by Sharon Smith
Long before polished blockbusters defined what a genre looks like, there were earlier titles that sketched out the first rough shapes of ideas players now take for granted. These early games didn’t enjoy the fame that later giants received, but they introduced mechanics and structures that developers eventually turned into full genres.
Some of them were university projects, while others were odd experiments on home systems. And then there were those built by small teams who didn’t fully realize how much their work would influence the future. This article highlights the games that first showed how a genre could work in due time, not the masterpieces (like Doom and GTA 3) that eventually popularized it.
Maze War (1973)
First-Person Shooters
- Introduced the idea of seeing the world through the character’s eyes, long before “FPS” even existed.
- Brought in early multiplayer duels that shaped how later shooters handled movement, perspective, and map layouts.
Maze War looks like a wild experiment from a different century, and that is exactly why it matters. The game put a player inside a wireframe maze and showed what the player would see from the character’s eyes; that felt new because almost all earlier games put the action above or behind the player.
In Maze War, movement, facing direction, and direct aiming were central. The design also added simple shooting and the ability to see other players in the same space. Because the game let multiple people meet inside the same maze and trade shots, it planted the seed for what later became the deathmatch and competitive FPS formats. Somewhat newer games like Wolfenstein 3D and Doom refined the FPS formula with smoother controls, stronger visuals, and faster combat, but the foundation was already in the maze. Maze War proved that seeing through a character’s eyes could create a completely different kind of excitement, and that simple concept is what pushed the first-person shooter genre into existence.
Donkey Kong (1981)
Platformers
- Showed how jumping, climbing, and timing could drive an entire style of action game.
- Set the blueprint for stage-based obstacle layouts that later platformers built on for decades.
Donkey Kong stepped into arcades at a time when designers were still trying to figure out what “moving through a level” could even look like. A few earlier games had toyed with pieces of the idea, but none of them put everything together. Space Panic played with stacked platforms and ladders, but it didn’t have jumping at all. Crazy Climber focused on scaling a skyscraper while dodging hazards, but again, no jump button and no stage-by-stage structure. Even Apple Panic, which followed Space Panic, offered multi-level navigation without that satisfying jump-timing challenge. These titles were close, but they didn’t crack the movement style that would later define the genre.
Donkey Kong changed the conversation by making jumping the heart of the experience. Every platform asked players to judge distance, read the movement of hazards, and react in a split second. Donkey Kong didn’t invent every ingredient, but it mixed them in a way no earlier game had managed. While Super Mario Bros. would go on to finalize the formula for 2D platformers, Donkey Kong had already started to write it.
Utopia (1981)
A Precursor To Modern City-Builders
- Utopia lets players choose a number of rounds (up to 50) and a time limit per round (between 30 and 120 seconds).
- Players managed islands by placing and upgrading buildings, steering boats, and balancing population, food, and income within timed rounds.
Utopia didn’t look like much at first glance, but it sketched the early layout for modern city-building and strategy ideas before games like SimCity and Civilization came around. Utopia basically allows two players to run their own tiny islands with farms, housing, boats, and a handful of development options. Before the match starts, the players pick how many rounds to play (1–50) and how long each round will be (30–120 seconds).
Older strategy experiments on mainframes or in text-based formats like the Hamurabi (1968) and The Sumerian Game (1964) explored resources and population growth, but Utopia made those ideas visual, really interactive, and competitive for home console players.
Kung-Fu Master (1984)
Beat-Em-Up
- Focused on side-scrolling hand-to-hand combat where enemies rush in from both sides.
- Inspired the wave-based progression that later beat-em-ups adopted as their main rhythm.
Many would agree that Streets of Rage and Final Fight turned side-scrolling brawls into arcade staples, but before all that, Kung-Fu Master laid the blueprint for the beat-em-up genre. The game dropped players into a series of side-scrolling levels as enemies came from both sides. The goal was to fight your way through each stage, dodge attacks, and face a unique boss at the end. That combination of continuous movement, crowd combat, and escalating challenge felt fresh way back in 1984.
While earlier fighting games like Karateka existed, they were mostly one-on-one duels or prioritized single-action challenges. Kung-Fu Master turned fighting into a level-based, forward-moving experience that felt cinematic. It felt like starring in a martial arts movie rather than just playing a duel.
Karate Champ (1984)
Fighting Games
- Introduced a duel-focused structure built around precision inputs and clean scoring.
- Set up the idea of competitive one-on-one matches that later fighters expanded with deeper move sets.
Street Fighter is one of the most popular fighting games out there, but not many know it followed in the footsteps of Karate Champ (at least, in terms of timing, not necessarily direct inspiration). Instead of waves of enemies or sprawling stages, it put two fighters on the screen and made the duel itself the star. Players faced off in best-of-three rounds, relying on timing, precision, and clever reads to land strikes and defend against attacks.
The simple fighting formula created tension and excitement, showing that fighting could actually be skill-based rather than just mindless button-mashing. While Karate Champ's impact pales in comparison to fighting games from the early '90s, it still played a crucial role in laying the genre's foundations. Subsequent developers borrowed its focus on rounds and balance, eventually adding combo systems, unique characters, and special moves to create the complex fighters many know today. That said, most games opted to drop Karate Champ's two joystick control scheme, which might have been for the better.
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This article originally appeared on GameRant and is republished here with permission.
