A Gamer Here Myself
Being the life story and revelations of me. The games on this list are games that have had some significant impact on me, are tied to some fond memory, are games that I can point to as a definitive genesis point of the human I am now, games that are firsts, important milestones in my Gamer Career, and also games that I have just put an idiotic amount of time into because something about them has engendered a deep love within me. I've probably forgotten some.
96 Games
Literally a better Wipeout game than the one the ex-Studio Liverpool folk made. Spent a long time with this and loved every second of it. Insane how good it is and how much content you get for the megacheap price, on top of great mod support, good online, etc. Just a shame about the devs.
Had kind of given up on Spider-Man games before this. Last one I played was Edge of Time which was a disappointing followup to Shattered Dimensions which whilst not a remotely bad game was not an expanded Web of Shadows sequel. After that just the ehhh Amazing Spider-Man movie adaptations. Anyway this game is fantastic, I keep going back to it just to swing around and twat muggers. Very important thing that I hope is expanded on in the sequel: it has alerts that are solely about rescuing people instead of kicking someone's head in. More of that in superhero games please!!
Kind of using this as a catch-all for the series in general but the PS4 version is the one I've spent the most time with by far. Taiko is just extremely good. Two notes and yet some of the most absolute nails tracks ever devised for a rhythm game. Another one where I have probably done long-term damage to my hands playing it.
I had not played any mainline console Mario game since SMW when I played this and it helped me re-realise that Mario is just brilliant. See when you do the Jump Up Super Star bit? Nintendo taking a victory lap before the game's even over and they're well within rights to.
Big hurdle to cross at first because I do not know the first thing about cars, but it became a collaborative effort between me and a boy I worked with who did and would tell me what part goes where in an engine. Hooted and hollered not unlike a wild ape when I made it to the shop without crashing and dying or getting arrested. No idea what it's like now but when this came out I think it might have been a completely perfect game.
Maybe the best example to me of how low budget, low framerate gaming is the zenith. The choppy chaos of late-stage EDF is one of the most fun experiences you can have.
You wouldn't think a tw-button game about stickmen would be this addicting but it really is. It is near-impossible to stop. Hours spent punching, kicking and stabbing, seeing just how fast I could go until I start fucking up all the inputs. In 20 years or so my right hand is probably going to regret buying this game a lot.
Not a day goes by that I don't miss it. Ma Grimm's blue-eyed boy main 4 lyfe.
Remember playing these as they came out and all my friends and I getting far too invested in it. Big highlight of Hypespotting 2 for me is my mate Hayden screaming KEEP THAT HAIR SHORT CLEM during the pub quiz with purest emotion in his voice.
First played this when it came out and I wasn't really that big a fan. Tried it again a few years later and it all just clicked somehow. Still my favourite one after all this time. Bastard sword only please.
I didn't really play any of the indie games that were coming out in this period and this is the one that opened that scene up for me. What a game. What a soundtrack!!
My most played 360 game of 2011, according to that 20 years of Xbox thing. Spent far too long grinding everyone's relationship to max by just doing the fight vs. Master Asia again and again. The Guncannon is extremely good for this!
I'd played every RB and GH before this and those were a very big deal to me but this is the culmination. Just a completely perfect rhythm game. Great tracklist augmented by an insane amount of quality DLC. I've spent far too much time and money on this. Will never forgive Harmonix for not including the keyboard in 4.
The sign of a really good martial arts movie to me is whether or not I immediately play VF5FS after watching it. There'll never be a better depiction of kung fu in a fighting game than this. Just so smooth and as a game it's miles deep. I could spend 10 more years playing and still be learning stuff about it. Should have brought back the vanilla versions of the stages though!
The first version I ever actually attended a tournament in person for (VS Fighting, 2010) and so the one that really, truly began my time in competitive fighting games. Have met so many class folk because of this game. A frankly huge part of my life. I am begging someone to put Xian in front of me right now, I promise I will win this time.
Too much time on this. The prime example of (technically) Eurojank? If there's one thing I love, it's getting my own minor fiefdom!
I skipped the PS2/PSP era of Wipeout and then picked up HD and my god. One of the sexiest games of all time and also has some of the most satisfying trophies ever devised - nothing compares to nailing that one where you have to reach level 50 in Zone Mode with only airbrakes and sideshift. And beating Zico! Eat it!!!
One of the cosiest games of all time. There was a period where I was just rinsing this on 360, shooting for that every ending achievement. Never did get it in the end but I will. One day. Just got to bring myself to kill everyone.
