Games that got you into genres.

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09philj

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What are the games that got you into particular genres? Not necessarily the ones which you played first, but the ones which made you go "Yeah, I like this". Here's a few of mine:

FPS - Halo 3
I'd played a few shooters with friends before, but Halo 3 really stood out. I've spent countless hours hunched over in other people's bedrooms blowing up various aliens and each other. I loved the perfect level of seriousness and silliness it had, I loved the feel of the weapons, and I loved the vehicles. When I bought my own XBox, Halo 3 was the second game I bought after Portal 2. Almost nine years after release, although I've played better single player shooters since, Halo 3 still sees a lot of use among my friends and I as a split screen party game.

RPG - Dragon Quest IX
I had played and enjoyed Pokemon Diamond before this, but Dragon Quest IX was something else. It was probably the first truly epic story in a game I experienced, and it took me over a hundred hours to finish the story. The story itself is odd and fairly simple, and has it's fair share of silly stuff, but also goes to some surprisingly dark places. The town of Coffinwell particularly sticks out in that regard.

Adventure/Puzzle - Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Eleven year old me wasn't exactly best pleased at receiving this for Christmas, having been hoping for something a little more action oriented, instead of what looked like a somewhat mundane puzzle game. However, once I'd played an hour, I was hooked. The writing is wry and amusing, Layton is an excellent hero, the art is just wonderful, and the puzzles are varied and satisfying. While the prequels were somewhat disappointing, the original Layton trilogy remains one of my firm favourites.
 

Xeros

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A lot of mine were from when I was but a wee lad, as while most of these were my first of their respective genres, they had some pretty deep-cutting hooks. They just refuse to let go I tells ya!

Platformers - Mega Man 3
My very first game, and my introduction to the fundamentals of gaming. [sub][sub][sub](MM3 > MM2)[/sub][/sub][/sub]

RPG - Pokemon: Blue Version
Didn't like the idea of turn-based combat in the beginning, and I've recently grown weary of it, but after Pokemon grabbed hold of me and didn't let go, a plethora of games opened up.

Fighting - Mortal Kombat II
My father brought it home from work one day. A friend had given it to him because he didn't want his young children playing it. My father, my brother, and I sat around playing it for hours. I was either 4, or 5 at the time.

TPS - Syphon Filter
My favorite game of all time, and my introduction to "mature" themes.

FPS - Rainbow Six (N64)
With its in-depth mapped planning system, this was also my introduction to strategic thinking.

Racing - Moto Racer
Anyone remember this one? Not my first racing game, but the first one to really make me feel like I was going fast. Also my first introduction to wacky cheat codes. "tekcop", anyone?
 

aozgolo

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JRPGs: Dragon Warrior was my first RPG for the NES, I was really into fantasy as a kid, and so my dad bought me the game because the title sounded like something I would like. I think it definitely pulled me in, I now own pretty much every Dragon Quest game, RPGs became my favorite genre, particularly turn-based ones.

Strategy: Romance of the Three Kingdoms 3 for the Sega Genesis was one of the first I owned, I got it second-hand like most of the games I got as a kid, and it has no instruction manual, which made it rather difficult since every button name was shortened to just 4 letters, a lot of trial and error to figure it out but I must have played it for like 100 hours, I really enjoyed it, though I never got close to beating it.

Western RPGs (or CRPGs): Baldur's Gate, I had played a bit of Diablo before this but never had the deep draw like what Baldur's Gate had, my dad had actually bought the game for himself, but didn't quite grasp the real time with pause mechanic and thought it was way too fast paced and just real time, and being a fan of turn based like me he didn't play it much. When I picked it up I had a blast with it, and it really opened the door for me to branch out into PC Gaming, and CRPGs in particular.

Survival Sandbox: While I think this would be Minecraft for most, the game I played first and made me really interested in the possibilities of a 3D Survival Sandbox was a freeware game called Stranded 2. While the graphics aren't much the game still holds up as a lot of fun, and if you like surviving on a randomly generated island and trying to build a small homestead, the game is a lot of fun still!

