Games that filled you with a sense of childlike awe and wonder

[Turbo Kid]

I'm talking about those games that made you feel like, "I've never experienced anything like this before" and left you with a stupid smile on your face the whole time you were playing them. Maybe to the point of forgetting what's happening around you or even forgetting about the people around you because you're so absorbed in the game. Games that maybe even redefined what gaming is for you. Here are some games that did that for me:

Super Mario Bros. 2 - I had wanted to play this for quite some time. When I finally did I was amazed at how different and more fun it was than the first SMB game. It's only years later I would learn that it wasn't a Mario game at all.

Sonic the Hedgehog - The Green Hill zone music will forever be imprinted in my memory

Viva Pinata - This really feels to this day like something that should be on a Nintendo console

Grand Theft Auto III - I knew this game was a game changer.

Astro Bot Rescue Mission - VR is amazing to experience for the first time

Star Fox 64 - All of those cheesy voices were amazing at the time, and of course the game itself was fantastic.

Donkey Kong Country - At the time this felt like a game that shouldn't have been possible on the SNES

Tomb Raider - The moment when 3d gaming entered my world.

Dynasty Warriors 3 - First experience with a musou game. In some ways the older ones like this entry are better than most modern ones.

Street Fighter II: Rainbow Edition - Seeing this playing in an actual arcade back then was wild. It was like, "what the hell am I seeing right now!? How is Ken throwing fireballs in mid-air?!"

X-Men vs Street Fighter - I had played Marvel Super Heroes and seen X-Men Children of the Atom, but when I saw this in an arcade it just felt like I was witnessing a moment, like these fighters had just turned a significant corner.

 

[RanmyakuIchi's icon RanmyakuIchi RanmyakuIchi]

Seeing an X-Men Children of the Atom cabinet for the first time is one of my most memorable arcade moments as a kid. I already loved Street Fighter 2, and seeing a similar kind of game but with the X-Men was pretty mindblowing as a wee lad.

The first House of the Dead in arcade gave me a similar feeling. I remember playing make believe when I got back home, shooting imaginary zombies with a toy gun.

 

[GardeniaSky's icon GardeniaSky GardeniaSky]

Starfox 64 for sure. I still get that happy feeling when I do a run. Same with Starfox Adventures/Dinosaur Planet!

 

[KenShjIN]

Ocarina of Time - kinda open world,time travel,riding on Epona...the sense of im on an adventure was phenomenal

Metal Gear Solid - like playing a movie.Psycho Mantis....wtf how ? and damn it was a hell of a ride and still i can talk for hours bout it .

Okami - Music,Style juste pure art

 

[qw90700]

In this order:

Zero Tolerance: First time I played a 3D game after playing 2D games so much.

Metal Gear Solid 1: Had to look back of the game box to find the radio frequency to progress in the game and to defeat a boss I had to connect my gamepad to 2nd slot. No game can beat how "WTF" this game is that much lol.

Ace Combat 3 (Japanese version): Interactive anime and Philip K. Dick style plot twist.

Breath of Fire 4: Very different RPG idea that's the only RPG give me a "real life like adventure" vibe because whatever happens is realistic in its own context that makes the game a different RPG. Usually in RPGs all the deal is go to B from A and turn based combat but this game really nails how an adventure should be.

Racing Lagoon: Street racing RPG and offers car modification in great detail. We had this game before they relesed NFS Underground lol.

GTA San Andreas: It's like American TPS version of Breath of Fire 4 in adventure sense but not better at it. The game is like 100 game in 1, offerse immense sandbox fun.

Metal Gear Rising: Cutting people simulator.

Nier 1: During 2nd playthrough you realize what the fuck you did until the end of the game and thus the game make you realize finally a game actually made sense about "impact" on sense of morality and how subjective, one-sided and delusionally twisted BS it's. If you are hero of the side you chose then you are villain of the side you didn't choose yo lol.

Persona 5: Never seen anything that's filled with art. The game has all kinds of art in a deep way. If video games can be an artwork this game is over 9000 at it as prime example regarding it for me lol.

 

[moonbits]

Recently: Super Mario Odyssey.
What a wonderful game from beginning to end.

 

[moon200218]

Its hard to say, but any 3D platformer with cool moves fits the bill. For me, video games have always been like a sandbox, playing with toys/action figures, just digitally where i didn't have to imagine all the cool stuff in my head.

The one recent game i can think of is Astro bot on the PS5 - i only watched a playthough, but it did hit that spot

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

I think the original Super Mario Bros did something like that for me... maybe because I was used to edutainment and black and white offerings before, but its world blew my mind and made me want to learn everything there was to know about it.

