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Thread: Gamestruck4- A Concept Too Big For NiTwit-ters

  1. Gamestruck4- A Concept Too Big For NiTwit-ters

    I didn't do this on Twitter because it would be too much work and not enough space and on Twitter I'd have already lost interest in this sentence by the time I read far enough to see Twitter written the first time. And maybe some of us aren't on Twitter.
    Pick four games that defined your love of gaming, whatever the fuck that's supposed to mean. Just pick four games that meant a lot to you, post them, and maybe post what made them special to you so this doesn't turn into a boring list of four titles and nothing else.


    Demon Attack- Intellivision

    The first game system in our house was a Pong, and that was sort of fun, until my brother (who is 8 years old than I) would hit me in the arm or snatch the console away (built in paddles guys!) and fuck me up. He got an Intellivision in 83 or 84 and while I had to sneak play time on it since he was/is a fucking douche, the fun I had playing Demon Attack was worth the beating I'd get when he found out I messed with his stuff. I would have been 6 or 7 at this time and probably played a Pac Man arcade or something, but nothing like Demon Attack. There were waves of enemies like Space Invaders, but only a few at a time. It was much more manageable. After so many kills, the enemies would change. That's so cool! Then there was the mother ship. What the fuck is going on here? Not only was there a seemingly endless stream of little guys homing right in on you (of course they weren't endless, there was always a break in the line eventually,so you could get out of being trapped against the edge of the screen), but you had to shoot through moving lines of barriers to get a kill shot in. THIS IS AMAZING! Demon Attack is what ignited my love of video games.

    Phantasy Star - Master System

    I've shared the story a million times on here, but here it is again. Whenever I talk to customers about the first game systems owned, I always state I had the Master System while everyone had the Nintendo because I was poor. That's true, but there's more to the story. When I was to enter the 4th grade (which was the fall 1986), my parents took me out of public school and put me in a private Christian school. 90% of the kids there were from fairly well to do families and the rest were from families that scrimped and saved to afford the tuition so their offspring would get a better education. We weren't super poor or anything, my dad had a good job at Kodak, but we definitely lived at the lower end of middle class. Some may say my dad still has the first dollar he ever earned if you catch my meaning. Anyway, the kids at school would swap nintendo carts. As I made friends with the other boys, I'd eventually get asked why I never brought anything to swap. Not wanting to say I didn't have a Nintendo (or any system) of my own, I lied and said I had a Sega Master system. Even though I didn't have a system, I studied the catalogs and whatever game mags I could find at the time, so I knew my shit even then. I don't remember the timing of when I finally got a Master System, but I do recall having a sleep over before that happened and having to explain that I didn't have any system. That kinda sucked. But there were plenty of arcade games around to play at the grocery stores and pizza shops and my mom kept us in quarters so everyone still had fun that weekend.

    I did get a Master System eventually. Even though I could have probably gotten a NES, the SMS seemed better to me. The graphics were way better than what Nintendo had, and the SMS had the games I knew from the arcade. Shinobi was an absolute favorite of mine. Space Harrier? Outrun? Come on...Besides, my friends had nintendo. I could play Mario whenever I wanted at one of their houses. My mom bought me the Hang On/ Safari Hunt package as well as Thunderblade. I was soooo goddamn excited to play it. We hooked it up and...nothing. We even called one of my parents friends over to figure out what we were doing wrong. He assured us that everything was hooked up correctly, but there was no power to the machine. I was devastated. Mom took the system back and exchanged it the next day, but that had to be the longest 24 hours in my life. I took that copy of Thunderblade to school to show my friends, hey, I finally got a system! Another sleepover was probably scheduled soon after. It was probably 1990 or so that I found out that a friend of a friend in town had a Master System as well. I'd amassed probably a dozen games or so by now, but if this kid had different stuff than I then we could swap! We hung out a few times, got to know each other (he was easily 4 years old than me) and he let me borrow this cool looking medieval thing called Phantasy Star. "Adventure Role-Playing" the cover said. I'd never played a "Role Playing" game before, but from mags like Video Games and Computer Entertainment I was aware of stuff like Ultima and Might and Magic. And I'd seen Final Fantasy at a friend's house, but that wasn't very fun to sit and watch someone play. None of those games looked like this though. It took three weeks and probably 80 hours, but I eventually beat Phantasy Star. I'd never played anything like it. This game had a story- actually in the game. Usually any story elements came from a game's instruction manual. Sure, there were a few weapons you could upgrade to in Rastan, but they didn't last. This game had DOZENS of weapons. And equipment! Other games talked of exploring different worlds, but they were just different levels. YOU ACTUALLY TAKE A SPACE SHIP TO DIFFERENT PLANETS IN THIS GAME HOLY FUCK I HAVE BEEN TO THE MOUNTAIN. I HAVE SEEN PARADISE. THIS IS AMAZING. Phantasy Star is what ignited my love of role playing games.

