Why Donkey Kong is the Most Important Video Game Ever Made

You’d be surprised how wide the sphere of Donkey Kong’s influence spreads. Just off the top of our heads, we know of at least three films that wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for Donkey Kong, a number of albums and –most importantly- several thousand video games. Hell, we’re willing to bet millions of people’s lives would be totally different had Shigeru Miyamoto not had that one Gorilla-based brainstorm...

[handheldwars]

Without it, the gaming industry we know today would not be there.

Without DK, the industry would be little or no different.

[FiftyFourPointTwo]

Super Mario Bros.
Street Fighter 2
Final Fantasy

Without these games, today would be TOTALLY different.

[ico92]

Super Mario Bros is by far the most important, for many of us it was one of the games we ever played, the fact that its been 25 years since its release and the game is just as playable is absolutely amazing

[LoydX-mas]

See that funny little guy in the red outfit in Donkey Kong?

That would be Mario. Donkey Kong > Mario Bros > NES > SNES Super Mario Bros.

Without Donkey Kong there would be no Super Mario Bros.

[ChickeyCantor]

You are forgetting ZELDA

[FiftyFourPointTwo]

I think Pacman, Megaman, Contra, Duck Hunt, Tetris, Starcraft, Mario Kart and Halflife/CounterStrike also deserve big recognition.

[thedisagreefairy]

be no mario without donkey kong. donkey kong made nintendo afford all the franchises they eventually made.

[rakunado]

^^ So true.

[Oner]

Resident Evil 1, Gran Turismo 1 & GoldenEye (although a bit newer on these 3) are a few more that were quite important as well.

[Philoctetes]

The author is right that Donkey Kong is an iconic, milestone game. But I'm pretty sure other developers would have eventually included a "jump" button or made a side-scroller or made a kart racer.

[TruthbeTold]

But how many years behind would we be as an industry from where we are now? Who knows how different things may have turned out, and what types of games would be dominant or non-existant.

[versusALL]

I think Final Fantasy VII is one the most important games in history, either way you look at it(even if you dont like it) it changed storytelling for the better.

[ChickeyCantor]

Nonsense,
There were games prior to FF7 that had great story telling.
Just because you didn't expect her to die doesn't make it the story that revolutionized storytelling.

The difference here is that FF7 was an epic game for its time( using new techniques and basically the first RPG to do it on such scale), and due to the popularity, the game was more of a bigger subject.
If other games before FF7 had such amount of talk their stories would have been praised equally if not more.

[Dac2u]

There are a good number of RPG's on the SNES and some on the Genesis that are just as epic in story as FFVII, the only difference between those games and FFVII are the graphics.

If anything, the original Final Fantasy is more important to gaming than FFVII. Also, Dragon Warrior was right up there with Final Fantasy, it was a pretty popular game back then that brought a whole lot of people into RPG's.

[The_Devil_Hunter]

Mmmh...how about GTA?

[BigKev45]

For the sandbox genre, GTA for sure.

[Pedobear Rocks]

The video game industry wouldn't exist if this hadn't been given early acceptance in the arcades full of pinball machines at the time.

[BannedForNineYears]

Ahem, Tennis For Two is the most important.
And then game number 1, 2, 3, 4.....(ETC) on the Magnavox Odyssey.

[Pikajew]

shigeru miyamoto is the most impotent person in gameing with out him, there wont be any good games or any hard ware

[YoungKingDoran]

impotent!? oh no i cant have a miyamoto baby :(

[ianblake]

i think PAC-MAN is the most important video game ever then Mario Bros (NES)