The Top 5 games that defined your childhood

[Xtincthed]

As a kid from the 80's and 90's I didn't have internet or magazines to see what games were worth playing. I just played the games that I got from friends and family. Sometimes these games were horrible, but you had nothing else to play so you just played them.

I made a video to showcase the games that shaped my childhood, and I'm curious to see what games shaped yours. You can be totally honest with your picks, noone will laugh at you for loving a shitty game, we understand!

http://youtu.be/xw0VqMHOcOE

[timewarpgamer]

Nice video. It's hard to narrow it down to just five, but here are some that I enjoyed immensely and sunk huge amounts of time into, often with my brother or a group of friends.

Contra (NES)
--Playing it again and again until I could beat it with just three lives

Final Fantasy (NES)
--Discovering the JRPG and loving the genre

Golden Axe (Genesis)
--Romping through this with a friend is still great fun

Kings Quest VI (Mac)
--Costing my parents huge phone bills from me calling for solutions to puzzles

Bomberman '93 (TurboGrafx-16)
--Playing with five people at once is a blast

[Toktogul]

1. Metal gear solid 1
2. Mario Kart
3. Splinter Cell
4. Shenmue
5. Conker's bad fur day

I got all those games now, except conker's bad fur day, which i cant find in Japan for a decent price. Ill need to grab a copy once i come back to canada in juillet during vacantions hahaha. maybe one of you could offer me a good deal on it later but eh thats not the place to talk about it hehehe

[santanime]

I was mostly an N64 kid growing up, and there wasn't really much of a choice when it came to the N64. You had the classic Nintendo games and the classic Rare games... and that's about it.
So:
- Donkey Kong Country 2 (SNES):
As a 5 year old, the game over screen from the first one (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-U5e9LR6E4) scared the literal piss out of me (I remember pissing my pants after my brother got a game over on purpose just to upset me).
So I moved on to DKC2. And holy moly guacamole that game is incredible. It brought me into my favourite genre of games with clenched fists, beat me to a pulp, but I still love it more than any other platformer.

- Mario Party 2 (and other multiplayer games on the N64, like Mario Kart, Goldeneye, Mario Tennis, Mario Golf, Smash Bros)
I still have no idea whether this game was all that well-regarded by gamers. To my family, well, let's just say that whenever my brothers are in town we always gather round the N64 and it feels like nothing's changed. This game reminds of all the best times with my bros as a kid. Because of that, I gotta say that this is the defining game.

- Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask (N64)
These games define my childhood because they always remind me of how much I look up to my older brothers. Watching my brother work his way through the whole thing and getting through all obstacles without a walkthrough (which, as a retro gamer today, seems practically impossible) really brought my family together. And my childhood was all about my family.

- Super Metroid (SNES)
This is the only game my dad would ever play with me, so it was really special. It's also a pretty good game.

- Super Mario World (GBA)
This was my game, and I explored every inch of it. I unlocked everything possible, took every route possible, and kicked bowsers flying butt every way possible. This game rules.

Honourable mentions: Mario 64, Donkey Kong 64, Mario Sunshine, Banjo Tooie, and Link to the Past
These are all great games and have their own reasons to be in the top 5, but for one reason or another, the other games stuck out more in my mind as being my childhood-defining games.

Thanks for opening this thread up!

[Hazerd]

5. Super Mario World - The first Console game i played, it is very nostalgic and sentimental to me, although i wouldnt say its my favorite game.

4. Legend of Zelda: alttp - Would definitely rank this above Super Mario World, a very good game with a great overworld to explore, and epic boss battles.

3. Pokemon Red/Blue - Like the OP, i played this game non-stop for over a year, beating both versions.

2. Goldeneye 007 - I would say this game re-defined multiplayer FPS games, and was tons of fun for my friends and me.

1. Diablo 2/Starcraft - I cant pick 1 and since i played them both at the same time, i figured it's ok to put them together. These 2 games really brought PC gaming up to speed for me, i played Diablo 2 non-stop from summer 2000 patch 1.00, to whenever patch 1.10 came out, because after that i had pretty much done everything the game had to offer, mostly on battle.net.

*edit*

I could add another 50 games if i wanted probably, but those 5 will do.

[BurningDoom]

They were all NES games, for sure. That was the system that made me fall in love with gaming. I spents hours upon hours on that little grey box. We did have an Atari 2600 beforehand that was my older sister's, but it never held my attention for long. I remember having to go back to it when our NES power-plug burned out and we were waiting on another one from the repair center at Nintendo of Japan, it was terrible going back to it as a kid when all I wanted to do was play Mario and Zelda, Atari 2600 just couldn't come close.