 

[driftwood]

The Arcade cabinet of Sega's Hang-On. It costed 1 dollar a credit and the motorcycle was the controller. It always had a lot of people waiting to play it.

 

[Isegrim]

Super Mario Bros. After playing terrible ports of arcade games on the Atari 2600 and monochrome with scratchy computer speakers from our Apple 2, we got something comparable to arcade quality when we got our Famicom. The mushrooms and star power ups were just magical appealing to our interest in Dungeons and Dragons particularly.

Super Mario Bros. 3 - It's Super Mario again but how can it have so much content? I played this in Japanese and was stuck in the dark on what was going on heightening the wonder and mystery. We get to rescue Peach with the new Koopalings as mysterious enemies and you have stuff in the Japanese manual like this...

The picture on the right with the ship already told me I'd have one hell of a new quest with Mario...

Castlevania series - How can one game has so much catchy music? It combines my interest for horror and the Holy with amazing music in one game.

Monster Hunter Freedom - The first time I had to hunt a monster was a Rathalos. It was a dream come true, it'l be like St. George against the dragon or so I thought. So I went into this quest, walked right into the Rathalos and it was huge...I think I remember it even bigger than the ones I encounter all the time now in World and Wilds. My hunter looked oh so tiny against the Rathalos with it's huge teeth and claws...even its wings had menacing spikes. The Rathalos saw me and became madder than the Hulk...and it's roar was so loud, they even depicted the sound waves coming out of it in a visible wave of power. I'm supposed to kill THAT HUGE SCARY THING? Then it killed me. And after that I was hooked on the franchise but that first moment was really dreamy. Or it it nightmarish? Probably both.

 

[Mahan_Native]

Super Mario World
Donkey Kong Country 1
Sonic Adventure 1
Jet Set Radio
Metal Gear Solid 1
Silent Hill 1
Resident Evil 2 OG
Patapon 2
Yakuza 0

 

[NotReallyHere]

Metal Gear Solid 1: Had to look back of the game box to find the radio frequency to progress in the game... No game can beat how "WTF" this game is that much lol.

StarTropics for the NES originally came with a "feelie"- an in-universe letter from the main character's uncle, tacked to the back of the instruction manual. At one point during the game, your friendly robot companion tells you that the answer you seek (also a radio frequency!) could be found by, "...dipping Dr. J's note in water."

You literally had to take the real-world note that came with the game and dip it in a bowl of water. It would reveal some writing in invisible ink, which would tell you the frequency you needed.

Yep. Little-kid-me mind blown, right there

(Also happened to beat MGS to the punch with that gimmick by a good 8 years...)

In terms of my own experiences, one stands alone - the first night we brought home a Nintendo 64. Yes, I had played 3D arcade games, but I honestly couldn't believe that I was witnessing that kind of visual quality on our living room TV. The first game I played was Shadows of the Empire, and the sight of the squadron of Snowspeeders flying overhead on Hoth is a gaming memory I will never forget. Truly a moment of, "We can never go back."

I'd imagine people that bought a Saturn and saw Panzer Dragoon for the first time, or those that bought a PlayStation and saw Ridge Racer, likely would have felt the same way

 

[Boo Man]

Grand Turismo
Tekken 3
Soul Reaver
OOT
RE4 on ps2 & RE5 on Xbox

 

[Omnikron]

When I first played Chrono Trigger and noticed my choices mattered (kind of) in the game. That made me feel a connection to a game I hadn't felt before. Later on Fable re-lit that same feeling of being held to your actions/choices in a game.

 

[Stingy Perry Stingy Perry]

Soul Reaver
Front Mission 3
Grandia
Tail Concerto
Final Fantasy 9

 

[solnK!]

Dark Cloud 2/Dark Chronicle
Tales of the Abyss
Devil May Cry 3
Metal Gear Solid 3
Final Fantasy IX
Inazuma Eleven

 

[qw90700]

StarTropics for the NES originally came with a "feelie"- an in-universe letter from the main character's uncle, tacked to the back of the instruction manual. At one point during the game, your friendly robot companion tells you that the answer you seek (also a radio frequency!) could be found by, "...dipping Dr. J's note in water."

You literally had to take the real-world note that came with the game and dip it in a bowl of water. It would reveal some writing in invisible ink, which would tell you the frequency you needed.

Damn Kojima always stealing from something!!!! lolol

 

[Cantarella]

well, a lot of my childlike wonder was a result of me actually being a child.

but, past adolescence, probably shadow of the colossus. game's a gorgeous jungle gym that invites you to explore and just take it all in, and the scale of everything is staggering.

 

[qw90700]

well, a lot of my childlike wonder was a result of me actually being a child.

But don't tell me the child in you died!!! lol