Super Metroid #1 ACTION ADVENTURE GAME Super Metroid "Nintendo made a game about isolation and called it an adventure." Read Review
Ico #1 ADVENTURE GAME Ico "A boy holds a girl's hand and leads her through a castle—Team Ico's 2001 debut reduced gaming to its most essential gesture and created something closer to poetry than product." Read Review
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night #1 ACTION RPG Castlevania: Symphony of the Night "Konami flipped a castle upside down and invented a genre." Read Review
Dig Dug #1 ARCADE GAME Dig Dug "Namco made a game about inflating monsters until they explode, and somehow it's adorable." Read Review
Street Fighter II #1 FIGHTING GAME Street Fighter II "Capcom invented competitive gaming by accident and changed arcades forever." Read Review
Half-Life #1 FIRST PERSON SHOOTER Half-Life "Valve's 1998 debut made the radical argument that shooters could tell stories without cutscenes—and that silent protagonists could be more present than any voice actor." Read Review
Final Fantasy VI #1 ROLE PLAYING GAME Final Fantasy VI "Fourteen playable characters, an opera scene that still produces tears, and a villain who actually destroys the world—Square's 1994 masterpiece remains the high-water mark for narrative ambition in the 16-bit era." Read Review
Resident Evil 4 #1 SURVIVAL HORROR GAME Resident Evil 4 "Capcom burned down their own franchise and built something new from the ashes—the 2005 reinvention that made survival horror into action horror and influenced everything that came after." Read Review