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Which title is the Citizen Kane of gaming?

Not enough maze games in the modern day, but I think Pac-Land might be closer to the ballpark if you need retro-ness as a criteria.

Arcade Donkey Kong may also be a contender.

But calling any game a "Citizen Kane" of gaming is a bit weird, because most games won't have that dissonance between critic-viewer reception and, well, be considered good games.
 

Bernardougf

Gold Member
The Last of Us, duh.
bO4falW.jpg
I agree!!!

P.s. 2 suxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 

Mozzarella

Member
It's hard to point at one game and say its THE game. But I can agree with people saying Doom.
But the whole thing of naming games after movies is stupid, like some people named TLOU2 as Schindler's List. I dont find the whole parallel logical.
Next you will get what is the Godfather of gaming, what is LOTR of gaming what is Shawshank of gaming what is Taxi Driver of gaming what is Pulp Fiction of gaming..etc etc.
The whole thing doesnt make sense. lol
 

radewagon

Member
Oh my god, no one has posted it yet!

So, I'm torn between either Knack or Knack 2. I know Knack 2 is technically the better game, but it's clearly just resting on the laurels of the masterpiece world building from the original Knack. So, yeah, I'm gonna go with Knack the original.
 

brian0057

Banned
None.
In terms of influence, it's impossible to pin a single game down as the most important and influential, like Citizen Kane was for films.
Also, videogames are not art.
 

HoodWinked

Member
what the fuck is happening? no one mentioned Super Metroid? it's like the overused example of this.

ya Another World came out before it but Super Metroid was pretty much the main game people look back on where games were made one way where they were arcade like games, or story games but this was one of those games that married all of the elements in a masterful way along with environmental storytelling, and character/story progression.

zQvBAOg.gif
 
I don't think there should be a Citizen Kane of gaming because despite there being games in certain genres, games aren't really defined in the same way fixed mediums like music movies etc. because games are interactive...people often have different gameplay interactions with the same game which is part of the beauty of interactivity in gaming
 

Bragr

Banned
Wolfenstein 3D - May 5th, 1992
Doom - December 10th, 1993

Doom took 9 months to develop according to quick Google search.

Wolfenstein is champion!
I didn't ask who came first, but rather why is it supposed to be more influential? it's not about having a feature set, it's about spreading the idea. Wolfenstein was big and influenced plenty, Doom was gigantic and influenced everyone.
 

Vagswarm

Member
Super Mario 64 and Doom are the right answers IMO. They revolutionized all of gaming and set the template which transitioned how games were played. While awesome, games like Skyrim and Half Life 2 aren't even the first in their franchise, much less the genre or gaming. Wolfenstein was barebones and Doom was released right after anyway (and by the same company). FPS games are absolutely massive now.

I can see the case for Grand Theft Auto III.
 
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Surely the Citizen Kane of gaming is a game barely anyone has actually played apart from game buffs, who like to one up each other by playing obscure games made in France in the early 90s and telling each other "How much you should really play Another World to truly understand modern game design of Dishonored."
So, the Citizen Kane of gaming is something American...

The Citizen Kane of gaming is

Paperboy.
Or
Rampage
 
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Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
What do you mean by "Citizen Kane"? Do you mean a game that is decent, but beyond overhyped to levels that it has become a meme? Anything by Naughty Dog.

Or do you mean "Citizen Kane" in reference to taking advantage of the medium to showcase neat/interesting tricks that move the medium forward for its time? Then NieR would be the best choice, IMO.
 
What do you mean by "Citizen Kane"? Do you mean a game that is decent, but beyond overhyped to levels that it has become a meme? Anything by Naughty Dog.

Or do you mean "Citizen Kane" in reference to taking advantage of the medium to showcase neat/interesting tricks that move the medium forward for its time? Then NieR would be the best choice, IMO.
Sorry, but both these games are far too new to be considered the Citizen Kane of gaming. Citizen Kane itself is not overhyped. It is a meme used by people who have never watched Citizen Kane. So as I said above the Citizen Kane of gaming has to be something remembered well and talked about, but barely played by the average gamer under the age of 40.
 
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Woggleman

Member
Controversial but GTA 3. It is a before and after moment for gaming. You can also include Super Mario Bros and Street Fighter 2 which were both before and after moments. The fighting genre was never the same after Street Fighter 2.
 

jaysius

Banned
Oh boy, someone posts this every other month and it always ends up with the same answers.

Super Mario 64 was the first jump to 3D that was fully competent, I know looking back there's some heavy golden age thinking going on, but the only other game that I played and I was like "wow they get what 3D should be" is Ninja Gaiden 1.

Many game makers still don't understand what 3D should be, what it's devolved into now is pretty bland levels that are filled with filler everywhere to make them look lively when in reality you've just got some very basic polygons stitched together. For 85% of the 3D games, they've all taken a step in the wrong direction. Game development is going backwards. The best metroidvanias are still in 2D, because the ones that are in 3D are mostly fucking messes, Metroid Prime was pretty good, but there's still something missing from 3D Metroids.
 

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
Sorry, but both these games are far too new to be considered the Citizen Kane of gaming. Citizen Kane itself is not overhyped. It is a meme used by people who have never watched Citizen Kane. So as I said above the Citizen Kane of gaming has to be something remembered well and talked about, but barely played by the average gamer under the age of 40.

No, its a meme used by both people who have and have not watched Citizen Kane. Hate to break it to you, but Citizen Kane is a heavily overhyped film with a few neat ideas for its time and has been done far better since.
 