Roguelike: The concept of roguelikes didn't really appeal to me on paper... permadeath? one save? It wasn't until I got Dungeons of Dredmor on Steam during a sale and had a complete blast playing it over and over and over again that I finally understood why these games can be so much fun. I've since gotten several other Roguelikes and really enjoyed them immensely.
 
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FPS - Half Life
Super immersive experience shooting aliens in the face and crawling around in a top secret scientific/military complex.

RTS - Red Alert 2
This game and its expansion is just too creative for its own good, I mean weaponized Tesla coils and prisms, psychic Lenin clones, Chrono-Legionnaires, and attack dolphins? Yuri's faction is batshit insane, with an economy based on slave miners with shovels, the basic infantry unit using pyrokinesis, the anti tank unit being the Incredible Hulk, flying UFOs, and a tank controlled by a giant brain with no shortage of brain puns.

VN - Katawa Shoujo
Hanako, that is all.

Point and Click - Putt Putt Saves the Zoo
Uh...

Stealth - The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Best thieving and assassination game that I have played, especially with the mod that gives you the tools from the Thief series.
 

Maximum Bert

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Hmm I suppose Super Mario got me into platformers although I had played platformers beforehand they never really gripped me until this game.

Street Fighter 2 got me into fighters again I had played fighters before but they were terrible and I am not sure they were even considered a separate genre (or sub genre if you prefer) I still like pretty much all fighters to this day but I dont think any have impressed me as much as Street Fighter 2 even if I have liked some as much as that game (Turbo was my favourite but never liked it when it went super).

FFVII got me into RPGs and is the only game to ever make me do a u turn on a genre before this game I hated RPGs with a passion I just did not understand the appeal of their limited combat and endless talking. Hated all JRPGS and CRPGs before this (although in my mind at the time there was no separate distinction) but I gave the game a chance and it completely changed my mind on how I view the genre and games in general tbh.
 

MysticSlayer

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FPS: Call of Duty
Call of Duty wasn't the first FPS I played. However, I really enjoyed both of the demos, and that is what got me interested in the genre as a whole.

RPG: Paper Mario 64
I played this very early on when gaming. At the time, I had never played anything other than platformer and action games. I remember liking the turn-based combat and focus on building an interesting world and characters. While I eventually came to dislike turn-based combat (though I still love how Paper Mario handled it), I probably wouldn't have considered RPGs if it weren't for Paper Mario.

Fighting: Super Smash Bros. and Tekken
I never considered games like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat when I was younger, as I knew my parents wouldn't allow me to play them. But all I (and they) saw with Smash Bros. was a bunch of my favorite Nintendo characters coming together. At the time, I hadn't played any game that kept that level of excitement up that long. After that, I would take any opportunity I could to sneak a fight (generally in Tekken) past my parents at the arcade.

Strategy: Civilization IV
After installing the game, I played it for 12 hours straight. That was the point where I realized how fun (and addicting) strategy games could be.
 

LongAndShort

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RTS was Age of Empires II. While I'd played the original first, it was the second that really captured my attention and broke me into the genre. Been playing them at some level since.

Turn-based was Civilisation... uhhhh, would've been III. I played a lot more of IV, but I cut my teeth on III.

FPS was a demo of Medal of Honour: Allied Assault. It was this one level where you had to take out a bunch of rocket launchers, Nebelwerfers I think they're called. That got me keen on shooters, though I'd played a fair bit of Goldeneye on the neighbour's N64 before that. Interestingly enough it was years before I actually bought the full game. Like, two Call of Duties and a fair bit of Battlefield later.

RPGs was the original Knights of the Old Republic. Came to the field a bit late but it's now my favourite genre and I've become a bit of a Bioware fanboy.

Such is life, aye?
 

UfokinDingus

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hmm lets see here...