    Lunar: The Silver Star - Sega CD

    Though I started with a Master System, my next system was to be a Turbografx. This again had to do with finances, but it also had to do with availability of the Genesis at my best friend's house. I had $100 to spend. Sega recently dropped the price of the Genesis 2 with no game to $99.99. I was in Toys R Us looking at the games section. Sure were a lot of good looking Genesis games to play...But I would have to wait for a game. All I could get was just the system. So then I started looking at this Turbografx thing. I'd read about it a bit in EGM, but it never seemed to get much coverage. But it was only $69.99 and it came with a game. A lot of the games seemed to be in the $30 range too. I could get a Genesis and stare at it, or I could get a Turbo and two games. I started looking for a second game. Then I saw it. HOLY FUCK. THAT GAME LOOKS LIKE THE STREET FIGHTER GAME I PLAY AT THE PIZZA SHOP. What the hell is a Fighting Street? No idea, but that is definitely Ryu on the cover and Mike's stage as the background image. I grabbed the ticket for the system and the ticket for the game and, beaming like a moron, paraded my way to the register. The lady at the register scanned the ticket for the system and then told me, "Um, you need another thing to play this game. It's a cd game, not a cart." I was devastated! I sheepishly said ok and went back for another game. I ended up picking...victory run. Now, I'd bought some duds before but I always managed to have fun with all my Master System games eventually. Victory Run was the first game I truly did not enjoy playing. Eventually the SNES came out and a year or so later mom bought one for me. I traded my TG16 and about 30 games to a local game store. I got $60 credit which I used to get Turtles IV. My friend and I beat Turtles the first time we played it. I was never so disappointed, and I vowed to never make such a dumb trade again in my life. Meanwhile, I played most of the best of the Genesis at my buddy's house, so again I had the best of all worlds.

    All this is preamble to get to the point that my first Genesis was a CDX. My memory is foggy on this, but I recall talking my mom into getting it for me as a graduation present to justify the $400 price tag (graduated in 1994) yet at the same time I know I took it to school to use as a portable CD player. She must have bought it for me as an early graduation gift. For whatever reason, I'd gotten it into my head that though the thing could play Genesis games there was no reason to play pfft CARTRIDGE games on it. CD games were the future! I remember when my chick and I started dating in 1995 I'd bring the CDX to her house and she'd play Sonic CD. Anyway, there was a bunch of hub bub about an RPG for the CD called Lunar. I don't think it was my first Sega CD game, but it was definitely in the first few. How glorious this game was. A huge world to explore, REAL MUSIC, REAL VOICE, and omg the cut scenes. Of course looking back, those cut scenes weren't much better than the Ninja Gaiden still frames. There's hardly any animation at all. But gotdamn did I love them. This game was Phantasy Star cranked to 11. There was so much more meat to the story, and so much emotion. I legit cried when Luna kept blasting Alex at the end. I recall harassing the guys at Babbages to see if Eternal Blue had released yet. I liked that game too, but not as much as Silver Star. Come to think of it, I don't believe I ever beat the Sega CD Eternal Blue. Using magic experience to save really fucked with my min max ocd. I think I ended up dying at some point where I'd not saved in quite some time and never went back to it. Anyway, Lunar is what cemented my love of role playing games.

