Support NeoGAF

[bit_blaster]

I've got lots of great memories but one of my favorites has to be playing through Metroid Fusion for the first time.

I was a bit of a spoiled and impatient kid. I was really hyped for the GBA when I was six, and mainly because of Metroid because my older bro introduced me to the series via our old consoles and emulation. I remember my bro and I snooping around our parents room, and buried in the closet we found Metroid Fusion and a white GBA! We carefully opened them both and secretly played it in my bros room, and because the GBA had no backlight on top of the games having very colorful and detailed graphics, we had to compromise by taking turns holding a flashlight over the shoulder of whoever was playing to help see better. Ironically we made it to the end of the game on Christmas eve, my bro played through most of it since I was young and I sucked at games compared to now where I can speedrun Fusion under 4 hours at 100%, but just to be nice he let me beat Omega Metroid at the end, I remember how tense it felt with the timer going on top of my mom repeatedly yelling for us to come down for Christmas dinner, it was one of the most satisfying moments I had beating a game. Afterwards I distracted my parents while my bro snuck the game and GBA back in their closet so they could wrap it and hand it to me the next day where I had to pretend to be surprised lol.

 

[MaestroMike]

Parents buying me a N64 on my birthday which occurred a little after the beginning of summer vacation and playing Mario Kart 64 all summer without a care in the world.

 

[Shift!]

playing Majora's Mask in 4th grade. Beating it in two weeks without guides. Remembering all the npc's and characters lying around in the game. Remembering the world and how real my responsibilities felt.

 

[JoshuaThomas]

I play WoW Classic. At the end of July, I started to pass the Ny'alotha raid. It's very difficult. In the raid, you need to fight 12 bosses and defeat N'zoth. When I finally pass it, it became my fondest gaming memory.

 

[Naked Lunch]

-Finishing my first ever videogame level in Burgertime after weeks of trying. Ill never forget it.

-Co-op Streets of Rage and Gunstar Heroes on the genesis with a hometown buddy and my sister. To this day these are still at the pinnacle of co-op games and to play them at release was really mindblowing.

-4 player matches on Super Bomberman SNES. Endless nights of laughter.

-Arcade Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat 2. Place your quarter up on the screen lip and wait your turn. Days lost in the dark rooms of arcades but it was worth it...

-Goldeneye 007 N64 4 player vs mode everywhere from local friends' houses, family get-togethers, to full fledged parties. Pistols only license to kill (with a mix of slappers). This game provided years of entertainment.

-PC Team Fortress Classic, Counter-Strike, and Battlefield 2. Online play with many of the same Goldeneye buddies who moved away to different universities. The fun of 007 transferred to PC online FPSs now with endless competition.

-Halo 2 and 3 online on Xbox. The same FPS fun aforementioned - but now on consoles. H2 was many people's first experience playing online back then - people were actually not assholes and tried to play as a team. It was a great time to be a gamer. H3 perfected the Halo MP gameplay. So many hyper competitive and hilarious matches. I still play it today...

 

[SaniOYOYOY]

college dota2 tournaments.
there really is nothing like that, peak gameplay experience

 

[ssringo]

- LAN parties with Army buddies. So many Diablo 2 all nighters. During our second deployment to Iraq we set up a LAN between our rooms for Halo matches.

- Army buddies again. Prior to the Patriots/Rams Super Bowl back in the early 2000s we did a 2v2 in Madden as a pre-game game. Our game turned out surprisingly similar to the actual game results. Patriots win 20-17 on the last drive. Though ours was a come from behind win on a QB sneak. We were in awe after the actual game.

 

[GeekyDad]

...bought an Atari 2600 when they first became available in the UK (I think he had to take out a second mortgage haha), which came with a sort of multipack of games, if I remember rightly.

The first console game I ever played was Pong...

Very similar experiences. My older sister got a Pong home system, and then later, I believe, we got Atari 2600 (late 70s). Adventure and Pitfall were probably the two most memorable games for me.

But...

My fondest gaming memories would have to be attached to...

Our three children were pretty young at the time (our youngest was five), and my wife and I had agreed early on in our marriage we didn't want to bring video games into the house while they were still very young because we felt it would be a distraction from school work and such. However, at the time I'm referring to, my wife was diagnosed with...well, I'll just say, she became very ill and a distraction for the kids (and me) was quite welcome. So, we purchased a GCN, a bunch of games that got good reviews/feedback/or looked cool. I played with the kids almost daily when they got home from school. My wife loved watching us, and it really helped sustain us at the time. My wife got well, we made it through okay. Good times.

 

[eNT1TY]

$1 to play Virtual On for about a solid 2 hours the day it came to my local arcade before finally getting kicked off after multiple rematches with the same 10 or so people.

 

[MetalSlug]

I just miss having lots of free time like I did when I was young + being able to have all my friends in one room playing local multi-player games. On-line is good, but there is something different about local.

 

[Gameplaylover]

Too much to list, but one thing i want to mention are LAN parties. As much as i love the internet + Discord, LAN parties were just another dimension of fun. Playing with ~100 people through the night, ordering pizza, sharing your mp3 and movie stuff, learning new tricks, trying other hardware and so on. It's almost like watching a NFL game live in the stadium compared to your tv. Sad that newer generations will never experience this.

 

[Graciaus]

Probably 360 Era when I got into online shooters. Playing halo 3 and cod everyday after work with 3+ friends was the best. Now all I do is play single player stuff since I've no one to play with.

 

[Markio128]

playing Majora's Mask in 4th grade. Beating it in two weeks without guides. Remembering all the npc's and characters lying around in the game. Remembering the world and how real my responsibilities felt.

I never managed to complete Majora’s Mask, even though I remember it being an amazing game at the time. Not sure why, but I would certainly be up for a remake so that I can finally finish it.

 

[bit_blaster]

I never managed to complete Majora’s Mask, even though I remember it being an amazing game at the time. Not sure why, but I would certainly be up for a remake so that I can finally finish it.

It had a remake on 3DS back in 2014. Some people hated some of the changes, but I didn't consider them a deal breaker compared to the QOL improvements and the nicer graphics.