Pitfall! (Atari 2600, 1982)

As stated in my review of Adventure for the Atari 2600, programmers for Atari were not allowed to a credit for their work anywhere in the game, or on its packaging, manuals, etc.  Because of this, a group of Atari's most experienced and talented programmers became fed up, left Atari, and founded their own company in 1979 called Activision.  Each programmer in Activision was allowed to make their own games, which would be credited to them (this was back in the days when you only really needed one person to program a 4-bit video game).  The greatest of these is often considered to be David Crane's Pitfall! (1982)
There are a few distinctive qualities to an Activision game.  They are often highly experimental (by 2600 standards), and typically take full advantage of the system's graphical capabilities.  Activision never restricted themselves to a single genre, and not even the confines of a genre.  They made a few space shooters (Spider Fighter, Megamania), sports games (Ice Hockey, Boxing), and some games that defy genre altogether (HERO, Pressure Cooker).  Pitfall! is one of those rare Activision games that helped invent a genre, the platformer.
In this game, you control the adventurer, "Pitfall" Harry, on his quest to collect as much gold and treasure as he possibly can in twenty minutes (one of those short expeditions), and survive the harsh jungle environment. Among the many hazards in this game are the eponymous pitfalls, crocodile-infested ponds, snakes, fire, barrels, and scorpions.  Harry can only run and jump, and if he sees a swinging vine (one of the most fluid animations on the 2600) he can use it to bypass certain obstacles, giving out a Tarzan cry.
The game is not broken up into levels, but screens.  Harry may go to the left or right in a never-ending wilderness, and every new screen he enters is randomly generated.  On one screen, he may have to hop across the heads of crocodiles, but on another, there will be a vine for him to swing by them.  One screen may have a ladder going down to the underground, which may offer a safer shortcut past hazards, or a dead-end.  Harry jumps in only one arc, making it impossible to steer him in mid air, but each hazard is designed so that Harry's precise jumps will have plenty of room for execution.
As common as they would become, platformers were a pretty rare kind of game in the early 1980's.  Mario had gotten the ball rolling with his arcade smash Donkey Kong, but the genre still had a long way to go to the  platforming opuses on the NES and SNES.  Pitfall would get a sequel on the 2600, called Pitfall II: The Lost Cavern which made several improvements to this first game, including a bigger map to explore, but was just not the same as the original.  The later Pitfall games on the NES, SNES, and Genesis would all be catastrophic, some infamous, failures.  David Crane would eventually make the NES cult hit A Boy and His Blob.  This classic Atari game will always live as one of the best, and most influential games in the system's library.

Game & Watch Games (1980-1991)

