As somebody who was born in 2003, the bulk of my childhood took place during the Nintendo Wii/DS craze (2007-2011). And so, whenever I think of games that kids played growing up pre-F2P, my mind defaults to the assumption that everyone must have played Nintendo growing up... right?

Thus, this thread was born. That said, to answer the question from my own personal experience: SSBMelee was the first game I ever played (Christmas Day 2005/2006). And between this and Super Monkey Ball, Luigi's Mansion, Pikmin, Star Fox Adventures, SSX Tricky, the first few Shine Sprites of SMSunshine, and later Wii Sports, Wii Fit, Super Mario 64 DS, Kirby Triple Deluxe, Backyard Baseball 2009, and SSBBrawl, you've got the entire collection of games I played between ages 2y and 7y. When I was 8yo is when I became exposed to the world of Pokémon— specifically: Pokémon Platinum, HGSS, and Black/White. It was also around this time when I did my first full playthrough of M&L:BIS (late-2011/early-2012) and played around with Mario Super Sluggers. Come January 31st 2012 (i.e. my 9th birthday) and that's when I got exposed to Skylanders. From then onward, this was pretty much the only game I ever played. I have all the games and all the figures (including, yes, covenanted figures such as Robow, Wildstorm, and Chompy Mage, as well as the NSW Edition of Skylanders Imaginators)... and then March 2017 came around and it was Zelda BotW.

You were 14 when the Switch came out?!?! Oh my god I started gaming in the late 90s. Most of the initial games I grew up playing were the early to mid 90s since we didn't have much money, nor did my cousins and classmates, so it was kinda all over the place of who had what. I played a ton of games at the arcades as a kid, but I'm assuming you're talking about gaming at home.

While Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt on the NES at my aunt's house was my first gaming experience when I was like 5, Donkey Kong Country was my first gaming obsession. My cousin had a SNES, so I would go over to play, and I loved everything about the game, even though I was never good at it lol. He also had an N64. So we would play the likes of StarFox 64, Goldeneye 007, Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire, Rampage: World Tour, NFL Blitz, and 1080 Snowboarding.

I finally got a PS1 in 1999 and was able to get a handful of games over the course of the year. Primarily Crash Bandicoot, WipEout XL, Croc: Legend of the Gobbos, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Hot Wheels Turbo Racing, and Colony Wars: Vengeance.

I did also get a Game Boy Color in the Summer of 99. Saved up the entire summer mowing lawns around the neighborhood just to get Pokémon Blue because that was the one game everyone at school somehow had earlier in the school year lol. So I was pretty obsessed with Pokémon for a good while there during the initial craze. Of course, in 2000 I got Gold when that released.

But my dad had a super powerful PC at work, so he would take me over on the weekends where he showed me gaming on PC, which captivated me. The company he worked for didn't care, so he would buy games to play. He let me play StarCraft, Monkey Island 2, Age of Empires, Myth II, Civilization II, Half-Life, and Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun. My dad helped ensure I would continue to game on PC.

Also around the same time, my cousin was able to get a Dreamcast. So we played Power Stone, Marvel vs Capcom, Looney Tunes Space Race, and Outtrigger. The Dreamcast was actually one of the main reasons I stopped going to the arcades since it literally felt like the arcade at home lol. Not that there were many arcades left by that point.


I'm sure missing a game or two, but those were the ones I distinctly remember.

EDIT: Can't believe I forgot these but the Backyard Sports games! They were on the PCs in computer lab at school and we would all take turns playing them. Baseball was always my favorite, but I enjoyed Football as well.

Got into gaming in the early / mid 90s along with my two brothers. We had a Master System initially, then got a SNES, PS1, N64, Saturn, Dreamcast, PS2, and GameCube at various points. So a lot of the big games from those systems were integral to my childhood (along with the occasional PC title). Of particular importance to me personally were

Sonic the Hedgehog (Master System)

Doom
Doom II
Gizmos and Gadgets

Super Mario World
Super Mario Allstars
Yoshi's Island
Donkey Kong Country 1-3
Street Fighter II

Tomb Raider I-III
Resident Evil 1-3
Metal Gear Solid
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1-2
Dino Crisis 1-2
Grand Theft Auto

