Strachey’s List is my list of the most acclaimed, consequential, and influential titles of all time. There is a max limit of 20 games per year. As always, this is all my opinion and research. The list is named after Christopher Strachey, the first video game developer.
Bureaucracy
February 12, 1987 - Infocom
Key People: Douglas Adams
Created by comic book author and humorist Douglas Adams of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy fame, Bureaucracy is an interactive game where the player character must manage their temper as they deal with numerous issues when trying to change their home address. Players have to watch their blood pressure and deal with bizarre situations and characters. The game is known for its comedic moments, a feature not often found in games at the time. It’s gone on to become a cult hit and part of Adams’s longstanding legacy.
Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest
August 28, 1987 - Konami
Key People: Hitoshi Akamatsu
Composers: Kenichi Matsubara, Satoe Terashima, Kouji Murata
Simon Belmont must get rid of a curse put on him by Dracula at the end of the first game. Players have to find the five parts of Dracula’s body and bring them back to his castle to fight and defeat him once again. While following similar gameplay mechanics to the original, the game added open world elements and role-playing aspects. It’s also known for its high difficulty due to its frustrating platforming jumps. Depending on how long it takes for you to beat the game, three possible endings are possible. Adding to the history of the iconic Metroidvania classic, the game debuts the song “Bloody Tears”, which has become the main theme of the series.
Contra
February 20, 1987 - Konami
Key People: Koji Hiroshita, Shigeharu Umezaki, Shinji Kitamoto
Composers: Kazuki Muraoka, Hidenori Maezawa, Kiyohiro Sada
Bill Rizer and Lance Bean of the Earth Marine Corps' Contra unit are tasked to destroy an organization with intentions to take over the world in the far future. They eventually uncover the truth, as an alien enemy controls the organization. The game is played through high paced 2D action as it tries to mimic the popular action movies of the decade. Despite its high difficulty, it became a major hit in arcades and on its NES port. It also introduced the world to the infamous “Konami Code,” which was a password that so many players memorized that it became a symbol of 8-bit gaming in itself.
Double Dragon
April 22, 1987 - Taito, Technos Japan
Key People: Yoshihisa Kishimoto, Shinichi Saito, Yoshihisa Kishimoto
Composer: Kazunaka Yamane
Billy and Jimmy Lee team up to take down the Black Warriors gang and save Billy’s girlfriend Marian. The game would be one of the first of the “beat-em-up” genre. The 2D sidescroller has players beat up thugs with martial arts moves as they advance through a stage, usually ending with a boss. You could pick up weapons, and the game’s story was told through cut scenes. You could play alone or find a friend to play co-op with. The game launched a wave of beat-em-up titles and is still remembered as one of the premier classics of the 8-bit age of gaming.
Driller (Space Station Oblivion)
1987 - Incentive Software, Major Devolpments
Key People: Chris Andrew, Ian Andrew
Driller is a puzzle game that uses a 3D perspective as you control a probe to excavate and set up a drill. There is a pretty long and complicated story that goes with it as Lesleigh Skerrit looks to stop a disaster and unravel unsavory secrets with the government and corporations of the game’s lore, but you’ll mostly be focusing on the puzzle-like mechanics. This is a thinking person’s game and it seems reviewers at the time loved it for thinking outside the box rather than going for your typical fast paced action title a story like this would’ve gone for. It received numerous awards and is credited as one of the first to show how to use three-dimensional perspectives to tell a story in video games.
Dungeon Master
December 15, 1987 - FTL Games / Victor Musical Industries
Key People: Chris Andrew, Ian Andrew
Composer: Wayne Holder
Theron, an apprentice to the Grey Lord, sets out to reincarnate champions and take on Lord Chaos. You traverse through maze-like dungeons and take on monsters with one of the first real time combat mechanics. Players can upgrade by focusing on specific skills, a new idea in gaming for the time, over the typical experience points in other RPGs. The game received high praise for its graphics and gameplay and became an inspiration for many future developers.