A decade before Nintendo's Gunpei Yokoi created the hundred-million selling Game Boy, he made a series of little handhelds known as Game & Watch.  They were called so because beside having a game to play, they also functioned as a clock.  They weren't the first handhelds, for instance the Tiger Electronics handheld sports games predate them by at least a couple years, but they did a lot to form Nintendo's identity, as well as lead to the design of the Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, and even the Nintendo DS.  In total, there were 59 Game & Watch games released, and I will be talking about the most iconic and the best.
The very first G&W was Ball (1980).  The gameplay is simple, juggle the balls and don't let them drop.  You are rewarded one point for each ball successfully juggled.  The game has two difficulty settings, a Game A and B.  Game A has only two balls, while Game B has three.  The game beeps in rhythm with the movement of the balls (something that would become a standard for G&W) which is helpful to keep the player in rhythm.  It also introduced the character Mr. Game & Watch (shown above).  A simple and fun game, and a great first title.
Vermin (1980) has Mr. G&W defending his garden from troublesome moles.  He is armed with a mallet in each hand, and must move left and right as the moles come up to bop them on the noggin and drive them away.  If you miss a mole, you are given one "miss".  Unlike Ball, where if you missed once the game was over, Vermin allows you three misses before it is game over.
In Fire (1980), an apartment building has been caught in flames, and you, controlling two firefighters with a  trampoline, must bounce the people to safety.  Citizens may jump out of two floors of the apartment, and must be bounced three times each to reach the ambulance on the other side.  One of the best remembered titles from the series.
Manhole (1981) is similar to Fire in that you are supposed to protect some oblivious citizens, but with a variation.  Now you are a man in the sewers who must keep people from falling in by holding up his manhole cover to the holes, so the people can walk by.  There are four holes to keep track of, which can become challenging when there is a stampede of people on both levels running at different speeds.  Mr. G&W may need to reconsider this vocation.
In Octopus (1981) Mr. G&W is going diving for underwater treasure, but it is guarded by an (apathetic-looking) octopus.  He must dodge the tentacles and grab as much treasure as he can to bring to the surface.  Grabbing more treasure will award bigger points bonuses, but makes him move slower, so there is an interesting risk/reward system here that adds a good level of strategy.
Oil Panic (1982) takes place at a gas station where the oil is leaking into the building (how that is happening, I have no clue) and MR. G&W must catch the drops in a bucket, which can hold three drops at a time.  He must throw the oil out of the window to his partner, who scurries back and forth on the street below.  If you drop any oil, or dump oil on one of the gas station customers below, you will get a miss.  If you can throw a full pail of oil to your buddy, you will get more points, but also run the risk of missing some oil.  Again, this adds a layer of strategy to the game.
Donkey Kong Jr. (1982) is based off of the arcade title of the same name, the sequel to Donkey Kong.  You play as the ape's son, Jr., who must save his dad from the captivity of Mario (the only time he has ever been the villain).  You climb on vines, jump over traps, and leap to grab a key and break one of the four locks on the cage.  A fairly difficult game, but very much fun nonetheless.
Rainshower (1983) catches Mr. G&W at home, trying to dry out his laundry on clotheslines when a rain storm starts!  He must shift the four lines of clothes back and forth the dodge the drops of rain.  One of the most difficult and busy Game & Watch games, but one of the most fun.
The Game & Watch games would live on in Nintendo's future titles.  There were four Game & Watch Gallery games released on the Game Boy and Game Boy Advance, being compilations of the best titles, as well as offering upgraded versions starring Mario and his gang.  Mr. Game & Watch was a playable character in the second and third Super Smash Bros. fighting games, appearing flat, with stilted animation in the spirit of his old games.  His moves are all based off of games from the series, such as his mallets from Vermin and bucket from Oil Spill.  Nintendo has done well to preserve these games for future generations to enjoy, as they have aged relatively well next to many of their contemporaries.

World of Goo (PC, 2008)

Here is a game that honestly surprised me at how deep, even profound, it got.  Yes, a physics-puzzle game starring adorable blobs of slime had moments of unbelievable profoundness.  Said balls of slime are the goo-balls, who are travelling across the land, trying to escape the clutches of the World of Goo Corporation, who wish to use them for science, electricity, and other means.  The goo-balls can link together to form structures like towers and bridges, and try to reach the pipes at the end of the level to continue on.
Being a physics-puzzle game, playing is not as simple as building a structure from point A to B.  The goo-balls have weight, and the links between them are elastic.  Try to build them too high or too wide and they will collapse.  You need to build them thick for support, and use the various other types of goo to help.  There are goo-balls that can be broken off of the chain and replaced, ones that float (like a balloon), and giant go-balls that must be ground down to collect, to name a few.  Each level has a hint on a post left by the mysterious "helpful sign painter".
These puzzles offer a great challenge, which is rarely frustrating.  In one stage, you must build a goo bridge over a chasm, building down one side to offer support and then across.  In another level, you must use the "drool" goo (which can make only one link with another goo-ball) with balloons to to over and around a giant, hazardous wind mill.  One of the most memorable levels starts with the goo-balls helpless at the bottom of what seems to be a well.  You must build them into a big ball to expand your way up and out to what reveals to be the mouth of a creature (you have just slithered out of its esophagus).  Using its eyes as balloons, the goo-balls fly away to the next chapter.
The graphics in this game are colorful and stylish.  I would compare the look of the game to perhaps what F.W. Murnau would doodle in a notepad.  Cartoon expressionism.  Everything is slanted, skewed, and slightly off-kilter.  While following the same art style, it should also be noted that each "chapter" of the game has a unique look and feel to it.  Chapter two is a land of power plants and generators, and everything is mechanized, rusty, and inorganic.  Chapter three, a factory, is apocalyptic, oppressive, and hopeless.  Chapter four takes place inside of a computer world, where everything is digital, neon, and angular.

