I watched a YouTube video about this topic today and thought it was the perfect idea for a post here. It’s pretty straightforward, it’s games you played in the past that you’re still stuck thinking about, or games that taught you a lesson that you’ve held on to.

I’m going to start. For me, the two games that perfectly exemplify the idea of a game that sticks with you are Sekiro and BioShock. I have a feeling Dark Souls will be a popular choice but I think Sekiro did it more for me personally.

Starting with Sekiro, I honestly think it’s the closest to perfect I’ve ever seen in a video game, at least for a first playthrough. It’s fun, challenging, rewarding, thoughtfully made, beautiful to look at, it’s got great voice acting, memorable characters, and I honestly can only think of two mini bosses that bring the whole game very slightly down. Every other aspect is a 10/10 from me. Not to mention the combat is the best combat of any game I’ve ever played. Personally, this game is the purist example of a game that forces you to get good at it, and does the best job at teaching perseverance. In the rest of the Souls games, you can upgrade your weapon, get a new weapon, use buffs, summon NPCs or another player to help, if you’re getting stuck. With Sekiro on the other hand, you need to get good. Above any other game, this one showed me just how well hard work can pay off. I feel about this game the same way video essayists feel about Dark Souls. If you know, you know.

Moving on to BioShock, this one really taught me the value of a good story, and showed me that video games truly are art. It helped that the game itself is a ton of fun to play, but on top of that the writing is just phenomenal. I’m assuming most people on here have played this one so I won’t get too into it, and in case you haven’t, most of what I’d be gushing about would spoil the whole game anyway, so I’m just leaving it short, but yeah. This game is the finest example of video games being an art form.

What about you guys? What has stuck with you the hardest? I’ve got more games I could talk about but I’d love to see discussion from you.

  • MajorHavoc
    1·
    5 months ago

    This party is great, and it needs an injection of old school. Luckily, I am old.

    • Q-Bert - This was some trippy shit, even for the already trippy era of gaming. Plus, that little dude swears. We all know that he’s actually saying.
    • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Genesis) because it was the first home console port of a game I loved, that wasn’t 8-bit and wasn’t a meaningful compromise from the arcade experience. This was the game that made me decide to save my pennies for future Sega consoles. It took the combined badness of the 32X and the SegaCD to change my mind.
    • Ducks Ahoy - Unforgettable music, smooth as silk controls, adorable ducks, stressful high pressure life and death choices, and the first place I learned that Hippos are complete bastards. Also ducks stack on each other’s heads. That’s true in nature, too right?!
    • Star Wars Arcade 32X - most games for the 32X were crap. This was not. “It’s a trap!”, but I still fondly remember my death star trench runs.
    • Wing Commander III on Sega CD - Every entry in the series is memorable. But full motion video and underpaid actors put the whole experience squarely into a very memorable part of the uncanny valley. And some particularly terrific scenery chewing by Mark Hamill. Honorable mention to Rebel Assault, which delighted and horrified in the same ways, but lacked Mark Hamill.
    • Twisted Metal II - Solid gameplay loop, with tons of variety, just the right number of unlockable secrets, and a short unique-to-each-character weird-as-hell video conclusion for each time I beat the game. Honorable mention to G-Darius which has all that,as well, plus a giant goldfish as the first boss fight.