Be completely honest... list all the games that really "impacted" you

I don't care what genre, what system, arcade or PC even, as long as it's a video game and it made a big impact on you and how you looked at games, then list it.

Be honest and even if you have a "guilty pleasure" game on your list, list it. Make it as authentic as you can.

It can be as old as Pong, and as new as Ikaruga.

I hope to see everyone's list. You don't have to explain the game's importance to you, but if you wish, be my guest.

Here is my list as best as I can recall and compile:

-Contra
Never will forget this sucker. Many nights in '88 and '89 were spent playing this with my brother and uncle. One which will never leave me.

-Godzilla (NES)
I was five years old, I loved Godzilla and this to me was a cool Godzilla game on the NES. I kid you not -- the music at certain points in this game scared me lifeless.

-Double Dragon II
I remember daydreaming about this game!

-Altered Beast
Just blew me away.

-Sonic 1
Ditto. I remember coming home from school one day, and I caught my uncle (the same one who played Contra with me) guiding Sonic through the second zone. At that point in time my uncle was beginning to age and he stopped playing games for the most part. But that day, for one minute it felt like the late 80s again. I'll never forget that sight of seeing his smile as I caught him in the act.

-Michael Jackson's MoonWalker
I actually have a tape that my uncle filmed, and it's hilarious looking back. A small room was crammed to the bone with me and 12 of my friends. We all sat down, our mouths in a euphoria state, as the various Jackson themes pumped through our Genesis into that tiny room.

-Streets of Rage
In a word, awesome. Atmospheric.

-F-Zero
First SNES game I ever played. Unbelievable... the sounds the sights the speed oh my!

-King of the Monsters
First arcade game I ever played, and beat... some odd 26 quarters later. As a kid I loved monsters and wrestling. KOTM? Perfect! Was also the first ever SNES game I bought...

-Street Fighter II
You can almost make a case of this where one could conceivably say, "Before anyone ever did anything, Capcom did everything."

-Mortal Kombat II
I really, really liked it. I even got a "backstage pass" at Target to play the SNES version against the store's employees... that was awesome.

-DooM
Yeah, this was the king. I loved it.

-Corridor 7
Anyone remember this Doom clone from around the same time Doom was released? This game was very sweet, I have a lot of memories with this game. Look out for those Ttocs! ("T"he "T"erminators "O"f "C"orridor "S"even was my little pet name for them, and seriously, they are named Ttocs! It's backward for Scott. Most the enemies' name were backward of the makers of the game. i.e. Janet became Tenaj, James became Semaj, Carlos became Solrac, etc.)

-Resident Evil
Whoa.

-Silent Hill
Wow.

-Clock Tower 1 (PSX US version)
Scissorman, Scissorman... my how I have missed you...

-Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
Some of the best good stuff I'll ever play. Can never forget my late night marathons against my cousins who flew over from Texas... good times all right...

-World Heroes
First fighter I ever used was Brocken. I was hooked day one. My old best friend Nelson loved the series as well -- and it was some of the best years and gaming memories of my life.

-World Heroes 2
I about pissed my pants when I first saw this in the corner of my SafeWay grocery store in 1993. I spent more quarters on this game than probably any other arcade game in history.

-World Heroes Perfect
What can I say, this game renewed my passion for video games in general. It is a fine, fine fighting game. I still crack a gut when I see Rasputin's "Secret Garden" Super Special Finish on any male World Hero...

Note. I didn't list Super Mario Brothers because that game really did not have much of an impact on me. It was all about Contra for me. WH2Jet was not listed because although I really liked it, it didn't have the same punch on me as 1, 2 and Perfecto did.

Not in chronological order!

Doom - There never was, and never will be, a more atmospheric game.

FinalFantasy7 - I literally lived in this game for months. I gave a fuck about ANYTHING in real life...all i wanted was revenge...and to wander the planet with the meteor ominously hanging overhead.

