I've never, and doubt I ever will, see a game that renders all others obsolete- there's too much variety in what games can do for that.
But games that have blown my mind, and re-shaped/expanded that idea of what games can do? Absolutely!
When I was a kid, finally getting past the first stage of The Guardian Legend and discovering the ship turned into a person and the game turned from vertical shooter to Zelda-esque exploration blew my mind. The idea that a game could so completely change gameplay style was completely foreign to my young mind.
I encountered a game called the Holosseum in an arcade that messed with my head- to see the graphics portrayed in "3D" like that was unlike anything I've encountered before or since. If you've never seen one, it's set up with a flat plane onto which the 2d sprites are projected vertically- it's a bit like cutouts in a diorama. Similar reaction shortly thereafter to Virtua Fighter, except I have seen that kind of game after & continue to evolve.
Final Fantasy 7 changed my perception of how a game could present its story- while I wouldn't call it my favorite, I certainly remember having the most visceral reaction to it than I've had with any other game- panicking during that first timed mission, tearing up over Aeris' fate, downright bawling when my brother accidentally deleted my save file right after I left Midgar for the first time... that last one's a little different. I also remember the early trailers for Final Fantasy 8 blowing me away with their graphical prowess.
In my adult life, the two games that stick out for getting me to think about games a little differently were Final Fantasy 12 and Horizon: Zero Dawn (so far- not actually done with that one yet.) I know 12 seems like an odd choice- it's not that different or special when you get right down to it. The thing is, I binged RPGs for most of high school, and I'd becomed burned out. It was the same thing every time- a group of random folk band together to take down a big bad and Save The World! Gotta Save The World, every time... until 12. You don't save the world in 12. At no point is Ivalice, as a whole, in any danger. You're a little resistance trying to re-estalish a little monarchy on the edge of a big empire. If you fail... nothing much changes, really. And that downgrade in scope had an effect on the story- you meet your cast in a more organic way, you spend more time with each of them establishing why you should care about their little struggle instead of on why a big bad villain is so big & bad. They toy with the idea of a big 'we control the world' set of characters- but they also don't do much of anything, exisiting mostly as a foil to shape the other characters motivations. I'd been seeing for year you could use the ever-improving tech to make bigger, more epic stories... this was the first time I'd seen it appiled to a smaller one. It's likely why 12 in my favorite Final Fantasy (unpopular as that opinion my be.)
As for Horizon Zero Dawn, it's given me a new appercation for the kind of world a game can be set in, especially the enemy AI. Most of the time, running about the field, any enemies you encounter aren't a big deal- mow them down or run from the ones too high in level, no need to give it much thought. But here? They react to your presence and actions. They react to each other's presence and actions. Moving from place to place, you can't just go the shortest route, you have to consider what you'll come across along the way- it might be easier to go a longer path if it skirts around a strong enemy's territory. I've never had to take such considerations into account in another game, it's very interesting!
