Topic: The games that pushed you over the edge

1. What was THE game that made you buy your first console?

2. What was THE Nintendo game that sold you on Nintendo?

1. I didn't buy my own console until my mid-20s. I was living independently and had my own income for the first time, and felt a gaming-sized gap in my life that I wanted to fill. Star Wars was my life pop-culture love so I went online did a bit of reading up about contemporary Star Wars games. This led me quite rapidly to identifying Rogue Leader - Rogue Squadron II as my must-have game, so finally bought my first console, a GameCube with Rogue Leader included.

2. GameCube safely installed, I started looking out for other worthy games for my teensie collection. Football being my other life love, and already owning the excellent FIFA 06, I picked up on some buzz for Mario Smash Football so gave it a try and it was just fabulous, such a joyfully fun and tense experience to play. Other than a very brief dalliance with Mario Kart in the early 90s, this was my first proper taste of the Mario family and showed me what I was missing out on by not having Nintendo IP in my life.

1. What was THE game that made you buy your first console?

2. What was THE game that sold you on Nintendo?

Answer:

1. My Sims Wii, Harvest Moon Tree of Tranquility, Mii games on Wii.

2. Casual games with cute cartoonish graphics, girlie games like Imagine series, games customization like The Sims, DDR of course.

1. Twilight Princess for Wii
2. Probably Super Mario Land and Pokemon Blue on Gameboy. Stuck with Pokemon until B/W

I've edited question 2 slightly to emphasise that it should be a Nintendo game (not necessarily 1st Party developed by Nintendo, but involving Nintendo IP).

@gcunit

1. I started to game when I was 6 I think. It was in the arcades and the game that shocked me of how GOOD it was was Magician Lord. It is a very cool to this day Because of those arcades I had to make my parents buy me a home console!

2. The games that sold me on Nintendo were 3. Castlevania 2 Simon's Quest, Faxanadu and the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Those games defined what I love about gaming and that is some freedom!

For me freedom back then was for the game to not have time running out "feature" and to have backtracking

1. Twilight Princess for GCN. I had gotten consoles as gifts in the past & we used to get both big names (SNES & Genesis, N64 & PS1), however during the 6th gen we had only gotten a PS2. While I do love it, I was absolutely captivated by Twilight Princess when it was revealed & ended up buying a GCN with birthday money so I would be able to play it (and getting access to Melee didn't hurt either).

2. I'd probably say Super Mario Bros. or Super Mario World. The former being the first game I ever played, the latter being the first game I ever beat.

Hmm...the game that go you to buy your first console which was not given to you by your parents question is a good one. I'm pretty sure it was the Nintendo DS so I could play Pokemon when I was a teenager from the money I was getting at my first job.

The second question I can only give a boring answer. It's the usual suspects of Zelda, Mario, Pokemon etc that as a kid got me hooked much like how the cigarette companies get them whilst they are young but the biggest games that made me love Nintendo's approach to games was Super Mario Galaxy as I remember see how clever the gameplay was with the mini-planets and knew I must play it plus having those warm happy memories of playing Mario Kart, Smash and Goldeneye in multiplayer with friends as a kid.

1. Technically, my first console that I brought myself was a pre-owned GameCube, which I got with a controller, and a copy of Super Mario Sunshine for £20. This was brought after already having the Wii and playing Luigi's Mansion, but I brought it so I could play GameCube games in my room as the Wii was a living room console at the time. If you want the first console I actually brought myself brand new, that would be the 3DS, which I brought a day after it launched in Europe. Good memories of playing Super Street Fighter IV and Mario and Luigi - Bowser's Inside Story as my first few games.

2. I don't think I was ever not sold on Nintendo; the first game I remember playing ever was Donkey Kong Country 3 on SNES, and I just played other games since like Super Mario World and Zelda: A Link to the Past. Then played Super Mario 64 and Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask on a Nintendo 64 which my brother was gifted(? not sure where he got it from to be honest). Then my parents brought me a PS2 so I missed out on Nintendo during the GameCube era. In a way, you could say what brought me back to Nintendo was the Wii, or more specifically, Zelda: Twilight Princess, as I remember seeing trailers for it and seeing it in an Argos catalogue with a screenshot of Link fishing.

