15 Games That Changed Your Life

There's a new thing in Facebook going on, in which you name 15 games that changed your life and tag 15 friends.

Well, you can't tag 15 friends here, but here is my list:

1. Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon (Amiga)
2. Civilization series (PC)
3. Earl Weaver Baseball (Amiga)
4. Master Of Magic (PC)
5. Halo series (Xbox / Xbox 360)
6. Deus Ex (PC)
7. Mass Effect 2 (360)
8. Grim Fandango (PC)
9. Ultima IV (Commodore 64)
10. Half-Life (PC)
11. Sid Meier's Pirates! (C64)
12. Thief series (PC)
13. Pitfall! (Atari 2600)
14. Knights Of The Old Republic (Xbox)
15. Dragon's Lair (Arcade)

edited 30th Sep '10 2:04:16 PM by JAF1970

Jonah Falcon

Define "changed your life"...

Let's play a game about Pokémon...

Doesn't mean "the best games". It means the games that burrowed under your skin. The ones that skewed your perception. The ones that made you open your eyes. The games that made you you as a gamer.

I'm currently writing a full article based on the list. When it's posted, you'll see what I mean.

edited 30th Sep '10 12:46:22 PM by JAF1970

Jonah Falcon

In no particular order:

• Star Trek (text-based computer game)
• Combat
• Star Raiders
• Castle Wolfenstein
• Asteroids (arcade version)
• Donkey Kong (arcade version)
• Crush, Crumble, and Chomp!
• Super Mario Bros.
• Star Wars (Atari arcade version)
• High Speed (sure it's a pinball, but it's still a game)
• Nuclear War (card game)
• Trinity (Infocom text adventure)
• Starfox (SNES original)
• Doom
• Wii Sports

—R.J.

edited 30th Sep '10 1:35:31 PM by rjung

I think I did something like this about a month ago... I can't remember which 15 games I listed, and I can't access FB at the moment to find out. It went something like this, though:

Ghostbusters (Commodore 64)
Super Mario Bros. (NES)
Tetris (Multi-Platform)
Toejam & Earl (Genesis)
Shadowrun (Genesis)
Chrono Trigger (SNES)
King's Quest VI (PC)
Goldeneye 007 (Nintendo 64)
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 64)
Bushido Blade (Playstation)
Soul Calibur (Dreamcast)
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem (Gamecube)
Katamari Damacy (Playstation 2)
TES IV: Oblivion (PC)
Mass Effect 2 (Xbox 360)

Logged: The commanding officer is aboard. XO Pressley stands relieved.

I played this as Star Fleet I: The War Begins on the Amiga, except it went whole dog on the starship simulation.

