The importance of this game cannot be overstated. Dragon Quest single-handedly codified a genre for decades to come, and the series would continue breaking new ground until the franchise became so beloved and iconic in its native country that it became too beholden to tradition to innovate further. Unfortunately the entire game is literally nothing but grinding, which to a modern audience is utterly repulsive. However for the extremely patient gamer, DQ1 is a quaint and memorable journey.

Zelda 1 taught me that a video game could be a world. That it could be mysterious and that it could be explored. It also taught me to love the bullet hell. It's a little too mysterious, so a guide or prior knowledge is almost required, but it holds up like an Egyptian pyramid. It is, without question, one of the greatest games for the Famicom and/or NES, even when accounting for its later stars.

There are a few key points in video game history where a game singlehandedly becomes the public's entire concept of what a video game is. Games that not only become so popular in their own right that they become ubiquitously synonymous with the medium itself, but prove to be so inspirational to other developers that they bring about a convergence.

Within a year of Super Mario Bros, every other developer was trying to make a Super Mario Bros. Mario became video games, and through repeated demonstrations of polish and visionaryism, he would remain video games for the next four console generations.

Mario is good.

Balloon Fight is a good-ass time, and of these little arcade style NES games I consider it the best. Rest in peaches Iwata-san.

Extremely forgettable, and I still have no idea how this game has Smash representation.

Duck Hunt was a pretty good time.

I really do not understand what the appeal of this game ever was.

My mother's favorite game, and one of the only three she is willing to play. It is acceptable.

At long last, the "real" Space Invaders.

Inventive, amusing, and in no way a facsimile of anything in real life. A charming abstract thing that communicates all the whimsy and playfulness that spawned it.

Turns out PVE Space War(!) is really good too!

1972

Pong, like Computer Space, is a video game invented by someone else and stolen by Nolan Bushnell. The most successful video game at this time was a slightly less fun version of a thing that you could do in real life for way cheaper, and that's all I have to say about that.

It has been several days since I completed Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device, and still I find it impossible to compose my thoughts. The experience has shaken me to my core... nay, it has destroyed it. What was I before Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device? Do I even care? I am not so desperate a masochist that I would contemplate my previous existence any farther. I have left that grim, ignorant darkness. My life before this game was one of waste and sloth... desolate of purpose. Boldly, Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device subverted my every expectation and has remade me in its image. Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device is not merely a game, it is mockery. It is a cruel and merciless indictment of all our hubris. Mortal hands will never again achieve the rapturous bliss that is Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device, and to chase it would end only in calamitous despair. 9.5/10.