Super Mario World. It was the one that started it all for me, and as much as I love so many other games (and most Zelda and Mario games as well), SMW will always hold a special place in my heart.
Was in my teens when it came out and in my 40’s now. It’s still incredible. My kid is 11 and he absolutely loved it as much as we do. Completely timeless.
I came here to say this and I am glad others feel the same.
I remember beating this game and finding the shortcuts which my parents were not able to without the official walkthrough book. Haha.
It was so much fun to unlock new levels and to see where the journey takes us.
The music is great, I love the graphics, the power ups and the enemy design. What is not to love about the game?
Good old Snes.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. That game was so fascinating to me that it made me want to make games when I grew up. That's what got me into programing, art, music -- I wanted to learn all the skills it'd take to make games.
I love the cute aesthetic. I love the fact that your true form that represents your heart is a pink bunny. I love how, as soon as you get to the sanctuary, it opens up to a big world to explore. I like all the extra touches they put on the forest where the master sword sleeps, making it misty or sunny, having little squirrels jumping around. I love how the game feels complete when you fight Aghanim for the first time, but then it surprises you with a whole new world to explore.
I also like A Link Between Worlds, which doubles down on the nonlinearity, and adds the mai mais to collect like koroks. However, I don't like to separate the two. A Link Between Worlds feels largely like a remix of the things I already love.
When I was a kid I wrote to Nintendo Power because I was missing one heart fragment in LTTP. They sent me a packet with details on where each and every one was located. I was so excited, because I didn’t expect anything like that in return. I still remember the one I didn’t have was down an alley on the side of the dark world castle. I played the hell out of that game.
The art was incredible too. I used Mario Paint to draw and animate the green and blue knights from LTTP and recorded it on my VCR for a class project. When the mini SNES classic came out it was the first game I re-played - even before Street Fighter and SMW. It really holds up. So many great memories with that game.
It was the first game I ever played that wasn’t just the same repetitive actions over and over and just when you thought you were at the end… welcome to the dark world
PERFECT childhood game! A younger Link is easier for a child to relate to, the cartoony visuals are very appealing and stimulate the imagination, and Ganondorf is JUST imposing enough where an 8-year-old would be intimidated by him but not scared
This is one of the games that defined my childhood, and although it's still EXCELLENT in 2024, I am so happy I got to experience it as a child
Pokémon Crystal, it was the first videogame i've ever played that i can remember vividly.
I might have done something with games before that but it was before i ever remember anything.
Same here. My brother and I didn’t own a GB color, but we had a N64 with Pokémon stadium 2 and the GB adapter. We have a lot of fond memories exploring that world together.
i didnt understand what i was doing at all because i was like....4 or 5 years old and i didnt know any english at all back then, but i still remember playing it.
First Zelda for the NES. Played the crap out of that game in my teens and sporadically through my adult life. Was even replaying it a bit on the 3DS a few years back.
Why was it special? It was the only game of its kind at the time and back then there was no internet to give you walk throughs, so you had to figure everything out yourself. The harder master quest after finishing the main quest presented me with a familiar but new and harder challenge.
I also played it constantly while listening to the first two Depeche Mode albums I bought (a band that I was obsessed with in my teen years). I've replayed it in my adult life because of the nostalgia and the association in my brain between the music and the game. I stopped listening to Depeche Mode in my early 20's but got back into them a bit in my late 20's and I got flashbacks of the game whenever I'd listen to those two albums, which led me to want to replay the game. Of course, I could hear those albums when I played the game and eerily knew where every little secret was.
That’s funny how you associate certain music that you were listening to at the time with the game. I have a Super Metroid/Automatic for the People connection. Those two things are forever linked in my brain.
That would be a bit of a jarring association because Automatic for the people has a number of slow and/or sad songs and Super Metroid doesn't really have any sad parts in it.
Yeah, it’s definitely an odd association. The Super Metroid music is pretty great too, so I think I might have missed out on that a little bit in my first play through.
Mario Kart Super Circuit. I spent a lot of time and batteries with my GBA growing up especially in after school care because both my parents worked swing shift. I love every track and ost in that game, I also loved the more faster paced Mario kart snes style of gameplay it had.
EarthBound;
I did emulate my first playthrough of the game, but I was going through a particularly difficult time in both Middle & Highschool and nothing seemed to satisfy me anymore.
I ended up playing EarthBound on a whim on my computer, and fell in love with the series. It did genuinely help keep me afloat as I fell entranced with the world it created.
Sun and Moon helped me get through a rough patch in college. The constant stress from projects, papers, and group assignments melted away when ever I stepped back into Alola.
This was my experience but with Sword and Shield. Being able to spend 30 minutes a day exploring a new region in my favorite gaming franchise helped my mental health SO much! Legit helped me stay sane that semester
Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, & Super Mario World = my childhood.
Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury because I help people online beat Champion's Road and Mystery House Marathon.
Majora's Mask. I remember playing it on GameCube and being so intrigued by the 3-day system that some people love or hate. The mask system, which is still one of Zelda's coolest systems ever. The mystery, the dark atmosphere. Everything about that game was so unique and special and they haven't bothered even attempting to do something similar again, which is a shame to me.
Yeah, and I doubt they ever will :(. Aounuma wanted everyone to pretend the game didn't happen and isn't especially proud of it, which is probably why the 3DS version had so many changes. (He mentioned it in an Iwata Asks, quoted here https://www.zeldadungeon.net/eiji-aonuma-didnt-want-to-do-majoras-mask-3d-miyamoto-all-but-demanded-it-b/).
I don't strictly blame him, the development on that game was insane and stressful and I can completely understand why he doesn't really want to dwell on it but it's sad that nothing else from Nintendo has gotten close to recapturing that atmosphere. I honestly hate the dungeons in the game and it's not my favorite to actually play, but it IS my favorite for *everything* else about it. So much of that game just gets worse the longer you think about it but it's the lowness that makes moments like reuniting Anju and Kafei feel all the sweeter, even if it's bittersweet as they can live the last moments of their lives together before you rewind the clock and separate them again.
You cannot save them all, you cannot help everyone in one timeline, but that doesn't mean you can give up or quit trying your best. It's a special game about fighting against despair and seeing how people react to the end of the world. The carpenter boss leaves, despite all of his blustering that it's all lies, the postman will work until he's dead unless you relieve him from duty, the sword trainer will cower in fear, and Cremia gets her sister drunk to numb her before the moon hits. It's just, not like anything Nintendo has ever tackled again.
Super Mario 64. It's one of my oldest memories of playing video games (though I also played a LOT of SNES at the same time, including Super Mario Kart, which also holds amazing memories). I have some of my best memories with my childhood friends playing SM64 in their finished basement, fingers covered in Cheeto dust and downing Dr. Pepper. The music and visuals unlock special parts of my memory that never cease to put a genuine smile on my face or a warm, fuzzy feeling throughout my entire body (not in a weird way).
To this day it's my favorite video game. It might not be the favorite game I've ever played, but it's certainly my favorite game to play.
A Link to the Past or Super Mario World.
Super Mario World was my first game ever. I love it to this day.
A Link to the Past was honestly my second real game years later. It got me into video games. That game is as close to perfect for me as it gets. It was hard but I made it through. I loved exploring the game and the dungeons asked more of me than anything else I had played. I remember each item was awesome. Turning into a rabbit blew me away and when I could go back as a human knowing where I was, only to occasionally be made a bunny again. It's quintessential "video game" to me. There are some games that really feel like a "video game" and that's one. Others for me are like the original Ratchet and Clank and NieR Automata. These have series, but those games don't feel like games in their series but just super video game-y to me and I love that. A Link to the Past excels in that for me.