WARNING!  THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS PLOT SPOILERS FOR WORLD OF GOO!

The profound moments come after the first chapter of the game.  In Chapter two, we learn that the World of Goo Corporation wants to find a clean, alternative energy source, having something to do with the goo-balls.  Past the abandoned wind and nuclear generators, there lies a giant monument that resembles a woman.  We find out that this was actually an old electric generator that ran on beauty, but as it grew older, its potency wore off and eventually was shut down.  Using the goo-balls as plastic surgery, the beauty generator provides clean electricity once again.
In chapter three, the factory, the citizens of this world are excited for the unveiling of World Of Goo Corps. newest product, known only as "Product Z".  The goo-balls are trying to navigate and escape the factory, all of its forgotten and failed experimental merchandise haunting the memories of the player.  The exits in this chapter are typically only accessible by destroying or dismantling one of these nightmarish machinations.  On the last level of the chapter, the goo-balls find that they have been used the whole time to fire up the launch of Product Z, which turns out to be a laser that converts the whole world into the internet.
Chapter four is the new world of this internet.  The landscape is vacant, with bits of pointless information clogging up the tubes.  One level has you collecting pieces of a chat-room conversation, which are made of digital goo.  The goo-balls come across a search engine called MOM who tells them that the way to fix the world and end the World of Goo Corps. is to go to the depths of the recycle bin and un-delete every piece of information within.  They do so, and the Corps. is overrun with information, which blows up the HQ, restoring the world to its prior state.
There is an epilogue with levels to complete, but it basically equates to "beyond the end" and nothing more.  But beyond the epilogue is a clever little scene that sarcastically stabs at Downloadable Content (DLC).  In a lot of games nowaday, DLC is a sly way for a game developer to squeeze more money out of consumers without delivering much of a product.  In this scene in World of Goo, a little sales shack lies by a cliff in the middle of nowhere.  The proprietor of this DLC stand is interested in selling you a World of Goo T-shirt, or tourist's map (but upon inspection of his inventory, discovers he is fresh out).  Eventually, he settles on giving you the only thing left in stock.  When you go to look at it, it is a blimp with a banner that reads, "I bought a blimp".

SPOILERS END HERE.

World of Goo is part of the indie movement, made by the studio 2D Boy.  The indie movement has only grown stronger over time.  These are mostly games that seek to be art in a market that is so sure that games are only good as entertainment.  Where most studio releases all stick to the same tried-and-true formulas, games like World of Goo are unlike any other that exists, combining beautiful art design with thoughtful and original gameplay.  If there is anyone working to vindicate video games as an art form, it is our independent auteurs.

Super Mario Galaxy (Wii, 2007)