Sonic CD - This game showed me how important music was in a game. In my opinion, the best soundtrack to a game to date. [US version...jap soundtrack sucked my COCK, all you guys who say its better are nips!]

Gradius - This was the first game i ever played, and I think its what created my idea of a 'good game' Great music, great atmosphere, great locales, and a twist of the bizarre.

Super Metroid - jesus christ man. this game is fucking amazing.

HALO - This game actually makes the list. It's honestly, my second favorite game ever...next to:

THE MOST life changing, magical, spiritual and intense game i've ever played...

Legend of Zelda: A link to the past. im just going to go cry as i try to recall my carefree childhood.


peace,
ray

Super Monkey Ball - I haven't bought an RPG since I played this game. It made me remember how much I truly crave pure skills games, and how great it feels to master one. After this game I began collecting shooters fro my Saturn and then I got into the Neo-Geo after doing research on Metal Slug.

Final Fantasy II (US) - First time I ever saw a SNES game in action. The graphics and SOUND blew me away. Weirdly enough, I saw the very end of the game, ending and all, on this first time. Also the game that made me crave RPGs, which at that time were few. This would last til Monkey Ball. Granted, I never stopped playing all genres, but my RPG playing was ridiculous for a long while.

Super Mario 64 - One of the best 3D platformers of all time, and before I had even played it to know how good it was, I craved it. As far as I'm concerned, it alone is a good enoug reason to love the N64, though Majora's Mask is too.

Diablo II - I lived and died for this game about 2 years ago. On the final D2 ladder before the expansion, I was the 5th Amazon overall on USEast HARDCORE. I was level 86. Anyone who knows what D2 was like before the expansion knows that I was a crazy SOB to get to that level on hardcore.

Bubble Bobble NES
First game me and brother got for our NES, spent hours playing that game. We would play it until we were either told to stop, or we beat it.

Street Fighter II SNES/Arcade
Spent the day down at our local pizza shop, kick a little ass, run out of quarters, come home and play for free. First fighting game that I ever played for the sake of competition, Zangief user for life.

Chrono Trigger SNES
My favorite RPG of all time, its battle system has yet to be topped.

Final Fantasy II (US)SNES
I owned two games for SNES when I was younger, SFII and FFIII. I must have beaten this game at least 20 times over. A great RPG with an incredibly fun battle system, memorable characters, and a classic story.

Sonic The Hedgehog Genesis
A hedgehog that can run at sonic speeds, whats not to like. Showed us that platforming doesn't need to be a slow paced jumpathon, running 200mph and doing crazy loop-da-loops is where its at.

Mortal Kombat II & III Aracade
Crowd of 20 kids waiting their turn to play MKII, hell, even adult men were waiting to play. And who was the person that would be there all day long kicking butt, me. I owned MKII, no one could touch me. First game that I mastered, I knew everything about that game by heart (same goes for MKIII).

Final Fantasy VII PSX
See Kid Aphex

Goldeneye 007 N64
None of my friends are gamers, and you know what, that fucking sucks ass. This is the only game where my friends became like me, totally addicted to a video game. I would have 10 people at a time over, playing 4-player deathmatches all day. Go to school, come home, play Goldeneye till 11pm. OH!, HE'S GOT THE KLOBB! (classic line)

Subspace/Continuum PC
Old online space shooter game, friend introduced to me back in 1999. Didn't think much of at first, then it sucked me in. Sleep? Who needs fucking sleep when I got Subspace!

Neo Geo MVS
No, not just a single game. Yep, even the bad ones. I was empty until I finally had a job and the money to afford my own Neo Geo. The day my 4-Slot Dedicated cab arrived was a great day, I had finally owned something to put me on that next level of gaming nirvana (or dorkness, whichever). I love my cab like a brother, and all the games I have for it.


Ah, memories.

