Fuck history, I'm gonna be a blind mark for KOTOR for a minute.
KOTOR is my favorite game of all time, period. I love every part of this game, the story, the fighting, the characters, the RPG aspect, and the fact that it's Star Wars only makes it that much more perfect to me. I must have played this game a dozen times and I still haven't gotten bored with it. No story or characters have drawn me into a universe as much as KOTOR did. The plot twist that was probably obvious to most, shocked me as I had no idea it was coming and is still one of my all-time favorite gaming moments. I can literally talk about how much I love this game all day. It's just the perfect game to me and has everything in a video game that I want.
Did it do more for the gaming industry than Contra? No. Did it bring anything new to gaming? Not really. But at least you didn't need a cheat code just to beat the first level.