Used to listen to the soundtrack for this on the bus to uni constantly. Tried finishing it on an arcade stick that didn't have a right analog stick setting once, first two levels were doable with some creative use of walls+180 turn but it got dicey after that. This game is really good!
A revelation. Played Ken originally and then I switched to Vega after I bought an arcade stick because charge motions were easier on it. Absolutely braindead decision but whatever. Gonna listen to Indestructible right now.
Somehow fell in with a group of Americans that I would sit and play TDM with nearly every single night for months. Lovely guys, hope they're all doing okay now. One time I sniped a guy through the thinnest crack in a wall from the opposite end of the big long street on Crossfire and I felt like the king of the universe.
Hours upon hours upon hours of couch co-op bliss. Used to go round to a mate's multiple times a week and we'd just sit hammering splitscreen online and then go over the replays, clip all our highlights, etc. I never cared at all about much of the rest of the franchise or even this one's singleplayer but this is easily one of the best multiplayer experiences I've ever had.
Was completely entranced by this when I first played it. The music, the style of it, the way they integrated the touch controls and the dual screens, all of it. After I played it I went on eBay and bought a handful of pins from it someone had made and they've been on every bag or backpack I've used since.
From what I know people think this one is pretty weak but I loved it. Thought Apollo was great, thought the music was spectacular. Had the soundtrack on CD and used to listen to it driving to work alongside Gyakuten Meets Orchestra 2008. Ace Attorney is class.
Look mate. The flying is really good. Zipping over the surface of the water at superspeed and then you get a big sonic BOOM and then ANOTHER ONE aw it's lovely. I've bought this game three separate times cause I keep getting the urge to fly in it or use super-breath to blow Metallo off the map.
Used to rinse Attack & Defend on Casino endlessly. A curse on all who use the FAMAS.
It is in the midst of 24/7 Camp Gibraltar, when grenades are falling like rain outside the trainyard, that a man finds out what he is truly made of. In my case I was made of moron because I tried to chance crossing it, got dropped, and then got stuck in an endless cycle of death as one boy constantly revived me for medic badges. Anyway this game is cool as hell. Titan mode is cool as hell. EA should go to hell.
Very simply one of the best of all time. The immediate highs you get from performing well at God Hand cannot be matched. Any person I meet who hasn't played this, I tell them to play it.
Any time Vergil is on screen in anything I smile. I'm observing something fundamentally pleasant.
So many custom characters, so much time spent in Chronicles of the Sword. Never been a fan of SC competitively but I played the hell out of this. Kilik/Raphael mainly!
The best wrestling game of all time. So much time spent editing characters, setting up matches, breaking lighttubes over noggins. Why is there an ersatz version of the Shining Finger theme from G Gundam in this? I don't know! It's cool!
I'm not a VN guy but it is frankly impossible not to love Ace Attorney. The game that really opened up the DS for me. First year of uni, on the bus home every day ruining my ears listening to Cornered! at Volume.
Pre-Searing Ascalon the cosiest area of all time. I'd always played MMOs as a solo player and this is the one that broke me out of that because Guild vs Guild was just far too fun. Never did end up ever levelling a W/Mo. More fool me.
Back when I thought the clones were the coolest thing in the world, here comes a game where you get your own ninja turtle squad of them and get to visit places and shoot things that a young dork that loves Star Wars knows every detail about. I enjoyed this game so much I played through it on a laptop using the wee nubbin instead of a mouse because I was on a caravan holiday at the time and needs must. Temuera Morrison seemed like a nice man from the interview you unlocked with him. Absolutely couldn't stand Ash though, not impressed at all at their music video.
Made my dad stand outside GAME at midnight for this like the wee shite I am. Played it in the morning before school and no-one else had so I was an instant celebrity for exactly one day.
There will simply never be another feeling like completing the mission that gave you the right to wear a cape and triumphantly flying off to the tailor to get yours. Absolute magic. Making every awful hero I could think of, taking screenshots, throwing them into Photoshop to make up fake comic covers and put on speech bubbles and various other activities of the broken brain. Felt genuine joy when this finally came back in its current form. Done some of my best work in the past couple of years!
Never been a more fun arena shooter than this. FLAK MONKEY
Obviously just a fantastic game in general and I've replayed it many times but the main takeaway here is that I absolutely love referring to people as "dearest of all my friends"
In reality the first fighting game I ever tried to get good at. Untold hours spent in saberduels. Don't bow, they're absolute animals out here and they'll just attack you during. Don't use kata. Single Strong or go home. W+M1 and then backflip to show them what's up. Desperately wish we could go back to the times of JK3 FileFront and custom clan maps where all the clan officers or lieutenants or whatever have their own little rooms on the map with posters of Sum 41 in them.
