This is a list of the video games that made me the gamer I am today, in no particular order. These are games that made me a fan of certain genres and helped develop my current taste in video games. I stole this idea from the "Internal Affairs" podcast.
Sonic 2 was the first game I ever played in my life and I think it is pretty cool.
When I was a young lad the only games I played on my PC were education games like Reader Rabbit, Math Blaster, and Fisher Price's Great Adventures series. One day my brother brought home a non-education PC game called "Day of the Tentacle." The game was very popular in my house hold and almost every time my brother played it the whole family would watch. We'd laugh at every joke and try our best to help solve the obtuse puzzles. I have many fond memories of "Day of the Tentacle" and it helped make adventure games one of my favorite genres.
I loved the Sonic games on the Genesis when I was growing up, even Spinball, but without a doubt "Sonic & Knuckles" was my favorite out of all of them. Every numbered Sonic title on the Genesis had annoying levels, such as the water zones, but every level in "Sonic & Knuckles" was entertaining and creative. Every boss was unique, the graphics were great, and the game even told a fun little story through its short vignettes in-between acts. I no longer care much for the Sonic franchise but whenever I play "Sonic & Knuckles" I'm reminded of everything I used to love about the series.
For the longest time when I was little the only video game console my family owned was my brother's Sega Genesis with about 4 or 5 games. Occasionally we'd rent other games but besides that it was mainly an all Sonic diet until the day my brother purchased "Rocket Knight Adventures." Rocket Knight for me is my ideal platformer with its fun rocket abilities, great music, and some of the most amazing boss battles I've ever played in a game. As I've gotten older I've played dozen of Genesis games but "Rocket Knight Adventures" is still my all time favorite.
Like I have mentioned before my family was a Genesis household when I was a boy so I rarely played any Nintendo games, besides the occasional Duck Hunt on the NES at my orthodontist. However later I became friends with a kid who owned a Super Nintendo and we played it together all the time. The title we enjoyed the most was Super Mario World because it had a cooperative mode so we could play together. I remember fighting tooth and nail to try and beat that game with my friend but we were never able to get very far, I believe we didn't even get to the second castle. But despite being horrible at the game, Super Mario World really stuck in my head and I would think about it all the time as a kid. I would look at the world map and imagine what kind of crazy levels existed there and the god-like skills it must require to beat them. Many years later, when my family had long since moved away from my friend, my younger brother got an SNES for his birthday and the first game we played together on it was Super Mario World. It took a while but we managed to beat Mario World and even unlock all of the secrets areas. Finally completing that game is still one of my favorite gaming memories.
Sonic CD was one of those games that I liked playing but what really captured me was the game's aesthetics. That opening animation sent chills down my spine when I first saw it and it ranked very high in my mental list of "Coolest Things I Have Ever Seen" for a long time as a kid. The music was weird, even spooky in the case of the boss theme, and it was unlike any Sonic game I had seen before with the levels completely changing their appearance whenever you time traveled. Also I owned the PC version of the game which contained clip art for every character and enemy in the game. They all sort of had an anime look to them since it was wasn't the redrawn artwork that was seen in the Genesis titles and I thought they looked so cool that I would often waste expensive ink cartages to print them all up. Honestly now I think Sonic CD is a little overrated, the level are just too big and complicated for their own good, but the look of that game is still something I really appreciate.
Back in 2008 I became very interested in the fan translation and freeware development communities. These interests along with the announcement of the WiiWare port lead me to discovering "Cave Story." This gem by Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya really touched my heart when I first played it. There are very few games that have so completely captured my imagination like "Cave Story" did and I have yet to play a game that I've enjoyed as much since. I can't properly explain way I loved "Cave Story" so much in this small paragraph but I'll just say that it is the kind of game where you can feel the care and love that the creator put into it. Thank you Pixel!
