Games you waited forever to play and were still impressed by

[le geek]

Okay,

So I finally picked up a Xbox (Halo edition no less) and popped in Halo. I was expecting a good game, but DAMN! I am very impressed! The graphics, story, immersion and gameplay are awesome so far...

Now I've played Halo multiplayer before, and I've tinkered with Halo 2 and other Xbox games at friend's houses. And I've gotten away from PC FPS games (last one I spent serious time with was Quake). But this is the first time I seriously sat down with the single player mode in Halo and man I am blown away.

So what games have you put off playing, only to be blown away years later?

Cheers,
Ben

[Jumpman Jr.]

I guess I did this with Ocarina of Time. My mom actually bought the game for me on its release day. I played it once, and couldn't get out of the forest, so I gave up. My brother would play it and I couldn't understand what he was doing. I would always try to get into it, but just couldn't.
About 5 months ago, I started playing it (much older now... much more patience) and I couldn't put it down. @_@

[suckerpunch5]

When I read the title of this thread, I was actually thinking of Halo 2. I didn't think any game could live up to all its hype, but geez, it was (and is) really a great game.

[Gunstar_Hero UK]

Ah good question, after looking at screens of God of War a while back, It really didnt look too impressive to live up to all that hype. And games with storys like that really arent my thing. So i just ignored all the great reviews and hype, and decided to dismiss the game.

But, when a buddy bought the game to my place yesterday, I was just blown away. What a game. I was very impressed, to the extent that Im bidding on a copy on the ol' bay right now.

Joe. :)

[Sotenga]

Akumajo Dracula X: Chi no Rondo and Gradius Gaiden, of course. I still think they're among the absolute best of the Castlevania and Gradius series, respectively. :D

I hope to add Kaze Kiri and Radiant Silvergun to this topic in the (hopefully near) future...

[Slimedog]

Half Life. I never played it on the PC and just went through it a few months ago on the PS2. Turns out its a really fun game. Who would have thought?

[Haoie]

Symphony of the Night, for sure.

In fact it still impresses me a lot.

[Dr. Morbis]

Why has no one mentioned SMB3? I waited forever and a day to play that and my expectations about as high as they could possibly be considering all the hype at the time. By the time I actually got to play the game, it actually lived up to my expectations, if not surpass them.

[evildead2099]

Akumajou Dracula X: Chi no Rondo

Halo (1) - A great single player game, despite being very overrated.

Castlevania: SOTN - I enjoyed it but was disappointed by how easy most of the game is.

Phantasmagoria

Leisure Suit Larry (1)

[-hellvin-]

Castlevania: Symphony of The Night was the #1 game that came to mind when I saw this thread title. I remember reading about it so many years ago in GamePro and I was salavating just looking at the beautiful screen shots and imagining the awesome castlevania style gameplay, which I hadn't experienced since renting III on my old NES. When I got a ps2 a few years ago, I finally found a NON-GH copy of it for 20$ and it was one of the most amazing game experiences I've ever had.

[GetImOliver]

Valkyrie Profile. I have to give a big hand to Enix for developing a totally unique RPG experience. If you ever get a chance, it was well worth the $30 spent on it. This and Suikoden II defined the last hurrah of sprite driven RPGs for me!

[PDorr3]

Recently did this with final fantasy tactics advance. I had a file earlier but it didnt last too long. I started up a new file like 3 months ago and got totaly emeressed in the game, playing atleast 5-7 hours a day.

Also this happened for Star Ocean on psx. I always put the game off but one day I decided to play it and I was blown away by the characters, environments, and battles (orginaly the character voice overs scared me away).

[Sam]

Chrono Trigger and Castlevania SOTN.

I heard how they were brilliant for years and years and years before I got to play them. Even after hearing so many times that they were the 'best game ever' they still managed to exceed my expectations - absolute magic!

[Jumpman Jr.]

Just yesterday I started playing Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (on the Super Gameboy) and I guess I felt the same as I did with Ocarina of Time. I never really wanted to play Link's Awakening because it was on a handheld and I never really felt handheld games were any good. I played it for about 4 hours yesterday and now I'm hooked. This game is awesome.

[AlexKidd]

There was a lot of hype surrounding Fable for quite some time and I still loved it when it came out. One of my favorite newer rpg's and my favorite xbox game.

[sabre2922]

Streetfighter2 SNES: waited for this for a while back in the day read every preview etc and it delivered big time.

Resident Evil PS: picked this one up in original U.S. long box the same week it came out.

Silent Hill 2 PS2: the upgrade in graphics quality and just about everything else was worth the purchase of a PS2 alone.

GTA 3: still play it to this day

[LaRule]

halo

[Lothars]

Just yesterday I started playing Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (on the Super Gameboy) and I guess I felt the same as I did with Ocarina of Time. I never really wanted to play Link's Awakening because it was on a handheld and I never really felt handheld games were any good. I played it for about 4 hours yesterday and now I'm hooked. This game is awesome.

