(Saw this question asked on another popular link aggregation website and it got me thinking)
If you could play one game for the first time all over again, what would you choose? This might be because you want to do it all again, or because you don’t think you got enough out of it the first time. It could be experiencing the game exactly as you were back then, or experiencing a game with what you know now.
For me, it’s Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past, experienced exactly as I was back in 1991.
Nothing comes close to how jaw-droppingly amazed I was by that opening sequence. The epic orchestral score, the cinematic rainstorm, creeping around in the dark… it was a generational leap above anything I’d played on 8-bit computers and consoles, and even the Megadrive. I’d love to play it again without thirty plus years of Nintendo/Zelda knowledge, or without knowing about the dark world.
That Zelda is on my list for sure. I’d add super Mario world as well, just like Zelda did, it introduced so many new mechanics and the maps were so HUGE you could spend absolute weeks trying to unlock all of certain areas.
NBA Jam on SNES.
Wolfenstein or Doom first time really seeing a 3d game. Being absolutely terrified of the ambient noises in Doom.
Half-Life for sure. Relatively intelligent soldier opponent tactics, puzzling real puzzles in 3d for the first time not just point and shoot.
Goldeneye 007. Trying to figure out how to aim, so slowly and ineptly. Then one of your friends says let’s try multiplayer and 4 years later…
Warcraft 2 on dial-up with your friend across town.
GTA 2. Discovered almost by accident and the top down view was so great. Never cared much for the rest of the series.
Super Bomberman.
Yeah, when I was a kid and Doom had first come out, I got scared to death when I walked around a corner and ran into my first pinky; it was horrifying!