MMO's- Everquest 1: holy shit nothing astounded me more than turning on this game for the first time after watching my uncle play it any time he was in town for family holidays. Something about the freedom to do what i want, and all the cool races and classes just had me hooked from the start. I can remember vividly waking up at the crack of dawn on weekends to call my grandma to come pick me up so that I could use their computer to play this game all day straight haha.

FPS- hmm well I loved played through all of the call of duty games when I was a kid, because of my obsession of war was pretty big at that point. But I think what honestly sealed the deal was playing Halo 1 split screen on my friends tv... ahhh the memories


RPG's- man on man, this award goes to Final Fantasy 7 without a doubt! the story, the characters, the graphics- it all looked awesome to an 8 year old me, and its just as fun today as it was then!
 

flying_whimsy

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FPS - Unreal (and ut2003 for multiplayer)
Rail Shooter - Time Crisis 2
jrpg - FFVII
action rpg - Illusion of Gaia
platformer - mario
point and click - The Longest Journey
open world - gta san andreas (gta III just didn't quite win me over)
flight sim - tie fighter
fighting - tmnt tournament fighters

It's probably the nostalgia goggles, but a number of those games will always end up being the best of their respective genres.
 
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FPS - Half-Life...2

TPS - Max Payne...2

RPGs - Baldur's Gate...1

Stealth - either Splinter Cell or Thief: Metal Age, can't remember

Point n' Click adventures - Hocus Pocus Pink Panther

RTS - Tzar: The Burden of the Crown
 

Lufia Erim

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Fps: Golden eye 007/Turok dinosaur hunter

Jrpgs: Final fantasy ( the original )

Wrpgs: Oblivion/Dragon age origins

Fighting : UMVC3 ( This game made me want to learn fighting games properly)

Survival horror : Resident evil 2

Strategy Jrpgs : Final fantasy tactics ( ps1)

Music and rythm : guitar hero 3/ DDR

However as of now my main genres are Jrpg, fighting and FPS
 

Extra-Ordinary

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While I don't play a ton of the genre, Fallout 3 blew the doors open to something wonderful for me.

The only reason I picked it up was I had this rule for myself at the time that any game that got a 10/10 in GameInformer was something I had to pick up. Sometimes I liked it, Resident Evil 4 and other times I didn't Grand Theft Auto 4 (which I recognize as a good game but GTA was never quite my thing) but Fallout 3 was so unexpected.

I had never even heard of the Fallout series, I never had any interest in open-world or RPG's, this was set up to fail me,
and it was the best thing I had ever played (at the time).
 

Harlemura

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Fighting games; Super Street Fighter IV
I played a ton of Tekken 3 when I was younger, but it never really got me into the genre. It was just something to play with my sister where we'd both just pick a character we thought looked cool and bash buttons. It wasn't until 2011 that I made the conscious decision to get into fighters and picked up Super Street Fighter IV. Since I'd found out the Street Fighter series is essentially the foundation of the entire genre, I thought it was a good place to start.

Visual novels; Persona 4
Though I've not played that many visual novels, it's thanks to Persona 4 that the genre's on my radar. Though Persona 4 isn't a visual novel itself it has elements of the genre that I find super appealing, mainly the whole getting to know individual characters thing. Building Social Links was my favourite part of the game, and that's essentially the same as exploring a visual novel's different routes.
 

AnthrSolidSnake

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FPS: My first and favorite- Turok: The Dinosaur Hunter. I've banged on about this game hundreds of times already. A perspective where I saw my own arms extended out, seeing the world from a viewpoint not too dissimilar from my own, blasting dinos and man alike. It was my 90's experience.

RPG: Dabbled in a couple while very young, but it wasn't until FF7 that I developed any interest. I believe it was a random gift, probably half way through the PS2's life when I was stuck with a PSOne. I was probably 14 at the time. It was also the first video game story I ever gave a damn about.

Fighting Games: Guilty Gear X. An ex girlfriend actually introduced me to it. Before, I always passed over fighting games because I was never any good at them, and they just sort of bored me. With Guilty Gear, it immediately drew me in with its shredding metal soundtrack, and fast combat.

