Gaming Beginnings of an Addiction...

[Shinmaru]

I'm really big on nostalgia, especially in the world of video games. Nothing makes me happier then to go and revisit a game that I haven't played in years, so that I can relive the fond memories that I enjoyed when I first played them.

Anyway, I've been thinking a lot lately about the game that first hooked me into video games, Super Mario Bros. 3.

I'd been playing video games for a couple years before I played SMB3 (I've been playing since I was three years old, in case you cared). I played on and off but I wasn't old enough to develop an attachment to video games and they never really held my attention. I was about five years old when SMB3 came out and I got quite addicted to the game.

I was completely enthralled with it when it came out. I loved it because it was simple fun; I wasn't old enough to understand and appreciate the gameplay mechanics and the hard work that went into making them, but still...I loved this game like no other. The bright, colorful graphics...the fun characters...the great power-ups...these were the things that attracted my attention and commanded me to play this game every chance that I got.

Ever since that day, I've been playing games just about everyday. And it's great to go back and play the games that I first played in my early days because I can better appreciate them. I can notice the controls that are simple in design and never get complex, so that they draw everyone into playing the game. I can see the strategy involved with each power-up and their different abilities and attacks. I can appreicate the rich cast of enemies and the different attacks that they employ against you. I might not be able to enjoy these games on the simple level that I did in my youth, but I can appreciate them on a more complex, thinking level today.

So, this brings me to everyone else. What game(s) drew you into playing video games? Do you find that you appreciate them on a different level then when you were younger? Can you still recapture the simple pleasures of playing these games?

[OtakuSennen]

[color=midnightblue]Yeah, actually, I have a game that drew me into video games, if not technology in general.

Back in 1997, on my birthday, my mother and father bought me a Super Nintendo Entertainment System, my very first console. Yes, I know, Nintendo 64 was out by then. My parents thought I wouldn't "get in" to video games, though, (Wow, they were off) so they went for the cheaper system to save some cash. Well, that was when SNES was being phased out, so all the games were going for cheap. With the console came Kirby's All Stars, a disturbingly simple yet enjoyable game that is probably one of my favorite Super Nintendo games ever.

It was just a good starter game, a gateway game, I think. Not too difficult, but challenging enough for a beginning gamer to spark their interest. The wide variety of attacks was a fun aspect too.

[spoiler]You tell nobody this, spoiler tags reader person! I had a difficult time grasping the concept of pressing B several times repeatedly to hover.. I got the hang of it eventually, though.[/spoiler]

My brother tended to play as the little person who followed behind, and Kirby is actually his favorite Nintendo franchise to this day.

Sometimes, when I'm bored, I'll go up to where the SNES is hidden and play through one of the stories in fifteen minutes, give or take a few.[/color]

[Desbreko]

[color=indigo]For me, the game that got me hooked was the original Super Mario Kart on the SNES. I had played Duck Hunt and Super Mario Bros. a bit before that, and I enjoyed watching my brothers play videogames, but they didn't really interest me all that much. Then I finally tried Super Mario Kart, and suddenly I just couldn't put the controller down. I played as much as I could, working my way up to 150cc class and trying to beat the Special Cup. And then there was time trial, where I tried in vain to beat my brothers' times. (My second-to-oldest brother held the best times on every single track, for all five rankings. Not even my third-to-oldest brother could beat them, and he was dang good).

Until Super Smash Bros. on the N64 came out, Super Mario Kart was probably the game that I spent the most hours playing. I was a master at it -- I got to the point where I knew the CPU player's patterns so well that I could drop a Banana Peel or Green Shell on the track in just the right spot so that they'd run right into it when they got to that part of the track. I remember I practiced on Rainbow Road so much that it was actually the easiest of the Special Cup tracks for me. Instead of the tracks getting harder as I got farther into the cup, they actually got easier, with the first one (Donut Plains 3) being the hardest for me.

And of course, who could forget battle mode? Me and my brother spent countless hours together on battle mode, both going head-to-head in straight fights, fighting with special rules such as only using Green Shells, and finding all sorts of funky tricks and tactics. I remember this one thing that had to be some sort of glitch; if you did it just right, you could fire off a red shell in the big, open center of a level, and it would just start circling around you in a big loop. It wouldn't stop until the other player ran into it, or you moved out from the center of its orbit.

Heh, I've got tons of great memories of Super Mario Kart. It's been years since I really played it, though. Of course, that's probably because all of the tracks from it are in Super Circuit on the GBA, so I don't need to play the original in order to race the classic tracks. Good times, good times... ^_^[/color]

[Charles]

I was drawn into video games by Donky Kong Jr. and Rampage. I wanted an Atari [i]just[/i] for Donkey Kong Jr. as a matter of fact. It's too bad Donkey Kong looked like a pink blob on said system.

I was [i]so[/i] excited when I first saw the packaging for the Nintendo version. It looked just like the arcade version (although it wasn't [i]quite[/i] perfect it would later turn out). Quite a jump forward! XD

Giant rubber monster movies were also the cat's meow for me at the time. I would stay awake until the early hours of the morning watching Godzilla marathons. And you just couldn't tear me away from my dinosaur toys.

