Sport and Leisure/Video Games
Arcade games
Pong was invented by Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari, in 1972. It is a tennis sports game featuring simple two-dimensional graphics
Space Invaders is an arcade video game developed by Tomohiro Nishikado of Taito Corporation and released in 1978. The player controls a laser cannon by moving it horizontally across the bottom of the screen and firing at descending aliens. The aim is to defeat five rows of eleven aliens. By mid-1981, more than four billion quarters, or $1 billion, had been grossed from Space Invaders machines
Asteroids is an arcade space shooter released in 1979 by Atari, Inc. The player controls a spaceship in an asteroid field which is periodically traversed by flying saucers
Pac-Man was developed by Namco and first released in Japan in 1980. Four enemies (Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde) roam the maze, trying to catch Pac-Man
Defender is a 1981 game set on either an unnamed planet or city (depending on platform) where the player must defeat waves of invading aliens while protecting astronauts
Frogger is a 1981 arcade game. The object of the game is to direct frogs to their homes one by one by crossing a busy road and navigating a river full of hazards
Donkey Kong was released by Nintendo in 1981. It was the first platform game to feature jumping. Donkey Kong kidnaps Mario's girlfriend, known as Pauline. The player must take the role of Mario and rescue her
Video games
Age of Empires is a series of historical games developed by Ensemble Studios
Age of Empires requires the player to develop a nation, from a handful of Stone Age villagers. Released in 1997
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings is set in the Middle Ages
Age of Empires III portrays the European colonization of the Americas
Animal Crossing is a community simulation video game series developed and published by Nintendo, in which the player lives in a village inhabited by anthropomorphic animals, carrying out various activities
Animal Crossing was originally released in 2001
Animal Crossing: Wild World
Animal Crossing: City Folk
Animal Crossing: New Leaf
Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Released in 2020
Ape Escape is a series of video games made by Sony for the PlayStation. The game tells the story of an ape named Specter who gains enhanced intelligence through the use of an experimental helmet
Apex Legends is a a free-to-play battle royale game developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts. Released in 2019. By April 2021, it had approximately 100 million players
Assassin’s Creed was developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It was released worldwide in 2007 on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The objective in the game is to assassinate nine historical figures propagating the Crusades in 1191
Assassin's Creed primarily revolves around the rivalry between two ancient secret societies: the Assassins and the Knights Templar. It features Desmond Miles, a bartender who is a descendant of several lines of prominent Assassins. He is initially kidnapped by the megacorporation Abstergo Industries, the modern-day face of the Knights Templar
Assassin’s Creed II
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is a direct sequel to Assassin's Creed II, with Ezio Auditore da Firenze and Desmond Miles returning as the main protagonists
Assassin’s Creed: Revelations
Assassin’s Creed III
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
Assassin's Creed Rogue
Assassin's Creed Unity
Assassin's Creed Syndicate
Assassin's Creed Origins
Assassin's Creed Odyssey
Assassin's Creed Valhalla was released in 2020
Banjo-Kazooie is a 1998 platform game that follows the story of a honey bear named Banjo and his friend, a large red bird – of the fictional Breegull species – named Kazooie, who are both controlled by the player, and a witch named Gruntilda as the primary antagonist
Battlefield is a series of video games that started out with Battlefield 1942. The twelfth game in the series, Battlefield 2042, is due for release in October 2021
BioShock is a series of three video games. The first two games are set in 1960, in which the player guides the protagonist, Jack, after his airplane crashes in the ocean near the bathysphere terminus that leads to the underwater city of Rapture
Bioshock
Bioshock 2
Bioshock Infinite
Brain Age, also known as Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training, is a series of video games developed and published by Nintendo
Call of Duty is a series of first-person shooter video game, first released in 2003. The games are developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision. The first game simulates the infantry and combined arms warfare of World War II
World War II series
Call of Duty
Call of Duty 2
Call of Duty 3
Call of Duty: WWII
Modern Warfare series
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)
Black Ops series
Call of Duty: World at War
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Call of Duty: Black Ops II
