American physicist William Higinbotham developed Tennis for Two in 1958, the first video game created for entertainment purposes in the history of humankind. Fast forward seven decades, and we can’t even use our consoles without Wi-Fi access. Where did we go wrong?
Thankfully, video games in 2026 are many things, but boring isn’t one of them. The industry’s constant evolution, led by thousands of developers across the globe, has created – and destroyed – the future of gaming time and time again.
Franchises have started and stayed because of their innovation; others have made their contribution and dipped. All have shaped the landscape for gamers forever in their own way, so without further ado, here are popular game mechanics and the entries that made them world-famous.
1. Ocarina of Time’s Z-Targeting
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is regarded as one of the best video games of all time, and for good reason. Incredibly ambitious, OoT was released for the Nintendo 64 on November 21, 1998, officially jumping the adventure franchise into the 3D realm to great success.
Much, due to its ingenious approach to battling in a three-dimensional space. Instead of walking up, down, left, or right on a 2D side or top view, Ocarina of Time allowed players to approach enemies from all angles, creating a 360° problem.
Testing found players lost, backs against foes, and missing their slashes, arrows, and rolls. Their eyes were in the right place, but their hands and controller wouldn't respond accordingly. Enter Z-targeting: where the player’s view is fixed in the enemies’ direction, making battling all the more intuitive.
This not only paved the way for other RPG titles like Dark Souls, Assassin's Creed, and Monster Hunter to refine their gameplay, but also earned Nintendo’s 1998 release the BAFTA Innovative Game award. The Ocarina developers were too busy Z-targeting the prizes instead of the glitches, am I right or am I right?
2. Dragon’s Lair Quick Time Events in 1983
Dragon’s Lair was a LaserDisc video game, an interactive film with input sequences that accounted for the software and hardware limitations. Despite its million-dollar budget, the release was light on gameplay and heavy on feature-film animation, produced by former Disney employee Don Bluth.
This led the writing and developing team to push creativity to the highest room in the tallest tower, popularizing what we now know as Quick Time Events.
Dragon’s Lair QTEs relied on the player’s precise input and button mashing to succeed or fail at our protagonist’s task at hand, a revolutionary development in the 1980s. Now, gamers take them for granted as prefixed animations with baby gameplay, minimizing even the genius of Kratos letting go of a hug. We just can’t win. Press Ctrl to agree.
3. Halo Combat Evolved’s Overshield
Before the existence of the Overshield, gunfights were pretty straightforward in shooter titles. Point, shoot, drain life points. Then, the entire genre changed in 2001. Halo’s debut on the original Xbox console included outer-space warfare, alien invasions, and, most importantly, the Overshield.
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This was considered the Mario Bros. star power-up of shooters. The Overshield added an extra layer of protection, one even on top of the core energy shield mechanic base for all players. Meaning, obtain the Overshield and let hell break loose until the timer’s up.
Naturally, this was recently patched and nerfed, rendering the comm and use of Overshields from an alien-bomb explosion to a baby-larva cough. Today’s power-up almost urges players to go on a Leroy Jenkins run, the way it adds nothing that feels like something.
4. Resident Evil 4 Becomes Ultimate Third-Person Shooter
Resident Evil lived off its janky fixed-camera angles that simulated security footage in a wasted post-apocalyptic world. This system would make it easy for disoriented players to enter and exit the same room in an infinite, confusing loop.
By its fourth entry, Capcom learned that you go where you can see, as they introduced the over-the-shoulder POV to the franchise. No longer was it necessary for players to see the exact trajectory of their bullets; just where they wanted to aim was enough.
Navigation was made easier to follow and monsters scarier to players, with mobs approaching the screen instead of a disembodied character we happen to be in control of. This OTS system became the industry standard for iconic video games, including Gears of War, The Last of Us, and Fortnite. Talk about changing the game, figuratively.
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