edited 30th Sep '10 1:45:38 PM by JAF1970

Jonah Falcon

1. Video Pinball (Atari 2600) - My first brush with Pinball Scoring. I wasn't really into real pinball. I stayed up way past when my parents wanted me to go to bed playing this.
2. Mountain King (Atari 2600) - When screwing around with this game, I found that if you jumped at a certain angle off the highest mountain, you could get to a strange "sky world" of broken floor pieces and ladders that were obviously just bits of leftover code. I never did beat the main game, but I learned a lot about creative gaming outside the designated boundaries from Mountain King.
3. Discs of Tron - the arcade booth for this thing made it ten times more awesome. Plus, it's goddamn Tron.
4. Gauntlet 1 & 2 - Blue Elf Is About To Die, man! Don't shoot the potion! This game taught me about the pitfalls of teaming up with random strangers in poorly-lit areas; lessons that would serve me well during my 'World Of Warcraft' years.
5. Packrat - a little known arcade game that taught me about risk/reward management; your goal is to pick up all of the special items on each level, but there are owls after you, and you can stun them by throwing some of your stocked items at them... just make sure you can pick them back up again, or you'll never win.
6. Commando/Ikari Warriors - These games taught me that it's always better to face enemies from the inside of a high-powered tank. Words to live by.
7. Wizardry (the first one) - My friends and I would bond by each taking one or two of the characters in the party and cheer when they did well. Of course, most battles were just FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT, PARRY, PARRY, PARRY, but hey...
8. Champions of Krynn Gold Box - the first time I was able to reconcile my love for Dungeons And Dragons with computer gaming. On my no-hard-drive, two 5.25" floppy drive 640K computer, it would take ten minutes to a half an hour to load each and every battle. It was totally worth it!
9. Tunnels & Trolls - I never played it very much (couldn't figure out how to proceed past the first couple areas), but the video game version of T&T had the immortal option, when faced with a crater filled with dancing and cavorting skeletons around a glowing black-bladed dagger to freakish etherial music, to "Jump in and join the hoedown!" Sure it led to a nigh-unwinnable battle against scads of necromatic foes, but "jump in and join the hoedown" has proved invaluable as a life lesson for when I'm confronted with situations that are strange or intimidating. Much better than that "Life is a box of chocolates" bullshit.
10. Doom - My little sister started learning about things that are awesome by watching me play Doom. She went on to become even more awesome than her big brother. I'm so proud!
11. Fallout 2 - The best RPG I had played to date, and my introduction to Black Isle Studios.
12. Planescape Torment - The first time I had ever played a game that had a story that was better than most novels I'd read to date. Still holds a key place in my heart as the best CRPG experience.
13. Baldurs Gate 2 - My first experience with online gaming forums where you could interact with the game developers. I eventually would get many of my suggestions implemented in the Throne of Bhaal expansion, particularly the Club of Detonation +3 and Wild Mages. My internet handle at the time was "Draconis", and Dave Gaider managed to get one of the boss encounters to be named after me. It was an Invisible Blue Dragon Bhaalspawn. Awesome.
14. World Of Warcraft - When it says "games that changed your life," it doesn't have to be for the better, yes? I lost a couple years of my life to this game and, while I still appreciate some of my friends that were made during this time, I wouldn't rate it as an overall positive experience.
15. Persona 3 - I have never cared so much about the lives of Japanese teenagers than I did when I was playing P3. I can truly say that this game taught me the valuable trick to male-female relationships: Just tell women exactly what they want to hear, and I, too, can reach Social Link Rank 10 and have some time alone with the girl in my dorm room! Needless to say, I have graduated from my near-celibate existance to a life of free-wheeling pornomancy because of this game.

edited 30th Sep '10 1:52:25 PM by Dracomicron

"The secret we should never let the gamemasters know is that they don't need any rules." - E. Gary Gygax

1. Starcraft Brood War

The only game that honestly affected my life at all. I follow the progaming scene, I play and try to improve, I spend my time on the internet on starcraft community sites and honestly, it's a great expereince. The starcraft community is great and I've made many friends there. I stay up late at night to watch pro games that take place in Korea live. I could go on but I won't. So far, the only thing coming close now is SC 2.

1. Super Mario Bros (NES)
2. Super Mario Bros 3 (NES)
3. Mario RPG (SNES)
4. Mario Kart 64 (n64)
5. Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga series (Gameboy Adv. & DS)
6. Day of Defeat (PC)
7. KOTOR I & KOTOR II (PC)
8. The Sims (PC)
9. Warcraft II (PC)
10. Civilization (PC)
11. Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (original gameboy)
12. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PS 3)
13. Kobe Bryant's NBA Courside 2 (n64)
14. Tony Hawk Pro Skater (PS)
15. Gran Turismo 2 (PS 2)

edited 30th Sep '10 2:00:59 PM by napoftheearth

• Sreeet Fighter 2 Turbo.
• Super Mario Bros. 3
• Halo 2
• Legend Of Zelda
• Poke Mon
• Super Smash Bros Melee
• Rock Band 2 shut up
• Civilization IV
• Kingdom Hearts
• Kingdom Hearts 2
• Star Wars Battle Front 2
• Soul Caliber 2
• Harvest Moon Again, shut up.
• Fable
• Halo in general

No particular order , judged by the memories made with others/ lessons learned.

