My personal "WOW" moment in console gaming. You wouldn't guess. What's yours?

[MaximumRD]

I had posted this comment elsewhere, it ended up much longer and more detailed in trying to convey the moment so I will paste and share it here as well as invite all to share their own personal jaw dropping "WOW" moment in console gaming whatever platform or time period that was  😎

It was in answer to basically what was my "WOW" moment in console gaming, I think even those that know me and my long history in it might be surprised but it is my most honest answer - Well, see I recall reading so many articles about Sega's new console coming, seeing pictures of the Dreamcast logo, the designs and rendering of the case, reading all the "specs", that was all fine and dandy.

Then one day arriving at my local mall I went to the second floor and as I walked off the top of the escalator facing the gaming store I began to approach, as I was getting close enough to make out what was displayed on 2 - 3 15 inch TV's hanging in the store front display I was thinking "Ugh, wtf? WHY are they playing a damn football game?" I figured it was early in the day, the store was pretty empty, I assumed the manager maybe put to on to "catch the game", I kind of rolled my eyes but then, as I got closer it dawned on me, no, no way, can this be?

Then running up the rest of the way, I confirmed what blew my mind, this was no broadcast game, this was my first time seeing something running in person on the new Dreamcast console by SEGA 😮 Yes, from a distance and admittedly maybe because I had zero interest in Football I assumed, if only for a few brief seconds that an actual football game was in progress when in fact it was NFL 2K, I think in demo mode, I only noticed the players movement, some cut scene of interaction on the field and of course the sounds of the crowd and commentary where being amplified outside the display. It did not matter that I could not care less about football or sports games in general, hell outside of possibly trying the game sometime later on a Dreamcast Demo disc I never even played it, yet for those few seconds I was fooled, I was more impressed than if they had been simply displaying Sonic adventure, in my mind, at that moment at least the Dreamcast realized everything I had heard or read up to that point and I was convinced that not only had Sega made a fantastic debut in the new generation but that it was surely the future of console gaming. And while we all know how things actually would turn out in the long run, that will always be for me my most WOW moment in gaming. 🤷‍♂️

 

[CrossBow]

Mine was the DC as well! But, it was after it had already ran its course. I of course saw the commercials on TV but I hadn't really paid attention to it to much to be honest. Then when they were being clearanced out, I was able to pick up one for about $50 and Shenmue was one of the games I happened to pick up for it. When I first powered it on and saw the intro to Shenmue, I was generally amazed because up until this point in my eyes, console hadn't and wouldn't ever catch up to the graphics that PC gaming could still provide. It has pretty much always been that way to me since I got my first PC in the late 80s. 

But here,,, with Shenmue I was seeing for the first time, a small game console that was producing graphics nearly as impressive to me as my GeForce TNT 256 I had in my gaming PC at the time. Sure there were differences in the quality of the polys and textures, but it was close enough that I got a renewed interest in not just the retro gaming that I had started to get back into, but was now interested about the modern console gaming as well. I found myself now purchasing lots of DC games on clearance at Circuit City and the like to see what else there was to offer.

And I've been getting modern consoles as well ever since. Exception is the newest consoles since they haven't anything on offer to interest me that I can't also play on my PC as well. So the lines have been blurred quite a bit now. But yeah, in the early 2000s it was the DC that made me go Wow and take notice about how far console gaming had come since the N64.

 

[RickR]

Mine was exactly the same as yours -- the demo for Dreamcast NFL 2K.  I was blown away.  Dreamcast (the sports version that came with 3 of the 2K games) was the first game console I'd purchased since the 2600 after spending years in the home computer game.

 

 

[Atari 5200 Guy]

My WOW moment?  Had a couple of those.  

1st one.  A local arcade in my hometown that was still in operation got in a Super Nintendo arcade machine. That's when I discovered F-Zero.  I bet I put in about$10 in that machine.

2nd Wow moment was the opening movie to Sonic Adventure on Dreamcast. I pre-ordered both the system and game.  Got the game before the system but as soon as the machine arrived I hurried home, hooked it up in record time and was blown away. It left such an impression that I still can hear the Open Your Heart soundtrack to that game.  Sega came in and out with a bang when they made the Dreamcast.

Those were my wow moments.  I'm with most of you guys.  The Dreamcast did so many things that the wow factors never seemed to stop.  Tokyo Xtreme Racer wowed me because it took a different direction with the racing genre, Shenmue rewrote the rules to open world games and I loved the little things in the game more from buying toys out of a vending machine to trying to win the boom box from the store to playing arcade and lottery games. Then came Skies of Arcadia with such an amazing story that I could not stop playing.  I had a few tears at the climax before the ending of the game.  I did the same thing with Grandia 2.  Such an amazing system. It still has a lot to offer and my favorite Sega system. Thank you Sega!

[Atari Creep]

Mine was the OG PlayStation. Sitting in my girlfriends sisters place and watching her boyfriend play Resident Evil was where I started paying attention but when Castlevania SOTN was popped in the console my jaw dropped. 

[Atari 5200 Guy]

On 1/20/2022 at 6:27 PM, Atari Creep said:

Mine was the OG PlayStation. Sitting in my girlfriends sisters place and watching her boyfriend play Resident Evil was where I started paying attention but when Castlevania SOTN was popped in the console my jaw dropped. 

