Super Mario Brothers
It would be hard to make a list of the most influential games, anywhere, and not included Super Mario Bros. It isn’t that the game exactly did things that no one had ever seen before (though it did do those), it’s that it them altogether. The game features a certain level of cohesiveness rarely seen in games up to this point, and rarely seen since in many ways.

The levels were structured, but in a way that made sense. Drop into a pipe and you’re in an underground world, trying to get back to another pipe to get above ground. As you will note, every 2D Mario game since has borrowed this very basic seeming mechanic, but one that game the games a sense of “world” long before Mario had his own World.

Perhaps most intriguing about the game’s influence is how many games still try to copy it to this day, twenty plus years after its release. Consider that New Super Mario Bros. (DS) is most influenced by the original and World, despite most fans claim of the superiority of the third chapter.

The Legend of Zelda
Much like with Super Mario Bros., the original Legend of Zelda title succeeds based on a sense of world. Before there were sandbox games of the Grand Theft Auto variety, The Legend of Zelda dropped the player into the middle of a world with barely an instruction. The player explored freely and figured out the secrets of this massive new world with very small clues–sometimes none at all.

Since then, nearly every action and RPG game has taken some cues from this series. The actual series has spawned some of the most memorable games in console gaming history, and Link and Zelda have become synonymous with gaming itself. What many forget in all the reverence directed towards the series is what an original experience it was at the time of its release. Sure, titles like Adventure had certainly encouraged exploration, but none with quite the devious puzzles, imaginative characters, and overall feeling of triumph for simply moving some pixels around on screen.

Super Mario Brothers 3
If the original Super Mario Bros. defined the platformer genre, then it was Super Mario Bros. 3 that perfected it. Still heralded to this day by many as the greatest platformer ever made, Super Mario Bros. 3 doesn’t seem that incredible until you realize no game has been able to match many of its aspects since.

For example, while Super Mario World and New Super Mario Bros. both feature world maps where you select your level of play, a la Super Mario Bros. 3, neither matches the mixed simplicity and complexity of SMB3. No other Mario games features the wide variety of gameplay styles that SMB3’s suits/costumes brought to the mix. No other game, period, has ever matched the inspired level design. The battle ships of the last world are some of the few forced moving levels to ever really “work” in a game, and they’re challenging for even the best of players.

Dragon Quest/Warrior
While it may be best known today as Dragon Quest, many American NES owners still remember it as Dragon Warrior. The genesis of the console RPG, Dragon Quest laid the foundation for all in the genre that followed–right up to modern epics such as Final Fantasy XII.

The game itself, including its story, is fairly simple. A princess is captured by a dragon, and you set out to save her. Immediately you face the series’ trademark slime enemies. They’re the cutest basic enemies perhaps ever devised, and it’s no surprise they have become the stars of many spin-offs. The rest of the game is basically a level grind with minimal story, but that’s okay. It would be a while before the stories became the stars of RPGs. Still, Dragon Quest lays the foundation in a very clear fashion for every RPG that followed it. Its influence cannot be denied.

Tecmo Bowl
Tecmo Bowl isn’t the godsend game that many remember it as. In fact, it’s super basic gameplay feels very outdated, even when you compare it to 16-bit rivals. Sure, its pick up and play fun, but for how long? If it were perfect, wouldn’t we all still be playing it?

Well, we are to a degree. The original blueprint for a console football game, Tecmo Bowl is in the DNA of every Madden, Blitz, and NFL 2K game made today. Sure, the graphics have gotten betters, as well as the gameplay, but the underlying game is still the same. Of course it is, after all, they’re all football games, right? Wrong. While baseball, basketball, and hockey titles have seen restructuring of their gameplay, Tecmo Bowl remains the inspiration for every game in one of the most popular genres in videogames. To this day, Madden is little more than Tecmo Bowl with some added moves. It even retains the “money plays.” Add in the actual players lining the field and you have one of the most inspirational sports games ever made.