RELATED: Forgotten Video Game Genres We’d Love To See Return
While many modern releases today incorporate countless gameplay mechanics, art styles, and genres, games from the past would predominantly feature just one or two core ideas. This may sound rudimentary, but designers were constantly finding ways to make their games stand out with unique concepts. Through these unique ideas that would differentiate their games, every once in a while, a designer or development team would stumble on a gameplay mechanic that would birth an entire genre, influence thousands of games, and perhaps even play an indirect part in offshoot genres and subgenres.
The designers or development teams behind the following games on this list may not have known it at the time, but they were creating the foundations of some of gaming’s pillars.
5 Donkey Kong - Platformer
Although the 1978 action game Frogs was the first to have a jumping mechanic - a core component of platformers - Donkey Kong was the first true platformer. Not only did the game birth the platforming genre, but it also gave the popular style of game two of its most notable characters right off the bat with Mario and Donkey Kong.
The game uniquely features Donkey Kong as a villain and tasks players with climbing ladders and avoiding barrels as Mario to save Pauline, who Donkey Kong has captured.
Mario would, of course, go on to become gaming’s biggest icon, thanks to the character’s trademark Super Mario series and a multitude of spin-off and party titles like Mario Kart, Paper-Mario, and numerous sports games. As for Donkey Kong, the born-again-hero peaked with Donkey Kong Country, a game that has been remade and re-imagined on multiple occasions.
4 Metroid & Castlevania - Metroidvania
No prizes for guessing which two games inspired the aptly named Metroidvania genre. Metroid and Castlevania were both released in 1986, just one month apart from each other, and collectively laid the genre’s foundations. The Metroidvania genre is distinguishable for featuring large world maps that are interconnected and initially filled with inaccessible areas that players will be able to explore once they gain abilities like double jumping or underwater swimming.
RELATED: Metroidvania Games to Play Before Hollow Knight: Silksong
The Metroidvania genre is predominantly known for 2D side-scrollers, but there have been examples of 3D Metroidvanias over the years, such as Batman: Arkham Asylumand the Metroid Prime series. Those looking for modern Metroidvanias to play are in luck, as the genre is still going strong, with critically acclaimed games likeOri and the Will of the Wispsand Guacamelee! 2being recent successes.
3 Demon’s Souls - Souls-Like
The Souls-Like genre is by far the newest on this list. As the name suggests, the genre originated with the Souls games, which were developed by FromSoftware and include Demon’s Souls and the Dark Souls trilogy. FromSoftware’s Souls style can also be seen in some of their other releases, namely Bloodborne, Elden Ring, and to a lesser extent, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
The Souls-Like genre is defined by its environmental storytelling, punishing difficulty, interconnected areas, and emphasis on boss fights. Many studios have tried to capture the magic of the Souls series, with Salt and Sanctuary and Nioh being successful examples.
2 Rogue - Roguelike
Rogue first hit stores in 1980 and was released on a plethora of consoles, including Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, and various PC systems. Rogue tasks players with fighting their way through enemy-infested levels to reach the bottom level of a dungeon to retrieve the Amulet of Yendor before returning to the top. The game features procedurally-generated levels, permadeath, and numerous helpful items to collect along the way, which are all staples of the roguelike genre.
RELATED: Best Roguelike RPGs, Ranked
The roguelike genre is thriving today, with Hades, Dead Cells, and the recently released Rogue Legacy 2 all being commercial and critical successes that are helping the genre continue its push into the attention of gaming’s mainstream audience.
1 Wolfenstein 3D - First-Person Shooters
Though id Software’s 1993 masterpiece DOOM was the game that popularized first-person shooters, it was another id Software release, Wolfenstein 3D, that is credited with kickstarting the genre. The game was originally going to be a 3D remake of the stealth title Castle Wolfenstein, but the development team instead chose to make a game that was fast-paced, action-packed, and violent to differentiate it from other PC games at the time.
Since the release of Wolfenstein 3D in 1992, the first-person shooter genre has sky-rocketed in popularity to become one of gaming’s most recognizable and profitable genres. The Wolfenstein and DOOM series are still going strong today, while franchises like Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Halohave raked in eye-watering sums of money in the gaming industry.
MORE: Best FPS Games On The PlayStation 2, Ranked