When I saw the Rampage packaging the deal was sealed. I [i]had[/i] to have a Nintendo. At that time, the games were just so incredible. I went from playing games like E.T. where you play as blocks making beeping noises to games with buckets of color, backgrounds, and music. What a treat indeed.

Other than the two titles I mentioned, I really enjoyed the Super Mario Brothers/Duck Hunt package and Jaws. Jaws was particularly cool because I loved the movie and had an obsession with earning the submarine. Which was, in effect, nothing more than a yellow block. But, it was a yellow block that kicked butt.

[terra]

I was drawn into video games because I am a poser. My brother would play (probably one of the FF RPGs, but I'm not sure) and while my cousin was there, I'd watch. One time I remember my brother said to me, "What are you doing? Go away," but my cousin stuck up for me and said, "She just wants to watch, who cares?" ... Yes. Painful childhood memories.

Anyway, I don't know, watching video games was really enjoyable for me for a while. I think when I finally actually started playing, it was also Mario Kart. (My brother had the system in his room, so he never let me play until we got to a multiplayer game ...) Then he got pissed because I started beating him. :D

From there, it's been history.

Funny story about Super Smash Bros. (N64 version) ... I was really horrible at it the first several times I played (with others, we didn't have our own copy for a long time). One of my brother's friends came to stay one night, then he and my bro went somewhere for a week before returning. And he brought SSB, and he proclaimed himself its king. The first night he came, he and I played and he whipped my butt with every character. He laughed at me and told me jokingly to practice, and he'd see if I got any better by the time he got back. And, I did practice all week ... and guess who won when he got back? :D He was one of them underestimaters ...

[Shinmaru]

I bet that's how my brother feels [strike]sometimes[/strike] all the time. We've had some real wars playing Super Smash Bros. Melee and I'm not embarrassed to say that he's handed me my *** quite a few times. He's gotten a lot better at games over the years...I'm so proud of him :D

Anyway, last night I was thinking about the Zelda Compilation Disc (off topic: There had better be an option to buy it as a separate game without buying a GameCube) and I couldn't help but notice that it's been years and years since I played the original Legend of Zelda (which I'm still lucky enough to have...even though it's hidden in my closet >_>).

I loved so much about The Legend of Zelda...especially the cool dungeons and the different weapons you could use. I was almost overwhelmed by all the stuff you could do, yet it never seemed overly complicated (which is good because, if it did, I would've quit playing the game; I was never the most patient of children :p). And the bosses...well...they were simply amazing. I can still remember just staring in awe at them because I'd never seen anything like them.

But, most of all, I loved the gold cartridge. It was just so damn shiny :D

[eleanor]

[size=1] The very first video game I played was Mario Kart on the N64. I never really enjoyed the game, but I started playing Mario 64 and I thouroughly enjoyed. ^_~ I was pretty dang excited when I picked up a Zelda game for the first time: Ocarina of Time. It took me a while to getting used to the way jumping was programmed into the game. I kept on expecting Link to jump when I pressed a certain button.

I went back and played the original Zeldas at my cousin's house, and Zelda is still my favorite video game series to this day. I haven't played many video games, really, and I only have a N64. But I've tried out the Final Fantasy series, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and Soul Calibur 2 at one point. I'm sticking with my ole' N64, though. I swear...I will never throw it away. :p[/size]

[Guest The Bouncer]

I remeber the ame that got me playin video games. It was X-men for the sega genesis. I would watch that show all the time. and when i saw the commercial i was like 5 years old and i had to get it. so i asked my grandpa if he would get it for me. so for christmas i got a genesis and the X-men game. it came with a free sonic 2, but i wasnt really into it. and to this day i havent beaten X-men yet. too bd my segas broke

[GrimmFang]

The first game I ever played that got me hooked was Breakout for the Atari. I played that game for hours upon hours a day. I played many other games but that was the first than the NES came out than it spread from there.

[Pagan]

Zelda Link to the Past was the game that got me. I sat there for hours glued to that screen. I couldn't ever beat it because I was little and didn't have the right stuff. I recently beat the game and I am now free from its hold on me, but now there is a new threat called Legends of the Zelda Windwaker. I just got it and have been playing none stop.

[The (Sic) Shape]

I became addicted to videogames the second I picked up a controller and played. The very first game I played was the very first Mario Bros. game. It was old by the time I played it and I was about 4. By then I played some of the other games my dad has, my most favorite are Metal Gear, Final Fantasy and Legend of Zelda. When I was 6 my parents got me a Super Nintendo and an N64 when I was 9. The following year I got a Playstation and Gameboy. 3 year later I eventually got a Game Cube, PS2, and gameboy advance.

So as you can see I'm incredibly addicted to videogames from Day 1.

[Morpheus]

Mine was San Francisco Rush for N64. I like competition. I somehow have a need to win but don't get depressed if I don't. I had an Intellvision but football on it was as fun as trying to sleep when your wide awake. and I was like 4 and that didn't help.