While those five games are guaranteed to be in the Hall. These are five games that should and deserve to be in the Hall of Fame, but may never have a chance to get in.
Persona 4: This is going to be a hard sell, but I argue Persona 4‘s commentary is influential and strong enough to warrant an induction to the Hall. Heck, the game’s commentary could easily fit into college course curriculum for Sociology, Psychology, Technology and History courses. This is also the game in the Persona series to turn Atlus from a niche company to a recognizable name in the industry. Atlus may not be mainstream to the general public, but it is mainstream to the industry. The biggest problem facing Persona 4 is its lack of influence on the industry on a grander scale. If Persona 4 ever gets into the Hall, it would not be during this decade, but likely the following decade. Not everyone will support Persona 4 for the Hall, but I will even if I support it alone.
Lunar: The Silver Star– Lunar: The Silver Star is not the first game nor the first RPG to use animated cutscenes and voice acting to both present the game’s story and characters, but it was the game to influence future role-playing games as more games incorporated cutscenes and voice acting. Lunar: The Silver Star can be argued as the Casablanca of video games. It has a classic love story while containing action and memorable characters. The game was one of the best-selling games for the SEGA CD with only Sonic CD selling more copies. The game has a good chance of getting into the Hall, but there are two glaring issues. The Lunar series does not have many games. Lunar: The Silver Star and Lunar Eternal Blue are the first two games followed by Lunar: Walking School and its remake Maho Gauken Lunar or Magical School Lunar. Both versions of the game were only released in Japan, and, finally, there is the despised Lunar Dragon Song/Lunar Genesis. The series has not had a consistent presence with there being more remakes than new games, especially in Lunar: The Silver Star’s case. I hope to see this game in the Hall someday, but only time will tell if there will be enough support.
Ys: Book I and II– Ys Book I and II is another early role-playing game. It originated for the NEC PC-88 as two separate games and were eventually combined into one package for the Turbografx-16/PC Engine. It was one of the must-have titles for the console. Ys Book I and II was one of the early RPGS to be released on CD and not in cartridge form just like Lunar, but three to four years earlier. It was one of the first notable games to include professional voice acting and it had well drawn animated cutscenes. The Ys series was lasted for over 25 years with eight main series games, several spinoffs and some high quality remakes. Unfortunately, the series is still niche and gets overlooked by other RPGs and adventure games.
Daytona USA– Daytona USA was one of the hottest racing games in the arcades back in the 1990s and is still popular today. Some will argue Virtua Racing did more for the industry than Daytona USA and they would not be wrong, but Daytona USA was popular and improved the polygon textures from its older brother. Linking up several Daytona USA machines made the game appealing for a group to duke it out on the racetrack. The game took hundreds of quarters and tokens and it can still be found at arcades today. Daytona USA was another reason for people to go to the arcade and spend their change. Would this be enough criteria for the Hall to induct the famous 41 Hornet? The answer is currently unknown.
Bomberman– Bomberman was the poster boy for Hudson Soft back when the company was in business as a independent company. Bomberman is the classic maze-style arcade game with the objective to blow up all enemies with various bombs and avoid being caught by a bomb. The game was one of Hudson Soft’s best hits. The series was influential for its multiplayer and was one of the first franchises to include more than four players at once. Saturn Bomberman was famous for having up to 10 players join in a multiplayer match. Unfortunately, Bomberman has been dead since Konami acquired and absorbed Hudson Soft. The last Bomberman game was released in 2010 and the last non-downloadable Bomberman game, Bomberman Land, was released for the Wii in 2007. Hopefully, Bomberman fans will be able to celebrate a Hall of Fame Induction someday.
Some of my predictions will be right, some of my predictions will be wrong. Regardless, I am looking forward to the World Video Game Hall of Fame Class of 2016. It will be interesting to see if the Class of 2016 will have 6 inductees or if there will be more or less inductees. The history of both video games and the video game industry is important. The Hall of Fame made a great first impression with the Class of 2015. It should become a main annual industry event in a few years.
