The Smithsonian’s video game list revealed

Binh Nguyen 6 May, 2011 at 2:51pm ET Article published in Gaming

As I reported in February, the Smithsonian American Art Museum conducted a poll to see which games will be included in the museum exhibit “The Art Of Video Games”. Well, the votes are in, and now the Smithsonian has released the official list of all the games that will appear in the exhibit.

Here is the list:

Pac-Man
Pitfall!
Space Invaders
Combat
Donkey Kong
Pitfall II: Lost Caverns
Zaxxon
Star Trek: Strategic Operation Simulator
TRON: Maze-Atron
Advanced Dungeons and Dragons
Star Strike
Utopia
Jumpman
The Bard’s Tale III: Thief of Fate
Attack of the Mutant Camels
Sid Meier’s Pirates!
Super Mario Brothers 3
The Legend of Zelda
1943: The Battle of Midway
Desert Commander
Marble Madness
Phantasy Star
After Burner
Spy vs. Spy
Earthworm Jim
Phantasy Star IV
Gunstar Heroes
Dune II: Battle of Arrakis
Super Mario World
The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past
Star Fox
SimCity
DOOM II
Fallout
Diablo II
StarCraft
Super Mario 64
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Goldeneye 007
Worms Armageddon
Sonic Adventure
Shenmue
Rez
ChuChu Rockets!
Tomb Raider
Panzer Dragon Saga
Panzer Dragoon II: Zwei
SimCity 2000
Metal Gear Solid
Final Fantasy VII
Einhander
Final Fantasy Tactics
Halo 2
Fable
Panzer Dragoon Orta
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell
Bioshock
Mass Effect 2
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2
Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II
Portal
Fallout 3
flOw
Minecraft
Metroid Prime 2: Echos
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Star Fox: Assault
Pikmin 2
Super Mario Galaxy 2
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Boom Blox
Zack and Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure
Shadow of the Colossus
Okami
Gradius V
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Heavy Rain
Flower
Brutal Legend

Along with list there will be five games that will be available to play. These were voted by the museum and not by the voters. Visitors will get to spend a few minutes playing these games.

Pac-Man
Super Mario Brothers
The Secret of Monkey Island
Myst
World of Warcraft

And your thoughts? How much you want to bet that Roger Ebert is eating his own words that video games are not art. Puts a giant smile on your face, eh?

Comments

6 May 2011 ~ 2:53pm primesuspect Really disappointed to not see Beyond Good & Evil in that list. And Psychonauts rather than Brutal Legend. Still. This is good news for gamers.
6 May 2011 ~ 3:04pm ardichoke Hell yeah Minecraft!

That is all.
6 May 2011 ~ 3:25pm Butters Glad to see Half Life 2 didn't make this list. I'm pleased that the majority voted for the other one because of its splendid story telling, realistic robotic voice acting, and its variety of detailed levels and enviroments which pushed the genre as a whole.
6 May 2011 ~ 3:27pm UPSLynx .....

NO HALF-LIFE.

Screw you, Smithsonian. Say what you want, the first Half-Life game is one of the most important FPS of all time. It makes me rage uncontrollably to see Halo and not Half-Life. Frigging kids.

Agreed on BGE. Absurd to have Brutal Legend and not have BGE, in my opinion.

Plus, of all of the MGS games, they pick the first one (justified) and MGS2? wtf, man. And why not just put all of the MGS games, considering they wasted FIVE spots to different Legend of Zelda games.

What the crap. Sonic ADVENTURE? ADVENTURE IS THE ONLY SONIC TITLE ON THIS LIST??!!! Where is Sonic 3? Sonic and Knuckles? YOU HAVE GOT TO BE EFFING JOKING ME.

Where are all the REAL classics, that actually shaped the industry? It's like they just took a crap on the majority of the NES and SNES generation. In fact, this list reeks of young kids voting on OMG THIS GAME IS SO KOOL XD games rather than what truly deserves to be on this list. Halo, Fallout 3, Bioshock, Battle for Middle Earth 2? Bards Tale 3?? Are you SERIOUS?

NO FRIGGING DEUS EX!!!!!!!! WHAT THEASDJ;KLASDFJKL

Argh. I hate this list.

Oh, and Myst is a terrible game to have playable "for just a few minutes."

Props for Spy vs. Spy on the NES though. I adore that game.
6 May 2011 ~ 4:08pm the_technocrat No Prince of Persia? That's crazy.

Also, agreed on Myst. Why not have The Sims playable for 3 minutes...
6 May 2011 ~ 4:40pm GHoosdum

UPSLynx wrote:

"I'mma let you finish, but Half-Life is one of the most important FPS games of all time. OF ALL TIME."

FTFY
6 May 2011 ~ 4:53pm primesuspect It was open to public voting. Did you guys vote?
6 May 2011 ~ 4:56pm Thrax

UPSLynx wrote:

Props for Spy vs. Spy on the NES though. I adore that game.
6 May 2011 ~ 5:02pm MAGIC What about ....

..?
6 May 2011 ~ 5:08pm cola :/
6 May 2011 ~ 5:11pm NullenVoyd I had heard mention of them doing this but forgot all about it. That is a curious list, and it would be interesting to hear why people voted for what they did.