Call of Duty: Black Ops III
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
Other games
Call of Duty: Ghosts
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
Civilization is a series of games designed by Sid Meier. The game's objective is to ‘Build an empire to stand the test of time’: it begins in 4000 BC and the players attempt to expand and develop their empires through the ages from the ancient era until modern and near-future times
Nuclear Gandhi is an Internet meme and an urban legend. According to the legend, there was a bug in Civilization that forced Mahatma Gandhi to be extremely aggressive and to use nuclear weapons
Counter-Strike is a video game developed as a Half-Life modification. Two opposing teams – the Terrorists and the Counter Terrorists – compete in game modes to complete objectives
Crash Bandicoot is a series of platform video games. The protagonist of the series is an anthropomorphic bandicoot named Crash, whose quiet life on the Wumpa Islands is often interrupted by the games' main antagonist, Doctor Neo Cortex
Crash Team Racing is the fourth installment in the Crash Bandicoot series
Defense of the Ancients is a MOBA mod for the video game Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (2002). The objective of the game is for each team to destroy their opponents' Ancient, a heavily guarded structure
Dota 2 is a sequel to Defense of the Ancients
Destiny marked Bungie's first new franchise since the Halo series. Previously published by Activision. Set in a "mythic science fiction" setting. Players take on the role of a Guardian, protectors of Earth's last safe city
Diablo is an action role-playing hack and slash video game series developed by Blizzard Entertainment. The series is set in the dark fantasy world of Sanctuary
Diablo III – players choose one of five character classes; the Witch Doctor, Barbarian, Wizard, Monk or Demon Hunter and are tasked with defeating the titular Diablo. Diablo III set a new record for fastest-selling PC game by selling over 3.5 million copies in the first 24 hours of its release, and was the highest selling PC game of 2012, selling more than 12 million copies during the year
Dishonored was developed by Arkane Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. Set in the fictional, plague-ridden industrial city of Dunwall, Dishonored follows Corvo Attano, the Empress's legendary bodyguard
Disney Infinity is a sandbox video game series, set in a customizable universe of imagination, known as the Toy Box, populated with toy versions of Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars characters
Doom is a 1993 computer game by John Romero of id Software. The player takes the role of a nameless space marine who has been deported to Mars
Dragon's Lair is a laserdisc video game published in 1983. The protagonist Dirk the Daring is a knight attempting to rescue Princess Daphne from the evil dragon Singe
The Elder Scrolls is a role-playing video game series developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. The first product – The Elder Scrolls: Arena – was released in 1994 for DOS PC systems. The Elder Scrolls games primarily take place on the continent of Tamriel, located on the world of Nirn
The Elder Scrolls: Arena
The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Elite is a space trading video game, originally published by Acornsoft in 1984 for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron computers
Fallout was developed by Interplay Entertainment in 1997. The game has a post-apocalyptic setting, in the aftermath of a global nuclear war in an alternate history timeline mid-22nd century. The protagonist of Fallout is an inhabitant of one of the long-term shelters known as Vaults who is tasked to find the Water Chip to save other dwellers from water shortage. There are four games in the series. Fallout 4 was released in 2015
Far Cry is a series of six games, published by Ubisoft. The games place the player in a wilderness environment where they try to survive
FIFA is a series of association football video games or football simulator, released annually by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports label. The FIFA series has sold over 325 million copies as of 2021. the series began with FIFA International Soccer on the Sega Mega Drive in 1993. Wayne Rooney has appeared in the most covers being on the cover of every game from FIFA 06 to FIFA 12. Kylian Mbappe is on the front cover of FIFA 21
Final Fantasy is a fantasy role-playing video game, developed by created by Hironobu Sakaguchi, and developed and owned by Square Enix and first published in Japan in 1987. The story follows four youths called the Light Warriors, who each carry one of their world's four elemental orbs which have been darkened by the four Elemental Fiends. 15 installments. Nobuo Uematsu wrote the score for Final Fantasy
Football Manager was developed by Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game began in 1992 as Championship Manager
Fortnite is an online video game developed by Epic Games in 2017. There are three game mode versions –
