‘Animal Crossing’ and ‘StarCraft’ join the Video Game Hall of Fame

And then there were four. After narrowing down a list of 12 finalists, The Strong National Museum of Play has inducted four new titles to its World Video Game Hall of Fame. In order of release, they are 1982’s Microsoft Flight Simulator,1985’s Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?, 1998’s StarCraft and 2001’s Animal Crossing. They beat out the likes of the original Call of Duty, Portal, Guitar Hero and — checks notes — FarmVille to make it into this year’s class.

Incidentally, StarCraft is the second Blizzard game to join the hall after World of WarCraft was in the first selection of games inducted by the museum in 2015. Anyone can nominate a game, but a panel of journalists and video game historians helps The National Museum of Play make a final decision each year. They strive to choose entrants “that have enjoyed popularity over a sustained period and have exerted influence on the video game industry or on popular culture and society in general.” Past inductees include classics like Pong, Tetris, Mortal Kombat and Super Mario Kart.