Your Best Video Game Experiences Of All Time

I'm getting my ducks in a row to prep for my live stream this friday(4pm-10pm pacific at youtube.com/christiangeekcentral & embedded at christiangeekcentral.com), during which I'll be showcasing my favorite video games of all time. By that I don't necessarily mean the games I currently most love to play, but rather the video games that, when I played them, I enjoyed them far more than the average game and they left a lasting impression.

What video game or games would you mention as really standing out positively from all of your video game experiences? Why do they stand out to you?

I'm sure I won't get to them all on Friday, but some games on that list include:

(NES)
Dragon Warrior
Final Fantasy
(SNES)
Final Fantasy 3 (6 in Japan)
Chrono Trigger
(PS1)
Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night
(PS2)
Champions Of Norrath
Shadow Hearts
Justice League Heroes
Dragon Quest 8
(PC)
Neverwinter Nights
(Xbox 360)
Bioshock
Dragon Age: Origins
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

I'll wait till Friday to share why some of these stand out. In the meantime I'd be real curious to hear about the games you've played that really made a strong, lasting, positive impression!

Two stand-out video games for me were both on PS1 and both for the same reason. Shortly after college, a good friend made a weekend of it with me and we put the game in and didn't let up until it relented. Metal Gear Solid, and Silent Hill.

Thinking chronologically...

Atari 2600 (1980s)
Pacman
Breakout

Microbee (1980s)
Um ... whatever I coded in BASIC

PC (1990s)
King's Quest Series (particularly I through IV. Didn't plater subsequent games until much later)
Space Quest Series (particularly i through IV)
Day of The Tentacle
The Dig
Star Trek 25th Anniversary
Star Trek Judgement Rites
Star Trek: The Next Generation A Final Unity
Star Trek Deep Space Nine Harbinger

2000s
I didn't really play games

PS3 (2010s)
Uncharted series
Batman Arkum Asylum
Back To The Future: The Game
LA Noire
Minecraft

mindspike wrote:Two stand-out video games for me were both on PS1 and both for the same reason. Shortly after college, a good friend made a weekend of it with me and we put the game in and didn't let up until it relented. Metal Gear Solid, and Silent Hill.

I've heard those Meta Gear Solid games are amazing but also bonkers. Did it go crazy right from the start? Have you kept up with the series?

Silent Hill! I don't think I could handle it! If I remember correctly, that was kind of a new kind of horror game when it came out, going for a creepy vibe rather than just gore and jump scares like Resident Evil. Was it scary when you played it?

Oh! And what's the secret to reading people in LA Noir? My wife and I tried it and we kept reading people wrong during interrogations so... that didn't go well.

AdamCollings wrote:
Day of The Tentacle

Batman Arkum Asylum

I loved Maniac Mansion and bought DoTT on sale awhile back for PS4 & Vita, but I haven't gotten very far yet.

I have "giving the Arkham games another try" on my bucket list. A long time ago I tried the first one, failed/died and had to repeat material, so I quit. But I've built up my "Groundhog Day" tolerance a bit since then and also gotten used to Arkham-style combat in a couple other games, so I feel like i should give them another shot given how celebrated they are.

Did you play Maniac Mansion, and if so what did you think?

Have you played the other Arkham games? If so what did you think of them?

Reading people in LA Noir is hard, and despite having finished the game I still often got it wrong, but improved slowly over time.
My tips are:

1) If they're looking around all over the place and fidgeting, they're probably not being completely truthful.
2) When deciding between "doubt" and "lie", it all comes down to the evidence. If you have evidence that proves they are lying, choose lie. Otherwise, choose doubt.
3) Doubt may not be an outright untruth, it may just mean they're holding something back, and so you need to give them a firm prodding.

Paeter wrote:
I loved Maniac Mansion and bought DoTT on sale awhile back for PS4 & Vita, but I haven't gotten very far yet.

Did you play Maniac Mansion, and if so what did you think?

