Your first true love

[GPX | 1,374]

Let’s delve into the past..

A time when we were young and eager, and just about anything newly purchased was met with extreme enthusiasm. A time when money was limited and we relied on the savings from our parents more than our own wallets..

So going back to years or decades ago, what would you consider to be your first game of true love? Obviously this is a subjective question, and by “true love” it can mean whatever you want it to mean. My definition is something along the lines of:

- a game you adored so much you had to play and complete it

- you have persisting fond memories of it up until present day

- you own a current physical copy of this game to give you all the warm and fuzzy nostalgic feeling.

————————

My personal answer is Sonic for the Megadrive.

[GPX | 1,374]

I feel the answer of “Sonic” deserves an expanded explanation. The Megadrive was the first console that had wowed me as a gamer, and the first game I owned and completed was actually Altered Beast, which was a pack-in game. Sonic was probably the second or third game that I owned for the 16-bit era, but it was the first game that had blew my mind. I remember being gobsmacked by the amazing graphics with fast scrolling, and great music to boot! So enthralled was I, that I actually recorded the music onto a tape recorder! Sonic was the game that essentially brainwashed me into becoming initially a Sega fanboy and ignoring the Super Nintendo for nearly 2 years! Ahhh the good old days of fanboy-ism..

[PasseGaming | 28]

Final Fantasy III (6) would probably be that game for me. I used to have a tradition of playing it every year, before we had kids. I still get emotional listening to the music of that game. I have to confess I haven't played it in over a decade. I'm still waiting for it's re-release on a modern console as I have to wear headphones when I play games now due to our birds screaming over everything. Here's hoping.

[LostLevel83 | 86]

Final Fantasy II

Didn’t own it but rented it with the hope that nobody would erase the save. And we beat it!!

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

Excitebike. I played the arcade version almost daily and I was thrilled to be able to play it at home on my NES.

[Stdude | 1]

Final Fantasy for NES is this game for me. I did not have a Nintendo growing up but one of my friends did. I fell in love with the game when I watched him played and loved it even more when he let me play it. It is obviously a very flawed game but it created my love for RPGs. My first actual Final Fantasy I owed was Final Fantasy 2 (4) for SNES and I have a lot of fond memories of that game too but the simplicity of Final Fantasy 1 just brings me so much joy. I ,of course, now own a NES and a CIB of Final Fantasy 1 and I fall in love all over again when I play it.

[DreamCuPS | 18]

It has to be Atari's Adventure. I currently don't own a physical copy of that, but I have a tattoo:



Forever with me 

[YOURTURN | 1,257]

Dragon Warrior.

I had games for both the Commodore 64, including ones that required audio tapes. But they were mostly unknown titles. Except Norad Link. That was something else. Plus my first console was a Magnavox Odyssey², which my parents won. But I only had one cartridge for that. So when it comes to Dragon Warrior all I can say is that it was the very first JRPG I have beaten. And to this day it is the reason why I will buy digital copies of Dragon Quest, attend Dragon Quest events, and buy select Dragon Quest items that spark my interest.

Plus Final Fantasy was the only NES game I owned where it stated that my save data became corrupted and it had to be deleted. And I was in the final dungeon when that happened. So Dragon Quest for the win.

[ifightdragons | 234]

The Legend of Zelda on NES. Played that with a friend in class after school for an entire summer straight. Then we would take breaks and watch the Zelda cartoon. It admittedly wasn't a good show, but just the overworld and dungeon themes alone got us super psyched go jump back in. And the enemy designs carried over quite well to the series.

[JamesRobot | 5,830]

River Raid! 

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

Even though we had an Atari (7800?) and an NES when I was a kid, the video game bug didn't really bite me until I was much older and bought a used SNES with Chrono Trigger. I was just blown away by every aspect of the game: the graphics, the time travel mechanics, story, combat, the music. I can still pick it up and play to 100% completion any day of the week.

Edited June 7, 2020 by DoctorEncore

[Matchbook | 194]

Super Mario Bros. 3 is my first game that comes to mind.  My Mother had bought it in like 1992 and we played so many hours of that game together.  I was 5 and we always loved world 3 because of the water.  I was obsessed with fish at that age.  It left me with many happy memories, especially after finally beating it.  Dr. Mario was a close 2nd which we also put hours and hours into. We still talk about these two games to this day.

I must also add StarCraft.  It is what launched me into the computer gaming world and online game play with others.  It was something I had never experienced before and a new love for gaming blossomed.  I was immediately driven into Blizzard fandom and (pre Activision merger) was my favorite game developer.  YES I plunged into that WoW thing for 10 years of my life haha.

