#25: Populous (Bullfrog, Amiga, 1989) 

In this game, you can shape the very world itself according to your whims. In truth, there’s not much else you can do, though. The reality of computer processing power in 1989 means that, for all the clear ambition on display here, your supposedly absolute power is absolutely rather limited to the raising and lowering of terrain. I mean, in time you earn the ability to summon earthquakes, volcanoes and floods, but all of these are ultimately variations on the same theme. Which is not to suggest that Populous is a bad game, by any means; as it turns out, watching your followers expand as you smooth out the rough edges of the terrain around them is actually tremendously satisfying. The control scheme is a little clunky, and there is a deeply unnecessary amount of screen space taken up by various buttons, leaving only a tiny window through which to view the world you are affecting, but its easy to see how this game spawned an entire genre of imitators.