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.

 

[Axmand]

Jet Force Gemini for Nintendo 64 ring any bell?

 

[Clydefrosch]

I mean, when is a game not so remembered?

I spend a lot of time playing and replaying Dragon Quest Monsters on GBC when I was like 13-15, writing myself a guidebook on it, using my xploder to search cheatcodes for it, I even had a forum and an online chat about it for a while.

I know it was one of the best known Pokemon alternatives back then and the series itself continued until just recently too, but I don't hear many people talk about the original.

 

[Sk17]

This:

And this:

 

[wurstpistole]

definitely Mario 64 and probably Final Fantasy VII,
they weren't so popular back then but I enjoyed them very much

 

[tomhanks69]

Whomp 'Em on NES

 

[xdarkmario]

Crash Bash

I love this game even though people dont remember it as it was a ps1 late cycle game (amongst the last batch of ps1 games.)
i remember being a little kid and my mom was asking what game i want for Christmas and i has said a crash game, ( i had said the wrath of cortex as that was the latest ATM but that was a ps2 game NOT for my ps1) my mom said they was closing in 15 minutes and without knowing it was even real i blurted out CRASH BASH and my mom came home with it. i was shocked and i enjoyed the hell out of it. i still play online with friends via netplay and i wish this would get the remaster treatment

 

[wiitendo84]

Wurm Journey to the center of the earth. Took forever as a kid to beat it but finally managed to so it. Now if I had read the manual, I would have beat it a lot faster.

 

[TheJeweler]

Being a fan of the Evil Dead franchise I have both A Fistful of Boomstick and Regeneration on the PS2

 

[xIce101x]

Tonka Construction. It’s the first game I played as a kid and I’ll never forget the intro.

 

[haxan]

Definitely Rhapsody a Musical Adventure on the PS1



This game has a very special place in my heart.

 

[TehCupcakes]

Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures for the Genesis. It has unique gameplay being sort of like a point-and-click, but with a slingshot instead to bridge the gap between player interaction and the game world. Pac-Man's goofy and often exaggerated reactions produced many laughs as a kid, and it was always fun trying to figure out the what objects you could interact with and how Pac-Man's mood would change the way things behave. The fact that you don't control Pac-man directly means that reaction time plays a factor, and there's also was a certain enjoyment in just letting things "play out" to see what happens.

Looking back, it really was a unique game, and I can't think of anything else quite like it. Despite that, I don't see it mentioned very often, and it's never been re-released in the plethora of Genesis game collections over the years. so I guess it wasn't as popular as the protagonist's name would suggest.

As an aside, it's memorable for me in particular because it's the game that caused time limits to be instated in our house. "You can play after I get a game over," is now an infamous phrase my brother uttered during our first time with it. (The game does not have a lives system or a game over screen.)

 

[VashTS]

Serpent for the original Gameboy. I have WR on the speedrun leaderboard My grandma got this for me at a supermarket and I played it for the longest time. I had plenty of GB titles, like Kirby and Mario Land but always came back to Serpent. I still play it every now and then.

also Golf for the Virtual Boy, does that count? most people probably are aware of its existence but was anyone aware that someone actually enjoyed it

https://www.speedrun.com/serpent/run/zgnvxvdy

 

[tmnr1992]

Microsoft Fury^3. A relative bought it for me and I played it a lot even though I never got far as a child. I remember saving money just to get a Microsoft flight stick for this game. I was still awful at the game though.

Wow I thought no one else knew this game, I really liked it.

 

[tooknie]

Kether on the Philips CDI

Also Castles II, but on the Amiga CD32

 

[cvskid]

For me i'd say StarTropics for the NES




With the other one being Breakdown for the original xbox

 

[FAST6191]

Lot of people doing N64 games. In which case I am going with Forsaken

I occasionally see games have aspects of the style come out but it is nothing I have really seen taken and given a true modern spin.

Vagrant Story and FFT for PS1

Are Final Fantasy Tactics (might want to say the name for those playing along at home that maybe weren't around at the time) and Vagrant Story that ill remembered? I will give Vagrant story maybe did not stick around so much or make as big a dent as say Final Fantasy on the PS1 but it was still fairly noted for its combat system.
Final Fantasy Tactics, especially the PS1 version, is both beloved and the PS1 version often being held up as the high water mark (give or take hacks, which I would also say speaks to the popularity of the game -- if you get as many hacks as the Final Fantasy Tactics series does it speaks to something.

Ninja Five-O (or Ninja Cop depending on where you live) for the GBA.

That probably lands more as cult classic. It was fairly enjoyed around here at the time (it has featured as game of the week/noted games around here in various articles as well).
I am more here to remark on how expensive it is these days. A while back we got someone looking to tell if fake or not and I thought who would fake Ninja Cop/Ninja Five-O? One trip to the online tat merchants later and my eyes were wide open.

Mine is Infinite undiscovery, one of the games Microsoft made to push for JRpg's. One of the darkest JRpg's I ever played and one of the games that made my cry so hard like with no other. One of the best JRpg's made and sadly almost no one played

I did actually pick up a copy of that the other week (been building a 360 collection before prices shoot up). It is probably one of Tri-Ace's off days (their on days giving me stuff like Resonance of Fate which was among my top games that generation) but if you can get it to click for you (same for Resonance of Fate for that matter) then you are in for something special.

 

[Azael_inf]

Speedy Eggbert

Now this is quality. Still boot up my copy from time to time.

 

[masenko]

this game, oh yeah. me and my mate spent hours after school trying to get all endings.
pride of my small gameboy color collection as its so freakin' rare

 

[CrashMidnick]

I loved that game back in the time

 

[gamer123q]

Star Ocean The second Story (Enix+Tri Ace,PS1)

I played this game literaly years on my PS1 until my ps1 died never forget this good old days and sometimes i want to go back in time and play it again and again.
yes i know the Star Ocean series have a Fanbase, but in Germany the Game is not well known and the german localised Version is rare and only a very few people from the retrogame scene know this game.
This game is my biggest treasure and hope a Nintendo Switch Version appears in the E Shop.