What games have had the biggest influence on you?

MGS and Ocarina of Time come to mind for me. They defined what action adventure games could be.
MGS gave us cinematic story telling, deep characters, interesting dialogue/writing, action/adventure segments (fighting a helicopter, jumping down a building, crossing a field full of mines, sniper sections, a getaway segment, torture segment). It also broke the fourth wall. The themes were philosophical and contemporary (military industrial complex). The post game also gave you a reward depending on your actions. It also gave gamers an option to play stealthily instead of just mowing people down which was also part of its theme.

Ocarina of Time gave us a 3d open world Hyrule. It opened the possibilities for exploration and the sense of wonder we get from finding a new town or a new area and meeting new characters. Hyrule as a setting was very much an important part of the game. Not only were you a part of its world, but you had to save it from destruction. There was an emotional depth to it that gave you motivation to beat Ganondorf!

How about you, SW? What games have had the biggest influence on you?

Rapelay taught me what matters is the people we meet along the way, not the end journey.

Halflife is also ok.

E.T. 2600 taught me that this industry is a soulless, heartless monstrosity.

Chrono Trigger taught me that this industry is the greatest, bestest thing ever.

Half-Life: rewrote what the FPS could be. Cinematic without cutscenes, highly immersive. Mods, mods, mods! Also introduced me to online play.

Various turn-based games, but more specifically Civilization, Alpha Centauri, and earlier Total War games.

Various simulations, but more specifically Tie Fighter, Aces of the Pacific, and Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe. Really got me to fall in love with the genre and all it's diversity, from arcade sims to more realistic ones and space and normal flight.

A lot of Blizzard titles, specifically Diablo 2 and World of Warcraft, showed me that "service" based games don't necessarily need to be a negative thing on the industry. They also showed me that a great game, with great support from a developer and publisher, can have a really healthy and long-lived community. Blizzard supported Starcraft and Diablo 2 long after any other company would, and World of Warcraft (despite some stumbles) has had a 20-year success and leads the MMO genre.

First Super Mario Brothers on the NES changed my outlook on gaming. It was an eye opener and really got me invested in gaming. When I played Super Mario Brothers 3, I was broken because that game became my crack cocaine and I wish I was exaggerating.

Tomb Raider 1 demo was mind blowing because it was the first fully realized 3D game that I played (only recently played the game to completion and the game is rough from a modern perspective)

Gabriel Knight II was the forgotten FMV (Full Motion Video) era and was the last game that I have played with a long lasting compelling story.

Outcast was the first open world game I recall playing and the overall experience was phenomenal despite the poor performance and near awful controls.

Half-life was immersive, engaging and a fundamental shift from other FPS at the time. Thoroughly enjoyed playing the campaign and all of the other modes that followed it like Team Fortress (not the modern version).

System Shock 2 introduced me to immersive slower place sci fi games. I enjoyed the full experience and everything it had to offer.

Age of Empires introduced me to the world of RTS (Real time strategy) that focused on base building.

Sim City 2000 was introduced to me by my dad. I religiously played that game for a time. It was able to disconnect me from reality.

Commandos Behind Enemy Lines was visually stellar, strong campaign and excellent to play. My first tactics game.

There are many more but I don't want this to be any longer.😂

I'm still chasing the feeling I had when I played KOTOR. it was a seizmic shift in my feelings towards games. I was fully immersed and few experiences have come close since then.

Dark Souls is impactful in the modern day....

Games from my youth like Castlevania 2 with its RPG elements and day/night cycle stand out.... Ff4 with its story telling.... Or even breath of the wild with its player agency to discover whatever you'd like really impacted me. Also, Mass Effect... A great marriage between gameplay and story telling. Some of the best characters written in a video game.

MGS series

Warcraft series

90's SquareSoft

Arcade beat'em ups (Double Dragon, Final Fight, TMNT etc...)

NES-SNES Mario games

Deus Ex

And a whole bunch more.

Formative stuff that initially drove my preferences would be SMB1, Double Dragon, Castlevania, Punchout, Contra, SF2, Ninja Gaiden, Zelda, DOOM, etc. To this day, still a heavy preference towards real time action with a good challenge. And specifically still love a good fighting game, platformer, beat em up, and just any great action title.

Lesser extent, Jungle Hunt was the first platformer I got into, Another World made me think cinematic gaming would be cool, Phantasy Star 4 got me into jrpgs which I enjoyed for a few gens.