Final Fantasy
December 18, 1987 - Square / Nintendo
Key People: Hironobu Sakaguchi
Composer: Nobuo Uematsu
Four Warriors of Light, each in possession of a crystal, must travel the continents and bring light back into the crystals while taking on evil and monsters. The game established the world famous Final Fantasy franchise and many of the tropes and elements of JRPGs, with the game having a party system, an overworld, towns, and dungeons. Players made their characters strong through experience points and took on monsters by using turn-based attacks. Along with establishing the franchise, it also established series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi as one of gaming’s icons and Nobuo Uematsu as one of the greatest video game composers. While some elements of the game haven’t aged as well, there’s no doubt about how consequential and important this game is. Not only was it the first game in a legendary Intellectual property, but it would also inspire many future RPGs.
Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards
June 1987 - Sierra On-Line
Key People: Al Lowe, Mark Crowe, Chuck Benton
Composer: Al Lowe
Larry Laffer is an unemployed guy in his late thirties who seeks to lose his virginity finally. He sets out to a fictional version of Vegas and find the “woman of his dreams” to sleep with. The game focuses on the player needing to gamble to make money, avoid STDs from sex workers, and give gifts to four possible romantic interests. Does the concept age badly today? Yep. Is this game important? I would say so. Leisure Suit Larry became a small cult franchise and is often regarded as a joke. However, I do think it deserves recognition for being one of the early era video games to show a more adult side to the industry.
Maniac Mansion
October 5, 1987 - Lucasfilm Games / LucasArts / Realtime Associates
Key People: Ron Gilbert, Gary Winnick
Composer: Chris Grigg, David Lawrence
Maniac Mansion is a quirky graphical adventure title with a cast of memorable characters and witty writing. The goal is to save teenager Dave Miller’s girlfriend from a mad scientist as you explore his mansion. You solve puzzles as you progress through the story in this point and click title. The nonlinear gameplay gave you a different experience every time you played. The game received critical praise, including from some writers who pointed to it as a symbol of video games as a storytelling device and art form.
Mega Man (Rockman)
December 17, 1987 - Capcom
Key People: Akira Kitamura, Takashi Nishiyama
Composer: Manami Matsumae
Another game with a mad scientist villain is Mega Man, or Rockman in Japan. You take the role of a humanoid robot called Mega Man, who has to stop Dr. Willy. Players get to choose which stage to start, and the end of each stage has a boss fight that gives them a new weapon after they defeat the boss. These weapons can be used to traverse and attack other bosses more efficiently, meaning players should consider which stages make sense to do first. Despite its difficulty (another typical “NES hard” game), the game launched one of Capcom’s most recognizable video game characters and a massively popular franchise that would dominate through the 8-bit and 16-bit eras. Today, the series may be in limbo, but the character of Mega Man and the franchise’s legacy is strong with its fans, and the character can pop back up at any moment now.
Phantasy Star
December 20, 1987 - Sega
Key People: Kotaro Hayashida, Yuji Naka, Rieko Kodama
Composer: Tokuhiko Uwabo
In Phantasy Star, Alis goes on a journey for revenge against King Lassic, who killed her brother. Created to give Sega a popular JRPG, the team mainly consisted of women as Sega went after the female demographic for the game. Future Sonic co-creator Yuji Naka teamed up with Kotaro Hayashida and Japanese game artists Rieko Kodama (the same artist who did art for Altered Beast and Sonic the Hedgehog), who was a woman herself, to deliver the game for Sega. Like the typical JRPG, the game has an overworld, towns, party characters, and leveling up. The game received great reviews and started an important franchise for the console era of Sega.
R-Type
May 15, 1987 - Irem / Electrocoin / Compile / Nintendo
Key People: Uncredited Full Names
Composer: Masato Ishizaki
The era of scrolling shooters was still going on in the 8-bit consoles, and R-Type added a new entry to the lineup. The interesting thing about R-Type is that it’s a slower focus as it wanted players to learn enemy attacks and patterns instead of just shooting endlessly. The art direction was heavily inspired by the Alien franchise and H.R. Giger. Hailed for its graphics and fun gameplay, the game is now seen as one of the golden age titles of scrolling space shooters at the time. Many ports, sequels, and spinoffs would come after.
Shinobi
November 16, 1987 - Sega, Sega AM1
Key People: Yutaka Sugano
Composer: Yasuhiro Kawakami
This sidescrolling ninja game is about Joe Musashi, a ninja who’s looking to save kidnapped children. Players go through stages with ninja skills and shurikens to take down a variety of enemies. The character and franchise that this created is still remembered as part of Sega, despite the franchise falling out towards the end of the company’s console era. Still, the Shinobi name lives on thanks in large part to the first game becoming a nostalgic trip for gamers of that era, who got a game that made them feel like a kung-fu hero.
