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Only once in a while do we really see and play games we could call "Excellent." This isn't a term used loosely, and for many their own brand of excellence is determined very differently. However, sometimes there are games that somehow receive the collective agreement of gamers to become some of the finest games of that year or those years, aptly called the "Games of the Generation." These are the games that truly stand out from the rest of the flock. These are the games that defined what it meant to be a gamer during the era, and at times become prime examples of why we became gamers in the first place.
But what really embodies a game that defines a gaming generation? For me it's actually beyond most of the regular criteria used to review games. For me it requires a little bit of deeper understanding that, in itself, is more difficult to quantify. Namely, I define these games with the following: fun, innovation, appeal and experience.
A. Fun
As if it needed justification, these games need to be fun. Really. It's the core concept of practically any pleasurable activity. Something actually has to be fun to be enjoyable. The difference here is that while games may be fun, definitive games are fun for the longest of times. Many games may be fun at the onset, but as they go on they start to lose the fun factor, often becoming repetitive and boring. Definitive games almost never lose this appeal. Definitive games, without almost any regard to age and time, stay fun because they are THE definition of fun. They are fun whether you're five or fifty. They're still fun even if you haven't played them in over ten years. I find this difficult to quantify, namely because you really can't put fun into numbers. Regardless of all that, you'll be playing these games for years and years, and perhaps never tire of them.
This is why I'm still playing Mario Kart. Disembowel me now if you disagree, but I bought an SNES and its accessories solely for Mario Kart. OK, maybe for FFVI too, but Mario Kart was the game I played every single day with my friends until the day I blew my SNES up accidentally (true story). Why? Because it's fun, dammit. One of the few games to incorporate actual driving with violent yet cartoony mayhem in pseudo-3D graphics with no slowdown made me believe I'd never tire of the game. Using the princess and shooting mushrooms at Koopa while driving in circles was fun, and it still is today.
B. Innovation
Every year we see some games trying something new. Of course, not all of these new implementations go well. Some blow up in our faces. Some are completely useless. Some could have worked, but they didn't. Only a chosen few show us how far games can still go. The latter is true innovation.
Innovation isn't simply defined by something different and something new. Real innovation is introducing things that are not only new, but that also bring a whole new shift in the way games are presented and played. First and foremost, however, these innovations must work. It's useless to have new things that are nothing more than broken additions or simple cosmetic layers. A true innovative game has something we have never seen before and, at the same time, changes the way we come to expect games of the same genre.
Furthermore, the definitive games of the generation possess innovation that not only changes the way we expect games to be, but also sets an evolutionary standard that affects the future of the genre. If the genre is to improve as a whole, games that follow are expected to incorporate these innovations.
It's these innovations that have shown how much of an enormous impact Half-Life has had on the First-Person Shooter genre. Prior to Half-Life, FPS games were pretty much violent gore-fest clones of notable games like Quake and Doom. Most were unispired games with repetitive action, brainless A.I., excessive level breakdowns and the same "Alien invasion" storylines fought by some military superman.
Until Half-Life came along. Few games before presented what Half-Life had: a whole cast of enemies that required different ways of fighting them, human enemies that possessed enough A.I. to use squad tactics, requiring the player to confront them with their own strategy, an almost seamless level design with occasional loading times between certain areas that did not make the game feel devided into "levels", and perhaps more importantly, a game still based on an "alien invasion" concept but with excellent writing, emotion, and one of the most famous "regular Joe" protagonists in gaming history.
The large majority of these, especially in the forms of enemy A.I. and seamless level design, have become staples in the genre that has largely evolved since the day Freeman put down his lab tools for a crowbar. With this in mind, the innovations that Half-Life brought to the genre cannot be denied.
C. Appeal
For whatever reason, there is simply something in a game that makes people like it. At the very least, definitive games have a certain quality to them that makes them incredibly appealing for a good size of the gaming population. Of course, games need to have a certain appeal to them that makes people want to play and finish them. The concept of appeal itself is too much an abstract concept to accurately put into words, however a truly definitive game possess an appeal that makes it popular or a hit within the gamers. Appeal can be derived from different aspects of the game, like its characters, storyline, graphics etc.
And one must not forget that appealing qualities are different, for the most part, for different people. What some might find appealing might not be for other people. However, a true definitive game possesses many different qualities that makes it appealing for a large part of the population. In short, a defining game appeals to many people in many different ways when taking into considering the many different tastes of people.
Final Fantasy VII's appeal cannot be denied. Even if you're a hater, which I assume you're not, we can't deny the massive appeal that FFVII had that made it one of the most played RPGs of all time. Gamers bought it for many different reasons, and people played it simply because of the different ways it appealed to them. Whether it was the angst-machine that was Sephiroth or Tifa's breasts, the fact remains that this game appealed to gamers of different ages of different tastes, making this one of the biggest games of the Playstation era.
D. Experience
Experience is probably the most difficult thing to describe. Existentialist philosophers continue to attempt to try to put worded definitions to human experience, but the fact that this has yet to be done shows just how much about humans we have yet to understand. Simply put, in order to bring about a certain idea, a definitive game brings to the gamer a certain "experience." An experience that is different, unequalled, eye opening, and changes the gamer. In other words, a defining game makes gamers experience something that changes their perception about gaming and so many other aspects of their existence, maybe even life itself. These games make you think about just how far gaming has come. They have the ability to reach so far and deep inside of you that you want to sit alone and think about the experiences you've just played through. They open your mind's eye to so many new possibilities. I can't think of any more definitions other than that because, as an experience, it is indeed something you need to experience for yourself.
The inability to concretely put experience into words is simply why games like Ico and Shadow of the Colossus are so hard to describe. Read any review by anybody from whatever walk of life and they'll tell you that they can't seem to put these experiences into words. The defining game melds so many aspects of itself together to make gamers experience something they have never expeienced before. In the case of Ico and SotC, it is their minimalistic concept of story and gameplay, coupled with unparalleled art direction and use of sound. Above all, the insertion of heartwarming and innocent characters in a world so isolated makes gamers want to stop into their shoes. It makes them want to experience the trials and tribulations of these characters who are so alone in their quest. This ability to transcend between games and real life makes a definitive gaming experience.
The defining games of each era of gaming possess not just one of the above, but all of the above. I can say for sure that the above examples possess all these, thereby making them defining games in their respective generations. But, you have to play these games to understand what makes them definitive. One cannot simply accept claims such as these without experience. Everyone has different views, but one thing is clear: these particular games all bring about a change in how games will be perceived from now on.
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