Being a gamer my whole life has given me many moments of happiness and excitement. From the unexpected joy of my parents buying me an Atari in the very early 90's to getting my first NES for Christmas and being amazed by Mario games! Eventually, After the snes and megadrive aged, the Nintendo 64 came along, Mario 64…. Wave racer… Mario kart, it was awesome. Then throughout my life, defining my tastes and exploring cultures and hobbies based around how gaming was inspiring me. Many a memory I will forever cherish thanks to my hobby, gaming! Making new friends at the arcades, waiting outside game stores for day one releases…. Awesome times as a kid!
I'm writing this blog in reaction to feeling some sense of excitement i rarely get these days in gaming, that is the feeling of anticipation for final fantasy xv, which looks totally awesome after 8 long years of waiting, this years TGS has solidified my confidence that square Enix can reform the franchise back to what it should be, amazing!.
Anyway, enough rambling, here are my personal top memories, nostalgia induced and straight up epic memories. I hope in reading them, you guys might share your views on them, and maybe your nostalgic treasures!
Pokemon
Specifically red/blue. I was probably about 10 during this stage and it took my whole life and most of my friends by storm! I'd wake up extra early for the anime before school, spend my money on the trading cards and I was essentially absorbed for a good 2-3 years! But without a doubt it was playing Pokémon red on my gameboy that truly will remain forever in my most treasured gaming memories. Capturing pokemon and the sense of adventure was unrivaled in gaming at this point in the 90's, and then to battle vs your friends Pokémon was mind blowing! Its simplistic style even to this day is contagious and very accessible, a true gem in the gaming industry. I also had a blast with multiplayer pokemon stadium!
Mario 64
I actually remember seeing this game on the news before its release. I think it was the first game I ever saw on mainstream TV. My parents watched the footage with me, and it was the best looking game you could ever imagine seeing! That's a moment I'll never forget. I of course got the game day 1, and boy… words can't describe just how insanely good it felt to just hold the box it came in, let alone the first load up! The music, Mario's stretchable face, the build up of knowing you're about to play a game that had truly driven the games industry into the future and changed it forever. Absolutely, without a single doubt in my mind, this is possibly the most important game ever made! Countless sleepovers with my friends collecting stars will forever be remembered, epic perfection! Worth noting, Mario kart 64 was equally great, many many great times with friends on there!
The Legend of Zelda
More Nintendo 64, however if you didn't own one you'd be missing out! This game I played originally as a co op save with my friend. We would play the game after school for weeks on end. It was a beautiful game, this games open world feel was magical to me, it felt alive. Links adventure felt like just that, an adventure! Playing the ocarina songs, which to this day I could whistle out loud without a seconds thought. Your horse, ganondorf, collecting hearts…. If Mario 64 started my fascination with 3D open world style play, Zelda, including majoras mask, truly refined it. The last Zelda I truly enjoyed was wind waker, but by that point I was playing PlayStation so it was more the novelty of owning a GameCube for that Nintendo magic.
Final Fantasy 7
The franchise I almost missed! I was at a friends house, and randomly he gave me this game. He said it sucked and was too boring! So I took it home, loaded it up and initially I was thinking "OK, this is pretty cool". But by the time I had escaped midgard, I was hooked! The plot was fascinating, the attention to detail was, for me, one of a kind. I'd never played a game with so much story, it was like witnessing a movie I controlled! The music was unbelievable, the characters all lovable and cool, the battle system was awesome… sephiroth, jenova, the turks…. Tifas boobs…. Clouds Lego arms…. This game is awesome! Its not my favorite in the series, its a solid 97% though… beaten only by final fantasy 9…. Or tactics depending on my mood, but for nostalgia and importance this game is probably my most defining gaming experience! I love this game, a true work of art!
