---
title: 'My Five Formative Video Games'
pubDate: '7/18/24'
tags: ['Gaming']
---

This week, the Triple Click podcast posted to their main feed [a bonus episode from a couple years ago](https://overcast.fm/+AAZusZIrU4E) about the hosts' top 5 formative games. It got me thinking about some of my most formative video game experiences, and what shaped me into the gamer I am today.

Like the postcast, I've picked 5 games I consider to be important to me personally. They're in no particular order, and they're not all my favorites, but they are the games that contributed most to my love of gaming.

## Donkey Kong Country

This game hold a special place in my heart as my first ever video game. When I was 6, my dad bought me a Super Nintendo bundled with this game, and it blew my little mind. While I think its sequel, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, is the better game, the original still has a warm place in my heart, and I revisit it from time to time.

## Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins

My parents got divorced when I was young, and I wasn't really allowed to have a console at my mom's house. I was, however, allowed to have my GameBoy, which my mom bought for me alongside a copy of this game.

It's not what I'd call a favorite of mine–sorry to everyone who loves this game–but it was my first experience with portable gaming, and the start of my preference for that kind of experience. And it eventually led to my next formative game...

## Pokémon Red[^1]

If you're a gamer in your early-to-mid-30's, Pokémon is probably the game that introduced to you to the genre of role-playing games. That was definitely the case for me. I didn't know anything about RPGs, but I was just the right age for Pokémon fever and I had to play it. In the years since, RPGs have become my favorite type of game to play, and I owe it all to Pokémon.

## The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

I went back and forth between including this or Ocarina of Time, but in the grand scheme of things I think Wind Waker had a much larger effect on me personally. It's my earliest memory of a game that really captivated me, and drew me into its world in a way that I could believe it was alive. I didn't care enough to know about the controversy around the cartoony graphics, if anything that's what really made the game for me at the time.

## Sim Copter

This is probably a strange pick, and it's the only game on this list I'd never recommend to anyone. But I was absolutely obsessed with this game for a time. I hated doing the missions, I just enjoyed flying the helicopter around. I spent most of my time playing with an included tool called the SimCity Urban Renewal Kit, building my own intricate cities, and loading them into the game to fly around in 3D.

[^1]: I specifically chose Pokémon Red because that's the version I had growing up.
