We all have that one game that holds a special place in our hearts. What game is it for you?

For me, it’s Metal Slug. Growing up, every Monday, my parents would drag me to the laundromat after work. As a kid, it was a pretty boring, but I had my toys, origami books, and coloring books to keep me entertained. However, my favorite thing to do was playing the Metal Slug arcade machine with my dad.

My dad was great at the game, and he taught me how to play. Though I improved, I could never keep up. When I’d inevitably die, he’d let me take over his side to let me have a bit more playtime. My favorite part was when he’d share stories from when he lived in another country and would go to the local arcade.

Those moments are cherished memories, and even today, whenever I visit an arcade, Metal Slug is the first game I play, despite still being terrible at it haha

Honorable mention goes to Mario 64, another game that holds a special place in my heart. I got an N64 from a garage sale, and playing Mario 64 while at home, with my mom’s “chore” music in the background ignited my love for gaming

    • limeaide@lemmy.mlOP
      2·
      1 year ago

      I have yet to play it and every time I see someone bring it up in a comment or video I instantly close it haha.

      I love going in blind into new games and I’ve heard this game is a great experience

  • Thelsim@sh.itjust.works
    19·
    1 year ago

    Two come to mind.
    First is Monkey Island. It’s the first game I ever finished all by myself. The opening scene with the theme music still gives me goosebumps.
    The second is Daggerfall, the first game I devoted an ungodly amount of hours to. I spend all my time exploring every nook and cranny of that world, playing the tourist, borrowing huge amounts of money in some tiny country with no intend on paying back, splurging that money on houses, boats, clothes, armor and whatever else I wanted :)

    • lordriffington@aussie.zone
      3·
      1 year ago

      On a similar note, Full Throttle is my favourite game ever, and has been since I first played it. I love everything about that game.

  • MartinXYZ@kbin.social
    17·
    1 year ago

    Sid Meier’s Pirates! I played it so much as a kid. Now I’m 43 and I played it a couple of months ago. It’s still a great game!

    • Ashtear@lemm.ee
      3·
      1 year ago

      It’s crazy how much of this game was exactly what I needed. I had lived not far from the Oregon coast during the time this was set. Spent a lot of time there. I left a couple years before this game out, just long enough to start missing it deeply. The visuals and the dialogue especially were so on point that it was deeply nostalgic for me. The story about losing and reconnecting with friends, the nerdy shit, all the anxieties, even the animist undertones, I connected with all of it. This game is even a big reason why I started following voice actors, as I was so impressed by Ashly Burch in this role. Chloe is why I played Before the Storm and the Farewell episode, too.

      This is the closest a game has ever felt to being tailor-made for me. It was a step on my mental health journey. I started journaling after playing this. And I started moving on.

        • Ashtear@lemm.ee
          2·
          1 year ago

          I don’t want to oversell it! So much of how the game connected with me was due to unique circumstances and a lot of coincidences.

          It’s not a bad game, though. Got pretty decent reviews.

    • Donnywholovedbowling@lemmy.world
      4·
      1 year ago

      I’m surprised and delighted to see this so high up! This was the first RPG I ever really got immersed in, and what an incredible ride it was.

      What can change the nature of a man? This game, apparently

        • Donnywholovedbowling@lemmy.world
          3·
          1 year ago

          Just noticed your username, what a great character. The whole arc with the unbroken circle of zerthimon… I might need to go ahead and reinstall.

          • InEnduringGrowStrong@sh.itjust.works@sh.itjust.works
            1·
            1 year ago

            It’s one of the few games where I genuinely cared for the characters.
            Most RPGs these days, I end up becoming some variation of murderhobo because by the end I’m fed up with every other NPC or faction.

            Love the Planescape setting, love the characters.
            I played Numerana… but it didn’t scratch the itch.
            I didn’t finish it, maybe it got better, maybe it’s not for me.

            It’s been a few years since I reinstalled, maybe I should.

  • atocci@kbin.social
    12·
    1 year ago

    Probably a lame answer, but Minecraft for sure. No other single game has stuck with me this long, and I have so many good memories of playing it over the past 12 years. Sure there are franchises like Mario Kart and Animal Crossing I come back to every time there’s a new entry, but Minecraft has been this continuous thing that’s just always there, and I can never really stop playing it for more than a couple months before it brings me back.