If there is a feeling of joy and flight that comes with every Mario game, then Super Mario Galaxy (2007) is the one that achieves it the most.  Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World got Mario off the ground, Super Mario 64 brought him into the third dimension, but this game rockets him past the stars and into the deepest reaches of space, both figuratively and literally.  In this game, Bowser has once again kidnapped Peach and brought her into distant space, and Mario finds himself aboard the comet observatory, a space station whose power stars have also been stolen by the King of the Koopas.  Mario is aided in his quest by Rosalina, the master of the observatory and mother to the lumas, a race of tiny star children, who are destined to become some kind of celestial body when they grow up.
To regain power to the comet observatory, Mario must travel to distant galaxies to retrieve the stars.  These galaxies make up the levels of the game, similar to Super Mario 64's painting worlds.  The more stars you collect, the more galaxies the comet observatory can send you to.  Other galaxies become accessible when you feed star bits (collectible throughout the game like coins) to hungry lumas.  The comet observatory itself is like a big level with places to explore and some secrets to find, similar to Peach's castle.
It should be noted here that this is a Wii game, and therefore involves motion controls.  Most games made on the Wii before and after this game felt the need to shoehorn in its motion controls, most of which did not function properly.  This led to many awful titles on the system, and the coining of the term "shovelware".  Super Mario Galaxy is careful not to make its motion controls seem out of place or dysfunctional.  Shaking the remote will make Mario do a spinning attack, which can also be used in mid-air to gain a little more height.  Combined with the ground-pound, it can be a powerful homing attack.  Pointing at the screen will move a cursor which can be used to pick up and fire star bits (used to stun foes).  In certain levels, Mario will balance atop a giant ball, and you tilt the remote to steer him.
Platforming has been completely re-vamped for this game.  Each galaxy is made up of a number of planets and planetoids, rarely being flat.  In the first galaxy, Mario stars on a small planet with seemingly very little on it.  He jumps off the edge, orbiting around to the other side, revealing that there is more of this planet to explore.  Gravity twists and bends in all directions depending on the size and shape of the planets.  One planet will be so large that it seems to be flat, and another will snake around offering all kinds of gravity-bending possibilities.  Platforming puzzles and boss fights often revolve around these shifts in gravitational force.
This is one of the most beautiful games I have ever seen.  The Wii is not known as a graphics powerhouse, but Super Mario Galaxy takes its 256 bits to the limit, crafting a game that is colorful, detailed, and marvelously textured.  Every object and character feels like the have a weight to them, and are drawn with such detail as to look real.  The size and majesty of each galaxy is something to behold.  One of my favorite lines from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy states that "Infinity is not very impressive, just look at the sky and there it is.  What is more impressive is something that seems infinitely massive."  That's the feeling of this game.  Infinitely massive and grand.

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (Game Boy Advance, 2003)

Super Mario RPG took a little while to catch on with gamers, but once it had, they were clamoring for a sequel.  What came, instead, was a spiritual successor of sorts called Paper Mario for the Nintendo 64.  It was basically an even more simplified Mario RPG, one for young children to become introduced to the genre.  It followed many of the guidelines set by its predecessor, but falls flat when compared to it.  A worthy successor to Super Mario RPG would come on the Game Boy Advance, however, in the form of Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga.
In this game, Princess Peach is welcoming an ambassador from the neighboring land to the Mushroom Kingdom, the Beanbean Kingdom, who turns out to be Cackletta, an evil witch.  She steals the Princess's voice, replacing it with an "explosive vocabulary" (the dialogue in the game is all in text, and when the Princess attempts to speak, her words explode).  The famous Mario and his not-so-famous brother Luigi are sent to the Beanbean Kingdom to retrieve the voice, aided by... Bowser?  Yes, Bowser lends the Mario Bros. a lift in one of his airships for the pursuit of Cackletta (he can't kidnap the Princess since her voice would destroy his castle).  The ship is attacked by Cackletta's henchman, Fawful, and the Mario Bros. make a crash landing over the Beanbean Kingdom.
Carried over from Super Mario RPG is the comical tone, but taken to an all-new level.  This is one of the funniest games I have ever played, made possible by the wonderful personalities given to all of the characters.  It is well known that Mario receives a bigger spotlight than Luigi, and the writers of the game incorporate this into the dialogue.  A Beanish resident recognizes the brothers and says "It's the famous Mario!  And his brother! ... Green guy!"  Bowser, while usually a threatening force in the Mario games, is here an incompetent, yet assured, grump.
Hands-down, the funniest character in the game, who multiplies the humor several times, is Fawful.  His dialogue consists of broken English and word salads (a phrase with correct syntax but nonsensical word choice) that give him a brilliantly unhinged personality.  The first encounter with him on Bowser's ship is a classic scene in gaming.  When Bowser says to him "What's your beef?" Fawful responds, "Beef?  I am lacking in beef.  Fawful is beefless!"  He compares Cackletta's plan to a sandwich, and then declares, "I am the mustard of your doom!"  His battle cry "I HAVE FURY!" was included in Nintendo Power Magazine's list of classic video game quotes.
The gameplay of Mario & Luigi takes place in two forms.  The first is the overworld, a huge span of land that the brothers traverse, often including platforming and puzzles.  Both brothers are moved at the same time, pressing A makes one jump and B the other.  Pressing Start makes them trade places.  They both get mallets, and eventually Mario gets the power to shoot fire and Luigi gets the power to shoot lightning.  All of these powers are used to solve the many puzzles in this game.  For one puzzle, A burning statue is blocking your path, and you put it out by having Mario fill up with water, and then Luigi jumps on him to spray it out.
The second form of gameplay are the turn-based battles.  Like Super Mario RPG, enemies are visible on the map, and bumping into them starts a battle.  However, this time you may make a pre-emptive strike to deal some damage before the fight begins.  Be careful though, since some enemies can do the same to you.  In battle, each brother can attack separately, or do a combo.  Also like Mario RPG is the ability to deal extra damage with well-timed button presses, but here there is a greater emphasis on it.  When enemies attack, damage can be negated, or even avoided, with good timing.  Combos are performed by a series of button presses that reward you for how well you perform them.
The Mario & Luigi series would receive two sequels, both on the Nintendo DS (Partners in Time and Bowser's Inside Story) but neither reaching quite the heights that the first game did.  Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga is a masterpiece of humor, gameplay, and story in the Mario franchise.  Is this game better than Super Mario RPG?  In some ways, yes, in others, no.  The original must be noted for all of its inventions that the spiritual successor owes to it, but then, Mario & Luigi does take everything that Super Mario RPG did well and magnify it.  Regardless, these are two wonderful and iconic RPGs that ought to be experienced by any fan of the genre.