Later I was so big into MGS3, it made me really buckle down and decide to work on games. Ended up using those skills across various other fields, became less about making games, but likely wouldn't have chosen this career path otherwise.

Demon's Souls - Simply life changing experience.

For a more serious reply while I started gaming on the Atari 2600 I was mostly influenced to be the gamer I am now by a number of games on the NES. Mainly games such as:

- Super Mario Bros.

- Super Mario Bros. 3

- The Legend of Zelda

- Mega Man 2

- Final Fantasy

- Dragon Warrior

- Contra

- Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest

- Ninja Gaiden

did you ever end up playing the PS5 remake?

WHAT DO YOU MEAN????????????????? If this game wasn't coming out on day one , i would've never bought the ps5 on launch.

Sonic 2 is the first game I played on my mega drive great memories.

@ConanTheStoner: curious to know what you think of Stellar Blade since you like action/hack n slash type games lol

Super Mario Bros

@SolidGame_basic:

I'd have to really check it out. Only saw a bit of gameplay months back, looked mid at best tbh.

Aside from fighting games, mostly been out of the gaming news/loop this past year.

Certainly NBA Jam. I used to imitate some of the moves in real life basketball courts.

Goldeneye 007 also influenced me because it was a very iconic James Bond.

@SolidGame_basic: I read your OP and you didn't once mention how either game has influenced you in anyway.

How did they influence you?

I can say that no game has influenced me in anyway in the real world. I play racing games but they don't influence me into wanting to become a race car driver.

Sonic the Hedgehog

Final Fantasy VII

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

Clannad

Back when I was a kid I dont really see gaming influencing my life much I just enjoy them a lot but I do have really fond memories of Harvest Moon and Pokemon Yellow. My teenage years I definitely was influenced by Persona 3 I was so "emo" back then. I even tried to be that weirdo snooping in on conversations happening on my way to school like the protag of Persona 3 it was so cringy thinking back. Luckily didnt last long as I quickly ot out of that phase when I went for college.

I do love bloodborne tho I honestly deep in my heart wants to make it my personality lol I try to use quotes from BB in every multiplayer game that have custom shoutouts. I love that game.

Silent Hill 2. I got with my PS2 for Christmas and could not believe how scary and real it looked compared to PS1.

The crazy thing is when you look at the difference between PS4 and PS5 the difference is very minimal.

Jungle hunt was so effin good... Loved it as a kid. Still fun! Seaquest too was another Atari banger I spent so much time playing.

@TheEroica: First time I heard of this game.

Jungle Hunt? There were three levels if I remember... Vine swinging.... Alligator stabbing and Boulder hopping/avoiding. You had to jump Over what appears to be a native tribal witch doctor or something at the end.

As a kid there were two big adventure games. Pitfall and jungle hunt. Pitfall had a slower pace but JH was more frantic and I enjoyed the gameplay quite a bit.

I have a friend who's trying to go through all the "ancient" platformers, including all pre-SMB stuff. He got around to Jungle Hunt, found it enjoyable enough. I recently gave it a replay as well on a browser version, just to check it out. First time I've played that game since the 80s haha. It's a cool little piece of platformer history, funny story in the manual as well.

I didn't care much for pre-NES console gaming, but I felt Jungle Hunt was one of the 2600s better games. Also enjoyed playing Combat with the older bro, think we discussed that once Eroica.

Super Mario World, my first game. And it was/is a blast 😁!

Assassin’s Creed: Been semi obsessed with this franchise, though it has disapointed me greatly.

Mass Effect 2: My first RPG (I know the purists will laugh). Made me play games like the Witcher 3 etc.

Portal 2: Intrduction to one of my favourite genres, first person puzzle games.

SMB3. It started my love for gaming. Started playing it when I was two years old, never stopped gaming since.

This is probably just the standard list of my favorites, since those are what I judge other games against.

I guess I could pick an aspect that I loved, and then walk through the games that added to that. Like the first competitive game I played was probably Combat, which led to the first Madden on SNES -> Mario kart battle mode -> Street Fighter 2/Mortal Kombat -> Twisted Metal -> Metal Warriors -> Duke Nukem 3D -> GoldenEye -> Winback -> Perfect Dark -> Halo CE. There's way more games that could be in there, but those are the ones that jumped out at me.