Battle Royale – up to 100 players fight to be the last person standing. 125 million players in its first year
Save the World – a cooperative survival game. Sandbox game
Creative – players create structures on a private island and share them with other players
Forza is a series of simulation racing games. Divided into Forza Motorsport (7 titles) and Forza Horizon (5 titles)
Gears of War is a tactical third-person shooter video game developed by Epic Games using Unreal Engine 3.0 technology and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The game centres around the soldiers of Delta Squad as they fight to save the human inhabitants of the fictional planet Sera from a relentless subterranean enemy known as The Locust Horde. The player assumes the role of Marcus Fenix. There are six games in the Gears of War series
Ghost of Tsushima is a 2020 video game for PlayStation. The player controls Jin Sakai, a samurai on a quest to protect Tsushima Island during the first Mongol invasion of Japan
God of War is a franchise of eight games. Debuting in 2005, the series has become a flagship title for the PlayStation brand
God of War is a video game series loosely based on Greek mythology. The series' story centres around its only playable character, Kratos, a Spartan warrior tricked into killing his wife and child by his former master, the God of War Ares
God of War: A Call from the Wilds was released in 2018. The game follows Atreus on his first adventure in the Norse wilds
Grim Fandango was developed and published by LucasArts for Microsoft Windows. It is set in the Land of the Dead
Gran Turismo is a series of racing simulation video games developed for the PlayStation. It is the highest selling video game franchise under the PlayStation brand
Grand Theft Auto is primarily developed by British development house Rockstar North, and published by its parent company, Rockstar Games
Grand Theft Auto was released in 1997. The game was originally titled Race'n'Chase
Grand Theft Auto 2 was released to mixed reviews and had limited commercial success
Grand Theft Auto III is set in Liberty City (based on New York). The story follows Claude, who, after being betrayed and left for dead by his girlfriend during a robbery, embarks on a quest for revenge
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City – set in Vice City (based on Miami). The story follows mobster Tommy Vercetti's rise to power after his release from prison
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – set in the fictional state of San Andreas. The story follows former gangster Carl "CJ" Johnson
Grand Theft Auto IV is set in a re-imagined Liberty City, a fictional city based heavily on modern day New York City. It follows Niko Bellic, a Serbian veteran of the Bosnian War who comes to the United States in search of the American Dream. GTA IV sold about 3.6 million units on its first day of release and grossed more than $500 million in its first week, breaking the first-week sales record of $300 million set by Halo 3
Grand Theft Auto V is set within the fictional state of San Andreas, based on Southern California, the game's single-player story follows three criminals and their efforts to execute a number of heists while under pressure from a government agency. The game's use of open world design allows the player to freely roam the state's countryside and the city of Los Santos, based on Los Angeles
Only the expansion packs for the original Grand Theft Auto, London 1969 and London 1961, have featured a location outside of the United States
Guitar Hero is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems and published by RedOctane for the PlayStation 2 video game console
Guitar Hero World Tour is the first game in the Guitar Hero series to feature drum and microphone controllers for percussion and vocal parts
Rock Band was developed by Harmonix Music Systems and MTV Games, and distributed by Electronic Arts. The series, inspired by Harmonix's previous efforts on the Guitar Hero series, allows up to four players to simulate the performance of popular rock music songs by playing with controllers modeled after musical instruments. Players can play the lead guitar, bass guitar, and drums parts to songs, as well as sing through a USB microphone
Half-Life, often abbreviated HL or HL1, is a science fiction first-person shooter computer game developed by Valve Software and published by Sierra Studios. In Half-Life, players assume the role of Dr. Gordon Freeman, a theoretical physicist, who must fight his way out of a research facility overrun by aliens and soldiers
Half-Life 2 was released in 2004
Half-Life: Alyx is a 2020 virtual reality game
Halo is a series of science fiction first-person shooter video games developed by Bungie Studios and published by Microsoft, developed exclusively for the Xbox 360. The games are set in the ‘Halo universe’. The Halo trilogy centres around the SPARTAN 117 ‘John’, also known as Master Chief, a human super-soldier equipped with technologically advanced battle armour, and his AI companion, Cortana
