Games that are dear to you

[Shiroyu]

It sounds silly I guess, but I'm sure I'm not the only one. Are there any games out there that you have put in a special place in your heart? Be it an event that happened in real life or ingame, someone you met, the characters, the story, the themes, the presentation, the music, whatever it is. Games that, no matter what the someone else thinks, you can't help but support it.

For me, those games would be:
The MOTHER series (This series has the most heart I have ever seen. The whole series has beautiful music, memorable characters, and MOTHER 3 has some of the best writing in any game ever.)
Ragnarok Online (I met my closest friend playing this.)
Granado Espada (The music and character designs inspired me to draw more.)
Super Mario RPG (My grandmother had given me this game when I was much younger since she saw how I enjoyed it so much. Plus, the ending made me cry.)

[Darkly]

wind waker for me, it had so much charm that i feel was lost with twilight and it managed to get me to come back to it every day for a week and beat it.

[darkante]

As funny as it is, Mega Man III gotta be the one i have run over 1 zillion times.
It still got the best balance of everything of the regular Mega man serie.

And then comes Megaman Legends 1-2 serie, the music is awesome and the gameplay rocks.
The Bonnes has their charm and the dungeons are fun to explore.
I just want a bloody sequel for it as it left a big cliffhanger. =3

[Omega_Weltall]

Phantasy Star 2 and 3 for me. Ya sure the battle animations for PS3 were ass and minimal storyline for PS2 but i love those games damnit. its sort of the reason i'm disappointed that the new PS games are all PSO clones...

[AC9breaker]

Bionic Commando. Everytime I would play with my toys I would hum the music from area 5 as background music for my epic battles. Rearmed brought back a wave of nostalgia and I'm eagerly looking forward for the new Bionic Commando game. Still not sure to get it for my 360 or Wii.

[Sinue_v2]

http://ui15.gamespot.com/14/qfg1boxart_2.jpg

Still one of the best examples of RPG/Adventure hybrids to date. A genre I think that has enormous untapped potential, that games such as Oblivion are touching upon - but not quite hitting the mark. A shame that it never made the transition to consoles (and it wouldn't have really worked without a mouse) and came at a time when PC's were still an expensive business toy, rather than a essential home appliance.

When most people were still grinding "Fighter" to overcome green slimes, games like this were offering players a story rich, interactive, and fully immersive world to explore with real-time combat - and the replayability offered by three unique classes that altered the course of the story and the way you advance through it. To say nothing of hybrid classes. It also allowed you to save off your character and transfer them and all your progress to the next game in the series, meaning the same character you started in 1989 could be the one you finished the final game with in 1998.

Free to download fan-remake of QFGII. Antiquated by today's standards, but still a huge leap over it's EGA original and well worth the playthrough. (http://www.agdinteractive.com/index2.html)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yfyLbUdgR0&feature=related
Speed run of QFG1. Might want to fast-forward the climbing practice. He's also skipping over half of the game.

[jShazBot]

There are a few games that I feel I'll never forget and have in a way kinda crafted part of my childhood. Ocarina of time and super smash Bros I loved alot. And I just really love the Halo games and PSO + PSU.

But the one game that I have to say literally changed my life was Goldeneye for the N64. I had got the game when my older bro and I just got our N64. I was 4 years old I believe and I still remember most of my time with that game for some reason. I also loved the movie. Lol, my mom eventually took it away from me because she didn't like the violence and then eventually learned how the ESRB ratings worked unfortunately.
But I seriously can't see my childhood without Goldeneye or Link from Zelda. I know for a fact I would be an entirely different person without those. And even though I was only 4 when I got Goldeneye and it didn't seem like there was much to change, I still feel like the sort of impact that game made for some reason kinda changed my life. It was that big. I know I'll never forget that.


:D

[Serene]

Let's see, I would have to say the Fire Emblem series hands down, it's one of those games where you will probably play it five times before stopping for a couple weeks.

[Noblewine]

Kirby Dream Land, it was one of my first games and one I enjoyed playing when I was younger. When I play through it the game still remains fresh.

[Leviathan]

Phantasy Star Online- It did bring me to this place after all.

[afterthoughtz]

Yoshi Island,!!!! First video game i ever played!

