Saying you played one of the top rated or top selling games on a given system as a kid is nothing too interesting; they tended to be top rated and selling for a reason. What we are here today to discuss is those games that you played because it was, say, the only thing you had, the only thing when visiting grandparents or just something you really latched onto. On a related note then in programming it is noted everybody programs well in their first language and usually spends all their time trying to make a new one behave like that, something similar is noted in games where mechanics of their earliest titles or those they spent time with inform how they feel about things going forward (why else do you think every indie platformer a few years back was a homage to NES Super Mario Brothers? Do you not imagine almost everything will be influenced by Minecraft before long when the 12 year olds of 2010 are now getting their first jobs in the game industry?).

My fondness for Talespin on the NES has been noted a few times before on the site, however as that is a Disney property made by Capcom (who also did most Disney things on the NES and most in turn are held up as outright classics) that does not play here. On the other hand

Stealth ATF for the NES

Not my first "3d" flight sim, Elite arguably being that one, but as the NES was my first console I could exclusively monopolise (the Commodore 64 actually came after for me) and this was one of the handful of games I had for it then it has informed a lot of how I approach flight sims, also now what I recognise as an early case of GPS syndrome as I would often follow the radar more than the screen itself (though real fighter pilots do that I am told).

Turbo Racing for the NES (Al Unser Jr.'s Turbo Racing in the US is something I just learned)

What would today be considered a by the numbers racer made by those paragons of quality, that being Data East, on the NES was equally one of the few NES titles I had. Light stats upgrades (today would be dubbed RPG elements), a little balance the turbo vs straight racing mechanic, some hills in the level, memories of a sore thumb from holding A for so long on the NES pad... barring the NES bit then if you said that I would think you were describing Road Rash, which was a far more influential series for me, but Turbo Racing never the less holds a place in my gaming makeup.

Despite it being several years since playing both of those, maybe decades since I played them an awful lot, I apparently could whistle the theme tunes/in mission tunes too. Can I do that for the last few games I reviewed? No.


What then are one or two of your fondly (or perhaps not so fondly) remembered games that, even on a site like this, you would be lucky to get more than a few people say "oh I remember that"? Why did you end up with them and did they cause you to either expect things in later games or avoid such things in the future?
We are accepting stupidly rare in your region; if basketball was your thing in Europe and you owned one of the 5 imported versions of a game that today litters the shelves of second hand game shops up and down the US then we will allow it. It need not be NES or older; if you only started gaming 5 years ago with a hand me down DS then feel free to share that too.

 

[Meler]

Liero Dos game

 

[Alato]

I love this thread; happy and surprised to see games like Ninja Kun and Mario Teaches Typing pop up.

It's hard to pick one game because there's so many near and dear forgotten games. But, one that stands out as totally not-remembered yet special is DX Ball on PC.

My grandma had this Arkanoid/Breakout-style game on her computer and I used to play it when I went over. She was also a beast at the game (probably played it for hours and hours) and dominated all of the high scores. I think it might still hold up as the best Breakout game I've played.

 

[tmnr1992]

Might as well do another
Soul of the Samurai/Ronin Blade for the PS1


I only personally got a PS1 later in the PS1 lifetime (had a N64 and PC mostly) but had played loads elsewhere (I had discovered emulation earlier, and I don't think anybody had any legit amiga games, but chipped PS1s was my introduction proper to these sorts of circles).
Anyway this was one of the few games I had for it early on, and had no memory card at first either (called my friend who lived round the corner from the house I was at even to borrow one).

Most wrote this off as a Resident Evil clone, and it kind of was, and was not even as compelling as something like Dino Crisis (by the way anybody mentioning the third effort there in this thread as one of theirs is getting banned) and it took a long while, not least of all because the improved weapons you get over the course of the game quite notably changed the feel of the game, to open up and click for you (I was at my sixth or so playthrough before it really did). When it did though I found it something special here.


Seeing that in action sort of reminds me of one of my favourite Amiga games

Simulcra


Granted Skyroads seems closer almost to a rhythm game and in that case a DS homebrew classic in AmplituDS
https://www.gamebrew.org/wiki/AmplituDS



I don't think the second biggest kart racer on the N64 after Mario Kart really counts as not so remembered -- there is still news articles mentioning it at the rates of several a week going back through this year. The various Lego offerings, maybe Crash Bandicoot... those might stand a better chance (and were often noted as being excellent games in their own right, unlike most fun kart racers we see today which seem content to be far far far inferior clones of Mario Kart).


I don't know that Thief counts as a not so remembered game but hey. To follow on from some things there:

The third game suffered console port itis (you might even see it on the shot of my shelves earlier) which was a truly horrible disease at the time. Smaller levels, simplified UI/mechanics, slightly more actiony (though still enough stealth, which itself was a dirty word at the time -- mandatory stealth section and all that). Play it if you will but don't expect too much and definitely a downgrade over 1/Gold and 2 and their various expansion packs.

The fourth/reboot... oh dear. If console port itis during the xbox era was a bad thing then bringing back old franchises during the 360 was potentially worse (we did get some good from it on a few occasions). The Thief game (stylised as Thi4f at one point which says most of what I want to know) probably being one of the worst offenders here, indeed most would suggest you go for the Dishonored franchise instead if you must have your steampunky/medieval stealth game action as that as actually a decent game (the sequel to it... more mixed). It might not look that bad and some of the updates managed to fix one or two things in it but I would no more tell someone to play that and expect them to then want to experience the earlier efforts than I would point someone at modern Final Fantasy and say go back from there.