Super Mario 64 (Nintendo 64, 1996)

By 1995, the Sony Playstation, a 32-bit console, had been released, and started revolutionizing gaming with it's polygonal 3D graphics and gameplay.  Games like Crash Bandicoot and Tomb Raider made some of the first steps in making games in the third dimension, but in retrospect, did not make much actual progress.  Crash Bandicoot (while it is a fun early Playstation title) was basically a 2D platformer in disguise, and Tomb Raider features controls so wretched as to be almost unplayable today.  Then the Nintendo 64 arrived on the market, bundled with Super Mario 64 (1996) and for the first time, a 3D platforming game felt right.
Mario's first 3D adventure has him on a routine visit to Princess Peach's castle (she has written him a letter promising cake) when he discovers that Bowser has already infiltrated the castle and hidden away with her somewhere within.  Bowser has also stolen the castle's 150 magical stars, and placed them inside of the paintings spread across the castle.  When Mario jumps inside of one a painting, he is transported to another land, where he must use his new skills to reclaim them.  Locked doors can only be opened if Mario has enough stars for them (a door may have a "3" on it, meaning you need three stars to open it.)
The first thing I suppose I should talk about with Super Mario 64 is the level design.  Each level (including the castle) are like huge playscapes, filled with secrets, all fostering exploration.  Peach's castle is one of the best and most important overworlds in gaming.  An overworld takes the place of a level select screen, and can basically be a level unto itself.  The main parts of the castle are all iconic, but its secrets are what we remember most.  Consider the room that is seemingly empty, save for three stained glass windows.  Jump into the one on the right and you will discover a secret level, a huge slide that rewards a star at the bottom.
Each level contains six stars (and another for collecting one hundred coins) that you need not do in any order.  Some stars can be completed on your first visit to a level, and some will require you to unlock new abilities before you can get them.  Mario has three power-ups he can earn and use throughout the game, in the form of magical caps.  The wing cap allows Mario to jump higher and fly, one of the greatest joys in the game, and all of gaming.  The metal cap turns Mario into solid steel, making him invincible, and able to walk underwater, but he is slower and less agile.  The vanish cap makes Mario transparent and able to faze through solid objects.  Sometimes, these caps must be used in junction to get stars, such as the one near Bowser's submarine that is in an underwater cage.
The levels would all be worthless if not for Mario's controls.  Just like how Mario perfected the art of 2D platforming, so does he for 3D platforming.  The N64 controller uses an analog stick, giving Mario precise directional movement.  You may run in 360 degrees, steer Mario in mid-air, and tilt the stick at different angles to control his speed.  Some enemies may only be approached (like the sleeping piranha plants) by tip-toeing up to them.  Beside jumping, Mario has been given a multitude of new actions to perform.  He can punch, kick, do a ground-pound, jump off of the walls, climb, and much more.  Every move imaginable is at your disposal, giving you full reign on this new, 3D world.
The whole game is filled with iconic and memorable moments.  The first time you jump into a painting, and hear the triumphant music of Bob-omb Battlefield.  Exploring the eerie Boo's Mansion, Mario sees a red coin (eight hidden in each level for a star) sitting behind a grand piano.  When he goes to collect it, the piano springs to life, gnashing teeth inside it, making a fearsome noise of sour notes.  Having to creep up next to that creepy eel  near the sunken boat to lure it out, and then trying not to drown inside of the ship while you solve a puzzle.  The first time you faced off against Bowser (there are three encounters), having to grab him by the tail and swing him at one of the mines in the room.
Super Mario 64 is the first video game I ever encountered.  I went to a friend's house, and he had a Nintendo 64.  I had never heard of video games before.  My life was forever changed when I experienced the joy of Mario's acrobatics and marvelous adventure.  When I went home later that day, I tried to recreate the experience by hopping around on the furniture.  It didn't work.  Later that year, on my birthday, my parents got me a Nintendo 64 with the Mario game, and a lifetime passion was born.

