The Top 5 games that defined your childhood

[Xtincthed]

As a kid from the 80's and 90's I didn't have internet or magazines to see what games were worth playing. I just played the games that I got from friends and family. Sometimes these games were horrible, but you had nothing else to play so you just played them.

I made a video to showcase the games that shaped my childhood, and I'm curious to see what games shaped yours. You can be totally honest with your picks, noone will laugh at you for loving a shitty game, we understand!

http://youtu.be/xw0VqMHOcOE

[gepeto]

The first one was a arcade machine that had a parascope. It was a sub game I cannot remember the name but it was on the good ship lolipop and I was so fascinated by it. I loved it I mean I had never seen anything like it. I am talking old I was a kid and this I believe was before the arcade era. If someone could tell me the name I would be grateful.

The second was the atari arcade era space invaders \ asteriods Because in the arcade you knew you at least got your quartes worth and wasn't killed off fast.

3rd was dragons lair. When me and my friends first heard the voice over and seen it was a cartoon we knew it was something special

4 gorf which was frog spelled backwards. It gave us different types of gameplay and i was fascinated by the gorf head at the begining spitting out all those enemies.

5 Breakout because up until that point pong was it it had an intense strategy and you could change the objectives 2 balls etc.


Honerable mention Combat

[substantial_snake]

In order by date:

-Ghouls & Ghosts (Master System)

First game to really freak me out somehow, I remember a disappearing devil and a slime-like level distinctly when I was young. Also first game I can recall staying up late with my older brother watching him try to beat the next level.Still my favorite entry to the series on nostalgia alone. We didn't have many permanent master system games at the time but this one always suck out to me as something special.

-Sonic 3 & Knuckles (Sonic CD close second)

Always loved the Sonic series but Sonic 3 blew me away at the time and was the first Sonic I recall beating on my own, the soon to be released S&K doubled the fun with the game and discovering the lock-on feature blew my mind even further. lol Ended up picking up Sonic 1 and beating that soon after and running through that easily but even today I still have issues with the Sonic 2 final Robotnik boss. Still it cemented the love I have for the series that wouldn't really be matched until Sonic Generations as I more or less skipped the Sonic Adventure----everything else until Colors really, reputation alone coupled with not owning a Dreamcast for more then a couple of months drove me away from most of the interm titles. Still I love the blue blur and it always takes me back to my childhood and the general feel of the early-mid 90's.

-Crash Bandicoot 2

i remember this as my first PS1 game distinctly because I told my parents again and again that I wanted Warped and not Crash 2 that holiday season. Upon opening presents I realized that it was the game I didn't want but a little dejected I popped it in a fell in love with it anyways. i remember being blown away from the graphical leap that it took from my old Genesis with its full 3D graphics, voice, and everything was such an astounding leap from what I had experienced before. I played that game for hours and hours that day just soaking in everything. It ended up becoming my favorite entry to the series and cemented the PS1 as something really special to me.

-Xenogears

Xenogears was the first JRPG that really sunk its teeth into me. Wasn't aware of the genera really until FF7 became as huge as it did and although I would watch my older brother play that one it didn't really interest me on its own until a while later. Xeno however immediately brought me into its massively convoluted story with genetic memory to giant mecha, I was entranced at that age and ended up actually beating the game before my older brother which was a huge accomplishment at the time. It was the game that both set the bar for the genera in my eyes and also made me really care for characters outside of the next life or continue. I still cherish it to this day despite its flaws because I've not really played a JRPG since that has gotten as high and fascinating at the same time as low and dumb as Xenogears can be.

-Metal Gear Solid

In the same way that Xenogears taught me that Videogame characters can matter and you could care for them, MGS taught me that it didn't have to be in a stilted RPG setting for games to do so. This game completely blew me away at the time in very category from voice acting, to graphics, to general gameplay. Your mission was relatively simple, stop the terrorists from launching a nuclear weapon against the United States but the insane characters and relationships that unfolded over the course of the game really stuck me at the time. That and the gameplay was superb, never played anything really like it in where your objective was to get somewhere or some item without being detected. MGS's emphasis on both gameplay and story let a huge impression on me and influenced what games I would be interested from then on. It blew me away in every way at the time and still to this day IMO stands up fairly well unlike most of the games of its era.

Thats about the cap too, went through a phase where I wasn't much into gaming for several years until the later years of highschool, I would later learn to love a ton games on the SNES but I didn't own one at the time so the rare instances that I got to play them was at a friends house for limited stretches. There are a lot of other games I like from each perspective generation but I would say that these are the ones that most influenced my gaming preferences for years to come. I went from the Master System>Genesis>PS1 so my gaming influences follow that line too, though always seemed to be the outlier to whatever my friends had at the time. lol

[brainerdrainer]

In no particular order...

Super Mario Bros
Pac-Man
Goldeneye N64
Contra
Tecmo Superbowl

[bigbacon]

i can't even put any console games on this list. For all the consoles I owned, the PC was really the one that defined my childhood.