I am also here to say do check out the various fan games/mods/sequels/reworks of the originals. They are some of the finest mods I have seen in gaming (blow 99% of anything you see on a Bethesda game out of the water) and I don't know why they are not more known.
https://www.thedarkmod.com/main/ is probably the main thing people start with, however if you are after more just straight missions then
https://www.thiefguild.com/
http://www.thief-thecircle.com/

Straight mods are also available and do good things
https://www.moddb.com/mods/thief-gold-hd-texture-mod

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2019/02/18/modder-superior-best-pc-mods-thief-thief-2/ might also have something/act as a nice enough intro to where things were at early last year.

Yeah I was aware those other Thief games haven't been well received, guess I'll skips those and go straight for the mods you mention.

 

[DesLife]

Gobliins from Sierra Online also with 3 games in the series, I've always waited for the 4th game, sadly might never come to life:



Those were the glorious times, very good memories.

Good news, you've waited 10 years too much !



Even though I never played that one, Gobliins is probably my favorite point'n'click series. You might also want to check Woodruff, which was also made by Sierra/Coktel Visions in their prime.

 

[tmnr1992]

Goldensun series got me through a lot of things in middle school.
Quest64 got me through a lot of things in university.

Golden Sun, one of my favorite games for the Game boy Advance.

 

[stryfe1984]

Ar Tonelico. Dating sim / RPG with an amazing soundtrack

 

[pwsincd]

oh god that music .. those memories.... started playing again this week ... world class

 

[DKB]

This.

 

[Dracari]

for me it's Def. Chrono Cross, i know it's got its hate and some of it for good reasons, but to me the Soundtrack was awesome and to my youngerself at the time the story and characters were pretty good. as at that point in time i had not played Chrono Trigger nor did i know of it.

the Opening and other parts of the OST, made me at that age grow a affinity to violins and some of the finer instruments

 

[Jokey_Carrot]

mario

 

[Robika]

Ar Tonelico. Dating sim / RPG with an amazing soundtrack

Sadly Ps3 with CFW is unable to run it.

 

[ivt18]

For some reason I never hear people talking about Rayman Origins for the Wii. I have really fond memories of it, although it would drive me crazy at times.

 

[Wolfy]

As weird as it was, the old Star Wars math game that I played in Computer Lab during elementary school will always have a place in my heart.

 

[leonmagnus99]

Kuru kuru kururin forever probably ._.
and kururin squash.

u.u someday on the switch hopefully

 

[FAST6191]

Eggo Mania GBA
Not so much tetris as falling blocks. Can be cheesed a bit but even so still one of my favourite multiplayer falling blocks game -- I will take it any day of the week over Dr Mario, Columns, Klax or the like.


Did pick up the PS2 version a while back as well but... actually might be a time to check out PS2 emulation.

View attachment 228922
In this game you use a tank to wreck other tanks.

Still have my copy around here somewhere -- was one of the few games I had for the NTSC-PAL converter thing I had.

Actually quite liked it when I sat down to play it in the end. The story was nothing much but the setting... very little else has done post apocalypse that well for me. I don't know if I would want to play it again today (even at the time controls were clunky, possibly even by battletanx standards) but can definitely still respect it for the time.

Liero Dos game

Hope you got to play the DS homebrew remake/port
http://dsliero.dennisvanzwieten.com/
Others new to it all then it is a take on Worms, though took it in a somewhat more interesting direction and doubtless would be said to have inspired things like Soldat which in turn inspired all those fun skill based arena things people are enjoying today.

 

[pedro702]

Splinter cell on ps2

I replayed very few games in my life, most times once i finish the game that is it, its finished, with the exception of splinter cell(well1-4) every few years i keep replaying them and i gotta say they are amazing and it will always be one of my favorite series along side mario/pokemon even tough its not very well known and not even got a single game this generation :S

 

[Taleweaver]

Scorched Earth (PC)

Scorched earth!!!

You, sir, just won this thread, if not the internet. How could I ever forget about this one?

(basically : it predates the worms franchise, yet it's as epic if not more so in scale)

 

[Dracari]

if we're able to list more than one, this came to mind (after talking w/ someone about the Switch port of Monster rancher 2,)

it was Simple and repetitive after awhile, critics had fair points about pretty much compared to MR, it was basic. but when your still young, sometimes basic really still can be fun, and along side w/ Chrono cross being one of my fondly remembered n loved games. i got this at the height of being so enthralled with Dragons (to which can be a tad obvious, that im still verry much the same to this day)

the music was kinda Meh, and if you didnt have too many games for your PS1, then the memorycard forest feature was Useless to you. (like where Monster rancher anything worked mostly PS1 games, PC Discs, Music CD's etc.)

 

[Draxikor]

I have a lot of games, Tiny toons from NES, Megaman V, Flinstones rescue of Hoppy and Dino, Mischief Makers, Guru Logic Champ etc.

 

[m_babble]

Scorched earth!!!

You, sir, just won this thread, if not the internet. How could I ever forget about this one?

(basically : it predates the worms franchise, yet it's as epic if not more so in scale)

Ever play Pocket Tanks? It's the only artillery game that holds a candle to Scorched Earth.