When it comes to Halls of Fame, there’s a lot out there: rock and roll hall of fame, hockey hall of fame, but right now the voting is open for the latest entries in the Video Game Hall of Fame.
There’s a lot of entries from different gaming systems. Everything from Asteroids on the Atari 2600 to Resident Evil. Games that I expect to see in the vote like Guitar Hero, to one that surprised me—the online pet sim: Neopets. The list is getting pared down to three through online voting.
The finalists are as follows:
”Asteroids” on the Atari 2600 (1979) This game started off as an arcade cabinet before coming into homes on the Atari. It is a classic amongst the likes of “Space Invaders”.
“Guitar Hero” on PlayStation 2 (2005). This rhythm game took the world by storm, garnering sequel after sequel, with players creating their own bands and playing their way to stardom.
”Metroid” on NES (1986). This was not only a stellar platformer, but it was also one of the first mainstream female playable characters in a video game!
“Myst” PC (1993). This point and click adventure game captivated many a gamer through puzzles and interesting visuals.
”Resident Evil” PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Nintendo DS, Windows, (1999) This was a defining game in the survival horror genre. It has made a good name for itself with multiple film adaptations alongside its video game sequels.
“SIM City” PC (1989). This city builder came before the real life simulator series. It was influential to many other building games such as Age of Empires or Command and Conquer.
“Neopets” website (1999). This pet simulation site is still up and going today, offering many different fantasy pet options and a host of mini games to keep users, myself included, entertained for hours on one website.
“Ultima” PC (1981) was an RPG that combined fantasy and science fiction in a huge fictional world. This game spawned eight sequels and inspired genre-defining games like Final Fantasy.
“Tokimeki Memorial” PC (1994) was never localized or released outside of Japan. This dating simulator brought a ton of gameplay choices and colourful graphics that were more rare to the genre at that time.
“Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater” PlayStation (1999) took a pro in a sport with high popularity and brought him to a new audience. The soundtrack and trick-focused game-play make for a memorable playing experience.
”You Don’t Know Jack” PC, Mac, PlayStation, (1995) is a title that may be familiar for its sudden burst in popularity during the pandemic. The multi-player game show format is popular, garnering spin offs and even mobile sequels.
This year’s video game selection has a wide variety. If you could choose one of these video games to be immortalized in a hall of fame, what would you choose?
– Tam
