Molyneux picks his top 5 most innovative games |
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| BY Lee Bradley Oct. 22nd, 2009 | More on: |
Speaking at BAFTA’s Annual Video Games Lecture last night, Lionhead boss Peter Molyneux revealed what he believes to be the 5 most revolutionary games from the past 20 years.
In a typically passionate and engaging presentation, Molyneux spoke of the need for designers to defy perceived wisdom and custom, saying, “The best innovations come from challenging the foundation stones of conventional wisdom.” The 5 games selected by Molyneux were specifically chosen for their success in doing just that.
The first title Molyneux highlighted for discussion was Dune 2, an early RTS. Molyneux said Dune 2 took gaming away from twitch-based reactions and instead encouraged a slower, more cerebral approach. Furthermore, alongside its innovative multiplayer, Dune 2 could be played in a variety of ways. Terms to describe these differing play styles, such as ‘turtle’ (where the player is overwhelmingly defensive), are still used in gaming to this day. According to the man himself, Molyneux is a turtle.
Next up for discussion was Mario 64. Hailing designer Shigeru Miyamoto as a “true genius of the industry,” Molyneux rightly praised the game for moving the platform genre convincingly into 3D, despite perceived wisdom that it couldn’t work. Furthermore, Molyneux pointed to Mario 64 as the true precursor to the likes of GTA IV as it heralded the arrival of the free roaming around an open environment.
Apparently, there was one main reason Molyneux selected the next game. Well two. The game was Tomb Raider and the reason was boobs. After cheekily alluding to teenage boys’ bedroom habits, Molyneux praised Eidos for challenging the notion that a hero had to be a massively-muscled man. In creating Lara Croft, Eidos created an enduring character that subverted convention and in doing so created an icon.
Halo was the next choice, for bringing FPS’ to consoles, introducing regenerative health and solving the tricky issue of multiple weapon swapping by limiting the player to 2 guns at a time.
The list was rounded out by World of Warcraft. Molyneux looked to WoW’s “carrot dangling” mechanic as its most innovative feature. Reflecting on his time with the game, he remembered how the promise of a steed drove him on to play up to level 40. This was in direct opposition to traditional videogame design which dictated that the player should have access to everything the game had to offer almost immediately, in case they became bored.
The common characteristic shared by these games is that each revolution opened up the medium to a wider audience. This has been a concern of Molyneux’s for some time now and at the centre of it all is one statistic. Fable 2, Molyneux’s latest game, sold 4 million copies — exactly the same as his first game Populous. He sees this as a failure that only constant innovation and creative thinking can overcome. Something he is clearly hoping to achieve with Milo and Natal.
October 22nd, 2009
at 10:26 pm
im just glad he didn’t say black and white
October 22nd, 2009
at 10:51 pm
Hehe :)
Surprisingly good choices I gotta say. Have to look into this Dune 2 thing though.
October 23rd, 2009
at 1:47 am
Seriously. You dont know Dune 2?
October 23rd, 2009
at 1:48 am
Terrible choices. Halo come on please. The others weren’t bad choices by any stretch but that was just a cop out. I expect better from someone of molyneux character and prestigue level but, hey you never know.
October 23rd, 2009
at 2:23 am
err i came here expecting a LIST. all i see is a wall of text that im afraid to read in case i get infected with the M-Virus…spreading mediocrity one line of crap at a time!
October 23rd, 2009
at 3:09 am
we’ll try and use bullet points, short words and big pictures for you next time, matt.
October 23rd, 2009
at 3:23 am
He mentions GTA , although I feel it should have been on the list really ….. apart from that good choices !
October 23rd, 2009
at 6:30 am
Tomb Raider? What? Has he ever played a Tomb Raider game? Those are some of the most horrible games ever made.
October 23rd, 2009
at 6:42 am
I thought the article was well presented, and excellently written.
The content was also interesting, although I have some additional entries.
On a personal note - some more suggestions:
Braid - Innovative gameplay mechanic.
Guitar Hero - Entirely new way of interacting within a game world.
DOTA - OK, so its a mod, but it is also a completely new and innovative game design that has proved to be incredibly compelling.
CoD4 - The multiplayer component introduces a number of features which make it highly addictive and dynamic experience.
The Sims - Can not argue with its mass appeal and unique proposition.
His entries are all well justified, but I don’t think I can agree with Halo. Having said that, I never played it. Always struck me a s a generic shooter.
