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Games that Defined You

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    #16
    Ahh, Stunt Race FX was ace. I was dating a girl called Melanie when the game came out. I befriended her brother who also had a SNES and we'd get high together and play Stunt Race FX and it became really competitive. We only had one copy of the game between us so I'd take the game home for a few days, then he'd have it for a few days, and it went on like that for months, each of us trying our best to beat the other's times. Loved the sense of satisfaction wiping his times from the leaderboards, didn't like the sinking feeling when he wiped mine.

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      #17
      Metal Gear Solid is a great shout. It redefined what a game could be. I just picked up Twin Snakes for the first time ever and can't wait to give it a spin when I finish Prime

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        #18
        Metal Gear Solid is a great pick - I was a game developer working on the risible Rat Attack! game when that came out. I was amazed at how they pushed the PS1 hardware and how they made an amazing cinematic experience. It definitely changed my view of what gaming could be - I was a bit obsessed with it and when I left the company the game had been out for a couple of weeks and a colleague bought it for me as a leaving present. Thanks Yinch!

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          #19
          Panzer Dragoon

          Growing up with my beloved dog, who was always at my side; One just it would give its life to protect me without a 2nd though and the dog would always be there for me , not matter what... . I got the same feeling of the faithfull and totally loyal compain with Panzer Dragoon . How the Blue Dragon would do anything for its master and would give its life to project Kyle.


          I love how the game captured that and then the wonderful GFX, the brilliant intro and incredible music. All packed with some of the best gameplay and boss battles, ever seen in a 3D shooter. SEGA at their very best.

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            #20
            Pong
            Now it might sound a bit clichéd but this really is the game that got me into games. It was a X in 1 Pong clone machine at the youth club which was held in the primary school I attended. I couldn't wait to play it each week and was gutted if anyone else was on it. Such a simple concept presented simply on a B&W TV with intuitive paddle controllers. And couch co-op in one of the various modes made it all the better.

            Moon Cresta
            This is where my nearly forty years of enjoyment of a good, or even mediocre TBH, shmup started. I discovered it at an arcade in a Butlins somewhere down south. It was a revelation. Colour graphics, sound effects and actual gameplay mechanics like power ups.
            My folks weren't too pleased I had blown what little money I had on it but I didn't care that game was my first glimpse into future.

            Chronos


            Now I appreciate a lot of you guys won't even have heard of this, let alone played it, but this was a cracking hori shmup for the Speccy. (If you haven't seen it look up the title screen music by Tim Follin. How he made a beeper do that I have no idea.) I played this game so much I could do a double loop without too much difficulty.

            Alex Kidd in Miracle World
            As the built in game with the Master System II this was my introduction to the world of console games. I had previously owned a Speccy and still had a C64 in the house but despite the relatively humble nature of the Kidd it just felt better. It was hard to put into words given my lack of knowledge about such things at the time but the solid framerate, tight controls and well designed levels just elevated it above the best home micros had to offer. And my next Master System purchase was R-Type (from Woolies!) which dumped on the 8-bit micro conversions.
            This opened my eyes to console gaming and apart from fairly brief dalliances with the STE, Amiga and early 3d accelerator PC games I've firmly remained a console gamer ever since.
            Last edited by CMcK; 24-08-2018, 00:08.

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              #21
              Super Mario Bros. Because this was the start of it all at 8 years old. I didn’t really appreciate the magnificent game design at the time though, I just knew that I’d found something amazing.

              Super Mario World Probably one of the finest, most replayable video games ever; It really is a true masterpiece. It was like experiencing the original for the first time again, except all spangly and shiny and new.

              Pop n’ Twinbee Shooting things is cool, but shooting super happy cute things is even better. One of the most beautiful video games ever created. I love me a good Cute ‘em Up...

              Mario 64 and Starfox 64 Playing these on my mate’s Japanese import system waaaay before they came out over here. Jaw = dropped. Very sharply acquired my own and began my love affair with Starfox.

              Zelda: aLttP Much as I like OoT, there’s just something about the third game that makes it so special. It was my first Zelda, and the first time I’d played anything like it. There really was a true sense of adventure exploring this giant unseen map. And then I discovered the Dark World...

              Skies of Arcadia I really don’t like JRPGs, I gave up on FFVII half way through the first disc. And there’s no chance of getting me to play one nowadays, but at the time SoA really sucked me in. The whole world of flying Galleons and floating islands really drew me in all the way to the end. Waiting for your compass to start spinning and finding new discoveries as you were flying around was awesome. And finding the crystal pieces to evolve Fina’s pet/weapon thing.

              The Last Blade Never had I witnessed such a gorgeous looking fighting game with such style and class. The characters, the animation, everything about the game is just so cool. This was what really got me into fighting games overall. And the sequel just continues the awesomeness

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                #22
                I feel like this topic is going to show my age (but probably the opposite way to how that's usually meant) - so here goes, in no particular order:

                Pokemon Sapphire (GBA)
                First game I ever bought at launch, in Summer 2003, when I was eight years old. I remember looking forward to Pokemon World mag every month to get new tidbits of info and screenshots. I remember me and a friend poring through a black-and-white Pokedex book that came free with it, as well as a video CD-ROM that came with pre-ordering at GAME. And when the game came out, it was absolutely lovely. That is, until my friend corrupted my file with an Action Replay a couple of months later.

