These could be games that left a lasting impression on you, games that had stellar gameplay mechanics, characters that captivated you, games that you played tons of hours on, etc.
Secret of Mana on the SNES and Mario brothers 3.
A man of culture.
Secret of Evermore is also grossly underrated.
Finally found my people :)
Doom, wolfenstein, golden axe, warcraft 2, day of the tentacle. I am relatively old :D
I think you meant to say ‘relatively based.’ All of these are strong games.
They are. And I forgot the original prince of Persia. Masterpiece
Golden axe and PoP were great. I played a lot if Altered Beast aling with golden axe
Crash Bandicoot, Jak and Daxter series, Ratcher and Clank series mostly. Most people usually associate childhood with Nintendo games but they’re super rare in my country, I only ever got around to playing series like Zelda and Mario in the mid-2010s. For what it’s worth the playstation 2 really was the console to have at the time, the games were amazing. Pretty sad Sony is reluctant to make good ports of them for the new generation.
Oh, and everyone I knew had House of the Dead 2 on the computer. Now that’s a classic.
- Diablo 2
- Starcraft broodwar
- Warcraft 2
- Quake 2 (with a ton of mods!)
- Need for speed 2
Replace Warcraft 2 and Quake 2 (Counterstrike 1.3 was my Quake) with Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2 and Nox, and I was you.
I played Nox as well, but not so much. All those are great classics!
When I was a kid I used to walk to the movie store to rent games. I would go back every time I had money and rent Chrono Trigger, but some one would always erase my save, so I would have to start over.
On my birthday I got a check from my grandma that was for 50 dollars. I walked right up to the game store and slammed my check on the counter for one copy of Chrono Trigger. I didn’t know how money, checks, or sales tax worked.
Luckily, my mom bailed me out. I played that game for years. I still have such fond memories of that game.
It’s amazing that CT never spawned an ongoing franchise. Aside from the controversial CC, there have been no other followups or even remakes, only a remaster. It’s like the platonic ideal of a JRPG, sitting alone and unsullied in the timestream.
Honestly though, how do you even follow it up? That game had a ridiculous dev team.
- Akira Toriyama - creator/Artist of Dragon Ball
- Nobuo Uematsu - Writer of (many) Final Fantasy scores
- Yūji Horii - game designer and scenario writer from Dragon Quest
- Hironobu Sakaguchi - Game director/designer/producer of Final Fantasy
- Kazuhiko Aoki - (Getting this whole gang together)
I love Chrono Trigger. I still listen to the OST at least once a month.
Breath of Fire: 1 + 2 - Capcom
Contra: Hard Corps - Konami
DOOM 3 - id Software
Fable - Lionhead Studios
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance - Square Enix
Golden Sun: 1 + 2(The Lost Age) - Camelot Software
Oni - Bungie
Prince of Persian: Sands of Time + Warrior Within + Two Thrones - Ubisoft
Red Alert 2 - Westwood Studios
Silent Hill: The Room - Team Silent
Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis - Quest Corporation
Zeus: Master of Olympus - Impressions Games
I miss having enough time to play more games… Thanks for the nostalgia trip though OP.
Fuckin Golden Sun was super legit. I even loaded up an emulator and replayed just a few years ago. It holds up perfectly well.
If you’d be interested in a kind of spiritual successor, try CrossCode. Not exactly the same, the combat is very different, but the general exploration reminds me of Golden Sun a lot.
All hail Retroarch, All hail mobile emulation!
We need more Golden Sun in the world today
Alley Cat, Dukem Nukem 3D, Ultima (4, 5, and 7), Daytona, Day of the Tentacle, Zack McCracken…
As if I wasn’t making myself feel old enough man you had to mention Ultima…
I mentioned this in another comment as well… but…
Ultima IV is free on GOG: https://www.gog.com/en/game/ultima_4
Also have you seen MoonRing? It’s a very recently released game, very Ultima inspired game from one of the original devs on Fable.
How did I forget about Alley Cat?
Without a doubt Morrowind for me.
Halo and Diablo also, in different genre.
Damnit I was hoping I was in fast enough to be the Morrowind fan girl post but you’ve already mentioned it lol. Still play Morrowind, my favorite game, and the primary reason I’m in the game dev field.
I wasn’t even the first, someone else posted it also while I was typing my answer.
I didn’t even re play it that much. I think in the end I probably have more playtime on Oblivion. But much better/stronger memories from Morrowind. It was maybe because I had less video game experience to compare it with, but this one clearly left a big mark on me. I still have incredible goosebumps when “the road most travelled” or “nerevar rising” sounds start playing from my playlists.
