If I had to elect a Citizen Kane game, I would nominate Zelda: A Link to the Past on the SNES, simply because it was the first time a game's world make me feel like it was concrete and genuine, and it had various themes throughout that made it more epic than the original: Justice and peace in decline, the death of a family member, a harrowing escape from a castle dungeon, ancient evil seeping back into the world... this game had it all! The emotional rollercoaster hits crescendo with the pulling of the Master Sword - a satisfaction that has yet to be duplicated in any other Zelda game (with the possible exception of The Wind Waker, though in ALTTP you can traverse the landscape unfettered from all of WW's conductor's wand BS). And what did Nintendo follow this masterpiece up with? A 3D game where you mourn the loss of a talking tree. I'll stick with my 2D Zeldas, thank you.

This list doesn't include Ico or Shadow of the Colossus? For shame.

Those two are probably the closest parallels to Citizen Kane that exist. Critically acclaimed, loved by game designers, massively influential, but not a great success with the public. They defied convention and showed that there were ways of storytelling that had never been seen before. And they had some really ground-breaking technical achievements which influenced the rest of the gaming world dramatically - HDR bloom, dynamic exposure, realistic fur, etc.

you forgot one thing Resident Evil 4 pioneered, redidculesly stupid friendly AI so dumb, it had to be on purpose that Ashley is the only thing in the entire game that will hide from zombies in front of the gun that Leon just shot and absorbing the bullet and dying that inspired millions of developers to make your partners dumbasses, all exept valve

no Ico or SotC but the ingenuity of this article prevents it from bring a fail. still, moar SotC. way to go mikel

Only one of the DMC sequels was "middling". Hell, number 3 was in some ways better than the first.

Super Mario 64 was the first game to make me feel like flying cars were possible. It was a real "The future is here" moment for me.

Oh, and no Killzone?

I kid, I kid!

Noice Article.

Such a large list and no Baldur's Gate to be found. Baldur's Gate did things that were unprecedented for western rpgs.

RE should also have been heralded for it's Conversion of "zombies" into "infected"

People hardly ever call them Zombies now.
:)

What about Quake I ?!?

Not sure if its been said before, but they had this on kotaku on the top 5 top lists: http://kotaku.com/5323164/kotakus-top-5-list-of-top-10-lists

Good article and all, but why no Dune II or Daggerfall?

I disagree fairly strongly with the piece. You could say, and most would agree that there have been a boatload of influential movies. We could name some succesful movies. Keaton's The General, Kubrick's The Killing, Kurosawa's Seven Samurai and Carpenter's Halloween. What they pioneered, what they influenced. That would proabably be a fairly interesting article, as this one was. In the comments we could argue that Halloween was actually nothing but a natural progression on Friedkin's Exorcist coupled with some exploitation influences. We could say Jamie Lee Curtis was hawt. But it would miss the point about Citizen Kane.

What makes Citizen Kane so remarkable is that even today it's conventions and storytelling mechanisms are instantly recognizable, or so transparent that you do not even notice them.

Is there a several years old game that is equally modern? That will be equally modern in 60 years? Well, ask me again in 60 years, and I might have a different an answer.

Games are an even more varied a medium than movies, but I still believe we've sort of reached the Citizen Kane -phase. There will be more refined games, but most of the true technical revolutions are behind use, I believe.

So what are my criterias? We want a game that presents most of the technological ideas, mechanisms that modern games employ, atleast on a crude level.

For example, you could take someone who has only played games for a year or two, and make him play the CK-game. After a couple of monitored session, interview the player and see if he felt at home playing the CK-game.

Today I'd probably nominate Ultima Underworld. Doom-like engine that allowed objects on top of eachother, non-linear (open world) progression, mouselook (iirc), voiced opening cut-scene, factions (sort of, there are the goblins and other denizes of the Abyss), a simple but nevertheless fairly engaging story told in driblets and avalanches. And the player is indeed the central operator throught the game. Most everything is there in an instantly recognizable form, at least for me. But then again, CK is also mostly of interest for cinemaphiles. The rest of the world is more than happy enough with their entertainment.

And yes, what would the Peggle player say about UU? Probably nothing much, which is why I personally don't understand where this whole art-envy comes from.

I'm really disappointed by these half-assed attempts to legitimize gaming. There's a lot to be said for games. Too bad gaming press doesn't seem to be too interested in trying to say.

PS. I consider the controls critical btw. How we communicate is as important as how the game communicates with us. If I'm mistaken and UU doesn't have mouselook, then I would reject it as the CK-game.

I'm glad Planescape: Torment was mentioned on this list. One of my all time fav RPGs ever.

pardon the interuption but all of you halo fanboys out there who think halo introduced any new concepts to videogames on for fps or storywise should know your 100% incorrect. It was not the first to introduce gernades it wasnt the first to introduce coop for 4 players. Ever heard of unreal tournament? Ever hear of red faction? Well the 2nd red faction introduced 4 player coop. I may even be incorect in that one(as far as consoles). What about goldeneye for the n64. I mean come on halo doesnt even have that great of story. halo 3 is about a whole 5 hours long and is complete trash. Dont get me wrong halo is a fun game and i played it to completion a few times but its not even a top 10 shooter. Even the original gauntlet had coop play so learn something about what you like before you talk or go play some mario party or dynasty warriors and sit down.

I wrote a paper for my humanities class well documenting and providingexamples of how video games are a form of art. Noone agreed with me thats why i chose video games. At the end of the hour class everyone including the teacher realized I am right and I got a perfect 200 point paper.

like the list, but don't care for devil may cry to much, my brother likes it, but by the time i actually got the game i was way to into god of war 2.

@ludovix: gran tourismo sucks ass.

wait a minute, i just realized, after a 4 hour okami session, that there is not okami on this list!
sure, not many people have played it, but it's a god damn masterpeice! the art style, the ingenious story line, and the controls just show what they Ps2 was made for.

and as an eitor for GR, i thought you had an obligation to get the okami name out even more, like a video game pimp...

Hey GR, ever heard of Deus Ex? Give it a go, it's a great game with deep level design that I have not seen elsewhere.