RetroGaming

Minecraft, specifically Beta 1.7.3.

Final Fantasy 7 or 9, Earthbound, Secret of Mana, Phantasy Star Online

Learning Team Fortress 2 for the first time as a teenager was such a crazy fun experience.

Shadow of the Colossus and some Silent Hill stuff

StarCraft's campaign was a masterpiece. I get to include Brood War here too.

Monkey Island or Little Big Adventure

Portal or Arkham Asylum, something that surprised me in unexpected ways.

Portal because I thought I was getting a neat puzzle game (I was), but GLADoS blew me out of the water.

Arkham Asylum because of how effectively some of the Scarecrow sequences messed with me specifically (making me think my game had glitched, etc.)

Are you aware of the Zelda: ALLTTP randomizer? https://alttpr.com/en

There are many games that I loved and would enjoy playing for the first time, but I'm going to pick Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga. My reason being that I spent the vast majority of the game waiting for it to morph into a spiritual successor of Super Mario RPG back when I first played it, rather than giving it a chance to stand on its own as a unique and hilarious game. My preconceived idea of what I hoped the game would be really hurt my initial enjoyment of it.

For a runner up, I'll mention Kirby's Dream Land 3. In the days of Blockbuster rentals, I'd rented Kirby Super Star first, so it took me a while to get used to the more traditional Kirby powerup system where copied abilities only do one type of action each.

The original Luigi's Mansion. First off little kid me was still scared SHITLESS cause this game has ghosts everywhere. And that dumb kid didn't have a clue what "triangles" or animations" were so in his mind those ghosts could do ANYTHING to poor little Luigi just trying to save his brother.

And the story of course isn't anything super amazing of course, it's a non-rpg Mario game. But again little kid me doesn't know shit. In my mind I can remember thinking "what if E.Gadd is lying and is actually evil. What if I can still find Mario somewhere in this mansion and we can gtfo together.

My family used to rent that shit from Blockbuster all the time and I was youngest of three, so I barely got to play much back then and we wouldn't own it for years. But I can still remember major tears of joy when I finally did and Luigi just starts laughing at Mario with that vent stuck around his neck.

Others for my list that I've seen plenty here so won't gush about the same way is: Dark Souls 1, Both Portal, Destiny if I could experience it from release day and have the shitty content droughts D1 went through constantly, Halo 3, and another I haven't seen is JK: Jedi Outcast

Grandia on ps1. I refuse to replay it out of a morbid certainty that it's basic as all hell. But it was my first jrpg and it blew my mind.

I swear it took me weeks to make it to the wall, but searching my memory it's the first scene after your hometown.

Might and Magic 3

F-19

Wow

Half-life

Dishonored

Wings for Amiga, flying in WW1 and a cool story between missions. Everything I know about ww1 air battles, I know from that game :)

Spyro the Dragon as I was back in the day. That game has always been so magical for me.

If I were to experience it as I am today (and judge it versus games with modern graphics etc), I'd pick Ori and the Will of the Wisps. It quickly became one of my all-time favourite games, and I finished it three times in a year when I discovered it. Beautiful in so many ways.

Half-Life is probably the game that has had the biggest impact on me, though, so that would be my pick if I experienced it as I did around 1998.

I have seen no mention of Planescape Torment, so there you go.

Have you tried a link to the past randomizer . It makes it very fun and you can find different ways to progress through the game . Sometimes you have to do some of the dark world first or find clever ways to get into areas .

Bioshock. I am sure you can just replay it. The twist at the end... I wish I could relive the surprise again.

Nier Automata

A game I will never forget

Hotel Dusk.

That'd have to be Metroid: Zero Mission and The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. Two of some of the only games I actually 100%.

I agree with lots of what's already been said and haven't got much to add to those extant conversations, so let me try to add in some that I've not seen:

RuneScape is a candidate. I started way back with RS Classic (the sprite-based one!).

Oh, and Dwarf Fortress too. That began in 2009.

Achaea and/or Lusternia are way up there but I don't imagine anyone but me can share the experience.

Oh, as well, Mount & Blade: Warband. Quite the adventure(s).

I don't really game anymore. But this thread did dredge up some memories, old and new.

Thank you.

Half-Life 2 and Shining in the Darkness.

FF6, FF9 and Links Awakening

Space Invaders

Asteroids

Pitfall

Read dead redemption 1. A masterpiece.

Quake 3 Arena. Or more specifically OpenArena + baseq3 and other mods like ratmod. Most fun I have had playing a game ever.