4. Super Mario Bros. (NES)
Back in 1985 when the NES was first introduced to a Western audience, the line-up of launch titles included such classic's as Duck Hunt and Donkey Kong Jr. Math, but it was the debut of a little Italian plumber which set Nintendo on the path to worldwide success. The first proper Super Mario adventure (it's actually a kind of sequel to the arcade game Mario Bros.) saw the beginning of perhaps the greatest series in the history of video games, a series which has of course gone on to spawn the untold millions of subsequent Mario games, merchandise and cartoons. As you all know, the game followed our hero's quest through the Mushroom Kingdom as he attempted to save Princess Toadstool from Bowser. It is the same plot that has been recyled by Nintendo about a hundred times now, but when the gameplay is this good, does anyone really mind? The graphics have obviously aged badly but the gameplay remains as spot on as it ever was and the old 8-bit sound effects still have a wonderful charm to them. It is a game which scholars will look back on in years to come as a truly defining moment in history. Gaming history at least, maybe not world history.