[Matchbook | 194]

6 minutes ago, DoctorEncore said:

Even though we had an Atari (7800?) and an NES when I was a kid, the video game bug didn't really bite me until I was much older and bought a used SNES with Chrono Trigger. I was just blown away by every aspect of the game: the graphics, the time travel mechanics, story, combat, the music. I can still pick it up and play to 100% completion any day of the week.

My all time favorite game for those exact reasons.  Those tech combos wowza!!!! Amazing soundtrack! I'm working on a playthrough right now actually on DS  

[RH | 4,970]

100% Final Fantasy Adventure.  I enjoyed games a lot as a kid, but it was the first I obsessed over.  I hand drew maps, played the game 2x, back to back.  Drew fan art.  Man, I found a game for me.

[Strange | 1,701]

It’s hard for me to answer this one. My brother raised me on his NES, SNES, and N64 and I loved SMB 1-3, World, and 64. But they weren’t the hooks, just what got me started. I got a GBC and Pokemon Gold as the first video game stuff that was mine, but that may have been more about my love for Pokémon than video games. I remember being blown away by my brother’s new Dreamcast and Sonic Adventure.

But when I think back to the first game that young me really got into and finished all by myself, it’s probably Paper Mario. I remember renting it from the video store, and kept renting it over and over until we bought our own copy. I used to make notes about the game in a notebook and daydreamed about obtaining certain badges in school. I beat that game all the way through and that may be the first game I did that for. So while it may not be my first ever gaming experience or anything like that, it was probably the first that I got hooked on.

[a3quit4s | 4,125]

Original Legend of Zelda. I wish I had the map from the game that my mom and I spent hours on marking all the secret shit and where the levels were. 

[GPX | 1,374]

4 hours ago, JamesRobot said:

River Raid! 

Probably one of the best games in the 80s! This gif brought back some fond memories for me, having played it on cartridge for the C64. Also one of the few games my dad also spent time playing along with me. 

[T-Pac | 7,588]

PacMan

Playing the game isn't really what hooked me, though. PacMan was my introduction to the visual aesthetics and sound design of classic 80s games. There's an undeniable charm there that modern video games have never truly been able to replicate.

-CasualCart

[JamesRobot | 5,830]

3 hours ago, CasualCart said:

PacMan

Playing the game isn't really what hooked me, though. PacMan was my introduction to the visual aesthetics and sound design of classic 80s games. There's an undeniable charm there that modern video games have never truly been able to replicate.

-CasualCart

Probably Ms. Pacman was my earliest arcade experience.  Our local Pizza Hut had the cocktail table.  Good times.

[PasseGaming | 28]

12 hours ago, RH said:

100% Final Fantasy Adventure.  I enjoyed games a lot as a kid, but it was the first I obsessed over.  I hand drew maps, played the game 2x, back to back.  Drew fan art.  Man, I found a game for me.

Final Fantasy Adventure was a solid game. Pretty much all the Final Fantasy games released on the Gameboy, NES and SNES were great games.

[StanJr | 7]

Pitfall II (VCS).  Got it for Christmas and spent so many hours with my dad trying to beat it.  (He had snuck and played it a BUNCH before giving it to me for Christmas that year, so he looked like a pro right out of the box!  Scoundrel!).  Just watched my 7 year old son beat it for the first time this week.  Will always be my first love (sorry LoZ...)

[DefaultGen | 5,433]

Sonic 2. All my other Genesis games were bargain bin trash, so I played it over and over for years. I never even had Sonic 1 or 3.

[T-Pac | 7,588]

9 hours ago, JamesRobot said:

Probably Ms. Pacman was my earliest arcade experience.  Our local Pizza Hut had the cocktail table.  Good times.

Sick - all the early Namco stuff is gold (although they didn't actually develop Ms PacMan if I remember correctly). I grew up with those TV plug-and-plays that had a bunch of Namco arcade games on them. I couldn't get enough of Mappy, Xevious, Bosconian, and Dig Dug.

-CasualCart

[jonebone | 1,307]

Probably NES Contra.  I liked lots of other games but this was one where you could just pickup and play in spurts without grinding like an RPG or Zelda.  I remember bringing friends over to try and beat two player, and talking the cheat code at school made you a king on the playground.  Just lots of good memories wrapped up in that one. 

[Br81zad | 629]

Galaga

To this day, I still drop a few quarters in a machine if I see one out somewhere