Shenmue is the most influential game of all time, according to new poll

A public poll to determine the most influential video game of all time, held by the U.K. screen arts academy BAFTA, has returned an extremely surprising (if not totally unworthy) result: Shenmue, Yu Suzuki’s wildly ambitious 1999 Sega Dreamcast game about one young man’s search for justice (and capsule toys).

Shenmue beat more routinely canonized classics like Doom, Super Mario Bros., Half-Life, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time to claim the title. Those four games made up the rest of the top five. Minecraft came in sixth place, Tetris in 11th, Final Fantasy 7 in 17th, and Grand Theft Auto 3 placed a lowly 19th.

There’s evidence that BAFTA’s poll was subject to some brigading among passionate game fans; Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, a (by all accounts very good) role-playing game that has barely been out for two months, came in 7th place, just ahead of Super Mario 64. Still, there’s no disputing the worthiness of most of the games in BAFTA’s top 21, even if the order is a little… idiosyncratic.

Shenmue was a passion project for the Sega producer Suzuki, the creator of Out Run and Virtua Fighter. The most expensive game ever made at the time, it’s a boldly realistic take on the humdrum daily life of Ryo Hazuki, a teenage martial artist out to avenge his father’s murder in the 1980s. It features incredibly detailed environments, a day-and-night system, NPCs who obey their own schedules, dozens of minigames — and quite a lot of just waiting around.

Shenmue was certainly ahead of its time, although it’s debatable how influential it has been on other games — certainly in comparison to something like GTA 3. Conceived as a multi-part epic, it was a commercial failure, and though Shenmue 2 came out in 2001, it would be 18 years before Suzuki got to continue his story in the crowd-funded Shenmue 3.

Responding to the accolade in a statement, Suzuki said, “I am deeply honoured and grateful that Shenmue has been selected as the ‘Most Influential Video Game of All Time.’ At its inception, we set out to explore the question, ‘How real can a game become?’, aiming to portray a world and story unprecedented in scale and detail. This distinction serves as a powerful reminder that the challenge we embraced continues to resonate with and inspire so many people even today. It is truly the greatest of encouragement.

“Above all, we would like to express our heartfelt thanks to the fans around the world who have continued to love and support Shenmue. Your passion and encouragement have guided this journey every step of the way. And the story is not over yet, there is more to come! Thank you very much!”

BAFTA’s poll was conducted as a prelude to the BAFTA Games Awards, which take place next week on April 8. In a similar poll last year, the public selected Tomb Raider’s Lara Croft as the most iconic video games character of all time, ahead of Mario, Sonic, and Hitman’s Agent 47.

Here’s the full ranking of the top 21 most influential video games of all time, according to BAFTA’s poll:

1. Shenmue
2. Doom (1993)
3. Super Mario Bros.
4. Half-Life
5. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
6. Minecraft
7. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
8. Super Mario 64
9. Half-Life 2
10. The Sims
11. Tetris
12. Tomb Raider
13. Pong
14. Metal Gear Solid
15. World of Warcraft
16. Baldur’s Gate 3
17. Final Fantasy 7
18. Dark Souls
19. Grand Theft Auto 3
20. The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim
21. Grand Theft Auto