If you have been playing video games long enough there was probably an experience that hooked you. Maybe it made you buy a system, or it was a demo that made you crave that game. So what was you "hot" experience where after playing that thing you knew you had found something that was important for buying a system or picks up the game day-one?
For me it was playing a Japanese copy of Gran Turismo. I had just started working at EB Games (big retail chain in the US). One of the guys at work had bought an import copy of Gran Turismo, I didn't know this guy well, but he invited me over after work to see it. This was a few months before the game would come out in the United States. I was blown away by the game and knew I had to buy it o day one. I was already a Playstation fan from games like NBA Shootout, Tekken 2, Tomb Raider, Rage Racer; however, I think GT was the first game where I felt like nothing else was going to touch PlayStation. I even think Japanese GT was the very first game I played on the new Sony DualShock controller.
I still think Gran Turismo is my favorites PSX game of all time. I played every single race, won every single cup, and earned every car in the first game. The second game looked better, but I still love the first game more.
I was hugely susceptible to video game magazine ads back in the day, and when GamePro or EGM started running ads for Tekken 2, I wanted to know what that game was with a passion. I loved Street Fighter - my brother and I must have rented Super Street Fighter II a dozen times, at least - and to a lesser extent games like World Heroes, and I wanted the next big fighting game thing. Our parents asked us if they bought us a PlayStation what one game we might want. My brother picked Twisted Metal 2 for much the same reason as me and I picked Tekken 2. Both were the right choices.
Lunar: The Silver Star ads blew my mind. I literally sold my NES, all my games and accessories (including Power Glove and Power Pad) to buy a Sega CD. Maybe a poor choice in retrospect, but that intro song alone was totally worth it.
Daytona USA on Saturn. It was an amazing port of the arcade version. My friends and I played that so much that we actually broke the ball off of an arcade stick.
Persona 3:FES got me back into gaming after a lull of mostly playing sports games, and not often at that.
Guitar Hero had a real wow factor, particularly playing "Message in a Bottle" for the first time. That led me to a Rock Band in a Box and about 1000 DLC songs.
For, it had to be Final Fantasy 7. Long ago, in the far back past of 1996, I was just a wee lad. My neighborhood friends were the ones who introduced me to Final Fantasy with the two games on SNES (4&6). So that really primed me for the 'JRPG' experience. I had never played a RPG before, so the concept of 'leveling up' and exploring a entire world was such a unique experience from the typical 'platformer' or 'beat em up' games I was used to. When the marketing blitz for this game hit, I was hooked. I remember the lead up to its release very well, even though it was been almost a lifetime ago. Every time my mom would go grocery shopping I would go with her so I could stroll to the magazine racks, looking to see if there was a new edition of Gamepro, EGM, or even Gamefan magazine (remember that?) with any new screenshots or information. I grew up in a low income household, so dropping $50 on a new PS game out of the blue was completely out of the question. So when September 7th, 1997 rolled up, I was always lingering in the Wal-Mart video game section, drooling at the sealed copies behind the sliding glass door.
If I remember correctly, I finally remember being able to actually play the game maybe a two months later, sometime before Thanksgiving. I went with my father to the grocery store (which was kind of my favorite thing to do), and since I was doing better in school, my dad let me rent a game at the local video game store. I had tried to rent FF7 a few times before, but for those of us who grew up in the 90s, finding a hot new release at a video rental store was a exercise in futility. I actually remember the two failed attempts at renting FF7 and the games I chose as back ups: Jet Moto and Blazing Dragons. I can not express the feelings of disappointment playing those games instead of Final Fantasy 7.
I was able to rent the game for the weekend, and I think I got to the 2nd disc when I had to return it. You can not understand the level of disappointment having to return something you have coveted for that long as a kid. I finally got the game for Christmas later that year, and I probably restarted it again after I beat it. Then sometime after that, we had internet access and I figured out how to beat all of the Weapons and secret materia and all of the fun side stuff.
Funny enough I am actually playing this game again, this time on Steam. I know this game like the back of my hand, so it's sort of more of something I do just to enjoy the ambience of, more so than 'play' in the sense of being a challenge. I honestly do not know if I will ever feel the way about video games than I did in the PS/N64 era. There were so many games in that era that just blew me away. Everything from Goldeneye, Tomb Raider, Ocarina Of Time, the list goes on and on. Final Fantasy 7 will always be the pinnacle of that era for me, and more than likely my number 1 most favorite video game of all time.
@monkeyking1969: I still really love the original Gran Turismo for PS1, even though the driving physics are pretty arcade for today's standards of racing games.
A friend rented a PlayStation and Twisted Metal for a sleepover. And our lives were forever changed.
Twisted Metal 1 and 2 are both good games when they both came out, if there is a new installment of Twisted Metal for PS5, I hope it won't end up like Twisted Metal 2012 for PS3 in terms of plot.
@gtxforza: I was initially disappointed with Twisted Metal 2012 because the plot was trying way too hard to be dark, and most of the original characters weren't there. But everything else about the game is absolutely fantastic. After using "Race" controls is 2012, it's hard for me to got back to the older games.
@gtxforza: I was initially disappointed with Twisted Metal 2012 because the plot was trying way too hard to be dark, and most of the original characters weren't there. But everything else about the game is absolutely fantastic. After using "Race" controls is 2012, it's hard for me to got back to the older games.
I agree that Twisted Metal 2012 has good gameplay.
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