Games That Changed Your Life

[Nz17]

You know the games I'm talking about. Those that were so excellent and deep, they changed how you perceived the world. Or those games that you play in the low times of your life that make everything seem like it would be okay. Or the games that sent you down the path to gamerhood. What games have changed your life?

[AB Positive]

I have three...

First, Art of Fighting 2, the game that got me into fighting games for life. And sparked my life long love of "King"

secondly, there was Final Fantasy III... I had always wondered about RPG players, I could never understand how they'd sit there and play those games... until I played this. It started a long time binge of RPGs that still goes strong today.

and finally, there was Final Fantasy VII. I waited months for this game with baited breath. Played the demo to death. It came and it met every expectation I had for the game. I still love it to this day.

Sadly, it also marked the end of the FF era for me, as I've not been able to enjoy any final fantasy since (not counting Tactics). VII was where they 'jumped the shark' so to speak, and I don't know if they'll ever recover that magic.


-AG

[gamergary]

Final Fight 3 started my love of beat em ups.

[thegreatescape]

RTCW: Enemy Territory. It changed me the same way Counter strike changes people from innocent gamers to chair throwing maniacs.

[Dangerboy]

The Turbo Grafx brought me back into gaming after I almost left during the 3D-uh-O and Slaguar era (I had bought the last TG16 new for $30 at a TRU while on vacation).

PlayStation with FF7 and the perfect Street Fighter Alpha sealed the deal to keep me in.

Best 'mind f_ck' ever though, interms o fhow I percieved the world, was the ending to Panzer Dragoon Saga.

Jason

[tholly]

legened of zelda: ocarina of time collector's edition.....

with that game i started to like all sorts of new types of games. i also started to really care about keeping things mint and collectable....and then a short time later i really got into collecting.

[Predatorxs]

Games like Wizz ball, led rain, and a few others got me lovin! my C64! too be honest i played many many C64 games, but it was so long ago! i can't remember them :( i'm 26 dammn you old age :(

Street fighter started my love of the Super nintendo!! ahhh those where the days.. And a game i was hooked on, like a crack addict! was snes, Legend of Zelda!!... ahh sh#t i'm feeling a chill coming on, were's my gear i mean, were's my zelda LOL

:vamp:..XS

[suppafly]

Doom for PC introduced me to the FPS world...and i still love that type fo games

[MegaDrive20XX]

Secret of Mana- First RPG I ever got into from Square, before I even touched Final Fantasy

Silent Hill series- Never met a series so deep within itself...a riddle within a riddle so to speak

Metal Gear Solid 1 and 2- Greatest Stories ever told that not even Hollywood can re-create accurately.

DOOM- We never knew the FPS was going to hit big back then until DOOM 2 was announced back in 94'

Tetris- Puzzlers were finally given respect among the genre of games and this was the only one that would be considered the granddaddy of them all to begin the genre with a bang

[klausien]

The Legend of Zelda (NES). Sealed the deal.

Altered Beast (Genesis) - Not a great game by any means, but it was the first home game I played where the graphics had truly evolved from what had come before.

Keith Courage in Alpha Zones (TG 16) - Welcome to Japan.

Street Fighter II (Arcade) - I was into the phenomenon when it seemingly took over the world. What I wouldn't do to return to that feeling you got when you would go into an arcade and see an entire wall of SFII.

Daytona USA (Arcade) - Still amazing. The Model 2 truly took driving games to a new level of realism.

Ridge Racer (PSX) - First home 3D game that looked solid enough to seem believable. Still love it. Looks killer on the PSOne Screen. Even better with the Turbo Mode bonus disc.

Super Mario 64 (N64) - Things would never be the same after this one. Nintendo truly delivered in a big way.

Soul Calibur (DC) - Better than the Arcade, at home.

Rez (PS2) - Left me speechless.

Waiting for the next one. Haven't been so keen on this era of gaming.

[neo-zen]

resident evil, after first playiing the game in my friends store in 96 i have been hooked ever since.
all the sonic, megaman, mario also

[WiseSalesman]

Dragon Warrior and The Legend of Scherezade were the first two RPG I ever played, and I'm still playing them to this day.

Final Fantasy Tactics changed me as a gamer. I became more strategic JUST because of that game.

Dance Dance Revolution hepled me lose and some weight, gave me a competative edge I hadn't had in ten years, and helped me channel my skills and love for music into a video game.

Super Smash Bros. showed me that I could truly obsess over a game and excel.

[EnemyZero]

The original NES started it all...but Sega took over...Sega changed my gaming life....game wise...FFVII ended any other life outside of games....

[Ed Oscuro]

Light Crusader: now I know that I can push palace guards off a ten foot ledge and not get caught...and if you should ever find a magical, antagonistic lilly pad (like every other room), cast judgement on it three times for the best armor in the game. Cheese is worthless.

Plus, Look like a goblin, smell like a human (TM)

[THXII38]

Manic Miner
Elite
Doom
Resident Evil

[calthaer]

I don't know about "changed my life," but ones that had a formative effect on the way I view entertainment were:

-Bard's Tale
-Wolfenstein 3D
-System Shock 2 and Thief

and nothing since then...

[kainemaxwell]

Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior sucked me into the world of RPGs when I was a kid.

[soniko_karuto]

dragon warrior and hyd lyde.

[Ninja Blacksox]

Cool topic.

"Yie Ar Kung-Fu" - Single-handedly responsible for my love of video games.

"The Legend of Zelda" - This was the first game I really fell in love with through incessant playing. The best NES game there is.

"Mortal Kombat" - This game turned me into the feared arcade badass that I was from approximately 1992-1994. My lifetime record in that period had to be something like 2,548-7. My parents used to enroll me in this YMCA ski camp that took place every Saturday. A school bus would drop us off at a mountain (Wachusett Mountain, to those in MA) and pick us up five hours later. I would spend about thity minutes on the mountain, and four and half hours playing either MK or MKII. Some truly great times.