[Zekester]

Oh man..

Super Nintendo: Donkey Kong Country 1, 2, and 3

PlayStation: The Spyro series. They were beast before they sold the rights to who ever else.

N64: Zelda OoT hands down.

Gamecube: PSO Ep1/2 First game I've ever played Online and I met some friends I still talk to.

Xbox: Hands down, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Oh god, no matter how many times I beat it, I STILL keep playing it, best game Ive ever played period.

PS2: Kingdom Heart 1 and 2. Just awesome fun with Goofy.

[Tessu]

Gauntlet Legends for the N64. First and only video game I ever played with other people playing with me...I mostly watched, back then. Some good memories with playing that game, including yelling at each other for half an hour about where to go, then completely going silent for 5 minutes and drinking chocolate milk... then going back to the game and yelling. Heh...

(The) Legend of Mana, for the PS1. My friend came home with it one day from Singapore, and I loved it! It was the first RPG where I knew what was going on.

All Spyro games for the Playstation 2005-and-earlier. SOOO much fun.

Kirby64: The Crystal Shards. First Kirby game (that I played). And it's still the best Kirby game ever. *-*

Pokemon Stadium and Pokemon Stadium 2, N64. And all the other Pokemon games.

Monster Rancher for the uhh...playstation? No... I can't remember. Monster Rancher for something.

Digimon World... 1? 2? 3? All of them? I don't remember. I haven't touched them in so long.. but they were for the playstation I believe. And GOD did I love 'em.

Animal Crossing for the Gamecube. That game was so cute. I played it with my cousin, and any time spent with her is cherished~

Hamtaro: Ham Ham Heartbreak for the Game Boy Advance/SP. Ahh, I remember those days when my friend had an SP and I still had an Advance, so while I was forced to go find light he played underneath a tent he made out of blankets! What a meanie. We were racing to beat the game. : p

That's all I can think of...

[VioletSkye]

Diablo 2
PSO
Animal Crossing

:-D

[Dragwind]

There are so many on the list including PSO, Zelda series, DOOM series, most 1st party Nintendo games...

However, Super Mario Bros for the NES probably takes it for me. That was the first game I got so into that I ashamed my dad to the point where he quit gaming. He never played a single game after I humiliated him in Super Mario Bros.

[Sayara]

Sitting watching my bro play Mario 1, whilst i made the crunch noise when he jumped eating Cinnamon Toast Crunch really takes the cake for memoriable and dear games.

[amtalx]

Jackal for NES. My friend and I played the hell out of that.

[Kylie]

As weird as it may seem, I always feel at peace when I play Resident Evil (pre-4) and Silent Hill games. ^^; I guess most people would feel tense, but maybe I just have a sick mind. I like to think I'm just cool though. :wacko:

[Tyreek]

Kirby... Hands down. The very first videogame I owned for Gameboy. That series will never leave my heart and soul.

[Vanzazikon]

Super Nintendo:
- Super Mario Brothers, one of the best game I ever played
- Street Fighter 2, the very first video game I ever played. :)
- Final Fantasy 4, this brought me to the FF series
- Megaman X, never got tired of playing this over and over
- The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past, one of my favorite Zelda games, brought me to the Legend of Zelda series.

Sega Genesis:
- Streets of Rage, I loved that game as a kid ^^ I still hum some stage music from it.
- Golden Ax, loved it a lot, played it over and over with my family.
- Sonic the Hedgehog 1&2, I wish I had it again :lol:

Playstation:
- Chrono Trigger, still one of my favorite game
- Final Fantasy 6-8, Loved the story line, music and characters. Made me an RPG gamer.
- Resident Evil 2, I remember dodging those zombies in the first part, scary fun and my first encounter with the Licker, this brought me to RE games.
- Resident Evil 3, Who doesn't find the thrill from running away from Nemesis fun? I loved it. (peed my pants a little ^^; )
- Soul Reaver, one of my favorite adventure game still.
- Metal Gear Solid, My favorite Playstation game ever, I remember going to my friends house everyday just to play it. :lol: Good times. :)

I can list a lot of games that are still in my heart, but that is way too long. :lol:

[SpikeOtacon]

Silent Hill 2 remains to be one of the few games that has stuck with me through all of my years. I remember hearing about the first Silent Hill thanks to Metal Gear Solid, I think the instruction manual had an ad on the back. But since I never actually owned a Playstation I didn't really bother to scour its library and none of my friends had it.