    Final Fantasy VII - Playstation

    Though I had a brief affair with the Super Nintendo, and really dug my TG16, the CDX helped plant me firmly in the "I'm a Sega Fanboy" camp. When the Saturn and Playstation launched, I knew I'd be getting the Saturn eventually. Fuck Sony. The only good looking games coming for Playstation are the ones from (ugh) Namco, and I fucking hated Namco. To my eyes, Sega was the king of the arcade and Namco did nothing but rip Sega's ideas off. Sure, their games may look better/flashier, but how hard is it to put a shiny coat of paint on something someone else invented in the first place? Besides, the game I was really looking forward to was Tomb Raider, and that was originally announced for the Saturn. Being the frugal guy I am, it took a while for me to get a Saturn. In fact, it wasn't until Tomb Raider came out. Sega had recently started giving out Daytona, Virtua Cop, and Virtua Fighter when you bought a system too. I went to the mall and looked over the Saturn packages. AWE YEAH! There was a bundle for $229.99 that came with Sega Rally. Daytona was alright, but it was Sega Rally that took all my money when I went to the arcade. There was just something about racing around "real world" locations that interested me so much more than going around a boring track. So fuck Sony. I'm spending less than $300 and going home with FIVE OF THE BEST GAMES EVER! I went home, hooked the Saturn up, input the time and date, and popped in Tomb Raider. After all this waiting, I was finally going to play one of the most immersive games ever. I loved exploration (hey, rpg fan remember?) and now I'm going to do it in actual THREE DEEEEE!
    I started playing. GOT DAMN! This is one of the ugliest games I've ever seen. Jesus Christ these controls are not fun. I remember jumping into some water, having to throw a switch under the water, and constantly drowning because I couldn't get Lara in place to throw the switch. I turned the game off and never tried playing it again. Didn't need to! I had Sega Rally, Virtua Cop, and though I sucked at it- it sure was pretty- Virtua Fighter 2 to play. Over the next year many great games followed. Yet some envy began to build as well.

    It seemed like you couldn't watch MTV for five minutes without seeing a Final Fantasy VII commercial. Game mags were plastered with ads and previews. This game looked fucking HOT. I never played much of FF1, it looked like trash compared to Phantasy Star so why would I? I also never played Final Fantasy III either. It looked cool, but I'd moved on from pfft cartridge games by the time it launched. I did play (and love) Final Fantasy II though. Shit, I cried during that game too. Poor Palom and Porom. There was no other way around it. I was going to have to buy an (ugh) Playstation. Wiki tells me that FFVII launched 1/31/97. I know I bought a Playstation and FFVII the day it launched. That means my son had just turned 1 eighteen days previous, and my chick was two months pregnant with my daughter. I couldn't wait to play this god damn game. It was going to be SO FRICKIN AWESOME. I started playing. I don't remember the opening cut scene, but there probably was one. I probably thought it was awesome. But then I started playing the game. I thought the backgrounds looked like ass. I hated how flat they all looked. And the character models! Sure, they look alright in battle but I hate RPG battles. Especially disc based rpg battles, waiting for shit to load in and load out. I JUST WANT TO EXPLORE BEAUTIFUL WORLDS AND THESE WORLDS LOOK LIKE ASS. I don't remember exactly where I was in the game when I quit, but one of the last things I remember doing was getting Yuffie. This is what I get for buying an ugh Playstation. Fuck Sony. Final Fantasy VII is what diminished my love of role playing games.