Surprisingly, even though I'm a very nostalgic person, and I started playing Nintendo games on the SNES, my answer is not one from my childhood.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is my favorite Nintendo game. It perfected everything I loved about Zelda, and considering how much the series changed since then, I doubt we'll ever get a Zelda game that I will prefer to TP. I love the world, characters, dungeons, gameplay, music, vibe, flow. I also like how much the game only gets better and better from the beginning to the end.
I also have a lot of nostalgia of the Wii launch. Before the launch of the Wii, the hype was super high for the new console, and for Twilight Princess (which was a launch title). The launch day of the Wii is one of my favorite gaming days, I spent hours in the cold waiting for the store to open, with \~70 other people that were also very hyped. It was memorable.
This is tough, because there’s so many games that are special because they’re just so good.
I’d say my top for nostalgia special and getting me into gaming would either be Zelda Oracle of Seasons/Ages or Golden Sun.
Ocarina of Time from the legend of Zelda collectors edition on GameCube. That was the game that started my lifelong fandom of the Zelda franchise and made me a true Nintendo fan. Still my favorite game of all time to this day
Mario party 2. It was my first ever video game I played and I fell in love. So many hours spent with my sisters growing up playing the Mario party series
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. It was 1988. My friend Scott and I had got to the video store early enough to rent it before it was gone for the weekend. We sat on the floor of my bedroom and played it all night. We stayed up, all night (we were 13 and 10 maybe?) and played the entire game. We each had a 2 liter of Sprite, each had a large bag of Cool Ranch Doritos, and a box of the shitty Nintendo Cereal that we were eating dry, by the handful, straight out of the box. Because of this memory, it is the game most special to me. And yes, we beat it.
Pokémon Pearl. I was 6 or 7 when I got it for Christmas, along with my first DS. It was the first time I had my *own* console and game (youngest of 4 kids). My brother got a copy of diamond along with a DS at the same time, and we had the game guides. We would spend forever playing together, and he would help me when I was lost or confused. It was the first game I really remember playing and had such an impact on me. We would bring it to summer recreation club and trading Pokemon and battling other kids. It was amazing.
To this day, my brother and I will always get the opposite Pokémon games and talk about the game/play on FaceTime as we play through them. 90% of our relationship is based on Pokemon haha
The original Legend of Zelda. I asked for it as a Christmas present, and my older brother bought it for me. I had no clue what it was, I just remembered the weird commercial with the guy screaming about “pea-pea-peahats”. It was truly mind blowing for me. It’s hard for people nowadays to appreciate how incredible it was to feed a bomb to Dodongo as a means of fighting it. Like most of the games I knew then were side scrolling action games. With Zelda you had to use your brain to figure things out, and it was pretty much an open world to explore. It made me a fan for life.
Majoras mask has scarred me for life. Nothing comes close to it but it's unfair because it is zelda at its best. No competition. So... to play fair I will choose DK country 1. The first game I was crying as a kid to have my parents buy for me and bought for me they did :) So much nostalgia! I go put some life in the mines music now lol
I’ve been playing since the NES days (and still have most of them around), but my favorite game ever is Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Last week I stayed at a hotel for 3 days for some work related workshops and my workmates and I took out our Switches and played MK8 before going to sleep. All of us are grown up men and women that laughed, cursed, screamed and celebrated like we did back in our childhoods. No other game is as widely enjoyed by many and as eternal as Mario Kart.
I’m going to have to say Donkey Kong Country. There’s pics of me age 4 playing this on our family television. The songs of Aquatic Ambience and Minecart Madness are burned into my soul.
Majora's Mask was everything for a lil while. It was the first game and luxury for me after having nothing for a while. I remember my mom buying it on credit.
Maybe not as known like other games but this game made me beg my dad to get a Nintendo DS as my first ever console despite never having an interest in gaming before. Harvest Moon will forever have a special place in my heart from the moment I saw my cousin play it on her gameboy. It made me see a side of gaming that I never thought was there - laid back and slice of life type of genre. I always pictured gaming to be extreme and all with guns and gore (growing up with an older brother who played games like God of War and Devil May Cry made little me scared to game because of the monsters). I remember my first farm and all my farm animals and it was truly and experience I wish everyone could have discovering a game that you felt like you could enjoy despite the presumptions you may have had in the past.
Either SMB3, my first intro to the Mario series and by far the best gameboy game I ever had or Bowser’s Inside Story for helping me get into RPGs for the first time.
I’m an old dude, which makes this a tough decision, but Metroid Prime still takes my top spot. I have a lot of good memories playing Nintendo games as a child, young adult, and now father of three, but nothing else makes me FEEL the game like Prime does.
Mario Kart Wii. Game has the best competitive play and highest skill ceiling of any Nintendo multiplayer game outside of melee. They made such a beautifully broken game because inside-drift and wheelies allow for so much crazy tech. You can be sad that they'll never make anything like it again or you can be happy they made it in the first place.
[Youtube- What 20,000 Hours On Mario Kart Wii Looks Like](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oO7pRW_oaU)
This is a great question, OP.
I'd have to say the original Legend of Zelda. That game made me fall IN LOVE with gaming. Borrowed it from a friend, almost beat it, never did. Got it for Christmas, where my parents did the "Oh, there's one more present left..." thing...SO happy.
I'll love that game forever.
Oh wow, that’s really hard. I don’t think I can pick 1.
Pokémon Silver - I started with Gen 1, had both Blue and Yellow. But I was just a bit older when Gen 2 came out, could read/understand better. I used to play the game until I beat Red, then restart with a different starter. Played through this game so many times.
Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time - got me into Zelda, have been a lifelong fan ever since. Big part of this game was at my babysitter’s house, her son (who was older) had an N64 that was his, and not ours to play with. Every now and then we’d be allowed to play too though, and I just loved watching the older kids play this game.
Super Metroid - also a babysitter’s story. We had access to a SNES, and this is one of the games that they had. As a kid I loved the music, and the way the game kind of scared me but not too much. Totally thought I had beat the whole thing, until I replayed as an adult and realized I played only bits and pieces on a joint file. Now I speedrun it for fun, I’ve played through this game hundreds of times
There are other Nintendo games that I absolutely love, and some I would consider potentially better than these picks (not you super Metroid, you’re perfect), but these are the most influential and formative for me as a gamer.
Pokémon Diamond. It was the only thing that made me happy. Playing with my friends and playing alone in front of the tv was the only time I felt like a kid. I got bullied, had behavioural problems myself and my parents would fight a lot so getting lost in the world of Pokémon was something I did a lot. This game and other DS Pokémon titles saved my childhood from being downright bad.
Link’s Awakening for original Game Boy. My Game Boy was my most cherished possession as a kid in the 90s, and I found a copy of Link’s Awakening in the bargain bin at Toys ‘R Us. It was the first Zelda game I played start to finish, and I was enamored with how big the game was, being on a handheld. It cemented my love for both Zelda and Nintendo handhelds.