Fast Forward a little bit, i'm looking at an issue of EGM in my room, it's freezing cold and the light coming from the window is a dull sunset brown. As I turn the page I come face to face with twisted bodies and rusted, desolate hallways. It shocked me, but in a way I found more entertaining than undesirable. As I read on about the few plot details of a man trying to find his dead wife, to the shady characters around town, my interest shot up. Something about all of this was so fresh to me at the time.

A few months after it came out my friend Kyle got it on a whim, but wasn't playing it because he was busy with other games. I mentioned this to a mutual friend and he said he was interested in playing it, so we asked Kyle if we could borrow it for a week or so. He let us have it for however long we needed it. As soon as we got it, Andre (mutual friend) and I went straight back to Andre's house and loaded it up onto his brothers' PS2. We made sure there were no light sources to put glare on the TV or anything like that. The setup was done, and now for the game.

I can't even describe what happened as we played, taking turns at deaths (which wasn't often) and sitting there speechless as we watched the horrors unfold. When we decided to break for the day we just turned the game off in silence and said nothing to each other for the rest of the day. It was such an intense experience for me that I could not stop thinking about it the rest of that night. This pattern followed for days after as we took our time to explore the world. When we finally beat it and saw the ending we got (and learned of the other endings) our minds were blown. We went through and got a second ending before returning it to our friend. I got an Xbox the year the Xbox version of the game came out, and it is the prized piece of my Xbox game collection to this day.

Ever since then the game has affected almost every part of my life, making me explore art styles that inspired the disgusting otherworld, checking out heavier industrial and ambiant music tracks, watching more horror movies, the works. As Kylie said, I feel more at ease in the game world than I probably should. But there is just something about that series that has clicked with me and stuck with me ever since I first set a digital foot in that town.


Another game which I hold dear is Another World (or Out of This World). I first found this game on a disc at my grandparents' house one christmas. Not knowing what it was other than a game, I asked if I could install it and see what it was. They let me, and boy did this game destroy me. At that point I had Super Mario World memorized, star world and SPECIAL world and all, could whup some metallic asses in Battleclash, and was a demon in Sonic the Hedgehog. You could say I thought I was hot shit.

But when I played this game, it hit me and it hit hard. Movement was slow, attacks where weak and short ranged, and every enemy could kill you in one hit. The art style was so striking and simplistic that it would come back in my mind for years after that christmas but I could never remember the name of the game. At last I was discussing the game online on another forum and someone else remembered it and helped me locate a copy. This game was on a lot of operating systems and on some early consoles.

Now there is a collectors edition in high resolutions with updated artwork and I pounced on it instantly.

I'm sure there are a LOT of games i'm missing but those two are classics that have withstood years of other games piling on top of them and deserve being recognized. Honorable mentions go to Killer 7 and Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. I will hold off on saying games from this current generation because they haven't had the time to stick with me like those games have.

[Lance813]

PSO, of course.
Metal Gear Solid
Zelda Games (especially OoT)
Guitar Hero II <3

[DreXxiN]

Guitar Hero II discs, Starcraft, PSO.

Heeeell yeah.

[Kylie]

As Kylie said, I feel more at ease in the game world than I probably should. But there is just something about that series that has clicked with me and stuck with me ever since I first set a digital foot in that town.The Silent Hill series has done a great job with creating an atmosphere that can be frightening and yet alluring at the same time. This is why I don't care for the latest one, Homecoming. The older games had barely any enemies, and that encouraged players to explore their spooky surroundings more. They "Americanized" the new one too much, and by that I mean that they added too much violence, which distracts from the point of the series in my opinion.

Resident Evil did the same thing. The older games were very psychological to me because I like see what people do to overcome unfortunate circumstances. The new direction they took the series in is different, but I actually like how they made their changes. It's like I consider them separate games, but I like both games. So it's all right.