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (SNES, 1996)

Of all the genres Mario touched upon, the RPG was probably the last thing anyone expected.  The Mario games are all about action, not about careful strategy and turn-based battles.  At this point, Mario had done racing games, puzzle games, and had yet to star in a plethora of sports games.  Nintendo wanted to put Mario in an RPG, so they gave the full creative license to Square, the geniuses behind Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger, to make it.  What they came up with was a brilliant game that both helped popularize RPGs in the West and stay true to the Mario canon.
Square had tried earlier to make a simplified RPG for American beginners to the genre, Final Fantasy: The Mystic Quest for the SNES, and it had been a colossal failure.  The game pushed insulting when it came to how easy and dumbed-down it was.  American gamers rejected it outright.  Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (1996) is the right way to make a simplified RPG, that doesn't underestimate its audience or hold their hands, and offers depth and fun at a level low enough for new-comers to enjoy.
Super Mario RPG starts off like a typical Mario game:  Bowser kidnaps Princess, Mario must go to Bowser's castle to save her.  However, during Mario's rescue mission, a giant sword descends from the sky and plants itself into the castle, destroying the bridge to star road (the place where people's wishes are granted).  The sword has come from another dimension and belongs to the Smithy clan, who wish to take control of Mario's world as well as theirs.  The only way to fix star road, where the trans-dimensional portal is located, is to collect the seven legendary stars.  Only then, can Mario fight off the invaders.
This certainly sounds like a serious story, darker than the typical Mario fare, and it is, but the game takes a light-hearted approach to it.  This game's humor would become the standard for future Mario RPGs (such as Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi).  Consider the scene where Mario explains to the Toadstool king what happened at Bowser's castle.  In pantomime, Mario acts out the events with a slapstick quality that evokes the likes of Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton.  He walks forward, representing his approach to the castle, then looks up and makes a bewildered expression, then jumps backward frantically.  This is only one scene among many that inspires genuine laughter.
The game's RPG elements also mesh well with the Mario aesthetic and universe.  Mario roams an isometric, pseudo-3D landscape, where enemies can be seen in plain sight.  If Mario runs into one of these enemies, a battle is initiated.  You may have three party members in a battle, and they include the cloud-person Mallow, the living doll Geno, the Princess, and even the King of the Koopas himself joins your party.  Each player and foe takes their turn attacking, and you may make a standard attack, or a special one, which costs TP from a shared pool among characters.  What makes the battle system in Super Mario RPG special though is the battle command system.  When doing a normal attack, press the attack button at the right moment and you can deal extra damage.  Special attacks require their own intuitive button imputs.  When being attacked, press the button at a precise moment and you can mitigate the damage you receive.
Audiences were originally alienated by this game (especially younger players).  The combination of Mario platforming and RPGs was confusing at first, but players eventually warmed up to it.  The game offers some of the best gameplay and visuals on the SNES.  All of the backgrounds and character sprites (and animations) are pre-rendered by a computer, so everything is detailed, bright, and colorful.  The music is lively and eclectic.  Beside the inevitable remixes of the classic Mario themes, there is a lush soundtrack that pushes the SNES's sound to the limit.  This game would be the genesis of the Mario RPG, which would come far in between, but always something special.