'Portal,' 'Minecraft,' 'Mario' selected for Smithsonian art exhibit

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The Smithsonian American Art Museum has revealed the eighty video games to feature in The Art of Video Games, an exhibition opening March 16, 2012.

Contemporary classics Portal, Minecraft, and Mass Effect 2 will join foundational titles Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Donkey Kong, four Mario games, and five from the Zelda series.

Exhibits were chosen with help from voters, who chose from 240 titles on the Art of Video Games website stretching back to the days of the Atari VCS and ColecoVision.

BioShock, Mass Effect 2, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 and Battle for Middle Earth II were considered best exemplars of video game art on the Xbox 360, while Uncharted 2, Heavy Rain, Flower and Brütal Legend represent the PlayStation 3's catalogue.

Super Mario Galaxy 2, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Boom Blox and Zack & Wiki won the most Wii votes while Portal, Fallout 3, fl0w and Minecraft came from the modern Windows PC bracket.

Visitors to the exhibit in Washington DC are to find five bonus games available to play: Pac-Man's arcade version, Super Mario Bros., The Secret of Monkey Island, Myst, and World of Warcraft.

http://www.artofvideogames.org