Anyways, here's probably the top games for me from my childhood:

1. Super Mario Bros. (NES) - The best pack-in game for a system, EVER. This was one of reasons people wanted an NES so bad back in the 80s, and it came with the system! The level 1 theme song is ingrained into anyone that's around my age's eternal memories.

2. The Legend of Zelda (NES) - My sister and I actually bonded over this game. She never was as big of a gamer as I was, but she became totally engrossed in the game to point of getting a pen and paper and hand-drawing maps to the dungeons complete with item and key locations. At first, I didn't like The Legend of Zelda because it wasn't enough like my beloved Super Mario Bros. But watching her play, got me totally involved in it. And then I sought every secret in the dang game. You know how many bombs I dropped and candles I flared in the pursuit of secrets?

3. Contra (NES) - The original party game. Invite a friend over, put in the famous Konami code for 30 lives, and it was on! Beautiful side-scrolling co-op run-n-gun action, with some memorable NES music to go along with all your alien butt-kicking action. And while some you younger guys might laugh at it, back in the day it looked like you were playing as Schwartzenegger and Stallone from the title screen; and there was no one else as bad-ass as those 2 guys back then.

4. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game - This game was both on NES and in the Arcade. But it was the arcade version that initially influenced me. They had it at our local skating ring, and our grade school would often go there for field trips if you earned honor roll or citizen of the week or whatever. I often had good grades (before I entered high school, at least), so I often got to go because of honor roll. And I would spend a good amount of time on this arcade game. 4-players at the same time, was pretty freaking awesome. I of course picked up the NES version as soon as I could beg my mom enough times to get it one birthday or Christmas (can't remember which). I loved beat-em ups for many years afterwards.

5. Star Soldier (NES) - My love for shoot-em ups started right here with this game, and continued to this day. It was a pretty basic shoot-em up, even by NES standards. But I didn't know any better. This was one of the games I got with my NES, so I started playing long before I knew the difference between game genres or had played enough games to know there were much better shoot-em ups out there. Nonetheless, even if the gameplay is pretty basic, it is still a fun shoot-em up with power-ups, a variety of enemies, and boss battles (though it's the same boss repeated).

[Snowman Death Droid]

This is kind of hard. I guess it would be...

1. Hexen 64: I don't really know why this game drew me in like it did but I played Hexen religiously as a kid. I guess it introduced me to something I like, adventure fantasy with a dark atmosphere or edge.

2. Super Smash Brothers Melee: This game was one that lead me to search for games that were more open ended. The number of options you could tweak blew my mind and I loved experimenting with all the settings.

3. The Legend of Zelda: Oot and especially Majora's Mask: Is there anything I can say about these two that no one else has? Majora's Mask I always liked better because it was stranger and darker than Oot. It was also pretty big. There was a lot to do and I loved exploring.

4. Banjo-Tooie: I don't really play many 3D platformers anymore, but when I was a kid this was by far my favorite. I rented it a ton of times from Blockbuster before finally getting it on Christmas.

5. Duke Nukem 64: This game had by far the most hours clocked on it from everyone in my family. The other games in this list stimulated my imagination as a child, but Duke was just mindless fun. If I was ever stressed this game made me feel better.

I have a bunch of runners up too like Diablo 2, Starcraft, the Descent trilogy, etc. but I'm trying to keep it short. lol. It's cool to see everyone else's list.

[Gamerforlife]

1. Balloon Fight - First game I ever played, made me aware of this amazing entertainment medium
2. Double Dragon - One of the two games I first played when I got an NES
3. Super Mario Bros. - And this would be the other one

The above two games created my love for platformers and beat 'em ups

4. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (arcade) - Further cemented my love of beat 'em ups, and single handedly made me love arcades.
5. Street Fighter II - made me a hardcore, 2d fighter fan for a good number of years. I eventually grew out of it though, and in retrospect, my love for fighters was just an offshoot of my greater love for beat 'em ups. I remember being in the arcade to play Final Fight and Magic Sword the night I stumbled onto Street Fighter II for the first time.

Other notables:

Sonic the Hedgehog - Re-ignited my love of platformers, and made me not so impressed by that fat plumber anymore, which is exactly what Sega wanted. Probably also kicked off my love for Sega

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV and Street Fighter II on the Super Nintendo - Those two games signaled the end of the gap between consoles and arcades for me

Tomb Raider - The first 3D game I really got into. Ms. Croft took my 3D gaming virginity.

