We all have games (and systems) we love. But in some cases, our first exposure to them was the exact opposite. I have two stories to share...

Ghosts 'N Goblins (NES). I played the game at Wedge4Life's place for the first time in the late '80s, and I hated it. Absolutely loathed it. I hated it so much, that a couple of years later, when I was with a friend of mine shopping for a new game for his new Genesis, I tried to talk him out of buying Ghouls 'N Ghosts because I knew it was the sequel to Ghosts 'N Goblins. I really hated Ghosts 'N Goblins that much.

Luckily, he didn't listen to me. As a result, I ended up opening The Ghoul Realm years later. And nowadays, I enjoy the hell out of the NES Ghosts 'N Goblins, despite its insane difficulty.

I'm a huge NES fan. I'd even go as far as to say it's my favorite console of all time, but that wasn't always the case. Back when the NES originally debuted in the US, I was a devoted Atari fan. Nothing could tear me away from my 2600 (and later my 7800). I saw the NES, and wasn't impressed. Of course, then everyone at school started talking about it and trashing anything Atari-related. I stuck to my guns... I said that the NES put too much into the graphics and I wasn't interested in it. You guys can have it, I'll stick with my Atari, thank you.

Blind fanboyism gone mad? Could be. Keep in mind, I didn't actually PLAY the NES while making these statements. Once I did play the NES for the first time, thanks to Wedge4Life, I was intrigued. After spending a bit of quality time with games like SMB, Top Gun, Track & Field II and Iron Tank, I was really starting to come around. Then I played Contra for the first time, and that did it. I had to have an NES of my own. I still loved the Atari, though, and kept buying games for both the 2600 and 7800. I believe it was at this time that I realized I didn't need to be devoted to one system only and just owning that one - having more than one opened up a much bigger world of gaming.

On a minor, yet related, note - the first time my brother, sister and I went to rent games for our brand new NES, I recall picking up the boxes for both Castlevania and Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, looking at the screenshots on the back, and thinking that both games looked incredibly stupid. Makes me wonder why, just a few months later, I asked my parents if they would pick up one of the two for me when they said they were going to buy me a new game. To this day, I have no idea why I asked for either game, considering my earlier reaction to them. At any rate, they came back with Castlevania, which quickly became my favorite game. It still is, after all these years. Glad I didn't stick to my original opinion and gave it a chance...