Support NeoGAF

[JOEVIAL]

All this talk of the next generation has got me reminiscing on all my favorite gaming memories. The biggest of which is being hyped for games long before they release. It got me realizing, there are no "TRUE" next-gen only games I am hyped for...... but just wait a second..... the only reason for that is because we haven't seen any real next-gen games yet. Hard to believe we are approaching mid June and we do not know what the future holds for the PS5 or XBOX Series X (besides a few titles, which are also cross-gen).

I remember a time when I just played games... I didn't follow gaming news, E3 had no meaning for me, and I didn't know what games were coming out. All I cared about was what I was playing at home on the family computer, or what I played on my friends consoles. My only exposure to new games was anything that was on store shelfs or through demo kiosks (ahh... the best kind of nostalgia)

It was only when my family got our first console, is when I started to care about the future of games. This was in 2003 with the original XBOX. With all that said, the first game that I remember being hyped for - before it's release - was Halo 2. Playing Halo Combat Evolved cooperatively with my brother is one of my most favorite gaming memories... so when I heard a sequel to my favorite game was coming out I just could not contain my excitement! The wait felt like so long before it's release.... but when Halo 2 finally came out, the wait was absolutely worth it. Halo 2's release was the biggest in entertainment history at the time and for good reason.

Anywho... what are ya'lls stories? What's the first game you remember being hyped for before it's release?

 

[sublimit]

 

[JareBear: Remastered]

My first midnight launches were KOTOR and Halo 2. I still remember the lines and talking to people around me.

I mean, I am hyped a lot, but these are just the two earliest examples I remember of going out of my way to get a game ASAP

 

[waltyftmus Prime]

Street Fighter 2 Champion Edition for the Sega Megadrive, and mere words cannot express how i felt.

 

[Vawn]

 

[Orta]

The hype surrounding this little known title was unreal for the time.

To wake up Christmas morning back in '92 and to clasp that case in your 13 year old hands was comparable to losing your virginity!

 

[Kuranghi]

Hmmm, probably Half-Life 2, I preordered the Collector's Edition and woke up at 8am to go down to the shop for 9am open because I wanted to play it straight away (Took 13 hours to download, decrypt and install lmao, good job i started early). This is the interaction I had with the staff from just before 9am until when I left the shop(paraphrased):

*There is no queue and the shop doesn't open at 9am, an employee walks up to the door, is startled by me standing there, looked at me like wtf are you doing here and then lets me in and walks back to the counter*

Guy: You're eager! What can I get for you?
Me: Uh, I preordered Half Life 2 Collector's Edition, my name is ...
Guy: What's it on?
Me: PC
Guy: Awww you don't want that!!
Me: Uhhh yes I... do. I preordered it.
Guy: Aye but its shite! You don't want it!
Me: Can you sell it to me or not?
Guy: I guess
*Guy goes to get game and charges me for it*

Totally bizarre lol, it was probably just working in a POS job and/or being a console fanatic but it remains today to be the 2nd worst/strangest interaction I've ever had with a game store employee.

I was also really really excited for Max Payne 2 but that was before I followed game release dates so one day it was just in the shop window and I was going in there with £30 to buy something! The best part was the game was only £24.99! *invokes nice memories*

I think I got my first game between 1992 and 1994, I got Amiga Power but I didn't really know about every game coming out so there wasn't really hype. More like, "booting-it-and-realising-its-amazing" than being pre-hyped back in those days.

// Random games memory

A funny memory I have is being with my dad in his jeep and buying The Settlers and him saying not to open it because we were going back home via a farm shop (basically farm selling its own produce) and I might lose some of the stuff from inside the big box in the car or it falls out of the car when we go in the farm shop.

Of course I ignored him when he left me in the car alone lol. We get home and I get really upset because I don't have the manual for Settlers and I have no idea what I'm doing haha. We have to drive all the way back to the farm shop to get the manual from a confused farmer's wife, you can tell she's leafed through it and gone "wtf is this shit?".

 

[qiqiqiiq]

The original Star Wars Battlefront 2, and Megaman Battle Network 5 where you could use Protoman.

 

[Craig of War]

Mortal Kombat for the Sega Genesis

 

[deriks]

I guess Sonic Adventure, but maybe Star Wars Racer. I bought Racer as soon as it came out for PC, and I waited for a friend to get a Dreamcast with Sonic to play

I still have fun with both nowadays

 

[REE Machine]

For most and peak hyped I would say MGS3

 

[Wizz-Art]

Actually hyped, Virtua Tennis for the Dreamcast.

