One could argue the fact that Halo was the vanguard for western developers shifting to consoles. I think it had more to do with console gaming becoming more and more mainstream, along with the increasing ability of consoles to handle projects that use to be relegated only to the PC. Its not like Halo was the first successful, western developed game.

And I would give games like Guitar Hero and Mario Party credit for breaking the sex and age barriers that had been built up in the game industry over the years. What people affectionately call the casual gamer, are just the side of the mainstream audience that had been excluded from the boys only club of gaming. I never saw a game gather more women around the TV than Guitar Hero and Mario Party before things like Wii Sports.

Please don't be so hard on the Gamemaster4747. He's only speaking his mind even though it's only to show that what's in his mind is PURE SHIT. I agree with many of you, I think this list is nice and well constructed. I know what the article is about when it mentions the GuitarHero franchise. I have played GH1,2, Encore and GH3 and I have to say that GH3 lost something when it switched develoders which renders it unplayable in expert dificulty( due to some out of synch notes).  But I do realize what the franchise did for the gamers in general and I know too that many people JUST want to have fun and would never try the game on a setting harder than medium, so my issue won't affect them and it's OK.

Now I want to ask a question to anyone who knows the answer to it. HOW IN THE HELL CAN YOU BE CALLED A GAME MASTER IF YOU ONLY PLAY RPGs?!?! Look, I have played most games on past consoles and portables but in this current generation of hardware I had to cut back on my spending for video games, so I don't own any current gen console( if you are curious about my gaming systems, check my pro). But I have played a few XB360 games as well as some Wii and PS3 games. So even when I have played a wider range of video games than many people, I can't call myself a MASTER. I love every game genre except for sports, but that doesn't mean I will go trash talking or looking down on any one who likes to play Madden or FIFA or whatever sports game they like, I just can say that maybe I don't like sports because of cultural phenomena just because I live outside USA but I can certainly enjoy a football game like madden once in a while, though my last was NFL 2K and I had a lot of fun yelling at the screen with some friends. Let me say that from all 5 games on the list, the only single genre I haven't played yet is MMO (or WoW). It's not BECAUSE I HATE MMO OR BECAUSE I DON'T "GET IT", it's because of a fear of getting adicted to the damn game and being unable to keep my play time to a sanity friendly rate. I don't "get" why you call yourself a "game master" when you hate game genres  that are non-RPG.

Yes I'm calling you out!! YOU SHOULD CHANGE THAT NAME TO SHAMEMASTER4747. because it's really a shame that some one who hates on gamers because they own an XB360 or Wii has such an arrogant self esteem. It's a shame to call yourself a gamemaster when you use such a strong word as HATE when you're reffering to a game genre wich helped make possible  to have a console in which other genres, like RPGs could be played, by expanding the user base hence luring RPGs developers into trying it out. Becaus if you haven't noticed yet, RPGs are a small portion of the games industry no matter how painful it may be for you.

BY THE WAY, I HAVE HAD 2 PS3s TO YELLOW LIGHT ON ME AND JUST 1 XB360, and even know more PS3s dead than XB360, but this is for another post, A SHAMEMASTER INDEED!!!

Reading comprehension, dude.  When the word "essential" is used to describe these games, it's not to imply that they are essential to your collection, but rather, essential in bringing the industry to the point it's at today.  When the word "revolutionary" is used to describe these games, it's not to imply that they revolutionized game design, but rather they revolutionized the course of the industry.  Seriously man, use a little critical thinking and stop taking everything at face value. 

It's really quite simple to understand.  Look at where the industry is today.  What are the major trends?  What sells?  Casual games, shooters, and Guitar Hero (among others).  What was the impetus of these trends?  Hmm....  You might not like these games, but you can't deny the effect they've had on the industry.

Also, exactly what is it you hold against first person shooters?  You make mention of old and bad concepts, but what specifically are you talking about?  You never really have backed up your argument with any substance (at least none that I've seen), and it seems that you just don't care for the genre.  Now, I'm not a huge FPS fan.  I don't really care for Halo or CoD, but I love me some Half-Life, Team Fortress, and Battlefield.  I challenge you to challenge yourself and give one of those a shot.  If not, that's cool, just give a reason other than "I don't like FPSs!".  I know you want to be a games journalist, and that's an admirable goal.  But if you want to be taken seriously by that community, you've really got to set your prejudices aside, or at the very least, tone them down.

You (probably) haven't played Halo. If by the rare chance you have, it wasn't enough to get a feel for it. If you had, you would be able to see the merit even if you don't like the genre. There's a lot that makes it more than a so-so shooter, which you seem to stereotype every FPS into being so, from some of the smartest enemies in any game to the Flood to the game's spectacular last level.

i had a brain injury...finally figured out why i'm such a douche......so habe pity on me

I don't understand your reasoning behind the thought process of Halo representing everything you hate in games.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I can understand why you wouldn't like the game. Not every genre is for every gamer. I can't stand WOW. I feel like I'm just walking around, endlessly looking for vague directions of "northeast of here". Bring back 20 boars hides....please can I?

Whether you like Halo or not is of little consequence. It obviously had a huge impact on the direction of gaming this last decade and thats what the article is about: games that have influenced the game industry.

