Games That Excited You the Most

[Worm of Despite]

All this talk in the video game addiction thread got me remembering why I got so addicted to games in the first place. Disclaimer: this list is Nintendo-dominated; they captured me during my early and impressionable years. Anyway, here's a long-winded list of games I'll never forget:

6. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - I don't remember much of the year 1998. Why? Because I spent most of it zoning out, trying to abolish the pain of waiting for Zelda! I don't think any single game got me more excited months before playing it. I ate up every preview by Nintendo Power or on the Internet. I drooled over pictures of the fog-less, mindbogglingly large landscapes, the pictures of LINK RIDING A HORSE, the fact that it was 3D and the textures looked better than life (at the time). And don't even get me started on playing it!

5. Star Fox 64 - This game excited me more than Ocarina, I hate to admit. I'm not sure why. Maybe because it came packed with that all-new innovation called the Rumble Pak? Maybe because I had no outer space or flight combat games? Maybe because I'd never played a Star Fox game but had the characters/graphics/universe built up in my head? In any case, I was a kid incredibly starved for a blockbuster game. I suppose I had exhausted GoldenEye and Super Mario 64. That reminds me:

4. Super Mario 64 - I was walking around in the new Toys 'R' Us in early 1996, a kid of 13 or so. What on earth hit me: a display case with a TV and an N64--and gasp, MARIO 64!! There it was, the sleek black Porsche of a system, that freaking weird controller with the joystick sticking out--oh, and the visual and audio barrage of the first genuinely 3D game. Perhaps my hands were shaking when I first put my fingers on the controller? Was the light from the Grail blinding me? I don't remember much, except the part where my mom dragged me from the damn game.

3. Super Mario World - As much as Mario 64's graphics wowed me, this game absolutely chewed my face off. I was six years old and walking around Wal-Mart when I saw a TV screen displaying two things beyond my comprehension: a new Mario game and a new Nintendo system. I think I screamed the first time I saw this game. I remember being awestruck by the game's range of color, so much more vibrant than anything the NES produced. The controls felt tighter, the visuals crisper--just an overall smoothness that I had never fathomed in a game. The new enemies blew my mind, especially the giant Bullet Bill that filled up the entire screen. Then there was Yoshi, the new power ups, the brilliant levels, watching Mario climb a fence in Iggy's castle--Christ!

2. Super Mario Bros. 3 - This game was my childhood. That is all.

1. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - First played this game when I was seven, and I thought the opening part--where it's raining and you're outside of Hyrule Castle--was the entire game. You can imagine my surprise when I learned the area around Hyrule Castle was merely a small slice of an overwhelmingly huge world. I can't even begin to describe how massive this game seemed to me in my childhood. It was the first game to give me that giddy feeling that I was exploring a completely new and varied world. It was freaking challenging, the puzzles were rewarding, the dungeons vast and seemingly countless. The graphics wowed me at the time, too; so many beautiful locations. I remember looking at the clouds around Death Mountain, trying to peer through them and see the Mysterious Forest below, where the Master Sword was. The whole world seemed almost alive to me, persistent. It was full of so much mystery, so much mythos. It was the first time I experienced the endless possibility of life in a game, and I haven't experienced it since. I'm still excited about this game. I want my mind uploaded into it after I die.

[Plissken]

5. Super Mario Bros 3 - The one thing my Ex and I could agree on.

4. Warcraft I and II- Time spent bonding with my lil' brother during the seperation.

3. Star Wars - The old vector graphics version, where you blew up the Death Star over and over and over... "Red 5 standing by..."

2. Ms Pac Man - Rode my bike for 6 miles to play, if I had two quarters to rub rogether.

1. Diablo II: LOD - Just picked it up again for about the fifth time since it was released, and am still waiting for other 'Tankers to join me.

