I was trying to think of which games created certain mechanics that became popular and copied by future games in the industry.
The most famous one that comes to my mind is Assassin’s Creed, with the tower climbing for map information.
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Dune 2 for it popularized RTS genre. C&c to bring it to the masses
Gears: cover shooter
Prince of Persia: realistic animations with weight. also popularized a platformer subgenre, which was called cinematic platformer but unfortunately the life of the subgenre was cut short due to the advent of 3d.
Diablo: ARPG genre, and even more so loot rarity system (especially the four tiers common/rare/epic/legendary) and affixes in loot as well.
Half-Life: a lot of good things, sure, as pointed out by other comments, but I will also never forgive valve for popularizing the game not fucking starting for ages.
Rogue and maybe more so Nethack: roguelike mechanics.
some really obvious ones are Tetris: falling block puzzles and Sokoban: pushing block puzzles.
also now pretty much obsolete but Overwatch: loot boxes. they existed before, but Overwatch made them an industry standard.
Minecraft singlehandedly created a genre called “Survival”.
I think most of the games around 2005’s Indie Game Boom created lots of brilliant mechanics that’s been copied still.
Single-handedly? Nah. It pulled a lot of existing ideas together though, and it’s certainly responsible for the popularity. Another Minecraft influence is early-access.
I don’t know what game first came up with it, but Super Mario RPG was the first time I saw timed hits for attack and defense in a JRPG. While the mechanic isn’t exactly ubiquitous it has popped up in a handful of other games over the years and it always reminds me of that game.
This was definitely the first time I also remember this appearing, and it made it more engaging for me as a child.
DOTA popularized and also invented the battle pass mechanic.
This is a fantastic timeline if you want to go into details.
Why hasn’t anybody named Worl of Warcraft? They definitely made a shift in the mmorpg scene…
Or Tomb Raider for the first big budget movie adaptation.
I’m surprised I haven’t seen anyone say Pokemon. From a. monster collecting/battle game nothing has really came close.
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Another one that comes to mind (that someone can correct me on). Was Uncharted the game that made the “no health bar, but redder screen as you are close to dying” popular?
This might be a little on the side of the main topic but there was always something cool about Crash Bandicoot 100 Apples > 1 Life, and you could grind more to make some levels more forgiving, like semi-adjustable difficulty level based on your previous approach… And later on — warp zones, you get to choose from a few options so the progression has variation.
Another thing that comes to mind, not sure if a first game to do it, THPS for unlocking movies and later cheat codes, modes and characters for finishing the career. Plus the whole gap marathon for Private Carrera.
Oh, and chanting from Oddword where it had various uses, for saving friends or for changing into enemies, or using special abilities. This definitely was something, because I still remember thinking as a kid, “how cool is that this one ability has so many different uses”.
100 Apples > 1 Life, and you could grind more to make some levels more forgiving, like semi-adjustable difficulty level based on your previous approach… And later on — warp zones, you get to choose from a few options so the progression has variation.
100 coins = 1UP and warp zones? And… you think they’re from Crash Bandicoot?
Well, when I was writing that, after midnight I will add, I had this feeling that Mario was doing this thing earlier but for me Mario stands as an icon for the first level design overall as a golden standard for introduction to mechanics and really efficient use of memory for data, and one of the first uses of dynamic music… So you are totally right, Mario brought a lot of things, I’ve just played Crash much more.
Fair enough.
My point is that the reason you played this game so much is that it existed because of Super Mario.
Thus the answer to OP’s question in relation to this would be Super Mario Bro’s, from which Crash is derived.
Well then… To stay true to the history, we probably would have to go back to Galaxian from ‘79, which introduced 1-UPs / additional lives, bonus stages and player upgrades, plus simple summary / statistics for hits and misses.
See but the question isn’t “originated”.
It’s “popularised”.
Which Mario clearly did, outpassing both “Galaxian” and Crash in terms of popularity.
I know that Crash is bigger for you, but in the big picture, comparing Mario to Crash is like comparing Pokemon to Digimon.
https://vgsales.fandom.com/wiki/Mario
The main core series, Super Mario, began with the platformer game Super Mario Bros. (1985) on the Nintendo Entertainment System. The main games consist of Mario trying to rescue Princess Peach from the villain Bowser and saving the Mushroom Kingdom.
As of June 2024, the Mario video game franchise has sold more than 900 million units worldwide, making it the best-selling video game franchise of all time. The main Super Mario series alone has sold more than 495 million copies worldwide.
Super Mario Bros. 1985 NES, estimated revenue $1,652,300,000
Have to scroll quite far down this list https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_game_franchises to find Crash.
See, you are right and that’s exactly why I started with “This might be a little on the side of the main topic”…
Hmm. Fair enough, fair enough.
You’ve likely listened to the same or similar lectures I have on level design and I seriously apply those lessons to every single game and UI I have influence over!
People always forget that resident evil 4(? There is a million of them) made third person shooters mainstream.
What are you smoking? That’s like a 2005 game.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-person_shooter
Jonathan S. Harbour of the University of Advancing Technology argues that Tomb Raider (1996) by Eidos Interactive (now Square Enix Europe) is “largely responsible for the popularity of this genre”.
Hell, Max Payne was definitely more popular, and it came out in 2001.
not 3rd person shooters, but over the shoulder camera.
Mario 64 definitely paved the way for most of the 3D platformers of the 21st century
I’d give that to Tomb Raider but both are exceptional.
I don’t think it’s just “being 3D”. Mario 64 put a lot of R&D into particulars of how jumping should work, the camera should work, and what the player’s goals should be. Quite a few games unintentionally copied them, while you could see some games not following their lead early in the 3D days that felt very janky to play. Tomb Raider could arguably be among them with the tank controls, though of course it has its own more niche appeal.
Legend of Zelda OoT followed up with popularizing a targeting button (good ol’ Z-targeting) to focus on one object or enemy in a 3D space and move around it or fight/otherwise interact with it. Such targeting has been a standard feature of 3D action-adventure games ever since.
Mario 64 figured out applying analog control to 3d platformers which changed the whole genre, though.
If you want to talk about “how do I get up there” in a 3d environment, Doom did it before TR.
It would be a real stretch to classify doom as a platformer.
And it’s a bad one if it applies at all. PC shooters of the time always kinda tried, but it didn’t work. The original Half Life got dinged a few points in original reviews because of a few janky platforming sections.
CoD and Assassin’s Creed popularised selling the same fucking game 20 times
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