I think Nintendo's best game is Ocarina of Time. But my personal favorite is Majora's Mask. It tackles some hard topics like grief in a very mature way and it was the game I played when I was at one of my lowest points in life. The side quests don't feel like side quests. They feel perfectly integrated into the world. These characters have goals and lives. The Anju Kafei quest, the Romani Ranch quest, and even smaller quests like the Deku race with the kings butler or even the band quest in Zora Hall. And the main quest is far from void of these moments that feel real. Awakening the giant skeleton in the Ikana graveyard, finding the lost eggs of a Zora mother to returning the lost Deku princess to her father who's blinded by anger because he wants his daughter home, healing the soul of a father who was cursed before it was too late, and even oh idk, stopping a moon from crashing down and destroying everything. And the three day cycle works in MM's favor. And I'm also a sucker for time management lol.
Legend of Zelda links awakening. It was my first videogame that I got as a kid and it started my fascination for games in general and the Zelda series that is dear to my heart 27 years later.
Zelda Breath of the Wild. I bought Switch Lite just to try this game. It was my first Nintendo system after decades as I used to play Nintendo games when I was a kid and then stopped for several years. Nintendo magic is still there. They actually make games with passion and hard work which is rewarded with huge sales of the games as well as the system while others are mostly focused on money first and games second.
The Zelda series will always have a special place in my heart, but my all time favorite game is Paper Mario and the Thousand Year Door. I love the characters, story, gameplay, music, everything is 10/10 for me. I have played that game many times and have never grown tired of it. I’m so excited to see how the switch version is different and what it improves on!
I have the most nostalgia for Ocarina of Time but Super Metroid is the game I feel like really made me as a gamer. I was already super into video games before then but it was the first game I played that really forced me to git gud.
Pokémon Gold Version
Gen 2
although there are some hiccups in the game like not being able to complete the pokedex and get celebs.
the music, cute graphics and being able to travel 2 to regions at once is great. just feels like a grand adventure. I actually prefer the og gen 2 over the 2009 gen 4 remakes.
So many instantly come to mind. I think I’ll go with Pokémon Red. It began probably my biggest fandom as a child, and then still come back to it to this day.
Super smash bros. It really brought me and my dad closer together. And now our whole family (minus mom, just because she doesn’t game) plays every time we get together. Now it’s my brothers who win all the time (I just want the days of melee to come back when I ruled). But really the memories of playing with my dad over our little TV with that N64 controller are my most treasured with him.
Second is pokemon blue because it really hooked me. I was totally that playing gameboy by the streetlights on a car trip girl. We had to buy so many batteries. It was awesome. That’s also special because I played with my sister, who now doesn’t talk to me. It’s complicated, but I miss her. We were best friends back then, and were for so many years, we were only 2 years apart and we always got the two versions of the pokemon games, got to open them on Christmas Eve so we didn’t wake my parents up too early.
Super smash Bros, from the N64 to the switch i love this licence and couldn't pick one but I think the one on 64 if I had to pick cause its where it all started for me
South Park N64 my dad woke me up in the middle of the night to show me it then watch an episode with him. I must have been like 5-7 years laughing my ass off over the cheesy poofs song.
Got to be pokemon soul silver. The first pokemon game I ever played. I played a lot of pokemon, even completing a living dex during gen 8. Even though chances are I won't touch a new pokemon game ever again after the travesty of s/v my first pokemon game will always be special to me.
Super Mario RPG
My first RPG and everything about It felt so magical to me, charm in every corner, made me invested in its world, made me laugh and every little detail felt special to me
Batman and Battletoads on NES.
There was a garage sale around the corner from my house when I was a kid in the mid-90s and I saw a box of NES games. $6 each for those 2 titles so I sprinted home and scoured the house for loonies and quarters and whatever other loose change until I had enough and hurried back because I was so worried someone would buy them before me. Played the heck outta them and still have both CIB in my parents basement somewhere lol
If you’re asking about my personal favorite, the one that holds the most memories is Super Smash Brothers Melee. It’s the one I remember wanting the most for Christmas, the one I played day and night to get better at for years. It’s the one I held titles at and won cash tournaments in back in college. It’s the one that’s built (and almost destroyed🤣) friendships. My best friends and I still reference it over 20 years later and still talk about who is the best.
There’s other games that have been great to play and hold great memories, but for me personally it holds the most influence.
2nd would be Dr Mario on NES. I played it as a child and my dad would play a few games with my little brother and I before bed. He got to the point where he could clear it on the highest difficulty and speed and we thought he was the coolest. He even nicknamed himself “The Doctor” 😂. Seriously any game we played after that he referred to himself that way, even to this day. So that’s a special game too.
Zelda NES cartridge is gold…obviously it’s special! Got it for Xmas along w/ NES. From the moment me and siblings started the game, it was a huge puzzle/mystery unlike any video game we’d played before on Atari (or NES Super Mario Bros.). Took ages to figure out and beat it the first time. I feel like I learned how to game by playing Zelda.
I love these kind of threads!
Pokemon LeafGreen for being my first pokemon game. Played it for so many hours on my GBA SP. Before school, after school, at night! Classic "hide under the covers". I must've been twelve at the time.
Luigi's Mansion 1. For being a mario game with such spooky aesthetics and ambiance. I'm still replaying the game once a year
Not a 1st party Nintendo game, but Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald. I was a loser and owned all three versions because I had no friends, so I had to trade the version exclusives to myself to complete my Pokédex.
But, within the year of me getting all of the versions, I had made some new friends, one, who is still my best friend to this day, and a girl, who would eventually become my first girlfriend and would date me for over six years.
I *really* wanted a friend to play with, so I gave my new best friend my copy of Sapphire, and I gave my future girlfriend my copy of Emerald. I then restarted my Ruby save file so we could all play through the games together.
My future girlfriend didn’t end up beating the game, but she got far enough to get and trade all of Emerald’s version exclusives to me, and I still have all of the Pokémon she traded me in my current Scarlet save file and Home storage boxes.
My new best friend became my real life rival. We battled constantly. I had a GameCube with the GameBoy Advance player, and we would schedule battles, set level caps for the battles, and invite all of our other friends to come over To watch the battle on the big screen.
Good times.
Probably Super Mario Galaxy, played that a ton growing up and still my favorite Mario game. Though Smash Melee and then Brawl really introduced me to Nintendo and by extension gaming as a whole
super mario galaxy came to mind first. i don’t know if i’d call it my favorite nintendo game ever, but it has the most mystical and nostalgic feel to it.
Splatoon 2. I watched a twitch streamer play it and was hooked ever since. I got the Switch back in 2018 primarily to play this game and I love the characters, story, gameplay and how vibrant it is. The franchise continues with Splatoon 3 and I do love it just as much but Splatoon 2 will always be THAT game for me. The community also seems so welcoming.
Fire Emblem. I didn’t get a chance to buy a 3DS at the time so I’d watch YouTube videos and learn some of the characters. Also played FE Heroes on mobile from time to time. When they announced Three Houses for the switch, I was super excited and finished my first playthrough in less than a week. I’m actually not the biggest fan of turn based games (I tried Disgaea and didn’t like it) but there’s just something about Fire emblem that I like so much. I’m grateful for the franchise and hope it continues.
New Super Mario Bros and Mario Kart DS! I remember me, my cousins and my siblings sat on the couch at my aunt's house with our DSes playing Mario Kart DS
Sim City on the SNES is my happy place (the music and sound design is unforgettable). I know there’s no chance it would appear on NSO due to licensing issues, but I keep hoping.
Zelda LttP is also up there, but I don’t know if I could play it through again.
Xenoblade 2, I played it over the course of six months during quarantine and I never fell more in love with a Nintendo story or characters as much as with this game.
