Of course, unless you're around the same age as me your childhood video games will probably be quite different to mine. For example I grew up way past the days of Space Invaders or Dig Dug.
My childhood took place in the late 90's/early 2000's, in the era where video games where becoming more technologically advanced in terms of graphics and capabilities. Some of the games that followed me through my younger years became the pinnacle for innovation in the gaming community.
Every now and then I love revisiting these old games, and I thought I'd share with you my top picks for games from my childhood.
RollerCoaster Tycoon - PC
This franchised launched in 1999, right on the turn of the century and around the time that I first became invested in video games. It's an easy segue into virtual worlds, as everything is controlled and created by you. Think of The Sims but with less responsibility. (You don't need to tell people to go to the bathroom, you just build the bathroom and the NPCs are smart enough to figure out what to do. Shocking)
This game was great for a few reasons, the first of which is that it tapped into my childhood love of amusement parks. If I couldn't physically go to Disney World you can be sure that I could create a fake Disney world! You could have lands of ice and water rides, a death defying flaming coaster, or a gentle carousel ride. Whatever you could imagine you could create, and then vicariously ride through the little boys and girls on the screen.
Secondly, it was something that I could play for days on end, creating and recreating parks however I wanted. Then I could leave it for weeks, come back, and slip right back into it. This game seriously never grows old, and if I had a copy today you can bet I'd be loading it up right now. Me and my sister used to collaborate on parks, using *couch* cheats *cough* to make sure that we always had enough virtual money to keep ourselves entertained and busy.
One last thing that always stuck with me about RCT was that it rewarded you for creating awesome parks. There were prizes for fastest coaster, nicest decorations, and even cleanest (which you know I always got, since I had the park flooded with janitors!). The game had achievements that made me feel good about spending all my time on fake roller-coasters.
Nostalgia Factor: 7/10
Mario Party 4 - Nintendo Gamecube
I've mentioned before how the Nintendo Gamecube was my first console, and how Super Mario Sunshine was my first console game. Well Mario Party 4 was my second. It came out in 2002 and became a staple for all my sleepovers. Now, I probably wouldn't have liked this game so much if I wasn't good at it, but I was the best. I was guaranteed to get the bonus stars for minigame wins, and most coins, in any given game, and more often than not walked away with the coveted party star for wining the whole game. Competition has always been in my nature, and I feel like this game is partially to blame.
I always played as Luigi (my sister chose Daisy) and made everyone play the maximum of 50 turns per game (as opposed to the minimum of 15). I was cut-throat, not afraid to send Boos after you to steal your stars if you didn't happen to have a protective flashlight. I knew every special space, every event, and every minigame backwards and forwards. I can't tell you the name of my kindergarten teacher but I can recite the opening dialogue for this game perfectly.
Needless to say, it was a big part of my childhood.
Nostalgia Factor: 9/10
Pharaoh - PC
1999 was a good year for video games apparently. Pharaoh was a game that originated with my father, who has a love for all city building type games. He used to play Pharaoh constantly (and has since switched to replaying Civilization for the 80000 time) and I would watch, completely enraptured at how easy it was to build your own city and grow your population. For those unfamiliar, it was basically Sim City set during ancient Egypt. The fun part about this game was how it truly captured the essence of Egypt. From having to appease various Gods with festivals and temples, to hunting game meat and irrigating fields it really made you feel as though you were creating an Egyptian society.
I have to admit that I never got the full effect of this game because I always played on peaceful, and thus never went to war with neighboring cities, but I did pretty much everything else. Watching houses grow from small mud huts to lavish white palaces was my favorite achievement.
It's one of the only city building games that I ever really got into, and it will always remind me of being too young to really understand the economic value of an agrarian society.
Nostalgia Factor: 7/10
Neverwinter Nights - PC
Pardon my french, but this game was the shit. In a good way. Like the previous title my interest in this game stemmed from my dad playing it constantly when I was growing up, until eventually I obviously wanted to play too.
It's an old school style RPG with quite a few expansion packs and sequels, even an online component that came out not too long ago. I'd like to think that Neverwinter Nights was my first interaction with a role-playing game, and my first interaction with a game of this scope, scale, and length. It's quite literally an adventure that captured my young imagination from the get go. If I had to pick a favorite title from this franchise it would be Hordes of the Underdark, but I'm going to stick with the very first title, Neverwinter Nights, for the nostalgia factor. My class of choice was, and will always be, Cleric (so that I can use a sword and cast spells), and my morality was usually, but not always, chaotic good. That's the beauty about RPGs though, is that you can play them over and over with new characters. And as a child with too much time on their hands, that's exactly what I did.
NWN was simple enough for me to understand as a 7 year old, but complex enough to keep me coming back once I hit teenage-hood. It featured beautiful artwork and character profiles (Picking a picture for my character was always the hardest part for me, as they were all so well drawn.).
This is another game that I would definitely still play today if they decide to revamp it for current operating systems.
Nostalgia Factor: 10/10
Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga - Gameboy Advance
Taking a break from PC games, Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga was one of my favorite gameboy games growing up. I loved it so much that when I lost my gameboy (and this game) on a train to Montreal one year, I immediately went out and bought it again, even though I had beat it multiple times. It came out in 2003, making it the newest game on this list, but don't let the shiny graphics and sleek gameplay fool you, this title is just as nostalgic as the others.
Gameboy games in general remind me of long car trips and late nights staying awake without my parents knowing just so that I could beat one more level. But this game takes the cake, as I obsessed over it for the better part of a year. It's about as open world as a Mario title gets, with a giant kingdom to be explored at will. There are loads of secrets to be found behind walls and trap doors, Easter eggs, and just plain Mario and Luigi shenanigans. There are mini games inside mini games, and some really funny 'dialogue' between Mario and Luigi. It's just a really expansive game with tons of worlds (Screw the Ice World by the way), enemies, and things to do.
If you can track down a copy, I highly recommend that you pop this game into your DS and take a little journey to the Beanbean Kingdom.
Nostalgia Factor: 8/10
With great titles like these, I don't feel so bad about blowing off friends and the outdoors in favor of a good old fashioned video game.
-Jules