My reason exactly!

I played Super Mario Bros at a friends house and thought to myself 'wow, this craps all over my Atari 2600.'

A week later was my birthday and I had a shiny new NES wrapped up for me and I've never looked back.

I'm remembering now a funny fact about my granny...

My grandmother bought a N64 to play Ocarina of Time because she was a widow and she had nothing to do in her big mansion. So I watched her (I was 6) playing Ocarina of Time and then I saw some strange creatures shaped like spiders...

"What are those spiders, granny?"

"Those are Skultullas, uncultivated little boy. Now play, and you'll get sticked to Nintendo for the rest of your life. I want to see my grandchildren play a Zelda game when they will be able to do it. Promise it."

I was like omg she's really serious.

She kicks ass in Zelda.

I can't really remember how I became one, the earliest I can remember is that I was already playing my NES when I was 3 and a half...

Super Nintendo was my first console. Mortal Kombat, and Super Mario World, being my first 2 video games.

i played nes at a friends house when i was 8 years old...but at that time i/my family could not effort one and i stick with my atari 2600...

later when the snes came out i got a mega drive/genesis...my first nintendo console was a n64 mario64 bundle in 98. after that i got every nintendo console/handheld that came out....they make the best games period.

Short answer: Super Mario Brothers (XD)

Mario in the 80's. I also had Mastersystem, Megadrive, and SNES. After that, my Nintendo experience was mostly limited to handheld games. I would say my current fandom is probably mostly due to the handheld market; Wii is the first Nintendo console that has appealed much to me since SNES.

Games that made me a fan in the NES era:
Super Mario bros, Castlevania, Dragon Quest, Faxanadu (it's pronounced Fa-Zanadu, not Facks-anadu), and Rare developed Captain Skyhawk.
This all despite the nightmare with saving in DQ games.

Games that kept my fandom alive: Final Fantasy, SMB3, DQ4, Street Gangs (River City Ransom), and more. Final Fantasy I actually had before DQ3, but mostly because I didn't have that Nintendo Power guide yet (which is somewhat of a requirement fora first run as the game leaves the user guessing A LOT.

Sadly, it was at the very late age of about 18 or 19, when a friend invited me over to play some Mario 64. I wasn't fond of 3d gaming nor console gaming then (had an Amiga 500, which was my first gaming machine, got it at the age of 14), but the next day I had an N64 with Mario. Zelda Oot sealed it and brought Miyamoto-awareness into it.

I later realized that my fascination for N started a lot earlier, because I remembered that at the age of 6 or so, I once saw a Donkey Kong arcade standing in the supermarket entrance and asked my mother to let me at least watch it, cause she wouldn't let me play. It was the first time I really badly wanted to play an arcade I saw.

I was a kid in the 1980s and most every kids and even my parents played the NES. Mario, Duckhunt and the powerpad track game were my most played games for awhile. Nintendo released so many good games back in those days, like two fantastic Zelda games.

Today, Nintendo is still my favorite game publisher because I think they still have by far the best games.