Games that got you into genres.

[Valkrex]

Survival Horror: REmake

FPS: Quake 3

Turn Based Strategy: XCOM: Enemy Unknown

RPG's: Final Fantasy VII

Stealth: Metal Gear Solid

Spectacle Fighter: Ninja Gaiden 2

RTS: Age of Empires

Action RPG: Kingdom Hearts

Dota-Style (MOBA is a shitty name for a genre for SO many reasons): DOTA 2

Racing: Gran Turismo

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Medal of Honor: Frontline is the game that got me into first person shooters. I played the demo at a friend's house and it was the second level--the one where you have to take a bridge and is basically the scene from Saving Private Ryan at the end. Anyway, the reason I loved it so much was because I wasn't fighting alone. There were allied forces scattered throughout the level helping me. I loved that feeling, and while most of the game did have me alone, those few times where I was fighting alongside other soldiers were fantastic.

Sadly, that idea seems to be dying off now, switching back to the one man army or a small team of unkillable, but ultimately useless, teammates.

 

[Burgers2013]

Survival Horror - Fatal Frame. I picked it up at Blockbuster once after I had played all the games that looked good; then I about peed myself. I had played a few survival horror games, but I never got very far into them before getting freaked out and/or giving up (SH2 confused the hell out of my 12-year-old brain "WHERE ARE THE LEVELS??!! I'm lost!! This game sux." *walks off shakily*). Around the same time, I picked up Resident Evil 4. So, I actually had a couple of games that really launched me into seeking out other horror titles. I went back and played all of the old Resident Evil games (except the 1st one; I played the Gamecube Remake instead). After that I branched out into Silent Hill, Clock Tower 3, eventually Half Life 1, and so-on.

Point-and-Click: I have a hard time separating which was 1st and which was 2nd so: King's Quest VII and/or Mr. Potato Head Saves Veggie Valley...Shut up that game was AWESOME.

FPS: Doom

Beat 'em Up: The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (SNES)

Open World RPG: Morrowind

JRPG: The first one I can really remember playing (watched by brother play a lot when I was little) was Suikoden 1. I'm not into JRPGs much anymore, but between the ages of about 10 - 16, this was one of my favorite genres largely due to how much fun that game was.

Platformers/Adventure?: The Adventures of Dizzy. I recently found a copy of this to play again. It's still ridiculously hard. It was one of the first I played (Mario obviously being THE first), but it was really interesting because it seemed much more complicated and focused on semi-free-roam level design than a typical platformer. I may also just be categorizing the game wrong.

Stealth: Splinter Cell

 

[Erttheking]

FTL: Faster than Light (Faster Than Light Faster Than Light?) got me into roguelikes. It helps that when I got steam it was actually the first ssteam game I got (Aside from TF2) Thanks to it, I got into such games as Rogue Legacy, Sunless Sea, Darkest Dungeon and the like.

 

[TheMigrantSoldier]

Going to limit mine to genres I was (before) completely uninterested in.

Sly Cooper got me into stealth games like Splinter Cell and MGS: Peace Walker. If there was ever a "beginner's stealth game", it would definitely be that. It's still a blast to play for its light-hearted style and cartoony action.

Fire Emblem got me into turn-based strategy games like Xcom and Advance Wars. To this day, building up and growing attached to my individual soldiers is still addicting. Permadeath was such a new and exciting concept for me at the time. On a side note, has anyone here played the Age of Empires II DS spinoff? Spent a lot of time on that.

Crusader Kings 2 (to a lesser extent, Total War) got me into grand strategy games. I loved how my RPG character's actions meant the fate of entire nations and changing history itself.

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

I grew up enjoying Platforers, RPGs, Puzzles, Racing, and Adventure/Action titles, and anything else was either too violent or not interesting enough to get my attention. Thanks to the PS2 onward and arcades, I was able to find other genres that I know are awesome:

SRPG: Disgaea 2

Fighting: Marvel vs. Capcom 2

FPS: Bioshock

Point-N-Click: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors

Sandbox: Assassin's Creed

 

[The Wykydtron]

Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 got me into fighting games,a genre I now love. To be specific, Phoenix Wright being on the roster got me into fighting games because I had to check that shit out. Yeah he is legit the absolute worst character in the game bar none but god damn if it didn't prepare me for playing underpowered characters in other games.

Oh Tsubaki in BlazBlue is super low tier because she has to sit there and charge Drive for her specials to have any damage at all? ***** i've had to stack evidence, evidence that can be WRONG. It's like if you charged up to 3 bars of Drive and the game just knocked it down to 2 bars for no reason.

