What Systems Did You Own? Most Played Games?

[Kriven]

From birth I had access to the NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, Game Boy, and Atari 2600 by virtue of my mom and uncle owning them. Later on my uncle gave me a NES for myself and my mom purchased a used SNES from a little store run by a guy who would give me free Swedish Fish on occasion. These early years were spent with the Super Mario Bros. trilogy, Super Mario World, Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Balloon Fight, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Circus Games, Super StarWars, Yoshi's Island, Mortal Kombat, and Metroid. Later on my uncle would give me one of his Sega Genesis consoles, and I also got a Sega Game Gear from the same store. I only ever had Sonic the Hedgehog and Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, but that was okay. That Power Rangers game is great.

In first grade (I think... 1996 sounds right...) I got the Nintendo 64, which was my first "New From the Store" console which was intended specifically for me. I don't remember which order I got games in, and I would often trade with the neighbor kid, so I went through quite a few different games. At the end of this generation I somehow lost a shitload of my games, and I'm still regretting whatever I did to make that happen. The next thing I got was a Game Boy Color, which I got specifically for Pokemon. Pokemon were the only GBC games I owned as a kid, but I did also have a few older Game Boy games that I used to play on the Super Game Boy. I remember Super Mario Land and Toy Story (which I think was the first game I ever beat on my own). Later on I would get the Game Boy Advance for a birthday before I even knew the console actually existed. I think I got Super Mario Advance and Rayman Advance with that. Man, I loved that thing. My GBA collection was easily the largest of my childhood collections... also the only one where I basically lost everything I owned when we moved.

Next was the GameCube, which my grandmother got me and she also got a buttload of games when I really wanted was Super Smash Bros. Melee. This particular box of gifts actually introduced me to a lot of stuff I wouldn't have otherwise tried, I think, and it's one of the reasons I'm sort of glad when grandparents don't know what any of these games are. They just say to the GameStop guy: "Everything that's fun for a ten year old!" Super Monkey Ball is the standout title from that pile, but it also had Sonic Adventure 2: Battle and showed me that: "Hey, Sonic is on Nintendo now!"

Shadow was so cool!!

I think the next console I got was the PlayStation 2, specifically because I wanted to play Tales of Legendia. I ended up getting it a little early, so I got a copy of Kingdom Hearts 2. For a little while the PS2 replaced the GCN as my preferred device, because I was srs grwn up now gaiz. So I got all my multiplats on PS2. TimeSplitters, Shadow the Hedgehog, etc. Regret that, but I had some good times with the thing. Actually, still do... it's probably the console I've owned the longest which I still use regularly--all the others have needed to be replaced at one point or another.

The DS was the next thing I got, and that was a marvel. Two screens, and one of them knew when I was poking it! My first games were Super Mario 64 DS and WarioWare Touched. Then I got the Wii, and mostly played WiiSports for a long time. I was actually a little jaded on the Wii at first. I don't think I started to really appreciate the thing until around the time I got No More Heroes. Until then I was still pretty much using the PS2 as my main machine.

Oh, I did really like Mario Strikers Charged, though.

Then, let's see... I got a 360 specifically because Tales of Vesperia was coming out (I'm noticing a pattern, here...) as an exclusive. When I got the 360 I also got Left 4 Dead beause "I heard about it on G4." I thought it sucked and I didn't touch the 360 for months. Not until Vesperia came out. After that it became my main machine for most of high school.

That brings us to graduation, I think. Maybe I got a 3DS the year I graduated... but I think I got it in Feb. 2012, which is almost a whole year later. In the years since graduating I've kinda doubled my total console count... XBONE, PS3, Wii U, 3DS. Well, that's not so much. I guess it feels like more because I had to replace my 360 along the way. Oh, and also because I picked up an OG XBOX. And just a shit load of other games for my back compatible consoles. I guess my twenties so far have been defined by indie games and playing catch-up with Microsoft and Sony first party IPs and exclusives, stuff that I pretty much ignored because I grew up with Nintendo.

I still haven't gotten any form of PSP, but that's probably going to change in the next couple of months.

I've never been a huge PC gamer... as a kid I had some of the Sonic games on PC, and I played those pretty often, but I never really played PC-exclusive games. Sometimes I would derp around on flash game portals. A few years ago I decided to get a middle-end PC for this generation, but basically all multiplatform PC ports are garbage so that didn't last long. It was used as an emulation machine, but now I only use it for a couple of games that the Wii Homebrew can't handle... Mainly because the Wii is hooked up to a Sony Trintron, which is way better for playing old games. The only thing I emulate on the PC now is PS1 games, and even those I usually prefer to plunk into my PS2. PC gaming just doesn't hold me, I guess, and it never has. Sitting at a computer just sets my ADHD off, I guess.

Edit: Oh, you know what PC game I had as a kid and absolutely loved? Spider-Man. The one where you have to fight Dr. Octopus and Carnage and they merge at the end. That game was great.