Sid Meier's Pirates!
May 1987 - MicroProse / Ultra Games, Rare
Key People: Sid Meier
Composers: Ken Lagace, David Wise
A simulation style game that makes your pirate dreams come true. It’s a large open world title that showcases player freedom. You can attack towns and take over other ships, rescue people, or look for treasure. Players should watch out for outside factors like their character’s age to prevent dying from old age. The open world nature and freedom were a huge deal back then and helped plant this as one of the more important games for 1987. Smartly written and innovative, Sid Meier attempted an ambitious title and succeeded. A vast number of ports came from this one.
Street Fighter
August 30, 1987 - Capcom
Key People: Takashi Nishiyama
Composer: Yoshihiro Sakaguchi
A fighting game that is one versus one in a match that consists of three rounds to win, advancing to the next fighter with each victory. Many iconic characters started here before the 16-bit fighting game boom. The gameplay was fun at the arcades, with a sequel on the way. This first game is missing the same style and charisma as its extremely popular sequel, but this is where it all started. The fighting game community owes a lot to this one.
Tecmo Bowl
December 1987 - Tecmo
Key People: Moritaka Nakamine, Shin-ichiro Tomie
Composers: Mikio Saitou, Keiji Yamagishi
With football becoming increasingly popular, it makes sense that video games would want to take advantage. Tecmo Bowl is a football game with a fictional take on the NFL. Players of the era, especially American football fans, played this game to death as it crossed over to more casual gamers. While Madden NFL would become the premier video game football experience, Tecmo Bowl is the closest thing to the ancestor of Madden. It became a cultural phenomenon and has been mentioned across various media since its release.
Test Drive
1987 - Accolade, Distinctive Software
Key People: Mike Benna, Don Mattrick, Kevin Pickell,
Composer: Patrick Payne
Test Drive is a game where you race a choice of a car (which are actual brands for once) around cliffsides while avoiding speed traps and making the right turn around curves. Released on computers, the game pushed graphics for racing games and helped advance the genre to more realistic mechanics. After release, it quickly became a popular title among racing fans.
Wizards & Warriors
December 1987 - Acclaim Entertainment, Rare
Key People: Chris Stamper, Tim Stamper, Joel Hochberg
Composer: David Wise
A platformer, despite its more RPG-like storyline, Wizards & Warriors became a cult hit. The game has players traverse from forests to the castle of dark wizard Malkil, playing as Kuros to save the world. There’s a lot of looting and collecting as you make your journey. It was a hardware pusher for the time, with great sound, design, and graphics. Its arcade-style gameplay made it a big hit among arcade fans with NES consoles.
Ys (Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished)
June 21, 1987 - Nihon Falcom
Key People: Masaya Hashimoto, Masayuki Kato
Composers: Yuzo Koshiro, Mieko Ishikawa, Masaya Hashimoto
Adol Christin sets out on an adventure to collect six books to heal the world from darkness. It has a spin from most RPGs with a combat system that determines attack power by different rules when you encounter an enemy. Outside of that, the typical top down traversal from other entries in the genre appears. The game also has a recharging health bar. It launched a franchise that is still going to this day, with a dedicated fan base.
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
January 14, 1987 - Nintendo
Key People: Yasuhisa Yamamura, Shigeru Miyamoto
Composer: Akito Nakatsuka
Link and Zelda are back in the sequel to The Legend of Zelda. This time, Link finds out that an ancestor of Princess Zelda (also named Zelda) is in a deep sleep, so he seeks to wake her up. The game is played much differently than any other game in the series. You traverse the world in a top down map, and combat is more one versus one, with a focus on dodging and learning enemy patterns. It also had a bad English translation, with infamous quotes like “I am error” from a town character. It’s also known for its high difficulty, especially the final boss. While known today as the “black sheep” of the Zelda series, the game was another step in one of gaming’s most important franchises.
I came here half expecting I'll have to scream "NO Pirates!!!! 11!1!??? Travesty!!!" - I’m glad you proved me wrong ;)
Bonus points for including Driller as well as Larry. The former not so well known, and yet indeed hugely influential. The latter is a bit of a persona non grata these days, but I'd argue that it's a big misinterpretation.