    Bravely Default - 3DS

    By this time, there wasn't a US released game system or RPG released for them that I didn't own. Yet it was becoming far more status quo for me to be excited for a game, buy it, then never find the time to actually play it. RPGs being my preferred genre didn't help. They just took up too much time and so much of that time was spent doing the shit I HATED doing- endless grinding for money and experience. I just wanted a cool story and interesting world to explore. I was basically done with RPGs. Then I started hearing (probably here on TNL) about this weird 3DS game stupidly called Bravely Default. I've been typing this out for over two hours now, so I'm burnt out on the nostalgia/history lessen. But this game seemed to have everything I could ever want from an RPG. Fun battle system? Check. Interesting job system? Check. Battles that can be over in seconds thanks to input memory and fast forward? Check. BATTLES THAT CAN BE TURNED OFF SO I CAN WANDER THE DUNGEON WITHOUT A RANDOM ENCOUNTER EVERY TWO STEPS??!!MUTHAFUCKINGCHECK. This game was glorious. Cute visuals, fun dialog, fantastic game system. I hadn't really enjoyed an RPG since I can't remember when. I had finally recaptured that feeling of I-can't-wait-to-play-the-game-again-oh-god-why-must-I-work-I'd-rather-be-playing-games that I hadn't really felt since Lunar. Not even the letdown that everyone warned me about that came with the mid game twist was really a let down. It took me 40 hours to reach that point and they were 40 of the best hours I ever spent playing a game because I was allowed to explore when I wanted to, fight when I wanted to, build my characters the way I wanted to, and just have fucking fun. It was like true freedom. It was divine. Bravely Default is the game that reinvigorated my love of role playing games.

    Fuck you, I know that's five games. The first one is just introduction.
    Also, fuck you IP. I could have been playing Suikoden IV this whole time.
    Last edited by Some Stupid Japanese Name; 25 Apr 2018 at 06:32 PM.

  2. Nice.

  3. I like this idea for a thread. I'm going to work on my list and hopefully get it either later today or early tomorrow.
    You sir, are a hideous hermaphroditical character which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.

  4. #4
    See, bbobb does have a heart.

  5. Don't believe the lies.
    You sir, are a hideous hermaphroditical character which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.

  6. I'm not going to write a ton about any of them.

    Gyruss (C64 port) - As a kid, I was fascinated with numbers and measurement. I liked calculators, my grandfather's slide rules, playing cards, all of that kind of stuff. So at 4 years old, I was amazed that I could manipulate things on a screen, have instant feedback regarding my performance, and could demonstrate reasonable improvement over time. It was the first game I remember playing.

    Super Mario Bros. (NES) - I spent a lot of time at daycare drawing levels in an attempt to make something that good.

    Unreal Tournament (PC) - I played this way too much. It blended gameplay and socializing. I met people in real life over this game, and our team was quite good at it. Quake 3 is better, and in hindsight, this game might have ruined my life.

    Deus Ex (PC) - Maybe a little unfair, since it falls under "superlative" to me, and less of a first or some such. I argue that this game is still the high-water mark for sustained excellence in a video game; that is, it is a very long game with very few lulls, high replayability. Most 10 hour games can't keep up their quality, and I think this game does that for over 3 times that amount. Some systems are kinda broken though.

  7. Quote Originally Posted by Joust Williams View Post
    I'm not going to write a ton about any of them.
    I'm not asking/expecting anyone to write a ton. I just don't want to see shit like

    Gyruss (C64 port)
    Super Mario Bros. (NES)
    Unreal Tournament (PC)
    Deus Ex (PC)
    I really wish first person perspective games didn't fuck with me physically and give me headaches. Deus Ex has always sounded like something I could really get into.

  8. Frogger (DOS, 1984 Sega-Sierra port) - first game I ever spent any time with, first 'manipulating a character on a screen' anything I can recall. Played on a cousin's computer. I got good at it within a day, and I've had a strong preference for reflex-based action games ever since.