Halo 3 follows the character Master Chief and his struggle against the Covenant and the Flood
Halo 4, Halo 5: Guardians, and Halo Infinite are the three games in the Reclaimer saga
Hitman game series revolves around Agent 47, a cloned assassin-for-hire. Action-adventure stealth games developed by IO Interactive and published by Square Enix. There are eight games in the series
Hitman: Codename 47 is the first game in the series
Hitman 3 is the latest game. Released in January 2021
Kinect Adventures! is a 2010 sports video game for the Xbox 360, which utilizes the Kinect motion camera, and is included as a pack-in game with the device. The game is a collection of five adventure and sports minigames, including River Rush
Kingdom Hearts is a crossover of various Disney settings based in a universe made specifically for the series. The series centres on the main character Sora and his search for his friends and encounters with Disney, Final Fantasy, and The World Ends with You characters on their worlds. Developed by Square Enix
Kirby series is a fantasy video game series developed by HAL Laboratory and Nintendo. All of the games in the Kirby series feature a pink spherical creature named Kirby as the main playable character and protagonist. Kirby frequently saves the world he resides in from various powerful antagonists, the most recurring one being King Dedede, the self-proclaimed ruler of Dream Land (a region of Pop Star)
Knights and Merchants: The Peasants Rebellion is a history-based Real-time strategy game. The game was developed by Joymania Entertainment (since changed to Joymania Development) and published by TopWare Interactive. The scenery is based on the Anglo-Saxon period, c. 1000 AD
L.A. Noire is a video game for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 developed by Team Bondi in conjunction with Rockstar Games. L.A. Noire is set in Los Angeles in 1947, with players being challenged to solve a range of crimes
The Last of Us was developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment exclusively for the PlayStation 3. The player takes control of Joel, who is trekking across a post-apocalyptic United States in 2033, in order to escort the young Ellie to a resistance group, the Fireflies, who believe Ellie may be the key to curing an infection that has ravaged the world
The Last of Us Part II was released in 2020. The game focuses on Ellie, who sets out for revenge after suffering a tragedy, and Abby, a soldier
League of Legends is a multiplayer online battle arena game. Summoner's Rift is the flagship game mode. It is one of the largest esports games
Legend of Zelda (1986) is one of Nintendo’s most successful franchises. The series centres on Link, the playable character and chief protagonist. Link is often given the task of rescuing Princess Zelda and the kingdom of Hyrule from Ganon (or Ganondorf), who is the principal antagonist of the series. Zelda is the guardian of the Triforce of Wisdom. Since the original The Legend of Zelda was released in 1986, the series has expanded to include 19 entries on all of Nintendo's major game consoles
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was released in 1998 for the Nintendo 64. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest video games of all time
Lego entered into a partnership with Traveller's Tales, and went on to make games including Lego Star Wars, Lego Indiana Jones, Lego Batman, and Lego Marvel Super Heroes
Lemmings was developed for the Commodore Amiga in 1991. The objective is to guide a group of anthropomorphised lemmings through a number of obstacles to a designated exit
Life is Strange focuses on Max Caulfield, an 18-year-old photography student who discovers that she has the ability to rewind time at any moment
Madden NFL is an American football video game series developed by Electronic Arts Tiburon for EA Sports. It is named after Pro Football Hall of Famer John Madden
Mario was the official mascot of Nintendo and was created by Shigeru Miyamoto. He first appeared in Donkey Kong, though his original name was Jumpman. Because of the common reference to him and his brother Luigi as the ‘Mario Brothers,’ it has been speculated his full name is Mario Mario. Mario is depicted as a short, pudgy Italian plumber who lives in the Mushroom Kingdom, where he is regarded as a hero by many; he is best known for thwarting the plans of the evil King Bowser to kidnap Princess Peach and subjugate the Mushroom Kingdom. The overall Mario franchise is the bestselling video game franchise of all time
Super Mario Bros. was released in 1985
Super Mario Kart was released in 1992
Super Mario Odyssey was released in 2017
Luigi’s Mansion was the first Mario game to be released for Nintendo GameCube, in 2001
Wario is the protagonist and antihero of the Wario Land and WarioWare series
Mass Effect is a science fiction media franchise that depicts an alternate universe where humanity and several alien civilizations have colonized the Milky Way galaxy