[Queeaqueg]

Hmmmm this is going to take me back. I have a long list.
Vandal Hearts 2 - Don't know what it is about this game but it got me excited... must be the story or something.
Shadow Hearts 1 & 2 - It was exciting but can't put my finger on it again.
Resident Evil 2 - It was exciting go through the whole police station then discovering the under research centre. Res 1 & 3.... boring.
Resident Evil 4 - Exciting working your way hrough the game, figting funny monsters.
Breath of Fire 4 - The whole was exciting but the end was the best becuase the boss battle was long and hard.
Star Ocean - Exciting throughout, great ending becuase boss batle was hard, exciting just travelling around n stuff.
Metal Gear Solid - Not the really the second or third but this one. It as just exciting because of all the great battles. Exciting part was after second Sniper Wolf fight and you are told you have 'no more time'.
Suikoden 2 - Exciting trying to save the country and collecting all the charaters.
Final Fantasy 7 - Everything about this game excited me
Half Life 1 & 2 - Exciting go through Black Mesa, trying to survive. Great in Half Life 2 going into the Citadel and Ravanholm.

[Nav]

Ooh, some were addictive without being exactly exciting, but I'll say:

Cannon Fodder: War has never been so much fun!
Sensible World of Soccer: The first game I played where players actually had individual skill profiles, plus you could play and manage.
Resident Evil 2: Scared the crap out of me on so many different occasions.
The Thing: Creepier and scarier than Res Evil 2.
Grand Theft Auto III: Genre-defining
WipEout: Speed, funky music and more speed.
Goldeneye 64: Still the best multiplayer game I've ever played.
Gran Turismo 2: The game petrolheads always wanted, made much, much bigger.
Halo: Combat Evolved: My heart still pounds whenever I manage to steal the flag in BG.

[Avatar]

The earliest games that I was...well...obsessive about were those old "3d" adventure games by Sierra...you know, SpaceQuest, Kings Quest, all those.

Those are still in a sense my favourite games...and there were so many of them. I still play some of them to this day.

Apart from those, well, the original Quake was definitely one that I was addicted to when it comes to FPS's and the Civilisation games for strategy types.

--A

[drew]

I used to love a game on the old Comodore 64...Boulder Dash...about this little guys who digs through dirt to get diamonds...found a newer downloadable version...but it was too easy...I found an old-same as the 64-version to downlod, but it was glitched and moved to fast (it only gave about ten seconds per level)

[jacob Raver, sinTempter]

These are the games I was practically creaming my pants to get my hands on:
- Twisted Metal 3 (also the greatest disappointment in video game history)
- Resident Evil 2
- Soul Calibur 2 (good game, big disappointment: SC1.2 was more like it)
- Street Fighter 3 (second biggest disappointment in VG history- mediocre)
- Sonic 2
- Supreme Commander

[Seven Words]

Ultima 5--after beating 4, and hearing a sequel was coming out, I about lost my little 7th grade mind.

it was an expansion, not a true sequel, but..Alpha Centuari Alien Crossfire.

Twisted Metal Black...couldn't WAIT to see TM on PS2.

Warcraft 3 (original AND expansion)...loved Warcraft 2, and heard about this and started counting days.

[Rigel]

It's been a long time since I've been genuinely excited about a game. Fallout 3 was the best, but other than that...

[The Dreaming]

Bioshock had me MEGA excited. I was basically drooling over it the entire development cycle.

Same goes for Fallout 3 and Oblivion. (Oblivion was a little disappointing, but still very cool)

The list of Games I have purchased on release day is actually pretty thin. Those three fit on it. I bought WC3: The Frozen Throne on release, but I was in the Beta for it, so it's not quite the same. (I have a guaranteed slot in the SC2 beta, whenever it comes out, can't wait) I also Betad for WOW.

It's also hard to beat the Massive Awesomeness of FF7 When it came out, none of us had ever played anything remotely like it, it literally shaped an entire generation of games.

As far as exciting gameplay goes, I think RE4 takes the cake. I can't think of another game I've played where I've actually been screaming in REAL panic because that guy with the chainsaw is inches from taking my head off. The level of tension they maintain through the game is boggling. (For those who say 4 and 5 aren't scary, you are wrong. It's just not the same KIND of scary you are used too.)

[matrixman]

Awesome opening post, Lord Foul! Reading that brought back my own memories of witnessing the N64's graphical splendour for the first time. And then playing the machine...magical. Starfox 64 totally blew my mind as well.

Goldeneye64 - I'll repeat what Nav said, it's still the best multiplayer game I've ever played. The game meant far more to me than the (dull) Bond movie it was based on!

