2017 Video Game Hall Of Fame Nominees

Gamespot - The Strong Museum has announced the nominees for induction into its World Video Game Hall of Fame class for 2017. These include 12 well-known and influential titles, including Donkey Kong, Final Fantasy VII, Halo: Combat Evolved, Windows Solitaire, Mortal Kombat, Myst, Pokemon Red and Green, Portal, Resident Evil, Street Fighter II, Tomb Raider, and Wii Sports. This is the third wave of inductees, following rounds in 2016 and 2015.

2016 Inductions:

Grand Theft Auto III
The Legend of Zelda
The Oregon Trail
The Sims
Sonic the Hedgehog
Space Invaders

Last year we saw some diesel games make it to the Hall. Zelda, Oregon Trail, Sonic and GTA were all a huge part of my childhood and then adolescence. This year’s nominees are chock full of some equally important games. As always, the Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

The Good:

Donkey Kong – obviously a Video Game Immortal. Probably should have been first ballot, first induction. DK is right alongside Mario as a legendary video game character. He’s been a hero, he’s been a villain, there been numerous spin offs including the very, very fun Donkey Kong 64, an staple in Mario Kart 64…bottom line is DK is a no brained for the Hall.

Mortal Kombat – there’s multiple ways to judge these nominees. How fun was the game? How revolutionary was it? What sort of impact did the game have? Well Mortal Kombat was all of that. It was a pioneer that ripped through society and left nothing but scorched earth in its wake. Mortal Kombat blazed the trail for video game violence. Fatalities and gratuitous murder had congressman calling hearings to debate how to handle the game’s popularity. It inspired the video game rating system. It inspired multiple full length movies. It inspired Halloween costumes from a seemingly endless supply of awesome characters. And it inspired one of the greatest techno songs of all time. You know, the one where it goes dunna dunna dunnna dun dun dun DUN dun MORTAL KOMBATTTT!! The game was mindless fun to the maximum. Bloodshed everywhere, just mashing buttons until your opponent was dead. Scorpion’s “GET OVER HERE!” was part of everyday lexicon in the early-mid 90s. If you knew the combos, Fatalities were incredible. Ripping spines out of people’s mouths while they wobbled around dead on their feet. Classic fun. If you didn’t know the combos, you could just upper cut them off of a hundred foot platform into a Pit of spikes. The game had something for everyone. Toastie!

Street Fighter II – In this world, there are certain instances where you need to pick a side. Choose your allegiance. For instance in New York City you’re either a Mets fan or a Yankees fan. Pick a side. You’re either Coke or Pepsi. McDonald’s or Burger King. In the world of video games, you’re either Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat. When the chips are down, gun to your head, you gotta pick one. Me? I’m a Street Fighter guy. While I obviously can appreciate the impact MK had on the world and I enjoyed pure carnage, I’m a Street Fighter loyalist. Give me Ryu and Ken over Scorpion and Sub Zero. Give me Chun Li over Sonya Blade. M. Bison over Shang Tsung. Blanca over Goro. Even give me that fat fuck E Honda over Raiden. It’s just a personal choice I’ve made. Or maybe I was born this way. But I’ve got street fighter in the veins. PS – Chun Li, the baddest bitch.

Final Fantasy VII – Final Fantasy is the greatest RPG series of all time. I personally would have given a nod to Final Fantasy II as the game to lead the franchise into the Hall, but I feel like VII was the modern day Playstation one that really blew people away. I’d say Final Fantasy is a lock to make it.

Resident Evil – I’ll be perfectly honest, when I played Resident Evil 4 (I think?) with the lights all the way turned down, I would get scared. It was like a horror movie in a video game. Good series of games, not sure if its first ballot HOF worthy.

The Bad – Wii Sports. Wii was revolutionary. It changed the game. You werent just pushing buttons anymore. You were swinging a bat and bowling a ball. You know what though? Fuck all that. I play video games because I want to sit in a dark room inside, minimal movement, and let my eyes bleed from the bright screen. I’m not here for physical activity. I’m not hear to work up a sweat. Video games is the quintessential get-high-and-rot-away-indoors activity. I dont need to bowl as some little Weeble Wobble character.

Myst – Listen I’m a huge nerd and I do a lot of nerdy shit. Role Playing Games and weird puzzles and shit…magic and fantasy worlds and what not…I’m all about it. But even I dont fuck with Myst. Dont even know how that shit works.

The Ugly – Windows Solitaire. Remember when you were a kid and you couldn’t get your hands on any booze and you were willing to drink anything in the liquor cabinet? It didn’t matter how old or how gross it was, you were willing to just grab anything off those shelves. Fuck, sometimes you had thoughts of going through the medicine cabinet instead of the liquor cabinet. You’d be reading ingredients like “Hmmm 29.7% alcohol in Listerine. That’ll get the job done.” Anyway, that’s what Windows Solitaire was. When you hit the BOTTOM of the barrel. For whatever reason you had nothing else to play. Maybe someone else was playing or had the TV. You’re on the computer at school. No other games. And you had to choose between Minesweeper, and Solitaire. Now, to this day I don’t think I know how Minesweeper works. Just click a bunch of squares until you blow up. So, it was Solitaire. Turn on the Draw 3 cards to cheat a little bit otherwise shit was impossible. Make no mistake, this shit sucked but it also was there when you were desperate. Like the ugly fat booty call you can make when you needed to bust out of a slump. Hall of Fame, no. But its like Super Joe McEwing. In a particular instance (i.e. when facing Randy Johnson) it got the job done.

Pokemon –  I dont know if you know this about me, but I am not a big fan of Pokemon. Some might even say I hate it. Pokemon is for children and Asians. Obviously video games are big with both of those groups. And so Pokemon will probably make the Hall, but goddam does that shit suck.