Asteroids and Resident Evil join the World Video Game Hall of Fame

The strong national museum of the game has this year’s inductees into the World Video Game Hall of Fame. Asteroids, Myst, SimCity and Ultima have made the cut. While this means the likes of Guitar Hero, Metroid and Tony Hawk’s professional skater omitted from the finalist rankings, it would be difficult to make a case against any of the five accepted.

Games are selected for the Hall of Fame based on a number of criteria, including cultural impact and their impact on the industry. Asteroids fits the bill perfectly. The 1979 game was a huge hit. Atari sold more than 70,000 arcade units making Asteroids its best selling coin machine. The Atari 2600 home version was also very popular. Although the vector graphics were rudimentary, it didn’t take away from the immensely satisfying gameplay of blasting a ton of space rocks.

Slow puzzle game Mist was also a big hit in the 1990s, selling more than 6 million copies. Resident Evil is perhaps the most appropriate name on the list for modern audiences. The series is still going strong nearly three decades after the original 1996 game popularized the survival horror genre.

Back in 1989, Maxis released a city-building game called SimCity. Its complex city design and problem management systems spurred a slew of sequels and inspired the creators of other real-time strategy games such as Command and conquer and The Age of Empires. As for Ultima: The First Age of Darkness, that the 1981 game is one of the cornerstones of the RPG genre. Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy developers are among those who cite him as an influence, such as notes.

These five games join one of the World Video Game Hall of Fame, including The Last of Us, Wii Sports, Barbie Fashion Designer and Computer space. Those invited are on permanent display at The Strong in Rochester, New York.