I hope to think that many of you started out just like as I did, a young kid sitting at home with nothing to do and just so happened to notice that Daddy had a Nintendo! By a sheer stroke of luck Daddy also had Legend of Zelda!

This is where I started and this is the moment that I hold closest to my heart as a gamer, but is Zelda the title that molded me as the gamer I am today? No, that happened almost 10 years later, when a new friend in a new neighborhood introduced me to Final Fantasy VI.

That game shaped me into the JRPG loving gaming enthusiast that I am today.

So, what game did that to you? What game sucked you in and caused such an incredible love for gaming that it still stuck with you for over 20 years?

Of course this mainly applies to us older people, but feel free to let me know what game(s) you hold closest to your heart. Don't be shy.

Shining Force 2 and Jackal 

We are similar, you and I... replace FF VI with FFX and the friend with a close videogame store, and we're pretty much even...

From there... my outlook on gaming changed, it went from high scores and 100% completion to trying to savor games as if they are books and experiences (and in my mind, some games succeeded in that... FFX being one of them).

GOOD THREAD!

Megaman 3 as well, basically any nes or genesis games my 2-6 year old self could scrounge up

Super Mario World

Donkey Kong Country

Never finished both of them myself when I was little...I saw dad play through them.....I did complete them later on.

but I used to play small bits....I still remember dying on such easy bits....and both of those games made me enthusiastic about games.

However the first game that really sucked me in, made me care about a plot however bad it seems now, made me care about the character, made me think about puzzles, had me enjoy its platforming, made me marvel at its music and made me immersed in its world was Tomb Raider 1.

Now years later objectively Tomb Raider 1 just doesn't hold up to say Uncharted 2....but I will always feel Tomb Raider 1 was much more important to me and better even if technically it isn't.

With the greatest game ever made.

IDDQD b*tches

@ leatherhat

I always try so hard to get in Shining Force and hopefully one day it works. I am currently trying to play through Suikoden II on my phone. 

@ Xen

I have never gone by score, with the main reason being that as a kid I would always read EGM or GamePro and only cared out flipping to the back of the magazine to read the RPG section. I remember going nuts when I saw pis of FFIX with Bahamut vs. Alexander thinking it was going to be the greatest thing ever. Then it would get like a 9 or above and after playing it and loving the card game (Triple Triad in FFVIII being my favorite) and everything else I knew it was the best game of the year, but they would never win.

From then on I just never really put any stock in review scores as 9 times out 10 they never lined up with my line of thinking, and I honestly feel that holds true with most people here, even if they don't realize it yet.

I used to spend countless hours on Tiger-Heli, Ninja Gaiden and don't ask why, but The Three Stooges.

Correct me if I am wrong, but that is the God Code right?

Because they're hilarious- obviously