XBOX gave away that same Castlevania game for the 360. I never knew that game made it to the XBOX library.  Very fun game.

[socrates63]

I had to think a bit about this one. As far as consoles go, probably my earliest wow moment was Final Fantasy VII on the original PlayStation. The music and story in that game blew me away. The music evoked so much emotion and was an integral part of experiencing the story. I had experienced nothing like it even in film.

[DegasElite]

My "wow" moment was solving "Phantasy Star II," when I was still a teenager. I couldn't figure out how to stop Mother Brain from killing my characters, until I found out I could make the characters take a break from fighting and replenish their hit points. I can't remember how to do it now, because I haven't played the game in years. I was pretty jubilant, though, when I finally solved the game and defeated Mother Brain. The Mother Brain had the same name as Mother Brain from Metroid, but the Mother Brain in PSII was a hologram generated by a computer of a gigantic four-armed woman. Of course, the Mother Brain from Metroid was a cyborg brain. That is where the similarities end. :)

Edited December 31, 2022 by DegasElite

[Jinroh]

I can think of a few over the years, but probably the most impactful to me was Super Mario 64.

Nintendo and SGI packing so much hardware for $199 and Mario running silky smooth in huge environments was and still is, amazing!

 

I was no stranger to 3D games at the time, but everything was so vibrant, smooth, and colourful compared to anything else. 

[Atari 5200 Guy]

5 hours ago, DegasElite said:

My "wow" moment was solving "Phantasy Star II," when I was still a teenager. I couldn't figure out how to stop Mother Brain from killing my characters, until I found out I could make the characters take a break from fighting and replenish their hit points. I can't remember how to do it now, because I haven't played the game in years. I was pretty jubilant, though, when I finally solved the game and defeated Mother Brain. The Mother Brain had the same name Mother Brain from Metroid, but the Mother Brain in PSII was a hologram generated by a computer of a gigantic four-armed woman. Of course, the Mother Brain from Metroid was a cyborg brain. That is where the similarities end. 🙂

You know?  I totally forgot about that.  The first NES game I actually finished was 3-D World runner.  I managed to memorize the levels.  I spent countess hours with that game.  And when I finished it I was shocked.  I had discovered that video games could be beat for the first time.  Then I got Metroid, spent a lot of time on it, beat Mother Brain, screamed out, "OH MY GOD!!!", while the 999 timer counted down faster than I could jump on the platforms.  Finally making out I see who our hero really is.  WHAAAAAT???

[- Ω -]

Mine was on the TI-99/4A Home Computer.  I've never been the best gamer on the planet, so what happened actually shocked me, and I indeed said, "Wow!".  I was playing a game of Moon Patrol, I had finished the first level, was into the second level and finished that, then realized that was it, there was no more, I had actually "beaten the game".  That had never happened to me before.  That was a special day, never to be forgotten.

[DegasElite]

12 hours ago, Atari 5200 Guy said:

Then I got Metroid, spent a lot of time on it, beat Mother Brain, screamed out, "OH MY GOD!!!", while the 999 timer counted down faster than I could jump on the platforms.  Finally making out I see who our hero really is.  WHAAAAAT???

That was a wow moment for me, too. It was a shocker for me about Samus after I beat Metroid, too. :)

[socrates63]

22 hours ago, DegasElite said:

My "wow" moment was solving "Phantasy Star II," when I was still a teenager. I couldn't figure out how to stop Mother Brain from killing my characters, until I found out I could make the characters take a break from fighting and replenish their hit points. I can't remember how to do it now, because I haven't played the game in years. I was pretty jubilant, though, when I finally solved the game and defeated Mother Brain. The Mother Brain had the same name as Mother Brain from Metroid, but the Mother Brain in PSII was a hologram generated by a computer of a gigantic four-armed woman. Of course, the Mother Brain from Metroid was a cyborg brain. That is where the similarities end. 🙂

A character named Mother Brain?!? Maybe something is a bit lost in translation, but say what? I’ve been missing out, it seems. And I thought the name J-E-N-O-V-A from FF7 was odd 😆

3 hours ago, DegasElite said:

That was a wow moment for me, too. It was a shocker for me about Samus after I beat Metroid, too. 🙂

I remember when the gender reveal was such a big deal. I have zero experience with the Metroid series so had nothing invested personally.

[DegasElite]

2 hours ago, socrates63 said:

A character named Mother Brain?!? Maybe something is a bit lost in translation, but say what?

Yup. The US translation of PSII called the computer "Mother Brain." I don't know the Japanese name of it. Never played the Japanese version. But, I am surprised Nintendo didn't jump all over that one. It could be a translation error, but the Genesis version did call it that. Interesting, isn't it?

[socrates63]

On 12/31/2022 at 7:21 PM, DegasElite said:

Yup. The US translation of PSII called the computer "Mother Brain." I don't know the Japanese name of it. Never played the Japanese version. But, I am surprised Nintendo didn't jump all over that one. It could be a translation error, but the Genesis version did call it that. Interesting, isn't it?

Having worked in the software localization space for twenty years, I totally understand. Translating words that do not exist in the target language and translating proper nouns are very problematic. You can either phonetically spell out the source word’s pronunciation in the target language, try to find something in the target language that is a close equivalent, or simply go with a literal translation.