Shadows of the Empire - so this game may be seen by most discriminating gamers as nothing but a wimpy cash-in on Star Wars, but as this thread is about games one was "most excited" by, you bet your Wampa I was excited by this one. Because a) it was one of the first games on the N64 and b) it's STAR WARS, dammit. I didn't care if that Crash Fendar guy or whatever was a joke for a game character. I played through the game and had my fun with it.

Quake II - the original Quake was the greatest game on PC I had ever played at the time (1996), so the anticipation I felt for Quake II may have been the most I had felt for any game. Quake II was a mega-event for me.

Unreal Tournament - the game that managed (with astonishing ease) to usurp Quake in my FPS universe. When I played the UT demo, I became a UT addict right there and then.

I guess the mid-to-late 90's was my "golden period" for gaming, when I discovered the awesomeness of both Nintendo and the PC at the same time. I have not felt that kind of intense excitement over games since that time.

[Holsety]

Warcraft 3 (original AND expansion)...loved Warcraft 2, and heard about this and started counting days.

Hey, do you still play? I'm pretty mediocre, but if you're ever on US East /w me and I'd be happy to play a game with you (assuming you can host). I'm up for ATs or just about any custom game.

My profile name is Bucket

As far as exciting gameplay goes, I think RE4 takes the cake. I can't think of another game I've played where I've actually been screaming in REAL panic because that guy with the chainsaw is inches from taking my head off. The level of tension they maintain through the game is boggling. (For those who say 4 and 5 aren't scary, you are wrong. It's just not the same KIND of scary you are used too.)

Ya, absolutely agreed. RE4 (I played the Wii version a few months ago) is really goddamn good. And the amount of room to improve your skills is nice. I'm probably going to try a handgun only run at some point, but I know there are people that go through the game only using the knife. I've seen videos of knifing the goddamn verdugo, without the door trick. That's an ungodly level of skill right there. (but, IMO grenade and golden egg farmers are lame)

Anyways:
This would probably change each and every time I did it, except for #1 which is pretty much locked in forever.

6: Bomberman for the SNES. The only SNES game I play (relatively) regularly w/ my bro (VS mode).

5: Starsiege Tribes: I suck ridiculous amounts of ass at this game, but it's still one of my favorites, and I was always happy to get home so I could waste an hour trying to kill one person (and dying 100+ times in the process). JETPACK INTO THE SKY. SHAZBOT. Etc.

4: Jazz Jackrabbit. Dunno why but sonic + guns = win. This is the only shareware game I can think of which, after playing through 10 or 20 times, me and my bro decided to buy (full version).

Shareware PC games ROCK btw. Another great one is Master of Magic.

3: Secret of Mana. Coop games are particularly important in my memory b/c me and my bro would play through them together. This was probably our favorite. We used to only be able to play it through renting it IIRC so it was always a chore to make real progress, but eventually we got our own copy and beat it!

2: Fire Emblem (7) for the GBA. I spent so much time on this game...I know I've beaten it over 10 times.

1: Mario Bros 3. I think it's the first game I ever played on the NES, and I never beat it!!! Well, not quite, I beat it on the GBA years later when it got ported. But I sucked at video games as a kid so I had serious problems. W/out whistle use, the furthest I ever got was world seven (tons of pipes, piranha plants).

I think I have posted it here before, but if you're interested in a fun, over-sentimental article about another guy's experiences w/ super mario bros 3, you should check out this article:
www.insertcredit.com/features/lifenonwarp/index.html

IMO it's pretty well written. My story is a little different since I was somewhere between 2 and 5 when our family got a nintendo for my dad. Not really sure when I started gaming. It's kind of scary...But even so, I totally understand the "watching other people beat it" thing and the "keep going back to it" thing (though I actually like Super Mario World moar, Tubular is the best stage ever).

[Loredoctor]

The War of the Worlds. I bought this game back in 1999, and I still own it. Playing as the humans and hoping that the initial cylinder landings is favourable to you in the first twelve days is tense, as is holding off against the Martian invaders. Without a doubt, one of the most exciting games I own.

Also, Fallout 3, Thief 1 & 2 and Silent Hunter 3 have excited me.

[Kevin164]

Quake Arena playing against the many with only the few on a capture the flag level. The one where your in the void and it's a sniper's paradise.