I already had the Gamecube and Gameboy but my own first Nintendo console would be the Nintendo DS because i wanted more Nintendo. Mario Kart and Mario 64 on DS were amazing

I wanna say Super Mario Galaxy and Zelda Twilight Princess but it all started with Super Mario bros 2,3 and World
I can't forget to mention Windwaker

Being an established gamer since I was 7, I was always given consoles as either birthday or Christmas gifts. However when the Playstation came about I just started my first real job so I had money to actually buy a console. I was debating between PS and N64 but the game that made me buy the PS was Final Fantasy 7. I am a huge fan of FF III/VI at the time I was sure FF7 would be the next great FF game (Boy was I wrong) so hearing that Square jumped from Nintendo to Sony I knew I had to get a PS. I actually owned FF7 before the system because of a pricing error at my work. They clerk in the electronics department priced for $19.99 instead of its normal price due to a mistake by our corporate offices. So I grabbed me a copy. A few weeks later I managed to get me a console.

It would be Super Mario Brothers, which sold me on video games in general. Before that I only played on my cousins Atari but those games were do simple. Games like Baseball, Freeway and such. But Super Mario Bros in my 7 year old mind was like an interactive cartoon!!

Bonus: Games that sold me on each Nintendo Console

N64: The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time
Gamecube: Soul Caliber II with Link
Wii: The Virtual Console
Wii U: New Super Mario U
Switch: Mario Odyssey

Tbh, I consistently have gotten consoles as presents from my parents for Christmas, even as an adult. 3DS and GBA/GBA SP are the only exceptions because I wanted them when they were new, which was not near Christmas. I think I did pitch in some money for 3DS and Switch though, so I dunno where that puts me for this. So the answer is either "3DS because I like Nintendo's games and their systems are very reliably good and worth my money and time" or "Maybe Switch 2 in the future :V"

Also I was always sold on Nintendo because Nintendo were the first video games I played on the first video game system I played, which was often just called "the Nintendo". (also helps that Mario/Zelda/Kirby are still top tier NES games and I didn't have their more mediocre NES games).

1. First one I bought myself was PS1. Bought it in a bundle with Wipeout and possibly X-Com if I remember correctly - it was definitely Wipeout that sold it for me though.

2. Tetris on original Game Boy. I only had 3 or 4 games for it in total and only really played Tetris and Super Mario Land.

@gcunit
1. Mario Kart Wii. It came with the Wii we bought for Christmas 2009 and me and my sisters easily put in over 180 hours minimum into it, absolutely massive game. Other games that fit this would be Wii Sports (same deal as Mario Kart and still just as fun) and Just Dance (I made that game into an exercise regiment for the better part of 2 years, I'd put on as many of the songs I liked and just start dancing away. It was probably the game that got me into exercising as a whole).

2. Pokemon Black White. The first game I ever owned myself that wasn't shared through the household. The minute I started playing I was hooked. All these wonderful creatures, varied locales and intriguing characters were all so fascinating and interesting. I still remember my main mons to this day: Emboar, Seismitoad and Crustle. Did I understand a lot of what was going on at the time? No (my characters name was DANEY, all caps, mispelling of Danny), but it did introduce me to a lot of concepts, words and culture that I still hold as a main part of my personality. Of course, being gripped by this crazy new Nintendo game and having played Mario Kart in the past, I wanted to see what other Nintendo games I could get, with the first big one I vividly remember getting, playing and loving being New Super Mario Bros. After that, the rest is history as they say.

1. What was THE game that made you buy your first console?

My parents bought me a ColecoVision for Christmas when I was 4. The big selling point for my Dad was how great Donkey Kong looked compared to the graphics on Intellivision and Atari games. DK also the first game where your character could jump. If you've ever jumped in a video game, you have DK to thank.

