Jump to content

What were some of your favorite games as a kid?


Shikomizue

Recommended Posts

I was born right before Squaresoft games were thriving and starting to take over the RPG industry (and I'm thankful for not being born in the 80's, when the game market crash occurred).

 

Being born and raised learning French, it took me until I was about 5 or 6 years old until I slowly started learning English alongside my native tongue. During my childhood, my dad and I almost always went to the video-store every weekend to rent movies and games, and being unable to read English at the time, I often had to look at the back of the boxes to see if the game looked interesting (oh god, the memories).

 

Being born in the 90's, I was lucky enough to have stumbled onto games that forever changed me to who I am today. As a gamer and a musician, I don't even know how or where I would be without them... They're my babies, and I soon saw those games more as pieces of art than what non-gamers at the time thought were not.

 

Here are some of the games that have forever carved me:

 

- Final Fantasy Mystic Quest (as intended from the game's intention, it helped me understand the concept of RPGs)

 

- Final Fantasy IV (Nobuo Uematsu's work in this series was phenomenal, it got me to learn the piano).

 

- Final Fantasy VI (My favourite RPG of all time with a villain you love to hate. I love him for how he kills people for "fun")

 

- Chrono Trigger (Again, the music got me to learn the Piano and the mechanic of Time Travel made me a nerd today)

 

- Zelda I on the NES (I have vague memories of it, but I think this was the first game I ever laid eyes on, I was maybe 3, 4 or 5).

 

- Zelda: A Link to the Past (Good old Zelda times. Reloading someone else's save-file that got me to hear the Dark World theme was awesome)

 

- Zelda: Ocarina of Time (As a Kid, renting this game was impossible, it was always rented by someone else. I was able to finally die happy when I got it as a Christmas present. I couldn't read much in English, so I was already stuck in Kokkiri forest for a while and I thought I was already far ahead in the game upon entering the Great Deku Tree. Oh boy did I fanboy-ed when I realized there was such a thing as becoming Adult Link after thinking I was by the end of the game)

 

- Earthbound (Never got out of Onett during my renting days, but I enjoyed the colourful graphics. It made me look up the game again later in life to play it, and that was a great decision~).

 

- Super Mario Bros 1, 2 and 3 on the NES (Classics~)

 

- Mario 64 (Watching 3D graphics for the first time and being able to "control" whatever that was 3D with an analog stick was one of the greatest experiences ever for a kid's eyes).

 

- Harvest Moon 64 (The first simulation game I spent weeks on. That was my realization that non-fighting games can be better)

 

- Lufia I and II (Renting them engraved my memories to the point where I had to play them again at some point during adulthood to finally see what the story was about; also a great decision~ the music's epic too.).

 

- Super Mario RPG (The music stuck with me ever since I played it as a kid, and the visuals were easy to understand what was going on with the story. I was truly lucky to have grown with this game. I tell you, Squaresoft had the dream team when it came to RPGs)

 

- Secret of Mana (The colorful graphics, the music and the fantasy-adventure this game offered already spoiled my childhood for the best of me) 

 

- Grim Fandango (Always thought of this game as creepy at first. Seeing a skeleton as the main character can be what a kid might want, and I did really want that. Maybe that's why I loved this game and being able to control a 3D protagonist with witty dialogues that I couldn't understand at the time prevented me from knowing how much of a masterpiece that game was).

 

- King's Quest V and VI (My first point and click adventure games)

 

- Donkey Kong (This was another classic that I got as a Christmas present in the early days. I tell you, the golden era of gaming really had great and responsive controls).

 

 

Not knowing how to read English as a kid prevented me from experiencing some of the games to their fullest, especially RPGs. I don't know why, but I ended up renting a lot of RPGs, sometimes accidently, and just seeing numbers all around while playing them made me realized that the number "0" represented the death of my characters. And thus started my RPG addiction the moment I discovered that such a thing as "grinding/training" to get stronger was possible :D. In terms of stories, I had to guess what was going on by the visuals alone since I couldn't understand what any NPC could say, so I randomly talked to all of them hoping for event triggers :(.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

I'm so glad I was born in the golden era of gaming when games were thriving and starting to take over! (and I'm thankful for not being born in the 80's, when the game market crash occurred).