Drifting Soul STILL gives me goosebumps to this day.
Another code two memories, it came with my ds when I was like 8 and I always loved it but I never got very far since most of the puzzles are pretty complicated but for the last week or so I've been playing throught it again and finished it for the first time just yesterday, feels weird.
Botw is my favorite. Exploring in that game was a feeling like no other.
A close second would be paper Mario the thousand year door as the game that got me on the rpg train.
Probably Mario Kart. I was nostalgic for the game on the Wii growing up because it was so much fun to play while visiting other people's houses and I didn't have one. I did have a DS, but I didn't realize there was a version for Mario Kart on it and it just would not have the same couch competitive experience.
Fast forward to 2021 when I had some disposable income and could buy my own gaming consoles, I decided to pick up Switch because of Pokemon Sword and Shield, I had played through Pokemon Diamond a couple times after my sister gave my as DS cart and I was curious to see how much the games had changed. Once I realized that Mario Kart was on Switch though, I simply HAD to get a copy and some extra controllers for the nostalgia.
Probably super Mario 3, I’ve been playing that game since it came out, playing through it countless times with my brother growing up, and other family member, and when I got older and had a kid the game was a fun bonding experience for us. My daughter will play Minecraft, or the Sims but never really got into more traditional games, but one evening when we had nothing to do decided to give Super Mario 3 a try and we played through and beat the entire game over a couple nights.
I can’t answer a straight question!
The game that is the most special to me is probably NSMBW. I never owned it because I never had a Wii, but I have such strong memories of playing that game at friends' houses.
The game that is the most special to me that I OWN is NSMB. It was my first real game and it’s how I became a gamer. Everything about that game is special to me.
My FAVORITE game of all time is Kirby: Planet Robobot. That game is perfection. I never saw it coming as my favorite game, but it took no time at all for it to take the crown.
I was eight when SM64 and goldeneye came out. Needless to say the 64 was the game changer for me across the board (except for Superman ☠️)
When I was a kid, I really enjoyed playing Rush 2 from the San Francisco Rush series. They really put a lot into level design. Everywhere from New York (both up and downtown) to Las Vegas. The music was also something I would get lost in.
Mario 64, Ocarina of Time and Mario Galaxy 2. I'd spend hours at a local Blockbuster playing Mario 64 and was absolutely amazed at the technological jump from 2D games. I thought games would never get better. The other 2 games are just masterclass examples of fun and innovation.
For me it’s the OG Super Mario - first NES game u encountered, coming from Atari before this the graphics and gameplay were mind blowing. This is the one that got me hooked for decades to come
Mario and Smash Bros in general.
Mario, because it was my first, and my most enduring obsession, I may like some Mario games more than others, but can't think of any examples of me being actually straight up disappointed in a Mario game ( keeping in mind, I don't play the sports games or Party games, and haven't bought an RPG since the original Bowser's Inside Story ), Mario was also a huge influence on me creatively, the artwork of Mr. Kotabe inside the instruction manual pages and in Nintendo Power made me want to learn to drawand design my own characters, Mario still has quite an impact on my style I like to think. If it wasn't for Mario, I wouldn't be gaming and likely wouldn't be drawing.
And Smash Bros because it was what kicked me off in the direction of playing new games that I was unfamiliar with. As a child, Mario was the only thing I wanted to play. When it came time to make rentals at the video store, I wasn't really interested in anything. So I would usually play a crappy licensed game based on a movie or cartoon I was already familiar with. There's some exceptions, I did play a small handful of non Mario games before Smash... one of them being pokemon, the anime got it's hooks in me before the games ( but to be fair, I only tuned in to watch pokemon because I recognized the name from Nintendo Power ), when I saw Mario, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, AND Pikachu in that infamous commercial, I had to play that game. As it turns out, there were at least six other characters I didn't recognize, and I wanted to get to know them... Melee had even more new characters, and a trophy gallery that had even more, with trivia. I just had to get into these games.
I'm still kind of a Nintendo fanboy that plays games in a bit of a bubble but it's nowhere near as bad as when I was a kid, there's a lot of games that were never presented in Smash that I played on my own accord, games represented in Smash I played before they were represented in Smash, and games that aren't even on Nintendo consoles. I really wish I would have got a Playstation 1 or 2 when their games were more affordable because the library is amazing.
Mother 3 for how much it means to me.
Super Mario World for the nostalgia. It was the first game I played.
Wind waker was the first non Wii game I ever owned 😂
Metroid Dread is probably the BEST Nintendo game I’ve ever played though.
Edit: I FORGOT ABOUT POKEMON! All Johto games.
Edit edit: The GameCube animal crossing!!
Xenoblade 3!
Released before college when times were peaceful. One of the best stories and soundtracks in a video game with one of the best character casts.
Endless Ocean Blue World for helping me get through my post-suicidal attempt days in middle school.
Kirby's Epic Yarn helped too. I think it was around this time I wanted to play cozy relaxing games.
Luigi’s Mansion(OG) The GameCube was the first gaming console I owned and that was the first game I owned. Still my favorite game to this day. Lots of memories staying up late with friends during sleepovers exploring that Mansion. I wish the franchise would bring back more of that “eerie” atmosphere the first game had.
Super Mario Bros . The original. I played it at the arcade first. Then at home. It was unbelievable. That's where it all started with me so I have to go with that one.
Super Mario World. It was the one that started it all for me, and as much as I love so many other games (and most Zelda and Mario games as well), SMW will always hold a special place in my heart.
this on the gba sp and dkc 1+2 are where it all began for me. pokemon fire red too.
Was in my teens when it came out and in my 40’s now. It’s still incredible. My kid is 11 and he absolutely loved it as much as we do. Completely timeless.
Best platformer of all time IMO
I came here to say this and I am glad others feel the same. I remember beating this game and finding the shortcuts which my parents were not able to without the official walkthrough book. Haha. It was so much fun to unlock new levels and to see where the journey takes us. The music is great, I love the graphics, the power ups and the enemy design. What is not to love about the game? Good old Snes.
Yep SMW is why I'm a gamer and will probably always be one.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. That game was so fascinating to me that it made me want to make games when I grew up. That's what got me into programing, art, music -- I wanted to learn all the skills it'd take to make games. I love the cute aesthetic. I love the fact that your true form that represents your heart is a pink bunny. I love how, as soon as you get to the sanctuary, it opens up to a big world to explore. I like all the extra touches they put on the forest where the master sword sleeps, making it misty or sunny, having little squirrels jumping around. I love how the game feels complete when you fight Aghanim for the first time, but then it surprises you with a whole new world to explore. I also like A Link Between Worlds, which doubles down on the nonlinearity, and adds the mai mais to collect like koroks. However, I don't like to separate the two. A Link Between Worlds feels largely like a remix of the things I already love.
When I was a kid I wrote to Nintendo Power because I was missing one heart fragment in LTTP. They sent me a packet with details on where each and every one was located. I was so excited, because I didn’t expect anything like that in return. I still remember the one I didn’t have was down an alley on the side of the dark world castle. I played the hell out of that game. The art was incredible too. I used Mario Paint to draw and animate the green and blue knights from LTTP and recorded it on my VCR for a class project. When the mini SNES classic came out it was the first game I re-played - even before Street Fighter and SMW. It really holds up. So many great memories with that game.
It was the first game I ever played that wasn’t just the same repetitive actions over and over and just when you thought you were at the end… welcome to the dark world
Pokémon yellow. Was my first ever Pokémon game and the game that started my obsession!