That does not include any of my non-video games .

• Chess
• Magic The Gathering
• Dungeon And Dragons
• Yu Gi Oh

edited 30th Sep '10 5:32:44 PM by americanbadass

[[User Banned]]_ My Pm box ix still open though, I think?

In no particular order...

1. Gradius III (Konami, SNES, 1991) // How I really got into shmups.
2. Gradius Gaiden (Konami / KCET, PS 1, 1997) // Best game in the series.
3. Tetris: The Grand Master (series) (Arika, arcade, 1998~) // Changed the way I viewed Tetris.
4. Dance Dance Revolution (series) (Konami, multiplatform, 1998~) // My intro to rhythm games.
5. DonPachi (series) (Cave, mainly arcade, 1996~) // My intro to the Bullet Hell genre. I actually played DP and DDP well before I saw videos of the True Final Bosses.
6. DJMAX Technika (Pentavision, Arcade, 2008) // I've made many friends as a result of this game.
7. Beatmania IIDX (series) (Konami, multiplatform, 1999~) // The second rhythm game series I got into.
8. Mushihime-sama Futari (Cave, Arcade / 360, 2005 / 2008) // I was in a Cave slump for some time after the PS2 port of Mushihime-sama, until I picked this up.
9. Touhou, Windows arc (series) (ZUN / Shanghai Alice, 2002~) // I didn't want to say it, but...
10. Wangan Midnight R (Genki, arcade, 2001) // Would eventually lead to me getting into Maximum Tune, as well as other highway racing games.
11. Sonic The Hedgehog, Genesis arc (Sonic Team, Genesis, 1991~1994) // Got me through the last 2/3 of middle school (along with DDR).
12. Daytona USA (series) (Sega AM2, arcade mostly, 1993~) // My favorite multiplayer racing game growing up. I still play this and Daytona USA 2 when the chance arises.
13. O2Jam (O2Media inc., PC, 2005) // Even if it did have its flaws and Fan Dumb, it certainly was how I passed the time during late summer nights.
14. Ace Attorney (series) (Capcom, GBA / DS, 2001~) // Would eventually lead me to cosplaying one of the characters, which lead to checking out a gathering and making some friends there.
15. rRootage (ABA Games, PC, 2003?) // The game that made me want to become a game developer. Other Kenta Chou games factor into that, but this is the first game that comes to mind.

edited 30th Sep '10 6:03:49 PM by TsundeRay

http://twitter.com/raydere | http://raydere.tumblr.com

I just wanted to mention that this thread has prompted me to create works pages for Star Raiders and Crush, Crumble, and Chomp!.

—R.J.

