A game, or series of, you believe belongs in a museum?

Just to avoid repeating the other suggestions here, Pathologic, less for historical significance or enjoyability and more for artistic significance for the time it was created. (note: I have not played it and probably never will)

Crash Bandicoot (the game) for technical achievements.

And I'm just going to mention Marble Marcher (play the community edition), a game with fractal-based physics (as opposed to basically every game ever).

'Disco elysium' for just pure beauty

'Spec ops: the line', for the precise opposite.

Reminder that there are video games in the MoMA

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_games_in_the_Museum_of_Modern_Art

The collection includes games like SimCity 2000, Dwarf Fortress, EVE online, and Minecraft.

There are also game archives, which aren't curated as a museum typically is but I think it's worth considering the Flashpoint Archive for web games to be somewhere in-between. I unlocked one of the games which I believe ended up in there.

A few come to mind

Journey
Outer Wilds
Disco Elysium
Return of the Obra Dinn

- I wouldn't say so - I was fully engaged throughout my entire playthrough.
That's all of my favorite games! I would never leave the museum!
- We got another one girls, get em in the hug pit!

If I had to identify a game that radically changed the public perception of videogames, that would probably be The Legend of Zelda.
It was one of the earliest examples of modern gaming, changing the game design from an "arcade" standard to something that was more suited for home consoles.

Pong, it was the first Videogame ever, also Pacman and Space Invaders as the base of almost all other games (Shooter, RPG, Racing games, Flight simulators, etc). Tetrix, the Snake game, inspiration of the Tron movie. These certainly belongs in a Museum of gaming history..

Disco Elysium. I don't think that I need to explain why.

I could actually use an explanation. I'm not familiar, what makes it so good?
- It's so deep abd so complicated, and blurs the line between literary and mechanical so expertly, that i cannot explain it without spoiling it.
  Its very good, very literary, and about solving a murder. Your skills are your character's inner monologue, and they're all useful, but ypure kind of choosing what clues and what sort of language you get them in, how you interact with and literally read the world.
  So play it, play it without reading anything else about it, and when picking skills, go with what you respond to or what character you want your detective to be. 'Phillip marlowe' 'sherlock holmes' and 'dirk gently' are pretty close to the three pre-sets.
- It's the only visual novel I've ever played, but it excels so much at it. The writing, worldbuilding, characters, narrator, and overall "vibe" are fantastically superb. It's also another one of those games that I can't help but play for ~5 hours nearly every day until I finish it. I'm no video game connoisseur, so you can find more sophisticated reviews elsewhere. You can pick it up on GOG for like €10 half of the time.

All of Metal Gear Solid.

The story of the whole series spans decades and decades, and even watching a video laying out an abridged version of that story takes like 6 hours to watch.

Something as long running as that and with lore that goes that deep should definitely be preserved at all costs.

Stardew Valley

Portal

Tetris

Hell yes on portal
And you will be cake

Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age. It's the Lord of the Rings equivalent of RPGs.

✍︎ arscyni.cc: modernity ∝ nature.

100% this. My favorite retro games to revisit.

Creatures.

Another World

Half Life

Bioshock

Elder Scrolls Oblivion

Dragons Age Origins

Deltarune, it's a generational event. they'll talk about this game the way they talk about Mother 3

Accurate: I have no idea what is "Mother 3".
- Earthbound 3, i think?

Deus ex human revolution: explores a meta narrative of how you use power in computer games. Your character has incredible capability. You could obliterate every enemy with ease. It's a completely different game if you try to avoid killing those who are just getting by (sure a security guard will shoot you, but they are expecting lethal terrorists). You use the power you have to avoid killing, not to make it easy.