[Kent]

Gunstar Heroes, PSO, Tribes 2 and The World Ends with You have all been pretty important to me - mostly because I've played them more than the remainder of my collection, combined.

[Neith]

Front Mission 3 (Playstation) : Man, this was a hard game to find in the UK. I'd seen it in one retailer, but never batted an eyelid to it. Didn't see it for months, until one time when I had spare cash. I saw one copy of it, checked it out and noticed it was a mecha-based strategy RPG made by Square-Enix (Squaresoft at the time) and bought it immediately. Amazing game, with an incredible overarching storyline I'll never forget. For its time, it also had a huge amount of customization for the mechs, which let you play the game as you wanted to. I still own the game, but very rarely play it (as I don't use my PS/PS2 very often anymore), but I plan on keeping it safe as it's since become a rare game.

Guitar Hero II (PS2) : Got me into rhythm games at all. Before then, I'd never been interested in them. After getting past the initial problem (sucking at the game), I started to really enjoy it. As I have no musical talent whatsoever, this is probably the nearest I'll get to playing a guitar. I do own a real bass guitar, but I'm hopeless at it. :wacko: Anyway, this game just set me on the straight and narrow, and I've been a big fan of these games since. While I've since become disenchanted with how Activision are developing the series, Rock Band still suits my interests.

Gran Turismo series (mainly GT4) : Anyone who knows me well will know I'm a huge car freak, despite not owning one (*shakes fist at insurance costs* ). Gran Turismo was the first racer I bought for the Playstation, and it hooked me seriously. Though not something to be proud of, I guess I got addicted to the game and wouldn't play anything else for 2-3 months :lol: . The reason I specifically mentioned GT4 was it was the game that really got me competitive. It's a shame GT4 couldn't have been on a next gen console and online, because I wasn't able to challenge people. While GT5 Prologue/GT5 may be, I don't have the money for a PS3 yet, so for now my faithfulness to the series will end. At my peak though, I was ranked 20th in Europe for some tracks. Being a big car fan, it's nice that GT was able to develop my skills at driving games in general (late-breaking, slipstreaming, using manual transmission etc). I was hoping Forza Motorsport would be the 360's answer, but I don't find myself playing it often.

[TrueChaos]

ooh, i have a few:
Legend of zelda: ocarina of time and twilight princess. i love the games and everything about them. they rule.
ShadowMan: i had the N64 version and now have it on an emulator. the game is creepy, fun, and great. possibly the greatest horror game i've played.
Super Mario Bros 3: the game had everything that was great about the mario series before it went 3D and downhill. 3 is the best game in the mario series.
Smash Bros Melee/brawl. amazing fighting games that are even better in multiplayer. Ike's final smash is awesome. used to think that roy was better in melee but after playing with him (in the non dodgy way) a bit more i saw just how powerful he was. the games awesome

[Bomber The Cosmonaut]

Hmm..
Animal Crossing. It's just addictive. Picked up City Folk and was just.. Amazed.
Then there's PSO/PSU. Seriously. There's nothing else like it.
Then the Burnout games. :x Seriously. Making people crash and blowing things up is just plain fun.
The Guitar Hero/Rock Band games + House full of friends/family/people= Win.
Red Faction. The first one. The dialogue is so cheesy to the point that it just screams awesome. And on top of that.. Destructable environments.
And my favorite game of all time..
Phantom Dust. That game was amazing. The story was awesome, the graphics were amazing. Destructable environments. The gameplay is very unique. And I loved the way it blended in with the storyline. Hell, the moves are pretty sweet too.
Not to mention the main character has a kickass jacket, while the antagonist has kickass hair.
Man, I can go on. But I'll stop. Yeah. Phantom Dust.
That's the one.

[W0LB0T]

Pizza Tycoon\Pizza Syndicate (aka. Fast food tycoon)
I cant decide which one is better. they are each equal in their own rights.
Who knew running a pizza chain could be so much. And if legitmate busness didnt work out you could work for the mob. Pizza Syndicate had a better underworld aspect. with the ability to start your own mobs, and more varied missions. but my favorite bit was making my own pizzas. and putting a million chillies on them. customers in pizza tycoon absolutely loved them. the entire population of that game is Sord.
Pizza tycoon did have some annoying micromanagememt aspects. but Pizza Syndicate fixed that, but the cites where way way way to small and was no fun to play with more than 3 opponets.

