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Oh man, those broken jukes! And the Broncos were pro bowl team status on this one and 99.
>lots of agreeable replies so far. I had to think about this >quite a bit. > >Super Mario Bros. (NES) -- I still never beat it. but this is >videogames to me. > >Sega Rally (Arcade/Saturn) - pretty much every racing game was >an "arcade" racer at this point, so when I finally played this >one, it was the first time it felt like you were actually >driving a real vehicle. the physics were amazing, and you >couldn't just power slide, Mario Kart style through entire >races. but it was still arcade-y enough to be fun and not >painfully challenging. > >Harvest Moon (SNES) - the first game for me where you could do >nothing. there was no time clock (aside from the passing of >days) or farm monster coming or any real crisis to attend to. >it was pure side-quest fun, as a main game. I loved it. > >Ape Escape (PS1) - I couldn't tell you shit about this game, I >think I only ever played it on a PlayStation magazine demo >disc, but it still broke my mind because you had to use both >analog controllers at the same time. I was an analog hold out >(didn't like the N64 controller) and most 32-bit games were >still clunky enough that it didn't matter (remember when 30 >FPS was amazing and 15-20 FPS was acceptable?). this game made >me realize there is life after the d-pad. > >Myth: The Fallen Lords (PC/Mac) -- I was so hyped for this >because there wasn't much interesting gaming happening on the >old Apple computers. Bungie was only marquee gamedev for Macs >(Marathon series) and this was going to be a huge cross-play >title for them. the reason it makes the list, however, was >this was the first game where I enjoyed online gaming. it >wasn't an easy game to play, but you didn't just get bulldozed >like FPS games (Doom, Quake) if your skill level wasn't elite. >so many great memories, and the first and only time I was ever >part of an online gaming community. > >NFL Gameday '98 (PS1) - if you were a gamer during the 8-bit, >16-bit and 32-bit ages, you definitely have a ton of >crystalized moments where you felt the technology taking you >to new places. watching fully polygonal football players, with >smooth motion capture, move around the field was one of those >moments. it made Madden look like pure dogshit and sports >games were never the same. > >Metal Gear Solid (PS1) - this was the first defining "game as >a movie" for me. the playable beginning, where you get shot >from a torpedo tube and sneak into the elevator, then the >opening title rolls as you ascend…just the first of many >amazing sequences that had never been experienced before. the >next generation of gaming went too far with the cinematic >concept (and we found out most game directors would be shitty >movie directors), but this experience will forever be an >unassailable landmark. > >Half-Life (PC) -- this came out right after MGS, but it took >me a while to play it since I didn't have a gaming PC at the >time. I know there are predecessors in the FPS genre that did >a lot of the real-time story-building that Valve accomplished, >but like MGS, this was the complete package for me and changed >how I thought of FPS games. I still have a mental scar from >the first time I got pulled towards the ceiling by a >barnacle. > >Street Fighter IV (PC) - I played Street Fighter since II in >the arcades, Super Street Fighter II: Turbo took away so many >hours when it hit SNES, I would say that Alpha 3 is one of my >favorite games of all-time, and I remember watching EVO Moment >#37 not too long after it happened. that said. the coalescence >of IV reviving the fighting game genre and later, live >streaming through Twitch, made me realize I've been playing >fighting games for 20 years but had no idea really how to play >them. plus/minus, frame traps, mix-ups…the FGC became a >whole new world to me and occupied most of my gaming hours for >the next several years. > >Final Fantasy VI (SNES) - I can't really pinpoint which was >the first great RPG I played, since I got into them all at >once -- from 1993-1995 I remember renting Secret of Mana and >Chrono Trigger from Blockbuster, while scanning FuncoLand ads >for used Final Fantasy II/III (US) cartridges that were less >than $70. > >but I do know that Final Fantasy VI was the RPG that made me a >fan for life. the imagination, the art design, the ensemble >cast that all had their own characterization, the gotdamn best >villain ever, the 16-bit soundtrack that blows away most >orchestrated attempts to rival it, the beautiful layers to the >story -- fuck, how many games since then have had moments that >come close to Setzer piloting Daryl's airship out of her tomb? >which happens right after Celes on Solitary Island? > >videogames had always been fun, but this is the first one that >made me "feel" something. a perfect gaming experience.
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