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The 2017 inductees into the World Video Game Hall of Fame have been announced, and two of them are well-beloved Nintendo titles along with a game that once graced a classic Nintendo console.
Donkey Kong, Pokémon Red and Green, and Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, as well as Halo: Combat Evolved, have all been honored with a place in The Strong National Museum of Play’s World Video Game Hall of Fame. They form the third class of games to be recognized by the museum as particularly significant and important to the history of gaming, and will join the ranks of such titles as The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros., Tetris, and Sonic the Hedgehog, among others.
Jon-Paul Dyson, director of The Strong’s International Center for the History of Electronic Games, said of Donkey Kong:
“Without Donkey Kong there would be no Super Mario Bros., a member of the inaugural class of the World Video Game Hall of Fame. But Donkey Kong is also about much more than one character. Its overarching narrative of love and its vibrant graphics brought the game to life in a way that few other games could in the early 1980s. It captured the hearts of a generation.”
While Donkey Kong sold an impressive 132,000 arcade cabinets, Nintendo couldn’t possibly know that when Pokémon arrived on the scene in 1996 it would remain as huge of a phenomenon 20 years later, surpassing more than 260 million games and 21.5 billion trading cards sold, as well as inspiring an anime that has an 800+ episode run and 17 movies. Shannon Symonds of the Strong Museum said this about the franchise:
“Pokémon Red and Green launched a franchise that has taken the world by storm, vaulting many of its characters, such as Pikachu, into popular, mainstream culture. Nearly two decades after its inception and with the introduction of Pokémon Go, ‘Poké-mania’ shows little sign of fading.”
(As a side note and minor correction, Pokémon celebrated its 20th anniversary last year.)
Street Fighter II: The World Warrior took arcades by storm in 1991, with 60,000 arcade cabinets sold and 140,000 sales of cabinets and game conversion kits of the Champion Edition, making it one of the top-selling arcade games of all time. The game was ported to Super Famicom in June 1992 and then to SNES in August 1992, featuring many changes and console-exclusive features. The Strong’s Jeremy Saucier discussed Capcom’s classic:
“Street Fighter II allowed for head-to-head battles between human opponents, instantly attracting spectators and generating fierce tournament play in arcades across the world,” says Jeremy Saucier, assistant director of The Strong’s International Center for the History of Electronic Games. “This communal style of game play reinvigorated the arcade industry in the 1990s and helped give birth to a generation of fighting games.”
Congratulations to the 2017 inductees! Are there any titles that you would like to see inducted to the Hall of Fame next year? What do you think of this year’s choices? Let us know!
