- Mario for platforming.
- Metal gear for infiltration.
- DOOM for old school FPS.
- Counter Strike for modern FPS.
- Diablo for hack'n slash.
- War/Starcraft for RTS.
- Devil may cry for 3d beat'em all.
- Street fighter for fighting games.

The only genre I couldn't find a real game that lasted for so long are probably RPGs and Turn by turn strategy even if I'm tempted to point at Baldur's gate 2 and Master of orion or heroes of might and magic.

Open world: Fallout New Vegas. the world is filled to the brim with stuff, and there is so much variation in how to do quests. I very rarely replay games and I've been through most of this one twice. Used to be Night of the Raven.

CRPG: Neverwinter Nights 2. I like real time with pause a lot (it has the planning of turn based if you pause a lot while keeping the fluidity of real time) and this game is by far the best implementation of it. Plus Mask of the Betrayer is amazing. Used to be Baldur's Gate 2.

JRPG: Dark Souls. This game took a genre that I thought couldn't have good combat and not only proved me wrong, but set the benchmark for boss fights. Plus the soundtrack. And the 'story'. And the soul system. I could go on about how good this one is all day. Used to be Final Fantasy 9.

TBS: Warlock: Master of the Arcane. I can't stand most turn based games because they seem to deliberately set the pace of the game super slow when some of the fat could be cut to make the game much faster and enjoyable. Warlock does that really well, plus it has a nice magic system. Used to be Disciples 2.

New Vegas came close to taking the open-world RPG crown for me, but I think Morrowind still has more personality and lore.

Personally I think that nobody has topped Star Control 2 in the realm of Space Opera adventure games and no one has beaten Homeworld as a Space Opera strategy game.

The console FPS = Goldeneye 007 N64 (although there others who would argue that this post has now been supplanted by Halo)

Raising Sim PC = Sims

Raising Sim handheld = Pokemon

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No

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Oh oh! I'm waiting for a rabid MK fan to refute that one. I will sit back & watch LOL ;)

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SMB3 & SMW are exceptional examples of 2D hop & bop platform games.

Dare I mention SMW2? Miyamoto put a lotta love into that one. (Mostly as a rejection of DKC SNES - which, despite recent critics of it, I still think is one cool game)

Yoshi's Island is fine. The problem is that it's not a 2d Mario game, but something very different. As for Donkey Kong Country, it was a great platformer. After all, it singlehandedly helped Nintendo regain their dominance against Mega Drive (Genesis).

YI is a beautiful piece of art. It's something retro gamers can point to as an example of gaming at its most beautiful simplicity.

DKC rox. Nice graphics (they pale a little today but they are years ahead of most other 16 bit platformers), and tight gameplay (I don't know how else to describe it. If you are a 2D platforming fan, you will know instantly what I mean by "tight" gameplay in a platformer). The storyline is slightly lame but hey who gives a damn about the storyline in a platformer? (And is stolen bananas anymore stupid then 'oh no the princess has been captured by a giant gorilla/turtle and we must rescue her!'?)

I'll go against the grain and say I don't agree with Diablo. Diablo defined the genre, but per the OP, others have surpassed it. Sure they may be "clones" (another testament to what Diablo achieved), but they still advanced the genre.

IMHO, Darkstone, Titan Quest, all 3 Divinity games, even Torchlight can contend for the crown. I'm not going to claim which one is "best", but I do think Diablo has been surpassed technologically, mechanically, etc.

I tend to think this way for most of the genres. Doom was genre defining as well, but it didn't even have proper mouse support out of the box. For the FPS, I would claim Half Life 1 is still king (but I would claim its contested by many other great games). IMHO, Painkiller made some great strides in weaponry, secrets, buffs, replayability, use of lighting, alternate playstyles, etc. If you don't pay attention its a standard shooter, but if you acknowledge all of its subtleties, its one of the better ones.

The only genre I feel is truly uncontested is the FPS (sneaker) where Thief still reigns (opinion, of course). The only contender was Splinter Cell and it forced combat in too many places for me to appreciate it as an advancement of the category. Chaos Theory came very close, but it lacked the setting, atmosphere, lore, charm, etc.

If we can account FPRPG as a genre then I would have a tough time picking between 2. Deus Ex and Bloodlines, but I would likely give the nod to DX1.

I haven't played enough in the RTS genre to make a solid claim, but every game I've touched after AoE2 has seemed inferior (or at best, the same).

I agree, but how many games did actually even try to to? SC2 is such an oddball that it basically carved outits own niche which it inhabits in a hermit-like fashion ever since, so I'm not sure if it counts ... on the other hand, it's your question, so you're setting the goalposts. :)

Personally, I'd say Master of Orion 1 or 2. There are people saying that the second game didn't surpass the first one already, but in any case, lots of people seem to think that the following attempts at space 4x games never surpassed whichever of the two they liked more.

Yeah, Goldeneye was hardly perfect. The lack of any ability to look up or down other than that horribly ungainly R+analog stick and no ability to strafe made life rather difficult. Not to mention, more weapon slots than buttons to adequately manage them meant that switching guns in the middle of a firefight could spell death if what you were after was too far down the queue.

I'm not really a big Halo fan, but I do have to admit that it really nailed good console shooter design.

That is true, but maybe it was because SC2 was so awesome that no one else dare try? :)

Seriously though I think that part of it is that SC2 was very ambitious and many developers are unwilling to try from something at that scale. (and it did surpass a number of the space exploration games of the 80's the greatest until that point being the Star Flight game.) Personally I blame Wing Commander (even though I love the game) for shifting the style of Sci-fi games from a Star Trek to a Star Wars mentality (not that one is better than the other it was just a shift that left designs like SC2 in the cold.)

I agree about MOO2 but I think one of the reasons that that genre of game has had so many copy cats is that the basic formula is very easy to replicate. I think what made MOO2 so great is that it never forgot that it was a game and not an empire simulator. So it was willing to be small and went for fun rather than complexity while maintaining depth of play.

I think there are plenty of 4x games that that are more expansive than MOO2 but none have been more fun.

No need for that I like MK as well, street fighter just stands a bit above in terms of its competitive scene and gameplay qualities. You could also mention honorable the kings of fighter franchises as long as Tekken.

I cannot quiet put my finger on why but X-wing/Tie Fighter had the best mechanic, Freespace 2 had better Graphics and scale. But for whatever reason I felt like Wing Commander 2 was the most fun to play.

Were your C-buttons broken or something? C-up and down looked up and down, and C-left and right were for strafing left and right.