7. Prince of Persia
Before Prince of Persia became the overhyped, overcooked potboiler that it is now, it was all about a little white man, dressed in white overalls on a quest to free a Princess that his heart desires from the clutches of the evil Jaffar and his equally bad acolytes. This must be done within sixty minutes, and must be done by fighting several nemeses, jumping over spikes, ditches and guillotines and even battling a doppelganger that is conjured through a magic mirror. The game gave you an actual purpose one that rubs well with everyone who's ever read a children's book or seen a Disney movie. There's a Princess who must be saved. The simplest of motivations are often the strongest; and this holds remarkably true with the game. It created an excitement not just because of the predicaments that were remorselessly tossed at you one after another, but also through the fact that you were on a race against time. However, it wasn't just a nameless, faceless man on a run through eerie dungeons and passages - it combined combat, which admittedly had limited options (back off, slash, parry), but added another dimension to the game. And though the game didn't sell as well as its merit demanded, the ones who played it will always remember it as a timeless classic which can be revisited over and over.