Lego’s been making building sets since the 1950s, but it wasn’t until 1978 that the company came up with the perfect plastic people to play in them. The Lego Minifigure was born in 1978 with a handful of designs. Forty years later, there are more than 8,000, most of them hiding in my office drawers.

One November 20, 2007, Harmonix, EA and MTV Games released the first Rock Band, a four-player, instrument-driven rhythm game that briefly changed the face of social multiplayer gaming. Where are your plastic instruments now?

Out twenty five years ago next month, the second entry in the handheld Mario spin-off series was significant for a number of reasons, but perhaps none as timely as its Halloween world.

25 years ago this week, the pink puff ball made his Japanese debuted in Kirby’s Dream Land for the Game Boy. But the game’s titular character was originally just a placeholder. One of Nintendo’s most iconic characters almost didn’t get created, at least not in the form we’ve come to know and love.

Mega man 4 was the first game in the series to let you charge up your shots. Capcom called this new ability the Mega Buster, an upgraded version of Mega Man’s blaster that was first introduced into the world 25 years ago today.

Azurik: Rise of Perathia came out within two weeks of the first Xbox’s launch back in November of 2001. It was supposed to be Microsoft’s interpretation of Mario meets Zelda, showing off what the new system could do and creating a iconic dynasty in the process. Instead, the blue-skinned stud rocking Goku hair and…

On November 14, 2006 Sega celebrated the 15th anniversary of Sonic the Hedgehog with a 3D adventure marred by unfinished ideas, a convoluted storyline, sloppy mechanics and horrendous loading times. And they sealed it with a kiss.

Before the recent wave of excitement around new virtual reality technology convinced everyone that the future was inside of a headset, people longing to escape the constraints of their everyday lives invested their hopes and dreams in ugly looking worlds housed on distant computer servers. Massively multiplayer online…

One day, my 8th grade art teacher decided to try to teach his class sumi-e, the Japanese art of Ink wash painting. It’s a minimalist style with a long history and subtle philosophy behind it, not exactly the best thing to show a bunch of distracted adolescent kids.

Thirty years ago today the platforming of Super Mario Bros. and the exploration of The Legend of Zelda coalesced into science fiction action adventure starring a person in a powerful suit of armor. Shh. Don’t want to spoil the Metroid surprise.

On May 21, 2001, developer Volition and publisher THQ took gamers to Mars and let them blow the living hell out of everything that moved and most things that didn’t.

Ten years ago today Bethesda defined bad downloadable content with two dollars and fifty cents’ worth of horse barding.

The Nintendo 3DS was released in North America five years ago today, and we’re still using at least two of its Ds. Do you still have yours, or did you trade it in for something sexier last year?

Lionhead Studios’ debut game went on sale on March 26, 2001. Fifteen years later the studio is closing. That’s one sad anniversary, but take heart little animal-based god game—you’re the most requested game on GOG.com this week, so the love is real.

“These are the closing days of the third era, and the final hours of my life.” So spoke Sir Patrick Stewart as King Uriel Septim VII in the opening moments of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, foretelling the end of his adventure and the beginning of a million others.

On February 21, 1986, Japan got its first taste of the magical land of Hyrule, though not on the famous gold cartridge Western gamers are familiar with.

While you may or may not agree on whether it’s the series’ best, Duke Nukem 3D was still a very important milestone in first-person shooter history.