The gameplay maybe clunky compared to today, especially to combine weapon and magic. But everything else was so amazing for the time, and some part are still much better than recent games.
I even had a talk with someone at an “ai in game dev” conference who took as an exemple the way the diary/quest log of Morrowind was working.
Mario RPG was my favorite (yes Im eating good right now). I like describing it as a toy, there are so many things to be done for no other reason than to have fun, enabled by the fact you’re a platformer character in a 3D fantasy world. You cant jump onto the store’s counter in other RPG’s of the time, but you get to in this game, and you’re rewarded with being scolded by the shopkeep. You can jump on all the NPC’s, on wedding cake, pianos, hyperactive kids, all the beds, catapults. Jumping is often times your response to NPC dialogue.
Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past
Super Mario Sunshine
Legend of Zelda Oracle of Seasons/Ages
Golden Sun 1 and 2
These are the games that made my childhood great!
Golden sun games are so good. I wish that series would get a revival
Oh golden sun was such a gem. My parents bought it used for cheap and I had such low expectations - spent so many hours playing through the storyline as a kid it has to be the best playtime/$ investment in my lifetime so far.
Definitely going to go hunt down Golden Sun 2 now
Halo 1
Rollercoaster tycoon 1 and 2 (never 3)
Vigilante 8 second offense (twisted metal alternative)
Desert Strike for the Sega Genesis as wells the sequels urban strike and jungle strike. Badass attack helicopter saves the day.
Need for speed underground 2
Space cadet 3d pinball
T.H.U.G. 1 and 2
Monster Truck Madness for windows 95
Croc 1 and 2
Metal gear solid
Okay, how old am I? Lol
I’m gonna guess 37-39 depending on if you have older siblings or not.
Only child, but my best friend growing up was 3 years older than me. Surprisingly, I’m 33.
Mid thirties, cause you’re younger than me. I was already in my sophomore year of university by the time halo came out, and I’m 43.
Yeah, I’m 33.
Pokemon gold and silver + smash bros
Freelancer
Transport Tycoon
The Guild (Europa 1400)
Empire Earth
Anno 1602 + 1503
Monkey Island
Heroes of Might and Magic 3+
Pokemon
C&C Generals
Stronghold
Star Wars Jedi Knight
Battlefield 1942 Desert Combat + Vietnam
World of Warcraft
Oh how could I forget Transport Tycoon! What a classic. I will fire it up occasionally to this day.
Command and conquer.
Super Mario 3
Heh, pacman and centipede.
I had the high score at the gas station nearest my house on the pacman machine until the place closed. Nobody could even get close in the local area. I would usually be in the top three at the arcade on both games, depending on whether or not I had access to time and money. None of my scores were high enough to be some kind of record, but I was the king of those two games in two counties. I’m not saying I could never get out-scored, I could. But I never had bad games, only less good, where the other players around would have way more bad than great games.
But I fucking loved pacman. The entire sensory assault of it was so damn satisfying. I was good at centipede (largely because of the trackball being very intuitive for me), but I liked it more because I was good at it than for the game itself.
Pacman though? Fuck, I’d spend hours playing it. I even had one of those old coleco mini versions that I got for Christmas one year. Which, I was not as good at, what with the difference in controls, but I still loved playing it until it died maybe ten years ago (seriously, that fucking thing lasted decades).
I was so fucking bummed when I couldn’t find any place to play the real version. Later console versions didn’t have the same joy for me. I’ve managed to luck into some time on restored machines here and there, though.
Past that, mario cart was big in our house when it came out. My sister was better at it on average, but we’d have some killer weekends playing it with our mom and friends. I never liked consoles much. The controls just didn’t work for me.
So it wasn’t until this century that I got back into harmony gaming at all. Mmorpgs are my thing, when I can do it (disability makes pc gaming sporadic). The first game I found that sucked me in was shaiya. It wasn’t that great of a game overall. Heavily pay to win. But the story was good, and I had a great guild.
Then it was on to war and battle of the immortals. Mid tier games, but I liked the world setting.
Then, I found neverwinter and that was my game. I haven’t been happy with anything else since. I don’t really play any more, but that was the perfect mmo for me. The d&d world, with an intuitive and fun control setup. The classes and races were fairly well balanced. The graphics were fucking bonkers for the era too. It just made me happy. It still kinda does, but I don’t have the time or stamina these days.
Smash Bros N64. Every day at lunchtime, we would inhale our food as fast as possible so we had a chance to play a few rounds
Also Goldeneye N64
I can’t believe that this is the first and only mention of Goldeneye. Though it was eclipsed by Perfect Dark, those two were the best console fps games until Halo came out and finally figured out the controls.