The first game that gave you the WOW factor?

Mario 64Platform_King

The legend of zelda.

When I got that game for christmas the year it came out Id never seen anything like it before. Even the box and gold cartridge amazed me when I unwrapped it.

Up till then all I had was a donate atari 2600 and a vectrex since I lived with my grandma on the farm we didnt have much money. But she saved up and bought me a NES and that game for christmas. Holy shit thats all I played. I must have beat it a dozen times in the first 2 years I had it.

The music, secrets, the 2nd quest, the sound effects and everything just really wow'd me.

I remember seeing videos of Blood Wake on the original Xbox.

Those water effects... man, graphics couldn't get any better than that! :P ... or so I thought.

DKC.

The original Wing Commander. It was leaps and bounds better looking than anything else I had seen up until that point. It was like playing one of the dog fights from Star Wars.

Side note: Hard Drivin' taught me half of what I needed to know to drive stick. My dad was shocked when I already knew how to shift gears.

-Byshop

1998's Unreal was amazing.....the outdoor scenery when you first walked off the ship was literally unreal, nothing like it anywhere at the time.

I believe the first time this feeling hit me was when I played Chrono Trigger, all those years ago. 

Super Mario Bros. on NES. I completely fell in love with gaming after playing that game. We had an Atari 2600 before it, but it never did hold my attention for long.

these are the memorable "wow" gaming moments for me:

NES - FINAL FANTASY
this was the first game I played where you could decide who your character/team was, and it was glorious. I remember debating with my friends which the best team was, and everyone had thier opinions on what was best or more interesting. I initially went with a warrior, and one of each mage class (fighter, white mage, red mage, black mage), but soon found that team to be weak (or so it felt when I was 12 years old). Re-started with three warriors and a white mage and coasted through, though I would later replay the game a few times with all sorts of different combinations, including beating the game without a warrior (thief, monk, red mage, white mage). The huge open gameworld and deep (for its time) customization was a "wow" for me. notably, the boxart and materials contributed to the "wow"; when you opened Final Fantasy, you knew you had something epic on your hands.

SNES - SUPER METROID
this was the first game to hit me on some kind of emotional level; the eerie musical score, pacing, minimalist story design, and sense of isolation created a melancholic and almost macabre atmosphere. simply put, the game was fair and balanced, yet created a genuine sense of threat and atmosphere that was both subtle and wonderous.

PLAYSTATION - SILENT HILL
this was the first game to genuinely scare me, and make me forget I was only playing a game. Unlike the Resident Evil games that took you out of the experience and atmosphere with bad dialogue and scripted action sequences, this game maintained its horror genre label much more convincingly, and managed to stay within itself. It was spooky, it was dark, and it remains the greatest survival horror game to date.

The only time I ever did an OMG!!!

"Its just like a cartoon" my 8 year old self exclaimed.

LOL

NES: SMB

N64: Wave Race 64

SAT: Virtua Fighter 2

Pokemon Blue/Red. I'm not really that much of a Pokemon fan anymore, but damn, that game was amazing when I was kid. It seemed like there was so much to explore and discover.

In my case it was Halo CE because I had never seen graphics that good at the time.  That and Dead or Alive 3

Gears of War was the first game to make my jaw drop. Other games to this point I liked, enjoyed the story or found fun to play, but gears was the first game that had me sitting down thinking "WOW!" whilst I was playing it!

Ocarina of Time. Outside Mario Bros 3 (which I was too young to fully appreciate like I do now) it was my first game (basically my gateway game.)

Too lazy to answer seriously so:


WoW

First was this though....

I think one of the first times I ever got slapped in the face by a game was probably "Adventure" for the 2600, followed quickly (and slapped much harder) by "Pitfall!", again on my beloved 2600. Those were the games that took me completely... Couldn't stop playing or thinking about them.

The next games would have been "Joe Montana Sports Talk Football" on Genesis, which fried my mind with the accuracy of the broadcast/color commentary following the game in real-time... and then...