    Street Fighter II (Arcade, 1991) - something of an obsession from the first time seeing someone pull off a fireball on purpose. The amount of direct commands you could make your character perform was way beyond any other game up to that point, from jumping and ducking attacks, different throws depending on if you hit punch or kick, and totally different attacks depending on the button pressed. Totally unmatched character mobility, and that's before even getting on to the special moves. If you knew how to pull off a shoryuken before it was all over the magazines you could run the machine for *hours*. I couldn't pass an SFII machine without putting a quarter in, even if there was a line. Total quantum leap in game design, it built on lots of different elements that were already out there and just made them work together like nothing had before. Genres very rarely get to advance this much this quickly.

    Ghostbusters (NES) - the first game I really and truly knew was a Bad Game. I saw the ad in the paper, I had saved lawn mowing money for it, I was so excited about the familiar Ghostbusters logo on the box when it came out from behind the counter at Service Merchandise, and I was thrilled to read the manual on the ride home. I knew something was wrong when the cartridge screamed GOZZBAHZZAA, and nothing was ever right again. I'd played mediocre games before (Little Ninja Bros! Dinowarz!) but GB was the first one that I really grew to hate. Of course, this being the early days for me it was one of four games that I had, so I hate-played it a LOT. Total garbage movement, unclear goals, stages that would end suddenly for no reason, and those god-awful stairs. I am now allergic to the NES version of that theme song. The other ports of the game could be good, but I'll never know. Never again, you monster.

    Gunstar Heroes (Genesis) - if you didn't get the fruit roll-up with your copy, all your shit's fake and you should give up on games. It was delicious.
    Quote Originally Posted by Razor Ramon View Post
    I don't even the rage I mean )#@($@IU_+FJ$(U#()IRFK)_#
    Quote Originally Posted by Some Stupid Japanese Name View Post
    I'm sure whatever Yeller wrote is fascinating!

  9. #9
    I just did this the other day at another site so I will just cut and paste.


    How to narrow this down? It's almost impossible but I used these criteria:

    - 1 Nintendo game, 1 Sega game
    - 2 Western-made games, 2 Eastern-made games
    - 2 2d games, 2 3d games
    - I was born in 1975 and I wanted to choose the generations I grew up with from around age 5 to 25, so from around 1980 to 2000.


    Donkey Kong is the perfect representative of Nintendo for me. It's the game that made me a Nintendo fan, the game that introduced Mario, and it spans everything from arcades to Game & Watch to generations of consoles and portables. As a kid I would draw game characters like Donkey Kong and Q*bert while in class.


    Fist: The Legend Continues was a major game of my Commodore 64 youth. I wanted to include a game that has hardcore difficulty and has faded into obscurity. I have always been a fan of underdogs so there needed to be at least one on my list. The second Way of the Exploding Fist game was a both a regular fighting game and an ambitious non-linear action-adventure with incredible music and atmosphere.


    Deus Ex is my favourite game of all time so it needed to be here. I consider it a milestone in player choice-based game design and it changed my perspective on the medium in general.


    Shenmue is the perfect representative of Sega, the company that has probably provided me with more games I love than any other. Shenmue felt like the ultimate combo of Sega's ambition and also a tribute to their '80s/'90s past with the arcade games and capsule toy nods to Sonic, Shinobi, Virtua Fighter, Space Harrier, Fantasy Zone, NiGHTS, Alex Kidd, etc..

    Phantasy Star blew my mind (and pretty much everyone else's who got to play it back then). InTV Demon Attack was also a major game of my youth so it's cool to see it listed. Unreal Tournament is the online multiplayer game I have played the most.
    Last edited by NeoZeedeater; 25 Apr 2018 at 07:16 PM.

  10. SSJN has two of my favorites, Phantasy Star and Lunar CD.

    I will add one at a time as my attention span isn't what it used to be.

    Civilization (PC): The original is still my favorite even though it is quite primitive to play now. I was just so addicted to this and came out when I was in college. I probably wasted a whole semester playing this game instead of studying. I did always ended up going military as I enjoy nuking the shit out of the different civilizations. Having those famous world leaders was an ingenious idea, I just want to fuck up Gandhi and Stalin all day.

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