I recently got Street Fighter II for my xbox (despite still having it for SNES), and took to the painstaking task of getting through to Bison. It was so incredibly difficult for me, when before I could finish it on the hardest difficulty with relative ease. So I recently returned to this pivotal childhood game, and after quite a struggle, finally beat Bison with Chun Li (of course). To just see that ending sequence that I hadn't seen in at least a decade, it was like the same feeling you get from returning to your old elementary school or something; haunting, but with a sense of sobering joy. There's just a whole cascade of consciousness when you return to these kinds of things that can be pretty emotional. For instance, my sister hasn't touched a game since the GameCube was released, and yet it was her who I would pass the controller to when we were younger, whenever I got to Ryu, Ken, and Sagat because I just couldn't beat them. Such a simple memory weighed heavily on me though during this replay. I probably would have started to bawl if my sister wasn't on the couch beside me :3.
It may not be a direct result of the game alone, but I think this just solidifies the fact that games can impact people in a powerful way.