[ September 15, 2002: Message edited by: K9999 ]</p>

Metal Slug 1 - i picked up a PS port when it first came out and knew nothing of slug games or neo-geo, its the most fun i'ld ever had on a 2D game. Now Metal Slug is probably my favourite game series ever.

Street Fighter 2: Tournament Edition - this was probably the first fighter i ever played in the comfort of my own home. I owned it for the Mega Drive used to play it for hours.

Shenmue - I do now prefer the second version of the game but the original always has the biggest impact. I hate RPG games they bore the living hell outa me but Shenmue is different a completely unique game.

Final Fight - Probably my most played arcade game ever, when i was young i'ld play this for hours in the arcades. An all time classic.

Double Dragon 2 (Nes) - the game that got me into side scrolling beat em ups, funny thing is i still haven't completed it to this day <img src="graemlins/annoyed.gif" border="0" alt="[Annoyed]" /> .

Pro Evolution Soccer - made me see that all Fifa games are poor rehashs which rely on there licenses to sell games. THE GREATEST FOOTIE GAME OF ALL TIME.

theres loads more to (Sonic & Mario games spring to mind, not forgetting Streets Of Rage)

1.Galaga
2.Scramble

3.And the Metal Slug series on MVS

Contra - Super C was my first Contra game and I love it. I got gameboy version later. In 16-bit era, I bought SNES Contra III and Genesis Contra Hardcorp.

Double Dragon - Love Gameboy version so bad and it's one of my all time favorites. Of course, Double Dragon II is slightly better than the first ........

R-type - Simple but hard shooter. Let me see how many versions do I have in hand: PCEngine SCD, Gameboy, Gameboy color and Playstation. They are all the same game but I just want to play it on every platform (seems like I need to get SMS and Turbografx versions)

Street Fighter II - Father of the fighting game. I couldn't remember how much money did I spend on this game...

Final Fight - One of the best beat-n-up

MERCS II - Hot blood overhead action game

Ghouls'n Ghosts - Capcom's masterpiece

El Viento - One of Wolfteam's best works.

Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (megadrive)

- The game that made me want a megadrive. The speed, scrolling, music and boss encounters were untouched back in '92.

Altered Beast (mastersystem)

- the very first console game i had, i was blown away by being able to change into a beast, and kick of zombie heads. i remember waking up at 4 in the morning on boxing day just to play it.

Streets Of Rage Series (megadrive)

- OWWWWW YEAH!!!!! still play them regularly even now.

Mortal Kombat (megadrive)

- the first 'proper' one on on fighter i ever bought. amazing graphics at the time, and the fatalities were AWESOME! being the little gore-freak i was this game was a godsend.

wolfenstein 3d (PC)

- played it round a friend's house when the master system was still super-popular. needless to say we were well impressed with the graphics, and the 'GUTEN-TAG!' first boss was the icing on the cake. which lead to..

Doom (PC)

- the first 3-d bloodbath. Remember palying it when i was about 10 years old , and being drawn in by the total freedom of movement and all the cool weapomns to kill stuff with. still a revolutionary game

Lethal Enforcers (megacd)

- you could shoot stuff on screen? WITH A BLUE PLASTIC GUN?! i'm their!

Sega Rally (saturn)

- The original and best arcade rally game. playing the desert course for hours and hours to shave seconds of you fastestlap time was so much fun. the presentaion of the game was also superb.

Street Fighter Alpha 2 (saturn)

- rekindled the interest in 2d fighters, which lead to..

Fatal Fury Mark Of The Wolves (dreamcast)

- puts street fighter to shame, and then some.

Vigilante 8 (psx)

- one of the most addicitve and fun games of all time. car-combat with a combo system twist was simply hours of fun, i played it all summer. never have i gotten the price tags worth out of agame so much.

Resident Evil 2 (psx)

- reason i bought one.

Metal Slug (psx)

- the first neo-related game i played, metalslug was and is simply one of the greatest side-scrolling shooters of all time. the weapons, music, humor, and level design were all superb.

