Videogames have come a long way since being pixels bouncing pixels back and forth on a screen. From massive open-world endeavors to gripping romps through terror and suspense, videogames have climbed the entertainment food chain to near apex predator level. Offering rewarding experiences and stellar graphics and mechanics, videogames are now like interactive movies with the player in the lead role. However, these radical developments did not just happen overnight. Decades of videogames have shaped and refined the tropes and standards we hold to games today. Unfortunately, many of these past juggernauts are now overshadowed by their huge, powerful, and shiny new siblings. These grand new titles wouldn’t exist without their forefathers, though, and this list is counting down the ten most influential games of all time that helped shape the industry, for better or for worse. This covers the first 5 of the countdown, so stay tuned to see the top five!

10.  Super Mario Bros.

Everybody recognizes the stout would-be hero of a plumber that is Mario. He is almost a household name with countless new games including the successful Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros. entries that have made him into an icon for Nintendo. But before he was a cartoon athlete, he was a two-dimensional plumber with a bone to pick with mushrooms and turtles. Super Mario Bros. is such a beautiful game to have come out at such an early stage of videogame development. Boasting linear levels and ‘worlds’ that presented a challenge with an obvious path to completion, Nintendo took it a step further and encouraged exploration, allowing for hidden secrets, bonus rooms, and warp gates to later worlds. This idea is now a common place theme in most videogames, all thanks to one curious plumber.

9. Duke Nukem 3D

Duke Nukem is also nearing a household name for gamers, though for far different reasons than the innocent Mario. Ol’ Duke has been in a fair bit of controversy ever since the first game, but it was 3D that set the series out and gave it its infamous character. 3D also promoted exploration, having plenty of caches and interesting secrets in the wonderfully designed levels that made up the stomping and shooting extravaganza. Every level seemed to be carefully designed to be appealing to the fast, kill-everything momentum that the game built itself on. No level felt slow or involved intricate puzzles. The puzzle was an alien and you shot it. That’s it. While the game may have spawned some horrid sequels, 3D laid the groundwork for several FPS standards and remains in many gamers’ hearts as their first true shooter.

8. Half-Life 

The shooter that put FPS games in the limelight for years to come. Half-Life is a beautiful splice of then-contemporary puzzles, story, and exposure, with groundbreaking ideas towards combat, AI, and player immersion. While other similar games like Wolfenstein and even Duke Nukem placed the player in the boots of a hero in an out-of-their-control conundrum, Half-Life did a flawless job of immersing the player into the role, having the entire plot caused by the player’s actions and decisions. Half-Life set the groundwork for numerous revolutions in shooters, horror, modding, voice acting, you name it. Half-Life spawned a handful of sequels that will appear later in this list.

7. System Shock 2

Another game that blended horror, suspense, and shooting aliens was System Shock. At its time, System Shock was ambitious, but clunky and confusing for many new and seasoned gamers alike. In 1999, System Shock 2 put any doubts about the series’ credibility to rest. Combining a hostile environment with intense, gripping characters, System Shock 2 put the story before the action in a good way; plot twists were almost unheard of in videogames. The typical ‘be a hero and defeat the big bad alien’ archetype was the mold in System Shock’s time, System Shock 2 did its best to make the player feel insignificant as they battle with a sadistic supercomputer in the middle of outer space. Alone. System Shock 2 created a beautiful template that would shape later entries in this list.

6. Deus Ex

Deus Ex has had a sordid history, with its controversial sequels and sensitive narrative. But before the shiny Human Revolution modernized ‘immersive simulation’ again, there was the original. Deus Ex was complex, unforgiving, and cold. Unlike Half-Life, you were back in the boots of a created hero, though not like Duke. Duke’s ‘choices’ were what to shoot first, whereas in Deus Ex you can choose not to shoot anything at all. The game introduced countless solutions to every conflict in the game, rewarding cunning and thoughtful decisions over all-out murder. Deus Ex fostered many of the ideas that have lead to shooters having immersion and depth rather than being glorified rail shooters like you’d find in any arcade room today. The thing that sets Deus Ex above titles like Half-Life is its replayability. Half-Life, System Shock, and the like all have beautiful stories, but they come nowhere close to having the deviation and thought that Deus Ex brings to the table with its large amount of solutions to problems.

That concludes the first half of the ten most influential gaming titles of time! Keep watch next week for the final five and a reflection on how these titles have truly shaped gaming beyond their own inventions.