Probably mid 80s to early 1990s. Although, I believe that I still have some "formative" years ahead, as my tastes are still developing.
Faxanadu
Super Mario Bros 1 & 3
Sid Meier's Civilization
SimCity
Legend of Zelda 1 & 2
Metroid
Final Fantasy Legend/Saga 2
Gameboy was a big part of my upbringing, when my family travelled (which was often) there was often little for the kids to do except read and stare out windows... or be very disruptive. It was probably as soon as Gameboy came out that they got us all gameboys. So, that's how I one day found myself in a foreign city, in a foreign country, on a foreign continent, up on the 5th or 6th floor of a hotel with this shiny new game: Final Fantasy Legend 2. It might have been the first RPG I ever played, certainly the first one I ever finished... not counting Legend of Zelda 2 or Faxanadu, which I'm sure I finished first.
Faxanadu is more a side scrolling adventure similar to Castlevania 2 in the Xanadu branch of the Dragon Slayer franchise, which also includes the Trails series. For those who played Xenoblade Chronicles, the game is largely similar to Faxanadu where it features two vertical worlds connecting near the top, and they're at war with each other because of control by an ancient evil.
So yeah, I was drawn to open world structured games, sandboxes, and RPG/adventures from very early on.
And the platformers? Those were the top genre of the 8 and 16 bit generations. But declined rapidly in popularity during the 3D era because of slower pacing, reduction to single player focus, and camera problems. As big as 3D platformers were in the PSX and PS2 generations, they were a shadow of what they had been.
I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.
