What games did you have a bad first impression with, but grew to like?

Super Mario Sunshine- I didn't like the lack of Mario elements very much. The FLUDD feature was ok, but with nothing "Mario" to go upon, I was clueless what to do. When I tried it again, I found it to be as fun as SM64 or SMG.

The Legend of Zelda: the Wind Waker- I couldn't get beyond the Forsaken Fortress, so I gave up after awhile. I eventually got beyond the Fortress and discovered that it's simply a rehash of OoT.

Zelda 2 is one such game. I used to not get into it, but then I began to appreciate it and loved it.

WW a rehash of OoT? Not at all.

For me I would say Mario Kart wii.

The first time I played I couldn't for the life of me manage to steer or turn properly (using wii wheel), and it almost made me resolve not to buy a wii. I later went to a different friend's house and realised the learning curve was about an hour.
Now it's one of my favourite games!

Know what you mean. Had this kind of reaction with Okami. At first, I was like "so far, it looks like a really boring Zelda clone." After a while, however, I grew to love it's weird goofball humor and odd concepts.

One thing I gotta ask: how is Wind Waker an OoT clone/rehash?

@those questioning the rehashdom of WW

I know what Fox means--it was the first "sequel" using that 3D zelda formula and at first glance it seemed like almost a carbon copy with a different graphical style...it turned out to be quite different, but I know what he's saying. One of those "glad my first impression was wrong" things--I was the same way with that game at first.

Actually it was Super Smash Brothers Melee. I got a packaged deal on a new Gamecube and it came with Melee and several accessories and games at a place I worked. I thought man this game sucks the first time I played it. I put it on the shelf for probably a year and I decided to give it another try and I was like holy crap this game is freaking awesome. Now the Smash Brothers series is one of my favorite Nintendo franchises.

Every Zelda, pretty much, is a 'rehash' of previous games... that's sort of the point.

As far as it being exactly the same as Ocarina... you did notice the ocean, yes? And the boat?

WW a rehash of Ocarina of Time? How?

Anyway, I can't think of anything. I can't just jump into a game and not like it, I have to play for a long time.

I got a bad impression of the whole Final Fantasy franchise after I played a hour of FFX-2.
Luckily, I played another Final Fantasy game that didn't suck,and now it's one of my favorite franchises.
I also got a bad impression of Drakengard 2. I only played the beggining and then I felt I didn't want to play the game for some reason. Then, like 3 years later I picked it up again and played it for a week straight!

Mystaria on Sega Saturn, in fact I was going to trade the thing in, glad I decided to give it another go, ended up being one of my favorite RPG games of all time.

@Trin: That's what I meant about "rehash".

Basically, it was frustrating at first, but once I got past the Fortress, it was just another Zelda game thereafter. Now if only I could figure out where to sail to next.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I diddn't know how to play SSBB but then, my BF showed me how to play it and now it's my favorite game!

Elite Beat Agents. It was confusing with all the circles and dots, but now it's one of my favorite series of all time (with Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan).

Omega Five. It seemed rather boring at first but it's seriously grown on me after doing a few more tries.

Detana TwinBee! The first time I had played it, it didn't feel right to me. But that was because I was overly biased towards Star Parodier and it's responsive play control (yeah, shallow, right there). But then, upon further replay, I found it enjoyable. What I at first thought was a bad game then turned into a good game for me, though not as good as Star Parodier. But it's close.

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
The first playthrough wasn't so great, I just couldn't get over it's inferiority to its DS brethren. Then I replayed it for completion, and it was much, much better. Portrait of Ruin is still vastly superior, but DoS is pretty great still.

Dragon Quest IV
Once again the first playthrough was alright, it didn't leave any impressions of greatness. Once again on a new playthrough for completion I started to really love it.

There are probably a few others, but none are coming to me at the moment.

I wont say i alsways liked Earthbound. I had a lot of problems with the saved games and the beginning was very slow until you meet Paula. Then, the game just grows up to be on of the few J-RPGs i loved and finished.

Total Annihilation - I'd already been playing a lot of Starcraft when I first started playing it, which pretty much blew away every RTS I'd played up to that point (and I'd still say it's the king). It took a lot more time to get into it, but it's good stuff!

Quake - Again, I'd been playing the likes of Doom and Doom II, Heretic, and Hexen, even Duke Nukem 3D before I played Quake. The 3D was kind of cool, but I've never appreciated the ambient soundtrack and the graphics looked sort of bland, and it just didn't seem to have that adrenaline of Doom, the exploration of Hexen, and the weapons didn't impress quite as much. Beating the first chapter of Quake was anticlimatic. You electrocute this big demon, and some text shows up telling you that you got a relic and stuff. In Doom, you blast the crap out of two towering demons and then find yourself being torn apart by a horde in a dark room. Then... you know... I played multiplayer and also discovered mouselook and good control configurations, and those six deathmatch levels are unforgettable.

Yoshi's Cookie - Similar story to Quake. I played the single player, and it's probably the most boring puzzle game experience after Yoshi (which is completely boring). Then, I played two-player, and boy, it's a horse of a different color. If you've never played Yoshi's Cookie in two-player, give it a try. Moreso than any of Nintendo's other puzzle games, Yoshi's Cookie is dramatically different in two-player. Using slave on an opponent is the best part! I still like Puyo Puyo, Tetris Attack, and Wario's Woods more, but Yoshi's Cookie isn't too shabby.

I can't really think of too many more good examples. A lot I have in my head are games I initially hated, and then thought were pretty ok, but not good or great, like Gunstar Super Heroes and NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams (coincidentally, I'd played the original games first. I'm also a huge NiGHTS fan, even having Christmas NiGHTS), and games like Advance Guardian Heroes (After the perfection of Guardian Heroes, this lame game almost makes me ill) where the level of my dislike for the game increases proportionally to the amount of time I played.

Growing up fixated over the likes of Super Mario Bros 2, 3, and Super Mario World, I just thought NSMB was the blandest, most uninspired Mario game since Mario is Missing (which, at least had more interesting music and starred Luigi! XD), and thought it was sad that it didn't have a shred of the creativity and uniqueness of the Super Mario Land games to boot. I just hated the main theme in NSMB. NSMBW looks really good, though. The level designs look several times better, and I've always wanted a multiplayer mode like that. Just wish they weren't afraid of sprites, I think the graphics look generic compared to Super Mario World and especially Yoshi's Island, but I guess there's too many people who would disagree.

Anyway, I digress. The point is, sometimes you have to look at all the sides of a game before it truly shines. It's not always obvious what makes a game great. Also, for the record, since Digiki brought up Castlevania (...and I probably eat, sleep, and breathe Castlevania...), I loved Dawn of Sorrow, I thought Portrait of Ruin was really good, and Order of Ecclesia was something of a letdown (though, Shanoa is an awesome character, the plot twist was fun, the second half of the game is better than the first, and Blackmore.... god I wish you could play as him! ).

Almost all of the Castlevania games. Never got into them at first but once I played more and was able to bear with the difficulty I loved them. The only Castlevania I loved immediately after my first play was Rondo of Blood. Still awesome.