Sonic Adventure (dreamcast)

- the first sonic game in years, in total 3-d. an amazing sense of speed and awesome graphics,still a joy to play even now.

Shenmue II (dreamcast)

- the best adventure game of all time.

Genma Onimusha (xbox)

- capcom's best 3d effort. the samurai theme, the locations, the battle system, the 'tug of war' souls, the EVIL,EVIL,EVIL china doll, the hack and slash gameplay is so much fun it takes me back to the good old 16-bit days.

Goldeneye (n64)

- the best CONSOLE FPS till...

Halo (xbox)

- the amazing graphics, scope of the battles, being able to get in a truck while someone handles a gatling gun and the co-driver snipes for you while you powerslide into aliens and smash them up trees is very original for a FPS.
add some great weapons and enemies and music and it's the most original FPS since doom all those years back.

[ September 15, 2002: Message edited by: 10in2010 ]</p>

Ok, so most everybody knows I am one of the Old Timers here on the boards, so some of these may be a bit before your time.

I lived down the street from a tavern in Wisconsin called "Norton's Breezy Point Resort". They had a game room with pool tables and pinball. Then they got a couple of video games, the first arcade games I ever saw:

<a href="http://www.klov.com/S/Stunt_Cycle.html" target="_blank">Stunt Cycle</a>

and

<a href="http://www.klov.com/C/Carnival.html" target="_blank">Carnival</a>

Soon after that, they got Asteroids, Pac Man, Donkey Kong, and one of my all time favorites - Centipede. I own a Centipede game now, and it is the game I will never sell.

Then one of my friends got a TRS-80 (trash80) with the cassette tape drive. We spent hours playing a Zork like game, but I don't remember what it was.

On the 2600, Ice Racing. That game was aces!

After that not much until Gauntlet. 4 people on Gauntlet is too fun. "Warrior needs food badly!!!" I spent many quarters on that one.

Back to the PC for Wolfenstein, Xargon, and then Mortal Kombat and Doom. Then I hit on Myst. That was a totally different game experience. I was able to finish it without any hints except in the mine area. That part got me completely lost.

Then came MAME. Say what you want, but MAME is a gateway game. After seeing Metal Slug on MAME, I wanted a Neo Geo.

I found my first arcade game on a friends porch - I bought a non-working Stargate for $25. $300 later, it was working and looking great. After that I got my first Neo Geo MVS in a trade, and the rest is history.

[ September 15, 2002: Message edited by: Briggs ]</p>

Some WWI airplane game - I have no idea what it was called, but it was the first 'video' game I ever played. It didn't use a video screen - it used pictures of planes and explosions on semi-transparent film and some lights that would flash behind it. It only cost 10 cents at a local arcade that was otherwise filled with 25 cent pinball machines

Pong - What can I say? It's the first home system I ever played

Space Invaders (coin-op)

Combat (Atari 2600) - Hours and hours of two player fun

Adventure (Atari 2600) - Sure, you were one big square dot, but it was still fun!

Galaxian (coin-op) - Used to walk all the way to a local store to play this game -- it was like Space Invaders, only BETTER!

Space War (coin-op) - 2 player only, 2 minutes per quarter, one-on-one, arcade version of the DEC PDP1 vector graphics original

Pac Man (coin-op and (later) Atari 2600) - I first heard about this game as a rumor, and playing it blew me away! I remember being on vacation in Philidelphia when the Atari 2600 version was released, and I couldn't wait to get home and play it. The conversion sucked (It really wasn't much like the arcade version), but I didn't care-- it was Pac Man!

Missile Command (coin-op) - The track ball and three tiny buttons were so much fun to use, and those explosions were very cool!

Jumpman (Commodore 64) - The first C64 game I played, and played, and played...

Okay, this is getting too long, so I'll just list some other Commodore 64 titles: Raid On Bungeling Bay, Space taxi, Bruce Lee, Raid Over Moscow, Beach Head, Impossible Mission, Colonial Conquest and probably a ton of others I'm missing. That takes us up until I was 16 or 17. There are too many to list if I go any farther.