(Inception Sound Effect)

"Resident Evil", "WipeOut", and "Twisted Metal"... Still get chills thinking about that first time. I bought my first PS1 for RE. I can still remember standing in Toys R Us, looking at the game description... it was pre-Internet, and all you had was the box... But being a George Romero freak, I had to play it. I think I crapped my couch when that game came into my life... Sleepless nights, workless days... Addicted. The demo disc which came with the PS1 had "WipeOut" and the Arena level of "Twisted Metal" - I went out the next morning to buy those two games, as well. HADDA have 'em.

:P

I sincerely miss feeling like that... I don't get "Wow" anymore...

Spyro: the Dragon

First was this though....

AMD655

Smaller pics. It's really annoying to have to scroll way freaking down the page past them to see the latest post. And you can't even see the whole picture at once.

Paper Mario.

[QUOTE="AMD655"]

First was this though....

Emerald_Warrior

Smaller pics. It's really annoying to have to scroll way freaking down the page past them to see the latest post. And you can't even see the whole picture at once.

I dunno how to, and i am not reupping pics.

I can't just pick one.

1. I remember the first time playing SMB 3 with my brother. I remember thinking that this is the best game ever. 

2. Also, I remember playing Super Mario World on SNES. The first time I found Yoshi, I was amazed. haha

3. On PS1, I remember the first time I picked up FF9. It was one of those games where the story really stuck with me, plus there were so many memorable characters.

4. On N64, the biggest wow factor I got from a game was OOT. I still remember playing the demo at Wal-mart and saying, "I must have this!"

4. On the Xbox, I remember climbing into the warthog for the first time. My friends and I would drive around for hours just wasting time. haha

5. On PC, probably the biggest wow factor for me was from playing Morrowind. Once I stepped off the prison ship and into the world, I was overwhelmed with all the possibilities.

[QUOTE="Emerald_Warrior"]

[QUOTE="AMD655"]

First was this though....

AMD655

Smaller pics. It's really annoying to have to scroll way freaking down the page past them to see the latest post. And you can't even see the whole picture at once.

I dunno how to, and i am not reupping pics.

Just don't pick such big pics, pick smaller ones. This is the internet, there's lots of pics out there.

[QUOTE="AMD655"]

[QUOTE="Emerald_Warrior"]

Smaller pics. It's really annoying to have to scroll way freaking down the page past them to see the latest post. And you can't even see the whole picture at once.

Emerald_Warrior

I dunno how to, and i am not reupping pics.

Just don't pick such big pics, pick smaller ones. This is the internet, there's lots of pics out there.

Switch to the 'Appearance' tab in the picture upload box and change dimensions to 300 by xxx. It's not hard.

Or alternatively you can click on the pic while editing and drag it to a more reader-friendly sized.

I think one of the first times I ever got slapped in the face by a game was probably "Adventure" for the 2600, followed quickly (and slapped much harder) by "Pitfall!", again on my beloved 2600. Those were the games that took me completely... Couldn't stop playing or thinking about them.

The next games would have been "Joe Montana Sports Talk Football" on Genesis, which fried my mind with the accuracy of the broadcast/color commentary following the game in real-time... and then...

(Inception Sound Effect)

"Resident Evil", "WipeOut", and "Twisted Metal"... Still get chills thinking about that first time. I bought my first PS1 for RE. I can still remember standing in Toys R Us, looking at the game description... it was pre-Internet, and all you had was the box... But being a George Romero freak, I had to play it. I think I crapped my couch when that game came into my life... Sleepless nights, workless days... Addicted. The demo disc which came with the PS1 had "WipeOut" and the Arena level of "Twisted Metal" - I went out the next morning to buy those two games, as well. HADDA have 'em.

:P

I sincerely miss feeling like that... I don't get "Wow" anymore...

MonkeySpot

Nothing on the NES really wowed me, even during its relevancy. 