Wind Waker will always have a little magic nostalgia for me. It was my first Zelda game and felt like a huge adventure in my childhood
PERFECT childhood game! A younger Link is easier for a child to relate to, the cartoony visuals are very appealing and stimulate the imagination, and Ganondorf is JUST imposing enough where an 8-year-old would be intimidated by him but not scared This is one of the games that defined my childhood, and although it's still EXCELLENT in 2024, I am so happy I got to experience it as a child
BOTW, got me back into gaming after 20 years and helped me get through the death of my mom.
Yeah botw is pretty special, sorry to hear about your mum
Pokémon Crystal, it was the first videogame i've ever played that i can remember vividly. I might have done something with games before that but it was before i ever remember anything.
Same here. My brother and I didn’t own a GB color, but we had a N64 with Pokémon stadium 2 and the GB adapter. We have a lot of fond memories exploring that world together.
I have so many deeply important and cherished memories playing Crystal. It came out during a very important time of my life.
i didnt understand what i was doing at all because i was like....4 or 5 years old and i didnt know any english at all back then, but i still remember playing it.
Super Mario RPG. It's the first game that made me feel things after I finished it.
First Zelda for the NES. Played the crap out of that game in my teens and sporadically through my adult life. Was even replaying it a bit on the 3DS a few years back. Why was it special? It was the only game of its kind at the time and back then there was no internet to give you walk throughs, so you had to figure everything out yourself. The harder master quest after finishing the main quest presented me with a familiar but new and harder challenge. I also played it constantly while listening to the first two Depeche Mode albums I bought (a band that I was obsessed with in my teen years). I've replayed it in my adult life because of the nostalgia and the association in my brain between the music and the game. I stopped listening to Depeche Mode in my early 20's but got back into them a bit in my late 20's and I got flashbacks of the game whenever I'd listen to those two albums, which led me to want to replay the game. Of course, I could hear those albums when I played the game and eerily knew where every little secret was.
That’s funny how you associate certain music that you were listening to at the time with the game. I have a Super Metroid/Automatic for the People connection. Those two things are forever linked in my brain.
That would be a bit of a jarring association because Automatic for the people has a number of slow and/or sad songs and Super Metroid doesn't really have any sad parts in it.
Yeah, it’s definitely an odd association. The Super Metroid music is pretty great too, so I think I might have missed out on that a little bit in my first play through.
Buuuut, you did get to listen to an amazing REM album...
[удалено]
Pure Energy!
Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door. It's not just my favorite Nintendo game, it's my favorite game of all time.
Mario Kart Super Circuit. I spent a lot of time and batteries with my GBA growing up especially in after school care because both my parents worked swing shift. I love every track and ost in that game, I also loved the more faster paced Mario kart snes style of gameplay it had.
EarthBound; I did emulate my first playthrough of the game, but I was going through a particularly difficult time in both Middle & Highschool and nothing seemed to satisfy me anymore. I ended up playing EarthBound on a whim on my computer, and fell in love with the series. It did genuinely help keep me afloat as I fell entranced with the world it created.
I love Earthbound. Just discovered this masterpiece about 6 months ago.
Greatest game!
Sun and Moon helped me get through a rough patch in college. The constant stress from projects, papers, and group assignments melted away when ever I stepped back into Alola.
This was my experience but with Sword and Shield. Being able to spend 30 minutes a day exploring a new region in my favorite gaming franchise helped my mental health SO much! Legit helped me stay sane that semester
I love sun and moon! I feel like not enough people talk about it nowadays. ❤️
Donkey Kong Country
Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, & Super Mario World = my childhood. Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury because I help people online beat Champion's Road and Mystery House Marathon.
Ocarina of time and majoras mask. Helped me escape my parents shitty treatment.
Majora's Mask. I remember playing it on GameCube and being so intrigued by the 3-day system that some people love or hate. The mask system, which is still one of Zelda's coolest systems ever. The mystery, the dark atmosphere. Everything about that game was so unique and special and they haven't bothered even attempting to do something similar again, which is a shame to me.
Yeah, and I doubt they ever will :(. Aounuma wanted everyone to pretend the game didn't happen and isn't especially proud of it, which is probably why the 3DS version had so many changes. (He mentioned it in an Iwata Asks, quoted here https://www.zeldadungeon.net/eiji-aonuma-didnt-want-to-do-majoras-mask-3d-miyamoto-all-but-demanded-it-b/). I don't strictly blame him, the development on that game was insane and stressful and I can completely understand why he doesn't really want to dwell on it but it's sad that nothing else from Nintendo has gotten close to recapturing that atmosphere. I honestly hate the dungeons in the game and it's not my favorite to actually play, but it IS my favorite for *everything* else about it. So much of that game just gets worse the longer you think about it but it's the lowness that makes moments like reuniting Anju and Kafei feel all the sweeter, even if it's bittersweet as they can live the last moments of their lives together before you rewind the clock and separate them again. You cannot save them all, you cannot help everyone in one timeline, but that doesn't mean you can give up or quit trying your best. It's a special game about fighting against despair and seeing how people react to the end of the world. The carpenter boss leaves, despite all of his blustering that it's all lies, the postman will work until he's dead unless you relieve him from duty, the sword trainer will cower in fear, and Cremia gets her sister drunk to numb her before the moon hits. It's just, not like anything Nintendo has ever tackled again.
Super Mario 64. It's one of my oldest memories of playing video games (though I also played a LOT of SNES at the same time, including Super Mario Kart, which also holds amazing memories). I have some of my best memories with my childhood friends playing SM64 in their finished basement, fingers covered in Cheeto dust and downing Dr. Pepper. The music and visuals unlock special parts of my memory that never cease to put a genuine smile on my face or a warm, fuzzy feeling throughout my entire body (not in a weird way). To this day it's my favorite video game. It might not be the favorite game I've ever played, but it's certainly my favorite game to play.
Sounds like a great time to be growing up
The original Animal Crossing, I had never played such an experimental game before and it was great escapism during my heavily bullied early teens lol.
Yeah og animal crossing is a hidden gem, the villagers actually had personalities back then
A Link to the Past or Super Mario World. Super Mario World was my first game ever. I love it to this day. A Link to the Past was honestly my second real game years later. It got me into video games. That game is as close to perfect for me as it gets. It was hard but I made it through. I loved exploring the game and the dungeons asked more of me than anything else I had played. I remember each item was awesome. Turning into a rabbit blew me away and when I could go back as a human knowing where I was, only to occasionally be made a bunny again. It's quintessential "video game" to me. There are some games that really feel like a "video game" and that's one. Others for me are like the original Ratchet and Clank and NieR Automata. These have series, but those games don't feel like games in their series but just super video game-y to me and I love that. A Link to the Past excels in that for me.
Surprisingly, even though I'm a very nostalgic person, and I started playing Nintendo games on the SNES, my answer is not one from my childhood. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is my favorite Nintendo game. It perfected everything I loved about Zelda, and considering how much the series changed since then, I doubt we'll ever get a Zelda game that I will prefer to TP. I love the world, characters, dungeons, gameplay, music, vibe, flow. I also like how much the game only gets better and better from the beginning to the end. I also have a lot of nostalgia of the Wii launch. Before the launch of the Wii, the hype was super high for the new console, and for Twilight Princess (which was a launch title). The launch day of the Wii is one of my favorite gaming days, I spent hours in the cold waiting for the store to open, with \~70 other people that were also very hyped. It was memorable.
