When you think of the most influential games of all time, there’s likely a handful of titles that instantly spring to mind — things like Super Metroid, Ocarina of Time, Halo, etc. But behind those universally recognized games, there are a few lesser-known ones that are just as influential, if not more so. Chief among those is an obscure but beloved open world game called Shenmue, and it’s finally getting the recognition it deserves. A new poll from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards Shenmue the title of most influential game of all time, beating out the likes of Zelda, Doom, and more.
Originally released on the Sega Dreamcast in 1999, Shenmue tells the story of Ryo Hazuki, a young martial artist seeking revenge against the man who ended his father’s life. The beauty of Shenmue lies in how free-form of an experience it is, entirely reliant on the player piecing together how the world and systems work.
While it might not have the name recognition of the other names on the BAFTA ballot, Shenmue is undoubtedly one of the key games that shaped the industry as we know it. That’s primarily because it practically invented the idea of open world games as we know it, on top of a world filled with NPCs with simulated schedules and lives. It wasn’t the first game to try and do this, but it was the first game to really succeed at it.
Shenmue creates an impeccable sense of time and place, a world that truly feels like it moves at its own pace, regardless of what you’re doing to affect it. Shops open and close on their own schedule, buses run on a timetable, and each character has their own daily task. If you want to advance the story you need to smartly manage your time and learn those routines, searching for clues that push you in the right direction. That layer of simulation and exploration proved to be utterly revolutionary at the time, creating a game world that felt more alive than anything we’d ever seen.
You can clearly see the influence on game design titles like Super Metroid had, with the formation of the Metroidvania formula, but Shenmue’s impact is more understated and less direct — which in turn might be why it’s seen as more of a cult classic. It was a game ahead of its time, and other developers wouldn’t seek to do the same thing for years after Shenmue’s release. It was really with the Xbox 360 and PS3 era that those ideas started to be innovated on yet again, with simulated worlds that worked alongside the player. Games like Oblivion, Assassin’s Creed 2, and Red Dead Redemption would all seek to advance the formula that Shenmue created. Then, in turn, games like The Witcher 3 and Breath of the Wild innovated on it again. But Shenmue is the catalyst for everything, the event horizon that opened up a Pandora’s box of open world design.
Decades after Shenmue’s release its effects are clear to see, even if it wasn’t widely recognized in 1999. So it makes sense it’d take the top spot, because of how obsessed the video game industry has become with open world experiences with rich simulated worlds. Other than live service, it’s the biggest trend we’ve seen over the last two decades.
In a response to the win, Shenmue creator Yu Suzuki says, “It is an honor to see Shenmue receive this prestigious award. It brings me great joy to know that our pursuit — to capture the essence of the real world within a game — continues to reach and resonate with so many hearts.”
It’s also in good company, as the full list is also quite interesting, filled with games that make sense and a few obvious omissions. Namely, the lack of Resident Evil games seems bizarre, from the influence the first Resident Evil had on the creation of survival horror to the way Resident Evil 4 redefined action games.
There’s also an equally strange outlier that doesn’t feel like it should be here at all. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, released just two months ago, has nabbed the seventh spot, ahead of games like Super Mario 64 and Final Fantasy 7.
“Offering a handsomely rendered and wonderfully open-ended sandbox where you’re free to shape everyman apprentice Henry as you please, Deliverance 2’s commitment to authenticity found favour among voters; the word “immersive” showed up in more responses than for any other game,” reads BAFTA’s announcement, “If its future impact has yet to be determined, this historical RPG has already left a mark on its players — as one put it, ‘It gives me hope for the future of gaming.”
It’s undoubtedly one of the best games of the year so far, but it seems downright strange to award it the title of being influential so soon. Here’s the full list of the 21 most influential games:
21. Grand Theft Auto
20. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
19. Grand Theft Auto III
18. Dark Souls
17. Final Fantasy VII
16. Baldur’s Gate 3
15. World of Warcraft
14. Metal Gear Solid
13. Pong
12. Tomb Raider
11. Tetris
10. The Sims
9. Half-Life 2
8. Super Mario 64
7. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
6. Minecraft
5. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
4. Half-Life
3. Super Mario Bros.
2. Doom
1. Shenmue
There’s clearly a lot of thought that was put into why these games are here. And for the number one spot, at least, it’s nice to see Shenmue get the recognition it truly deserves. It’s still unknown if we’ll ever see the Shenmue series continue, however.
After an overwhelmingly successful Kickstarter, Shenmue 3 launched in 2019 and proved to be divisive — with some praising its commitment to recreating the experience of the original, and others criticizing its refusal to modernize. Suzuki has said the Shenmue story isn’t over, however, and that he’ll never “give up” on making Shenmue 4. So we’ll simply have to wait and see.