the last of us (because I just love it)
Star Wars knights of the old republic (it was so much fun exploring none skywalker Star Wars stories)
pong (first commercially successful game)
baldur’s gate II (because I love it)
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial ( it is universality recognized as the worst game of all time)
the legend of Zelda (it is universally recognized as one of the greatest of all time)
world of Warcraft ( the most successful English mmorpg of all time)
Warcraft III
sim city
Everquest ( it is called evercrack for a reason, this game literally gave rise to emotional support groups) The most amazing tidbit about that game. After it had been out three years I saw a guy playing his character in a Wizards of the Coast store, who had a really weird color name over his head. Apparently one got that color when you have looked 500 days on the character. I did the math.. that is real time days. That meant he had played that game 1.5 years of the last three. My mouth fell open…..)
MUD 1
minecraft
doom
call of duty
halo
minesweeper
tetris
god of war
front mission IV
pacman
digdug
space invaders
frogger
tron
phantasy star online

Same list (except front mission, thats brand new to me)
Want to add Phantasy Star Online - first online console game. Nearly gave it to Chu Chu Rocket before Google told me no.
- Added
All my picks are in your list, except Quake 3 (purest PvP)

Metal Gear Solid

Far Cry 2 and far cry 3.

3 for a legendary compelling villain (Vaas)

2 for genuinely immersive in-game UI design and challenging enemy AI.

Vaas is such a mid-tier villain for a seriously mid/problematic game.
- Certain parts of the game haven’t aged well, but there’s no denying that Vaas was a wonderfully done villain. He’s a great test case for the “a good villain can’t be absent and mysterious” argument. Most of the memorable villains in gaming have been nearly omnipresent; Vaas, GladOS, Andrew Ryan, Handsome Jack, etc…
  All of them are good villains because they are consistently present. They have enough screen time to actually develop into full fledged characters. They’re not just some dark and mysterious overlord, patiently waiting in the bottom of a dungeon for you to come fight them. They’re persistently in your face, interacting with you. Even if they’re not actively hindering your progress, the fact that they have a continued presence means their eventual downfall is that much more satisfying.
- Fair enough, ill still leave it solely for the "definition of insanity" meme origin

Dwarf Fortress

Tempest, especially if the museum lets us play it on a genuine arcade machine; and Shadow of the Colossus.

Shadow of the Colossus was such a landmark game. The few little changes to the standard video game formula combined together just made for an absolute masterpiece.

All Rockstar games belong in the garbage

Halo or doom or half life. All of these games pioneered different game styles in the fps medium.

Ratchet and Clank Trilogy, of course!

Bioshock

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon

Masterpiece. Not the funnest, but certainly the best game I've ever played.

Specifically for older titles, I'd definitely say a game like, if anyone could find the original first version to ever be released of the game and not one of the many rip-offs/clones, Tetris. It's probably, as far as I'm aware, the most copied/cloned/ripped-off game in existence.

As for newer titles ( 2000 onwards ), I can't think of any that I think should 100% be in museum. Most of the titles I can think of aren't good enough, in my opinion, to go into a museum. I'm not an expert on judging what should go into a museum, but I couldn't think of a single title that would fit in any exhibit.

Edit:

Tetris is already in the video game hall of fame. Should have figured. Definitely deserves its place there. Even so, someone with a floppy of the original or clone of the floppy or digital backup should definitely see if there are any museums willing to take a copy because the original is something I think would be a shame to completely lose.

Looking at it from a general perspective that has less to do with games themselves; I would say huge parts of the Assassins Creed games due to the accuracy they often have had with depicting historic architecture and such. ~~Heck, they used the games model of the Notre Dame in its reconstruction.~~ EDIT: [So I just looked this up and apparently it's just a nice story that has stuck. But the actual model was never used.]

From a more game-focused perspective, there are some real gems in there too (especially the Ezio-Series). Tho that quality has sadly not kept.

I can only speak about my favorite genres:

Action games: this one is easy—Devil May Cry 1.

Shmups: Hmm… Battle Garegga? I'd actually rather go for a CAVE shmup seeing how influential they were, but I could be biased: DoDonPachi.

Fighting games: hmm… a bunch could go in here, but if I have to choose one, it should be Street Fighter II. Biased pick is Guilty Gear Plus R.

Pong Pac-man Super Mario Pokemon Dark Souls Tetris Wii Sports Halo The Sims