• 1. Tales Of Symphonia (Gamecube): THE game that made me interested in RPGs. Memorable Characters, great storyline, and awesome Gameplay / Combat System drew me in.
• 2. Touhou (PC): Before anyone asks, no, that series isn't my first Shoot 'Em Up Game. I think I've played an SNES game that is a Shmup before Touhou, but I don't remember. (Also, I did play Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth on the N64) I put that on my list because it's one of the games that introduced me to Doujin Shmups. It may be Bullet Hell, but it's quite fun! (Played the Trial Versions.)
• 3. RefleX (Kamui and ALLTYNEX Second are fine, too) (PC): Despite playing the Trial Version, that game introduced me to Siter Skain, a great Doujin Company. I would also say Kamui and ALLTYNEX Second, but I played the trial version of RefleX first.
• 4. Goldeneye 007 (N64): Introduced me to FPSes, with good multiplayer and singleplayer.
• 5. Timesplitters 2 (Gamecube): A Blast to play Multiplayer? HELL YES! Lasers, Monkeys, and Fast Paced Action!
• 6. The World Ends With You (DS): A reason that I have a DS in my possession. The gameplay is awesome, that is all that needs to be said.
• 7. Soul Nomad And The World Eaters (PS 2): My first game I got that is made by Nippon Ichi. I also noted that game for well, Gig.
• 8. Half Life (PC): The storyline alone makes this memorable, and it has a lot of mods to boot as well. I played it for Singleplayer reasons, though.
• 9. Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies (PS 2): One of the first games I played on the PS 2, along with another one below. I have great memories of me destroying Yellow Squadron, and that memory will be inside of me.
• 10. Ratchet And Clank (PS 2): The first game I played for the PS 2, and I liked it. That game made me want to get a PS 2.
• 11. Mitadake High (PC): The Only Multiplayer Game that I usually play. Even though Forkkie's (Or her friends) server is the best.
• 12. Starcraft (PC): Despite me not playing it for a long time, Starcraft is just one great RTS I have to bring on my list.
• 13. Knights In The Nightmare (DS): I'm quite intrigued by that game's premise and gameplay, and I think this is the first game that was introduced to me by TV Tropes.
• 14. Dominions 3: The Awakening (PC): The sheer complexity alone puts this game on my list.
• 15. Street Fighter 2 (SNES): I think that game introduced me into Fighting Games... It was pretty fun to play, if I remember correctly... Still, I couldn't beat M. Bison, though.

edited 3rd Oct '10 6:15:34 AM by AttObl227

Last Defense Line.

Crush Crumble And Chomp? What about Mail Order Monsters?

Jonah Falcon

In no particular order, the games that affected my daily life when I first got into them (and, for a few, still do), or the ones that truly stand out in my mind as major parts of my life.

• 3D-Ultra Pinball
• Earthworm Jim (My first exposure to gaming)
• Wing Commander
• Pokemon Blue
• Super Smash Bros. Melee
• Super Mario Bros.
• Animal Crossing
• Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
• Duke Nukem 3D
• Viewtiful Joe
• Warcraft III
• World of Warcraft
• Guitar Hero III
• Team Fortress II
• Psychonauts

edited 30th Sep '10 8:23:15 PM by 11Numb

No particular order...

• 1.) The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - First Zelda game! Awesome graphics! Awesome story! Awesome everything!
• 2.) Ecco The Dolphin: The Tides of Time - The first Ecco's great, and Tides is even moreso. Probably cemented my love for obscure, strange games, as well leading to the line of research that started my fascination with real-life cetaceans.
• 3.) Skies Of Arcadia/Legends - Still my favourite RPG, and one of my first.
• 4.) Kirby's Adventure - The very first game I ever 100%ed, and possibly the first game I ever beat on my own.
• 5.) Shadow Of The Colossus - There's just something about it. All the games on the list I consider art, but here's the go-to for explaining it.
• 6.) Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers - My other major "games are art and here's why" example. More The Lion King than Sot C's Citizen Kane; just because it's made for tinies doesn't mean it can't be great. ...Also cemented my love for Surprise Creepy.
• 7.) Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door - Such a gloriously silly game. I think this is when I started embracing the fact that I freaking love silly games.
• 8.) Metroid Prime - Here we see the Scrapbook Story in its native habitat. Observe its awesomeness.
• 9.) Hey You Pikachu - Yes, I'm serious. Man I wish this game, in all its glorious cuteness, would be rereleased.
• 10.) The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask - First game I ever pre-ordered, and the first I followed from first announcement to release. Ahh, good times... I still have my gold cart despite no longer owning an N64.
• 11.) The Lion King (Genesis) - First goddamn game I beat that Dad tried and couldn't! Freaking waterfall!
• 12.) Sonic The Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles - Whoa, you can release games in episodes...? Cool!
• 13.) Quest 64 - I think this was my first RPG. It was either this one or Pokemon Red. Speaking of...
• 14.) Pokemon Crystal - Like Tides above, Red was incredible, Gold was magnificent, and Crystal was indescribable.
• 15.) Super Mario Galaxy - Being a Genesis kid, I never really got into Mario. This was the game that made me a fan.

edited 30th Sep '10 10:31:36 PM by SparkyLurkdragon

1. : Sonic Adventure DX.- The first and greatest video game ever. The one that made me a gamer. Number on in the trio of SADX, Pac Man World @, and LSW.