Mass Effect takes place in the year 2183, with the player assuming direct control of an elite human soldier named Commander Shepard and setting out to explore the Galaxy on a starship, the SSV Normandy. The eponymous ‘mass effect’ is a form of inertia-suppressing technology, allowing faster-than-light travel
Mass Effect: Andromeda is a 2017 follow-up to the original Mass Effect trilogy
Medal of Honor was developed for the PlayStationin 1999. The first twelve installments take place during World War II. The story of the first three games was created by Steven Spielberg
Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond was released in December 2020. It is the first release in the series since 2012's Medal of Honor: Warfighter
Mega Man is a franchise created by Capcom, starring a series of robot characters each known by the moniker "Mega Man"
Metal Gear is a series of games created by Hideo Kojima in which the player takes control of special forces operative (Solid Snake or Big Boss) who is assigned to find Metal Gear, a walking tank with the ability to launch nuclear weapons
Metroid is a Nintendo franchise. Players control bounty hunter Samus Aran, who protects the galaxy from the Space Pirates and their attempts to harness the power of the parasitic Metroid creature
Minecraft is a sandbox indie game originally created by Swedish programmer Markus ‘Notch’ Persson and published by Mojang. The creative and building aspects of Minecraft allow players to build constructions out of textured cubes in a 3D procedurally generated world. In 2014, Microsoft announced a deal to buy Mojang, along with the ownership of the Minecraft intellectual property for US$2.5 billion. Minecraft is the best-selling video game of all time, with 200 million copies sold
Mortal Kombat was developed and published by Midway Games in 1992. Known for its gory finishing moves. The game focuses on the journey of the monk Liu Kang to save Earth from the evil sorcerer Shang Tsung. Mortal Kombat features at least 60 player characters
Need for Speed is a series of racing video games published by Electronic Arts. Need for Speed is the most successful racing video game series in the world
The most recent game, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered, was released in November 2020
Night Trap is a survival horror interactive movie video game that was released in1992 originally for the Sega CD
No Man's Sky is an action-adventure survival video game developed and published by the indie studio Hello Games for PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows. The game is built around four pillars: exploration, survival, combat, and trading
Overwatch was developed by Blizzard Entertainment. Players are put into two teams of six, with each player having unique abilities
PaRappa the Rapper is a rhythm video game for the PlayStation. The game is named after its protagonist, Parappa, a rapping dog with the motto, "I gotta believe!"
Pokemon was created by Satoshi Tajiri, controlled by Nintendo. The franchise began as a pair of video games for the original Game Boy in 1995
Ash Ketchum, known as Satoshi in Japan, is the protagonist in the Pokemon franchise
In most incarnations of the fictional Pokémon universe, a Trainer that encounters a wild Pokémon is able to capture that Pokémon by throwing a specially designed, mass-producible spherical tool called a Poké Ball at it. If the Pokémon is unable to escape the confines of the Poké Ball, it is officially considered to be under the ownership of that Trainer
The first games, Pocket Monsters Red and Green, were later released outside of Japan as Pokemon Red and Blue
Pokemon Go is an augmented reality mobile game developed and published by Niantic in 2016. The game is free to play and had reached over a billion global downloads by early 2019
Portal was developed by Value Corporation and released in 2007. The game is set in the Half-Life universe. GLaDOS, short for Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System, is a fictional artificially intelligent computer system and the main antagonist in Portal. Chell is the silent protagonist
Portal 2 was released in 2011
Prince of Persia was a trilogy, and the series with rebooted with Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, which was made into a 2010 film directed by Mike Newell
Pro Evolution Soccer has been released annually since 1995. Developed and published by Konami. The latest game is titled eFootball PES 202
Quake is the successor to id Software's Doom series. Published in 1996
Red Dead is a series of open world action-adventure western video game, developed by Rockstar San Diego and published by Rockstar Games
Red Dead Revolver is a 2004 game that follows bounty hunter Red Harlow's quest for revenge after the murder of his parents
Red Dead Redemption is a 2010 game that follows John Marston, a former outlaw whose wife and son are taken hostage by the government in ransom for his services as a hired gun
Red Dead Redemption 2 is a 2010 prequel that follows outlaw Arthur Morgan, a member of the Van der Linde gang. It had the second-biggest launch in the history of entertainment, generating US$725 million in sales from its opening weekend