Elizabeth in Persona 4 Arena was pretty down there though. Despite being a pretty pub stomp character if you're new, once you figure out how she works you just see the layers of bad hanging off Elizabeth. If you want a pub stomp character just play Shabrys.

I could talk about character tier and stuff forever, never get me started on BlazBlue's story too. It's possibly the most convoluted thing ever written. I understand what all these words mean on their own but Hazama sticks them into a 10 minute monologue and i'm just done. At least Calamity Trigger is easy to understand now. If something doesn't make sense in Calamity Trigger, God did it to stop the timeline collapsing in on itself.

 

[stormtrooper9091]

don't even remember that well :

fighting: Mortal Kombat 2

platformer: original Sonic or original Rayman

RTS: Dune 2 - The building of a dynasty

turn based strategy: Heroes 3

JRPG: Final Fantasy 5 and Chrono Trigger

Silent Hill: Silent Hill

point & click: Monkey Island

side scroller beat em up: Streets of Rage 2

sports sims: FIFA Soccer 1996 (even though it wasn't the first nor the best I ever played)

yup, rather old-ish guy here

 

[pookie101]

RTS : like many others that was dune 2

flight sims : interceptor on the amiga

turn based strategy: theatre europe on the amstrad.. green screen monitors for everyone !!!

CRPG's : Bards tale on the amstrad. fighter hits bandits and kills 99 of them.. ah those were the days

FPS : DOOM

point and click adventures: the walking dead.. adventure games are something i detested since the early 80's and that game made me love them

 

[MrFalconfly]

Genre?

Hell it was a game that launched my entire interest in everything flying (planes, helicopters, hell spacecraft even).

F-29 Retaliator.

 

[laggyteabag]

Shooter - Turok (N64)

Turn based strategy - Civilization Revolution (360)

Real Time Strategy - Age of Empires (PC)

Open World Sandbox - Oblivion (360)

ARPG - Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance (NGC)

RPG - Baldur's Gate (PC)

Brawlers/Spectacle Fighters - Batman: Arkham Asylum (360)

 

[FPLOON]

Platformer: Rayman Advance
RPG: Pokemon Ruby
ARPG: Kingdom Hearts
JRPG: Tales of Symphonia
Fighting: Super Smash Bros. Melee
Beat 'em Up: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade Cabinet Version)
Shoot em' Up: Nebula Fighter (Oh shit! I remember its name!!)
Rail Shooter: Time Crisis 3
FPS: Portal
Rhythm: Dance Dance Revolution Extreme (Arcade Version)
Pinball: The Simpsons Pinball Party
Yeah... I think that covers them... Oh wait! I forgot one!!VN: Monster Girl Quest/Corruption of ChampionsThey... kinda tie in that department...

 

[sonicneedslovetoo]

In no particular order:

RTS: Warcraft 1, this is quite possibly the earliest video game I ever played and may be the thing that got me into gaming before I could even read.

Smups: Tyrian 2000, I remember typing in the carrot ship code and destroying things with a chainsaw made of oranges from a very young age.

Turn based tactics: Xcom 1, as in the first one I really liked this game because of how mysterious it was you never really felt in control because most of what you did was reactionary. The remake immediately turned me off with its EXTREMELY handholdy tutorial that could better have been a cutscene and I generally just felt like I was in control of nothing and the game wanted me to slow down to an extent that I found painful.

Turn based Strategy: Master of Magic, for me this game is legendary the only thing it was missing was a multiplayer mode. I actually consider it far superior to any of the CIV games because despite diplomacy pretty much not being a thing, the combat was much better thought out than any of the CIV games.

FPS: Metroid Prime first game system I owned myself rather than inherited was the gamecube and I played the shit outta Metroid prime 1/2.

MMO's: surprisingly enough I actually started off in MMO's with Eve online I don't play it anymore but it was fun whenever I could get my friends together to actually do anything, otherwise it was kinda trash solo.

Space Sim: Wing Commander Privateer, I had a ton of fun with this game as a kid and Had a lot more fun with the remake and Gemini Gold remakes. However I'm never above putting the boot in to Elite Dangerous which I have a massive grudge against and I would like to reiterate that my hatred for that game is endless.

Roguelikes: IVAN(Iter Vehemens ad Necem) or "a Violent Road to Death" was the roguelike that got me into the genre and I think that's the perfect introduction, I mean RIGHT THERE in the title its telling you "beware all ye who enter here death awaits you" and that is truly in the spirit of a roguelike. Shame it was abandoned.