Super Mario Bros.

Super Mario Bros. didn't just save the NES: it saved the entire video game industry from the 1983 crash. Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka created a platformer where every World 1-1 element taught the player without a single line of text: the first Goomba showed enemies, the first ? block taught jumping upward, the first mushroom made you grow. In 32 kilobytes was an entire world with 8 worlds, secret warp zones and a sense of discovery no game had ever offered. It sold 40 million copies and established Mario as gaming's icon.