The latest class of inductees to the World Video Game Hall of Fame at the Strong National Museum of Play include Asteroids, the Ultima, Resident Evil, and SimCity series, joining the groundbreaking Myst as works recognized for their significance overall to video games and interactive entertainment.
There is, however, one notable omission, and it might bother a lot of fans spanning multiple generations: Metroid. Nintendo’s space adventure, which began with 1986’s Metroid for the Nintendo Entertainment System, did not make the cut. This despite a nearly 40-year publishing history of the series for Nintendo, as well as being the namesake for its own sub-genre of video game, the “Metroidvania” which describes a side-scrolling adventure that comprises several objectives but does not have to be completed linearly.
Who are the newest Video Games Hall of Fame members?
Perhaps Metroid will have to wait for another year. The class joining the hall of fame this year are no less worthy recipients. Asteroids first launched as a vector-graphics shoot-em-up in 1979, with numerous adaptations since. It was the subject of the pop music hit “Hyperspace” on Buckner & Garcia’s album “Pac-Man Fever” released in 1982, and has supposedly been tabbed for a screenplay adaptation since 2009.
Myst was a hypercard-stack game that made use of emerging CD-ROM technology when it launched in 1993. It is long remembered for its challenging visual puzzles and state-of-the-art graphics. It was created by Robyn and Rand Miller for Broderbund Software.
Resident Evil barely needs an introduction, but here’s one anyway: Capcom’s survival-horror adventure series dates to 1996, inaugurating one of video games’ longest-standing (and most complicated) canons over dozens of sequels since then. The most two recent launches, 2021’s Resident Evil Village and 2017’s Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, join three remakes for modern hardware to make the series the envy of most video games publishers.
SimCity, first developed by Maxis in 1989, not only inaugurated the city-building genre, many other life simulations spun off from the title. Its heritage includes The Sims, which was a 2016 World Video Game Hall of Fame inductee.
And Ultima was one of the first role-playing games released for computers, beginning in 1981 and followed by eight sequels, though it hasn’t been seen since 1999. Created by Richard Garriott, himself a member of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame, Ultima’s deep influence is still felt through one of video gaming’s core genres.
The Strong National Museum of Play is dedicated to curating and celebrating the history of toys, entertainment, and popular culture, headquartered in Rochester, New York. The World Video Games Hall of Fame opened in 2015; this is its 10th class of inductees.
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