[Cagliostro]

In some sort of order:

Adventure for the Atari 2600. I was way excited about Dungeons and Dragons, and here was a fantasy game. Now it is ridiculous as you are just a dot trying to flee from ducks (supposed to be dragons, but looked like ducks) unless you have a sword to kill them. I played the hell out of it.

Dragonstomper for the Atari 2600. I was one of those geeks who bought the Supercharger, which was a cartridge with a connector to load them game from a tape. Dragonstomper was probably the first RPG for a console (I guess Wizardry was out already on the Apple 2, but I sure as hell did not own one). You fought monsters and you increased your level. In the end you avoided traps and used potions and such to kill the big baddie dragon at the end. Dumb name, cool game at the time.

Tunnels of Doom for the TI 99/a or whatever. It still resides in a special place in my heart. The TI computer had gone kaput and they were selling the system for $50, as the Commodore 64 was ruling the roost. I had played this game at my sister's boyfriend's house, and was absolutely in love with it. My dad bought it for me for Christmas, but let me play it one day. I found it's hiding place, so I covertly played it for weeks before Christmas.

Ultima III for the Commodore 64. Flipping amazing at that age. I have fond memories of coming home from school, walking across the street to the convenience store and buying Mountain Dew and Fun Dip, and playing through this game. The pirated version of the game I had screwed up at the ending, so I still don't think I've actually finished it. Ultima IV was superior, but U3 was my introduction, and thrilled me more than anything.

Final Fantasy VII I didn't have a Playstation and couldn't afford it, but had heard what an impact it made. When it came out for the PC, I snatched it up. My PC couldn't handle the graphics so it ran especially slow, but it did work. Without battles, it would take Cloud about a minute to get from one side of the screen to the other. There are few games that I would have put up with this, but I was so thrilled with this that I stayed in until the end of the game when I hadn't boosted my characters up enough to handle the final baddie. I played this for MONTHS, and loved it. I have to admit that getting through the initial town thingy took about a month, which was about the usual time it took me to finish a sizable game in those days. I figured the other two disks must be demos and crap until I finally got out of the big city thing and saw the "enter disk 2" on the screen. With a third disk still waiting, I thought I was going to crap at the scope of the thing. In hindsight, I think it was the lag that made it mightier for me.

Shadows of the Colossus for PS2. I loved Ico, and was excited to hear a new game from this team was coming out. I played a demo in Playstation Magazine and stumbled around with the same kind of Ico control scheme (I don't remember if you ever get to play with the horse or not in the demo). Then I got to the top of the hill, and then the first colossus appeared. My jaw dropped. After trying in vain for quite a while to do anything to him other than become a flat horned person under his foot, I finally figured out how to grab on, and then to get up on top of him and bring him down. He took several hours for me to figure out, and when I brought him down, I was amazed at the sadness and reverence I felt for the silly videogame beastie. I was hooked, and waited through several false release dates to finally be able to purchase the damn thing. I just have to say that the wait was well worth it.

[Seven Words]

Warcraft 3 (original AND expansion)...loved Warcraft 2, and heard about this and started counting days.

Hey, do you still play? I'm pretty mediocre, but if you're ever on US East /w me and I'd be happy to play a game with you (assuming you can host). I'm up for ATs or just about any custom game.

My profile name is Bucket

when I get a new computer, sure....I'm on my fiancee's (power surge killed mine..motherboard, network card, and hard drive.) DUno if my handle is still live....BeavisChrist

[Cybrweez]

The Civ games (haven't played IV yet)

LOTR - Battle for Middle Earth

Tetris (particularly now, on the Wii, w/multiple players)

Super Tecmo Bowl (it kept stats!)

[Seven Words]

along the lines of Tetris...Tecmo Stackers, and Kirby's Avalanche.

[AjK]

I am a simple guy. In chronological order (from youth to adulthood) of start of addiction:

Berzerk
Frenzy
Rastan
Tetris
Doom II

[Seven Words]

I still remember part of the song from a commercial for Berzerk on the Atari 2600

"Inside an electric maze (game screen--death by wall-touch)
But look out don't get trapped
or you might get zapped (game screen--cornered, shot by robot)
Berzerk is here from Atari
Have you played Atari today!"

wow, do I ever suck.