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I have far too many that have been pushed into the recesses of my mind to vividly recall, but off the top of my head a few that stand out to me...
Beating SMB with my pops, I remember he jumped up and touched the ceiling of our living room. Good shit. After we beat that we bought SMB3 and I remember pouring a ton more hours into that than he did. Think he got tired of video games early on. I do remember he would come home from work with tips from coworkers on how to beat certain areas of TMNT though, lol was good times
Like a ton of others, Super Metroid had a special place in my heart. I played Legend of Zelda and all before then, but S. Metroid was the first game that really catered to the "exploration" part of my brain (I was late and didn't play the original Metroid until after). I just remember so many of the areas so vividly. The first time you walk through that tube to Maridia, using a Power Bomb (GUTWRENCH) to crack the glass, and the eery calm music. The feeling of just having no guidance or narrative and being literally ALONE on this foreign planet. Trying to find your way through obstacles. So many moments in that game. I played the shit outta that game so much, was able to 100% it in under 3 hours without using any shitty ass walkthroughs or guides. Possibly the moment of my gaming peak.
Related to that, the first time I played Metroid Prime was awesome. Really amazing take on the genre, and again it captured the exploration feel and loneliness perfectly.
First time I played Fallout 3, when you get out of Vault 101... fuck. I've played the original Fallout and Fallout 2 lots of times, so I was familiar with the IP, but that moment when you leave the fault then you can literally do ANYTHING in this totally hostile open uninhabited world was just overwhelming. To this day, FO3 is still my favourite "post-apocalyptic" form of media because I feel it just really captures what that entire genre is trying to create. The first time you encounter the Super Mutant Behemoth... holy shit.
I remember when N64 came out and my one buddy was the only one that had it. We'd all go there and play Mario 64 and I remember being so determined to be good at this game. Could never perform wall kicks for months until I eventually had my own.
Keeping on N64, the Christmas of '98 EVERYBODY got Ocarina of Time. I mean... Christ you could make a full thread just on the amount of awesome moments from playing that game. I know it's cliche but honestly, is there a better all-around game (when you factor in the context of when it was released, to compensate for dated graphics etc) than OoT? Fantastic fantastic fantastic.
The first time I played the last level of Doom 2. That giant fucking demon goat head on the wall where you had to shoot rockets into its brain. Terrifying. Loved it. Doom 2 in general was one of my first games I played. Wolfenstein 3D introduced me to the FPS genre and Doom 2 was the best. Duke Nukem 3D, the Quake games, Unreal Tournament etc cemented that love for FPS, though it's died down in recent years. That fucking last level of Doom 2 though, damn.
The first time entering Zeal in Chrono Trigger. Amazing. The combination of the Utopian oasis palace combined with the absolutely stunningly perfect soundtrack and the dark foreshadowing of the sinister evil with it all... like FO3 for me, this moment in the game perfectly captured the idea of what it's like to have a Utopian society (that eventually meets its demise), and every other movie/game/etc that tries to convey this idea pales in comparison to Zeal. Honestly though that Zeal theme is fucking epic.
The transition from World of Balance to World of Ruin in FF6. I rented FF6 from Blockbuster proibably like 12 times before I was able to beat the World of Balance portion of the game, and I remember it being like some giant mental block being lifted. To see my efforts culminate in the destruction of this beautiful world was staggering. Kefka was a crazy heel. Beating the game itself wasn't as significant to me as getting over that hurdle and seeing most of my adolescent gaming years crumble and fall into the ocean because of those fucking magic statues.
Christmas '97, my buddy got Final Fantasy 7 and it was like holy shit THIS GAME IS BADASS!!! I remember him and his brother and mom were at our house for Christmas that year (recently divorced etc) so they opened their presents and got the Playstation and FF7. We immediately started playing but had no memory cards so w/e just fucking rocked some Midgar reactors for naught but hot damn. Barrett all cursing and shit and this whole industrial look on everything just blew me away. The moment when you see that big fucking snake in that swamp, then go to that one cave and see the giant one impaled from Sephiroth... chills.
Lots of WoW memories that I won't get into, but I remember being down in Oklahoma (most of my guild were OSU students who lived in a townhouse together, and I was visiting) and our first Ragnaros kill was pretty fucking awesome. Just seeing everyone come together and accomplish it was boss hog. Tons of other WoW memories but that one sticks out for me the most.
Tons of others but I am typing too much crap
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