10. The Legend of Zelda
Here it is, the one that started it all. Without question, its the most important game on this list, and an argument could be made that its the most important game of all time. 15 years before Grand Theft Auto III supposedly invented the sandbox genre, LoZ was giving gamers a wide-open world to explore. Also, you know that ability to save your progress? LoZ was the first console game to have that feature, and its societal impact is undeniable. The OG Zelda game was so influential, that F. Scott Fitzgerald named his wife after it. All that said, I would never recommend this game to anyone who has never played Zelda before. Despite it being the first in the series, its not the best entry point for first-timers due to its old-school sensibilities. Hardcore gamers constantly complain that games today hold our hands too much, and I agree with that to an extent, but this game is the other extreme. It just throws you in the middle of a field and gives you absolutely no hints as to where you should go or what you should do. Furthermore, the gameplay itself hasnt aged all that well, even when compared to contemporaries like the Super Mario Bros. or Mega Man 2. These gripes aside, the game is still a lot of fun, and its great to see how the series got started. Just warm yourself up with some of the more recent titles before playing it, especially if you grew up with Nintendo games that remind you to take a break every ten minutes.