games that i thought were rubbish to begin with but then i found were great

[eastyy]

psyvarier 1 played it for a few hrs didnt think much of it until i saw the replay mode and while not great it did who me how the game was supposed to be played

nights into the dreams didnt really play for score or links to begin with but after a while that got me hooked

deus ex did not think much of the demo at all but someone lent me the full game thankfully it turned out to be great even the first level improved over time

[SaijoBob]

Final Fantasy VII. I didn't play console games at the time, and a friend lent me his PS. I played a bit and thought "Hmmm, okish."

Picked it up a few months later on the PC and loved it!

[--jehuty--]

Dark Chronicle I thought was dreadful, after spending some time with it I got hooked for a month.

[babs]

The first 4 seconds of Meteos.

'wtf is going on...ahhhh'

[Kongster]

I have to say that when I played Zelda 3 on the snes for the 1st time, I wasn't impressed. Maybe it was because Street Fighter 2 was the only game I cared about at the time but anyway...I perserved and lo and behold, I found Zelda 3 to be an awesome game!! One of my favourite games of all time

[IcePak]

Metroid Prime. Playing it in the store it felt like a very average FPS. I borrowed my friends Cube and a bunch of his game (including MP) sometime later and after putting up the very average first level, found the game to be quite wonderful.

[Psycho Mantis]

I'll have to say Shenmue. In the beginning I got tired of just walking around and ask questons. I just waited for some action, but in the beginning, it took a while. But when I later (maybe a year or so ) start playing the game again, I really enjoyed it, especially on disc 2 and 3 (as there was far more action later in the game). After playing through it, I can simply point out this game as one the best games I've ever played.

[butchcvc]

super mario kart (snes)

i bought it on the release date back in the day, played for about 4 hours, didnt like the controls and swaped it for another game in my local indie. The owner was laughing, saying i was nuts! a few weeks later i was playing battle mode with a friend and it suddenly clicked, i made the biggest mistake ever!

[gunrock]

Halo

I first played it and thought "yeah, yeah so far, so ordinary", then I thought "hmm, that's a nice touch" and by the time we crash landed on the planet and met up with the marines I was like, "Good god! They were right...". The bit where you do the sniping with the night vision and shortly after, the pincer movement - really great stuff.

Tomb Raider 1
Played it at ECTS the September before it was released. I had one of the developers standing next to me and I handed back the controller after about five minutes or so and said something like "Nice engine, **** controls", and wrote it off in my mind. Played the demo about a year later and thought "actually this is pretty good". Got the full game and when I came across the T-Rex, I ran away, then unleashed three blasts from my recently aquired shotgun and saw him fall at my feet. From there on in, I was hooked.

Gunrock

[Akujiki]

shame on me: REZ. Back then I dismissed it for the techno/trance music, but eventually I got it last year (tbh, originally just to try out the vibrator with my lady) and now I find the tracks fitting perfectly. I couldn't listen to every track "standalone" (without playing, while working etc.), but FEAR/stage 5 is damn nice. One thing I'm still a little dissappointed in: the sounds you make while shooting "only" go with the music, but they don't actually complement it, complete it. IMHO it could be even better if the rhythm of your shooting sound actually mattered, gameplay-wise. Don't how playable that would be, though.

[Slasher]

some might kill me for saying this but KOF 2000 to me was a crappy game at the time, got my mates round for a double dash action that ended in seeing this. we got more than hooked

[Molloy]

Bomb Jack, Robotron, Defender. I started frequenting arcades in the late 80's and only paid attention to flashier stuff like Rastan and Shinobi. Never had any interest in the old stuff.

Started playing those three games in MAME a few years ago and I think they're pretty much perfect. Would updating the graphics make them any more appealing? Adding powerups? Nope. They're just flawless, timeless games.