I'll admit that I haven't been continuously surprised or blown away by video games, I think I've just experienced less genres than most people unfortunately, and I hardly finish games so...

This list feels like it should be titled "The games that made the most impression on you" or something.
But anyways :

-Wii Sports:
No, i'm not joking. This game is such a good pack in title and since I'm still fairly young, I'm pretty sure it's the only pack in title i've ever got with a console. Although, I did get Uncharted 1-3 and a PS3 for free when I traded in my broken Xbox 360 a few years back. Anyyyyyyyyyywayyyyyyyyyyyyyyys, Wii Sports was just soooo fun. Honestly this game gets too much crap, it was clear the intention here was to make a fun series of mini games rather than just a boring fitness project. The boxing mini game, the baseball mini game, the bowling.....Honestly I'm surprised I never got into Sports , probably my most played Wii game.

-Mario Kart:
This game blew my mind with just how fun it was. The battle mode in this game was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo awesome. The stages were so great, honestly this game probably has the most memorable maps of any mutliplayer game I've played.

-Super Smash Brothers: Brawl:
This game had soo much of an impact on me, even without having played Kirby or Zelda or Star Fox or basically any of the games on here. It was the funnest party game ever, and it has one of the best original scores in video game history. Seriously, the original songs here don't get enough credit and they show so much creativity. This Final destination is the best. Even without knowing the characters beforehand, it felt so nostalgic and cool and seeing all the different stages was awesome.

-Halo: Reach:
This was my first shooter. I remember originally buying online just for this game. Holy. Crap. The online blew me away, the story blew me away, the amount of content blew me away. I bought an Xbox just for this because my friends at my new school were talking about how great Reach was. I remember when I got it one of my new friends were sleeping over and he fucking hogged the one controller all day and night! I only played a few hours till the next day. Each level felt really huge despite having great linear design. Just such a good game with an epic soundtrack and a story that at the time, blew my mind.

-Skyrim:
I somehow played this on a pentium 3.4ghz 1 core cpu, and with a radeon 4850 with like 2gb???? Anyways, this was my first PC game which was fine because I didn't understand PC stuff really back then, so if there were framerate issues I don't remember. I remember being breath-taken by the huge open vistas, the gorgeous landscapes, and all the thing the player can do. This was my first RPG and even though i've gotten a bit cynical towards Bethesda for realizing that their games are as deep as a puddle, it was still so fun back then.

This game was so addictive, I remember one of my friends was over played it and a fucking big Dolphin lamp on the top shelf was knocked down by me, and it fucking bumped me on the head really hard, and my friend kept playing! What a dick!

-Gears of War 3:
My first third person shooter. This game is one of the games that made me realize how important map design is. It was also so fun, and it's over the top gruesome edgyness was so fun. Gears of War is like the Marvel of video games, it has so many stereotypical characters but they make you attached to them somehow and make good stories around them. Actually, scratch that, Marvel can't accomplish that. Gears of War 3 was just so awesome, it still has one of the BEST UNLOCK systems in video game history. Unlocking so many different characters by either gathering a certain amount of medals, gaining a certain level, or getting an achievement was so unique. To this day, I feel kind of bad that no Gears of War game after it had nearly as much content or characters to unlock. The unlock system of Gears 3 really had a lot of variety because there was so many different ways to get skins.

-Dark Souls:
This game completely and utterly blew me away with it's level design, it's level up system, it's combat, pretty much everything about it. It plays more like an RPG than most "RPGs", even with so much action on screen. It's such an atmospheric game, and I played quite a bit of 3 with friends online. The music is also some of the best in the series, and exploring the world and finding everything was so rewarding. I still think this does a lot of things better than any other Souls-like game, like it's world.

-Metroid: Prime:
Another game that blew me away with it's world. Wish I had finished 2 and played 3. Godly music.

Eternal Darkness. Never played a game that did those kinds of things to the player before.

Some more from me

Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge on Amiga 1990. This was it, true arcade racing at home, in split-screen, so smooth, so fast. We played this at a friend's house about everytime I came over, which was a lot.

Dune II Battle for Arrakis on PC 1992. My first real RTS, maybe the first? It was totally new and amazing, from everything moving in real time to having all commands voiced (which drove my parents nuts). It got even better after I discovered the scenarios were essentially written in a text file which you could edit. It didn't take long before I made a small program with mouse driven gui to load and edit a scenario, adding or removing things from the map. Endless gameplay ensued.

The need for speed on PC 1994. This series would have more ups and downs than corners in its first installment. Yet racing never felt so fast and dangerous before. Crashing felt real, cars had weight, sent flying and tumbling down the road after clipping oncoming traffic. The first Burnout felt the same and improved on it in every way. However subsequent installments in both series lost a lot of the danger by becoming more and more forgiving.

Driver on PS1 1999. The car physics probably suck by todays standards, yet driving through the city was awesome for the time. I felt like a stunt driver, skidding around corners, racing through the open world, evading the police.