It wasn't until I started playing Wolfenstein 3D when I was really wowed.  I first played Wolf 3D at my dad's work office.  I went to my uncle's house after he had just gotten his top of the line PC and a copy of Doom when it had just released, that that was a major WOW moment. 

My SNES wow moment was probably Star Fox, it really impressed me.  As a huge fan of beat 'em ups, TMNT IV Turtles in Time was a big wow factor as well.

I went to my friend's house the day N64 was launched, and was completely WOWed by Mario 64 and Waverace.  While those games were simply stunning, it wasn't until I witnessed Turok: Dinosaur Hunter when I was WOWed beyond belief and bought the system immediately. 

The audio and FMV cutscenes are what really WOWed me about the PS1.  I had an N64 before a PS1, but I ended up getting a PS1 for games like Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, Tomb Raider and quite a few others all of which wowed me.

Oh yeah, another big WOW moment was Mortal Kombat on Genesis as opposed to the SNES version which didn't have blood.

My most recent WOW moment was Max Payne 3 on PC.  I absolutely love that game.

My most recent retro WOW moment has been Metroid Fusion.  Once I started playing, I just couldn't stop.  I consider this game a masterpiece.

[QUOTE="Emerald_Warrior"]

[QUOTE="AMD655"]

 

I dunno how to, and i am not reupping pics.

BarbaricAvatar

Just don't pick such big pics, pick smaller ones. This is the internet, there's lots of pics out there.

Switch to the 'Appearance' tab in the picture upload box and change dimensions to 300 by xxx. It's not hard.

Or alternatively you can click on the pic while editing and drag it to a more reader-friendly sized.

Or perhaps simply learn how to WRITE... We're not neanderthals... We don't need pics to understand what you're talking about, unless you're doing a graphics comparison thread or something for which pics are actually beneficial to the topic. But for a discussion like this, WORDS work, just fine...

;)

Gividashot.

I think my first truly WOW moment in gaming was when I visited the SegaWorld London arcade when it opened back in the summer of 1996. Compared to the PlayStation games I had played up until then, or the N64 screenshots I had seen in magazines, the kind of stuff I saw at SegaWorld just blew it all away...

First up, there was the astounding graphics of Virtua Fighter 3, which was far above and beyond any 3D graphics I had seen up until then...

Virtua Fighter 3 (1996)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTBeGAhk79I

And that wasn't all, but at that same SegaWorld London arcade in 1996, I also tried out this new Sega VR game that I never even knew the name of. It was some kind of 3D shooter that was played with a VR headset. The amazing thing about this VR headset was that, not only did it have full-colour 3D polygon graphics along with stereoscopic 3D vision, but it even accurately tracked my head movement, with the screen changing position as I moved my head in real time, almost like a proto-Oculus-Rift! It was an experience that I had never experienced before or since. And that's why I'm kind of excited that the technology has now finally been revived with the Oculus Rift after such a long time... I guess I'll finally be able to re-live that unique VR experience I had way back in 1996!

The first game i remember where i was truly dumbstruck was the moment Unreal1 loaded: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqdeyseQAP4 The game then got even more incredible as i played it.

-

The last time was either Guild Wars Eye of the North: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jo09hVQhhTI Which offered up the same excellent game but in even more spectacular landscapes.

Or Prey with its truly inspired opening abduction sequence: (starts after about 5mins of this vid - don't watch if you want to play the game) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oObkBX6DSmk

Can't remember which of the two i played first.

Zelda ALTTP when compaired to the original on the NES I was blown away.