Stunt Cycle cab reminds me of the classic Paperboy.

Samurai Shodown II -
This was my first Neo game and I was in such awe over how amazing the graphics looked. The gameplay and secrets (fight Kuroko, play Kuroko, the Super Deformed Characters, super secret special moves, etc.) kept me hooked for years and I still come back to it. The game has spoiled all other fighters for me.

X-Wing (PC) -
I just loved this game to death and I hate PC games. I don't even like the Star Wars universe. Just something about this game hooked me and had me playing it for months and months.

Snatcher (Sega CD) -
The best RPG of all time IMO. It was really ahead of its time.

Final Fantasy III -
The best Square RPG ever. A fantastic game.

Flashback -
The best action/adventure game ever. I can't say enough about it.

Here we go:

Mario 2 on NES- i can rememebr playing this down at my granparents shore house laying on the floor next to a small 13 inch TV. what a wonderful game taht was, i could play that sucker forever.

Golf on NES- played that downat the shore house to with my uncle (the golf nut), i remember teaching him to play when i was in 1st grade

Mario 3 on NES- this one i played all the timje at my house. one memory i'll neevr forget is when my friend john came over and then his sister cam to pick him up she saw us playing, so she sat down for a bit and got a shit load a stuff, hammer bros suit, the frog suit and that one that turns u into a full racoon (katooie suit?) and i told her dont turn it off and she did while she was leaving and i bust out crying for a whole day.

Sewer Sharks on Sega CD- i remember when i got taht system it came w/ sewer sharks and i played it for hours but not getting past the 1st level becasue i coudlnt understand what to do, it was allright though, i just kept watching the FMV intro over and over

Simpsons arcade game- nothign needs to be said about that game.

Doom on the Mac- oh what a wonderful game that was. i rememebr my friend and i playing, i would do the walking and he woudl shoot. hah that was great.

Sega Rally Championship on Sega Saturn- played that game for hours on end, what a great racer taht was.

i think that's it

Here you go, in chronological order.

VARIOUS NES GAMES - I was into games a little on the Atari 2600, however games weren't an addiction until the NES. It wasn't until I played something that had some kind of ultimate purpose (Contra, Super Mario Bros.), instead of simply racking up points, that games became an obsession.

Street Fighter II - This game presented something that had an depth unlike anything I had seen before. I played this one at home for about two years straight.

Final Fantasy VI - This is the game that got me into RPGs. The story was gripping, epic; the music was incredible.

Samurai Shodown II - Not only do I owe this game thanks for cementing me into the Neo Geo, but it was also the game which showed me that games can indeed be a very potent form of art.

DOOM - DOOM was the greatest addiction of my life. I played DOOM II, Ultimate DOOM, and even the related games Heretic and Hexen for YEARS straight, with little else.

I began with DOOM on the 32X. Even that version was addicting, but it was merely a foreshadow of what was to come with the PC versions, before I had experienced multiplayer, mapmaking, or monster fights.

To me, DOOM had UNLIMITED replay value. In fact I recently played through the PC Ultimate DOOM and DOOM II again, the latter of which is an INCREDIBLE challenge if you save only between levels. As Kid Aphex stated, DOOM did a better job at creating atmosphere than ANYTHING else.
Never before did a game even dare to be so raw or visceral. I didn't just play DOOM, I felt it. As one writer of GameSpy wrote, "In fact, it its best moments, DOOM was utterly terrifying."

The PSX version may have done an even better job at this, as the "music" was simply amazing, but sadly, the rest of the part was lacking in more than a few areas. DOOM 64 is also very well done in this respect, but in the end, nothing else has matched the feel of the PC original.

Valkyrie Profile - Never before had I found a game's story to be so interesting. This game is original and incredibly complex, and yet it seems so elegant on the surface. The music is, without a doubt, the best I have heard in ANY game, and that's a large portion of the experience for me.