2. : Pac Man World Two.- The first video game I ever watched, and the second that I played on the same playing session as Sonic Adventure DX and Lego Start Wars. Second best game ever.

3. : Lego Star Wars.- The first game that I got addicted to, same session as the above two at my friends house. Third best game ever

4. : Sonic Adventure Two Battle-. Came later, ensured that I would forever remain a gamer. Fourth best game ever.

5. : Age Of Empires (One and Two and Age of Mythology)- Gave me my love of computers and history and mythology, which led to me getting on Tv Tropes. Hugely influential.

6. : Sonic Three And Knuckles.- Introduced me to old gaming: Pixels, bloops/bleeps, and hardness. The game that made me a good gamer.

7. : Sonic R.- This game is half of a duo that made me a sonic fan.

8. . Sonic 3D Blast.- The other half of that duo.

9. : Majesty The Fantasy Kingdom Sim.- Best and second M Ost Addictinf computer game ever. helped get me into fantasy.

10. : Knights Of The Old Republic.- Introduced me to Star Wars gaming.

11. : Star Wars: Jedi Outcast.- Introduced me to star wars, made me memorize levels.

12. : Tetris.- The first game I ever owned. The theme song, Koroborenski is always in my head.

13. : Lego Racers.- I always come back to this one. The first and best on/off game.

14. : Portal- Showed me the absolute level of fun short games can be.

15. : Sonic The Hedgehog and The Black Night.- Showed me just how awesome video game music is.

edited 1st Oct '10 8:17:09 PM by AlirozTheConfused

Never be without a Hat! Hot means heat. I don't care if your usage dates to 1300, it's my word, not yours. My Pm box is open.

1.)Donkey Kong Country (GBC). Pretty much defined my views of what makes a good platformer.

2.)Pokemon Yellow. The game that made me realize just how much awesomeness you could contain inside a Game Boy.

3.)Super Mario 64. First console game that really got me hooked.

4.)Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Opened my eyes to the world of non Nintendo games.

5.)Banjo-Tooie. My personal gold standard for 3D platformers.

6.)Super Smash Brothers. Showed me how much fun it is to beat the shit out of people.

7.)Paper Mario. The first game where I found myself wanting to win not just for the thrill of victory, but because I wanted to save the Mushroom Kingdom and its people.

8.)Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back. A wonderful introduction to the world of the Playstation.

9.)Donkey Kong Country 2. Showed me how atmosphere was done.

10.)Mario Kart: Super Circuit. How I started to like kart racers.

11.)Donkey Kong 64. Pretty much my life for the entire year of 2002.

12.)Super Mario World (GBA). Pretty much all of my life that year that wasn't spent on DK 64.

I'm not sure what to put for my last three.

edited 1st Oct '10 2:21:29 PM by CTM

Easy street has no parking signs.

1990's consoles (shaking head)

Jonah Falcon

Crush, Crumble, and Chomp! was first, was far more cerebral, and allowed you to SMASH CITIES. No contest.

—R.J.

