Support NeoGAF

[Gamer79]

I"m 40 so I am going way back. Back when I was 5 (1984ish) I lived in a small town in Indiana. In those days, most video game players played or just hung out at the arcade. My local shop got a new game in that changed the way that many of us thought videogames could be. That game was Super Mario Bros. Let me tell you the game caught on like wild fire. The game was so popular there often times would be a line 4+ people deep to play the game. You would put your quarter on the screen, call next. Half the fun was standing in the line and watching other players playing it and learning from them. This was right before it was available on the nes and it seems like a very simple game for most of you today. I promise you it was extraordinary back in those days. There were games like it before like pitfall and what not but Super Mario Bros took those too a completely different level. I can't say I am a big nintendo fan any more but give them tons of respect for what they have brought to all of us as video game lovers.

*A found memory I have is when one of the local kids finally beat the maze in 7-3. The local arcade manager gave me 3 bucks to run down the street to get his buddy to see it.

 

[Patrick S.]

Unreal. It was just unreal.

 

[carlosrox]

Nintendo's still got the magic!

I mean there's really too many games to name that blew me away the first time I saw them.

Seeing Mario World and SNES games coming off of the NES was amazing. Final Fight, F-Zero, Contra 3, Actraiser.

Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat 1 and 2 in arcades. Killer Instinct.

Donkey Kong Country, Super Metroid, Final Fantasy 3.

Suikoden, MGS, and Resident Evil on PS1.

Mario 64. At the Toys R Us kiosk as well as at home.

Virtua Fighter 3 in arcades.

King Kong and Kameo at the 360 demo kiosks.

Sonic Adventure on Dreamcast kiosks.

Unreal, Doom 3, Crysis.

Bioshock, RE4, REmake, RE2make.

Mario Kart 8, Tropical Freeze, BOTW, Smash 4.

Doom 2016, Killzone Shadowfall, Uncharted 4, Watch Dogs 2, and many others this gen.


Too many to name over the years!

 

[John Mullins]

Virtua Fighter 3 running on an import Dreamcast. I spent countless hours obsessively playing VF2 (and other Sega AM fighters) on the Saturn.

The visual upgrade on a series I knew like the back of my hand, coupled with seeing the Dreamcast for the first time blew me AWAY. Good times.

 

[sublimit]

Tomb Raider (1996) due to its gameplay and Gran Turismo due to its graphics.

 

[eastwood333]

First console game to completely blow me away was Goldeneye 64, Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, and Banjo Kazooie

 

[cireza]

Soul Calibur on Dreamcast.

 

[Antwix]

Two games that come to mind: Wave Race 64 and Far Cry 1. Both games were just so bright and vibrant. A joy to look at.

 

[Tulipanzo]

Going for a recent one, at Milan GamesWeek 2016 I saw Horizon Zero Dawn running on a PS4 Pro.
A guy was demoing it on a big screen, and I deadass asked "Is that real? Make her jump" and he did.
That game was stunning.

 

[Manwithoutfear]

breath of the wild and witcher 3 come to mind.

 

[Guilty_AI]

I remember being quite amazed with GTA VC when i first played it on a lanhouse. All the stuff you could do, the little details, etc.
Another one was Test Drive Unlimited. I used to play racing games a lot back in the day, but TDU blew me away with its sheer scale that couldn't be compared to anything else at the time. Quite honestly, i think its still better executed than a lot of similar modern racing games like The Crew or NFS.

 

[nkarafo]

The original Doom.

 

[Slings and Arrows]

OG Tomb Raider, pointy tits and 3D action.

3D!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Blew my tiny little mind

 

[t_wilson01]

Sonic The Hedgehog
X-Men Children Of The Atom
Donkey Kong Country
Gran Turismo 3
The Order 1886

 

[eastwood333]

Red Dead Redemption, Crysis 2 on the 360 also blew me away

 

[Fuz]

Shadow of the Beast, Wrath of the Demon, Quake.

 

[junguler]

 

[Patrick S.]

OG Tomb Raider, pointy tits and 3D action.

3D!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Blew my tiny little mind

Which reminds me. THIS was THE 3D graphics revolution and the beginning of a new era:

 

[Fbh]

I still remember going to the mall around the time last gen consoles started selling in my country and just being blown away by Fight Night Champion 3. It looked so good (honestly still looks decent for a 2005 game)

 

[Mister Wolf]

Devil May Cry. It was the first dope game. Other games were good, fun, awesome, etc. Devil May Cry was dope.

 

[JareBear: Remastered]

I remember thinking Shadows of the Empire on N64 looked better than anything I had ever seen before. I was a kid, but whatever

 

[Bryank75]

Donkey Kong Country, Metal Gear Solid, Tekken Tag Tournament, Golden Eye, Mario Galaxy, God of War 2005 and 2018 and GOW 3. Uncharted 4 & RDR1 & 2. That's what comes to mind...

 

[Rattlehead121]

Twilight Princess, BotW

Bioshock, Dead Space

Final Fantasy 12

 

[Guilty_AI]

Old games like this are usually better to get through GOG since they usually make sure the game works properly. Just saying for anybody considering to buy it.

 

[EDMIX]

Metal Gear Solid 1.

Not more so of what I saw, but more conceptually how the world worked. The enemy being able to hear you, see footsteps in the snow, the ability to simply move around the enemy instead of engaging them was just such an insane idea then. A game with a complete cast of voice actors, a script, plot etc. I remember many then arguing that such a thing wasn't a "game" as games didn't have those things and films did.

Funny enough, 10 years after Metal Gear Solid 1, those things in a game NOT EXISTING in a AAA game was more questionable and strange. Changed the way I looked at what games could be forever.

