TL;dr - My thoughts on my life with video games and a basic sum up at the end of which consoles I thought were the most important in our generation of gamers.
Below is a recounting of my history with video games and the consoles are listed in chronological order of when I first got them. I've listed the games that I've played of which I can remember at the top of my head.
1. Super Nintendo - Super Mario World, F-Zero, Street Fighters, Lemmings
2. GameBoy - Pokemon Blue/Red, Kirby's Dream Land, Dr. Mario
3. N64 - Super Mario 64, StarFox, Super Smash Bros, Rampage World Tour, Mario Kart 64, Mario Party, Donkey Kong 64, Turok 2, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Wave Race 64, Pokemon Snap, Banjo Kazooie, Star Wars Episode I Racer, Zelda Ocarina of Time
4. Playstation 1 - Crash Bandicoot 1 and 2, Spyro, Metal Gear Solid, Spiderman, Twisted Metal
5. Xbox - Halo, Mad Dash Racing, Fusion Frenzy, Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon, Crash Bandicoot Wrath of Cortex, Lord of the Rings RotK, Mech Assault, Soul Calibur 2
6. GameCube - Super Smash Bros Melee, Mario Kart Double Dash, Mario Party 4, Metroid Prime, Pikmin, Super Monkey Ball
7. Wii - Super Smash Bros Brawl, New Super Mario Bros Wii, Super Mario Galaxy, Zelda Twilight Princess, Sonic Colors, Sin & Punishment, Okami, Mario Kart Wii
I never actually got the 360 or PS3 and I just wanted the Wii primarily for Smash bros. I then headed off to college and never felt the need since everyone in my dorm had all the consoles. Endless nights of Madden, FIFA, COD, Halo, Battlefield, Rock Band, etc. And to be honest, I thought the Wii was a bit lacking in good games or maybe my standards just went up. We'd make drinking games out of the Wii sports games and that made dorm life a lot more fun haha.
** PC - I didn't place this into the list because PC gaming spans my entire history of gaming. I never really got my own personal PC until a little after I got the N64. What was I into? FPS and RTS.
For FPS, it was Counter-Strike. I was into CS since 1.5 beta when it was still a mod for Half Life, and would play it every week at PC cafes. I started young at around 10?, since I had a lot of older friends playing that junk. CS became huge for me and I even played in starter amateur leagues like OGL then more advanced amateur leagues like Cal-IM as I got older. CS was fucking monumental for me and it's something I regularly go back to to play some de_dust or cs_assault. Other old FPS games I played included the original Unreal Tournament, Tribes, and Day of Defeat. The more recent FPS's I've played include the entire Crysis series, Half Life 2, MW2, Left 4 Dead, and TF2 (I still play dustbowl once in a while).
I was also huge on RTS's. Command and Conquer, Tiberian Sun, Red Alert, C&C Generals, Battle for Dune, WC2 then WC3, Dawn of War 2. The most recent strategy game I played was SC2. At the time, I had actually gotten a beta key invite, played the shit out of beta. Used to study replays like a huge nerd with Husky and my favorite players like TLO and Idra, and got top Diamond League first two seasons before I quit playing. Did some competitive SC clan play where we did clan tournaments with 1 on 1's and 2's and it was fucking fun to have this kind of organized competitive format instead of just grinding out your league against random opponents. Time commitment was a problem so I eventually quit. RTS is huge for me and to this day, I still think WC3 was the best designed RTS that 'd ever played. Spent more years playing WC3 than any other game besides CS. I enjoy the micro style of it over the macro style of SC2. There's something about the depth of all the RTS's out there, from the creative nature of the gameplay mechanics that span everything from the economy to map placement, to the extreme passion that people can place into it (like the pros or clans) that just makes the whole genre addicting.
Other PC game shoutouts that were fun but didn't invest more than a year in include Nox, Maplestory, Sims 2 and 3, Witcher 1 & 2, DOTA (when it was still a wc3 mod), and WoW (yeah I never got addicted but still fun especially beta days).
Just to sum up. The overall console that I think was the most revolutionary, in my generation, was the N64. It introduced amazing adventure 3d platformers with rich gameplay elements (Mario 64, Zelda, DK64) that kept you playing for years. It also really paved the way for party multiplayer from Mario Kart to Super Smash which really was the first ever fighting game I actually enjoyed playing over and over. The next revolutionary console IMO was the Xbox. I know FPS's have existed long before the Xbox came out, but some of the games set the bar extremely high for FPS mechanics ESPECIALLY Halo (first game I can remember that uses a HP regen system). But in terms of having the games that can invest the most not only of your time, but of your skills, I'd say the PC has the most hardcore gamers out there. It's funny, when I read back what I wrote, it almost seems like I had no life. But in reality, baseball, tennis, and band practices consumed my life when I was younger. I was actually pretty good at baseball especially, only thing was, I thought it was fucking boring and always couldn't wait to come home to play video games with my friends.
And I had to relate this blog entry to an anime to post it, so since I'm currently re-watching Natsume Yuujinchou, that will be it. :) Thanks for reading, and any comments would be welcomed.
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