Metal gear solid
I remember getting this on one of my PlayStation demo disc's, it was a random play i stumbled across that I'd forever continue to love. It was so fresh in its approach to stealth and design. Not to mention its cast of awesome characters, this felt like gaming was maturing and it was taking risks not seen in many other games at the time. Its seriousness is met with almost comedic levels of satire which introduced me to the ever increasingly mad world of the genius, hideo Kojima! And for him alone, and my love for metal gear it has to feature as one of my defining and most nostalgic gaming experiences ever! To this day, I have never doubted metal gear, never had a bad thing to say about it… its possibly the greatest series in gaming!
Mass effect
Its not all old school games, this game was phenomenal! Mass effect 1, for me at least, holds the most passion and originality. Mass effect 2 is probably the best game in the trilogy overall, but the original holds so many moments of epic value! I actually bought an Xbox for this game alone, it had a great SciFi feeling, epic and memorable characters and the greatest ending in gaming… that is the original games ending. To avoid spoilers, basically a kickass song starts and the camera pans slowly away from the main character, it feels so bad ass, I actually felt uplifted, i think i actually applauded the game like a performance had finished, and was amazed by the game from start to finish… something I don't think any other game has before. For that alone, here is a game that I'll forever consider one of the greats!
Well those are my main nostalgia inducing games. They're not all necessarily my favorite games, but they all would rank highly. I could mention half life 2's epic city 17 "welcome, to city 17", or BioShocks rapture, sonic, golden axe and flashback on the Sega megadrive, quack attack, the elder scrolls, fallout, ridge racer, shenmue, broken sword, terminator vs RoboCop, mortal kombat, the witcher, dragon age, chrono trigger, deus ex, star ocean, kingdom hearts, silent hill, which in my opinion has the greatest soundtrack and atmosphere in gaming, bar none, the list goes on! But the ones I listed probably hold the most nostalgia for me.
What games hold similar feelings for you? It'd be interesting to read other gamers experiences with their past memories! Now as the world plays destiny, I might just go and hook up my Dreamcast and play Skies of Arcadia!
Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.
Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.
To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.
The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.
Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.
15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.
These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse
The charity event will be streamed live from Gamescom in August.
Thanks to the slip-up of an artist working on the title, we now have more evidence that a new Injustice game is in the works.
Nice article! I too enjoyed most of these games and they pretty much consumed my life when I played them lol I think Pokemon took the cake though. Such a great game.
My fondest memory of gaming is bartman were bart is a superhero. The first level the junkyard,with dogs patrolling the yard,bouncing tires,car crushers in 2D ......
Yeah the original Mass Effect was/is really something special. I didn't enjoy the 2nd one nearly as much
Probably the most memorable gaming session for me was playing Super Mario Bros. 3. Late hours having a blast with friends trying to finish it in one day. Other games that really got me excited at the time was the firt time I played Halo, Super Mario World, Super Mario 64, Mass Effect 1 and 2, the first Ridge Racer and Demolition Derby on the first Playstation.
So far this new generation really hasn't peaked my interest much. I'm sure it will soon with games like Forza Horizon 2, Sunset Overdrive, Bloodborn, Driveclub, Mario Kart 8 i want to play, Evolve, and Witcher III.
Finally something different for a change rather than the usual posting.
I'd have to vote my very first console ever - Game Boy back in Xmas of 89 when it first launched with Tetris and Mario Land.
Then NES a year later (which started to kill my social life) however thanks to Nintendo I was able to learn how to read, write, and count faster than normal.
Genesis was next in 93 with Street Fighter 2 Special Champion Edition, then Bday of 96 was Super NES. Those two alone carried me over through Middle School.
Nintendo 64 was my choice over the Sega Saturn in 96 since at the time Killer Instinct Gold was the system it appeared on. I was still a die hard Nintendo fan until in 98 when I owned the PlayStation, and from there it was (almost) history.
What I miss the most from back then to now is gamers actually uniting together for talking about favorite games instead of fighting over stats that shouldn't be brought up. I also miss how gaming used to bring fans together to share common interests (although you still had the die hard fans) as well as playing a match/race all night.