                Mario Kart: Double Dash (GC)
                Later in that year I got a GameCube for Christmas, and I spent New Year's Eve playing through the All Cup Tour mode with family friends. I can't go back and play it now because the gameplay is so archaic compared to everything after, but I remain unmoved that DD had the best music of the franchise. (Especially that legendary RR music.) When I think of games that taught me how fun multiplayer can be, this is the one that comes to mind - very shortly followed up by...

                Cel Damage: Overdrive (PS2)
                To this day I haven't found a game which matched the slapstick humour, low-budget feel and ridiculous satisfaction that Cel Damage: Overdrive provided. I have fond memories of 1000-pointer Smack Attack matches with friends - pounding on other cars with literal boxing gloves, blasting them with TNT sheep, or sniping them from afar with harpoon guns. Capture the Flag mode was decent too, and there was a racing mode you played once and never again.

                Sonic Adventure 2: Battle (GC)
                Chao Garden mode is one of the most bizarrely deep side-games ever made. I spent months experimenting with different alignments (I created a NiGHTs Chao before I even knew what NiGHTs was), breeding to get exclusive colour combinations, and gathering one of every animal to get one of each Chaos Chao. Hell, I bought PSO Ep 1&2 solely to transfer over the otherwise-unobtainable Tails Chao via some completely circuitous and obscure method involving GBA download minigames.

                The Sonic game on top was absolute arse, though. Embarrassing dub and half-finished gameplay aside, did anyone have any idea what that story was about?

                Okami (Wii)
                At 13, I was totally blown away by the incredible art style, music and atmosphere. The world was so big (for the time) and while it's an easy game with shallow combat, the variety in environments and engaging story kept me absolutely hooked from start to finish. Can't wait to re-experience it in HD on Switch when my physical copy arrives from Japan
                Last edited by danstan21; 24-08-2018, 07:12.

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                  #23
                  Oof, this is a hell of a question.

                  Super Mario World:
                  the first real video game I ever got exposed to, via my cousins who had a brand new SNES. My brother was holding the controller most of the time but I still loved the interactivity in its purest form: flashing colors, reactive sounds.

                  Jazz Jackrabbit:
                  This might seem like an odd entry (if you've heard of it at all), but growing up I never had a SNES or Mega Drive at home, so I was left to play the likes of Sonic at friends' houses. Then one day in 1996 I downloaded the shareware version of this PC game from some FTP site. I could recognize the Sonic influence right away, but it was better, and it had a thumping techno soundtrack to boot. My friends had Sonic, I had Jazz.

                  Shenmue:
                  I actually didn't ride the hype train for this one for too long before launch, but in Autumn/Winter 2000, when PS2 mania was about to boil over, the Dreamcast purchase justifier (which is a polite way of saying "teenage fanboy") in me really got into reading about new and upcoming killer games. After playing Jet Set Radio and eventually coming to love it, Shenmue was the next big thing from Sega. I got it for Christmas that year, but snuck in a quick game before then. Honestly, I didn't love it immediately. My first impressions were thinking that the graphics were impressive, but they flickered like crazy on the interlaced TVs of the time (I now know it's down to AM2 snubbing the use of any kind of mipmapping which makes the textures crawl even on a progressive display), and I found the pixellated interface font an odd choice for a seemingly cutting edge game. But once the story got going, I got to really admire this Virtual Japan and found enjoyment in the seemingly mundane details. Young teenage me probably identified on some level with Ryo Hazuki's reservedness as well.

                  More and more people are discovering the game now, but I feel very fortunate to have experienced it new, back in that short little space of time where it seemed like the Dreamcast had a chance. (I'm sure it never did, but don't try telling that to 14-year-old me).

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                    #24
                    Part Two:

                    Metal Gear Solid

                    Looking back, any revisit shows it to be a short and pretty straight forwardly designed game but it was so subversive and made you think outside the box on a number of occasions it couldn't help but make an impact. Narratively it was not only the franchise second best entry but I think it was the first time the story of a game felt fleshed out and compelling throughout instead of relying on a single moment to sell the experience. Probably the first time you truly felt film and gaming begin to merge.

                    Super Mario 64
                    An obvious one but such is the scale of impact the game had. You feel like you've seen everything, especially after first seeing DKC and realising it was running on the humble SNES, but even after the shockwaves of the reveal footage it was a second impact to actually play it. Probably the last true revolutionary gaming experience.

                    Shenmue
                    In the post-Mario 64 days, this was probably the next experience that felt like a foreshadow of what possibilities lay ahead. Much is made of the sequels area and combat advancement but not much of what was lost, the humble ability to spend twenty minutes scouring Ryo's sock drawers and the likes. Whilst the sequel was the better game, I always thought this the better experience. I'd become lost in a gamings world several times since but this was something else back in the day.

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