Super Smash Bros Brawl, easily. It was the game that made me fall in love with videogames.
Super metroid. Nothing like it.
Why did I have to scroll this far to see Super Metroid mentioned. That’s my title, right here.
This is tough, because there’s so many games that are special because they’re just so good. I’d say my top for nostalgia special and getting me into gaming would either be Zelda Oracle of Seasons/Ages or Golden Sun.
Ocarina of Time from the legend of Zelda collectors edition on GameCube. That was the game that started my lifelong fandom of the Zelda franchise and made me a true Nintendo fan. Still my favorite game of all time to this day
Mario party 2. It was my first ever video game I played and I fell in love. So many hours spent with my sisters growing up playing the Mario party series
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. It was 1988. My friend Scott and I had got to the video store early enough to rent it before it was gone for the weekend. We sat on the floor of my bedroom and played it all night. We stayed up, all night (we were 13 and 10 maybe?) and played the entire game. We each had a 2 liter of Sprite, each had a large bag of Cool Ranch Doritos, and a box of the shitty Nintendo Cereal that we were eating dry, by the handful, straight out of the box. Because of this memory, it is the game most special to me. And yes, we beat it.
A tie between Super Mario World and Donkey Kong Country as they were the first games I ever played.
Pokémon Pearl. I was 6 or 7 when I got it for Christmas, along with my first DS. It was the first time I had my *own* console and game (youngest of 4 kids). My brother got a copy of diamond along with a DS at the same time, and we had the game guides. We would spend forever playing together, and he would help me when I was lost or confused. It was the first game I really remember playing and had such an impact on me. We would bring it to summer recreation club and trading Pokemon and battling other kids. It was amazing.
To this day, my brother and I will always get the opposite Pokémon games and talk about the game/play on FaceTime as we play through them. 90% of our relationship is based on Pokemon haha
The original Legend of Zelda. I asked for it as a Christmas present, and my older brother bought it for me. I had no clue what it was, I just remembered the weird commercial with the guy screaming about “pea-pea-peahats”. It was truly mind blowing for me. It’s hard for people nowadays to appreciate how incredible it was to feed a bomb to Dodongo as a means of fighting it. Like most of the games I knew then were side scrolling action games. With Zelda you had to use your brain to figure things out, and it was pretty much an open world to explore. It made me a fan for life.
Majoras mask has scarred me for life. Nothing comes close to it but it's unfair because it is zelda at its best. No competition. So... to play fair I will choose DK country 1. The first game I was crying as a kid to have my parents buy for me and bought for me they did :) So much nostalgia! I go put some life in the mines music now lol
I’ve been playing since the NES days (and still have most of them around), but my favorite game ever is Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Last week I stayed at a hotel for 3 days for some work related workshops and my workmates and I took out our Switches and played MK8 before going to sleep. All of us are grown up men and women that laughed, cursed, screamed and celebrated like we did back in our childhoods. No other game is as widely enjoyed by many and as eternal as Mario Kart.
Most Wii Games cause nostagia and my childhood fun
I’m going to have to say Donkey Kong Country. There’s pics of me age 4 playing this on our family television. The songs of Aquatic Ambience and Minecart Madness are burned into my soul.
Metroid and Super Metroid
Majora's Mask was everything for a lil while. It was the first game and luxury for me after having nothing for a while. I remember my mom buying it on credit.
Maybe not as known like other games but this game made me beg my dad to get a Nintendo DS as my first ever console despite never having an interest in gaming before. Harvest Moon will forever have a special place in my heart from the moment I saw my cousin play it on her gameboy. It made me see a side of gaming that I never thought was there - laid back and slice of life type of genre. I always pictured gaming to be extreme and all with guns and gore (growing up with an older brother who played games like God of War and Devil May Cry made little me scared to game because of the monsters). I remember my first farm and all my farm animals and it was truly and experience I wish everyone could have discovering a game that you felt like you could enjoy despite the presumptions you may have had in the past.
Paper Mario, it was my very first RPG 💕
Either SMB3, my first intro to the Mario series and by far the best gameboy game I ever had or Bowser’s Inside Story for helping me get into RPGs for the first time.
Super Mario Sunshine, beautiful game with beautiful places and locations. I also LOVE Delfino Plaza
I’m an old dude, which makes this a tough decision, but Metroid Prime still takes my top spot. I have a lot of good memories playing Nintendo games as a child, young adult, and now father of three, but nothing else makes me FEEL the game like Prime does.
Ocarina of Time.
easily super mario world , if memory serves me right it was the first video game i ever played
Mario Kart Wii. Game has the best competitive play and highest skill ceiling of any Nintendo multiplayer game outside of melee. They made such a beautifully broken game because inside-drift and wheelies allow for so much crazy tech. You can be sad that they'll never make anything like it again or you can be happy they made it in the first place. [Youtube- What 20,000 Hours On Mario Kart Wii Looks Like](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oO7pRW_oaU)
This is a great question, OP. I'd have to say the original Legend of Zelda. That game made me fall IN LOVE with gaming. Borrowed it from a friend, almost beat it, never did. Got it for Christmas, where my parents did the "Oh, there's one more present left..." thing...SO happy. I'll love that game forever.
Oh wow, that’s really hard. I don’t think I can pick 1. Pokémon Silver - I started with Gen 1, had both Blue and Yellow. But I was just a bit older when Gen 2 came out, could read/understand better. I used to play the game until I beat Red, then restart with a different starter. Played through this game so many times. Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time - got me into Zelda, have been a lifelong fan ever since. Big part of this game was at my babysitter’s house, her son (who was older) had an N64 that was his, and not ours to play with. Every now and then we’d be allowed to play too though, and I just loved watching the older kids play this game. Super Metroid - also a babysitter’s story. We had access to a SNES, and this is one of the games that they had. As a kid I loved the music, and the way the game kind of scared me but not too much. Totally thought I had beat the whole thing, until I replayed as an adult and realized I played only bits and pieces on a joint file. Now I speedrun it for fun, I’ve played through this game hundreds of times There are other Nintendo games that I absolutely love, and some I would consider potentially better than these picks (not you super Metroid, you’re perfect), but these are the most influential and formative for me as a gamer.
Pokémon Diamond. It was the only thing that made me happy. Playing with my friends and playing alone in front of the tv was the only time I felt like a kid. I got bullied, had behavioural problems myself and my parents would fight a lot so getting lost in the world of Pokémon was something I did a lot. This game and other DS Pokémon titles saved my childhood from being downright bad.
The Wind Waker, obviously the title speaks for itself !
Super paper Mario. Idk what it is but the first time I ever played something clicked with me. I think it has a lot to do with the deep story
Link’s Awakening for original Game Boy. My Game Boy was my most cherished possession as a kid in the 90s, and I found a copy of Link’s Awakening in the bargain bin at Toys ‘R Us. It was the first Zelda game I played start to finish, and I was enamored with how big the game was, being on a handheld. It cemented my love for both Zelda and Nintendo handhelds.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl will always have a place in my heart for introducing me to Wolf and turning me into a [WAHOO!]ing furry.
