Submitted 11 months ago by TehBamski@lemmy.world to games@lemmy.world
These could be games that left a lasting impression on you, games that had stellar gameplay mechanics, characters that captivated you, games that you played tons of hours on, etc.
Bubble bobble
Castlevania
Metroid prime
Also as a kid remember playing some old school ghostbusters game that consisted of mashing a button over and over as quickly as possible.
Pokemon Blue
Super Mario Bros 3 is probably the first game that comes to mind as I was finally old enough to really get excited for specific games, and that one was hugely anticipated at the time. The whole game blew my 7 year old mind (think thats the math at least). Up until that point it was mostly grabbing games based on their box art at the rental place, or based on what looked cool in those displays in Toys R Us. And you played those whether they were good or not. That wasn’t the case with SMB3 though.
Super Mario World is probably the next example, for similar reason as above but even bigger and better. Then into the Donkey Kong Country games.
If we are just talking about time played then games like Baseball Stars, Excitebike, Track and Field with the Power Pad, etc. You just played the shit out of every game you owned back then. Because you only got them once or twice a year.
The original Genesis Sonic trilogy was a constant replay for me as a kid and even on occasion now as an adult. I loved the visuals, the music, learning how to master every level, playing as the different characters. It was all so good to me.
As someone who only got into retro RPGs like Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger as an adult, Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time was the first game to show me how games could tell an epic story. There is a reason it was held up as one of the greatest games ever made during its heyday and even holds up well now. It had huge varied environments for its time, memorable scenes and characters, and IMO a perfect difficulty curve to its dungeons and puzzles. Even after playing many of the later Zelda games, it remained my favorite Zelda game until Breath of the Wild.
And of course, the original Smash Bros 64 started off the ultimate fun party game series, my siblings and I spent hundreds or even thousands of hours playing Smash 64 and Melee growing up.
Super Mario World, Super Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, Megaman X, Mega Man Legends 2, Donkey Kong Country, Donkey Kong 64, Diddy Kong Racing, Super Smash Bros., Tomba! 2, and TLoZ Ocarina of Time were all monumental for me. I spent soooo many hours with each of them, often just exploring the world at my own pace, experimenting, and goofing around.
I also loved Star Fox even though I sucked at it. Pokémon Blue was probably responsible for my advanced reading level in elementary school. Mario Paint was my first exposure to digital art, animation, and music making which all later became passions of mine. Final Fantasy Mystic Quest was my first ever JRPG. War of the Gems introduced me to other Marvel characters besides Spidey (my favorite). Baseball Simulator 1000 is my earliest memory of playing video games with my dad. Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland is the first game I ever beat all on my own.
There are a lot of games that are very special to me for many reasons, now that I think about it. That's pretty cool.
Ooh, there were a couple of them.
Pokemon Blue/Yellow/Gold Theme Park World (never see this mentioned anywhere??) Diablo II Warcraft 3 Mario Kart Double Dash Super Smash Melee XG2 (Extreme G 2) Screamer 2 F-Zero GX Need For Speed III: Hot Pursuit
These are the ones I can remember right off the bat, might add some more if I remember them.
Mario kart Street fighter 2. Super Mario world Tetris Dr Mario AND Dr ronitniks mean bean machine. Sonic 1+2
Now playing sf6 and buying son Mario kart and switch for Xmas.
Tomb raider, AOE, command and conquer. Those kinda games
Crash Bandicoot Warped and Toy Story 2 for PS1, I come back to the latter multiple times per year yet.
Ha, I recently saw that Toy Story 2 was in the retro library of my PlayStation Premium subscription. Invited my brother over and we spent the next day or two running thru it. Clunky as hell these days but still weirdly endearing enough to be just as much fun as we remembered.
Do you really feel that it is clunky? Heck I think it aged beautifully lol.
I mean, yeah it is lacking a second joystick to move the camera on a 3D game… But still…
IK+ was where it was AT
Sid Meier’s pirates for c64
Among my most memorable:
Pokemon (1st gen and 2nd gen -- plus some of the spin-off stuff from that era to a lesser extent) captivated me in a way no other games have before or since. Honestly, I hope nothing ever grabs me that hard again; it's kind of scary how obsessed I was in retrospect.
A number of N64 games also made a big impact on me. Majora's Mask was probably my second favorite game (after Pokemon) for many years. (OoT made an impression too, but I played MM first.) I loved the music in Diddy Kong Racing. I got 120 stars in Mario 64, and when I tried it again as an adult, I really appreciated how short and to the point levels could be (not that I played that way as a kid) -- also the camera in that game sucked. Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness kind of disturbed me a bit as a kid, but it's probably the first game I encountered a sort of "New Game Plus" in, which was neat. (People have since told me that's the "black sheep" of the series and that it's really weird that that's the only one I've played significantly.)
Duke Nukem 3D was the first game I modded, I think (very simple graphical stuff). Definitely wasn't age appropriate but I played the heck of it anyway. Didn't really get much into other shooters other than playing through the main game of Perfect Dark on N64 and playing split-screen Golden Eye with friends.