GTA 3 on PS2 2001. I have to chime in on this one. First time I simply parked my (stolen) car on the top of the garage to listen to the radio while watching the sun set and rise again. Truly unique at the time. Oh and you could spawn tanks, fire the cannon backwards for turbo boost, what's not to like.

GT5 on PS3 2010.  I enjoyed all the earlier installments yet racing on the full Nurburgring Nordschleife online with a full grid of other serious racers was something I had never experienced before. I've driving that track so many times, in carts to nascar to f1, that I can draw every corner perfectly from memory. Oh please let it be one of the tracks available for VR in GT Sport. (I'm going to get disappointed aren't I, it's only one on one anyway ugh)

This is quite true I suppose. I kind of missed out on these games, while I was playing all the other Megaman spin-offs and got burnt out.

Oh heck yes! I remember reading about Pokemon in the days when it was still refered to as Pocket Monsters.

One of the things my kid imagination would do is visualize all the cool ways to play a game. i.e. Playing those unplayable NPCs/Monsters, exploring different ingame powers exclusive to boss NPCs, even controlling charaters imported from totally unrelated games, etc.

As a kid, I dreamed that somehow someone could use a Game Genie like device to do all sorts of cool things. (This is long before I ever heard about modding games or hacked ROMs)

I would even draw stuff mixing all these things. Or even try all those rediculous playground rumors to unlock secrets in games (Was almost always retarded kid BS to get you to waste your time).

Yes, Pokemon was such a revalation to my tween self getting to battle, capture, evolve, level, etc. any Monster I saw and desired to be mine. (such a concept of freedom at that time in gaming)

Aww dang, how did I forget GTA?

I played the first GTA on PS1 back in the day in all its top down 2d pixely glory, and then, many years later, tried GTA Vice city and man, what a jump to total exploration of a living city inside a video game. So much carnage in those days.

Yes, loving this thread :)

...aaand a few more from me… :D

- Final Fantasy Tactics - Yes, yes, yes. soo so good. Grid turn-based tactical RPG. Such good dual class system with tons to pick and choose from. Long Campaign. Secret Characters. Line of sight effects targeting. Positioning effects accuracy. etc.
It is like the ultimate game of chess with so many ways to switch up your approach and party set up.

- Pokemon Snap - Well, definitely unique…
Riding in a mine cart through some monster safari trying to get that vogue moment through perfect aim/timing with the camera…and knowing the secret area to find the hidden pokemensss.

- Diablo - First taste of dat hamster wheel o’ loot. :P
Really though, I just liked the atmosphere in the game and the isometric action RPG awesomeness (and sweet loots O.o ).
This game was so darn tuff though, even when you grind such nice gear, spells, levels, etc. those demons were always out for your slow hobbling booty.

- Katamari Damacy - I just want more stuff on my ball. I love the ridiculousness of this game. a micro sized football headed alien kid son of a Cosmic king.
Rolling some black hole gravity ball imprisoning all trash, critters, humans, cars, and houses alike.
Like a magnetic dump yard. Such greatness was seen these days. :)

Every first game of a genre I have never played.

For the sake of the thread let's say Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars.

TLoU

I played on Survivor and it's crazy how much you had to scrounge around for everything and conserve ammo. I found myself using bricks and bottles the whole game and then got caught late in the game with nothing but an arrow in that blizzard fight lol. Loved how survivaly it was. Never saw a game pull of resource management and blend it into the narrative so seamlessly. You could win a fight and still lose in the long run if you used too much.

Don't have time to list them all, but here is a start.

Digimon World- This game had it all, and it was truly amazing. This game didn't even rely on the anime to make an immersive game.

1. Digimon, there are a lot of them. However you can obtain 65 of them, all pretty unique. Takes a great deal of effort and planning to obtain every single one of them like a true challenge should be.
2. Battle Techniques, also a lot of them. 56 regular techniques and the 65 finishers with the digimon. Also takes a good deal of effort to obtain them all.
3. Day and Night system and Time based events. Very rare for games to have something like this in it, but it was utilized well to obtain digimon for the city.
4. Speaking of, City Building. The city will visibly grow as you obtain more digimon. Each digimon also provides something for the city in a unique way whether that be food, items, arena, etc.
5. Arena and pvp. If you have a buddy with a save file, then you can pvp them with your digimon.
6. Medals, or in other words achievements. Yes this PS1 game had specific in game achievements before almost every game out there including all of the CoDs. Was much more immersive then the 80s High Score stuff.
7. New Game Plus, when you beat the game you can continue on your old save, to finish stuff off similar to a few other games during its time.
8. Fast Travel. Forgot about this from 4, but one digimon gives you fast travel. Another rarity of its time now commonly used.
9. In Game Training. I was used to JRPGs with only battles leading to stat gains, but this game lets you gain stats outside of battle as well if you feel it worth it. Even ridiculous ways to play the slots to get 3 golden poos in a row for massive stat gains otherwise impossible.
10. Fishing. I mean the best games of all time have fishing as a minigame like Zelda, WoW, FF so why not Digimon World.
11. Card Collecting. Another side project of just opening packs and hoping to get the best cards
12. Inventory and items. There is quite a few items, I think to the order of 128 but not sure. The inventory is limited unlike most JRPGs and many items are used exclusively outside/inside combat.
13. Happiness/discipline/ Death. These things help decide which digimon you get. Be mean and let your guy die a bunch then you might have something evil. They also have different animations for when they sad/ happy so you kind of get some morality out of it.
14. Eh a few more things but I am getting tired of typing. Economy, Hilarious glitches, Trainer Rank, etc.