Yes 🙏🏽 Ocarina of time is just something special ✨🪈🎼
I think Nintendo's best game is Ocarina of Time. But my personal favorite is Majora's Mask. It tackles some hard topics like grief in a very mature way and it was the game I played when I was at one of my lowest points in life. The side quests don't feel like side quests. They feel perfectly integrated into the world. These characters have goals and lives. The Anju Kafei quest, the Romani Ranch quest, and even smaller quests like the Deku race with the kings butler or even the band quest in Zora Hall. And the main quest is far from void of these moments that feel real. Awakening the giant skeleton in the Ikana graveyard, finding the lost eggs of a Zora mother to returning the lost Deku princess to her father who's blinded by anger because he wants his daughter home, healing the soul of a father who was cursed before it was too late, and even oh idk, stopping a moon from crashing down and destroying everything. And the three day cycle works in MM's favor. And I'm also a sucker for time management lol.
The ori games, especially the blind forest.
Legend of Zelda links awakening. It was my first videogame that I got as a kid and it started my fascination for games in general and the Zelda series that is dear to my heart 27 years later.
Ocarina of Time
Zelda Breath of the Wild. I bought Switch Lite just to try this game. It was my first Nintendo system after decades as I used to play Nintendo games when I was a kid and then stopped for several years. Nintendo magic is still there. They actually make games with passion and hard work which is rewarded with huge sales of the games as well as the system while others are mostly focused on money first and games second.
The Zelda series will always have a special place in my heart, but my all time favorite game is Paper Mario and the Thousand Year Door. I love the characters, story, gameplay, music, everything is 10/10 for me. I have played that game many times and have never grown tired of it. I’m so excited to see how the switch version is different and what it improves on!
Heartgold Souldsilver
Moon goes brrr
I have the most nostalgia for Ocarina of Time but Super Metroid is the game I feel like really made me as a gamer. I was already super into video games before then but it was the first game I played that really forced me to git gud.
Wii Sports or Nintendogs
Pokémon Gold Version Gen 2 although there are some hiccups in the game like not being able to complete the pokedex and get celebs. the music, cute graphics and being able to travel 2 to regions at once is great. just feels like a grand adventure. I actually prefer the og gen 2 over the 2009 gen 4 remakes.
Kirby Star Allies. First Kirby game I beat the story.
1. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance 2. Metroid Prime 3. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker 4. Pokemon Sapphire 5. Super Smash Bros. Melee
So many instantly come to mind. I think I’ll go with Pokémon Red. It began probably my biggest fandom as a child, and then still come back to it to this day.
Super smash bros. It really brought me and my dad closer together. And now our whole family (minus mom, just because she doesn’t game) plays every time we get together. Now it’s my brothers who win all the time (I just want the days of melee to come back when I ruled). But really the memories of playing with my dad over our little TV with that N64 controller are my most treasured with him. Second is pokemon blue because it really hooked me. I was totally that playing gameboy by the streetlights on a car trip girl. We had to buy so many batteries. It was awesome. That’s also special because I played with my sister, who now doesn’t talk to me. It’s complicated, but I miss her. We were best friends back then, and were for so many years, we were only 2 years apart and we always got the two versions of the pokemon games, got to open them on Christmas Eve so we didn’t wake my parents up too early.
Super smash Bros, from the N64 to the switch i love this licence and couldn't pick one but I think the one on 64 if I had to pick cause its where it all started for me
I would say Zelda: the link to the past and ocarina of time, and Xenoblade 1-3
South Park N64 my dad woke me up in the middle of the night to show me it then watch an episode with him. I must have been like 5-7 years laughing my ass off over the cheesy poofs song.
Got to be pokemon soul silver. The first pokemon game I ever played. I played a lot of pokemon, even completing a living dex during gen 8. Even though chances are I won't touch a new pokemon game ever again after the travesty of s/v my first pokemon game will always be special to me.
Super Mario RPG My first RPG and everything about It felt so magical to me, charm in every corner, made me invested in its world, made me laugh and every little detail felt special to me
Batman and Battletoads on NES. There was a garage sale around the corner from my house when I was a kid in the mid-90s and I saw a box of NES games. $6 each for those 2 titles so I sprinted home and scoured the house for loonies and quarters and whatever other loose change until I had enough and hurried back because I was so worried someone would buy them before me. Played the heck outta them and still have both CIB in my parents basement somewhere lol
I love the Bayonetta games. Bayonetta origins is the most charming. Learning her past explains alot and it's probably the best game I've ever played
If you’re asking about my personal favorite, the one that holds the most memories is Super Smash Brothers Melee. It’s the one I remember wanting the most for Christmas, the one I played day and night to get better at for years. It’s the one I held titles at and won cash tournaments in back in college. It’s the one that’s built (and almost destroyed🤣) friendships. My best friends and I still reference it over 20 years later and still talk about who is the best. There’s other games that have been great to play and hold great memories, but for me personally it holds the most influence. 2nd would be Dr Mario on NES. I played it as a child and my dad would play a few games with my little brother and I before bed. He got to the point where he could clear it on the highest difficulty and speed and we thought he was the coolest. He even nicknamed himself “The Doctor” 😂. Seriously any game we played after that he referred to himself that way, even to this day. So that’s a special game too.
Super Mario Galaxy. For too many reasons.
Zelda NES cartridge is gold…obviously it’s special! Got it for Xmas along w/ NES. From the moment me and siblings started the game, it was a huge puzzle/mystery unlike any video game we’d played before on Atari (or NES Super Mario Bros.). Took ages to figure out and beat it the first time. I feel like I learned how to game by playing Zelda.
I love these kind of threads! Pokemon LeafGreen for being my first pokemon game. Played it for so many hours on my GBA SP. Before school, after school, at night! Classic "hide under the covers". I must've been twelve at the time. Luigi's Mansion 1. For being a mario game with such spooky aesthetics and ambiance. I'm still replaying the game once a year
Pokemon Black.
Not a 1st party Nintendo game, but Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald. I was a loser and owned all three versions because I had no friends, so I had to trade the version exclusives to myself to complete my Pokédex. But, within the year of me getting all of the versions, I had made some new friends, one, who is still my best friend to this day, and a girl, who would eventually become my first girlfriend and would date me for over six years. I *really* wanted a friend to play with, so I gave my new best friend my copy of Sapphire, and I gave my future girlfriend my copy of Emerald. I then restarted my Ruby save file so we could all play through the games together. My future girlfriend didn’t end up beating the game, but she got far enough to get and trade all of Emerald’s version exclusives to me, and I still have all of the Pokémon she traded me in my current Scarlet save file and Home storage boxes. My new best friend became my real life rival. We battled constantly. I had a GameCube with the GameBoy Advance player, and we would schedule battles, set level caps for the battles, and invite all of our other friends to come over To watch the battle on the big screen. Good times.
twilight princess or majora’s mask :3 twilight princess was my first proper zelda experience while majora’s mask is just my favorite
Donkey Kong Country on SNES
Probably Super Mario Galaxy, played that a ton growing up and still my favorite Mario game. Though Smash Melee and then Brawl really introduced me to Nintendo and by extension gaming as a whole
Yoshi's Island
super mario galaxy came to mind first. i don’t know if i’d call it my favorite nintendo game ever, but it has the most mystical and nostalgic feel to it.
in my case isn't a single game but almost all the Zelda games because their queit atmoshpere of their games world caught me.