FF7 was mindblowing if you were 4/5 when it came out. tab134

By today's standards, not it's not mindblowing at all. In 1997 when it came out, it absolutely was. The stunning cinematics and the scope of the storytelling was something that was rare back then,

FF7 was mindblowing if you were 4/5 when it came out. tab134

[QUOTE="tab134"]FF7 was mindblowing if you were 4/5 when it came out. Jag85

[QUOTE="Jag85"][QUOTE="tab134"]FF7 was mindblowing if you were 4/5 when it came out. Jakandsigz

Yeah, I kind of have to agree with this. While FF7 was one of my all time favorite games, I wouldn't exactly call it "mind blowing" or having that "wow" factor because from a technological standpoint it wasn't that impressive. This was in an era where some PS1 games already had full voice acting (albeit no games that were nearly as comprehensive as FF7) and the super deformed characters felt like a step backwards. Additionally, I was coming off of PC WRPGs like Baldur's Gate and before that I grew up on the SSI Goldbox games like Pools of Radiance, Azure Bonds, Silver Blades and Pools of Darkness as well as games that rivaled the complexity of games like Oblivion and Skyrim in 2D graphics like Ultima 7. These games allowed for complete, open world exploration.

When I started FF7, my first reaction was "what is this primitive, linear crap?" since the first hour or so of the game is spent running down hallways and getting into fights (you know, like how FF13 is for the ENTIRE GAME :roll: ). Before I got past the first reactor, I put the game down and promptly forgot about it. It wasn't until months later that I picked it up again and gave it the time that it deserved that I realized that there was a lot more to this game and world than I had initially given it credit for. The more I played, the larger the game turned out to be.

It's the epic scope of the world and the quality of the narrative that really makes FF7 shine, but that's not something you can exactly -see- just by playing it for a bit. So while eventually it turned out to be one of my favorite games, there really wasn't that up front "wow" factor that I got with some other titles.

-Byshop

[QUOTE="Jakandsigz"][QUOTE="Jag85"] FFVII was groundbreaking no matter what age you were when it came out... It was that moment when countless gamers came to the realization that "RPG" doesn't just mean a rocket-propelled grenade.Byshop

Yeah, I kind of have to agree with this. While FF7 was one of my all time favorite games, I wouldn't exactly call it "mind blowing" or having that "wow" factor because from a technological standpoint it wasn't that impressive. This was in an era where some PS1 games already had full voice acting (albeit no games that were nearly as comprehensive as FF7) and the super deformed characters felt like a step backwards. Additionally, I was coming off of PC WRPGs like Baldur's Gate and before that I grew up on the SSI Goldbox games like Pools of Radiance, Azure Bonds, Silver Blades and Pools of Darkness as well as games that rivaled the complexity of games like Oblivion and Skyrim in 2D graphics like Ultima 7. These games allowed for complete, open world exploration.

When I started FF7, my first reaction was "what is this primitive, linear crap?" since the first hour or so of the game is spent running down hallways and getting into fights (you know, like how FF13 is for the ENTIRE GAME :roll: ). Before I got past the first reactor, I put the game down and promptly forgot about it. It wasn't until months later that I picked it up again and gave it the time that it deserved that I realized that there was a lot more to this game and world than I had initially given it credit for. The more I played, the larger the game turned out to be.

It's the epic scope of the world and the quality of the narrative that really makes FF7 shine, but that's not something you can exactly -see- just by playing it for a bit. So while eventually it turned out to be one of my favorite games, there really wasn't that up front "wow" factor that I got with some other titles.

-Byshop

If you're focusing on it not being open-world enough, you're completely missing the point. FF7 never tried to be an open-world game.

The "wow factor" it had back then were the amazing looking CGI cutscenes. They were jaw-dropping in 1997. And the scope of the story. There had been RPGs before it, but this game REALLY fleshed out the world and characters in ways that just weren't possible on the cartridge systems before.

If you're focusing on it not being open-world enough, you're completely missing the point. FF7 never tried to be an open-world game.

The "wow factor" it had back then were the amazing looking CGI cutscenes. They were jaw-dropping in 1997. And the scope of the story. There had been RPGs before it, but this game REALLY fleshed out the world and characters in ways that just weren't possible on the cartridge systems before.

