10 Best Games That Define Their Respective Genres

These video games are the best in their respective categories.

There is a video game that comes to mind when you think of a certain genre. It could be a huge open-world RPG, a classic sidescrolling beat ’em up, a nostalgic 3D platformer, or even a battle royale that keeps getting played.

To really “define” a genre, a game must improve the mechanics that make its niche so popular while also adding something new and different. Most of the time, it will have something that makes it stand out from other games and ties it to other games in some way. It’s the game that people will talk about over and over, even years after it came out.

Street Fighter 2 – Fighting Games

Street Fighter 2 came out during the golden age of arcade games and changed the way fighting games are made. It is one of the most influential fighting games ever made. It added a level of depth to its fighting that had never been seen before. Street Fighter 2 had a huge number of combos and special moves that you could use to win by pressing buttons in a smart way.

It brought a lot of things to the genre that are still popular today, like the ability to string together complicated combos and the series’ famously powerful super attacks. It was re-released to high heaven for a good reason.

The Sims – Simulation

On paper, it doesn’t seem like The Sims would make a good video game. You have to keep track of what a group of virtual people want and need as they try to get through the boring tasks of everyday life. But it’s not boring at all.

Keeping your Sims’ moods up, meeting their needs, and giving them a place to live that you designed made for a very addictive gameplay loop that kept players coming back year after year. The Sims 3 might be the best of the bunch because it added to the series in every way and had a lot of big additions. From our point of view, the original Sims game is the best.

Fortnite Battle Royale – Battle Royale

Fortnite took battle royale games to the next level, even though PUBG was the first of its kind. Since then, battle royale games have become a staple of every type of online multiplayer game. The game that has taken over the world like a storm that is getting closer and closer started out as a multiplayer add-on for a failed tower defense multiplayer game. Fortnite Battle Royale took the tried-and-true battle royale formula and made it popular. This has to be one of the best genre shifts ever.

Fortnite has stayed one of the most popular games ever thanks to its bright, cartoony graphics, huge map, and constant stream of updates and seasonal events. Its way of building forts made it stand out from other games and helped it become a part of the cultural zeitgeist.

Guitar Hero – Music Rhythm Games

Before Guitar Hero, the only rhythm games you could play were Donkey Konga, Parappa the Rapper, and Dance Dance Revolution. In these games, you banged on bongos, rapped your heart out, or wildly tapped your feet. Guitar Hero added a plastic guitar and let you play some of the best rock songs around while shredding.

It took the series to ridiculously high levels and turned it into a party game that people all over the world loved. After a few sequels and some not-so-great spinoffs (looking at you, DJ Hero), the series started to lose its popularity as gamers moved on to the next big thing. Here’s hoping that more plastic instruments start showing up in our living rooms again soon. Gone, but not forgotten.

Dark Souls – Soulslike

Before the series of punishingly hard action RPGs made by FromSoftware, there wasn’t much else like it. The most important parts of Dark Souls are the large, gothic-inspired environments, the enemies that look like something out of a nightmare, and how often you will see the “You Died” screen.

It also brought bonfires, which have always been a part of the series. When you rest, all the enemies in the area respawn so you can level up and spend your “souls” currency. It was so popular that it started a whole new genre, a never-ending stream of copies. And a term that is used a little too much when talking about video games. Dark Souls is the best game in the Dark Souls series.

Gears Of War – Third-Person Shooter

Before Gears of War, there were not many third-person shooters. The game had a new “sticky” cover system that made it easy to get into and out of safe positions and move into and out of the line of fire. It also helped that the game was a lot of fun from start to finish and was very well made for the time.

It had a bloody, go-for-broke campaign, iconic weapons like the chainsaw gun. And jaw-dropping graphics that showed what Epic’s Unreal Engine could really do. Even though the genre has grown a bit over the years. Gears of War was the first game to do it with a lot of polish and finesse.

Grand Theft Auto 3 – Open-World Sandbox

Grand Theft Auto 3 was the first game in the series to be in 3D. This was made possible by the power of the PS2, which let you explore Liberty City at your own pace. This game’s groundbreaking sequel let you get into any car you saw and do pretty much whatever you wanted.

In addition to having a fully voice-acted story, you could also make your own unique gameplay experiences by going on crime sprees, doing odd jobs, and causing a lot of trouble in general. Grand Theft Auto is a huge part of culture. And each new game breaks sales records and moves the series in a new direction. Every open-world game has taken ideas from GTA 3 because it was the first one to do it.

Super Mario 64 – 3D Platformer

When the Nintendo 64 came out, it was an exciting time to play video games. It brought games into the future by giving them fully explorable three-dimensional spaces. Super Mario 64 was the best place to try out this exciting and deep experience.

When the game space was opened up in this way, it allowed for a type of platforming that had never been seen before in video games. It also gave the player more freedom of movement and a new way to experience the developer’s brilliant level design. It had a big impact on the golden age of platform games that followed, including all of Mario’s other great games.

The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time – Action Adventure

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is another great Nintendo 64 game. It is one of the best video games ever made. It has a lot of cultural meaning and is very well liked by both gamers and people who don’t play games. Similar to Mario’s Nintendo 64 game, Ocarina was Zelda’s first 3D game.

Link went on a great adventure through a fully explorable Hyrule, fighting monsters, going into dungeons, solving puzzles, and getting treasure chests. There’s no doubt that it changed the way open-world action-adventure games work. A huge number of games can proudly call themselves “Zelda clones” because of its influence.

The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim – RPG

Building on the depth of Morrowind and the size of Oblivion, Bethesda made Skyrim, a huge, sprawling RPG with an incredible number of quests to complete, a deep first-person action combat system based on physics, and a huge world full of interesting things to find and explore.

Happy Wheels is so popular that it has been remastered and re-released on just about every device with a heartbeat. Since it came out more than ten years ago, it has had a lasting effect on gamers and is still played by a lot of people today.