The director behind Skyrim, Fallout 4, and Starfield was asked to pick the most influential game of all time. Todd Howard decided there are actually two titles that fit that billing: Super Mario Bros. and Doom. But that’s not all, as the Bethesda Game Studios executive producer also offered up what he thinks are the two most important titles, too.
On X, the official BAFTA Games Awards account asked Howard for his selection regarding the most influential game of all time. While the acclaimed developer is currently busy with The Elder Scrolls VI (and Fallout 5), he started his response with a small, but intriguing detour. “Well first, I think, the two most important games of all time are Tetris and Pac-Man for what they do for gaming overall and bringing so many people to it,” Howard said.
As for the actual question, Howard selected Super Mario Bros. and Doom as the most influential games because he sees their DNA in modern games–even three decades later. “Two games where if you trace things games are doing today, you can trace so much of that back to those games,” Howard said.
Howard most recently served as executive producer on Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. He also got to appear with Harrison Ford on stage at The Game Awards in December. As for Super Mario Bros., it’s still one of the top-selling video games of all time after launching on NES in 1985. Meanwhile, Doom came out on PC (specifically MS-DOS) in 1993 and now gets hacked onto every device known to mankind.
The 21st BAFTA Games Awards will take place April 8, with Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II receiving the most nominations with 11.