In order by year of release:

• Super Mario Bros (Nintendo, NES, 1985) - It taught me the benchmark for how good games should be. Even though I played it way later in my life than I'd have liked to, I'm glad I did.
• F-Zero (Nintendo, SNES, 1991) - THE VERY FIRST GAME I EVER PLAYED. Seriously. I was about 4 at the time I played it...It's always been close to my heart.
• Kirby's Adventure (Nintendo, NES, 1993) The pink puffball has become my favorite character of all time, and this is where it all started.
• Myst (Broderbund, PC/Mac, 1994) - It holds as much significance as F-Zero to me. My family owned a Mac from the early 90's that they bought at a garage sale, and among the usual PC shovelware like Mavis Teaches Typing and Elmo's Preschool, I played this at the age of 5. Holy shit. Besides the obvious Nightmare Fuel, it got me into RPGs for years to come. It's also the first game I ever beat in full.
• Metal Slug (SNK, Arcade/Neo Geo MVS, 1996) - I just never played anything like it before. Whenever I see a Metal Slug arcade machine, the quarters fly out of my pocket. Don't know why.
• Final Fantasy VII (Square, PS 1, 1997) - When I was about 8, I had a Playstation, and this was the first game I got for it. It took me a year to beat FFVII, but this ordeal (powered by a Gameshark, no less) was amazing. While Myst hooked me onto RPGs, FFVII basically took that hook and made it go so deep, not even the worst RPG could get it out.
• Golden Eye (Nintendo/Rare, N64, 1997) - Fond memories of me playing as Oddjob on my cousin's N64. I was only about 4 or 5 at the time, so it doesn't really matter. Now, I can't wait for the Wiimake.
• Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes (Capcom, PS 1, 1997) - This game got me hooked on fighting games since playing it at a Chuck E Cheese's (seriously) back in the day.
• The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo, N64/GCN, 1998/2003) - I played the (very) slightly inferior Gamecube version that can be found on the Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition disc that came with my Gamecube. But that's beside the point, as I have never played a better RPG in my entire life.
• Pokemon Yellow: Special Pikachu Edition (Nintendo/Game Freak, GBC, 1999) - This game got me hooked on Pokemon. Enough said.
• Sin And Punishment (Nintendo/Treasure, N64, 2000, import) - Seven years after its original Japan and China-only release, I finally got the game that I was anticipating since I was six; that's because I was a gamer who was beyond his years. After playing it, my love of shooters has gone full circle.
• WarioWare, Inc. Mega Microgame$ (Nintendo, GBA, 2003) - Definitely the best $30 I ever spent on a GBA game, the original WW led me into the awesome world of the microgame. And I now have every Wario Ware title available.
• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Capcom, DS, 2005) - One of the first games I ever got for the DS, it led me into visual novels. Oh, and it taught me how good a court of law can be.
• Trauma Center: Under the Knife (Atlus, DS, 2005) - This was not only one of the first games I got for my DS (in addition to the previous), but it also was a game I've wanted since I was about 5: a game where you could play as a surgeon. (I know about Life or Death for DOS now, though, but Trauma Center and its sequels are much better.)
• Mad World (Sega, Wii, 2009) - Yeah, the Wii does have a lot of family-oriented shovelware, but you can also make extremely inventive games with its technology. And that's exactly what Inaba did with Mad World. That game helped me appreciate games as art, since the black/white/red/a little gold color scheme and excellent motion controls have given gamers their Pulp Fiction, I think.

edited 1st Oct '10 4:43:28 PM by troperwithoutaname

"This grass feels funny," Kirby thought. "It feels like...pants."

TWEWY

Tekken 3
No others

edited 1st Oct '10 4:58:02 PM by Pseudonym

<(-_-<)(>-_-)> "FUSION HA"

• Touhou
• Planetarian
• Final Fantasy I
• Fire Emblem

-can't think of anything else-

If people learned from their mistakes, there wouldn't be this thing called bad habits.

Yeah, but Mail Order Monsters was so addictive in making your own custom monsters.

Jonah Falcon

I once spent over an hour levelling New York City with a flying quetzacoatl that pooped radioactive waste in its wake, breathed fire on nearby buildings, and zapped helicopters with X-ray eyebeams. Seems pretty versatile to me.

—R.J.