Online Shooters: Modern Warfare 2. Wasn't much of a PC gamer at the time, so I rarely had the chance to play games online. Right around the time I finally got a PS3, Modern Warfare 2 was around the corner, so I asked for a copy originally to play the single player. After beating the campaign probably 3 or 4 times, I decided to try the multiplayer. At first, I didn't get it. I sucked, I died a lot, I felt confused and helpless. Then I killed someone. And someone else. And more people. Soon I was killing the most people. It was a crazed murderers becoming story. Ever since, I've always looked for the latest online shooter to satisfy that "itch".

Visual Novels: This is actually a rather recent development. Nekopara Vol. 1 Yep, I bought it for the porn. Stayed for the characters. Now I buy one now and again and usually end up enjoying the story. Bonus points for nudity. Not ashamed.
 

JohnnyDelRay

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At my age, I guess I could be considered one of the "old-school"....anyway, here goes mine (on PC, mostly)

-FPS: Wolfenstein 3D, followed by Doom, Hexen, Blood etc.

-Driving/Racing Sims: Test Drive, Need for Speed, Deathtrack, these all in the late 80's I believe.

-Fighting: Street Fighter, Fatal Fury (arcade and Sega Genesis)

-Beat 'Em Up: Double Dragon arcade, Streets of Rage and Golden Axe series on Sega Genesis

-Platformer: Mario Bros on Gameboy, Commander Keen on PC

-Point and Click Adventure: All the Sierra Quest Games on PC, mostly Kings Quest and Heroes Quest

-Turn-Based RTS: XCOM: Terror from the Deep. Then Jagged Alliance series. Still play JA2 in modern days.

-RTS: Dune 2 on PC. Then Command & Conquer. Those games were damn awesome.

-RPG: Eye of the Beholder, Diablo, Neverwinter Nights

I've played some that don't fit in the above genres I guess, but these form all the major ones.
 

NeutralDrow

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Visual Novels - Tsukihime. I could probably say A Drug That Makes You Dream sold me more on Japanese visual novels overall, but I do have to give Tsukihime credit as the first I played, and which directly led to me playing others. Certainly the first time I wasn't ashamed of crying over characters in a game.

JRPGs - Tales of Symphonia. Not the first I played, but it did sell me on an entire game series, it's still one of my favorite games of all time, and made me love the characters so much it even managed to preempt certain emotional responses I later associated with visual novels.

Fighting games - Marvel vs. Capcom. Again, not the first (that was probably Street Fighter 2), and not my favorite (probably Arcana Heart), but the first one that showed me the sheer amount of flash a fighting game could have.

Action - Devil May Cry 3. Probably not my first, but definitely the first one I paid attention to, and achieved any level of mastery with (simply because it was so incredibly fun I played it for hours, even beyond the in-game 99 hour timer). Also sold me on a whole series.

Rhythm - Dance Dance Revolution: Extreme. It was the one that was readily available when I first became an adult, and it's still the one I'm most used to. Honorable mention to DJMAX Technika 3, for making me aware of non-DDR rhythm games.


Wouldn't describe myself as having an affinity with other genres, as a whole. Even the CRPGs I started with, I kind of dropped after a while, or I would probably credit Pool of Radiance.

Makes me feel less weird.
09philj said:
A Fork said:
VN - Katawa Shoujo
Hanako, that is all.
Downloaded it under the misapprehension it was porn, cried like a child.
Wasn't anywhere near my first, but I liked it, too, and I'll never stop being grateful it caused so many people to feel this.
 

Dark Prophet

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RTS Dune II for sure.

Racing Need for Speed V Porsche Unleashed.

FPS now here is a twist I played them all Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, Half-Life, Wolfenstein 3D and a ton more but I kinda glanced over them. Then enter Command & Conquer: Renegade A rather poor game but a game which had a world I was invested in and the rest is history.

RPG Fallout and second probably more then first.

Survival Horror Resident Evil 4.