That's all.

Most of my favs are mentioned except

Scorched earth
Hell of a lot of fun

Hidden & Dangerous
The original on pc

Combat Mission
Greatest turn-based WW2 stratagy game ever

Air Fortress
Damn, I played way too much of this as a kid

There has been a couple:

arcade

Splatterhouse - still the best sideways scolling beat em up ever and the soundtrack is amazing, the day i beat it for the first time - reigns as one of the best days ever

Double Dragon - another outstanding game

Rygar - this game really got me into games - absolute cracker and i still love it

Shinobi - possibly segas finest hour

home systems

Samurai Shodown(aes) - quite irresistable in its day, i couldnt believe i had this on a home system

Super Metroid - another classic by Nintendo

Super Mario 64 - Outstanding and even now i have been blown away again by Mario Sunshine

Monkey Ball - one of the best puzzlers around

Resident evil(ps1) - i remember seeing the Spiders for the first time - made all the hairs on my arm stand on end

System Shock 2
The first true FPS/RPG game before the market was fled with Dues Ex. Also the damn creepiest game in existence.

Metriod
Amazing for it's time, I can't really think of any other way to describe it.

Maximum Carnage
Great side scroller, one of the few were yo ucould actually do more then just pound on the "punch" button.

Puzzle Money Exchanger
My favirate puzzler, great with 2 players.

1943: The Battle of Midway
Alisia Dragoon
Alone in the Dark
Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare
Art of Fighting 2
Bubble Bobble
Castlevania (All installments)
Ceaser II
Contra
Daioh
Doom (All installments)
Fallout
Fatal Fury (All installments)
Final Fight
Half-Life
Heavy Barrel
Hexen
The King of Fighters '96
Life Force
Lords of the Realm
Metal Slug
Metroid
Midnight Resistance
Planescape: Torment
Populous
Quest for Glory I: So you Want to be a Hero?
Quest for Glory III: Wages of War
Raiden Fighters 2
Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession
Realms of Haunting (Holy fucking shit, FIND THIS GAME NOW)
Resident Evil
Rush'N Attack
Scramble
Secret of Mana
Skies of Arcadia
Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. 3
Super Mario 64
The Terminator: Future Shock
Two Crude
Virtua Fighter (All installments)
X-Com: UFO Defense

Oh man...great topic...

Street Fighter II- First got me into Capcom

Fatal Fury Special- First time I ever played an SNK game, even thought his one was on the SNES, licensed by Takara. (I wrote a faq to it on Gamefaqs, under a false name, VHaalgard. Check it out!)

Capcom vs. SNK- The game that first got me into SNK, just by playing Vice!

Metal Slug 2- The first Metal Slug I played, and now I own the entire series. No doubt the greatest game series for the Neo-Geo...

King of Fighters '98- The first KOF I played. Holds a place in my heart, even though I play '97 more though...

Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World- The greatest collection of games in one SNES cartridge. I spent entire days playing this...sweet memories...

Street Fighter Alpha 2- (for SNES) Probably the least significant, this got me to buy a Dreamcast in the first place...and now I have SFA3...actually, not quite, I lent it to someone and they haven't given it back yet...

Final Fantasy III (VI in Japan)- The very first RPG I played and I still can't stop playing it, even though i beat it twice. I love this game... <img src="graemlins/crying.gif" border="0" alt="[Crying]" />

Chrono Trigger- The latest game I got, and the BEST damn RPG I've ever played, THIS..this game is a work of ART! I still haven't beaten it, but I'm fairly close...this game is...I can't even begin to describe it...

[ September 15, 2002: Message edited by: ShikiMikoto ]</p>

I am sure I will miss some that had an impact on me but here it goes.

Atari

Combat for Atari. I played pong but this game was the first I played with a friend back in 79 that I knew what was going on. I was four.

