Topic: How did you choose which games to buy when you were a kid just starting to play videogames?

Mostly renting or seeing what other people ended up having. Renting probably boosted the collection by the 100th degree because people who I hung out with had usually the most common stuff or Sports games which I was never interested in. I rarely back in the day took a leap of faith and bought something that I had no idea what I was getting into. But with the N64 (which was my first TV console) there was so many good titles (imo) it felt like a bounty that would never end.
Now as for GameBoy, I have no idea how I figured out what I liked anymore. Sometimes it was like "here have a game!" and it was a new experience, or one of my best friends let me borrow or would leave behind a game at my house and I'd try out his stuff too. The gameboy was weird and had a lot of obscure stuff...

The same way I do now, I read the back of the box and see how interesting it sounds. It rarely goes wrong.

It was all always a color based decision

It was mostly familiarity. I would buy games that were based on something I knew, were sequels to a games I already had, or were spin-offs of games I already had (Crash Bash).

Another big factor was "Can I walk around freely?"

The box art had a lot to do with it for me. I know the early Mega Man games are much maligned for that now, but at the time I thought they were awesome, and that's how I first picked up Mega Man 2. I also relied on the guy that ran the video rental store to tell me about the game. In this case he told me you could turn into the boss or copy their power or something, so I thought it sounded amazing, ha ha.

When I was a stupid little kid, it was based on which characters from my favourite TV shows were on the box. Luckily, this led me into playing The Simpsons Hit and Run and The Spongebob Squarepants Movie, which in my opinion are really good games, even now. They certainly aged better than dross like Sonic Heroes did.

Magazines. That, and my older brother had some awesome tastes.

basically i just chose anything with sonic spongebob or lego in it or super heros

First system I had of my own (my brother has a SNES that I would sometimes play but I don't remember getting any games other than the ones we had when I first could remember playing it) was a Gameboy Color. I just got games as presents for that. Luckily, my dad knew I loved Pokemon and got me Pokemon Yellow, so that was nice. (Or did I like the show because of the game...??) I know I had more, but the only other game I remember playing on it was a Powerpuff Girls one....which was also because I liked the show. Then my dad got me a PS2, because I loved playing my cousin's. As a result, I got a bunch of games I am pretty sure my cousins helped him find (Ty the Tasmanian Tiger, Spyro, ect.) and a Rugrats game because I loved Rugrats. I know I had a GBA, but honestly I can not remember ever picking out any games for it or when I got it...I am crap at remembering childhood memories. I think my mom got it for me to one-up my dad on the GBC he got me??? Man I dunno, but that sounds really correct actually. First system I remember actively picking games out for myself was the DS! Nintendogs was my first game and I wanted it because internet. A lot of games were from just looking at games at Walmart (that was my childhood game store)...and a few from looking around the internet.

Wow that was way too long and detailed I am so sorry I just couldn't stop myself from reliving memories.

Mommy and Daddy bought the games they thought I'd like, usually as Christmas or birthday gifts, but they would also rarely bring games in random days... Probably because they had a good day or something.

It all started with the game boy and Pokemon blue.

When I did get to choose the games, it was mostly based on the box art. I couldn't read English, so there wasn't much to go on besides how pretty the box was.