Personally thought it was interesting that this list did not include some titles I consider to be very artistic like Oblivion, GTA4, Crysis, and TF2.
6 May 2011 ~ 5:19pm UPSLynx I voted.

Thrax, you are a hero. Which reminds me - what's the name of that third party NES you have? I want one.

I have this as a ringtone, actually: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpV3hDZez1c
6 May 2011 ~ 5:19pm UPSLynx

MAGIC wrote:

What about ....

..?

Oh Lord, the pain. IT BURNS.
6 May 2011 ~ 5:27pm CB You guys have to remember: This was not about video 'games as art'. It was about 'art in video games'.

The importance or influence of a particular game on the gaming industry or gaming public was not ever intended to be part of the criteria for inclusion, nor was the quality of the narrative. It's only about games with impressive or influential visual art as part of their design.

Also: Spy vs. Spy on NES was my favorite game of the era. With the amount my parents spent on renting me an NES just so that I could play that game for a weekend (I wasn't allowed to own a gaming system, just rent one as a reward for good grades and stuff) they probably could have bought me 10 NES's.
6 May 2011 ~ 5:34pm Thrax

UPSLynx wrote:

Thrax, you are a hero. Which reminds me - what's the name of that third party NES you have? I want one.

The Messiah NEX. Not sure if it's even in production any more: http://www.amazon.com/Generation-Videogame-Console-Nintendo-Entertainment-System/dp/B000QT6I42
6 May 2011 ~ 6:00pm UPSLynx

CB wrote:

You guys have to remember: This was not about video 'games as art'. It was about 'art in video games'.

The importance or influence of a particular game on the gaming industry or gaming public was not ever intended to be part of the criteria for inclusion, nor was the quality of the narrative. It's only about games with impressive or influential visual art as part of their design.

I do understand that, and that validates most of my frustrations of this list. You consider examples of art in videos games, then Halo, Fable, Battle for Middle Earth, Fallout 3, Uncharted, 5 different incarnations of Zelda, heck, even Mass Effect 2 don't really belong on such a list.

Regarding art, Halo 2 is no better representation than Half-Life 2. At least HL2 is important to the art for reasons more than selling a boatload of copies overnight at launch.
6 May 2011 ~ 6:30pm Snarkasm It doesn't matter if it was about art in games or games as art. It was a popularity contest. That's all there is to it. I'm amazed HL2 even had a chance.
6 May 2011 ~ 8:24pm ardichoke Didn't they mention in the live stream when they were unveiling the winners that they didn't even go by the popular vote anyway? I swear I heard them mention that they took the vote into consideration but that it was not the only deciding factor.
7 May 2011 ~ 10:42pm Tim Starcraft is on the list but not Starcraft 2?
8 May 2011 ~ 8:29am Snarkasm Shut up, Tim.
8 May 2011 ~ 9:16am LazarusXero If they are talking about art in video games or video games being art, I'm really surprised that Braid or Limbo didn't make the cut... I thought Braid was unbelievable... I don't know how many times I just sat starring at the screen and not playing because of the aesthetics of the game...

Or Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion!!!
8 May 2011 ~ 12:03pm bobby the inclusion of a Mario and Zelda from every generation is a Tad overkill, Mario 3 and 64 belong, as does Zelda 1 and 3 (snes one) but the rest did nothing new. dune 2 was the "first" Rts so I'm glad to see it, Panzer dragoon saga was a huge surprise as it an amazing but little known game. Orta not so much. fable, me2, and a couple sequels don't belong, there should have been ff6 on there too, the release of that was pretty huge back in the day. I would have liked to see xenogears as another RPG, but its a start I guess.
8 May 2011 ~ 7:30pm Tordek No Chrono Trigger
9 May 2011 ~ 1:26pm Alec The nominee list was kinda weird, and I didn't like how they divided it up. Some categories didn't have any games I wanted to vote for, and then you get other cases like Half-Life and Portal in the same category, or Jet Set Radio and Psychonauts in the same category, where I wish they could just include them both.
9 May 2011 ~ 1:59pm primesuspect I think it's safe to say that no gamer is satisfied with that list.
9 May 2011 ~ 2:05pm Tushon

primesuspect wrote:

I think it's safe to say that no gamer would ever be satisfied by a list of games because their seminal game would not be on it.

Fixt?
10 May 2011 ~ 12:16am Koreish Super Mario World
The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past
Star Fox
SimCity
DOOM II
Fallout
Diablo II
StarCraft
Super Mario 64
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Goldeneye 007
Worms Armageddon

The most accurate part of the list
14 May 2011 ~ 7:09am Lizzeh! How the hell did Pokemon not make it to that list? Most of the games are classics, and what's more classic than pokemon red and blue? (apart from the REALLY old stuff like pacman and space invaders, but they really don't count in my eyes.)
14 May 2011 ~ 1:21pm primesuspect The list is about the art of video games, not whether or not a game is "classic"
14 May 2011 ~ 2:40pm Canti dis list is stupdi bro how come theres no black ops

Also, Starfox Assualt - art
what?