October 23rd, 2009
at 8:58 am
Wow he got Dune 2 totally wrong. I mean it def belonged on the list, but it was exciting because it brought twitch to what was traditionally a turn-based genre, and encouraged a *less* cerebral approach to playing tactical games. It didn’t even have multiplayer.
October 23rd, 2009
at 9:12 am
I know Microsoft are putting this guys meals on the table but if he didn’t include LittleBigPlanet then he obviously doesn’t know that much about videogames.
October 23rd, 2009
at 10:12 am
I half expected this list to say:
Populous
Fable
Black & White
Fable 2
Black & White 2
October 23rd, 2009
at 10:32 am
What about Little Big Planet!!! Man that game made me fall in love with games all over again. That game should be on the list. I have never laughed so much at my tv through the cuteness and humor of LBP. And making your own levels with you imagination and letting your friends play them was so cool. I swear i have typed almost anything into the search box and everytime someone has created a level based on my search!! Its crazy. Ill type in something dumb like hot dog or something and there is a level for it that someone made that I can play and rate and comment on. Mario 64 was cool though. Tomb Raider? those games kinda sucked i mean the only thing going for those games were the huge boobs lara had.lol
October 23rd, 2009
at 1:07 pm
So all of the biggest innovative games are relatively recent games? Sorry but I have to say most of those are just elaborating on games that were innovative before them.
October 23rd, 2009
at 1:12 pm
eh
i think he had his speech written for him
and on the case of fps go with the original DOOM
why not have galaga for its addictiveness
there are so many games that have made innovations
except for molyneuxs’ which seem to make a retarted child out of any genre they steal from
-cd OUT
October 23rd, 2009
at 1:20 pm
Woah! If Halo brought FPSs to consoles then what the hell was i playing goldeneye and perfect dark on as a kid? Quake II, Doom, Duke Nukem, and effing Turok! All FPSs. All on N64 (a console). And regenerative health makes shit too easy.
October 23rd, 2009
at 2:45 pm
He should’ve made the list from the past 25 years so that he could include Tetris =D
Apart from that, good choices I think, though I think Ocarina of Time should’ve been there somewhere, maybe even replacing Super Mario 64 (if only because you don’t want to see two games with the same engine made by the same guy). Another choice I would have made would be Starcraft, which completely and utterly revolutionised the pro-gaming scene.
October 23rd, 2009
at 3:13 pm
Does Anyone else careless what this tool has to say
October 23rd, 2009
at 3:52 pm
I gotta say, I’m not really agreeing with his list. There are some great games on their no doubt. But the 5 most innovative? Definitely not in my eyes.
October 23rd, 2009
at 3:52 pm
Oh grow the hell up people. These are HIS choices, NOT facts. Your opinions are different? Fucking great, it’s as it should be. How boring would the world be if everyone thought the same about the same things?
October 23rd, 2009
at 5:37 pm
he is getting old, so his sanity
October 23rd, 2009
at 5:46 pm
yeah evybody now ds is teh best
i mean consoles are shit compared to it
he didn’t even put one ds game on teh list
October 23rd, 2009
at 5:48 pm
W00T only real gamers play ds
October 23rd, 2009
at 5:49 pm
Hieronimus is a big big fruit
October 23rd, 2009
at 11:23 pm
Blah! Doom/Quake …
October 24th, 2009
at 2:51 am
Unreal - the first playthrough, the adventure & athmosphere @ 3:45 am a rainynight after playin & been killed alnightlong - almost 10 years ago now <:)..
October 24th, 2009
at 3:52 am
I agree with Brendan: most of the “most innovative” games in the last 20 years happened 15-20 years ago. Outrunners on the Sega MegaDrive was the first time I saw split-screen multi-player racing on a console and is still basically the same setup with games like Forza and GT5. Wolfenstein 3D was the first FPS (17 years old) and I would have put that in place of Halo.
October 24th, 2009
at 8:37 am
The choices are pretty sound, although some of the reasons seem a little off; for instance, there are still high-profile games today based on things established by Tomb Raider, so only mentioning the character is missing a lot, although I guess some further reasoning may have been lost in the “transcription” (plus it’s still an easy list entry anyway).
“Tomb Raider? What? Has he ever played a Tomb Raider game? Those are some of the most horrible games ever made.”
If you’ve played so many amazing games that TR games are “some of the worst ever made” then I want your charmed life. Because there’s no way you could be a delusional troll… Oh wait.
