a world Hall of Fame.
Might switch Space Invaders and Tetris around.

While I am not mad Minecraft and Angry Birds are on this list (Minecraft is one of my all time favorite games) I feel like they still need time before we can consider them on a hall of fame. 10 years ago there were games that could of made it into a hall of fame that would never now. I feel like we need time to truley see a game's impact.

This vote will be hard for me, vote a candidate in that deserves the spot before Sonic, or let the SEGA bias vote for me?

There can be a case for all of these games...except for FIFA. The fact that it's the longest running sports series is irrelevant because the gameplay is terrible, and has mostly been bettered by PES over the years. It's only popular due to its official license.

If they really are going to make this a real thing then the first class should be at least 5-10 games and then 2-3 inductees each year minimum. The amount of backlog in this is so massive that with one game now and don't know how many annual inductees forward is just silly.

First ballot HoF video games for 2015 should be the following.

Pac-Man
Super Mario Bros. 3 (or series)
Legend of Zelda
Tetris
Civilization
King's Quest series
Pong
Doom is actually a great choice, would have picked Wolfenstein 3D myself.
Star Control II
Ultima IV

There, those should be this year inductees and in the future others. Next year shoe-ins should include at least FF-series game (IV or VII), Chrono Trigger, Sonic and Colin Mcrae Rally.

edit: Oh, there can be more than one inductee. I misread the news. Then my list still stands.

I love Nintendo, but Doom or Tetris or maybe Super Mario Bros are the games in that list that are worthy for the impact they have had in terms of gaming history.

Mario - pretty much popularised the platform genre through mid 80s into early 90s

Tetris - basically sold the original game boy and put handhelds on the radar plus brought the puzzle genre in to compete with platformers

Doom - while not the original FPS, it was the one that really sounded the death knell for the platformer genre and brought in FPSs which continue to dominate today. Probably came out early 90s, and until 1997/98 when Mario 64 and OoT came out, FPSs were the most popular and obviously goldeneye was the great example on N64.

Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time also deserve to be immortalised, as they were such groundbreaking entries into the free roaming true 3D genre.

Pokemon, minecraft, world of Warcraft are also massive games that deserve recognition, but I think the older titles deserve recognition first.

Golden axe/Double dragon deserves a mention for scrolling beat em up/hack n slash
Dune/command and conquer basically the precursor to Starcraft which basically is number 1 in Korea, maybe even Asia overall.
Essay over sorry for rambling

@Peach64

Sales are a good way to judge fame (snort, obviously), but a terrible way to judge ingenuity, creativity, or influence.

For instance in hardware, the N64 didn't really have sales, but it had a monumental impact on the industry by introducing the prototype for the modern analog stick (the actual modern analog was made by Microsoft when they made them clickable buttons), and was the first home console to make 4-player games a built-in standard that worked.

To be perfectly fair, the Atari 5200 tried both of these concepts when it first launched, but failed notoriously at them. Nintendo did them right and showed why analog sticks not only work, but also showed why they're better for 3D and modern gaming.

When you go buy popularity, then you automatically only focus on the PS1--which, granted, had it's own hefty innovations for the industry. But the point is that when you focus on popularity first, then that means you dismiss something that may not have been popular, but still carried incredible and broad-reaching influence.

Your argument by "popularity" (an actual noted fallacy, by the way) automatically dismisses the innovations created by the N64. And for note, because I know people here love to try reading whatever they want into other people's posts, I have routinely referred to the N64 as Nintendo's worst console, even with the issues now killing the Wii U--but I will still recognize the positive influence it had on the industry as a whole.

Also controller rumble. The N64 brought that to consoles for the first time as well.

@Vineleaf

I don't know if I'd consider Breakout--at least not right away. The game is mostly an evolution of concepts from Pong.

Per your Wolfenstein comment, I think Doom makes more sense because of the wide-spread influence it had. Everybody was trying to clone Doom at one time, so much so that "First-Person Shooters" used to be called "Doom Clones." But Wolfenstein never had this reach or impact. To that end, however, Wolfenstein is actually not the first. There is another....

Maze War is probably the penultimate root of this franchise, and I have a DnD game on the Intellivision that is basically a first-person title.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maze_War

Overall, Doom is just more important.

@Quorthon I'm thinking this is another one of those cases where I dropped out of video game culture for a bit. When I was in high school, Wolfenstein was the far more important game, but I think that's also because we all had machines that could run it smoothly. Then I went to college in a place that didn't have internet access yet (late 90s; seriously), so I did miss some stuff.

As for Breakout, I'd like there to be a story section to this hall-of-fame thing. The way that story intertwines so many big technology companies and names, going from Atari through Apple and then arcades and Taito and the lot, it's such a cool story. Especially when you get to read about the tech culture in Silicon Valley in the 70s. They just went and did things because they could/wanted to. I want that story to be well known, that attitude.

@Vineleaf

Ha, speaking of story, have you seen Atari: Game Over? It was the documentary that was an exclusive to the XBO for a while, but is on Netflix now. I was a little wary of it because of the way the internet views E.T. as "worst game ever, but no, I've never played anything older than a PS2 and whatever."

Finally, a couple weeks ago, not sure what we were in the mood to watch, my girlfriend and I queued it up and and lo and behold, it was really quite good. They interviewed the guy who made Atari, but also looked at the history of Atari as a whole which led to the collapse, and it was nice to see someone finally clearly explaining that the failure that was blamed on E.T. was not the fault of E.T., but that game was a symptom of bigger problems. Actually a very good movie, and man, was Atari ever a crazy company back then.

I'm not disputing Breakout as being included, just not as a first-stringer, and yes, I'm also a big fan of a good story. I'm also hugely interested in console history, as those specific pieces of hardware each come with their own great stories about creation, failure, or success.

@Quorthon I'll have to check that out once work lightens up a little. I guess I'm looking at this hall of fame more as a museum. I'm probably thinking of something too tangible. Stories like this, like Breakout and like Atari, definitely need to be preserved.

And anyone who says that E.T. is the worst game in the history of video games needs to play more at least of the 2600s library. It wasn't that far out of step with games like Superman on that thing.

@Vineleaf

E.T. is simply difficult to understand, and it has problems, but I've played far worse games. Superman 64 is dreadful and unplayable. You may not be able to accomplish anything in E.T., but Superman 64 is literally unplayable.

I also consider Other M to be worse for a list of reasons better used to fill a book.

@Geonjaha I'm not one to get mad over the stupid crap you said. If I was to be mad you would know, because apparently you're the same person that can somehow tell how people feeling through text which would make sense because you sound like a know-it-all in half of your posts.

@Yorumi But you're fine with Super Mario Bros being there? It wasn't the first, but it was the first to get huge mainstream success.

So many people are referring to this as an award, talking about a winner, but it's not, it's a hall of fame. Yes, things SHOULD be inducted for innovation, but breaking through to the mainstream is equally valid and is clearly what they're going for with all these nominations. They all became famous.

Angry Birds just doesn't belong in that group. At all.

"Super Mario Bros." should win, no contest. If not for that game's success, we wouldn't have the industry as it is today. Every title that came after it owes a debt to its legacy.

@Chaoz - "I'm not one to get mad over the stupid crap you said...you sound like a know-it-all in half of your posts"

Lol. Carry on not being angry good sir.

Tomb Raider should be in there.

@Geonjaha I will continue on not being mad good sir, because I have nothing to be mad about.