I also played a lot of Sim<Whatever> games -- particularly SimCity 2000, SimEarth, and SimTower. Also had a bunch of others like SimFarm and even some of the more obscure ones like SimSafari. Streets of SimCity and SimCopter being able to load SC2K maps was really neat though. Played a fair amount of other city builders and simulation games like Caesar III and Roller Coaster Tycoon too. My parents probably hoped I'd become some sort of business manager. :p
I had a lot of creative tools back then as well which I treated as not-that-different from video games. Various Kid Pix programs (one of which had a bunch of odd video clips integrated -- including a short documentary about jackalopes of all things), Kid's Studio, Digital Chisel, some version of HyperCard, etc. Game Maker -- which I found around the year 2000 back when it was still on www.cs.uu.nl -- ultimately led me to being a professional programmer.
Star wars Jedi knights games for sure. Asheron’s Call also got a lot of playtime as my first MMORPG. Tony hawk pro skater 2.
Do you remember which server you played for AC?
It was so long ago, I honestly can’t recall. I remember playing on one of the pve servers for a while before moving to a pvp server.
Pretty sure my first major video game was Colin McRae Rally 2.0 and it started my fascination for cars.
My favorite game from my childhood would probably be Mafia 1 though, I still replay it like once a year. Halo CE is a close second.
Duke Nukem 3D, Morrowind, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, Age of Mythology, the Sims 2. Diablo 2
Two games on the C64: “The Castles of Dr. Creep” and “Elite”. The first was a jump-and-run platform game with incredibly simple and lowres graphics, but perfect for two cooperating players. The second was the absolute classic space game by Braben and Bell.
Super Mario Bros., Balloon Fight, that one Robocop game for the NES, Sonic The Hedgehog and a top-down strategy shooter for the Genesis/Mega Drive that I can’t remember the name of.
As a kid, probably Lode Runner. It ran on my pc. Some arcade games were fun. I enjoyed [Asteroids](en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroids_(video_game\)). Colossal Cave, and the Infocom games like Planetfall were fun too. Though what really hooked me was Doom. It was the first real 3d FPS game and it blew my mind. It’s been my favorite genre ever since.
Mario RPG, half life 2, and Halo 1, those are easily my top 3 games.
Not really my favorite, but I never see these games listed in places like this, so I’m going to be the change I want to see in the thread.
Check out Lufia and Lufia II for the Super Nintendo. It’s crazy how underrated these ended up being, and how good they were. I’ve played them semi recently, as SNES games go, and the second one still holds up well. The first is good, but feels a little more dated.
Recently set up a Recalbox on a Retroflag box. Will check these out. Thanks for the recommendation.
When I was a kid, I felt pretty confident no video game would ever top Dragon Quest 4 (known as Dragon Warrior 4 to me, at the time).
It has been since surpassed, but I do still think it’s pretty damn excellent
Metal Storm, Super Mario 3, Street Fighter 2, Tomb Raider, Tony Hawk Pro Skater, Jet Moto, Final Fantasy Tactics
Battlefront & battlefront 2 first and foremost for sure. Classic battles for socializing, space battles for crash fun, single player galactic conquest
Battle for Middle Earth 2. Big improvement over 1 and you could play as anyone, although Men was outrageously overpowered
Unreal Tournament 1999
Starcraft: Broodwar. We were shitty turtle players, but so much fun
Warcraft 3 (mostly dota, twilight’s eve, and TD)
CS 1.6 and CS:S
Mario kart double dash
super smash Bros melee
Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones
Pokemon Emerald
They don’t make games like that anymore, but then again, it is definitely 75% nostalgia and the good times with friends that I had during those years instead of the actual games.
Now we are stuck playing CS2 online getting rolled by kids on shitty comp servers with 100+ ping 1 day per month or so because there is a 7 hour time difference now. Because online games without sweaty, toxic communities are pretty far in between. Miss the days when video games were fun lol
UT 99 was the best. So much fun with Pulse Rifle combos!
Jumpman and Loom (Commodore 64) really stand out.
and about a hundred more, probably. These are all on the ZX Spectrum. No one else start out in the early 80s with a Spectrum or Commodore 64 or Dragon or whatever?!
Looks like I’m one of the oldest here (Pacman guy presumably older)…
X-COM: UFO Defense (1993) Fallout 2
Baldur’s Gate 1 & 2. The open-world gameplay melted my adolescent brain after growing up on NES games. I haven’t stopped playing such games since, and I still go back and play them again occasionally.
Go for the eyes Boo!!
Rollercoaster Tycoon 1, 2, and 3 when I was quite young. In my teens it was Minecraft.
fireangel108@mastodon.social 11 months ago
Ps2: GTA sanandreas, gauntlet dark legacy, onimusha2( mostly watched my older brother play), need for speed underground2, midnight club2, resident evil 4(also just watched my brother play), On WII: redsteell, super samsh bros brawl, mario galaxy, On pc: world of warcraft online and club penguin