5 Games I Wish I Could Play for the First Time Again

   There's nothing like playing a great game for the first time. Some games are so good that you want to rocket jump right into that new game and keep on going. But you can never really recapture that first time. It's gone forever. Hopefully you were able to take your time to enjoy it, instead of rushing through to make some sort of deadline, or just because you're crazy. (I'm not saying I'm not, for the record.) Some games can be played again and again, and are fun every time. But some games, I would argue only a few, are better that very first time.
   Presented here is a list of the 5 games I most desperately wish I could club myself and forget, just to remember them all over again. I'd have them in a stack with a sticky note that simply states "Play these, you'll love 'em."  Hopefully the brain damaged me won't decided to cast away video games in exchange for a new found religion; perhaps the Cult of Skarro will be looking for new members.
   Without further ado, I present the games I'd totally go Eternal Sunshine for.

List items

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  1. Metroid Prime

  No game, and I mean no game, has done to me what this game has. I wasn't big into the Metroid series as a kid (and I'm still not to fond of the ones that came before Prime), and First Person Shooters were never really my bag. But there was a trailer for this game that made me think "Alright, I'll give it a rent, see how it is." Love at first sight does not begin to describe my feelings for this game. From the attention to the tiniest of details, including rain drops on my arm cannon and steam on my visor, to that first epic boss fight with the Parasite Queen, Metroid Prime immersed me into a world like no other game has been able to since. And isn't that the point of video games? Well that and to have fun. Metroid had that in spades.

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  2. Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem

  I remember sitting in the basement "living room" I set up next to my bedroom, all the lights out, and me and my friend playing Eternal Darkness. I was traversing the mansion looking for clues to the grisly murder of my grandfather, Edward, when I decided to arbitrarily look in a bathtub.

  Nothing, not video game or movie, has ever been able to make me jump out of my chair like what happened then.

  Eternal Darkness forwent the standard Survival Horror of scaring you with blindingly dark corridors, and went with a real cerebral approach. On top of that, and just for kicks, the game would spend most of it's time fucking with you, making you think your GameCube went blue-screen-o'-death, or tricking you into believing somebody was sitting on the remote. The game is brilliant, pure and simple, and is still better on that first, sweet time through.

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  3. Resident Evil 4

  Never mind the rest of the game, I just wish I could relive that first time I played the Village scene in the first chapter of the game. Holy fuck that was intense. However, at this point, I also wish I could just play the game again without the knowledge that I have now. I've played this game more times than I can remember, and I know every nook and cranny of it. Even Professional mode offers nothing challenging for me, even if I just one-gun it. I want that innocence of my youth back. While we're at it, I'd love the past 5 years of my life back, as well. Just saying. (While I'm thinking about it: Yes, the Wii version is the best.)

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  4. Chrono Trigger

  Perhaps this one doesn't quite belong on this list because I beat it for the first time just 2 days prior to writing this (10/13/'09) I've begun reaping the benefits of it's well-designed New Game feature, and yet, I kind of already miss the first time I met those incredible characters, the first time I watched as Lavos burst from the ground to rain hot death upon the world, the first time I renamed my time machine TARDIS. (Epoch? Really? Pft.) Chrono Trigger was one of the most remarkable games I've played, even if I'm roughly 15 years late to the party. (The DS version is perfection.)

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  5. Super Mario 64

  Alright. I thought about it long and hard (teehee), and I have to put this game on here, even if it's not even necessarily for the right reason. I don't necessarily want to play this game again for the first time; I want to feel like I did when I played this game for the first time. No console release, no matter how awesome, was quite as revolutionary as the launch of the N64. It was, and really I don't think anyone can argue this, the most important game thing to happen to 3D gaming. Moving Mario around that third dimension for the first time was downright fucking magical. It may not be at the top of this list, but few things can top the 20 minutes I spent pulling Mario's face around in the 3rd dimension. Fucking magical.