 

Well, I didn't live through the game market crash but it probably wasn't that bad on the consumer's end. In fact, I'd say it was a very positive thing for consumers. The american video game industry was completely and totally fucked for at least a decade, sure, but the quality of games on average went up drastically when Nintendo took over. Being born five years earlier than you, I appreciate being able to play and remember a lot of classic NES games. Mario 2, 3, Mega Man 2, Metal Gear, etc. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, I didn't live through the game market crash but it probably wasn't that bad on the consumer's end. In fact, I'd say it was a very positive thing for consumers. The american video game industry was completely and totally fucked for at least a decade, sure, but the quality of games on average went up drastically when Nintendo took over. Being born five years earlier than you, I appreciate being able to play and remember a lot of classic NES games. Mario 2, 3, Mega Man 2, Metal Gear, etc. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some favorites when I was young. Hmm let's see:

 

Age of Empires 1, Heroes 3, GTA:SA, Medal of Honor: Frontline, Zelda:ALTTP, Ratchet & Clank, Pokémon Crystal, Mario, NFS: Road Challange, Civilization 4 and Sim City 3000.

 

What I recall at the moment. Every game played in different stages I would say. I got a lot all time favorites because I can't decide on one game. I loved Halo 1/2 and Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Midtown Madness 2 probably takes the top, I've spent so much time in that game, so much fun. Need For Speed Underground, Worms 2 & Armageddon and Test Drive 5(I think it was 5 or maybe 4) are also worth mentioning. And probably something else I don't remember.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I grew up with an NES and later a Genesis, a lot of the games I played were blind rentals and that kind of thing, but we got some gems. In my grade school years, I loved the obvious stuff like the entire Mario, Megaman, and Sonic series, but we also found some more obscure stuff which I took a liking to. Such as Spy vs Spy, Rygar, Blaster Master, and Adventures of Lolo. In my middle school years I was of course 2edgy4u and became obsessed with Grand Theft Auto (the first two 2D ones), I also played the hell out of my N64 and enjoyed some classics like Ocarina of Time but one of my favorites was probably Mischief Makers. Then in high school I was all about 1) Super Smash Brothers Melee (probably more time sunk into that than any other game in my life, all multiplayer with my group of friends), and 2) just a crapload of JRPGs, the one I played the most probably being Star Ocean 2 early on in high school.

 

TL;DR: Mario, Smash Brothers Melee, GTA1. edit: Oh, and Civilization 2 demands a mention, too. These are probably the four most influential games to my adolescence.

 

I didn't realize Decay was my age until this post. I'd forgotten about Adventures of Lolo... I was definitely not smart enough for that game at the age I tried to play it, but it was still a lot of fun.

Most of you folks are too young to realize how amazing Super Mario World was when it came out. I was at the perfect age to really appreciate it, I think. Similarly the original Mario Kart. I spent mind-boggling amounts of time on both. Much later, Super Mario 64 was almost as amazing an experience as Super Mario World. I can't imagine how it must have felt to be the creators at Nintendo back in those days, to be so consistently making such revolutionary games.

That "blind rental" phenomenon Decay mentions is certainly familiar - back in the day, we didn't have the internet... just word-of-mouth, Nintendo Power, and our own poor judgement of box art of the random stuff available at the local Blockbuster. I remember playing lots of random stuff, most of which was bad, and occasionally finding something truly great. A blind rental of Final Fantasy VI is probably where my journey to Otakudom started. What an amazing game. But that Nintendo Power subscription really was useful for finding stuff - like Final Fantasy 4 and 6, the games that appealed to me were always the RPGs: favorites that still resonate with me would be Secret of Mana, EarthBound, and of course, always, Chrono Trigger.

The obvious affinity for SNES games made it hard to move to the PlayStation, even though I realized that the kind of games I was so fond of were mostly moving there, not to the Nintendo 64... but eventually I did move, initially just so I could keep up with Final Fantasy games (I basically immediately picked up FFVII and FFTactics... which I also remember with great fondness). That move also let me keep up with other classic RPGs like Star Ocean 2 (I spent a whole lot of time there...), and Xenogears (though I was uninformed enough that I only played it many years after it came out).

I also played quite a lot of Pokemon Red. Quite a lot.

 

Tales of Phantasia, for sure- it was my first RPG. I also played a LOT of Guitar Hero.

 

I'm a lot older, but Guitar Hero 2 was a fixture in my college years, and there was a LOT of it, almost exclusively playing co-op mode. College also saw massive amounts of Halo (the original - Halo 2 was out, but we didn't play it much). I don't think I've ever had as perfect a gaming experience as those Halo LAN matches, especially a good 4v4 with two couches full of dudes yelling at each other.

 

When Rock Band came out, I had a roommate, and he and I played extremely regularly. He got to be a damn good drummer, given no training whatsoever aside from playing Rock Band night after night, and I'm pretty sure that despite years away from it, I could still pick up a Rock Band guitar and play pretty nearly any song on expert with no trouble (probably 5-star almost all of them, and gold-star ~10% of them...)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You're all so young. I want to cry now.