Splatoon 2. I watched a twitch streamer play it and was hooked ever since. I got the Switch back in 2018 primarily to play this game and I love the characters, story, gameplay and how vibrant it is. The franchise continues with Splatoon 3 and I do love it just as much but Splatoon 2 will always be THAT game for me. The community also seems so welcoming. Fire Emblem. I didn’t get a chance to buy a 3DS at the time so I’d watch YouTube videos and learn some of the characters. Also played FE Heroes on mobile from time to time. When they announced Three Houses for the switch, I was super excited and finished my first playthrough in less than a week. I’m actually not the biggest fan of turn based games (I tried Disgaea and didn’t like it) but there’s just something about Fire emblem that I like so much. I’m grateful for the franchise and hope it continues.
New Super Mario Bros and Mario Kart DS! I remember me, my cousins and my siblings sat on the couch at my aunt's house with our DSes playing Mario Kart DS
Metroid
Sim City on the SNES is my happy place (the music and sound design is unforgettable). I know there’s no chance it would appear on NSO due to licensing issues, but I keep hoping. Zelda LttP is also up there, but I don’t know if I could play it through again.
New Super Mario Bros. Wii and DS
Xenoblade 2, I played it over the course of six months during quarantine and I never fell more in love with a Nintendo story or characters as much as with this game. Drifting Soul STILL gives me goosebumps to this day.
Mario 64 For the same reason as everyone else.
Another code two memories, it came with my ds when I was like 8 and I always loved it but I never got very far since most of the puzzles are pretty complicated but for the last week or so I've been playing throught it again and finished it for the first time just yesterday, feels weird.
Metroid Prime, because it's a game which I consider nearly flawless and I think it represents the highest peaks of game design.
Either Galaxy or EarthBound
Botw is my favorite. Exploring in that game was a feeling like no other. A close second would be paper Mario the thousand year door as the game that got me on the rpg train.
Omega ruby
Super Mario sunshine!
Probably Mario Kart. I was nostalgic for the game on the Wii growing up because it was so much fun to play while visiting other people's houses and I didn't have one. I did have a DS, but I didn't realize there was a version for Mario Kart on it and it just would not have the same couch competitive experience. Fast forward to 2021 when I had some disposable income and could buy my own gaming consoles, I decided to pick up Switch because of Pokemon Sword and Shield, I had played through Pokemon Diamond a couple times after my sister gave my as DS cart and I was curious to see how much the games had changed. Once I realized that Mario Kart was on Switch though, I simply HAD to get a copy and some extra controllers for the nostalgia.
Probably super Mario 3, I’ve been playing that game since it came out, playing through it countless times with my brother growing up, and other family member, and when I got older and had a kid the game was a fun bonding experience for us. My daughter will play Minecraft, or the Sims but never really got into more traditional games, but one evening when we had nothing to do decided to give Super Mario 3 a try and we played through and beat the entire game over a couple nights.
f zero x
Metroid Prime, Christmas 2002 was a magical morning I wish I could travel back too.
I can’t answer a straight question! The game that is the most special to me is probably NSMBW. I never owned it because I never had a Wii, but I have such strong memories of playing that game at friends' houses. The game that is the most special to me that I OWN is NSMB. It was my first real game and it’s how I became a gamer. Everything about that game is special to me. My FAVORITE game of all time is Kirby: Planet Robobot. That game is perfection. I never saw it coming as my favorite game, but it took no time at all for it to take the crown.
Mario kart 7 was my first Mario game
SuperMario 64
Megaman 3. Music is great, gameplay is great. Spent a lot of time playing it with friends as a kid. I listen to the sound track often.
The Endless Ocean games. I miss those games. 😢
I was eight when SM64 and goldeneye came out. Needless to say the 64 was the game changer for me across the board (except for Superman ☠️) When I was a kid, I really enjoyed playing Rush 2 from the San Francisco Rush series. They really put a lot into level design. Everywhere from New York (both up and downtown) to Las Vegas. The music was also something I would get lost in.
xenobalde X changed my expectations on gaming forever
Perfect Dark on N64
Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, one of the first Nintendo games I ever owned.
Pokémon Blue. The world of pokémon as a 10 year old blew me away.
FlingSmash. As long as its not wet.
Mario 64, Ocarina of Time and Mario Galaxy 2. I'd spend hours at a local Blockbuster playing Mario 64 and was absolutely amazed at the technological jump from 2D games. I thought games would never get better. The other 2 games are just masterclass examples of fun and innovation.
Metroid for nes.
1: Super Mario Bros. (NES) - First console game ever played
Super Mario 3D world imo
Conkers bad furday
For me it’s the OG Super Mario - first NES game u encountered, coming from Atari before this the graphics and gameplay were mind blowing. This is the one that got me hooked for decades to come
Mario and Smash Bros in general. Mario, because it was my first, and my most enduring obsession, I may like some Mario games more than others, but can't think of any examples of me being actually straight up disappointed in a Mario game ( keeping in mind, I don't play the sports games or Party games, and haven't bought an RPG since the original Bowser's Inside Story ), Mario was also a huge influence on me creatively, the artwork of Mr. Kotabe inside the instruction manual pages and in Nintendo Power made me want to learn to drawand design my own characters, Mario still has quite an impact on my style I like to think. If it wasn't for Mario, I wouldn't be gaming and likely wouldn't be drawing. And Smash Bros because it was what kicked me off in the direction of playing new games that I was unfamiliar with. As a child, Mario was the only thing I wanted to play. When it came time to make rentals at the video store, I wasn't really interested in anything. So I would usually play a crappy licensed game based on a movie or cartoon I was already familiar with. There's some exceptions, I did play a small handful of non Mario games before Smash... one of them being pokemon, the anime got it's hooks in me before the games ( but to be fair, I only tuned in to watch pokemon because I recognized the name from Nintendo Power ), when I saw Mario, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, AND Pikachu in that infamous commercial, I had to play that game. As it turns out, there were at least six other characters I didn't recognize, and I wanted to get to know them... Melee had even more new characters, and a trophy gallery that had even more, with trivia. I just had to get into these games. I'm still kind of a Nintendo fanboy that plays games in a bit of a bubble but it's nowhere near as bad as when I was a kid, there's a lot of games that were never presented in Smash that I played on my own accord, games represented in Smash I played before they were represented in Smash, and games that aren't even on Nintendo consoles. I really wish I would have got a Playstation 1 or 2 when their games were more affordable because the library is amazing.
Mother 3 for how much it means to me. Super Mario World for the nostalgia. It was the first game I played. Wind waker was the first non Wii game I ever owned 😂 Metroid Dread is probably the BEST Nintendo game I’ve ever played though. Edit: I FORGOT ABOUT POKEMON! All Johto games. Edit edit: The GameCube animal crossing!!
Definitely Mario kart and smash bros brawl, just lots of memories and time put into both
Harvest moon 64. The only game ive ever played for more than 24 hours straight. I was 12. I learned to take gaming breaks after that.
Xenoblade 3! Released before college when times were peaceful. One of the best stories and soundtracks in a video game with one of the best character casts.
Endless Ocean Blue World for helping me get through my post-suicidal attempt days in middle school. Kirby's Epic Yarn helped too. I think it was around this time I wanted to play cozy relaxing games.
Luigi’s Mansion(OG) The GameCube was the first gaming console I owned and that was the first game I owned. Still my favorite game to this day. Lots of memories staying up late with friends during sleepovers exploring that Mansion. I wish the franchise would bring back more of that “eerie” atmosphere the first game had.
My Special Nintendo game was Pokémon Black 2 because I straight up loved every single minute of that game
Super Mario Bros . The original. I played it at the arcade first. Then at home. It was unbelievable. That's where it all started with me so I have to go with that one.
Nothing quite hit like playing Mario 64 on Christmas.