2. What was THE Nintendo game that sold you on Nintendo?

The Legend of Zelda was mind-blowing in '87. Its battery pack in the game cartridge was revolutionary, now for the first time ever, you had a console game you could play on your TV that was designed to play for weeks instead of looping after a few minutes.

1. I think i bought the N64 first with my own money, since my friend made me a really cheap price with a whole bunch of games alongside. The game that made me bought it was either Zelda ocarina of time or Super Smash Bros, probably both.
2. Easy really, Zelda sold me on the Nintendo consoles, it used to be pretty much the only game i would play alongside Smash Bros when friends came over. The next one after that was probably Metroid Prime and after that it gets really blurry

1. New SMB. I picked up a DS Lite when it launched in Australia, there were a few games I was interested in getting a DS for before then but New SMB was probably the top of that list. I'd been a Nintendo kid since the SNES/GB but skipped the N64/GC/GBA so it was the DS that drew me back in and at the time having a new 2D platformer was such a huge novelty

2. Well before that I'd say Super Mario Kart was what sold me on Nintendo. It was the reason I asked my parents for a SNES and it was pretty much always the game that sat in my SNES. There's a reason my avatar is what it is, you've gotta pick Bowser

Bonus points, Donkey Kong Country. This game when I first played it I was kinda amazed with what they were able to do with the SNES. I knew at the time the sprites were pre-rendered, that was a large part of the marketing, but even so the entire package was a tier above anything else on the SNES. Enough that I distinctly remember thinking "THIS is what I want to do when I grow up". Now I don't make games but I am a software developer, and Donkey Kong Country is a part of why I took this path

@gcunit for question 1, I normally bought the consoles and then played the games on them. Not quite the same question but the first console I bought for a specific game was the PS4 for MGSV The Phantom Pain!

For Question 2, basically the SNES library but I would say primarily Super Mario World 👍

@gcunit

1. Twisted Metal - I had little more than a passing interest in owning a PS1, until I saw a magazine advert for Twisted Metal. I knew there and then that I had to play it. A few summer jobs later and I was able to afford a PS1 and a copy of TM. Although TM 2 is the superior game, I still have fond memories of the first.

2. Punch-Out - I was hanging out with one of the neighborhood kids. He had an NES before I did. But that quickly changed after playing Punch-Out for the first time. I suddenly knew what to ask for...for Christmas that year.

1. Well, this is kind of hard, since I had an NES when I was very young, and a Wii when I was about 10. But both of those were bought by my parents, not me. The first console I bought on my own accord was a Wii U. Strange choice, I know, but Mario Kart 8 was just too tempting to pass up. It looked beautiful, and I was already a huge fan of the series. Picked it up at my local Target, back when Target was a thing in Canada, and snapped up 3D World while I was at it.

2. Keeping with Mario Kart, it had to be Mario Kart Wii. I played it to death as a kid, and I still go back to it time and again today. I feel it exemplifies everything that makes Nintendo games great- accessible games that nail their gameplay, and done with that trademark Nintendo feel.

I always got consoles as gifts for Christmas and my birthdays, but I did get a Nintendo Switch with my own money. It was Super Mario Odyssey that sold me on it. Not only am I a huge fan of the mainline Super Mario series, but it also returned to the gameplay style of Super Mario 64 and the first trailer looked awesome! Though, I didn't get it alongside my Switch because it wasn't out yet. I got Mario Kart 8 Deluxe to tide me over, and shortly afterward, I got Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I didn't think I would be super into BotW, but man I got hooked when I started playing it.

The game that sold me on Nintendo? It's a toss-up between Super Mario World and Super Mario All-Stars. They were a great starting point for games in general honestly, and my family and I played the living heck out of them back in the day. They were just plain fun, too. I finished both many times before - I still remember beating SMB3 for the first time when I was 12.