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What are your most formative games?

Dorothy LaRouge

Dorothy LaRouge

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Though they may no longer number among your favorite games, all of us have had video games that have shaped our personalities, tastes, and preferences.

What are yours? For me, Pokemon Ruby Version, Halo: Combat Evolved, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Ty the Tasmianian Tiger, Disco Elysium, and most recently Persona 5 Royal are the games that I would count as most formative.
 
If we only talk about games that I don't like as much anymore (or at least have no desire to replay), then probably Unreal and Unreal Tournament (the first ones). They shaped my love for sci-fi games with specific vibes.
 
I stopped playing a few years ago due to not being able to commit as much time as I used to, but World of Warcraft was my first experience playing an MMO with a big world, and it's probably the only video game that I've played consistently on-and-off for more than a decade. My kid brain was in awe when I first started as a blood elf in the Eversong Woods... that place seemed so massive back then, sigh...
 
Probably Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage, and Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back. Both were pretty much my introduction to gaming and Spyro 2 was my very first game ever. Sure, I still play Spyro 2 and Crash 2 (especially since their trilogies got remasters that make them far more playable and enjoyable) but I don't love them the same way I used to back when I first got them. Still, they hold special places in my heart for being the door that opened up my love for gaming that has remained part of my core being to this day.
 
Mario Kart Wii got me into online forums and the online community. I wouldn’t say I’m into competitive Mario Kart, but I do play for fun online.

I’d most likely play competitively if I were better, lmao.
 
*Pokémon Red
*Super Mario 64
*Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen, and it's sequel Tactics Ogre
*Age of Empires
*Earthbound
*Zelda: Link to the Past/Ocarina of time (a bit of both in different ways)
*Romance of the Three Kingdoms VII
 
Mixed-Up Mother Goose - I believe this was the first video game I ever played, which would make it very formative to me for that reason alone. Other notable earliest games I played in my childhood were other DOS games, including: Commander Keen, Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure, and the Star Wars: X-Wing series, amongst others.

Star Wars Episode I: Racer (N64) - the first console game my family owned (along with the Nintendo 64 being the first console, obviously).

Pokémon Blue - the first video game I had on my Game Boy Color, which was my first handheld gaming system (that wasn't a standalone handheld), and the first game I personally owned. It didn't introduce me to the Pokémon franchise as a whole, but it sure started my love for the video game series and the primary reason I got every following Nintendo handheld system, up till the Switch.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - The was essentially the game that turned me into the gamer that I am today.
 
Pokemon Red is the game that made handheld gaming a thing for me as a kid. I had my Gameboy before then but it never had anything that could hold my attention for too long.

Animal Crossing (GCN) is the first game that comes to mind as a whole, though. I adored the focus on creativity (decorating the house) and socialization with the villagers. It felt like the first game that was ever tailored to me.

The Sims 1 and further games also had a similar effect. Although The Sims 1's sim gameplay was too frustrating for me, and I didn't really get into that until The Sims 2 where it was a lot more chill. I loved building in The Sims 1. From The Sims 2 on it became a combination of sim and building gameplay. It feels like dollhouse stuff that I had never to grow up from. xD
 
For me, despite the fact that I played video games at times earlier in my life, though most of them were sports games of some sort, I would say that the formative games for me were Super Mario World, Super Mario 64, and Pokémon Yellow as my first Pokémon game and the game that really got me into the franchise. While I played some other contemporary games to Super Mario World, most of them were based on TV and cartoon franchises that I already liked and didn't actually get me into those franchises like the Mario and Pokémon games did for me with those two franchises.
 
Childhood: Pokemon Emerald, Kingdom Hearts, Smash Bros, Jump Ultimate Stars, Persona 3 Portable, Devil Survivor
Pokemon and Kingdom Hearts were the template for a lot of childhood fantasies.
Smash Bros and Jump Ultimate Stars were the blueprint for which franchises to explore more of, cementing me as a Nintendo & Weekly Shounen Jump fan for life. I would not have played Fire Emblem, Earthbound, Kirby, F-Zero nor Xenoblade if it were not for Smash Bros. JUS got me into JoJo, Gintama, One Piece, Fist of the North Star, Neuro, and Bobobo. Both series are crossover fighters, which also got me interested in other crossover games as well.

Adulthood: Hades 1 & 2, Devil May Cry 5, Guilty Gear, Shin Megami Tensei
Hades reawoke my interest in Greek Mythology, because of it I have so many translated Greek epics & plays on my shelf as well as all the Percy Jackson books.
SMT & DMC I got into thanks to exploring Persona in my teens.
 
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