Y CANT METROID CRAWL? or Was i this dense when i started gaming?

[Red Mage Black]

Lessee, first games? Had to have been around 4-5 starting with Nintendo, then to Sega, moving on years later to N64, Playstation... that's about it really.

Nintendo year(s):
First games I had were Mario and Double Dragon. I don't really remember the first one all that much, but DD stuck in my mind. As young as I was and from what I know now, I probably still can't get past the first level. (Also, we had a Three Stooges game, but none of us figured out how to actually play it.) Not much else past that that I can remember.

Sega year(s): Sonic, everything Sonic(2 and Pinball). We also had a game, not sure anyone will remember Eternal Champions? My sisters and I would obsess over that game and we certainly liked it better than Mortal Kombat(that stuff was scary to us). We also managed to rent out some stuff from Stop & Shop, before they shut that part down. Some of it was pretty fantastic, like The Pagemaster game(that Jekyl and Hyde fight scared me) and Zombies Ate My Neighbors(those chainsaw dudes did the same).

N64 year(s):
Super Mario 64, Bomberman(64, 2nd one, etc), Ocarina of Time(only rented Majora's Mask)... by far I think this was the console that I had the most games for. All particularly fun times. Sometimes I even just went to the third Bowser fight in SM64 to kill time. Heck, I even remember writing a story on a word processor machine based on the story it gave you in the instruction manual. Those were the days. I think I'd also rate the N64 the most fun console I played with up to a point.

Playstation:
Didn't own this one for a WHILE. Not many games, probably except Jampacks and some old football game for a bit. Where I first got into the MGS series, it was the best. Legend of Dragoon(so much nostalgia here) was also a big hit with me. Though I think nowadays, I might have more fun with it since I figured stuff out.

Growing up with this stuff was pretty cool. Got to experience other genres and found out what did and didn't mesh with me. I can certainly say that I had some of the same difficulties that others did when first playing, but it was all part of the experience.

Guess it's time to go and nostalgia again.

[tacticslion]

Originally Posted by Mauve Mage

The first time I played a turn-based RPG (it was FFX, sadly) I remember being instantly disgusted that I had no control over whether my characters got hit by enemies. I couldn't fathom how anyone could enjoy a game where you have to just sit and watch characters stand in one spot and politely take turns attacking each other.

I grew out of this phase, obviously, and eventually came to understand and enjoy turn-based games.

Heh, yeah. I really hated FF6's (called "FF3", at the time) battle system at first. After about five tries, though, I finally got it.

It... didn't help that I bought it without the manual. I couldn't figure out how to do anything, and when I could, I thought it was the worst way of handling things ever. Hahahah. I was so dumb.

Originally Posted by Mauve Mage

I didn't start gaming until I was a teenager, so I didn't grow up playing any of the older console games like Chrono Trigger or the Mario classics. My intro to games were PC titles like Tomb Raider, and then GameBoy Advance games, until I got my PS2 when I was 17.

My first "big kid games" were Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation and Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine for the PC. I was always annoyed that Lara Croft was able to walk through a hailstorm of bullets like nothing happened and do cool backflips while firing dual pistols, yet Indiana Jones could get his ass handed to him by a single dude with a revolver and couldn't move while using his whip.

Hahah! Yeah, I remember wandering why guys in one game are so easily punk'd while guys in the other are so tough as to be nearly invulnerable. Drove my OCD wild for a bit until I apparently just got over it or something.

[PyrosNine]

Now that I think about it, much of my game savvy for a lot of games came from emulation, because then I had infinite lives and save states, and trial and error, and access to a wider variety of games than what I could afford. This gave me the experience and awareness to deal with new games, especially after playing a Japanese or Spanish version of a game- me and my brother played this card based DBZ rpg that is still a lot better than most modern DBZ games- and though we couldn't understand what the game told us, we could understand the cards and what was going on- (more stars or fireballs on the cards meant they were more powerful, if we picked bad cards or didn't use strong enough cards with weak party members, there would be a battle cutscene showing the attack proving ineffective, or worse, Frieza counter-curb stomping yamcha.)

We managed to beat that entire game, AND figure out how to get secret stuff on our own, like managing to defeat Raditz, Nappa, and Vegita without letting anybody die, so then we had a full party to level up on Namek! And then Yamcha was curb stomping Recoome.

Now that I'm older and richer (in theory) I actually bought physical copies of anything I ever emulated on my family's first Windows 98 pc, from Kirby's Adventure to all the other NES classics.

I do find that because of this, most of the "cool hip mcawesome" retro games or "gamer history games" like FF7 and Tactics and Ultima, I've only recently begun playing, as it took awhile before I had a playstation or a pc version or a cheap/free version. I beat FF7 in College, on my third year!

Chrono Trigger I beat early though, same with Super Metroid. Also, getting called out on my actions in the Faire during Chrono Trigger scared the BS out of me, as y'know, we all tried EVERYTHING in that faire to push the plot forward, and it turns out apparently everything we did was Illegal enough to get us the death sentence.

Illusion of Gaia is a game where I NEVER got past that STUPID Demon head first boss until my junior year of High School, and then discovered how AWESOME that game was and could be! That, and I thought the game was broken during the "raft section" for the same reason Tactics Lion didn't beat Chrono Trigger when he picked it up, because the game was using an unseen timer and few other games ever do anything in real time, even today!

[Roland]

As a little kid, I thought Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest was impossible. I would get all the way to Falls Basin, push those blocks up into corners, and then shrug because I had no idea what to do after that.

And yet my friends still thought I was badass for being able to beat the Flamerus Rex.

Man, those were the days...

[Shyria Dracnoir]

The first email I sent on my own was through my AOL Kids account in early middle school to Insomniac Games asking where to find the very last dragon in Lofty Towers in the original Spyro the Dragon.

[Seil]

[Ecks]

i was too broke even for that. i basically had to figure it out on my own or hope i could get a game guide.

also... from here on out many people will not understand the nintendo power reference. sadface.

[Revising Ocelot]

I used to be scared watching my older brother play Super Mario World through the ghost houses with Big Boos, and Bowser would literally make me leave the room.

4-year-old me was a wimp.

[Bells]

isn't there a better source for that commentary that is not needed of CAD posting? =/

That being said, it WAS awesome figuring stuff out on my own. Even games today (much more rare, but still) do that. I loved learning to parkour on my on playing Warframe, made me feel super badass...

On the other end, i got bored with Metroid and frustrated with Castlevania cause one was too much for my child-sized noggin and the other had some goddamn bullshit staircases....

By the time i played Symphony of the night i would Moonwalk with Alucard all over those stairs just cause i COULD

[Bard The 5th LW]

I think the first game I ever just legit beat on my own was Super Mario 64. Games were hard as a kid! I was just content to play them. I dont have nearly the patience for some games now as I did back then. My first game was Duck Hunt on my Grandparent's NES, I also had Mega Man 3 and Zelda II but then Grandpa took it back because he was just heartless. I never had a Sega Console, but I did have a big batch of sonic games on my computer, as well as some ancient point and clicks. My Dad had Half Life and it gave me nightmares at first but its one of my favorite games to go back and play now.