Emerald_Warrior

No, I get that. And TBH, it even ended up being an open world game after you got out of Midgard. My point is that I was just coming back to consoles from PC after having abandoned consoles for several years. When you compare FF7 to anything that came before it on a cart-based system, yeah, the difference is night and day. However, I was coming from the PC gaming world and just now getting re-introduced to consoles with the PS1 (which I bought for Bushido Blade). I saw the tv spots for FF7 and I thought "yeah, that looks decent" but when you compare its technical prowess to PC games at the time it doesn't stand leaps and bounds above them like it does when compared to previous gen console systems. PC games had been using CGI cutscenes and even FMV for years by that point, with PC CD-ROM drives having been around for 4 years before FF7 came out. By this time I was already playing my first 3DFX accelerated games on PC like the original Tomb Raider, so no, I wasn't really blown away by FF7's technical prowess or linear gameplay.

But, like I said, this ended up being one of my favorite games because once I realized the scope of the story, the detail of the world, the music, the combat system's depth (once you get past the obligatory FF intro section that takes several hours to play through), etc, then I fell in love with the game. But I had to play it for hours to realize how awesome it really was. There's nothing wrong with that, but when I compare to games like Wing Commander or Ultima 7, those games were immediately and obviously leaps and bounds more impressive than anything I had previously played up until that point. Jaw droppingly so. With FF7 I had to spend hours discovering that while it might not be the most technically advanced game I had ever played (again, compared to PC games) it was certainly one of the most awesome.

Final Fantasy's strength came from the game as a total package, but not any specific technical point (at least not when compared to PC games).

-Byshop

[QUOTE="Emerald_Warrior"]

If you're focusing on it not being open-world enough, you're completely missing the point. FF7 never tried to be an open-world game.

The "wow factor" it had back then were the amazing looking CGI cutscenes. They were jaw-dropping in 1997. And the scope of the story. There had been RPGs before it, but this game REALLY fleshed out the world and characters in ways that just weren't possible on the cartridge systems before.

Byshop

No, I get that. And TBH, it even ended up being an open world game after you got out of Midgard. My point is that I was just coming back to consoles from PC after having abandoned consoles for several years. When you compare FF7 to anything that came before it on a cart-based system, yeah, the difference is night and day. However, I was coming from the PC gaming world and just now getting re-introduced to consoles with the PS1 (which I bought for Bushido Blade). I saw the tv spots for FF7 and I thought "yeah, that looks decent" but when you compare its technical prowess to PC games at the time it doesn't stand leaps and bounds above them like it does when compared to previous gen console systems. PC games had been using CGI cutscenes and even FMV for years by that point, with PC CD-ROM drives having been around for 4 years before FF7 came out. By this time I was already playing my first 3DFX accelerated games on PC like the original Tomb Raider, so no, I wasn't really blown away by FF7's technical prowess or linear gameplay.

But, like I said, this ended up being one of my favorite games because once I realized the scope of the story, the detail of the world, the music, the combat system's depth (once you get past the obligatory FF intro section that takes several hours to play through), etc, then I fell in love with the game. But I had to play it for hours to realize how awesome it really was. There's nothing wrong with that, but when I compare to games like Wing Commander or Ultima 7, those games were immediately and obviously leaps and bounds more impressive than anything I had previously played up until that point. Jaw droppingly so. With FF7 I had to spend hours discovering that while it might not be the most technically advanced game I had ever played (again, compared to PC games) it was certainly one of the most awesome.

Final Fantasy's strength came from the game as a total package, but not any specific technical point (at least not when compared to PC games).

-Byshop

NES: Super Mario Bros. 3

SNES: Earthbound

N64: Super Smash Bros.

Sega Dreamcast: Jet Set Radio

PS2: SSX Tricky or Final Fantasy X or Silent Hill 2 or Zone of the Enders

Xbox: Jet Set Radio Future

Xbox 360: SSX or Dead Rising 1

PS3: Uncharted 2 or The Last of Us

Wii U: Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate

soon to be.

Xbox One: Dead Rising 3

PS4: Infamous Second Son

[QUOTE="Jag85"][QUOTE="tab134"]FF7 was mindblowing if you were 4/5 when it came out. Jakandsigz