NES

Metroid. First time I played at home at night, I really was creeped out as what would be in this next door. It had a creepy atmosphere for a NES game.

Rygar. Great game. I still play it today.

Mario Bros. My first NES game along with Duck Hunt.

Cammando and 1942 for NES. These were the first games I bought myself with saved up money from chores. Great feeling.

Genesis

Altered Beast. Raise from your Grave!! First time my mouth dropped from graphics. I couldn't believe I was playing an Arcade game at home.

Mystic Defender.

John Madden Football.

Shinobi. Broke up with my first girlfriend because of this game!!

Super Nes.

Super Castlevania. I was a teenager and "Mario was for kids" (I was ignorant) But Castlevania was cool. this was the game I got when I picked up my Snes.

Actraiser. Still one of my most favorite games for the Snes.

Zelda. I fortunetly got chicken pox when this game came out so I spent the whole week playing this masterpiece.

Secret of Mana. Just a awesome game. I still play it.

Final Fantasy 3. This was my first real RPG that I played. After finishing it I remember saying to myself, how can games get any better.

Chrono Trigger. Because of certain family problems I had to quite normal High School and go to night school to finish High School. For those wondering, my brother came down with a mental illness so to speak and I had to spend most of my time taking care of him. I still am today but Chrono Trigger was my escape from all this change my life was going through.

Super Metroid. My favorite game. Everything just went right when this game came out. I have great memories with this game. One of the greatest times in my life, as sad as that sounds. But it brought me and my Mother closer. She was my best friend. Also made me realize that the friends I was hanging with was not a good thing. We were all starting to get in to heavy drugs. I just started a few weeks before but after playing this game and spending quility time with my Mother I quit doing the white stuff and have not touched it or any other drug since. This game really did change my life.

Street Fighter 2. I broke my bedframe as me and my friend started shouting hodocan "that's how we said it, at the time" as EB just called saying the game is in. We were jumping up and down like idiots and broke my bed. We stayed up till 5 in the morning playing.

Playstation 1-2

Final Fantasy 2. I still haven't finished it but am close. I think.

Castlevania the import and US SOTN. Best game music ever, along with FF3 and Chrono Trigger. My favorite Castlvania.

Doom for PSX. Most fun I have ever had with 2 players using a 2 player link cable.

ICO. Pure art.

Xenogears. Longest game I have played. Took me 68 hours and 23 mins. to beat. My favorite PSone RPG. One of the best, and most confusing stories in a RPG. It took me most of 1999 to beat.

Neo Geo

Samurai Shodown 1 and 2. Saved up all the money I could to buy a cart system for these games.

King of Fighters series. Great series of fighters besides the fact that some think it is stale.

3DO

Star Control 2. First time I made my own strategy guide and maps for a game. Still one of my favorites.


These are in no order and I am sure I am missing some.

Great topic Steve!

[ September 16, 2002: Message edited by: Shin Guile X ]</p>

I have a few of these titles.

The only one that immediately jumps out to me is Phantasy Star 2. I was completely enthralled with this title

nes
zelda- incredible game. i was four an i loved every moment of it to good to put own.

mario2-best platformer and mario game. too damn good to play just once.

snes
zelda link to the past- i spent eight years of my life playing this game, and now that i traded it off to riot of the blood. i realize how much i truely loved that game.

plok- hours of my life were spent on saving plok's flag, from the evil spider queen. i bought it back in 97 for $.50 at a garage sale. and it changed the way i thought a platformer could be.

sf2- my first fighting game and one of my favorites. at the arcade, and at home i would play forever. though i coudln't do a hadoken i played.

ff5- the first import game i ever bought, and thanks to my friend gary liu i could play it. he read everything off of the screen, and i listened intently. it changed the way i buy games and made me want to learn japanese. but to this day i haven't learned any.

neo geo
strikers 1945- incredible top down airplane flying i loved it. i wanted it i didn't know a home system existed. and i knew i couldn't have an arcade, so i was screwed.

