I recently bought a PS4, which is the main reason why I haven't been too active writing new articles for Twinstiq. Let's make one thing clear. This is not a console wars article. The thought of buying an Xbox One has never even crossed my mind. What I'd like to do here is to take a trip down to Memory Lane and remember the titles that sold me consoles since the 80's. Let's face it, it's all about the games.
When I was just a child, my parents bought me an Intellivision II. There was no real reason why they chose that one over the Atari 2600 that was way more popular. Maybe it was cheaper, maybe it was newer. I really don't know. What I do know is that it got me into video games and I enjoyed playing simple games on it like He-Man and others. How I was able to manage the telephone like controller with my tiny hands I'm not so sure.
Then the NES came along with Super Mario Bros. and a way simpler controller. I really wanted to play that game. Santa brought me a NES on Christmas 1990. I was very happy with it. I recall playing the first 4 Mega Man games on it, Ninja Gaiden, Zelda, Metroid, Super Mario Bros. 3. Such good times. I didn't have much money back then so my library was less than 10 games. I mostly rented games in now defunct places like Blockbuster and other local rental shops.
Time went by and a new game caught my attention like no other: Street Fighter 2 in the arcades. Back in the 90's arcades were everywhere. I used to go to the arcades at least once a week. Playing SF 2 with friends and relatives was routine for us. So when it was announced for the consoles I had to go with the one that had the better version of it. In my eyes, it was better on the SNES so that's what I got next.
As I got a bit older, I started thinking I should buy games that were good bang for my buck. I asked my friends and they told me I should start playing RPGs. I hadn't given much thought to them because of the language barrier (I didn't learn English until I was about 14 years old). I borrowed Final Fantasy VI from a friend and it opened my mind to new worlds. That game is a masterpiece. It has lovable characters, an interesting villian, a huge world to explore and fantastic music. What can I say, it's still my favorite Final Fantasy. The SNES has so many other gems it would take too long to list them, but the one that stole my heart is the one that made me buy the next console.
Final Fantasy VII was announced as an exclusive for the brand new Sony Console, the PlayStation. I had no doubt in my mind. I had to play that game. The PlayStation era for me was the Squaresoft era. Almost all my PS1 games were made by Square and they were really good, except FFVIII, that one sucked. FFIX, Xenogears and Parasite Eve were amazing, but the one that I cherished the most was Final Fantasy Tactics. What made it so interesting was all the strategies you could use, the different classes, the great story-line and the music. Squaresoft has some of the best composers in the business in my book.
When it came time to choose my next console, I went for the PS2. I wanted more of that SquareSoft goodness. FFX, Kingdom Hearts and after the fusion with Enix Dragon Quest VIII. However there was no Final Fantasy Tactics II so when I heard about this new game called Disgaea, I went head over heels for it. It's just like FFT on steroids. By the way, it's being released on Steam on February 24th. It only took NIS 13 years to port it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zQM3OrsmkM
After finding a new favorite game series, the PS3 price announcement happened. $600 for a console? What were they thinking? Back then I had just gotten married so the PS3 with its luxurious price was out of my new budget. That generation Nintendo got all the attention it had lost in the previous one. Wii Sports looked like a lot of fun, a new Zelda, backwards compatibility with the Gamecube and the virtual console made it the console to buy in my mind. I had to wait in line outside of a Toys R Us 8 months after its release to buy one, but it was certainly worth it. The Mario Galaxies, Mario Kart, 2 Zeldas, the "New Play Control" Pikmins, being able to play N64 games I had missed like Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Paper Mario, Mario 64, etc. I still think it's a great console to buy if you're short on cash and want some of the finest games ever. You could buy FFVI in the virtual console... wink, wink.
When Sony finally came down to Earth, I bought a slim PS3 to play the next Disgaea games and Demon's Souls. PS+ was introduced and I thought it was fairly priced for the games they were offering since 2013 so I subscribed and started getting all the "free" PS4 games for when I upgraded. I may be getting old, but I think that PS3 exclusives weren't as strong as they once were on the PS2. I think that was mostly because of the parity of sales with the 360. Multiplatform games made it far easier to wait for a PS4 price drop. For the most part, I could simply opt to play the PC version of any given game - except the for Nintendo games, of course.
There was one trailer in particular that sold me on the Wii U. It was Super Mario 3D World. It looked fantastic and with 4 player multiplayer. Man, what a game. I bought the Wii U back in 2013 to play that game. I believe it was a great choice and it complemented the PC wonderfully. By 2013 I had 2 kids who were able to play video games, so buying a Nintendo console for family multiplayer was an excellent option, even more considering it was backwards compatible with the Wii's controllers which made it a lot cheaper to get more people playing. Mario Kart, Pikmin 3, Smash Brothers and Splatoon are some of the great games I've gotten to play on the Wii U and I'd recommend it for gamers with kids.
Given my history, it's probably easy to tell which game sold me on the PS4. Yes, it was Disgaea 5. It may not be a system seller in the same way that the new Street Fighter will probably be, but for me, the Disgaea series is reason enough to buy a console. If you add to that all the PS+ games I had "bought" since 2013, when I bought the console I already had over 60 games for it, including Rocket League, Injustice, Strider, Limbo, etc. That doesn't help the backlog though...
What about you? Which games moved you to buy your consoles? Were they as good as you expected them to be? Let us know in the comments.
great read!
Agreed, good stuff here.
When I got my NES it came with Double Dragon 2, not Mario and Duck Hunt. Ninja Gaiden was great stuff. I remember that our family had an old console TV and that the color adjustment was broken so that all you could see was red. So that’s how I saw everything for a long time :)
Before that was an Atari 2600 I had something like 30 games for. I remember fondly playing River Raid an lot.
I never did get a PS1 I waited and waited and got a PS2 because of SSX. Back then I had a few friends working for Gamers.com when it was something worth paying attention to and they had promo machines and games etc. so we had lots of fun with them. That’s where my console ownership stopped.
Later on was the Game Cube because of titles like Super Monkey Ball, Mario Party and Metroid. I never owned one but those same friends had them and we all lived together for a time so it was close enough.
PS4 is becoming more and more of an option for me and it’s really only because games like Bloodborne that I kind of want one. But currently I’m looking at an 8 core 4.3gz CPU upgrade (up from a 3.3gz 6 core) for my PC so I can catch up to more modern standards. Then I’ll probably stop caring about PS4 again :P
I enjoy articles like this, it’s always really interesting to read about someone else’s gaming history.
I abandoned Sony from the PS1 era until late in the PS3 life cycle. I missed out on so many games from the PS2 era, but I also enjoyed my original Xbox. Now that I’m able to afford it, owning multiple plastic boxes to play games on is how I like to indulge my hobby.