 

[#Phonepunk#]

Doom. I was super into Wolf3D and on BBSes they were hyping the crap out of it in the early 90s

 

[Kuranghi]

Mortal Kombat for the Sega Genesis

I know you corrected this but its still Sea on my page and I'm imagining a sort of underwater attachment for the Genesis for scuba divers haha

 

[Kuranghi]

For most and peak hyped I would say MGS3

Oh SHIT cheers pal, you reminded me that my first isn't HL2, its actually MGS2!

Getting that MGS2 demo with ZoE was magical... except the first one I bought I had to return cause some bastard had removed the demo disc! I get another copy of ZoE (this time WITH the demo inside) and bring it back weeks later after I've finished with the MGS 2 demo... I really tried to like ZoE but child-me didn't really get the combat in that game, I just used to "ice-skate" on flat surfaces with Jehuty

 

[spawn]

I watched every trailer and every gameplay footage on youtube before this game came out

 

[Damigos]

FFVIII
After 7 the hype was real. I am happy i wasnt disappointed

 

[Elder Legend]

I been hyped for many games, but this one was something else at the time.

 

[Deleted member 471617]

TMNT II: The Arcade Game for NES.

 

[#Phonepunk#]

Doom. I was super into Wolf3D and on BBSes they were hyping the crap out of it in the early 90s. It lived up to the hype like no game before or since

 

[Starlight Lotice]

Crash Team Racing (Had Crash 3 and played it to death and the hype in the Magazines was real)

Final Fantasy X (my first one and I played the Demo of it to death)

Sonic Heroes (turned out I hated it)

Bayonetta 2

Valkyria Chronicles 4

 

[Kokoloko85]

Mega Hype was Fighters Megamix on the Sega saturn... I remember saving my pennies

 

[MDSLKTR]

I remember getting an official playstation magazine with a RE2 cover, I remember getting it just for that. The same magazine also had a preview of MGS1...

 

[Virex]

 

[REE Machine]

Oh SHIT cheers pal, you reminded me that my first isn't HL2, its actually MGS2!

Getting that MGS2 demo with ZoE was magical... except the first one I bought I had to return cause some bastard had removed the demo disc! I get another copy of ZoE (this time WITH the demo inside) and bring it back weeks later after I've finished with the MGS 2 demo... I really tried to like ZoE but child-me didn't really get the combat in that game, I just used to "ice-skate" on flat surfaces with Jehuty

God i remember that demo, when i rented zone of the enders it came with it and at that time i didnt know what metal gear was, i Loved the demo so
Much i went out a bought the first metal gear solid to play that very day.
speaking of demos i was so hyped for
Mgs3, they released a demo of the game as well with a copy of a magazine might have been opm, i being only 13 at the time woke
Up at 6 am to walk to my local grocer to
Pick up the magazine as soon as thr store opened, to then run home,
Play the demo, go to school and then have my best friend come over after and play it as well.

 

[Happosai]

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess on GameCube. They kept cancelling/postponing the release date and there was a point in which Nintendo talked like it would be an exclusive launch game for Wii (leaving GC out). I didn't want to buy a Wii then (I'm cheap and I don't buy consoles during their first 4-5-years). Eventually, they released, but, I was broke at that time (between jobs). I ended up waiting some 7-years later to buy it in a used game store (GameCube version). THEN...I ended up stalling to play it for a year. I eventually gave it to my wife and watched her play it.

 

[Trueblakjedi]

Sonic the Hedgehog genesis.
Strider Genesis
street fighter II SNES
Contra SNES
Tombraider PS1
Zelda windwaker Gamecube
Gears of War X360
Uncharted 2 PS3
Witcher 3 XbOne

 

[Birdo]

Super Mario Bros. 3.

It felt like a world changing event when I was a kid.

 

[Kuranghi]

God i remember that demo, when i rented zone of the enders it came with it and at that time i didnt know what metal gear was, i Loved the demo so
Much i went out a bought the first metal gear solid to play that very day.
speaking of demos i was so hyped for
Mgs3, they released a demo of the game as well with a copy of a magazine might have been opm, i being only 13 at the time woke
Up at 6 am to walk to my local grocer to
Pick up the magazine as soon as thr store opened, to then run home,
Play the demo, go to school and then have my best friend come over after and play it as well.

Nice, was the demo just the start of the game or was it the "2nd mission"?

