What game(s) made the greatest impacts on your life?

[Zhuanyong]

Street Fighter + Mortal Kombat - just enjoyment to the fullest. Made me more interested in real fighting. Made me try different Martial Arts. Got to know Muay Thai.

I have a feeling that a great deal of us who were teens, tweens, etc when the first Mortal Kombat came out were hooked from day 1. I know I lost quite a bit of quarters at arcades, corner stores, and card stores because of Street Fighter 2 (pick a version including the Alpha games) and Mortal Kombat 1-3.

Heck in NYC many of the pizza shops had Samurai Showdown 1 or 2, Street Fighter Alpha 1 or 2, and Mortal Kombat 3 lined right next to each other. It was a pick your poison marathon for many of us on countless days.

[jepoyamp]

^ Agreed. Good old times, I'd love the Arcade then. And I was one of the kids that spammed liu kangs flying bicycle kicks thing. Then, that first I time saw a fatality I'm like "how do you do that? Teach meeh!!!" "What? up, up, forward, kick,what kick? Ah whatever. *uppercuts opponent*"

[Ah-Man]

Final Fantasy Tactics - turn based strategy + rpg with customizables characters?? I'm sold. Didn't like other FF series, except for 5 where there is 5 classes.

And the story ethical issues that were brought up. This game made me question religion and started my path down rooting for anti-heroes like Delita.

[Zhuanyong]

^ Agreed. Good old times, I'd love the Arcade then. And I was one of the kids that spammed liu kangs flying bicycle kicks thing. Then, that first I time saw a fatality I'm like "how do you do that? Teach meeh!!!" "What? up, up, forward, kick,what kick? Ah whatever. *uppercuts opponent*"

Same here. First option - try to input the fatality... Second option - uppercut them as fast as you can.

[plunged]

I don't know if a game ever made impact on my life... though I did really like the story of Silent Hill 2 and its entire atmosphere. The ending really surprised me and I think it may have inspired some Hollywood movies? Silent Hill 4 was awesome too. Just the whole feeling of being locked in your room, the main door being chained from the INSIDE and the windows mysteriously locked as if nobody could've gone out after chaining the door. Looking through the peeping whole and seeing people in the hall talking about you and wondering what's going on. Great game.

I also really like Castlevania. The art designs by Ayami Kojima for the former series were brilliant. The current Lords of Shadow saga is great too. It's like they took a-part the former series like a puzzle and put all the puzzlepieces back in a new slightly different Castlevania universe. It's nice to see how all the Belmonts and other former CV characters return in this new CV with similar roles, adapted to the new CV universe.

I'm also a former Final Fantasy fan. Enjoyed FFXII loads, but FFXIII made me completely forget why I like FF.

[MhiHayoli]

One I have to mention too!

Monkey Island (I think it was the first one?)

My sister and I played it on Amiga (we were about 6-8 years old). We played it without pause and were laughing everytime Guybrush commented certain situations. After 8 hours constant playing we happen to smell burned plastic and dad found out that we killed the connection lead of our Amiga XD

Ah, sweet memories

[ky9ersfan]

RTK 4 on the playstation 1. It was the game that really got me interested in Romance of The Three Kingdoms, and led me to both 3kingdoms.net, aswell as Scholars of Shen Zhou message boards back in the early 2000's.

I would say reading this material sort awakened an interest in China, Japan, and Asian culture in general. This broadened my horizons, and opened my mind up to different societies. I got to say, I agree alot with eastern philosophy view points.

[greencactaur]

Persona 3, I played it during my depression, and honestly as sad as it may sound, having virtual friends, is better then having no friends ;-:.

[yevonsama]

Final Fantasy X, of course.

I learned many idea from that. Much more than even Script Writter can imagine.