As a kid growing up in the early 1990's, Sonic the Hedgehog became my favorite fictional character when I was around 4 or so. I loved the character, I loved watching the cartoons, and I loved reading the Archie Sonic comic series. My parents got me a SEGA Genesis sometime in the mid-'90s (I don't remember the exact year, but I'm pretty sure the Saturn was out by then, so I guess it would have been no earlier than '95), and I spent the next several years playing Sonic games on my console. I even somehow managed to get a Game Gear, and I played a few Sonic games on that as well.
Sonic may have been my favorite series and the franchise I spent the most time on, but it wasn't the only thing I played back in my early days. On the Genesis I had a few other platformers (none really worth mentioning). On my family's PC, however, I had access to a wider variety of games. I remember playing some Earthworm Jim, a Soccer game that I don't remember the name of, and playing a whole lot of the original Command & Conquer. My friends had various C&C games as well, so I logged plenty of hours into that franchise when I was in elementary school. I also briefly got into the Pokemon craze, and picked up a Gameboy Color so I could play Blue and Silver.
Eventually my Genesis broke, and for a short while I played games mainly on the PC, but then came the turn of the millennium, and the SEGA Dreamcast. I remember sitting in the mall outside a game store and just watching the demo scenes of Sonic Adventure playing on the television facing out, and being mesmerized by how awesome Sonic looked on this fancy new console. It would be a year or two before I was able to purchase one, probably around the time SEGA pulled out of the console race in 2001, and I still own it today (and it still works!). Many of my fondest gaming memories are with that console. I picked up a few games myself, including both Sonic Adventure titles, but what was really amazing was when a friend gave away all his Dreamcast games to me. There were a number of fun games in his collection, including Rez and Skies of Arcadia. Skies has become one of my favorite games of all time, and I have probably logged more hours playing that game than I have any other game I've ever played.
I wound up with a PS2 and an Xbox as well in that generation as well. The PS2 was a surprise gift, and I picked up games like Killzone, Sonic Mega Collection Plus, and LOTR: Return of the King. I missed out on most of what would be considered the greatest PS2 games (with the exception of Shadow of the Colossus, which was a game I picked up much later, this year in fact). I picked up the Xbox in 2004 after leeching off of my friends' Xbox's for a couple years; all my friends were big Halo fans, and once I got into the series, I loved it, and I still do today. Fable also captured my imagination, and it too is one of my favorite franchises to this day.
Most of this current generation I spent playing games on other peoples' consoles, mainly the 360 with a little bit of Nintendo on the side (Wii, as well as playing some classic games, most notably Smash Bros and Ocarina of Time, on older Nintendo consoles). I played plenty of Halo 3, Gears of War, and got pretty good at Guitar Hero / Rock Band as well. In late 2009, however, I discovered a game called Mass Effect. I was floored by the storytelling, the characters and the universe created by the team at Bioware. I watched a friend of mine play through the entire game, I KNEW I had to own it for myself, so I picked up a cheap 360 at the beginning of 2010, right as Mass Effect 2 was coming out, and I picked up both games. I've been gaming on my 360 since then, picking up a ton of great games over the last few years, including Halo: Reach, Halo 4, Fable 2 and 3, Bayonetta, Sonic Generations, Bastion, Shadow Complex, and many more.
For this coming generation, I plan to pick up an Xbox One to start off, and hopefully I will be able to get it sometime next year. I'm very excited for a number of exclusive titles Microsoft has cooking for their new console, including Sunset Overdrive, Quantum Break, Project Spark, and of course Halo. I also expect to pick up some multiplats for the X1, including The Witcher 3 and Destiny. I'll wait for a while to decide whether or not I get any other new consoles this coming generation. The Wii U looks unlikely, but somewhere down the line I may pick up a PS4, if they come out with enough exclusives that I really want to play.
