The first thing that really had a massive impact on me was Ocarina of Time, when I was a teenager. That game just felt like it changed everything. At the time it came out, nearly everything about it was revolutionary.

Super Mario Bros 3 - really started my love affair with games

Gran Turismo 1 - I had always been a car nut even when I was a little kid but this game pushed the boundaries of what a video game could be. I had notebooks full of testing and tune info. Would spend an entire weekend trying to shave a couple seconds of my lap time. Man what a great experience for 13 year old me!

gcunit wrote:

So when I heard the audio samples of "Red 5 standing by", "You're all clear kid - now let's blow this thing and go home!" and "You cannot escape your destiny. You must face Darth Vader again" from the films, they stirred something really deep and I just had to watch the films, so sought out retail VHS copies of the trilogy and reconnected with half-forgotten memories in a way (i.e. watching each one hundreds of times) that will always stay with me.

As a kid I must have rented Star Wars on VHS a dozen times - for each of the trilogy. Honestly I am not sure why my parents didn't just buy a copy until I was much older because they must have spent more on rental fees than it would have cost to just buy them. (not that I knew any better at the time)

When I read your comment I actually read "You're all clear kid! Now let's blow this thing and go home!" in Harrison Ford's voice. Such an iconic moment.

First: The original Pokemon Red and Blue gave me one of the first reasons I remember having to actually wanting to know how to read - learning "difficult" words like "attack" "defense" "special" etc (I was 5 years old and those aren't words the average 5 year old can read) as well as my falling in love with those games led to a life long obsession with the series that continues to this day.

Second: Advance Wars - the first new game that ever led me to want a new video game system. Advance Wars drew me in and I begged my parents for a GBA and the game and it led to my appreciation of turn based strategy games that has since branched out to Fire Emblem and Sid Meyers' Civilization.

3rd and finally: Mario 64 the game was just such an impact on me. Having most of my previous experiences with gaming be 2D titles Mario 64 was really just an incredible experience that holds up pretty well today - despite the wonky camera.

(NES) Dragon Warrior - this game inspired a love of fantasy. I was drawing the swords and enemies, while also writing my own ideas and stories based on it. I was even making wooden swords based on the designs of the swords in the game (illustrations of them were either in the instruction booklet or Nintendo Power, I forget which it was). I'd make the sword of wood, then draw and colour the design on thick cardboard, cut it out and staple it to the wooden part (both sides).

(SNES)Zelda III and Super Metroid - both equally inspired drawing and writing. I'd write my own variants of the Zelda story or use the characters in different stories. I drew a lot of Samus and the various monsters she'd encounter.

(NES/SNES) The systems themselves. Together they impacted my childhood a lot, especially the couch multiplayer from Double Dragon, Battletoads, TMNT 2 to Mario Kart, TMNT 4, Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. Also this was pre-internet days, so the in-person interaction of talking about games, secrets, theories about sequels and storylines was also a large impact in boosting sociability.

1. Pokémon White. Diamond got me into the series, but this game helped form me after I moved, and helped me through a slighly rough time that could have been a LOT worse otherwise.

2. New Super Mario Bros Wii. It was the game that got me INTO gaming all the way. I still have extremly fond memories of 100%ing the game with my dad from start to finish. It's still (likely) the only game I have ever gone for 100% and finished the job.

Every time I think of these games, I just get a rush of joy. The wild battle theme from Pokémon White always just makes me get the largest grin and I feel fantastic. I even cried when I watched a Mario Series Melody and the NSMBW title theme came on. Cheesy, but they always left a major impact on me.

My answer will probably differ from others in that these two games didn't particularly register with me much as video games, I didn't play them much, but they reignited something inside me, a love that has stayed with me ever since.

In the late 80s the Atari arcade Star Wars games were ported to the Amiga and somehow a copy of Star Wars and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi turned up at my house.

I'd obviously been somewhat into Star Wars as a little kid (born 1980) as we had had some of the figures and I had a Millennium Falcon, but I had been deprived access to the films themselves as they were hardly ever on UK TV, and home VHS recordings had been lost.

So when I heard the audio samples of "Red 5 standing by", "You're all clear kid - now let's blow this thing and go home!" and "You cannot escape your destiny. You must face Darth Vader again" from the films, they stirred something really deep and I just had to watch the films, so sought out retail VHS copies of the trilogy and reconnected with half-forgotten memories in a way (i.e. watching each one hundreds of times) that will always stay with me.

2. Mario Kart Wii

3. Lego Batman 2