Just a super cool game that seemed so huge to me at the time even if there wasn't all that much to do in it. Very fond memories of installing the Star Wars total conversion and then getting banned from the server for it for shooting at the admin's Super Star Destroyer. Death to the Empire.
The one that really solidified everything for me, mainly because it introduced Zhou Tai. Ungodly amount of time spent trying to get everyone's final weapons. Best version of Lu Bu's theme as well. This game is simply perfect.
WWE games peaked here for me. Spent an inordinate amount of time with the story mode, which I first went through with DDP for some reason. See the thing they added where you could do a Matrix freeze-spin during finishers? Best mechanic of all time.
VERY IMPORTANT. Coming off the isometric landscapes of the Infinity Engine games into this fully realised 3D world altered kid me's mind in ways that would never be repaired. Say what you like about the combat, how you initially move at a pace a snail would be embarrassed about, I simply do not care. I was totally engrossed in this world with all its factions and books and freaky little critters and weird plants and Fargoth. On top of that there has never been a game that's as fun to break as this one.
Came out at a time when I was actively reading comics and so obviously it couldn't have seemed any cooler to me. Fell in love immediately with the 60s Kirby style of it all, charmed to bits by all the exclamations of STARS AND BARS and RINGS OF REXXOR. Looking for skins for this led me to a page called Gryphon's Freedom Fortress that had skins from something called Astro City which I had never heard of but seemed cool and has since become my favourite comic of all time. Thank you Gryphon!
1 and 2 are obviously wonderful but this is the one I spent the most time with as it overlapped the brief period where I had fooled myself into thinking I, too, could skate. Plus one of Bam Margera's specials was a reference to Jackass and that was really important. Daydreaming about the Suburbia level with A-MOE-BAAAAAAA blaring now. This also contains my single favourite bail animation of the series (it's the one where you land on your face and are effectively doing a handstand gone horribly wrong)
The first musou I ever played and the one that would set me down a lifelong path of accepting no shite about musou games from anyone. I bought this in a 2 for £20 deal with Kingdom Hearts 1 and if I could go back I'd just buy this twice. They should give Lu Bu this outfit again.
The first rhythm game I owned that used all original music and all the original music kicks ass. Born to be Bone is the best track obviously.
First game I ever edited hex values for. I replayed this in the last few years and you know what, it still kicks ass. There's something so charming about this kind of supremely earnest anime rip-off (see also SHOGO: Mobile Armor Division). Desperately needs a re-release.
Used to spend hours making custom scenarios and campaigns in this. Managed to get pretty good with all the triggers and stuff in the end! Probably should have stuck with that.
One of my favourites of all time. Have completed playthroughs far too many times to count. Minsc and Boo are my eternal companions in life. I tried to get people at school to play it and they all thought it looked stupid.
Knew absolutely sod all about Star Trek at this age other than Kirk and Spock existed and the space station one had a boy with a funny forehead in it. Thought wandering around the big virtual Voyager was the coolest shit ever. My cousin and I would sit and take turns at the actual levels on my Grandad's PC.
It's Diablo 2.
I remember being initially scared to progress the story beyond Easthaven because on my first attempt the orcs just outside absolutely decimated my party. Easthaven's nice, we can just stay here forever! Finished it multiple times since at least, any time I replay now I always ask friends to choose a party member. Often this results in disaster but it's fun!
It's the best game of all time. It really is. I can play this now and find something I didn't know about and be amazed all over again at just how much they thought of and accounted for when making this. I don't care at all that the shooting is shite. How could you? Literally everything is funny if you say it in JC Denton's voice.
Another Grandad's PC mainstay. Went through this with every available plane. I dunno what it was about it that drew me in so much but I loved it. Never even built any Airfix. Think it might just be that planes are cool.
Same as BGII. Played it a million times. Never tried to get anyone at school to play it, though, I could see which way the wind would blow on that one.
Before this all the point-and-click games I'd played were chiefly comedic - the LucasArts games, Simon the Sorcerer - and this is the first one I'd played that tried to be big and weird without doing it all for laughs. It's still pretty funny though! Love the soundtrack. Someone remind me to finish Dreamfall Chapters, please.
