Games That Impacted My Life Part 2
Well… I was right in that I had to come up with another few games that impacted my life. So… here they are…
Legend of Zelda
I can’t for the life of me figure out just why I forgot about this. It is for certain one of the greatest video game franchises of all time… and when we finally had our own NES, Legend of Zelda was one of the games we first bought for it (my brother picked Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as the other one… so you can figure out just how our tastes in video games differ).
What’s more is that I have yet to see a single Zelda game that turned out to be a dud (other than Link’s Crossbow Training or so I hear)… and I’ve yet to see any game come out on the Wii that knocks Twilight Princess off its pedestal as the best game on that console.
Metroid
I never got to play the first Metroid game on NES until many years later when I discovered the wonder of the Internet… specifically, emulators and ROMs. But my grandparents had brought back from the U.S. a big hint book for a large variety of NES games that I treasured greatly… well… until it fell to pieces of course, it saw so much use… and out of the games neither myself or my grandparents had… Metroid was the one I wanted the most.
I did, at least, get to own Metroid II on the Gameboy, which saw a lot of use on the long bus rides I took to and from school. Unfortunately I never had a SNES so I didn’t get to play Super Metroid until much later on. One of the greatest disappointments I’d had with the N64 was that there was no ‘Metroid 64′. I would not play another Metroid game until Metroid Prime 3 came out on the Wii… and like Twilight Princess, it definitely stands on a high pedestal as one of the best games to come out on the Wii and its yet to be knocked from it.
But the most significant reason Metroid is one of the most important games to me was that it was the first time an awesome video game had a female protagonist… and Samus Aran is definitely my absolute favourite female video game character.
Street Fighter II
Ah yes… they had this game at the local fish and chip shop and I’d always go down the road with my father when we decided to have takeaway so I’d get to play this… and it was a hungry beast, devouring many of my 20 cent and one dollar coins. It was definitely the greatest fighting game of all time… and I find that its still more fun to play than many of the more recent fighting games. Like Metroid, it also featured some of the first kick-ass female protagonists in video games… Chun Li and Cammy.
Another less important note is that awful movie based off of this starring Van Damme… tragic that it had to be Raul Julia’s last movie… he deserved better.
Fallout 3
I’d like to say the original Fallout was the game that impacted my life rather than the recent release in the Fallout universe… but unfortunately I never really got into the original… or Fallout 2. But I consider this deserving of its place here because it ignited my interest in the post-apocalyptic setting. I’m determined now to incorporate a post-apocalyptic element to the sci-fi novels I will write. And with all of the doom and gloom of these times due to the economic turmoil, civil unrest, religious fundamentalism and the proliferation of the most destructive weapons we’ve ever been capable of building… how can your thoughts not wander in the direction of considering the world after the apocalypse?
Besides… the slow-motion decapitating head shots never get old 
Diablo II
Yes… I did play Diablo I before II… but it was so much more annoying to play given that the warrior, rogue and sorcerer of the first title lacked the ability to run. Besides, the second one has greater significance because it was the most popular LAN party game in my high school days. The dark fantasy themes and imagery also helped in shaping my interpretation of all of the ‘Angels vs. Demons’ wars in the fantasy genre. I’m definitely looking forward to writing the later novels of my Chronicles of Castellus series, where this ‘Great Conflict’ is covered in greater detail.
Age of Empires II
Again… yes I did play the first one before the second. But again, the second is more significant to me, because it was another LAN party game in my high school days, and I did play a few games of this online whenever I was bored of Starcraft.
Besides, it helped along my interest in ancient and medieval history and my tinkering with the map editor helped shape the world of Castellus when it was in its embryonic state. Sure there were no fantasy creatures or other humanoid races in this… but that didn’t diminish its value in that respect.
Heroes of Might and Magic III
Another game whose map editor steered the creative direction I was taking in creating the world of Castellus… probably did more for that than Age of Empires II did seeing as how it is a fantasy franchise. Again, this was when Castellus was in its embryonic state… so the way it looks now that it is more or less matured is scarcely recognizable to anyone who could have ever seen the earlier stages of it back in the day.
Anyway… there’s another list. I doubt I need to do a Part 3 but I’m certainly not ruling it out.
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