Those Childhood-Defining Classics

[Martiallais]

Legend of Zelda is probably the classic that most defined my childhood (I mean look at Martiallais LOL). I even had one of the shiny golden cartridges. With each iteration of the game I became more and more of a fan.

 

Right behind that (and on a different spectrum) was the Megaman series. I know I broke (and had to use my allowance to pay for) 3-4 new controllers as the older games were what I've dubbed 'Nintendo Hard'. But I still loved them and still love (some) of them now.

 

Games like Street Fighter (hello, going to school with little bandaids on), Streets of Rage, Double Dragon/Battletoads, Contra, and Castlevania get an honorable mention. I was actually behind on the RPGs and ended up going back playing a lot of the classics that people have mentioned here much later. But Xenogears is still a personal favorite RPG till this day.

 

Speaking of late, another one I came to later was the Metroid train but I distinctly remember my little brother, who was the bigger fan, complete with posters of Samus on his walls, finding out at the end of the second game (I think?) that she was in fact a girl. At first he was pretty shocked but she's still one of his favorite characters to this day. Gotta love gaming memories with family right?

[Stormwind]

There are many. More then I will probably be able to name here. I had the fortune of growing up in the golden age of video gaming (NES-> PS2) so my list of classics is long.

 

Final Fantasy 3/6 is a big one. This is my gold standard for Final Fantasy games and everything has come up short since then.

 

The Legend of Zelda series, A Link to the Past and OoT, especially. These are such good games.

 

Lastly and most important Chrono Trigger. I have yet to find a game that engages me or gets me going more the Chrono Trigger. I own every version and re-release of the game, and probably replay it once a year....speaking of which...it's been awhile.