[BricatSegaFan]

Had to be

Mario bros 3 : First NES game I REALLY wanted.

Sonic the hedgehog : First Genesis game I owned and played till I did speed runs in my sleep.

Megaman 3 : Imho best music and gameplay of the entire series. I would play this the second I got home from school.

Tmnt hyperstone heist : Used to play this with my sisters and friends all the time.

The King of fighters series because street fighter blows

Kof ate all my quarters from middle school all the way into adulthood. SNK nailed the fighting genre with this one.

[Xander]

In order

Adventures of Lolo
Super Mario Bros 3
Final Fantasy
Super Mario World
Final Fantasy 3 (6)

[PreZZ]

1-AD&D Treasures of Tarmin
2-Gargoyle's Quest
3-Metroid
4-Super Mario Bros 3
5-Rampage on SMS

[Ro-J]

1. King's Quest, the original in all of it's CGA glory. The first computer game I REALLY got into.

2. Bubble Bobble (C64). A friend and I used to play this for hours when we were young. Now my kids and I play, albeit on the NES.

3. Super Mario Brothers. I remember stumbling upon this randomly while wandering around a mall in Australia. The owner of a toy store had a TV and a NES set up in front of his store. I had never heard of either the game or the system before that moment. Wow.

4. NHL '94. I can't think of another game I've logged more hours playing as a kid.......

....except for Tetris, my #5.

[Aussie2B]

Super Mario Bros. - My first console game and the beginnings of my love for games. Beating 1-1 for the first time was a huge accomplishment.

Castlevania - First game that really captured my imagination in terms of the world. The graphics, the music, the atmosphere, it all drew me in. This, and to a lesser extent, Metroid, really solidified my love of games and their possibilities.

Donkey Kong Country - The first time I got hyped up for a game. My purchase of a Super Nintendo was to get Super Mario All-Stars and recapture the fun times I had with the Mario games on NES, but I was pretty clueless about brand new games. Thanks to the promotional VHS tape direct from Nintendo, I couldn't wait to get my hands on Donkey Kong Country and finally took interest in learning about future games.

Chrono Trigger - My new interest in being an informed gamer lead to picking up strategy guides and Nintendo Power, and seeing Chrono Trigger beat out my much-loved Donkey Kong Country 2 in their yearly awards convinced me that it had to be something special. I bought it based on that, and I was blown away by its quality. It became my new favorite game, and it started my love affair with RPGs.

Super Mario 64 - The Nintendo 64 is the only system I've ever got really hyped up for and got at launch. Super Mario 64 absolutely floored me, since I had basically no exposure to 3D gaming prior to that, and I was glued to the store displays in the month leading up to launch. It really was a magical time in gaming, brimming with innovation.

[The Adventurer]

I'm going to consider 1990 - 1999 as 'my childhood' or at least my formative years when it comes to my development as a fan of video games. I got an NES in 1989 and a Game Boy in 1990. I would never get a Super Nintendo, my next console the N64 in 1996. I wouldn't get another one until after 2001, the year I graduated High School. So the NES, the Game Boy, the N64, and the PC are my defining consoles.

Game wise I rank these as the most important to me...

5. Mega Man 5 - Mega Man 4 was my first Mega Man game, but Mega Man 5 was the first Mega Man game I actually beat. Also I prefereded its Robot Masters over 4. Played the heck out of this game, and made me a life long Mega Man fan.

4. Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land / Kirby's Dream Land 2 - Going to put two here and break all the rules. In my opinion the best Game Boy platformers ever made. I got a lot of play time out of both of these and 100% completing them. Figuring out how to get to Dark Matter in Kirby 2 was one of most memorable secrets of my youth.

3. Blast Corps - my all time favorite puzzle game. I dumped so many hours into this game it's crazy. Some of those platinum metal challenges are impossible.

2. The Secret of Monkey Island (PC) - There was a period in my youth where I would find any excuse to visit a friends house just so I could spend 10 more minutes trying to make progress in this game. Eventually I'd finally be able to get a copy of my own, but those days when I was trying to squeeze in every possible moment I could to play Monkey Island were pretty amazing. After that I was an adventure game fan for life.

1. Super Mario Bros. 3 - When I got my NES the hype for this game was through the roof ("Mario! Mario! Mario!") I got caught up in it pretty bad. I got to rent it before I got a home copy, but to say I was obsessed with it and all its secrets would be an under statement.

[SpaceHarrier]

1. Super Mario Bros. 3 - As a child I drew my own designs for an airship level, spanning multiple 8 1/2 X 11 sheets of paper that I'd line up on the floor. I loved the art style and graphics from this game so much I bought the strategy guide just to look at the pictures.

2. Sonic the Hedgehog - The game that finally made me step outside the Nintendo realm. I still play it regularly, along with Sonic 2, which I like even better, however it was the first one that 'sold me' on the Genesis.

3. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - After the first two Zeldas, I thought I had had enough. Out of curiousity I rented this one, and it blew me away. This was the first time I'd ever felt a sense of atmosphere in a game.

4. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade) - This was my reason for going to the arcade, or the local pizza place. Also the reason I never had any impression of licensed games being junk when I was younger.

5. Space Harrier (Arcade) - I only had one opportunity to play this game - in an arcade - as a child, but it stuck with me to the point that is actually became a deciding factor in getting the 32X years later. No regrets. Even though I played this game on only one occasion as a child, and somewhere around 1990, the visuals and action still impressed the heck out of me. I wasn't even into shooters before that day.

Many other games just missed this list because I consider them more part of 'adolescence' rather than childhood.

[Atarileaf]

Hmmmm, I'll have to give this some thought, maybe do a video reply. I subbed too BTW

[kupomogli]

-Final Fantasy.

At the time I liked Dragon Warrior, there was nothing else that I played like it on the NES, but then my parents got Final Fantasy as a Christmas gift for my brother. After he finished the game he didn't play it again, so gave the game to me. I instantly fell in love with this game and it's what got me into the RPG genre becoming my favorite. I played some PC RPGs around this time and a few other NES RPGs, but other than that nothing until I got a SNES.

-Super Castlevania 4 and Final Fantasy 4.

I didn't get a SNES when it first came out, but these were the SNES games I got with the console when I did get it.

-Suikoden and Vandal Hearts.

Suikoden and Vandal Hearts were my first two PSX RPGs and Vandal Hearts is my first TRPG. I don't consider King's Field an RPG and while I owned Ogre Battle on the SNES, I consider SRPG and TRPG two different genres. Which it was SRPG until all the Tactics games which I broke all the games like Vandal Hearts, FFT, Tactics Ogre, etc, into their own genre.

At the time I heard how good the Shining Force games were but didn't play them, so Vandal Hearts was a new experience for me. The same RPG genre I loved but actually required strategy during battle. Both games also had a much better storyline than the best NES, SNES, or PC RPG I've played at the time. After that the RPGs kept rolling in. It was actually around this time that I dropped all PC games other than a few games, I've mostly stuck to console.

[GhostDog]

It's hard to pick just five since I'm sure I'll remember more later. In the meantime, here it goes:

My early gaming years:

Super Mario Bros. series (NES)
Sonic series (Genesis)
Streets of Rage 2 (Genesis)
Strider (Genesis)
Street Fighter 2 and its sequels (arcade and consoles)

Honorable mentions of the games that defined my early teenage years:

NFL Blitz (arcade, N64 and Playstation)
Street Fighter Alpha 3 (Playstation)
Mega Man X4 (Playstation)
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (Playstation)
Virtua Tennis (Arcade and Dreamcast)
Shenmue (Dreamcast)
Jet Grind Radio (Dreamcast)

[treismac]

Wow. What a difficult list this is to make. I'm just gonna shoot these right out of the ol' subcon:

Double Dragon (Arcade)- One summer my cousin and I would ride our bikes to the local Circle K to play this game every morning for a few weeks.

Contra (NES)- Beating this game was what you did when you spent the night at a friend's house.

Tetris (NES/Gameboy)- This game owned me.

Secret of Monkey Island CD (PC)- I was a freshmen in high school, but, whatever, Ron Gilbert's masterpiece is so damn magical it brings childhood to any period of a gamer's life.

R.B.I. Baseball (NES)- One of the reasons I couldn't wait for actual real life baseball practice to be over- that and summer in the South sucks.

[Scissors]

The first one was a arcade machine that had a parascope. It was a sub game I cannot remember the name but it was on the good ship lolipop and I was so fascinated by it. I loved it I mean I had never seen anything like it. I am talking old I was a kid and this I believe was before the arcade era. If someone could tell me the name I would be grateful.

Was it Sea Wolf?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNzXIiYnFqg

[Player_01]

1. Shinobi (Arcade) - I enjoyed this game vicariously as a kid. I used to watch an older kid (teen maybe) beat the game on 1 quarter 1 life. Blew my mind as a kid and showed me the difference in just playing and skill. Also I puked on this cabinet while sick once.

2. Mega Man 2 - First NES game I remember playing. Kicked off an obsession from there.

3. Golden Eye / Mario Kart 64 - So much fun was had with multiplayer games on the 64. This system really brought my friends and I together. Had to narrow it to these 2 games though.

4. Final Fantasy VII / MGS - Another Tie . I received both of these one Christmas and honestly cannot remember devoting more consecutive time to console gaming than with these two.

5. EverQuest - Played this game from launch til the 3rd expansion. Opened up online gaming, computers and MMORPGs for me.

[Xtincthed]

2. Mega Man 2

this one dropped out of the list for me by an inch, the Gameboy version was the one I played as a kid

[Player_01]

this one dropped out of the list for me by an inch, the Gameboy version was the one I played as a kid

Mega Man 2 had this great polish that a lot of other NES games at the time didn't have. It was the first in the series for me so probably why I hold it so dear. Being able to choose the stage you wanted to play was epic. That said 3 is probably superior to 2 but nostalgia makes 2 shine brighter for me.