Super Mario 64
Ocarina of Time
Banjo Kazooie
Goldeneye
Donkey Kong 64

Shenmue I-II (well, I'd only watch my brother play this, but it blew my mind)

Wind Waker
Twilight Princess
Resident Evil Remake, 0, CV, 4
Super Mario Sunshine
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
Sonic Adventure 2

The 8/16-bit consoles for me. I got to experience gaming when it was at its creative zenith. Not only that, but we were getting the greatest games ever made literally every single year. And every new console was not just a new console, but more like a hundred-years-into-the-future time warp. It was all exciting, it was all constant, and it left such an indelible mark on my soul that I doubt there will ever be a time where hearing the opening themes to Metroid, or OOT, or Sonic 1, or FF4 wont stop me dead in my tracks and either reduce me to tears or warm my heart.

Frogger, Pacman, Duckhunt, Super Mario Bros. Those kind of games.

Define growing up, still working on it :p


My pre-teens were mainly dominated by MSX



The sounds of this game are my childhood!












In my teens I moved on to PC: King's / Space / Police Quest, Leisure Suite Larry, Monkey Island, Rogue, Tetris, Lemmings, Worms, Xenon 2, Sim City, various Flight Simulators, Rick Dangerous, Prince of Persia, Civilization, Dune(2), Wolfenstein 3D.

I was 18 already when Wolfenstein 3D released (last year of high school) cutting it off there.

I was very fortunate to own basically every non-sega console growing up. Except the N64.

Started out with GB got a PS1 in around 99/00 and had every console and handheld from Sony/Nintendo/MS after that.

While I had them all PS1/PS2 were probably the main two systems of my childhood and I'd say the PS1 Crash games were the biggest part of it.

Though I also have fond memories of pc gaming as a kid also. Age of Empires, Rollercoaster Tycoon etc.

Probably my biggest games growing up (12 and under)

Crash 1-3, CTR, Bash

Spyro 1

Super Mario Land 2

Wipeout Fusion

SSX Tricky

Age of Empires

Rollercoaster Tycoon

Animal Crossing Wild World

Mario Kart DS

Rayman 2/3/M

Bugs Bunny Lost in Time

NSMB DS

Super Mario Advance

Pokémon Fire Red

Toy Story 2

Theme Park World (ps1)

The Sims (PS2)

So many. Doom, Wolfenstien, Tetris, Oregan Trail, Theme hospital, Double Dragons 2, Super Mario's Bros 3, crash Bandicoot + two, Syro the dragon? F-ZERO,-X, Mario 64, Granturismo, Ridge racer 1-4, TOCA racing, Twisted Metal, Metal Gear Solid, Wipeout, Starcraft, Dungeons keeper, Tomb raider 1+2+3, MDK, Medal of Honour 1' 2 and Rising sun, The Sims and Sim city, Warceaft 3, Heretic 2, various RTS games like Age of Empires 2, Time Crisis... I could keep going but there's a lot inbetween and beyond those games. Lovely little games like the earliest farming and life sims disguised as educational products. Many I seen people play second hand, while watching them play like...

Grim Fandango, Phantasmagoria, GTA 1+2..
Oh boy. There is so much I can't be arsed listing them
Long story short, before 2002, MGS1 was the most game I play as ai got completely and utterly obsessed with it.

As a kid: Ludo, Monopoly, Game of Life, Risk, Nine Man Morris, Connect 4, Mastermind, Battleship, Mau-Mau, Rommé, Canasta, Skat, Durak... my childhood was mostly without video games.

For me in the 90s, it was Mortal Kombat and Sonic the Hedgehog on the Sega, with Mario holding things down on the Game Boy.
Then the millennium hit, and handhelds basically turned into Pokémon machines, while the PlayStation became the home of Digimon.
There were plenty of other games too, but they weren't featured as prominently.

On another note, it’s sort of interesting to think about how gaming looks from the perspective of someone born in 2003.
For me, everything from 2011 to 2019 kind of blends together, but for someone who grew up during that stretch, each year probably feels more distinct.
Something like the Harambe meme for instance (which came and went in a flash from my point of view) might define someone’s childhood, the same way the Pokémon craze defined mine during the turn of the millennium.