The first question in this — dum dum dummmmm — challenge reads: “What was your very first video game?” To make this fun, I’m going to answer this under ten different game genres I’ve played because let’s face it, with video games there are a lot of “first times.”
First Platformer: Super Mario Brothers
This is probably a large portion of the gaming community’s first platformer and I’m going to go ahead and join the bandwagon. I remember playing this when I was six years old. With it’s catchy music, deceptively simple gameplay, strange bad guys, and sheer awesomeness Mario guided me into the video game world. But what I remember most about Super Mario Brothers is that I couldn’t beat the game.
My mother did.
Yep. My mother beat the game and I could never do it.
That’s your embarrassing fact about me.
First Action Adventure: The Legend of Zelda
I didn’t own this game myself as a kid. I remember going over to a relative’s house and seeing one of the kids playing it. At first glance it just looked like a weird map with this little guy walking around aimlessly, but as I watched it became so much more. I had never seen anything like this before, in fact, the only game I had played on the Nintendo at the time was Super Mario Brothers. This game had dungeons, keys to find, limited health that you could regain with hearts, and actual bosses to conquer. There was a quest with a final end goal, like a storybook with heroes who went out to save the day, and to see that in a video game was incredible.
First Shooter: Duck Hunt
Back then this was that epic Modern Warfare – us versus… the ducks? But with that gun in my hand I tried my hardest to blast all of those quackers out of the sky. Eventually I cheated and sat close to the screen, but thanks to my lousy cousin telling me that Freddy Kruger showed up at the end of the game I never, ever beat it.
I was a stupid kid, what can I say?
Still, this game has one of the most laid back plots in shooting game history, and compared to the likes of Call of Duty and even House of the Dead it’s not nearly as complicated. But it was my first one and eventually lead me to many more down the line.
First Puzzle Game: Tetris
Plants vs Zombies. Angry Birds. Before all of them there was another addictive time waster called Tetris. Both on the NES and the Gameboy, you could play this game for hours on end. Put the blocks together, clear the lines, keep going until you lose. That might sound simple but it really isn’t, because eventually those blocks start dropping at ridiculously high speeds. With those three song choices to choose from, I would sit and play this game with my mother, desperate to get the highest score to make that rocket launch up in the sky at the end.
This was — and still is — one of those games that everyone plays. Literally everyone. You can ask the biggest game hater on the planet about Tetris and nine times out of ten they’ve played it on their computer at work while the boss wasn’t looking.
First Sports Game: Double Dribble
I am not a sports fan — in the video game sense. I’m not sure what it is, but unless if it’s Mario sports or Wii Sports or NBA Jam or something silly I’m just not really into it. And I’ve tried, I’ve watched friends play Madden and whatnot but when I tried to play I just didn’t find it fun. But I still remember the first one I tried and that was a game called Double Dribble on the NES. The only thing I really remember about the game is the intro screen where the announcer says the title of the game and then the “Star Spangled Banner” starts playing. That’s it. I don’t remember the game play or anything, just this.
First Fighting Game: Street Fighter II
I completely skipped the first game. It wasn’t because it was bad or anything, I had just never heard of the series until part two. I, of course, picked Chun-Li and enjoyed beating up on all of the male characters. This was the first game I played where I could be a female character and kick ass. I had been saving princesses time and time again, but finally I could be the pretty girl and fend for myself.
Of course Samus falls into the category of kick ass female, but sadly I got into Metroid too late so Chun-Li is my first.
First Survival Horror: Resident Evil 2
Going over to a friend’s house one night, I saw her cousin playing a game in her living room. As he explored the biggest police station I had ever seen, hands ripped out of boarded windows and I screamed. I was actually afraid to play the game myself, so I sat and watched him roam the dead hallways of Resident Evil 2. Eventually, he gave up playing the game because he couldn’t figure out where to go, but I really wanted to see how it ended so I took a deep breath and grabbed the controller.
Now I can’t stop playing the Resident Evil games.
First RPG: Secret of Mana
I love, love, love Final Fantasy. However, I didn’t discover its awesomeness until part 7. Long before that there was a game on the SNES called Secret of Mana that my step-brother’s friend let me have because he was bored with it. He had renamed the characters horrible names — Shitty and Ho are two names I remember — and as I played I had absolutely no idea what I was supposed to do. I walked around, talked to people, and when I went into battle I couldn’t believe that we took turns. But minutes turned to hours as I got sucked into the story, the characters, the fact that I couldn’t just rush through the game like all the other games I was playing at the time. I didn’t know what to call such a game, I just knew that I really liked it. By the time I got to Final Fantasy 7 I knew what an rpg was, but Secret of Mana was the first to touch my little gamer heart.
First Music Game: Bust a Groove
Before guitars, drums, and dance pads entered my life there was a game a friend introduced me to called Bust a Groove. It was a dancing game with really catchy music for the PSOne where you had to input the arrows in time to get your character to do their next dance move. You could also attack your opponent by throwing something at them as they danced, which they would have to try and dodge in time or they’d trip up in the middle of their dance. Each character had their own dance style, song track, and odd backstory — one girl was part stripper, part fortune teller, part hair stylist, and a professional killer. Yeah, who published this game? Enix? That name sounds familiar… ooooh, Square Enix, you crazy company you.
First Racing Game: Super Mario Kart
I remember a game on the NES that was a racing game because I remember driving towards city buildings on a very pixilated track. Unfortunately, I have no idea what the game was called. I even tried looking it up online and I can’t, for the life of me, remember the name of it. So I have to give this one to Super Mario Kart on the SNES. I have played Mario Kart about a zillion times. Every time a new game comes out I have to play it. It’s always fun, challenging, and probably one of the most frustrating game series known to man thanks to all of the obstacles you have to face — blue shells, you’re the worst weapon on our planet.
Bonus mention — First Mature Rated Game: Mortal Kombat
Back then there were no ESRB ratings, but man oh man do I remember the controversy with this game. I remember seeing it all over the news — fatalities, fatalities, fatalities! So violent! So horrible! Ripping out a guy’s spine, burning them to death, all of it was just so incredible to me. I played the SNES version which, for some reason, I forgot was censored until reading about it recently. It was Mortal Kombat II that kept all of the blood and gore. Maybe that’s why this one was my favorite of the older games.
And that’s it for the first question! What was your first video game? Are your answers the same as mine? Let me know, and stay tuned to question two!
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