http://www.artofvideogames.org/ There is going to be a new exhibit in the Smithsonian, entitled the art of video games, which seeks to show off the artistic flair and visual designs of video games. The website i linked to allows you to vote for up to 80 games to be placed into the exhibit. The voting categories are a bit odd however, they have the games divided up into 5 seperate "eras", within those eras they have different consoles, and within those consoles, 4 genres( action, adventure, target, combat/strategy) Looks to be a cool exhibit, only bad thing is the voting system puts a bunch of deserving games into the same categories( for instance KOTOR and fallout 3 go head to head, as to half-life 2 and portal, as well as super mario and donkey kong country) while the "target" genre seems to generally be filled with obscure side scrolling shooters that most people have never seen in their lives.
The point of the exhibit isn't so much the "history" of games, so much as the visual look of games. Pong isn't much visually, even if you are only comparing it to other early atari games.
Voted. From what I can remember: Chrono Trigger. ActRaiser. Gunstar Heroes. Grim Fandango. Ogre Battle 64. Paper Mario. Jet Grind Radio. Rez. Grandia (yes, over Final Fantasy VII, deal with it, it was a better game with better art direction). Einhander. M.U.L.E. Final Fantasy Tactics. Shenmue. Jet Set Radio Future. Bioshock. Ikaruga. Half-Life 2. Epic Mickey. Super Paper Mario. Sin & Punishment. Shadow of the Colossus. Okami. Silpheed. Metal Gear Solid 2. Final Fantasy XIII (say what you will about the game, but the art direction is amazing).
BlazBlue should be there. Haven't played the game myself, but spent Quite a few hrs watching people, that game is very neat art wise.
WTF....In the adventure genre for the 70s-80s..........it has ET.....that is one of the biggest flops of all time, is it on the list purely for those reasons? lol