Pulling together the 50 best game design innovations wouldn't necessarily be a difficult thing, but ranking them in order probably would be. It's a good thing that Next-Gen has done all the work for us, leaving us to nitpick, though there's very little to nitpick over here. They went about this the right way, separating the list into categories like gameplay, input, presentational, style and genre innovations.
Next-Gen has listed things you might not think of often, like dialog trees and score tables. Think about score tables for a minute -- they went from a simple list of ranked initials (Asteroids, 1979) to a whole industry of competitive gaming leagues playing for prizes and money.
If there's one dud on this list, it would have to be "reversible time," No. 13. It made Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time more fun to play, but I wouldn't call it an innovation. I can't think of any other game where it really came together to benefit the title.
The best named entry in this list is easily No. 43: Social and dating games (with or without sex).
Head over to Next-Gen to read the full article.
Dale North is Destructoid's Editor-In-Chief, a founding editor, and specialist in Japanese gaming. An accomplished musician, Dale was reporting from Japan during the earthquakes of 2011. Luckily, he got the fuck out alive and is home in America now with his wife and beloved corgi, Einstein. Dale is also a co-founder of Destructoid's sister anime site
Japanator. Likes Corgis, Sega Saturn, PSP, iPhone, Photographic tools.
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Contest:
10:24 AM on 11.05.2007 | 
Now let's read the article and see if jumping is #1....
Also there was that animaniacs game in the mid 90's (the genesis one at least).
That game is called "True Love" I do believe. I think it's long out of production - you'll have to torrent it I believe... Can't be but more than a handful of mb - so it shouldn't be too difficult.
I malready mentioned the name of the game, and Home Of The Underdogs used to have it, I'm not sure if they do anymore. You could try JastUSA's site, they may have it for sale.
It's kind of a weird idea for a list, though.
I don't think Willy ever makes it to New York though.
Were the arcade games in Maniac Mansion playable? I completely can't remember.
That said, HGames are vastly misunderstood. Oh well.
If you went for the best friend you bang like 7 along the way, course at the end you had to choose one.
Crouching should be considered too!