I agree fully it's my second favorite Zelda game behind a link to the past

but on topic I will have to say Super Mario Brothers 3 I was so excited for it and when it was finally released it was like wow it exceeded all my expectations.

[jdc]

Well, I ignored GTA3 (and therefore Vice City) for YEARS because I had decided that the game must have been a mindless piece of shit. All that I had heard day in and day out from "gamers" was that it was totally fun to destroy cars and beat the shit out of people. It seemed like that was all there was to the game.

Once I got away from the industry, I bought a copy of GTA3 on PS2 and quickly realized that most younger people that owned the game never PLAYED the GAME. I had a blast with what little I played before dumping my PS2.

I recently picked up the double pack for my Xbox and am nearly done with GTA3. Looking forward to catching up with the next two.

Ditto for Star Wars KotOR. Played that one after everyone else.

GameCube games. My Cube had been collecting dust for well over a year. Now that the games are cheap, I've been buying them and have found many a gem.

[WiseSalesman]

Mario 64 is the first game to come to mind for me. I bought in to all the hype, built my expectations incredibly high, and when I could finally afford my N64, I was still completely blown away by the game. I didn't even bother buying another N64 game until I got all 120 stars, and had done every weird, glitchy thing I could think of. It held my interest that long. StarFox 64 was the next game I purchased for the system, and it held up to my expectations almost as well.


Valkyrie Profile. I have to give a big hand to Enix for developing a totally unique RPG experience. If you ever get a chance, it was well worth the $30 spent on it. This and Suikoden II defined the last hurrah of sprite driven RPGs for me!

Have to agree with you there. I always thought it looked cool, and the game addicted me when I finally got my hands on it.

One caveat. Play it with a spoiler-free guide. I know, I know I'm a blasphemer and all that, but It's damn near impossible to get the good ending without a guide. And you want the good ending. Trust me on this one.

[Luke]

I have three main ones:

Akumajo Dracula X: Chi no Rondo (using MagicEngine)

I wanted this game the first time I saw a write-up for it in EGM or EGM2 (whichever mag it was) but the Duo was never released in Australia. Thanks to a clever programmer and a lot of cash (for the game) I was finally able to play this wonderful game.

Chrono Trigger (US SNES)

This also never got released in Australia but I tracked down a mint copy for US$30 a few years ago. What a nice game that was.

Final Fantasy III (US SNES)

Same as above for Chrono but it was AUS$60.

Luke

[Amy Rose]

Sonic & Knuckles: lock on technology = win. This coupled with Sonic 3 made me a happy panda.

Gitaroo Man: I was SO hyped for this game when I got it, and it was even better than I expected! I swore a lot when I got to the rock opera stage though. :P

Hopefully I'll add Knuckles' Chaotix to this list soon. The wait for a 32x is killing me. I'm going to be SO angry if it's a bad game.

[le geek]

Hopefully I'll add Knuckles' Chaotix to this list soon. The wait for a 32x is killing me. I'm going to be SO angry if it's a bad game.

Knuckles is still one of my favorite Sonic games, so here's hoping... :D

Cheers,
Ben

[klausien]

Hopefully I'll add Knuckles' Chaotix to this list soon. The wait for a 32x is killing me. I'm going to be SO angry if it's a bad game.

Just the fact that you are a huge Sonic fan is enough. I'm sure you'll love it. Knuckles Chaotix is my addition here. I finally got it about a month ago and it is very cool. Very colorful and it just feels obscure. The tether mechanic is loose, but the game is still super cool.

[LiquidPolicenaut]

Hmmm, I'd love to say Castlevania: SOTN, but I've been playing it since it came out...just couldn't wait :) My list would include Chrono Trigger and FF 3 on the SNES, Keio Flying Squadron 2, Tengai Makyo IV and Princess Crown for the Saturn, Xenogears for the PSOne and 3x3 Eyes and Urusei Yatsura for the Mega CD. All great games that I finally got a chance to play, labeit a bit late.

[WanganRunner]

Xenogears - I remember hearing that it probably wouldn't be brought to the US due to "strong religious overtones", and when we finally got it, I loved it.

FF7 - Far as I'm concerned, it was better than the hype made it out to be. If you disagree, keep it to yourself, no one cares.

SMB64

Halo

[le geek]

FF7 - Far as I'm concerned, it was better than the hype made it out to be. If you disagree, keep it to yourself, no one cares.


I appreciate FF7 but was still a little disappointed in it, and still hold FF4 and FF6 in higher regards. And not surprisingly, I really like FF9 (which I still need to finish!). But still I'd give FF7 a 4 out of 5. I'm sure someone cares... ;)

But I'm right with you on SMB64 and HALO...

Cheers,
Ben