October 24th, 2009
at 10:56 am
id have pumped for timesplitters to have got fps play right on a console myself.
lets have comments not silly outbursts , come on …
October 24th, 2009
at 1:02 pm
kids today, GTA? LBP? seriously. 20 years is a long time, notable absence of rpgs e.g ff7 which mainstreamed jrpg, zelda 64, halo is a weak choice, psx has many titles that could potentially be on that list, sf2 revolutionised arcades, about the only title that actually belongs on there is mario 64, maybe dune 2 for inventing rts… yawn.
November 16th, 2009
at 5:58 pm
Great choice of games, but what about Final Fantasy? Each game a different story, with the exception of FFX-2. Building a story behind each character is what kept people engaged. I think the reason why WoW is so popular is due to to the Lore and if you can create a game like Final Fantasy, Halo, or WoW (with amazing story) then you get a recipe for success
December 1st, 2009
at 1:50 pm
Hes talking about real game-changers, Dune 2 as the father of the modern RTS, Super Mario 64, one of the first successfull 3d platformers, Tomb Raider, one of the first iconic/popular female characters, Halo, you never saw 50 million clones of golden eye or other shooters untill you see the debut of Halo. Now theres hundreds of Halo clones out there, and even some of the more innovative FPS games today dont stray overly far from the established formula, adding a few gimmics or small changes. As for World of Warcraft, something in what he said has to be keeping the 13million subscribers paying $15 a month for their WoW fix.
December 3rd, 2009
at 12:37 pm
Dune 2 is a given, it practically created the modern RTS (I’m not 100% sure if it was the first, but it was the first that worked), Mario 64 was the first proper 3D platformer, with the first Tomb Raider (and the first one was good dammit. Most of the later ones do suck though.) following just 5-6 months behind it. The only real innovation in Tomb Raider was the female lead (and even that had been done in Metroid previously), but it was undeniably one of the pioneers of 3rd person platformers/action games as we know them today.
Halo… Why Halo? It was nothing more than an FPS game, the only reason it was so successful was because earlier FPS games on consoles sucked (with GoldenEye being an exception). Being a PC player at that time I did play it through but couldn’t get why it was so praised. It was an OK game, but not a particularly great FPS. And the health regeneration is one of the most horrible things about it. It works in Halo, because you can justify it by having the armor heal you, but now they’ve gone and copied it to every damn FPS, which doesn’t really make any sense. And since when was having more than 2 guns at a time a bad thing? Sure, it doesn’t make any sense in real life to carry around 10 guns, but we’d been doing it since Wolfenstein 3D, for around 9 years. If it was that big of a problem I think we’d noticed.
World of Warcraft is pretty much the same. While I can’t say it’s a bad game (though 13 million people can just as easily be wrong as 1 person, and often a few individuals are more correct than the major population, but I digress), just about everything in it has been done before. It is a very very polished game, and apparently great fun to those who like it, but it’s not really anything new. Well, if you want to find something innovative about it, you could say that it was the first murpuger to be designed to appeal to as many gamers and even non-gamers as possible, while taking everything that had worked in earlier murpugers and polishing the whole thing until it’s pretty much flawless.
Still, I can see where he’s coming from.
December 3rd, 2009
at 3:04 pm
I have to say Tomb Raider does not belong on this list. It was an awful game. Also, he should have mentioned Grim Fandango. That game changed the way I look at life and death.
To be fair also … Fable 1 not that good
Black and White unplayable
Fable 2 better but still childish (look new dog FTW)
Black and White 2 unplayable
Spore ? awful
This guy does not have the worlds best track record
December 3rd, 2009
at 3:50 pm
The first Tomb Raider had quite good graphics (for the time obviously, especially with the then new Voodoo 1 card. Damn I miss the Voodoo…), good level design and atmosphere, and great controls, especially considering this was the first time anyone had made an acrobatic platformer. Apart from one or two puzzles which forced you to run around endlessly and some enemies that didn’t quite fit, it’s hard to find any real problems with it. OK, so maybe you didn’t like it, I can understand that, but to call it an awful game is a bit harsh. Every TR game after that was downhill though.
And Spore is by Will Wright and Maxis, not Molyneux and Lionhead.
December 3rd, 2009
at 8:49 pm
this is for all you nubtards.
quake 1 brought competitive Multilayer and dedicated servers
Dune 1 & 2 obviously
half life and its engine ( obvious win is obvious)
tie between ultima online and everquest (everquest made the mmo popular in the west)
now the last one would come down between total war, dues ex 1, freelancer 1, or starcraft
January 22nd, 2010
at 5:34 pm
well they said the most innovated game #1 was pong