-A Boy

[dreamcaster]

Super Mario All-Stars (SNES) - the first console game I owned.

Stunt Race FX (SNES) - remains as my favourite video game ever created.

Gran Turismo (PSX) - for me, a dream finally brought to reality.

Sega Rally 2 (DC) - the game made me fall in love with the Dreamcast, and ended up making it my most favoured game system ever.

[Dire 51]

I can think of a few that changed my life in one way or another...

- Pitfall! (2600)
- Pitfall II: Lost Caverns (2600)
- Downland (TRS-80)
- Contra (NES)
- Gradius III (SNES)
- Space Harrier II (Genesis)
- Splatterhouse (TG16)
- Castlevania (NES)

[nesmaster102]

it is not a game but a bunch of games
this collection made me get a job to pay for it than with that job i got this computer and internet.
than it recked my life by making me spend all of my money on it

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4315&item=8109221634

[Ed Oscuro]

Nice buy there...I wish I did as well with $500 (there've been single games I've paid 1/2 that winning bid amount for, heh) :D

[Mitch_Naz]

Definitely Super Mario Bros. for the NES it guided me towards gaming hood and I thank it, I hope to get the gba classic version someday.

[Nesmaster]

it is not a game but a bunch of games
this collection made me get a job to pay for it than with that job i got this computer and internet.
than it recked my life by making me spend all of my money on it

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4315&item=8109221634

hey now dont be hogarding all of those games, 24 of them are mine+5 boxes and manuals :P

[Milk]

Virtua Fighter 2 made me appreciate fighters more and become attuned to strategy.

Dragon Warrior III Remix made me fall in love with RPGs after several bad experiences (I was too young for Bard's Tale back when I rented it in 1991; Shining in the Darkness angered me very, very much with the completely indistinguishable dungeon halls).

Nethack and Ancient Domains of Mystery encouraged me to become even more strategic in my gameplaying, and have caused me to change my playing style.

Sonic 2 got me through the bad days of 4th grade. Wario Land was with me during wedding planning for my sister and visits to Ocean City, Maryland. Discovering Sherbet Land was like Columbus sighting the New World.

Megaman II on the Gameboy took me nearly 8 years to complete, mostly because I didn't play it at all for a good 5 or 6 of them. When I finally completed that son of a bitch, I felt quite a sense of accomplishment. Then I bashed my head in for being such a lousy gamer.

[Graham Mitchell]

In the summer of 2001, I was studying for the MCAT, and had come to discover that my girlfriend was cheating on me, and she moved to another state with this guy. On top of that, she stole all of my records and CD's (about 200 records and 500 CD's) and was selling them to stores in 2 or 3 different towns so that she could live with this guy without having to work. (She was a real piece of work.) All my friends hated her, and she got in such a rabid fight with them that they wouldn't talk to me anymore.

Since this period of my life consisted of 2 things, studying for the MCAT and drinking alone, the only thing that made me feel slightly GOOD during that period was my Dremcast.

Two games in particular: Shenmue and Ecco the Dolphin: DOTF. They are both insanely beautiful and unique games, and I have not played any game since then that held my interest like that, or filled me with joy like that. Those games are like magic to me.

[EnemyZero]

Yeah, I can say my Genesis got me through elementary school, and the saturn finished it off. Being the outcast in school,I had those friends who were only friends when there other friends weren't around...if that makes any sense, so I mostly turned to my genesis, the good ole days...who wants to be out playing football when I can conquer the billion levels of kid chameleon, or fighting evil in Shining Force. :) - Sega , and video games helped me cope with being the "Odd" kid....and those games (and sega as you can tell) always stuck with me

[boatofcar]

River Raid (2600) - The first game I remember playing, ever. I still love the pastoral graphics :)

Star League Baseball (Atari 1200XL) - The first sports game I remember playing, and one of the few games my dad and I played together.

S.T.U.N.N. Runner - The game I logged the most hours in at the arcade. One day I will own the sit down version. :D

Super Mario Bros. - From the minute I saw the NES running this game at K Mart, I became yet another kid begging his parents for a Nintendo 24-7 :)

Final Fantasy - The first RPG I ever beat, and the first game I actually videotaped the ending for. Still have the tape!

[Pedro Lambrini]

No. 1 Crazy Cavey. An old £1.99 Mastertronic game on the Vic20. This was my very first game on my very first computer and I've never looked back :)

Other games would include Alien Breed 3D. This was the first game that gave me a fright! Up until then 'scarey' games just didn't bother me at all. Also a public domain game for the Amiga called Poing 6. It's a breakout clone and is just one of the best games I have ever played - I can't tell you how many months I have lost to this game. It truly did change my life! Shogo on the PC was also a bit of a life changer - I had never really touched a PC before. Up until this point I had always played games on Commodore or Atari computers (not being a big Speccy fan!) or consoles. But once I had a quick blast of Shogo I went straight out and bought a shitty old PC so that I could get this game for myself. Now I spend a fortune periodically updating my PC!

[SegaTecToy]

2600
Mr. Postman - First game I played at home.

NES
Dragon Warrior - Make me like RPGs.
Ninja Gaiden series - Cinematics, romance and 'monster slaugthering'.

SNES
UN Squadron - Great shooter
Drakhen - Spent days with this
FF4(3) - Make me love RPGs

Saturn
PD series - Pure otherwordly greatness

PC
Half-Life - Showed me that FPSs could be great too

[RJ]

@predatorxs: I think that unknown "net chick" is Genevieve Gorder, a designer who can be seen more often than not on TLC's "Trading Spaces".