For 90s kids, there’s no need for explanation. For others, well, pokemon was a phenomenon. It was everywhere, on TV, in magazines, toys, stickers. You could trade pokemon at the school excursion on the bus.
You felt alive in this world, pokemon gen 1-2 were the pinnacle of pokemon for me. And in gen2, finishing the game, and lo and behold, there’s a whole other region (kanto) waiting for you to explore it. The night cycle in the game blew my mind in ways that I have been chasing ever since.
I know it will never be reached again, but the memory will remain as powerful as it was that evening of the early 00s. What is your greatest gaming high, that you know will never be topped again, and that you have been chasing ever since?
I’ve had a few over the years. In high school I got all stars in Mario 64 and I beat Quake 2 without getting shot for the lulz.
In college I went through and beat all of the Adventures of Lolo games. I played hundreds of hours of FFXI but the real gem was later on when I could solo almost anything, including legendary Pokémon that normally take a party of six.
Portal and portal 2 are great experiences I’ve been through a few times.
I was obsessed over Pokémon Y. It was the first time I got into breeding perfect Pokémon with egg moves, hidden abilities, and perfect or zero IVs. I also tried for weeks to get 100 consecutive victories in Battle Maison but the third time I failed at 99 because the game cheats I threw in the towel.
In Pokémon Scarlet I really got into shiny hunting and have 200+ now. I also tried Masuda method for the first time but dang is that slow.
The first two weeks of Pokemon go were like peace on earth. Everyone was friendly, excited, and walking around outside together, chatting with perfect strangers was actually a blast for once. We shared tips and locations, exchanged numbers, metup after work, cops were largely unmotivated to do anything about it because of how many of us and how wholesome it really was. Honestly best 2 weeks of my life
I was trying to think of an answer and when I got to yours, I found myself remembering that time and that gaming high that game collectively gave everyone. And then they took away the step tracker, and while I still played daily until 2018, taking that away really took some gas out of the game. I don’t know what else to call it so hopefully you understand what I’m referring to. The thing that helped you find the pokemon and whether you were going in the right direction or not.
I got sick of all the Pidgeys so quit after a week. I did come back to it eventually… and then quit again when they over-enshittified it
The first time I beat the final boss of Sekiro. It was a culmination of everything you learned in that game and perfectly paced. Felt like being part of a well choreographed dance and like everything you had gone through to get to this point of the game was paying off.
As a '90s kid, I was a little old for Pokemon, so I did need the explanation.
I guess for me it would be finally beating The Legend of Zelda, mostly because you had to start over again so many times after your saved game got wiped.
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I still chase after the first playthrough experience of Okami. It was a time before novel ways of interacting with the game world were the norm. Everyone I knew at the time was playing CoD (some even just played Zombies mode and nothing else), Battlefield, Halo, GTA, Pokémon, Mario, Zelda… all titles that “everyone” played at the time.
When I saw Okami on a commercial, I knew I had to own it. There was nothing like it at the time and the way it pulled from Japanese culture was such a new concept to me. The way you can stop time at any point and paint shapes on the screen was just too cool to pass up. Not to mention, the almost hand-drawn aesthetic was still one of very few at the time.
I will admit, I can’t stand the experience on Wii. I can only enjoy it on controller because of how awkward painting with a 6-foot brush is.
Mech Assault 1 & 2, particularly 2. The two most memorable boss fights for me was the mid game one where you fight some giant robot bull thing in a tiny exosuit while Getting Away with Murder by Papa Roach Plays, and the final fight where you fight a half built giant mech again in the exosuit while Right Now by Korn plays.
Also I really liked Halo 2 for the banshee dogfight with Follow by Incubus in the background and the big Mausoleum fight at the end of Gravemind with Blow Me Away by Breaking Benjamin plays; the part where the doors open and the bell starts to toll chefs kiss. Oh and the whole level where you drive a tank up the bridge chasing down a Scarab too.
Also, why has there been no remake of Crimson Skies yet? That game was so much damn fun. I miss the dog fighting and crazy guns.
For a very brief moment in time I held the leaderboard for the Bowman in Mech Assault. I think the main contender at the time was a total loudmouth and XBL Forum regular with the gamertag “GeorgeTheGreek.” A certified shit talker, but he was also damned good with that Mech. One of my fondest memories of the game was using the Bowman to stomp someone in an Atlas on the city map (River City?). I hadn’t seen it done before, and most others in the lobby must not have either, because a bunch of them went ape. My team might’ve still gone on to lose, I seem to recall the map meta being “pick a Mad Cat and sit back sniping,” but that moment was worth any outcome.
OG Xbox Live was probably my favorite console experience after Quake 3 Arena on Dreamcast. I wouldn’t own a console after the 360. My next favorite console experience was when a buddy got Mortal Kombat 2 online for his PS3. One regular, whose name I’ve forgotten, would bust out all the old glitches (could’ve been using a macro controller) but it was the first time I’d send Fatality Friendship on the Kombat Tomb stage. Another had a novelty account named “ItsTheToe” that always played as Liu Kang. Anyone familiar with MK2 would know his crouching low kick was this stupid stick-his-toe-out move that was nearly impossible for any of the ninjas to jump kick into. Absolutely hilarious when I first encountered them, then frustrating but rewarding having to relearn my favorite three characters to deal with them.
