If you’re a lifelong gaming fanatic like myself, then you’ll have been obsessed with games since you werebarely able to hold the controller comfortably in hand. If this was you, then you probably know the ritual of asking your parents and loved ones for games all too well.
10 Early Gaming Decisions You Pay For The Rest Of The Game
You’ll be wishing you had kept your earlier save with these top early gaming decisions that you pay for during the rest of the game.
You would ask your mom, who would say no. So, you would ask your dad, who would say, Ask your mom, and if you kept this loop going long enough, they might eventually break down and buy you a game to play.
However, it hits differently when you walk into a store with your own cash and pick a game out from a lineup that you want to play. There’s perhaps a little less pageantry these days with digital storefronts and the like. But, we all remember our first, no matter how you end up purchasing it.
So, we decided to link up with the Dualshockers team as a whole and ask what game caused them to break out their wallets and purses for the first time. It’s a rite of passage you’ll never forget, and we want to take you with us on a walk down memory lane.
As much as I just said, ‘you never forget your first’. Some of our team members have indeed forgotten, so the whole team won’t be featured here due to fuzzy memories.
1Kingdom Hearts
Callum Marshall
Kingdom Hearts
Okay, I’ll get the ball rolling. I bought my first game when I was just six years old. My birthday had just passed, and I was the richest kid in the world. Or, at least, I felt like I was with my small wad of cash.
My uncle still hadn’t gotten me a present, so he wanted to walk into town and have me pick up a game. Only the pre-owned section, though, because he’s known within the family as a notorious tight-fisted dude.
But here’s the thing. I was going through this phase of altruistically offering to pay with my birthday money for things, almost knowing no one would actually let me do it. But true to form, when I offered, he let me pay, and I essentially bought my own birthday present.
It seems like I got the bum end of that deal, and fiscally, I sure did. But I ended up buying what is still one of my favorite games of all time. So, considering it was my first gaming investment ever, I think it rounds out as a net success.
I still consider the original Kingdom Hearts an absolutely seminal game,even if it has aged like milk.
2Final Fantasy VIII
Jaime Tugayev
Final Fantasy 8
Even when you have enough money to buy a game, you sometimes don’t have the cash to buy a gamelawfully.But we won’t hold it against the younger version of our own Jaime.
Jaime’s first game bought with his own cash was a pirated version of Final Fantasy VIII, which he played on his PS2 back when backward compatibility was a given, not a gift. However, he didn’t have the extra cash to splurge on a memory card.
This led to young Jaime playing through the same five-hour stretch ofthis iconic JRPG over and over again, taking the SeeD exam, hitting up the ball, and getting to know Seifer and company better than he knew himself.
He did eventually get that memory card, but after getting soft-locked halfway through the game because he ran out of Gil, it wouldn’t be until years later that he would finally complete the game in full. But that aside, it was a hell of a first pick and a stellar way to kick off a love affair with JRPGs.
3Xenosaga II
Murillo Zerbinatto
Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Böse
Due to the sheer expense of gaming as a hobby, as a Brazilian, Murillo had been primarily renting his games all the way back in the era of the SNES. It was either that or pay half his wage to own a game outright, and if the choice is eat for the month or play Super Mario without limitations, I think he made the right choice.
However, whenthe PS1 burst onto the scene, Murillo was able to dive into the same unsanctioned waters that Jaime sailed, pirating top-tier JRPGs on the sly. But it wouldn’t be until a random stroke of luck that he would buy his first legitimate game.
Alongside his brother playing Bingo, a Brazilian lottery game for those unaware, the duo won big, raking in the equivalent of $70 at the time. Enough to get their hands on Xenosaga II.
He still has the exact copy to this day in pristine condition, and if you ask really nicely, he may be open to offers. But you’ll pay a premium due to that sentiment attachment.
4Micro Machines 64 Turbo
Ethan Krieger
Micro Machines 64 Turbo
Having played a ton of the OG Micro Machines title on the NES with his older brother, it was a no-brainer when 64 Turbo came along, and Ethan had some money in his pocket to spare. That said, it did take a whole year of saving birthday and Christmas money because, believe it or not, the income of a child is actually quite low on average.
But, when he got his hands on this one, he raced around the suburban household-themed tracks like a man possessed, maining the character ‘Spider’ because they had a passing resemblance to Elvis.