Making plans. Making so many plans! And most of them were dashed by one lucky terrorist scumbag getting the drop on an entire squad. This is what first clued me in that the MP5 will always be cool and should be in every game.
The first "proper" fighting game I ever tried to learn how to play competitively in. Used to play over Kaillera with a Dutch guy who would just do endless Genei Jin combos on me. Left it behind entirely when IV came out but even if I don't enjoy playing it much these days I can't deny how important it is to me. Also Makoto is in it.
Blew me away as a kid. Just wasn't prepared at all (had never played D&D or anything). All the characters, all the spells, all of it. I remember telling my mum about the town of Beregost and it could not be clearer that she didn't give a toss but I would not be dissuaded. Fuck Durlag's Tower!!
Never owned an N64 so only ever got to play this when my cousin brought his to my gran's, but I thought it was incredible and that no game could ever be bigger than this. Had the issue of GamesMaster where they reviewed it and I thought all the big art of Adult Link looked amazing and would sit at my babysitter's kitchen table drawing him. Love that guy!
Half-Life itself is really good obviously but the amount of time I spent on mods boggles the mind. Action Half-Life, The Specialists, one I can never remember the name of where you jump onto the map from a chopper. Had that disc of HL mods that was sold, in shops, despite it clearly being the most bootleg shit in existence. A world where you could hand over money to a person and they would give you a disc that promised Spawn AND Homer Simpson skins for multiplayer, and a receipt.
First MMO I ever touched, although not very regularly because my mum didn't want to pay for it. The box and manual for this were like sacred treasures to me. Look at it!
A much simpler time when a difficulty setting telling you it's "harder than fisting a velociraptor" is the absolute height of humour in videogames. I'd played Super Mario Kart of course and things like Street Racer before this, but I think this is the game that really hammered home to me that racing games could be real fucking cool. Spent ages trying to get every car and win a race legit with every single one of them. LAPMYLOVEPUMP
Honestly I'm not a fan of MGS at all but I laugh to myself like a loon any time I see, hear or speak the words "sneaking mission" and if that's not a significant impact I don't know what is.
I never actually played this until 2022 but watching my cousin play it on release scarred me for years to come. Was genuinely scared to go to sleep for nightmares of this. Much better now though thanks
Have been completely unable to walk past a TCII cabinet ever since I first played it. Went on holiday and every scoreboard in Malaga had my initials on it. Bought the PS2 version w/ the Guncon 2 not long after and it's been like a member of the family ever since. If I made a top 10 list this is on it.
Loved all the Monkey Islands as a kid but I played this one way more than the others, for two reasons: 1) it looks like a very fun cartoon and 2) A Pirate I Was Meant to Be, a song that I used to make a save before when I played so that I could always go back to it because YouTube did not exist then.
Being able to pick your own lightsaber colour in the multiplayer was the craziest idea to me. This is allowed? I can have whatever I want? Whoah!! Jason Court should get an easy payday showing up in one of these new Star Wars shows as Kyle Katarn. I think he makes wine or something now? In new Star Wars games that let you pick saber colour I always pick yellow and I think it's because of Yun in this. Just thought he was cool!
I had one of those cheap Microsoft Sidewinder joysticks and I used to take it and my boxy little laptop to my gran's and sit and play this whilst eating chocolate digestives. It's perfect.
My only experience of Castlevania prior to this was watching my older cousin play Simon's Quest at my gran's once. Borrowed this from a younger cousin and I remember just being really struck by the box art (the proper one, not this bullshit on here). Games can look like this? What? The Dracula boss fight at the start was the craziest shit in the world to me at the time. I'm pretty sure Slogra and Gaibon scared me!
One of the first PC games I ever owned. I would sit and play this for hours, and as a result "squits" is still an extremely funny word to me. Was never particularly good at it, but I remember it did inspire me to try and make my own freakish hospital out of LEGO.
I had Red, Blue and Yellow but I got Red first and it's the only one I ever caught every single pocket monster in. Fond memories of random people from various years in my school forming their own Elite Four. Total strangers brought together by love.
Got this in a pack from a friend's dad. Going fast in games is something that I yearn for, need to do, and whilst some of that is probably down to a completely fried attention span I think it also partly due to this.
Traded Marble Madness in to get this at an independent shop that is long gone. Only ever finished it once, getting the bad ending, and I think that was the first time a game ever confronted me with a character's death in a serious manner, all because of my own failings. I was very quiet for the rest of the afternoon
Came in a pack I got from a mate's dad that also had Terminal Velocity in it. This was my first exposure to this kind of tactics game and I thought it was cool as shit. Never did finish it though, ran out of money because I spaffed it all on guns.