 

Giana Sisters, Dalek Attack, Archon, Spy vs. Spy, Overlander, Xiphoids. A bit later I remember spending countless hours playing Virus 2000, Recoil, JJ2 and UT. Not sure if anyone even remembers Elvira, Exiled or Chaos Engine... maybe? My gaming history is so vast I can't even actually remember when was the first time ever I actually played a computer game, except for the fact I was very young back then. The only thing I'm amazed about is that I haven't made any games myself yet.

 

If gamers think complex survival games or simulators are a modern thing, they are so damn wrong. All devs do since 90's is constantly reinventing the wheel.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Memorable Childhood games

-Final Fantasy 2 & 3 on SNES.

-When Final Fantasy 7 came out for PS1, the graphics and how long the game was (4discs) amazed me.

-Azure Dreams, Chocobo Dungeon 2, Wild Arms, Thousand Arms, Tales of Destiny, Digimon World, Breath of Fire 3, FF8, FF9, Grandia, Xenogears, Star Ocean 2, Final Fantasy Tactics, Suikoden 1-2, Lufia 2

-Fire Emblem, Pokemon

-When Super Mario World came out on N64.. I was amazed again.

-Zelda Ocarina of Time

-When Final Fantasy X came out for PS2, the graphics, expressions, and voice acting blew my mind.

-Arc The Lad Twilight, Grandia 2, Ar Tonelico, Dark Cloud, Suikoden 3, Suikoden 5

 

...blaahh, too many to name.

It was pretty neat to see the gradual change in gaming graphics though. It makes me appreciate how advanced the games look now very much. It's like, wow can't believe it.

If I had to pick my absolute favorites that had lasting impression on me, I'd say the ones I bolded.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It was pretty neat to see the gradual change in gaming graphics though. It makes me appreciate how advanced the games look now very much. It's like, wow can't believe it.

It's wasn't necesarilly for the better, though. The current trend with studios reverting back into retro looks actually shows that people have fonder memories of those older times, where games were much simpler in terms of art and design, but delivered more of a real deal than any of the modern games do.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

There was this PS2 game like Time Crisis but with Dinosaurs that I played with my dad. Then there was SOCOM US Navy Seals which I also played with my dad. I played Disney Princess, TMNT, Digimon, Pokemon, and Yu-gi-oh quite a bit as well on my gameboy. Later on I played a lot of COD and Gears of War (10ish)  :makina:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Paper Mario: TTYD, Majoras Mask, and Final Fantasy IX played a huge part in my childhood, same with OOT and Windwaker, but yeah. Definitely those, along with the Shadow Pokemon games and Pokemon Gold.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmm interesting topic. Depends on how young were talking. I liked Duck Tales, Mario Brothers 3, Battletoads, Zelda, Megaman 2 and Double Dragon 2 as a young child and then got into adventure games on the PC like Sam & Max and Full Throttle as a kid.

 

I also loved playing HOMM2 hot seat with a group of friends.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some in particular that I still play now on an emulator every now and then, Mario RPG:  Legend of the Seven Stars, Power Stone 1 & 2, and the Dreamcast version of Phantasy Star Online with it's broken trading (stealing) and full of cheaters.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The one that sticks the most with me is Age of mythology it's probably my all time favorite strategy game because of the nostalgia I get from it :P

I completely forgot about that. All my friends played Age of Empires, but I loved Age of Mythology. I was huge mythology nerd when I was young, so that game was like a dream come true.

Building a giant army of Fire Giants never gets old.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Soulblazer, Actraiser, FF2 and 3, Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger on the SNES

Final Fantasy Legend 2 and 3, Final Fantasy Adventure, Kid Icarus and Metroid 2 on the Gameboy.

 

Soulblazer is kind of an overlooked gem so if you haven't tried it out please do.

 

Hah! I haven't thought about Soulblazer in a long time, but that's a really solid game. The only other game I played by that studio was Illusion of Gaia, which was interesting but not quite my cup of tea, though I remember it being fairly popular.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hah! I haven't thought about Soulblazer in a long time, but that's a really solid game. The only other game I played by that studio was Illusion of Gaia, which was interesting but not quite my cup of tea, though I remember it being fairly popular.

I recommend trying out Terranigma, the third game in that trilogy. It was definitely the most expansive and impressive of the three, though it lacks some of the simplicity that made Soulblazer so charming. It`s definitely on a different level than the other two games, though, and is probably the best action RPG on the system (well... a tie with Secret of Mana just because SoM allows you to play with friends)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...