kof95- i sauntered up to the big red neo geo in the summer of 96. and this was one of the games up for play. at first i thought it was street fighter, but at closer look i knew it wasn't. i almost walked away till i heard the words: "power wave!" come out of those speakers. terry was back and i was mesmorized. i stood there for hours playing it.

saturn
dragon force- incredible... all i can say is it's incredible. one of those games that when you start, you don't want to stop. and you can start at 7:00am, and in a time that feels like fifteen minutes it's 4:30pm.

dreamcast
sa1- soooooo cool. i was a nintendo fanboy throught the 90's until i saw this. loop the loops, snow boarding and everthing.

shenmue- i thought it was just another adventure title, until i played this gem. oh my god!!!! my jaw dropped to my knees, and i was in heaven. guiding ryo hazuki through this "real world" environment, driving a foklift and shit wow.

psx
re3- it changed me, i was scared shitless to play it. and when i finally did, i realized what a great game it was. jill and carlos trying to make that "last escape" from raccoon city. and all the cool guns that you can have.

i know there's more, but i'm forgetful.

Whoo, how much time do you have?

-Not in Chronological Order-
(Well, Almost)

Super Mario Brothers
Got me into video games, period. I just could not understand how someone could be CONTROLLING what happens ON THE TELEVISION! You WERE the main character. It blew my mind.

The Legend of Zelda
I taught myself how to read partly from books, but mostly from this game. No joke.

Street Fighter II
I remember staring up at the arcade machine and thinking how massive it was, and how the graphics just blew everything else out of the water. It was my first taste of one on one fighting, and real game competetion.

Super Mario World
Still my all time favorite, rivaled by a scant few. This was the reason I bought a SNES, and long after the system was dead, it was the sole reason I bought it again.

Seventh Guest
One of the fondest memories of my childhood is when my father brought home the first CD-ROM drive for our computer, and bought this, Mad Dog McCree, Maniac Mansion and Encarta (not a game, but pretty dang cool nonetheless for its time). None of them affected me more than this game. Laughably bad nowadays due to the horrible acting and how simple the "puzzles" are, but back when it came out, it was my new obsession and the CD was my new God.

Doom
Really pointless to comment, really. Made me fear my computer and the groaning that would inevitably come from the speakers.

Test Drive
The VERY first one. The one that you installed on a series of 1.44 MB disks. Games like this, Rocketeer, Need for Speed (again, the FIRST one), Teenage Mutant Turtles, and the swarms of other PC games that came out around 1987 - 89 really made me love games.

Chrono Trigger
Legend of Zelda got me into the whole "More-than-just-a-twitchfest" gameplay, but this game solidified my love for the RPG genre. It played a part in me realizing that video game could be an art form, but not as much as the next game...

Final Fantasy VI
Video games were a form of art to me, now. Probably affected me more than any other game save Super Mario Brothers and Doom.

PlayStation Demo Disk
The one that came with the system. It was the first time I had seen, much less played, 3-D graphics. Jumping Flash, Wipeout, Battle Arena Toshinden plus Madden clips all destroyed my sense of what a video game could be.

Final Fantasy VII
Sorry, playa haters, but this one was amazing.

Mario 64
Ummm, yeah. The best ever. Waiting in line to play this at Blockbuster and Toys R' Us only to be totally confused by the 3-D controls is a fond memory of mine. That and twirling Bowser around.


I'm forgetting a lot. Hexen, MegaMan 2, Day of the Tentacle, Sam N' Max: Hit the Road, Total Annihilation, NHL 96...ugh, there's a ton. After all that, though, I became pretty jaded and failed to be impressed by even the most Halo-ish of games. Project: Ego better be damn good Molyneaux! (EDIT: Oh yeah, and Metroid better be, too, Miyamoto!) I need to be knocked on my ass again, for old times sake.

[ September 15, 2002: Message edited by: Zeekade Zarathos ]</p>