The Top 5 games that defined your childhood

[xtincthed]

As a kid from the 80's and 90's I didn't have internet or magazines to see what games were worth playing. I just played the games that I got from friends and family. Sometimes these games were horrible, but you had nothing else to play so you just played them.

I made a video to showcase the games that shaped my childhood, and I'm curious to see what games shaped yours. You can be totally honest with your picks, noone will laugh at you for loving a shitty game, we understand!

http://youtu.be/xw0VqMHOcOE

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

Pirates!
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Warcraft II
Myth II: Soulblighter
Star Wars: Dark Forces

[Seno]

Marathon (Mac)
Escape Velocity (Mac)
Double Dragon (SMS)
Sonic (MD)
Micro Machines (MD)

[RetroRage]

Mega Man
Mario 3
Metroid
Final Fantasy 7
Final Fantasy Tactics

[Duke.Togo]

Tough, and I'm sure after I put these down I will want to change them later, but here goes:

Zork (C64)
Castlevania (NES)
Super Mario Bros. (NES)
Final Fantasy III(VI) (SNES)
Phantasy Star II (GEN)

[Barracuda]

All Genesis titles.

1. Shining Force
2. Shining Force 2
3. Phantasy Star IV
4. King's Bounty
5. Shadowrun

[engel762]

1: Legend of Zelda (NES)
2: Super Mario Bros. series (NES)
3: Sonic the Hedgehog series (Genesis)
4: Earthworm Jim (Genesis)
5: Final Fantasy VII (PS)

I didn't own a great deal of games when I was a kid, so my list is pretty generic.  Part of my collecting obsession now is getting games I wish I had when I was little

[Izret101]

In no particular order:
Super Mario Allstars + World - SNES (came with my SNES)
Toe Jam and Earl - Genny (one of the few games i had as kid played with brother and mom all the time)
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 - Genny (another one of the few games i had. was my babysitter afterschhol guess that explains me now....)
TMNT Fall of the Footclan -Gameboy (only game i had besides Tetris for quite some time)
Pokemon series preCrystal verion - Gameboy (not really "childhood" per se but it ate away literally thousands of hours of my life.)

[InvadErGII]

Super Mario Bros. - The first video game I ever saw.
Mortal Kombat - I'm not sure how much time I invested in this and the early sequels. Not sure I want to know.
NBA Jam - See Mortal Kombat. Thanks a lot, Midway...
Sonic The Hedgehog 2 - There was a time when a friend and I played this every single Saturday. Probably for a year or two.
Super Metroid - The best.

[Techie413]

Only 5?  Tough call.

1.  Super Breakout (2600) - My brother and I played it more than any other game.
2.  Kung Fu (Arcade) - Ah yes, the trips to Papa Tom's pizza were awesome!
3.  Xevious (7800) - Came with the first console that was mine.
4.  Super Mario Bros. (Arcade & NES) - Possibly the most influential game to any 80's kid.
5.  Mortal Kombat (Genesis) - The blood code was the epitome of childhood defiance back then.

[Silent Scythe]

No particular order

1. Metroid - One of the first games I remember watching someone play When I was really young. I didn't play it myself until 12+ years afterwards. I've must of seen it beaten as well as I've seem to always known Samus was a woman.
2. The Legend of Zelda A Link to the Past - We use to watch my cousin during the summer and this is one of the games we spent months on months playing. With no guide or internet this was one we really had to band together in order to beat.
3.  Star Fox 64 - Same story as last time. Still an all time favorite.
4. Pokemion. - Some much time spent with the first 2 generations. Really was the first RPGs I got into and after some time with this one I went back to play FFIII, Earthbound, and Chrono Trigger.
5. Kingdom Hearts - High School was a pretty rough time for me, with a major death in my family and being skipped ahead in science and math, which meant I was stuck in a classroom with a handful of people who didn't appreciate a freshman being there. Kingdom Hearts became a favored weekend activity for me and a few of the friends I had at the time, even though I rejected the "silly Disney" game at first and focused on more "mature" RPGs like Star Ocean and Xenosaga. It's a series I'd really like to get back into

[techwizard]

no order:
1. super mario bros 3
2. mario kart 64
3. super mario 64
4. star fox 64
5. Jurassic park the arcade game (this one )

[Razor Knuckles]

Rewinding back to the '90's

Sonic 2 (Gen)
Goldeneye 007 (N64)
Alfred Chicken (GB)
Star Fox (SNES)
NHL '94 (GEN)

[Cobra]

Hmm, just the five. I guess the most defining games from my childhood would be newest to oldest:

Phantasy Star Online (Dreamcast)
Final Fantasy VII (Playstation)
Snatcher (Mega-CD)
Dune (Mega-CD)
Phantasy Star IV (MegaDrive)

[bombatomba]

Really glad you posted this on RFG (too much to type on my phone).

UFO! (Odyssey ^2): First game that really grabbed me (I couldn't have been more than four or five)

The Arcades:  Huge cop out, I know, but I can't even begin to explain just how big a part that arcades played during my childhood.  From my first visit (1983?) to my final farewell when ticket redemption and large "spectacle" machines took over it has always had a special place in my childhood.  Also, thanks to Michigan for the ten cent bottle return (and a big "eff-you" to the 7-11 jerks who denied me because of "dirty" bottle).  Tempest, DK, Victory Road, Berzerk, Contra, SamSho 2...  The list goes on and on.

Super Mario Bros. (NES):  The game that got me dreaming about getting out of the arcades and into a home console.  Before this I could count the number of home console exclusive games that impressed me with one hand, but when I saw this game BOOM!  Not my fav, but because of it I get all weepy when I see a bunch of NES black box games displayed on pegs.

Dune 2: The Battle for Arrakis (PC): The game that made me realize that there were actual games on the PC.  Weird thing is that the person who showed me never let me touch it.  I didn't get my mits on it until 1994, when I bought a Genesis and played it on there.  Just one game, but the curiosity helped get me interested in PC gaming.

Final Fantasy III (SNES): While I haven't picked this game up in years (I still do annual playthroughs of many other of the FF games), it made a huge mark on me back in 1994.  I went to the store with some money, thinking I would get Illusion of Gaia, but was surprised to find Final Fantasy III!  The sheer amount of hours I spent on this game, leveling up characters and Espers...  If only I could have bought a Retrode back in 2005 to backup the save before it died...  Oh, well.  And one more thing:  This game will always be known be Final Fantasy III to me.  Final Fantasy VI will always be a game that was released for the PSX and sucked.

This was an impossible task, given the amount of games that I played and loved over the years.  This was simply the first five that I could think of.