Whether it was launching an ice cream truck off a conveniently ramp-shaped wedge of cheese or blitzing any track with a Formula One car, it never got old and was a cartridge that saw a lot of action. Yes, I said cartridge. Yes, we are all quite old.
Plus, as this one was made by Codemasters, it was essentially a precursor tothe obsession with F1 gamesthat Ethan has today. Quite a legacy for such small cars.
5Resident Evil 4
Elena Chapella
Resident Evil 4
Most people got their kicks guiding Leon Kennedy around rural Spain on the PlayStation 2 or the GameCube. However, Elena took her sweet time before forking over the cash to get her own copy. That said, she was already well acquainted with Las Plagas thanks to her dad’s PS2 copy, which she routinely played.
She nabbed a digital version of this horror classic and proceeded to dive straight back into this Resident Evil classic that focused less on claustrophobic halls and fixed camera angles, and more on action sequences and charismatic merchants.
This love of the Resident Evil series still courses through her veins to this day,with this iconic action-packed horrorand the more slow, methodical, and psychologically affecting Silent Hill 2 butting heads for her coveted top spot.
Usama Mehmood
Red Dead Redemption 2
Fextralife Wiki
While many of us have the blessing of receiving a chunk of birthday cash from family members or entering our teenage years and snagging a Saturday job to earn some money, some of us really need to skimp and save to fund our hobby.
That was the case for Usama back in 2018, as he never received any sort of allowance, and his parents would provide him with the things he needed; games apparently don’t qualify as a basic necessity. I disagree, but I digress.
They did give him lunch money, though, and slowly but surely, he racked up enough cash to buy RDR2, allowing Usama to live out his cowboy fantasy in the shoes of Arthur Morgan.
He also purchased the Forsaken DLC for Destiny 2 on the same day, but understandably, he credits RDR2 as his first, mainly because it’s a more notable achievement to mention in conversation.
7The Witcher Trilogy
Karan Pahuja
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
If you’re going to use your own money to grab a game,you want to get some bang for your buck. Which Karan managed to do when they bought the entire Witcher trilogy as their first ever gaming investment off their own back.
They had been fans of The Witcher for quite some time, thanks to the books of Andrzej Sapkowski, but the games were a whole different venture. But as anyone who has played these games will know, all three of them are well worth your time.
Admittedly, Karan struggled through the original and sequel, as they haven’t quite aged as gracefully as CD Projekt Red might have liked. But the lore was alluring enough to keep him invested.
However, nothing quite compares to that first foray into the world of The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt, which is arguably one of, if not the best, open-world RPGs of all time. So, if you’re going to spend your hard-earned cash, you should bet on a winner like Karan did.
8Sonic Mega Collection
Monica Phillips
Sonic Mega Collection Plus
If anyone knows Monica, they know that they are as big of a Sonic fan as just about anyone out there. You know the kind, the Sonic Sympathisers that can even find good things to say about games like Sonic The Hedgehog 06, and many other troubled titles in the blue marsupial’s catalog.
She was enamoured by the big hitters like Sonic Adventure 2, and has fond memories of games like Secret Rings, but the first one she bought for herself was none other than the Sonic Mega Collection on the Gamecube, getting real bang for her buck.
She maintains that this is the optimal way to play a lot of the games from Sonic’s classic catalog and far outdoes the experience provided by Origins. In fact, if providing the info for this list hasn’t prompted her to regress to childhood and boot up Sonic and Knuckles, I’d be very surprised.
9Watchdogs 2
Dashiell Reynaldo
Watch Dogs 2
When you’re a kid, you need to work really hard just to get your hands on a game, and that usually means that when you do get your hands on one, you’ll milk it for all it’s worth.
This is exactly what happened when Dashiell finally saved enough fractions of his daily lunch allowance from school to head down to his local game store and buy a new game. He thought to himself, I’ll go for a big open world sandbox that will keep me entertained for hours on end, and in that moment, Watchdogs 2 was the hottest commodity.
While the series has never lived up to the ‘GTA Killer’ label it was rather unfairly asked to achieve, I don’t think that many would argue that the second in the series is the best one to hop into, and serves as an underrated gem, even today.
Dashiell would become a hacking pro and learn that map like the back of his hand before her would eventually turn his attention to other hot properties in this era like Overwatch and Uncharted 4.
He still maintains that Watchdogs 2 was a better open-world experience than GTA V and that this was the best era to grow up in as a fledgling gamer. But, then again, it could just be rose-tinted glasses.
