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a glut of inferior titles, failing to persuade consumers to continue purchasing cartridges. In fact, for a period in the early 1980's, the video game industry was in real danger of crashing and dying.

Then the Nintendo Entertainment System arrived. Nintendo had the wisdom to enforce their game development more strictly, but this had one obvious potential pitfall: If Nintendo's own games were poor, the system would pass into irrelevant obscurity.

Super Mario Brothers would erase all doubts. With its colorful graphics, distinctive characters, extended scrolling play, imaginative world, and perfect difficulty level, Mario leapt into the beginning of his incredible journey as a pillar of the gaming community. The NES attained remarkable popularity and almost single-handedly saved the video game industry, thanks to a pair of plucky plumbers.

4. Goldeneye

Console gaming continued to carved its niche into the global entertainment scene. Other systems were available, along with an ever-expanding library of games. Soon, 64-bit gaming hit the scenes, and with it came true three-dimensional play, with rendered polygons.

On PC, titles such as Doom proved the health of first-person shooters, and that they could especially be enjoyed in a multi-player format. When Goldeneye was developed by Rare for Nintendo 64, it jolted all comers with its immense quality and sheer replay value. Tournaments were held, and it was named Game of the Year even by cross-genre standards, coming ahead of board games, card games, et cetera. First-person shooters had now entered the arena of console gaming, despite detractors who said it would be impossible to do so.

The significance of Goldeneye was that it paved the way for the first-person shooter to become one of the most popular, best-selling types of game a player could experience. If there is any doubt as to the importance of Goldeneye, one only has to refer to the success of Halo as the killer-app hallmark of its effect on consoles everywhere.

5. Wii Sports

If you have ever played the Wii, your first try at it was probably wielding a controller for its Sports title. Wii Sports is a package of several games, each brilliantly simple yet fiercely competition-inducing, and well-accessible to all ages. Although it has limited depth and certainly cannot stand as a pinnacle of immersive hobbyist gold, it has made two important points concerning the future of electronic gaming.

First, whereas the first video game consoles showed that arcade units could be enjoyed in the home, Wii Sports proved that absolutely anything could now be played on a console system. Sports such as tennis, bowling, et al are usually reserved for play elsewhere, but they could now effectively be brought into the living room, opening up limitless more possibilities.

Secondly, Wii Sports stood as the first flagship title for the Nintendo Wii, which in itself was a risky maneuver on Nintendo's part. The Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 certainly stand as worthy, even arguably better competitors, but the Wii proved that unexpected invention in video games, such as pervasive motion-sensitive controls, could catch on for the general family gamer. If moving your hand moves your character's hand, then what next? The Wii stands as a testament to virtual reality, and a possible precursor to our video gaming future.

Learn more about this author, Eric Bailey.
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