Final Fantasy 6 - My first jrpg, made me a lifelong FF fan, for better or for worse

Popeye, Qbert and Space Invaders - These games kept my interest on the Atari 2600 until I got an NES, which was the console that officially made me a hardcore gamer

[Boyward]

I was born in 1978 and my first exposure to video games was in 1985 at a friend's house. He wanted to outside to play football but I begged him to let me stay in and keep playing games. But the first game to really define my childhood was:

TMNT Fall of the Foot Clan because it was the first video game I got the spend any amount of time with. My parents did not believe we needed any video games in our home, so the closest I got was borrowing my friend's Game Boy along with TMNT. I remember sneaking the Game Boy into church and sitting in the boy's bathroom during Sunday School where I played Fall of the Foot Clan on the toilet.

Altered Beast. After begging my parents for years for a video game, they finally agreed that I could mow some lawns and save money to buy a Sega Genesis. Altered Beast was the game that came packed-in with the Genesis. With that bundle I also got a coupon to get a free copy of Sonic the Hedgehog whenever it came out, but Altered Beast will always be special to me because for a month or two it was my only game, but it was MY game, and at last I had a game to call my own, and to practice and master at home.

Gunstar Heroes for Sega Genesis. As I played more and more games and came to think of myself as a gaming "expert", I began to look closely at games that might have slipped under the radar. Then I would crow about them and write reviews for them and pass my reviews around to my friends at school. I remember Gunstar Heroes for the Sega Genesis got a couple of 9's and a couple of 10's from "The Review Crew" at EGM, so I immediately latched onto that as a game that I HAD to get for my library. Plus I was a Sega Genesis kid, so it felt great to have a Genesis exclusive that I could brag about to my Super Nintendo friends. "You gotta get a Genesis so you can play Gunstar Heroes. EGM gave it a Platinum Award and it got TWO TENS!!" In my bedroom I had a homemade "Game of the Month" display and I remember inviting my friends up to my room to see what game sat on the top shelf. Gunstar Heroes was "Game of the Month" for probably half a year.

Mortal Kombat II Arcade version. Every weekday for 4 years of high school my buddies and I trudged off-campus for lunch hour, over to the bowling alley to play at the arcade. They had Street Fighter II and Aliens Vs. Predator, both of which I liked to play. But the game that really captivated my attention was MKII. I rarely played against human opponents because I worked hard to earn my quarters and I knew my skills would lead me to a speedy death. But I loved watching the master gamers discover new characters and moves and fatalities and Friendship Fatalities and Babalities--it seemed like there was no end to the secrets of MKII. Every time they discovered something new all of us who watched would go, "Did you see that? Did YOU SEE THAT!!??" It was a community experience. And on the rare occasions that the MKII cabinet was unused, I walked up and played a round myself.

Panzer Dragoon. I literally cried when I got this game for my brand new Sega Saturn. I had mowed a ton of lawns in order to get $400 saved up for the console, but I had to ask my sister for a loan so I could afford Panzer Dragoon to go with it. When I brought it home the fully orchestrated soundtrack moved me to tears, and in 1995 I truly believed that the Saturn was the next best thing, and that Sony was going to lose the system wars. I remember sitting in the high school cafeteria eating a Playstation ad to show my disdain for Sony's sure-to-lose gaming console.

[Damm64]

Super Mario Bros 3 - Well even when SMB was the first videogame i ever play (as far i remember) i played countless hours SMB 3 in that old famiclon that now is lost... i stil have the game though.

Contra - I NEED TO SAY MORE? IS CONTRA!

Donkey Kong Country 2 - I'll never know how much time me and my brothers got stuck in the red hot ride because we didn't know you could move ON the air balloon

Battle City - Oooooh yeah how many times i tried to finish this game from level 1 just to fail in horribly on level 10 or so. The map editor was so simple yet gret i spend so much time making level with my name on them.

Super Metroid - I never actually own this game when i was a child, i played the times a friend come to my house (very few times) and EVERY TIME we have to start the game all over again because for some reason his game was bronken and if you save the game and then die when the game loads the saved game you DIE... i don't what the hell was wrong with that cartridge. It was to hard for me in that time and i wasn't even able to defeat kraid and allways get stuck before entering maridia. Now i can run trough the game without a problem (i still need to reach 100%).

Honorable mentions: DOOM (played a lot of this game but never quite beat it) Tomb Raider 2 (didn't beat because the water level were scary for me at the time) Twin Bee (yes this was a famicom game, that a plus of pirate Nes consoles you get import games ) Resident Evil 2 (NEVER played it for myself when i was a kid only watched my cousin playin it and i couldn't sleep for 2 days why? because i was like 7 but now i love this game).