Can a single video game change a person? I suppose it depends on the person, but for a lot of us here at CGR who have played video games for many years now, the answer seems to be a resounding 'yes'. Maybe it's not life-altering levels of change, but sometimes a series of smaller, more subtle ones can be just as important. Maybe there's a character you felt a kinship with, a story that tickled parts of your imagination in a new and interesting way or maybe a particular game helped to create core memories with you and your friends. These video games impacted us, and maybe you'll see some familiar titles and think back on how they impacted you as well.
So for the third entry in this five part series, we will begin with...
Robert
Halo: Reach
Hands down the best of the venerated Halo franchise, though if I'm honest, it is awfully hard to choose between Reach and Halo: Combat Evolved. Halo: Reach ultimately wins out as a more impactful title for me because of it being a masterclass in pacing, peerless in its storytelling, and is the pinnacle of FPS combat in the 7th generation of consoles. You cannot get better than Halo: Reach. When I consider that and the time my brother and nephew would spend together shredding Covenants until wee hours of the morning. Reach is, in every sense of the word, perfect; not flawless, but it is perfect and is the bar with which I measure all other FPS titles. Impactful indeed.
Hamza
Amerzone
I played Amerzone when I was really young, long before I had any idea about story-driven video games. Somehow, I managed to get through about 50% of it, and it ended up shaping my love for point-and-click adventures and slower-paced games. I credit Amerzone for sparking my lifelong fondness for titles like Syberia, The Longest Journey, Myst, and Broken Sword, as well as atmospheric walking simulators like The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Dear Esther, and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture.
Susan
The Legend of Zelda (NES - 1986)
Everyone has a little Zelda in them and I am proud to be one. In the early 90s, my brother and I became obsessed with The Legend of Zelda on the NES. This game not only took us on an epic adventure, but it was part of the foundation of my TTRPG life. Zelda, like many other games in their time came with a handy booklet which held all sorts of information like what the different items did or how to best take on certain creatures, but most importantly, it had a map! A map that my brother and I lost... So, we asked mom what we could do, and she managed to find the map. But, in order to prevent any future mishaps, we took some of mom's DOT Matrix paper (yes, yes.. I know.. ANCIENT TECHNOLOGY) and pieced it together ourselves. A little while later, I was introduced to D&D, Shadowrun, Boot Hill, and a whole host of other TTRPGs. I thought the games were cool and because of that, I wanted to tell cool stories too - but I had a problem. I couldn't draw to save my life. So, the map of The Legend of Zelda became the foundation for my own TTRPG as it became the map for my world. (To be clear, I sliced up the copied map into grid pieces and mixed them together to make a new one.) Not only did Zelda take me on a video game journey, it took me on a bit of a TTRPG journey as well. And because of my experiences with this game, my whole life has been devoted to different gaming mediums. Honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Valerie
Warcraft II (PC)
Warcraft II: The Dark Saga had the most comical voice clips that would keep me engaged in this game. This RTS had all the whistles and bells needed to keep me playing, from the 'Ready to work' of the peons to the 'Work complete' I would laugh while building up my base and cry whenever my base was raided. I learned from my son to build up my forces and defend my base before venturing out to attack the enemy. Sometimes though, I would just grab however many grunts (I would play orc) I had and venture out to explore the area leaving a select number to guard the base. The 8-bit graphics weren't half bad and you could distinguish what rank/type of character you had on the field. The voice-acting and music were well suited for this game which made the experience both a lesson in RTS and fun in the story as it unfolded during the campaign.
Nick
John Madden Football
Released in 1990 on the SEGA Genesis, this game was the first of a long line of Madden titles that I played and continue to play. My inclusion of this series is almost more of a lifetime achievement recognition. I played plenty of sports games prior to this one on the NES like Tecmo Bowl and Double Dribble, but John Madden Football was the best representation of the sport to date. More than that, it changed how I played games with my friends over the years. This initial release was often played by my friends and myself as a fun, quick, competitive way to kill time. As the series grew more detailed and advanced, adding more teams, more features and most importantly, a Franchise Mode, the way my friends and I interacted with the game and one another changed as well. I clearly recall how several of us would pick different teams in the Franchise Mode during the PS2 era, swapping the memory card back and forth with one another on campus so the next person could play their upcoming games during the week. Over the weekend, we would get together and play Madden on one TV – often settling our scheduled head-to-head matches while the other TV was used to watch live football games or play something else as a group. As we moved away from one another, spreading out to different cities or even states, Madden continued to grow with us, providing online modes that allowed us to continue spending time together as both the game and our lives continued to evolve.
Pierre-Yves
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
GOAT. Fight me again.
Alright, maybe not as much on this one but A Link to the Past for me is what settled that I needed the Triforce in my life. So much so, that the office KNOWS when one is announced, I'm taking at least a week off of work.
In regards to A Link to the Past, this showed me just how far an adventure title could take me on, well an adventure. The mechanics and the puzzle design have kept me coming back to this title repeatedly over the years.
Maybe 2025 is the next round to head back into this classic, but upscaled on my RetroN 5.
Richard
Ar Nosurge: Ode to an Unborn Star
This game gave me an existential crisis. Part of the Ar Tonelico series, Nosurge has a point where it called me out for playing the game like I was playing a game, and instead prompted me to look at a game as a miniature universe that you interact with through a screen. Calling me out for "increasing affection points without actually meaning it" and a last boss who could be viewed as an expy of the player themselves is certainly impactful.
Mike
Columns - Sega Genesis (1990 by Sega)
I was the second best game player in the family as my father and I would constantly try to one up each other in a friendly competitive manner over games. If he got a high score I would try my best to get close to the second place on the scoreboards just to show off a bit to my sisters. My younger sister would oftentimes struggle to beat levels on many of the titles we played in our childhood and my older sister had fringed interest in games as makeup and fashion seemed more of her priority or interest at the time. I was a naive young boy when I challenged her to a game called “Columns” and lost 96% of the time to her skills. The title gave me a realization that not every game is going to be as easy as pushing a few buttons faster than your opponent. This game made me realize very early on that the stigma that “only boys were good at video games” was a blatant fib my friend group would often times repeat. If the topic came up and someone argued with me, I would get them to play a round of columns with my older sister just to provide them the same lesson I had learned.
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