    The only other piece of media that’s stuck with me so long is a book series that’s still getting new releases every year or so.

      • Sigh_Bafanada@lemmy.world
        1·
        1 year ago

        Actually technic pack would probably make this list for me. No modpack, Minecraft or otherwise, has transformed a game in such a way I love.

        Probably the reason I got into Satisfactory so much when I tried that out.

    • limeaide@lemmy.mlOP
      2·
      1 year ago

      I love going back to Minecraft once or twice a year.

      I have so many good memories in that game and there are friends I made while playing Minecraft Hunger Games that I still talk to today and I met them back in like 2013.

      Whenever I first started playing I took the PVP route, but now I mostly play survival with friends. I truly love that game

    • Ashtear@lemm.ee
      6·
      1 year ago

      This one’s the game that lives rent-free in my head and is impossible to evict even though I’d like to sometimes😅

  • Cris@lemm.ee
    11·
    1 year ago

    Borderlands. Couch co-op with my brother was pretty much what videogames was to me as a kid, and borderlands was always our favorite. I can’t wait to have a platform I can play borderlands 3 and the tiny Tina game on with him over the Christmases when hes back in town (I know they’re not quite as good, thats perfectly okay)

    These days, hollow knight is also genuinely very special to me. I don’t think there’s any game I hold in the same kind of place of reverence

  • joemo@lemmy.sdf.org
    10·
    1 year ago

    A bunch of the older Mario and Zelda games. I have some memories of playing them with my mom and one of her friends (who passed away when I was a kid).

    Mario 64 I think was the reason my mom bought us an N64😂. I have very fond memories of most of Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask as well.

    Now that I’m thinking back on it, there was a Star Wars pod racing game and Ken Griffey baseball that sticks out as well.

    • stoehraj@midwest.socialEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      I played this after losing both of my maternal grandparents within weeks of each other a couple years back (they were both in their mid-90s and one of them brought COVID home) and Spiritfarer really helped me process my emotions and get through everything. Some of the characters reminded me of them in various ways, which was touching and cathartic. What a beautiful game.

    • toxoplasma0gondii@feddit.de
      2·
      1 year ago

      The only time i cried harder was while playing RiME, and part of it was how unexpected it was. That spiritfarer got to me was kind of expected from the start, still dived in head first.

    • limeaide@lemmy.mlOP
      2·
      1 year ago

      I recently finished Tomb Raider 2013! I actually uploaded a review here haha

      I had a lot of fun with it and I was thinking about finishing it 100% but I started playing something else instead. Maybe on my next run I will do that

  • Dylan@lemdro.idEnglish
    9·
    1 year ago

    Tekken 3. The first game I got for my PS1 as a kid and the only one I had for a while.

    I didn’t behave a memory card so I must’ve unlocked every character at least 10+ times because the power went out or my mom discovered I left the PlayStation on.

  • Poggervania@kbin.social
    101·
    1 year ago

    Any of the PS1-era Crash Bandicoot games.

    My dad, my older brother, and I would spend hours playing those games with each other. Dad wasn’t the greatest gamer, but he was always patient enough to get my brother and I a ton of lives so we all could play without worrying too much :) Still got those discs in good condition too, just played them again with my dad a few months back for the first time in forever!

    • Astroturfed@lemmy.world
      2·
      1 year ago

      Those games were some of the first games I really bit into as a kid. They were great. Just hard enough to be a real challenge for me when I was like 6ish.

      • limeaide@lemmy.mlOP
        1·
        1 year ago

        I went back to them not too long ago and they’re still a challenge for me lol

        Even the remasters got some hate for their difficulty even though I don’t think they changed it. Great games though and they have so much character. The animations are top notch even to this day

    • limeaide@lemmy.mlOP
      1·
      1 year ago

      Oh wow this is top 5 for me as well. Whenever I first got my switch lite I played through the crash remasters and I loved every second of it

      I also still have the PSX disks even though I don’t have a PSX but that’s okay haha