"I am not a blind follower"  Really?  You constantly criticize the 360 on its failure rate yet you overzealously support sony despite the same problems sony had with the ps1 and ps2 and the ps2s warranty was only 90 days compared to the 360s 3 year.   Not actually having a ps3 doesn't help your case either.  Not only are you a blind follower you are a hypocrite.

Ooops your right, thanks for correcting me. 

I completely agree with Halo, WoW and Guitar Hero (depite my hate for WoW and GH).

haven't really played the others so I cant say anything thats not factual

jojitsu: Goldeneye came out in 1997.

Although Halo is a great game, it should have been Goldeneye for the N64.  I believe it is the game that has proven that an FPS can be fun in a console, which in turn made other developers to copy the success such as the Medal of Honor in the PS One.

... who are "real musicians" please stop using that as an excuse to hate the guitar hero/rock band games. If you can't even have fun playing a fake instrument with friends and family, why do you play video games at all. I thought the whole point was to have a good time, and the more the merrier.

Oh, and for Viking011, it looks like you're the minority here. I guess I'll put an asterisk on my previous post. Nearly all gamers have played all or most of these games, at least once.

And Gamemaster, please go away. No one likes you, and you're not going to grow up to be a big reviewer for 1up, you're going to grow up and be a loser.

maybe i need to read it again.

PSO may have been revolutionary for its time, but i'm unsure if anything changed in its wake. True Fantasy Live was scheduled to come out, and it sounded massive (no pun intended), and FF XI was eventually released, however i can't see where the gaming landscape was altered...where PSO changed the industry, or was an industry standard.

there's gotta be something better.

There was nothing revolutionary about Halo.

,,,were addressed in "Essential Technology".  Anyway, it wasn't Wii Sports that championed motion controls, it was the Wii itself. Parish knows what he's doing, man.

I checked the Nintendogs for what it covered about Wii sports, but couldn't find anything about motion controls.  Nintendogs was there to showcase casual games.

I understand where the innovations and inspirations come from from each of the 5 games stated in this article. Wii Sports was more of the hardware, not the game itself. Furthermore, I disagree with the Halo franchise hurting the gaming industry as a whole. You should reconsider what you said and stop being a FANBOY. You know who you are.

It seems some of you fail to realize the intent of this article.  These games aren't the games that furthered game design, and they aren't really the best in their respective genres.  Rather, they are the games that helped define the industry -not the state of design- as it exists today.  Those calling for Wii Sports to be added would be better served by rereading the entry on Nintendogs.  He covers that shit.  

Anyway, a great article.  Well thought out and well written, and most importantly, a good read.  Certainly, written with a historian's mindset.

totally agree with you. It's a huge innovation.

Possibly because it was on the LAST list: thriving veterans.  Having the same game be on two lists would be a waste of perfectly good space that could be used for something else.

I don't normally contest 1UP's lists, but this one contains an ommission that's so shocking, I felt I had to speak up this one time.

You cannot seriously name the five most influential games of the last decade and not include Wii Sports. Does 1UP really hate the Wii that much? Cause that game was almost undeniably more influential than all the ones on this list. The fact that you would have the gall to rank PSO, of all titles, ahead of it in terms of influence on gaming pretty much invalidates this whole list.

okay, uh....wii sports anybody?!?! PSO needs to leave that list.

but there is no denying the impact these games have had in the past decade. They all changed the industry in their own way, be it a hardcore game like WoW or casual like Nintendogs. It shows that the industry in constantly evolving, and though im sure people could think of "better" games, these all have been extremely productive in changing the gaming landscape, be it for good or for worse in your eyes.

These are probably the 5 most influential new game franchises this past decade. One small thing: Bungie wasn't a PC dev, they developed for the Macintosh, which may help explain the RISC architecture of MS's consoles. Of course, anyone who has had a crack at XNA knows that you dev for XBox pretty much like you would for a PC.

Remember getting that when I got XBL summer 2006. I'd expected to mainly be playing Halo 2 and Splinter Cell on it, but could not put PSO down, then every day my friends would come over for split screen cause they were so addicted too.

Ive been playing video games since the NES era, and I have not played 4 out of 5 of these games (Halo being the only one I played).

In fact, I have/never have had a desire to play any of these. Paying monthly to have my life sucked away by a virtual world, or hitting buttons on a plastic guitar (when I could be playing a REAL one) is not one bit appealing to me. Thats not to say they havent effected the gaming market - I would simply argue that not all of the effects have been positive. I dont see how WoW absolutely saturating the MMO market is a good thing, or how two dozen releases of the same guitar game reflects creativity and inspiration. I just dont think all of these games deserve blind praise.

thats another waste of time/money

guitar hero and nintendogs, thats funny. The audience for both of those of those games has misdirected millions of dollars that could/should have been spent on better games.

I feel 2 of these have made the industry worse off.  Actually maybe 3 if you count the exploitation of the plastic instrument required music genre.

That Wii Sports isn't in this article.  I suppose it was more the hardware than the game.  Otherwise, everything else is spot on.

I like the 5 picks here. Really good list. I don't know a gamer who hasn't played most if not all of these titles, so it makes sense that these are the ones that changed the industry.

Here's hoping Guitar Hero gets it's act together...