The Class of 2025 was enshrined Thursday in recognition of how they challenged players and changed the industry.
In Rochester, N.Y., the World Video Game Hall of Fame added four new inductees, recognizing games that not only challenged players but also left a lasting impact on the industry.
The Class of 2025 includes Defender, an arcade game from 1981 known for its high level of difficulty; Tamagotchi, the virtual pets that blurred the lines between traditional toys and video games; GoldenEye 007, famous for introducing a four-player mode that influenced future multiplayer games; and Quake, which revolutionized the industry in 1996 with its cutting-edge 3D engine.
These winners were chosen from a group of 12 finalists, which featured other popular titles such as Age of Empires, Angry Birds, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Frogger, Golden Tee, Harvest Moon, Mattel Football, and NBA 2K.
The Hall of Fame each year recognizes arcade, console, computer, handheld, and mobile games that have had staying power and influenced the video game industry or pop culture.
The best-selling Defender, released by Williams Electronics, proved that players would embrace complex and challenging games in the arcade, the experts said. It combined intense gameplay and a complicated control scheme with a horizontally scrolling shooter.
“Defender’s punishing gameplay raised the level of competition in arcades, and it was among the first games to truly separate dedicated players from more casual ones,” Jeremy Saucier, assistant vice president for interpretation and electronic games, said.
The 1996 launch of Tamagotchi is credited with sparking the popularity of pet simulation video games. The handheld egg-shaped electronic game allowed owners to care for a virtual pet from birth through death, feeding, playing with and cleaning up after it by pressing buttons. Collections manager Kristy Hisert said Tamagotchi offered something different than the popular video game electronics of the time.
“It provided players with feelings of connection, caring, and customization, a respite from competition and fighting games,” she said. Neopets, Nintendogs and other social media and app-based versions of pet simulation games would follow.
GoldenEye 007 was based on the 1995 James Bond spy film “GoldenEye” and was the third best-selling game for the Nintendo 64, behind Super Mario 64 and Mario Kart 64. The result of a 1997 partnership between Nintendo and Rare, the first-person shooter game was known for its four-person multiplayer mode, which Hall of Fame experts said influenced many multiplayer games that followed.
Id Software’s 1996 Quake was also recognized for its lasting influence, with a game code that “is a literal legacy” and continues to be used in some games after nearly 30 years, electronic games curator Lindsey Kurano said.
“Of few games can it be said that its DNA — its code — continues to be present in modern games, decades after release,” she said.
The World Video Game Hall of Fame is inside The Strong National Museum of Play. Anyone can nominate a video game for consideration. Museum staff name 12 finalists each year and solicit votes from experts and fans before announcing the winners.
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