No, its a meme used by both people who have and have not watched Citizen Kane. Hate to break it to you, but Citizen Kane is a heavily overhyped film with a few neat ideas for its time and has been done far better since.
I am trying to think of a film that is like Citizen Kane and I am drawing a blank. Please enlighten me?
 
you can tell who has and hasn't watched Citizen Kane.

it isn't a particularly great movie to watch today (i watched it again a couple months ago) but it was so innovative in many ways and went on to inspire future filmmakers.

so "the citizen kane of gaming" isn't necessarily going to be the best game of the last few years or even the highest rated game of all time. it's something that tried something different and went on to influence other games. it doesn't need to be that good of a game either.

i think it's hard to pick one so i'd go with super mario 64 and the legend of zelda.
 
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01011001

Banned
The Last of Us, duh.
bO4falW.jpg

that is the Avatar of gaming, somehow super popular but shallow to the core. contrary to game critics tho, film critics don't get blinded by "presentation" and superfluous crap so Avatar never got that critical acclaim lol

if any game actually deserves that title it would be either Breath of the Wild, Half Life 2 or if we go by visionary and gamechanging it would be something like Super Mario Bros or PacMan... for JRPGs I would say Chrono Trigger.
you know, something that actually tried to do something special and new with the gameplay and not just use the most generic game mechanics available at the time like that beacon of mediocrity posted above... not running at a stuttery 30-20fps also helps

Rdr2 . Too long and too earnest for most people to stomach.

too shit to control and too god awful mission design for me to stomach
 
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01011001

Banned
The Last of Us: Part II

And im in no way joking.

It is, by far, the most mature game in terms of subject matter, themes, writing, how certain things/characters are handled, willingness to do certain things, etc in a AAA game. Not even close.

notice how there is no word about gamedesign, leveldesign and gameplay in here
which is why I can't take most people seriously when they talk about which game is good or bad. all of the mentioned things above should be a secondary criteria when talking about a videogame not the only thing you talk about when it comes to the topic at hand
 
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Woggleman

Member
notice how there is no word about gamedesign, leveldesign and gameplay in here
which is why I can't take most people seriously when they talk about which game is good or bad. all of the mentioned things above should be a secondary criteria when talking about a videogame not the only thing you talk about when it comes to the topic at hand
Even a lot of people who hated the story admit that it has great gameplay.
 

Kagey K

Banned
Citizen Kane is overrated tbh
Without it we would still have the old style 1 camera cuts movies.

It revolutionized the industry.

I think in gaming it's hard to pick a game that did that, as they all steal ideas from each other so it's hard to pinpoint that one game that changed the industry.

There are a few good cases made for early games in each genre.

Like Mario 64
Doom
Halo
Tenchu

But I don't think any game has come close to being that game.

If I had to pick one that blends multiple genres together well I'd have to pick Nier: Automata

It seamlessly blends so many genres together.

Still not Citizen Kane though.
 
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Kagey K

Banned
notice how there is no word about gamedesign, leveldesign and gameplay in here
which is why I can't take most people seriously when they talk about which game is good or bad. all of the mentioned things above should be a secondary criteria when talking about a videogame not the only thing you talk about when it comes to the topic at hand
Even a lot of people who hated the story admit that it has great gameplay.
The thing is Citizen Kane brought a whole new way of storytelling and conveying emotion to the screen.

Tlou does it for story, but the gameplay offers nothing new. It's still crouch, throw bricks and bottles, and move boxes.

Splinter Cell brought more to the steath genre than TLoU does, as far as gameplay goes.
 
Without it we would still have the old style 1 camera cuts movies.
I think the closest comparison to that would be, simply, a game with multiple different, dynamic levels, rather than just resetting the game area and bumping the difficulty up a bit.
If we go by that criteria, Donkey Kong it is. I think nowadays we take for granted that pretty much any game will have more than 1 level/stage, and this kind of thing actually makes games that predate it like Space Invaders, Pac-Man and Galaga tough for me to play.

Though Space Invaders might get points for "It's not Pong." and Pac-Man gets points for "It's not Pong or Space Invaders".
 

Kagey K

Banned
I think the closest comparison to that would be, simply, a game with multiple different, dynamic levels, rather than just resetting the game area and bumping the difficulty up a bit.
If we go by that criteria, Donkey Kong it is. I think nowadays we take for granted that pretty much any game will have more than 1 level/stage, and this kind of thing actually makes games that predate it like Space Invaders, Pac-Man and Galaga tough for me to play.

Though Space Invaders might get points for "It's not Pong." and Pac-Man gets points for "It's not Pong or Space Invaders".
I remember Ms Pac Man being revolutionary because the board changed with each level.
 

Represent.

Represent(ative) of bad opinions
notice how there is no word about gamedesign, leveldesign and gameplay in here
which is why I can't take most people seriously when they talk about which game is good or bad. all of the mentioned things above should be a secondary criteria when talking about a videogame not the only thing you talk about when it comes to the topic at hand
Straight up... The combat in The Last of Us Part II is completely and entirely unmatched.
Also. I disagree. In an intelligent game where story is super important - story, writing, presentation are just as important as great gameplay. If you have great gameplay and shit ass story then you have Vanquish or Dark Souls.

Everything has to be equally important. Its why I respect the fuck out of Naughty Dog. Their gameplay is just as good as their graphics, which is just as good as their animation which is just as good as their writing, etc. Perfection
 
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Kagey K

Banned
Straight up... The combat in The Last of Us Part II is completely and entirely unmatched.
Also. I disagree. In an intelligent game where story is super important - story, writing, presentation are just as important as great gameplay. If you have great gameplay and shit ass story then you have Vanquish or Dark Souls.

Everything has to be equally important. Its why I respect the fuck out of Naughty Dog. Their gameplay is just as good as their graphics, which is just as good as their animation which is just as good as their writing, etc. Perfection
What did they bring in the gameplay department that hadn't been done in other games?
.
 
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