You just reminded me, I also played the shit out of Unreal Tournament 3 and briefly held a double digit rank in Team Capture the Flag. Loved that game overall and I liked the addition of that hoverboard.
Same friend had UT3 for the PS3. We’d rotate stick on it but I wasn’t great at it. I had the keeb and mouse for my Dreamcast, basically cheat mode against controller players, and that led to my switch to PC for the FPS genre. I faintly remember the PS3 version having cross play and/or mod/map support. I’m pretty sure we all played a bunch of instagib CTF on a map that was like a long hallway.
He eventually bought UT3 again for PC I helped him put together. It was a great looking game on PS3 but we were all blown away when we hooked the PC up to the big screen. Good times.
FF IX. I’ll never get that again.
Great thread! My moment comes from Deus Ex. There was a mission near versalife in Hong Kong, and I took the wrong door at some point and veered off path. I did not have to do it, but I got lost and I did, i cleaned all security from the entire building. After I got out, i read on one of those news screens… it had an article about a terrorist attack massacre on the versalife offices 97 dead… I realized they wrote about me - clever bit of cause-effect-scripting there!
Playing Wing Commander very late at night, hit a large glass water bottle off the table with my elbow, and catch it with the same arm/hand before it reaches the floor to shatter and wake up the whole family.
Peak reaction times induced by VideoGame adrenaline never reached again.
Playing Skate 2 for the first time on PS3 whilst blasting Fall Out Boy on my CD player.
Two different things:
I was infatuated with Halflife and unable to function in life for a certain amount of time. I would say it did a number on my first run at college, but there was a lot going on there.
As a teen, I was the annoying kid that didn’t have their own games at home, or at least any of the good ones. I would go over my friend’s house and they would be stuck on a boss level only for me to win when the controller is passed over to me.
What do you think of Black Mesa? I haven’t finished the whole game. I did play the Xen stuff when they first released it.
It’s on my radar, but I’m focused on other stuff now.
Ragnarok Online. Before the third jobs, and without donation items and high rates. I played on the kRO server for a while and afterwards for many years on a 5/5/3 private server. I still remember how it felt, the first time I played it. Never found anything like it again.
Now, I’ve played a lot of amazing games and some of them really hit me in the feels, but this was the first MMORPG I played, ever. I was like what, 15? when I started playing and I played this game with the same people, for years. In the same guild, over Ventrilo, I knew these people. From all over the world, we’d even set alarms and such to make sure people were there when WoE started and half of us were sleeping due to time zones, or to make sure we could keep the MVP boss schedules. Some of us even met in real life, we talked off-game as well. We grew up together, quite literally, from teenager to adult. It’s not surprising it left such a mark, I guess. Nowadays… well I’ve tried MMO’s but it just isn’t like that anymore.
I only have to listen to the soundtrack, music from Prontera or Amatsu, and boom, nostalgia!
Being in the zone, utterly focused at defeating
glockSword Saint Isshin. Doing it so many times that trouncing Genichirou pre-Ishin was a given, a warm up even, before going for the main dude.Nine balls and more nine balls and more nine balls in Armoured Core Q_Q.
Penetrator from Demon Souls.
Malenia.
I remember reaching that point with Isshin, where Genichiro was something I could basically do in my sleep.
Did you do the Elden Ring DLC? If so, how’d you feel about the final boss there? I found that to be the hardest boss they’ve released, more than Isshin or Malenia.
I just finished Elden Ring a few weeks ago so no. Elden Beast was a pita since I was maining rivers of blood and put points into arcane. As you know he’s immune to bleed so I gave up and switch to an occult uchigatana instead using the default skill.
For these types of games I usually take my time and definitely does take me a long time to beat them. Though it’s mostly in spurts. If I feel the itch I can probably blitz through the games pretty quickly. For example I took like a six months break after I encountered Isshin. After that, I beat him after a few tries and proceeded to NG+4 the game to get all the endings and skill PTS to complete all the achievos within a few weeks.
I’ll eventually get around to Shadow of the Erdtree though. Nightreighn on the other hand I’m not sure I’ll play that since it’s multiplayer and seems to be roguelite.
It’s probably a hot take but I think SotE is the best content they’ve ever released. It might be my favourite video game release of all time. The final boss is tough as nails though, or at least was pre-patch. It’s a fair bit easier now but still really hard.
SotE has my three favourite bosses ever, as well as some of my favourite locations ever. I think it’s got their best world design since DS1 too. Most of these are probably not common beliefs but hopefully you like it like I did. It is definitely harder than the base game, but that’s sort of the point of a FromSoft DLC.
Three favourite bosses ever?
Bayle, Midra, and Messmer. Dancer of the Boreal Valley from Dark Souls III used to be my favourite boss until SotE came out.
Probably not everyone’s type of game but the first time I got into orbit in KSP. Doing it manually was a huge challenge and the first time I got into orbit not to mention later when they added the mun and I landed and returned to kerbin was a awesome feeling . When they added other planets and later when they added asteroids it was still a great feeling to do it without mechjeb. Of course that was in 2011. I have more hours in that game than any other and I still play it for few week one or two times a year.
