Pac-Man And Doom Among Six 2015 World Video Game Hall Of Fame Inductees

Pac-Man has officially been recognized as one of the most important video games of all time. Such is the insinuation from being one of only half a dozen titles inducted into The Strong's inaugural World Video Game Hall of Fame, which includes a collection of titles that span multiple decades, countries of origin, and gaming platforms.

What they all have in common is that they each "significantly affected the video game industry, popular culture, and society in general." Based on those merits, it's hard to argue against the inclusion of Pac-Man, a game that debuted 35 years ago and is one of the stars in the upcoming Pixels movie starring Adam Sandler and Kevin James.

Pac-Man

The other four inductees include Pong, Tetris, Super Mario Bros., Doom, and World of Warcraft. That's quite the collection of games and we have to give The Strong credit for including Pong, a rudimentary game by today's standards, but one that helped launched the entire industry by introducing games to millions of people.

They can all be considered iconic titles at this point. We certainly don't have any issues with the selection, though by limiting the inductees to just six, several other worthy candidates have been left out. There were 15 finalists to choose from, including Angry Birds, FIFA, The Legend of Zelda, Minecraft, The Oregon Trail, Pokemon, The Sims, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Space Invaders.

Oregon Trail
The Oregon Trail was among 15 finalists for The World Video Game Hall of Fame, of which six were inducted

An argument could be made for any of those titles, hence why they were finalists, though the biggest snub is probably The Oregon Trail, a game that any thirty-something probably remembers playing back in grade school.

One thing we appreciate about The World Video Game Hall of Fame is that it doesn't discriminate based on platform; games of all types are recognized, including arcade, console, computer, handheld, and mobile. The criteria for making for being inducted is having enjoyed popularity over a sustained period while also exerting influence on the video game industry or popular culture and society in general.

All of the inductees will be on permanent display at The Strong museum's eGameRevolution exhibit.