I played a bunch of NES games with my older brother, but I didn't really get locked into a video game ecosystem until SNES. I remember my mom asking me (in 1991 it must've been?) if I wanted a Genesis or SNES for Christmas, and I really didn't have a strong feeling one way or the other. I went with SNES and eventually fell in love with Super Mario World and, to a lesser extent, F-Zero.

Super Mario Bros. on NES.

To this day I'm still a sucker for 2D Mario games.

The first Nintendo game I really loved was Donkey Kong Jr in the arcades.  However, I had no idea what Nintendo was back then, so it definitely didn't make me a Nintendo fan.  Nintendo was not a household name in the early 80s.

If I had to pick one game that made me actually love Nintendo, it would be The Legend of Zelda (NES).  I had played plenty of console games before Legend of Zelda, but I always felt like I was getting an inferior experience.  The arcade games were always better than the console games.  I had also played some computer RPGs at my friends' houses like Ultima and Wizardry, and these were great for a different reason. 

But then Zelda comes along, and that is when I saw that console games could be better than either arcade or computer games.  The Legend of Zelda had all of the great action of an arcade game and the depth of a computer RPG.  It was the best of both worlds all in one game.  This game is what made me think of consoles as the premium platform instead of an inferior platform.  And at the time, Nintendo was the king of console gaming.  Zelda is the game that made me a Nintendo fan.

For me it was definitely Mario 64. I remember the first time I played it seeing the mountains of bob-omb battlefield and wondering if there was anything beyond them, the game felt limitless to me back then.

I visited my cousins way back when I was 5 years old or so. They had a NES with a game genie. I spent most of the days at their place just waiting for my closest cousin to come back home from school so that we could play Nintendo. They had Spy vs Spy, Contra, Ice Climbers, Super Mario bros, Duck hunt, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Super Mario Bros 3. I was just a small kid I did not know how to add the Game Genie codes properly and all the games was to hard for me to play by myself.

When my cousin finally got home we added invincibility or something to Contra, extra health from pizza in TMNT and infinite jumps in SMB 3. Even with the help we never got far in most games. But one game had secret a secret instrument that could make you transport far into the game. That made it possible to reach as far as world 8.

It would take another couple of years before I once again would play the game. My brother sold magazines for Christmas and got a TV as well as enough money to also buy a SNES with Super Mario all stars. I took us some time before Bowser was beaten but the credits rolled and me and my brothers celebrated.

No other game has stuck wit me for so long. I still play it from time to time. So many different little things still feels special for me when playing. Hidden pink notes, Letters from the princess, getting eaten by the big fish, the boot level and Climbing to the sky in world 5, the music when facing the the king of koopas and endless little details in the master crafted levels.

Super Mario Bros 3 made me a fan of Nintendo as well as a fan of gaming in general.

When I was a little kid in the 80's, my parents would take me to a mini-golf/arcade near us that was quite popular. There was one game in particular that was so popular that there was a line to play it, and that game was Excitebike. I can't say what it was about it but that game just stuck with me. Then, when my best friend got an NES he also got Excitebike and we played it for hours and hours. Today it's not my favorite Nintendo game or franchise but from time to time I still fire up Excitebike with the NES app on my Switch to get that little tinge of nostalgia.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Why did it make me a Nintendo fan? To put it lightly, this game is the template in which I judge nearly every game I play. From the ingenious puzzles, to the vast world brimming with secrets, as well as the wonderful soundtrack and memorable sound effects. I don't think I have played another game that gets it right in every aspect so flawlessly. It's the kind of game only Nintendo could make, and they have shown that trough the 3 decades they have been developing games.

Pokemon Red and Blue back when I was a kid. I stopped playing Pokemon after X & Y though (skipped B&W).

My favorite Nintendo game of all time is a tossup between Super Mario Galaxy/ Super Mario Galaxy 2/ Super Mario Odyssey. Just brilliant purely fun games.

Since I was little I always wanted to get Nintendo handhelds just for Pokemon.
For the game that really made me a Nintendo fan? It would have to be Super Mario Galaxy. The Pokemon games and some titles on Wii made me a fan.

Whenever I think of Excitebike, this little ditty sticks in my head.