You must have the recent DoTT Remastered then. Sounds great. If you ever get stuck I can give you some subtle hints as I've played it through multiple times over the decades. It's a great mix of humour and interesting use of time-travel concepts. The game is at its best when you use time travel in clever ways to solve the problems.

Interestingly, in DoTT, there is a computer in Weird Ed's room. If you use that computer, it loads up the original Maniac Mansion. I've had a play around in it, but didn't get all that far. I haven't given it a go as an adult. I think as a teen, the more advanced technology, and time-travel plot of DoTT kept me from exploring MM too much. I should probably go back and give it another go.

I have "giving the Arkham games another try" on my bucket list. A long time ago I tried the first one, failed/died and had to repeat material, so I quit. But I've built up my "Groundhog Day" tolerance a bit since then and also gotten used to Arkham-style combat in a couple other games, so I feel like i should give them another shot given how celebrated they are.

Have you played the other Arkham games? If so what did you think of them?

I totally identify with you on the Groundhog Day thing, though I struggled with that a lot more on Uncharted than I did with Batman.
I played Arkum Asylum on the really easy level. Combat essentially became mashing the keys while Batman did amazing stuff.
The final boss fight had me beat, but I came back to it after letting it sit for over a year and passed it first time!
What's more interesting than the combat, is the bits where you hide in the ceiling, swoop down and silently take out the bad buys. Made me really feel like Batman, and reminded me of the scene in Batman Begins, where the crooks are looking about in terror, waiting for Batman to appear out of the shadows and get them.

I recently grabbed the second game, Arkum City from the bargain box at our local EB Games. Haven't played a lot of it yet, but it's very similar. Just a prison in the middle of Gotham City. I'm hoping to be able to explore more of Gotham and have more of an open world feeling. There's a bit at the beginning, where you're Bruce Wayne without the suit, which was kinda cool.

[quote="AdamCollings"]

Paeter wrote:
I played Arkum Asylum on the really easy level. Combat essentially became mashing the keys while Batman did amazing stuff.

My kind of game!!

Some of these are going to be pretty obscure and almost certainly Euro-centric, but the rest of you will just have to deal with that!

ZX81 (early 80s):
3D Monster Maze. This was the zeddie's killer app - just you, a random maze, and a hungry T Rex made of ASCII characters. A terrifying work of genius, frankly!

ZX Spectrum (mid 80s-early 90s):
Gauntlet. Many an hour was spent with my best pal playing through this together.
Magicland Dizzy. I loved all the Dizzy cartoon adventures, but I think this was the first one I played, and certainly the first I finished.
Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge. My favourite Spectrum racer, and I got good enough at it to get my Lotus Licence at the end of it!
Jet Set Willy. Well, it was the defining game of the Spectrum generation, and I literally wrote a short novel as an expression of gratitude to its creator (which you're free to read, but without a passing knowledge of JSW, it will all seem very bizarre!)

Amiga (1990s):
Kick Off 2. I hate soccer, and my preferred football game would have been Sensible World of Soccer, but there was a bunch of us would go and play this round Brian's place on a Wednesday afternoon (although he remembers it as Friday, but I digress). Social gaming again, and it was my introduction to the world of Amiga.
Worms. Another great multiplayer game, and a franchise that started on the Amiga and is probably still alive.
Lemmings. First had this on the Spectrum actually, which is technically mindboggling as I think it would run in 48k, but the Amiga version is pretty close to video game perfection - original, great looking, awesome soundtrack... Let's go!

PC (2000s):
Didn't do much PC gaming; Sim City 2000, Roller Coaster Tycoon (I was in my strategy phase) and the early-ish GTA games were pretty much it.

PS1 (2000s):
Gran Turismo 2, mainly because I like driving games, and this one had the options available to recreate my actual Mini of the time, add a ton of performance and beat much bigger cars!
Beyond that, my gaming nostalgia hasn't really extended into the PlayStation era yet.

WiiU (now):
Playing things like Ghostbusters and Back to the Future on Lego Dimensions with my kids - and by association introducing them to the movie franchises - has been a lot of fun over the last couple of years.