Duke Nukem 3d:
That game kicks ass and chews bubble gum.

Perfect dark:
Taking Goldeneye and making it better. best idea ever. I spent so much time playing multiplayer in that game. The story does fall apart at the end with all the aliens. but the eairler missions are pure spinach. The weapons where so cool. Laptop gun, Cyclone, superdragon, slayer and the much overlooked remote mines. me and remote mines are a lethal combination. i also came up with slayer racing, i had an awesome track set up on the Ravine level.

Red Alert 2:
My favorite of the Command and Conquer series.

Aliens Vs predator 2.
The only game to be genunely scary. every other horror game is so dull (doom 3) or a bit of a laugh(resident evil 4).
When you pick up the aliens on the movent sensor, the beeps get faster and faster then out of nowhere bamm! a big panic as aliens run at you all you can do is backpedal firing wildily with your guns. untill they die spraying acid blood everywhere.

[SubstanceD]

Where do I begin?

Street Fighter 2

Super Metroid

Final Fantasy VII ( even though it's not my favorite in the series, not by a lonshot. )

Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night

Breath Of Fire 3

Xenogears ( I appreciate my copy even more since it was never released in Europe and I realise how privilleged I was to even play it at all. )

[gorefiend]

metroid

Super smash bro's

Castlevania

Metal gear solid

Final fantasy

Metroid

Silent hill

resident evil

Psu-pso

Zelda.

[SpikeOtacon]

The Silent Hill series has done a great job with creating an atmosphere that can be frightening and yet alluring at the same time. This is why I don't care for the latest one, Homecoming. The older games had barely any enemies, and that encouraged players to explore their spooky surroundings more. They "Americanized" the new one too much, and by that I mean that they added too much violence, which distracts from the point of the series in my opinion.

Resident Evil did the same thing. The older games were very psychological to me because I like see what people do to overcome unfortunate circumstances. The new direction they took the series in is different, but I actually like how they made their changes. It's like I consider them separate games, but I like both games. So it's all right.

Oh my, the pent up rage over SH: Homecoming I have. I bought it the day it came out and I sat there and my "New Game" buzz died almost instantly. The forced combat really made me irritated. I don't care if it played better than the other games' combat systems. It's missing the point entirely. I also felt that by giving Alex the excuse of being an army man (which of course turns out to be a total lie anyways) was an incredibly cheap tactic of getting away with this newfangled combat mechanic. And even still, combat felt clunky and stupid and far more broken than the other games.

It also became way too linear, pretty much right off of the bat. I never felt like I was allowed to explore, I was just squeezed in the line they wanted me to without any opportunity to enjoy whatever was there. And i'm still a little bitter that they completely dropped the standard game style for the movie way, but that is rather insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

Oh and then there were the awesome slide-puzzles which replaced the series' long standing riddles. Ugh.

[Poignantswine]

ICO
Shadow of the Colossus
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
The Mark of Kri
Katamari Damacy

[Freeze]

PSO
Secret of Monkey Island
Curse of Monkey Island
Wing Commander Privateer and Prophecy
Burger Time on Coleco Vision
Resident Evil Code Veronica

[Nitro Vordex]

One of the games or rather the series I loved were the Sonic the Hedgehog games for Sega Genesis. The very first system that I myself owned, at the age of 4, I played Sonic as much as I could. I still remember the fun I had playing Sonic 3 with and without the lockon. It was amazing at the time and still is now. I still have my Sega Genesis, and now I own every Sonic game for the Genesis. All of them work. I also have Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 on my Dreamcast. Yeah, none of the Gamecube versions, this is straight up Dreamcast, and I love them both. I remember having 159 emblems on Sonic Adventure 2. I was only missing 4 All A rank and the Chao races, which sadly to say, I never really cared much for. I still love those games, no matter what happens to Sega/Sonic Team.