Resident Evil is a video game series developed by Capcom and created by Shinji Mikami. The series is credited with popularizing the survival horror game genre. This franchise has been heavily influenced by George A. Romero's Dead movies, as well as the Alone in the Dark series of PC horror games. The original Resident Evil revolves around a series of cannibalistic homicides that occur in the Arklay Mountains region, situated north of the fictional Raccoon City. Resident Evil is known as Biohazard in Japan
Roblox is a massively multiplayer online video game and game creation system that allows users to design their own games. As of August 2020, Roblox has over 164 million monthly active users
Rocket League is described as "soccer, but with rocket-powered cars"
RuneScape was the world's most popular free MMORPG with over 200 million accounts, released in 2001 by Andrew and Paul Gower, and developed and published by Jagex Games Studio. Set in the fantasy world of Gielinor
Second Life is a virtual world developed by Linden Lab. A free client program called the Viewer enables its users, called Residents, to interact with each other through avatars. Ailin Graf is a German teacher who is Second Life’s first dollar millionaire
The Secret of Monkey Island is a 1990 point-and-click graphic adventure game developed by Lucasfilm Games. It takes place in a fantastic version of the Caribbean during the age of piracy. The player assumes the role of Guybrush Threepwood
Sensible Soccer was first released for Amiga and Atari ST computers in 1992
Shadow of the Colossus follows a man named Wander must travel across a vast expanse on horseback and defeat sixteen massive beings, known simply as colossi, in order to restore the life of a girl named Mono. The game was originally released in 2005, and a remake was made in 2018
Sid Meier’s Pirates! was created for the Commodore 64 in 1987
SimCity is a video game series designed by Will Wright. A player has to develop a city on a patch of unused land
The Sims is a strategic life simulation computer game created by game designer Will Wright, published by Maxis, and distributed by Electronic Arts. The game is a simulation of the day-to-day activities of one or more virtual people (dubbed ‘Sims’) in a suburban household located near SimCity
Sonic the Hedgehog was the mascot of Sega. Battles against his nemesis Doctor Eggman, also known as Doctor Robotnik. Sonic's best friend is a young fox called Miles ‘Tails’ Prower. Sonic 3 introduced Sonic's rival Knuckles, a red echidna and the guardian of the Master Emerald. The first Sonic game, released in 1991, was for the Sega Genesis
Souls series began with the release of Demon's Souls for the PlayStation 3 in 2009, and was followed by Dark Souls and its sequels, Dark Souls II and Dark Souls III
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell is a series of video games based on novels by Tom Clancy. The protagonist is Sam Fisher, an agent of the fictional ‘Third Echelon’ black-ops sub-division within the NSA
Spyro is s series of platform video games which feature the protagonist Spyro, a dragon
Starcraft is a franchise owned by Blizzard Entertainment. The series centres on a galactic struggle for dominance between three species – the Terrans, the Zerg, and the Protoss – in a distant part of the Milky Way galaxy known as the Koprulu Sector in the 26th century
Star Wars games were originally developed by a variety of companies after George Lucas licensed the rights to Star Wars video games; several of these games were released under the “Lucasfilm Games” banner. Following the closure of LucasArts in 2013, the rights to produce Star Wars video games were reassigned solely to Electronic Arts. More than 100 video games based on the Star Wars franchise have been released
Street Fighter is a franchise developed by Capcom. The first game was released as an arcade game in 1987. The player takes control of martial artist Ryu, who competed in a worldwide martial arts tournament. A second player can join in at any time and take control of Ryu's rival, Ken
Street Fighter II was released in 1991 and is credited with establishing many of the conventions of the one-on-one fighting genre
Super Smash Bros. features many characters from Nintendo's most popular franchises. The original Super Smash Bros. was released in 1999 for the Nintendo 64
Tekken (Japanese: ‘Iron Fist’) is a fighting game franchise created, developed and published by Namco. The main games in the series follow the events of the King of Iron Fist Tournament
Temple Run is an endless running video game. In Temple Run, the player controls an explorer who, having stolen a treasure from a temple, is chased by "demonic monkeys" who want to eat him
Terraria is a 2D sandbox game, similar to Minecraft
Tetris is a puzzle video game originally designed and programmed by Alexey Pajitnov in the Soviet Union. It was created in 1984. Players complete lines by moving differently shaped pieces (tetrominoes), which descend onto the playing field. It had sold 202 million copies by 2011, making it one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time