Beyond that, I'm not much of a gamer now, except when I get the time to fire up one of my retro systems - return to the start...

UKSteve wrote:
PC (2000s):
Didn't do much PC gaming; Sim City 2000, Roller Coaster Tycoon (I was in my strategy phase) and the early-ish GTA games were pretty much it.

Oh yes. Sim City 2000 was a lot of fun.
Which reminds me of a very significant item I forgot to put on my list.
CIVILISATION!

UKSteve wrote:Some of these are going to be pretty obscure and almost certainly Euro-centric, but the rest of you will just have to deal with that!

ZX81 (early 80s):
3D Monster Maze. This was the zeddie's killer app - just you, a random maze, and a hungry T Rex made of ASCII characters. A terrifying work of genius, frankly!

Makes me wish I was born just a little bit earlier and had a more computer oriented family. A friend showed me an ASCII game once in junior high and it looked so weird and bland to me, but I could also tell there was a ton of depth to it compared to NES games, which really intrigued me. I bet if I'd been just a little older the graphics wouldn't have been an issue and I would have recognized the gold mine of PC games at that time and in the early 90's.

My best gaming experiences came in the arcade. My first recollection of playing an arcade game was while living in Germany. It was Space Invaders. This was probably in 1980.

My brother and I used to stop by this laundromat and if we power-cycled a Q*Bert cabinet and held down the 1P and 2P buttons we could get a free game.

Galaga was my jam. Every time I saw it in an arcade, convenience store, or pub (kids could go into pubs with their parents in Germany) quarters magically transported themselves into a machine.

When we moved back to the US in '85 I finally got to experience real arcades. I spent hours with my friends trying to beat the high scores. Co-op games like Gauntlet were always a blast.

I remember playing the first Street Fighter.

Waiting an hour or more to play Dragon's Lair or Space Ace brings back very fond memories.

I had an Atari 2600, VIC-20, and a C64. While the games on them were fun, I always had more fun in an arcade. I'd blow all of my allowance and then some on video games.

My dad bowled and he would often give my brother and I some quarters. I can smell the beer, cigarettes, and wax even as I type this.

Hanging out with friends, cheering each other on, and challenging one another bring back memories of my best gaming experiences.

Many of my best memories of video games come from playing Nintendo at my friend's house. I had a Nintendo of my own, but he had more games than me, so it was like Christmas whenever I went to his house. His copy of Ducktales was the first game I ever beat, and I was so happy about it that I wanted to beat it almost every time I went over. I also played Tiny Toons Adventures a lot, but I never accomplished either of my main goals; I never beat the game, nor did I ever defeat the Darth Vader duck character in the extra levels.

Another fond memory was the night my other friend and I finally beat the first Mortal Kombat game on my SEGA Genesis. We ran around the house, so excited to have finished possibly the most popular game of the time.

Oh, and for a solo instance, I remember defeating Carnage, the final boss of Venom/Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety something like ten minutes before the game had to go back to the rental store. That gave me quite the sense of wrestling victory from the jaws of defeat.

jorowi wrote:My first recollection of playing an arcade game was while living in Germany.

My brother and I used to stop by this laundromat and if we power-cycled a Q*Bert cabinet and held down the 1P and 2P buttons we could get a free game.

You're a fascinating man, John. Burning questions:

Why were you living in Germany? Military/Missionary kid?

What in the world is "power-cycling" when applied to arcade cabinets?

Reed Benson wrote:

Another fond memory was the night my other friend and I finally beat the first Mortal Kombat game on my SEGA Genesis. We ran around the house, so excited to have finished possibly the most popular game of the time.

Oh, and for a solo instance, I remember defeating Carnage, the final boss of Venom/Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety something like ten minutes before the game had to go back to the rental store. That gave me quite the sense of wrestling victory from the jaws of defeat.

Holy crap, those sound like epic childhood moments!