All these things felt pretty unique for a PS1 game, especially jampacked into a single game, and many of these things have become commonplace. Late gen sometimes brings out some real gems.

Batta boom! Tons more good times. :D

- Star Fox - I think this is the first 3D game I ever played.
I thought it looked so weird and ugly at the time, but it was also so different and novel to explore this early polygon spaceship rail shooter.

- Goblin’s Quest 3 - I think this was my first point and click adventure/puzzle game I played. Such clever characters and creative solutions.
I had to use those in-game hints far to often. It was quite a mystical journey through each of these other worldly spaces.
I also liked the gag easter egg solutions to puzzles that served no other purpose than fun to see what happens.

- Nights into Dreams… - Another very unique game, flying through hoops in these 3D worlds but on a 2D plane of movement. (which switches to 3D while walking).
Really cool dream worlds in this game. :)

- Doom - This was my first FPS I ever played.
Limited ammo annoyed me when I found the cool guns. (I was so used to melee weapons from all the other video games).
Tons of secret power ups and passage ways in this game.
Was way to tough for kid me to beat though. Some of those later levels have ridiculously strong beasties waiting for you.

- Mario Party - Dude mario party was all about getting the 4 CPUs players to hoard coins then cash in at the end by switching them all to controlled players.
Really though, the board game/mini game combo was a ton of fun with the siblings.
Many joysticks were rekt by that shyguy spin the stick to fly thing.

- Crazy Taxi - This game was all arcadeyness awesomeness. High speed cab fares encouraging weaving near misses through traffic and sweet ramps and drift whipping.
It was all cool 90s vibes all day trying to beat your older brother’s top score.

- GoldenEye 007 - First real local multiplayer FPS I liked to play with friends, which is a short list anyway (Perfect Dark and…Time Splitters 2? can’t really think of any others that were as fun for me)

- Phantasy Star Online - Speaking of wonderful local multiplayer. This game was a class act in my life. Grinding through missions and gear with my brother was so chill and enjoyable.
I think we tried the online gameplay like 3 times. It was so slow…and prone to game save corruption, I didn’t want to risk it.

- Sacrifice - RTS summoning minions, casting spells, harvesting souls, with a TPS type control scheme? This game was such a unique gem to experience. The combinations of magic and unique units allowed for some cool stuff.
(I think you had to choose campaign missions which gave you new units and spells which also effect the path of the story and subsequent mission choices)
And when you beat the game you could use your final set up for skirmishes.
I also think there was a way to do fully custom stuff through the campaign editor.
I think you could actually edit the main campaign directly, I don’t think the editor had any restrictions, which was also quite unique.

Sonic 2(probably my first game) California games, super Monaco GP, super Mario world, donkey Kong country, chrono trigger, goofy troop, mortal kombat 3, top gear, super star soccer, Zelda links awakening, pokemon yellow, super metroid, Mario 64,zelda oot, Zelda mm, kingdom Hearts, metroid zero mission, minish cap, Mario kart DD, Zelda ww, smash Bros melee, God of War, guitar hero 3, metroid prime trilogy, elite beat agents, pokemon heart gold, just Dance 4, Zelda spirit tracks, pokemon bw2, xenoblade, no more heroes, tomb raider, gta5, beyond 2 souls, Mario 3d world, dkctf, fire emblem awakening, hyrule warriors, Rayman legends, forza horizon 3,vvvvvv,braid,portal,pokemon go, guacamelee Shovel Knight.

Super Mario Bros. (NES) - first game ever for me so naturally it felt very new to me.

Hollywood Pictures (PC) - It's like I'm running my own company and making my own movies! This is so awesome!

The Sims (PC) - You call it playing with puppets, I call it a life management simulator!

Mario 64 (N64) - So this is what 3D is all about!

Resident Evil (PSX) - I was almost literally shitting my pants, never before was I actually scared of a game!

Silent Hill (PSX) - Turns out horror games can actually get scarier than Resident Evil. A whole friggin' lot scarier!

GTA 3 (PS2) - I would have never thought this was possible at the time. A whole friggin' city in 3D to explore. It blew my mind!

Britney's Dance Beat (PS2) - Britney Spears in a game ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG *fanboy mode*

Civilization 2 Gold (PC) - I'm the ruler of the world, AHAHAHAHAHA! Eat nukes!

Transport Tycoon Deluxe (PC) - No... I'm not... addicted... I can stop any time.... if I want to... seriously...

3 Sisters Story (PC) - There are porn games? Holy crap! Why didn't I know about that sooner?!

Just off the top of my head, probably forgot a whole bunch of other games.