Tomb Raider was the first Lara Croft video game, released in 1996. Originally, the Tomb Raider games were developed by Core Design, and a game was released annually. Development was transferred to American studio Crystal Dynamics in 2003
Total War is a computer strategy game series developed by The Creative Assembly. The first game of the series, Shogun: Total War was released in 2000. The most recent game released was Total War Saga: Troy in 2020
Uncharted is a series developed by Naughty Dog for the PlayStation. It follows treasure hunter Nathan "Nate" Drake, senior treasure hunter and mentor Victor "Sully" Sullivan, and journalist Elena Fisher. There are four mainline games:
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
Untitled Goose Game is a 2019 game developed by House House. Players control a domestic goose that bothers the inhabitants of an English village
The Walking Dead is based on Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead comic book series and its television adaptation. The game takes place in the same fictional world as the comic, with events occurring shortly after the onset of the zombie apocalypse in Georgia
Wii Fit is a fitness game designed for the Nintendo Wii console. The game uses a unique platform peripheral called the Wii Balance Board, on which the player stands during exercise
Wii Sports was released along with the Wii in 2006. Players use the Wii Remote to mimic actions performed in tennis, baseball, bowling, golf and boxing. It is the best-selling single-platform game of all time
The Witcher based on the novel series of the same name by Andrzej Sapkowski. The story follows Geralt of Rivia, a traveling monster hunter who has supernatural powers, known as Witchers
Wolfenstein is a series of World War II games. The first game, Castle Wolfenstein, was developed in 1981 for the Apple II. The protagonist of the series is American spy B.J. Blazkowicz
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Blizzard Entertainment. Players create characters which serve as their avatars in the online world of Azeroth. The game had over one hundred million registered accounts by 2014
Worms is a series of artillery strategy computer games developed by British company Team17. Players control a small platoon of worms across the landscape and try and kill the worms of other teams
Gaming consoles
Nintendo
- Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit console released in 1983
- Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) is a 16-bit console released in 1980
- Game Boy was released in 1989
- Nintendo 64 is a 64-bit console released in 1996
- Virtual Boy was released in 1995
- Game Boy Color was released in 1998
- Nintendo Game Cube was released in 2001
- Game Boy Advance was released in 2001
- Nintendo DS (Dual Screen) was released in 2004
- Wii was released in 2006
- Nintendo 3DS was released in 2011
- Wii U was released in 2012
- Nintendo Switch was released in 2017
Nintendo 3DS has the ability to produce ‘3D effects without the need for any special glasses’ via a process called autostereoscopy
Nintendo Wii has a Nunchuk controller and Mii avatar
Sony
- PlayStation was released in 1994
- PlayStation 2 was released in 2000
- PlayStation Portable (PSP) was released in 2004
- PlayStation 3 was released in 2006
- PlayStation Vita was released in 2011
- PlayStation 4 was released in 2013
- PlayStation 5 was released in 2020
Microsoft
- Xbox was released in 2001
- Xbox 360 was released in 2005
- Xbox One was released in 2013
- Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S were released in 2020
Kinect is a line of motion sensing input devices by Microsoft for Xbox 360 and Xbox One video game consoles
Sega
- SG-1000 was released in 1983
- Master System is an 8-bit console released in 1987
- Sega Genesis (known as the Mega Drive outside North America) is a 16-bit console released in 1988
- Sega Pico was released in 1993
- Sega Saturn was released in 1995
- Sega Dreamcast was released in 1998
Pico was an educational video game console for young children
Mobile games
Snake first appeared on the Nokia 6110 in 1997. Snake II was bundled on the Nokia 3310. It is based on the 1976 arcade game Blockade
Zynga is a social network game developer founded by Mark Pincus. Games include Mafia Wars and FarmVille
Angry Birds is a puzzle video game developed by Finland-based Rovio Mobile. Inspired primarily by a sketch of stylized wingless birds, the game was first released for Apple's iOS in December 2009. Since that time, over 12 million copies of the game have been purchased from Apple's App Store. The birds are angry at pigs that have stolen their eggs
Angry Birds Rio added a number of new elements, most notably the first use of boss levels. Players must now rescue caged exotic birds or defeat evil marmosets
Angry Birds Star Wars was released in 2012
Angry Birds Transformers was released in 2014
CastleVille was released by Zynga in 2011
FarmVille is a farming simulation social network game developed by Zynga
Words with Friends is a multi-player word game developed by Zynga with Friends (formerly Newtoy, Inc.)