Metal Gear Solid starts off as a straight military mission. The first game has just a little bit of a psychic element but it's really downplayed. MGS2 went a bit further. I didn't follow the series past PS2.

Silent Hill is really creepy, and I like that about it. I don't remember much about the actual game, but staying up all night to kill it got pretty intense about 4am on lack of sleep and pure caffeine. I mostly remember that the controls were really clunky.

Katamari Damacy. A bit off-beat and with a kooky premise, but fun.

I think the first game I ever really "beat" was an old Sega game called Space Harrier.

mindspike wrote:
Silent Hill is really creepy, and I like that about it. I don't remember much about the actual game, but staying up all night to kill it got pretty intense about 4am on lack of sleep and pure caffeine. I mostly remember that the controls were really clunky.

lol! Love the mental picture of you as a youngster with terrified, bloodshot eyes in front of the TV playing a game.

Do you think the bad controls (unintentionally?) added to the feeling of helplessness that made the game scary? Or was it just pure annoyance?

jazzact13 wrote:Katamari Damacy. A bit off-beat and with a kooky premise, but fun.

I was always curious about those games! They don't seem to be making them anymore, but I'll bet my boys would get a kick out of them!

Paeter wrote:

mindspike wrote:
Silent Hill is really creepy, and I like that about it. I don't remember much about the actual game, but staying up all night to kill it got pretty intense about 4am on lack of sleep and pure caffeine. I mostly remember that the controls were really clunky.

lol! Love the mental picture of you as a youngster with terrified, bloodshot eyes in front of the TV playing a game.

Do you think the bad controls (unintentionally?) added to the feeling of helplessness that made the game scary? Or was it just pure annoyance?

Silent Hill didn't come out quite *that* long ago!

The clunky controls were state of the art at the time, pushing the capabilities of the video processing chips and the responsiveness of the controller hardware. Looking back on the game, I think it was the 4am on two days of no sleep that really made the game intense. Still, good friends, good times.

The game that absolutely drove me to the edge as a kid was Madness and the Minotaur on my TRS-80 Coco2. Super frustrating in the way that many of those text scrollers were back then. One wrong choice and BAM, back to the beginning. No such thing as a save point. The whole thing had to be loaded from the cassette every time you booted up the computer. I made so many flowcharts of the decision points and maps of the maze....

I finally just took apart the code to figure the darn thing out. I'm sure age and memory has obscured the faults and enshrined some of the virtues, but I still think of that game as the hardest one I've ever played. Followed closely by Haunted House, also for the TRS-80. That's another game that a friend and I sat in front of for a weekend, staying up all night and obsessing over the decision branches until we beat it.

I haven't thought about those in years. Both of those and several others are on FigmentFly!

Paeter wrote:
You're a fascinating man, John. Burning questions:

Why were you living in Germany? Military/Missionary kid?

What in the world is "power-cycling" when applied to arcade cabinets?

I'm an Army brat. My dad was stationed in Germany 3 times.

Power-cycling is when you turn the machine off/on again. We typically did this by unplugging it.

mindspike wrote:

Silent Hill didn't come out quite *that* long ago!

Oh yeah, that's me and my math problems again. PS1, right? So that would be around when you and I were probably both in our 20's or late teens?

jorowi wrote:

Power-cycling is when you turn the machine off/on again. We typically did this by unplugging it.

Whoa! That's daring! And here I was picturing you doing some kind of bicycle "pedalling" with your fingers on a couple buttons. Was the cabinet off in a corner somewhere? How did you get away with that? One of you posted as a lookout?



(PLEASE NOTE: Paeter Frandsen, Spirit Blade Productions and Christian Geek Central do not endorse the practice of "Power Cycling" or other highly illegal activities of the same nature.)

Paeter wrote:Was the cabinet off in a corner somewhere? How did you get away with that? One of you posted as a lookout?

It was off in a corner and the outlet was exposed so it was easy to quickly reach down and unplug it. It was in a laundromat so there usually wasn't anyone around except us.