 

[Happosai]

Sonic the Hedgehog genesis.
Strider Genesis
street fighter II SNES
Contra SNES
Tombraider PS1
Zelda windwaker Gamecube
Gears of War X360
Uncharted 2 PS3
Witcher 3 XbOne

When Windwaker came out, were you impressed or temporarily disappointed by the overall style change in the artwork/design? I remember I was extremely hesitant because I first got used to 8-bit Link on NES, grew into the Link to the Past Link, and enjoyed the change of the first 3-D Links in Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. The cartoony -style of WindWaker was off-putting when I saw the trailers. I changed that opinion when I played it.

 

[cash_longfellow]

Hey guys, it's my first post here (although I have been a member and an avid follower of the forums). I remember to this day, the first game I remember being hype for was Final Fantasy II for SNES. It was also my very first preorder - no old jokes please

 

[amigastar]

Black & White by Peter Molyneux was one of my first hyped games. After playing it i never believed in what Peter Molyneux was promising anymore.
The other one was Max Payne based on the Benchmark (i forgot the benchmarks name) it was a demo of Max Payne playing by itself.

 

[sublimit]

Hey guys, it's my first post here (although I have been a member and an avid follower of the forums). I remember to this day, the first game I remember being hype for was Final Fantasy II for SNES. It was also my very first preorder - no old jokes please

Welcome to the forum fellow old timer.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

When I saw Descent II in a magazine (having loved the first one and played it endlessly), I flipped a lid.

 

[triplestation]

 

[REE Machine]

Nice, was the demo just the start of the game or was it the "2nd mission"?

Yep was the start where you find Sokolov and then thats where it ended

 

[Rikkori]

Vice City. GTA 3 was an absolute monster & VC looked to push that even further. I did some dumb dumb things just to play VC at launch and oh boy was it worth it. Granted, that remains GTA peak hype for me, stopped caring about series so much afterwards, even though SA was a monster as well & 4 still had plenty of hype and things done right, but it's just not the same.

 

[Whataborman]

Ninja Gaiden and TMNT, both on the NES

 

[Randall365]

Monkey Island 2

Didn’t help that they announced it for Atari ST then pulled it, so I had to wait four years to then play it on an Amiga.

 

[molasar]

 

[MisterBrimstone]

Perfect dark. Seemed too good to be true and when it happened it was even better than that.

 

[TheMan]

I was massively hyped for the PSX launch in general, spent so much time playing that damn demo kiosk in sears. That was the first generation I closely followed from the very beginning.

In terms of individual games? Maybe Super Mario Bros 3.

 

[ACESHIGH]

Mortal Kombat 4: I bought MK magazines in the mid 90's and the MK4 previews were insane. Just the thought of pulling out Sub Zeros Spine Rip and Scorpions Toasty in 3D kept my 10 year old mind going. And it was so worth it.

 

[Elpidio Valdés]

The first Mass Effect! I remember watching the E3 2006 trailer and being blown away. There was something about the game that just spoke to me. That trailer still gives me goosebumps.

 

[Saber]

Majoras Mask 64

It even had tv ads at the time, which was kind rare for games to even be showed at my country.

Was fucking happy when we pick the game.

 

[and 3 others]

Street Fighter 2 Champion Edition for the Sega Megadrive, and mere words cannot express how i felt.

Regale us with you initially firing it up?

 

[Katajx]

Been a gamer since the late 80’s/Early 90’s and usually didn’t know about games until after they were out. This...was different and a hell of a ride!

 

[Katajx]

Also woke up to this Christmas ‘92. 6 year old me didn’t know what a Sega or Sonic was, and I’m pretty sure my oldest brother really talked my mom into it for Mortal Kombat lol

 

[Abear21]

I remember being so hyped for GTA4, I went to the midnight release, what can I say, those rockstar trailers worked on me! I got home and I remember in the first part of the game getting in a car and being able to turn on the headlights, high beams too, I though yeah this is next gen, lol!

 

[#Phonepunk#]

Seeing the commercial for Super Mario Bros. 3 in a movie theatre was my earliest memory of video hype. I think the movie was the first TMNT or something.

Then “The Wizard” came out. I had heard about Mario flying from some kid at school and this movie confirmed it. The Princess could hover in Mario 2 but this was a whole new thing. It also had the most badass version of a video game contest with that crazy giant industrial 90s set. Mario was larger than life. I didn’t even own an NES and he was this towering figure. That’s part of his power. Mario is modern myth.

Later the Mortal Kombat commercial was played in a theatre and that was equally awesome. like the Mario teaser it had no gameplay haha but that only adds to the hype. This is why companies love it