Thought this was the funniest a game could ever get as a kid. My gran made me a Simon outfit for Halloween one year. This game is how I found out about the existence of the TV show The Prisoner.
It's Doom II.
Completely astounding to me coming off the NES games. You could play this a hundred times and not get bored of it. Favourite BGM? Why, Spark Mandrill, thank you for asking!
Post-mission music is stuck on a loop in my head eternally. One time I shot a guy and he bounced up on top of some trees and was doing the thing where they lie there screaming before eventually bleeding out but I couldn't kill him because you couldn't shoot over the trees so I just had to sit there and wait and it was extremely distressing. The Daily Mail needs deleting.
First FMV game I ever played, beginning a decades long love affair with games that aren't very good but are often quite charming and/or funny in spite of themselves. Also it's Star Wars and I was under 10 so obviously it ruled.
Played a PC port of this that I cannot remotely remember how I got my hands on, picked Wolf and did wrestling moves and was Content. First 3D fighting game I ever played.
I would sit and watch the intro for this over and over, completely entranced. I've cooled off on it as time's went on and I've replayed but as a kid this had a complete hold on me. You Can Do Anything is still an absolute all-timer.
Twofold: my hometown team is in this, which was mindblowing to kid me. The idea that something I knew in my own life could be represented in a video game??? Get out of town!!! Also this was the first game someone ever ragequit on me in (cousin turned the Mega Drive off cause he was getting skinned 13-0).
Personal #1 Sonic game. Cataclysmic effect on kid me. Would sit with a single sheet of A4 trying to draw the entire Chemical Plant Zone on it. What the pink fumes do to a young mind. Not even the past 20-odd years of Sonic could diminish this a single bit in my eyes.
When I was in P1 a kid called Brian had this game with him for some reason and I asked if I could borrow it and he said yes, then at the end of the day when I went to get it from him he'd changed his mind and acted like he never said yes. Have hated him ever since, he will never be forgiven. Anyway I borrowed it from someone else in a different school years later and Whirlwind's evil laugh has been stuck in my head since then.
The first game I ever played. Never finished it because jumps in the North Pole section are absolute nonsense. Now though any time I see a memory match minigame in something I enjoy it and I think that is purely down to this.
The coolest game of all time. 2 and 3 are mechanically superior but this is the one I played the most cause I had it on a Mega CD 5-in-1 thing and I had never seen something so clearly Cooler than everything else around it. Replayed it in 2022 and this opinion is pretty much 100% intact.
How could this not be on here? Never once learned how to play it properly but I loved it dearly. All the hits: squabbling with friends and cousins over whether or not Ryu or Ken was cooler (Ken, obviously, fire), screaming in terror any time Vega went up on the cage, praying that God would look favourably upon me and just let me beat this unbelievable prick Sagat. I remember one time my mum's friend from work was round the flat and told me how to correctly pronounce Guile.
This is one of the only games that I've ever played with my mum but WHAT is going with this box art on here? Is this the American one or something? What is that!
First wrestling game I ever played. Loved the music. Thought Rick Rude was the coolest (still do). Love a neckbreaker!
Still think about the boss theme from this all the time. In primary school we all talked about games a lot of course but this is the one I remember everyone thinking was the coolest game in the world. S'got Spider-Man AND Batman in it!
First Mega Man game I ever saw (kid I knew's older brother had it). I always thought it was pronounced Dr. Willy. Haha!
Played this with my cousin at my gran's the same day we watched the Double Dragon movie on VHS and whilst nothing of that movie stuck in my mind I can perfectly recall us punching boys off the rooftops in this. Double Dragon rules (sometimes).
My cousin showed me how to do the warp early on where you have to crouch for a few seconds to get behind the stage and I was blown away. I used to play this with my dad and years later when I had to stay in hospital for a few days they had a SNES with Mario 3 and we sat and played it again. It's lovely!
First computer game I ever played. My P1 class had it on a BBC Micro and I vividly remember a teacher from another class bursting in excited to try a verb she'd thought of. It was "blush". Podd can blush!
5 Comments
thank you very much!
a lot of these overlap with my own experiences so I was like "hell yeah" the whole way. shoutouts to people who were brutally brought into the gaming world via Bart vs. the World lol
oh my god!!
Ah, a fellow classic musou, pro wrestling and Diablo II lover. sips tea
Nice.
Nice.
letshugbro
1 year ago