 

[Codes 208]

-yoshis island (the artstyle blew me away as a kid)
-ocarina of time (my first true 3d game)
-halo 2 (for me it was one if tye best looking games in gen 5)
-gears of war (for me this was the 360’s next gen starts now Moment)
-ryse (where are the downgrades? KEEP LOOKING!)

 

[Kev Kev]

halo - when you first crash land on the ring
tes: oblivion - when you come out of the prison/underground area in the beginning
bioshock - seeing rapture for the first time
bioshock infinite - seeing columbia for the first time

 

[Coolwhhip]

Mario Bros
Super Mario World
Donkey Kong Country
Mario 64
Ocarina of Time
Goldeneye
World of Warcraft

Then I got old and nothing amazes me anymore.

 

[Esppiral]

 

[Vawn]

Mario 64, Resident Evil

 

[PleaseDontBanMe]

In my mind NBA 2K on dreamcast looked like REAL football

but im sure looking back on it now it probably doesnt

 

[Dr.Brobotnik]

I don't think anything has amazed me as much as the first trailer for GTA IV...

 

[Elder Legend]

Half Life 2
World of Warcraft
DOOM 2016
God of War (2018)
Fable
Fable 2
Dead Space
Forza Horizon 4
Killzone Shadowfall
Super Smash Bros Ultimate
Animal Crossing
GTA 5
GTA 3
GTA VICE CITY

 

[Slings and Arrows]

I remember that day

 

[Boxman]

Metal Gera Solid 5.

 

[MisterBrimstone]

No Man's Sky, the thread.

 

[OmegaSupreme]

Mario 64 is the big one. I also remember being really impressed by F.E.A.R. back in the day

 

[Coolwhhip]

No Man's Sky, the thread.

 

[Craig of War]

OG Crysis literally got 5-10 FPS on my OG PC

 

[Spukc]

sonic 1
mario 64
half life 2
world of warcraft
diablo 3
forza horizon 3
zelda breath of the wild
robo recall

 

[Jakk]

Crysis when it was new. From the recent times, Red Dead Redemption 2.

 

[Azelover]

Virtua Fighter 3, Arcade version.

 

[Jigsaah]

I think Street Fighter 2 was a defining moment of my gaming career.

TMNT 1989 Arcade cabinet was like the holy grail of arcade games to me.

Phantom Dust became my favorite game of all time

Halo CE was mindboggling to me

Tekken 1, Mortal Kombat 1, Killer Instinct...all gamergasms

Mario 64 had me going to Kmart every day after school to play on the kiosk. N64 was the first console I bought with my own money.

GoldenEye, Perfect Dark, COD4, Demon's Souls.

More recently, I haven't seen many games that just blow my mind. It's kinda sad really. I mean I still get excited for games, but even Cyberpunk doesn't give me the same kind of excitement I felt back in those days.

I blame getting old.

 

[nkarafo]

In my mind NBA 2K on dreamcast looked like REAL football

Im confused

 

[fantastico]

The Simpsons - Bart vs the Space Mutants (Amiga). I only had a Spectrum at the time and this was like a real cartoon!

Robocop 3 (Amiga) it was like a whole 3D world!

California Games (Lynx) All those colours on a portable?

Mario 64 in a shop, needed an N64 there and then.

Jet Set Radio, on a TV show (Bits?) tossed the N64 aside and needed a Dreamcast

Wipeout HD Fury Expansion, probably the last time I was wowed by a gamevisual

 

[Robot Carnival]

Half Life
FFXI
MGS
MGS2
MGS4
Dead Space
Journey

there's probably a few more but these are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

 

[Bartski]

Story of my whole life with my beloved medium, the list is way too long and every new generation I get my mind blown with leaps of graphics and gameplay it's making.
The first time ever I knew I'm hooked was, as a Commodore64 loving 7 year old, seeing Shadow of the Beast running on a real actual Amiga500 supercomputer on display in an electronics shop.
That parallax in 32 colors was just the most amazing thing I had ever seen! I remember I used to go there every day and just stare at it.

 

[FreedomOfSpeech]

Must have been 1985'ish, saw a tv program on violent videogames lol. They showed some amiga game where
some character squeezed an enemy to death or sth. Mesmerized by the graphics. (no clue what name).

Got me into gaming and programming for life.

Also Rez, such a departure from what I had seen before.

 

[Kerotan Frog]

Sonic Adventure.

Saw it summer of 1999 at Epcot and I played the demo. Going from Sonic on the Genesis, to that?! It changed my life.

 

[JeloSWE]

I was to young to really be blown away but I remember being innately drawn to the graphics of these games:
Combat (Atari 2600)
Altered Beasts (Arcade)
Double Dragon (Arcade)
Outrun (Amiga)

These games did blow my mind how good they looked:
Turrican II (Amiga) - If not for the graphics which were amazing, the music were even more so.
Final Fantasy 7 - no PS1 game ever looked this good in my eyes.
Soul Calibur (DC) - Seeing an early trailer made my mouth water for days.
Sonic Adventure (DC) - Played with and VGA adapter to 60fps an progressive scan, pure glory.
Tekken Tag (PS2) - Game looked amazing and did a lot of cool new stuff, reflection mapping, phong shading, etc.
Crysis - Finally a game where there the ground weren't flat polygons but were covered in vegetation, I had so longed for this day.
Uncharted 2 - The amazing rendition of characters in cut scenes sold me to buy the game.
Horizon Zero Dawn - Again, the density of the vegetation, foliage and beautiful lighting in the forests, crazy!
Beyond two souls PS3 - A technical and esthetical feat on PS3.
Detroit Becoming Human - Again, crazy good looking but also from a technical stand point.
Recent MS flight simulator - The landscapes and cities are really staring to look realistic now.