I have to add the Street Fighter series as well. My brother had Street Fighter Alpha 2 for the (gasp) SNES. I used to love watching him play, it was amazing. He taught me everything I know about the Street Fighter games(which isn't much compared to the other people, haha.), and those were some of the best memories with him. He's still around and all, but when we crack out the SNES and Street Fighter, it's good times.Thanks to him kicking my ass all the time on SFA2, I strived to get better at the game. I think that's where most of my stubborness came from as well, as everytime he'd win, he'd say "Give up yet?" and I'd say "No way!" and we'd keep going. I've only recently been able to beat him in it, and I'm proud.

[ngagerebel]

PSO
and
Lunar Series,
Lunar Silver Story
Lunar Eternal Blue

LOVE those Games

also
n64 Perfect dark

to add one more to the list I would need to add

Wolfestiend 3d for DOS

[SubstanceD]

I knew I had forgotten to mention a few games . I would like to add the following to my list:


Skies of Arcadia
PSO Episodes 1 & 2

Lunar: Silver Star Story
Lunar: Eternal Blue

Thanks ngagerebel for reminding how awesome the Lunar games were and how dear they are too my heart.

[ngagerebel]

I knew I had forgotten to mention a few games . I would like to add the following to my list:


Skies of Arcadia
PSO Episodes 1 & 2

Lunar: Silver Star Story
Lunar: Eternal Blue

Thanks ngagerebel for reminding how awesome the Lunar games were and how dear they are too my heart.

nice to see a Lunar Fan!!!! I still like the one for the DS just doesn't have the story line like the others... I went as far as buying the collectors editions for the psone got the medallion necklace and everything... gamestop had no idea what the had I bought it for 14 dollars off them

[SStrikerR]

PSO
Kingdom Hearts 1- that was an epic game, at least in my mind.
Sonic 2, S&K, SA1 and 2
Pokemon Silver

[Lance813]

Im going to add Breath of Fire III, and Golden Sun to my list.

[Apone]

Choplifter - arcade 1986, I loved video games before that but this game was shooting AND resuing hostages which was brand new at the time and I HAD to have the home system it was on and that happened to be the Sega master System which led to my Phantasy Star fandom.
Street Fighter 1&2 - Arcade 1987, 1991 This game was more than just special to me, it changed the videogame industry.
And arcades as a whole which are all but dead around here now, which makes me sad. Online play is nice and all but NOTHING beats vs fighting at the arcade.

[Shattered_weasel]

Wild9 and Tomba will always have a special place in my heart.

[Sol_B4dguy]

Dues Ex: Brilliant deconstruction of gung-ho shooters and an excellent gaming experience all around. Too bad the writing and acting was pretty bad.

Free Space 2: the last great space-shooter game. It warms my heart to see things like the Source Code Project keeping it alive ten years later.

[UnderscoreX]

Teddy Boy for the Master System.

http://i44.tinypic.com/34rj19k.jpg

It's like having Sex, except you're having it.

[Mike]

No one has mention the Panzer Dragoon series so I will. Saga was awesome. Easy but awesome. Phantasy Star 4 was probably the first RPG that I actually finished by myself. Up until then, I wan't really interested in RPGs. PSO is the one and only online game that I regret ending. Not v.2, not the GC or Xbox versions, not the US BB (I still need to see if the Japanese BB will work on my laptop) but the original Dreamcast PSO version one. A lot of my real life friends and the only person I've met in an online game that I actually wish I could still get in contact with now played PSO, and it was fun. Pokemon was fun too and it was something to do on the go. Pokemon now adays aren't bad either but they don't have the same charm that the original games did. Armored Core is great. Giant customizable robots. great controls, and a funky storyline? What else do you need. I enjoyed PSU but since I can't play it at the moment, PSPo gets a spot on my short list. It's fun, I've got rares, and a cute caseal so it's good. NiGHTs was fun but I could never get a perfect on the game and that A-Life file ate up way too much memory. Sonic 2 was fun and with two player, playing with my younger brother was fun. Sonic Adventure was a blast too, even if the launch copy I bought didn't work :D Lots of characters, lots of areas, and a fun VMU mini game to waste time.

Panzer Dragoon (Saga in particular)
Phantasy Star 4
Phantasy Star Online v.1
Pokemon Blue
Phantasy Star Portable
Armored Core
NiGHTS
Sonic 2
Sonic Adventure