Ahead of the 21st Bafta games awards this April, the institution is running a public survey asking people to nominate the most influential video game of all time. As the survey points out, this is an open-ended question: early, groundbreaking titles such as Space Invaders and Pong regularly crop up as answers because they helped write the rules of the form, but on a personal level, the right game at the right time can be exceptionally influential, too. For players, it's often the games that made us feel differently about what games could do that feel the most influential. For a game designer, a film director, a writer or a musician, one particular game might inspire a whole creative era. Inspired by Bafta's survey, we asked people from across games and culture for their most influential game – and not one name cropped up twice.

I first encountered Link's work when he was a temporally displaced preteen in 1998's The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. He had finally unlocked the inner sanctum of the Temple of Time and seized the hilt of the mythic, Excalibur-ish Master Sword. A wreath of blue light circled Link's feet, shunting him seven years into the future. Link left the temple as a grown man, with a post-pubescent voice and a chiseled jawline, to discover that the bucolic lands of Hyrule had become twisted and malignant during his absence. Vacant zombies roamed the newly befouled farmers market, the royal castle had been demolished in favor of a Sauronified citadel, and the volcano painted against the skyline (called, yes, Death Mountain) roiled with portentous, tectonic energy.

Halloween might be over, but the scary memories last a lifetime, at least for me. I do not like horror. I am one of the world's biggest wusses, and feeding my imagination with nightmare fuel will keep me up at night for weeks. I was recently so disturbed by a simple bus advert for the movie Smile that I read the Wikipedia summary of the plot, and just that was enough to screw with my sleep. My partner, meanwhile, cannot get enough of disgusting films and terrifying games, so he's delighted to be living through something of a golden age for video game horror.

In January 2020, players of Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time stumbled on a buried spaceship: a fully functional "Arwing" fighter from another classic Nintendo game, Star Fox 64. The Arwing was added as a programmer's shortcut to, essentially, teach a dragon how to fly. Once the dragon was airborne, the ship was hidden away in Ocarina of Time's source code, where hackers unearthed it 22 years later. "It's amazing to me that it was there all this time – it just took a lot of digging to find it," says Billy Basso, a game developer from Chicago. "It's completely inessential, but it helps people bond with how games are made, the creators behind them and the time and place. It connects you to history in a way."

The Strong National Museum of Play has revealed the Video Game Hall of Fame class of 2022. This year's quartet of honorees are Ms. The finalists that just missed out on a spot this time are Assassin's Creed, Candy Crush Saga, Minesweeper, NBA Jam, PaRappa the Rapper, Resident Evil, Rogue and Words with Friends. All of those are classics in their own way, but it's hard to argue with any of the four picks. Ocarina of Time made it into the Hall of Fame as a first-time nominee.

Nintendo Switch has revealed the release date of "The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask" along with a new trailer in celebration of its official rollout. Japanese gaming giant Nintendo announced last month that "The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask" is scheduled to launch in its hybrid console as part of the Switch Online expansion pass service. The announcement hyped fans but it did not come with a definitive release date. Nintendo announced Friday that "The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask" is coming as one of its N64 games on its premium online service on Feb. 25. As part of the announcement, the Japanese gaming giant has also released a new trailer for the game. It's a race to stop the moon and save the world!

Nintendo is adding The Legend Of Zelda: Majora's Mask to the Switch Online Expansion Pack lineup on February 25th. The classic title was first released for the Nintendo 64 in 2000, was the second Zelda game to feature 3D graphics and became one of the best-selling games at the time. It also received critical acclaim for its gameplay, writing and visuals that showed an improvement from its predecessor, Ocarina of Time. Majora's Mask picks up from where Ocarina of Time left off, with Link finding himself in a parallel world to Hyrule called Termina. There, he learns that the mask is being used to summon the moon and destroy the world within three days. Link is dragged into the world of Termina, where the moon is falling from the sky!

As a kid, Alx Preston spent a significant amount of time as a member of the audience, watching his brother sing in choir and opera groups. One night, he found himself sitting in a pew at the heart of a large, elegant church, letting the sounds of yet another performance wash over him. He also happened to be playing a lot of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time at home. "I kind of fell into a dream state," Preston said. "I was playing a lot of Ocarina of Time at the time, and so the vocals of that mixed with this kind of fantastical vision of going through a forest. I think for me that Ocarina of Time was one of those formative games that really allowed me to see what was possible within the medium."

It was the company's last cartridge-based home console before the switch to optical discs and it introduced players to the joys of awkwardly-placed joysticks. And of course there were the games: the jump to a 64-bit CPU meant you could now experience the worlds of Hyrule and the Mushroom Kingdom in glorious 3D. However, while Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and GoldenEye 007 might be the go-to titles when talking about the Nintendo 64, the tastes of the Engadget crew run a little more off the beaten path, as evidenced by the memories our staff shared below. If there's one Nintendo 64 title I wish would make a comeback on the Switch, it's Diddy Kong Racing. I spent hours of my childhood on this game and, to this day, it's the one title that gets me to dust off my Jungle Green N64 and sit too close to the TV.

Of all LucasArts' memorable, quip-fuelled point and click adventures – from dark afterlife comedy Grim Fandango to the surrealist Day of the Tentacle – it's Monkey Island 2 that gets the most love nowadays, and justifiably so. The puzzles were just on the right side of deliberately obscure, the characters were strange and colourful, and the music unforgettable. And that ending still sparks discussion, 30 years on. Although Ridge Racer and Daytona USA were vital in introducing the world to 32-bit, textured, 3D visuals, it is Polyphony Digital's painstakingly authentic racing game that deserves a place here. With its exhaustive range of accurately modelled cars, its complex handling model and its emphasis on improving the player's driving skills through a range of licence tests, Gran Turismo radically altered the course of console racing game design for ever.