What games defined your childhood and why? What aspects of them interested you and how have they shaped your taste? And how do they hold up for you?
I used to be quite the avid gamer back in the day, with plenty of games of different genres and tastes, but there are a select few that I specifically have memories of. Some of them I haven't touched in years, but looking back, the memories I had of them always bring a smile to my face. There are some others that I didn't mention below, like the Lego Island game, or the Simpsons Hit and Run (brought up by someone in this thread already) or WoW, but the ones I stated were more or less my "main" games of my childhood.
Battlefield 1942I first began playing Battlefield 1942 when I would play it on my grandfather's computer whenever I stayed over during the weekend. I would hog his computer for most, if not all of the weekend, but my grandfather never seemed to mind. He must've enjoyed my company (like I enjoyed hanging out with him) since I would later find myself having similar tastes in regards to genre e.g. fantasy, war, etc.
Anyway, I had spent hours upon hours playing BF1942. I remember constantly playing the Berlin map, hiding in one of the buildings next to an ammo crate as a medic and raining down bullets upon the invading Soviet forces. As a kid, I always thought I was amazing because I could camp and reach a high kill count for some reason. BF1942 is also the game where I first learned what ping was thanks to the help of someone on a server I played on, and also learned how to fly a plane. I wasn't great at aerial combat, but as a kid, I felt proud that I could do something that my grandfather struggled at doing. Still, neither of us could figure out how to fly a helicopter.
Looking back, BF1942 holds up quite well for me. Some might complain that Battlefield 1942 is dated, yet I still enjoy playing it to this day. Even with the multiplayer service being shut down (you need a LAN network program like Hamachi or Gameranger to play MP now), there are days when I'll pop the CD in and play a bit. The days of
Oreo (as a kid I had a weird obsession with food usernames) may be long gone and my taste for FPS slowly disappearing, but it would be a lie if I didn't say I had fun.
This was another game my grandfather had on his computer. I remember my grandfather saying he wasn't a fan of it, but I enjoyed the game (and still do). It was another WW2 FPS, but the game played much more like what you would expect from Quake. You would have people bunny hopping around, shooting Thompsons or mowing people down with machine guns on the tank. I had a lot of fun over the years of playing ET, to be honest. My username was Chocolate Twinkie or something along those lines, probably because I was addicted to those fluffy cakes as a kid.
Sadly, I haven't had the chance to play Wolfenstein:ET in a while. Back when I still had my PC, I could play it, but for some reason I can't join any server on my laptop. I can download it fine, but that's all I can do. I'd probably give anything to just hear the announcer shout those dumb lines over and over or the custom chat phrases being spammed again.
ToontownToontown was my jam as a kid. I played as a skinny green dog with a bump on his head, who was the tallest you could make your character. I used to play it constantly, even more so than the rest of my family who shared the account. Hell, I was subscribed to their newsletter thing that they would send in the mail and give you trading cards and some other neat things. Before Disney shutdown Toontown, I think I was somewhere around 50 or so laff points, way higher than any other toon on that account. I'm often anal about 100% things or grinding out achievements/rewards in games, so I can see my thought process behind that.
As to how its held up, I think a lot of my interest has disappeared. You can't play the OG Toontown anymore, and if you do want to play it, you'll have to play something like Toontown Rewritten. I tried Rewritten, but I couldn't really get into it like I once did as a kid, and the fact that the game felt devoid of people at the time didn't help.
PokemonI've heard people say Pokemon is for kids, but even being a grown adult, Pokemon is special for me. I was born around the time of Gen 1 and 2, but I didn't start playing it for real until Gen 4 (which is why I'd push hard for Gen 4 remakes). I remember playing DPPT with my elementary friends, especially through Battle Revolution. I had a sleepover once, and I loaned my friend my DS lite and my Pearl copy to join us in double battles. I never got the chance to apologize to him that there was only a 50-something Crobat and a bunch of Bidoofs on that copy, but we all had fun anyway.
I'd eventually have to move away from my friends, and I haven't talked to them in years after losing contact (which is ironic given a certain character of mine in an upcoming RP). Still, I continued on playing Pokemon, though most of my playtime is on Showdown now. I haven't really played through the handheld games since I blitzed through my brother's copy of X (the same brother who said he was tired of Pokemon and gave me his Unova games, only to complain that he wanted them back once I found a shiny Patrat early on).
To this day, I still watch some of the anime, and would like to play S/M & US/UM (or any future games) someday when I'm not stuck in poverty land. I'm still waiting on another Shadow Pokemon game, as Colosseum and XD were my thing back in the day. Those games were the ones that would lead to my mother coining Gulpin as "booger man with a feather on his head" and Kadabra/Alakazam as "spoon man." I probably could rant how I liked the concept, the story, the OST for hours on hours. If only Nintendo/Game Freak would make a sequel for it.
1x Thank