Fruit Ninja is a game where the player slices fruit with a blade controlled via a touch pad
Candy Crush Saga is a video game for smartphones and Facebook that was released in November 2012 It was developed by King.com. As of March 2013, Candy Crush Saga surpassed FarmVille 2 as the most popular game on Facebook. The game is a variation of ‘match three’ games. The basic move of the game consists of swapping two candies' positions to align sets of three of the same colour, whereupon they disappear, causing candies above them to collapse into the space left behind
In 2014 a sequel Candy Crush Soda Saga was released
Bejeweled is a tile-matching puzzle video game by PopCap Games. More than 75 million copies of Bejeweled have been sold, and the game has been downloaded more than 150 million times. The objective of this game is to swap one gem with an adjacent gem to form a horizontal or vertical chain of three or more gems of the same colour
Flappy Bird was developed by Vietnam-based developer Dong Nguyen. The objective is to direct a flying bird, named ‘Faby’ which moves continuously to the right, between sets of Mario-like pipes. Flappy Bird was removed from both Apple's App Store and Google Play by its creator in 2014, due to guilt over what he considered to be its addictive nature and overuse
Heads Up! was created by the Ellen DeGeneres Show. You hold your iOS device on your head as it displays a word, which you have to guess from your friends' clues
Clash of Clans is a 2012 freemium mobile MMO strategy video game developed and published by Supercell, a video game company based in Helsinki
Subway Surfers features youths applying graffiti to (tagging) a metro railway site. First game to cross a billion downloads on the Google Play Store
Cut the Rope is a series of physics-based puzzle video games developed by the Russian entertainment company ZeptoLab. The objective of the Cut the Rope games is to feed candy to a little green creature named Om Nom while collecting stars
Among Us is a 2018 game in which players each take on one of two roles, most being Crewmates, and a predetermined number being Impostors
Puzzle & Dragons is a match-three puzzle game. It was the first mobile game in history to gross $1 billion in revenue
General Information
First-person shooter (FPS) is a genre of computer and video games which is characterized by an on-screen view that simulates the in-game character's point of view and a focus on the use of handheld ranged weapons
Third-person shooter (TPS) is a genre of 3D action games in which the player character is visible on-screen, and the gameplay consists primarily of shooting
Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) games are team-based and involve controlling a champion
Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) games are set in a virtual world, which can be played by many people at the same time
Live Action Role-Playing (LARP) is a form of role-playing game where the participants physically portray their characters
Real-Time Strategy (RTS) is a time-based video game that centres around using resources to build units and defeat an opponent. This is contrasted by turn-based strategy (TBS) games
In a Battle Royale game characters are placed in a combat zone and eliminate each other until the final surviving player character wins the game
A god game is a computer simulation game that casts the player in the position of an entity with divine or supernatural powers, and places them in charge of a game setting containing autonomous mortals to guard and influence. Examples of such god games are Little Computer People and The Sims
A dungeon crawl is a type of scenario in fantasy role-playing games in which heroes navigate a labyrinthine environment, battling various monsters, and looting any treasure they may find
Hack and slash, abbreviated H&S, refers to a type of gameplay that emphasizes combat
Platform games are characterized by the player having to climb up and down, or jump from and to, platforms and ledges, while fighting enemies and collecting objects, e.g. Super Mario, Donkey Kong
Independent video games (commonly referred to as indie games) are video games created by individuals or small teams generally without video game publisher financial support
Shigeru Miyamoto is best known as the creator of some of the most successful video game franchises of all time, including Mario, Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox, F-Zero, Pikmin, and the Wii series
Traveller’s Tales have sold over 60 million games to date, and have won two BAFTAs; one for Gameplay with Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, and one for Children's Videogame of the Year for Lego Batman: The Video Game. It is part of the TT Games group
A merger between Activision and Vivendi Games took place in 2008, with the newly formed company known as Activision Blizzard. Activision still exists as a subsidiary owned by Activision Blizzard, and it still develops and publishes games such as Call of Duty and Guitar Hero
Draughts was the first computer game, in 1951
Magnavox Odyssey, released in 1972, was the first home gaming console
Valve was founded in 1996 by former Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington
Steam is a digital distribution platform developed by Valve Corporation. It is the largest digital distribution platform for PC gaming
Konami Code is a cheat code that appears in many Konami video games. First used in Gradius
