How did you start on Nintendo?

[Knight]

Oh, I'm 18 for reference, I haven't been a Nintendo fan for likely as long as many of the people here, I would have barely had the chance to even own an N64.

[Draco]

Fun fact: It took me several years to ever come across a Metroid game.

To this day, the only ones I've played are, in this order: Metroid Prime, Fusion, Zero Mission (My favorite), and some of Super.

[SageOfAnys]

Haha, everyone here makes me feel like a baby in age comparison and a poor example of a fan.

My first Nintendo game was Melee when I was 5 I believe at a family friend's house, and obviously, I sucked. A lot. I guess because of my constant failure with that game, added with the fact that I was a sore loser when I was a child, kinda made me stay away from Nintendo games. I got my first Nintendo game device in the Nintendo DS Lite when I was 7-8, and my first game on it was Nintendogs, and I continued to play most of the "casual" style games for quite a while until middle school. But before then, I always watched my brother play Nintendo games such as the Sims, Twilight Princess, Super Mario Galaxy, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I played Brawl with him sometimes (I still sucked tho) and I messed/fumbled around in Super Mario Galaxy a bit before giving up, but I still look back on those days with fondness, because those were some of the few moments where I was able to get along with my brother really well and not have any of use break out into a fight in 5 seconds.

I did play other Nintendo titles and the non-simulator/"casual" games during that period, such as Kirby's Epic Yarn and the Professor Layton series, but I guess I really didn't start getting into Nintendo until Middle School when I made myself play Twilight Princess out of curiosity, and I fell in love with that game and the world in general, which made me want to play more Zelda. And as I got further invested into the Zelda series, I went back to the old games that I didn't really care for and got better at them or finished them. I improved my Smash game and I finally beat Galaxy more than 5 years after it's initial release (and I also learned that I was awful at platformers). And after that, the rest is history. I found more series, games, and communities I loved being a part of, and that's that.

Edited July 14, 2015 by SageOfAnys

[Tsunami922]

I'm 21.

My first system was an SNES (I think I was 4 or 5), but the first games I remember playing were Super Mario All-Stars, Donkey Kong Country, Kirby Super Star, and Mega Man X.

I've been with Nintendo ever since.

Edited July 14, 2015 by Tsunami922

[Just call me AL]

My dad got a Super NES when I was about 3 or 4, as a bundle with The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, at a Toys "R" Us store (which closed down just last year). However, he bought an NES before I was even born. I did manage to watch my dad play ALttP, Tetris, and Donkey Kong Classics. Around Christmas time, I got Donkey Kong Country 2. And on my 5th birthday, I got Kirby Super Star. He also bought "Tetris Attack" for himself. And later, I got the Tetris & Dr. Mario game.

My dad described my first gaming experience as "taking over for him". Though I DID offer to let him play one of the games meant for me, time and again. He did end up playing some Mario Party, SSB1, and Mario Kart with me, though. And he did play Pokemon Puzzle League and Dr. Mario 64 on the N64, and Wii.

I will also mention that I never got into Metroid until The GCN and GBA. Literally, my Metroid gameplay order was Prime ---> Fusion ---> Metroid 1 ---> Zero Mission ---> Prime 2 ---> Super ---> Prime 3 ---> Other M ---> Metroid 2.

[Tamarsamar]

I started with an SNES at an early age (I remember hooking it up myself at the age of 5, which felt long after it was already an established part of my life) and a Game Boy Pocket in early elementary school and things kind of cascaded from there.

Super Mario Kart was the first game that I actively wanted, because of a super-early memory of watching my much-older stepbrother (on my father's side) play it.

My family was pretty poor that early on, I would later come to learn, so whatever games we could get ended up getting tons of replay value by default. I played Super Mario World endlessly trying to find the Torpedo Ted enemy in the credits (hiding the Soda Lake goal behind another goal was kind of a dick move and it would be over a decade before I would have ever learned of it; thank you, internet). (Also I just now as I was typing this noticed the cleverly-hidden reference with Bullet Bill and Torpedo Ted. WTG Nintendo Localization, you da best excellent.) Donkey Kong Country was also a thing I played through a few times.

Everything else is basically middling information, but I guess of note there is my introduction to Pokémon.

[spoiler=Spoilered for disproportionate length (it is middling information, after all)]This wasn't until relatively later on, of course, but I remember at one point an older kid had trusted me to hold his Game Boy (Color? I want to say?) which was running one of the Gen I Pokémon games. Specifically he was on what I would later learn to be Cinnabar Island, which I explored out of curiosity but ultimately got nowhere with my non-existent understanding of the interface at the time.

In fact, at the time I don't think I even knew what Pokémon was, or that that was it. It fascinated me, though, as RPGs had a tendency to do ever since watching my father play Baldur's Gate. Eventually I got Blue version for I think my 10th birthday present (I was not fond of the color red at the time and that was probably known) . . . either 9th or 10th, anyway. 2000 +/- 2 years was a bit of a blurry, tumultuous period involving way too much moving.

Of course I chose Charmander, knowing exactly what I would be putting myself up against with regards to the first two gyms. IIRC basically everybody did, anyway, even if for questionable reasons. I completed my first playthrough with a misspelled name (because I did not know how to delete letters at the naming screen, nor did it strike me wise to turn off my Game Boy in the middle of something so clearly important!), and had an epic confrontation weakening Mewtwo--I forget whether this was because I used my Master Ball already, or I did not know that the Master Ball was a 100% catch rate, but either way I caught it on my first try!

Then I'd get Gold Version, play it tons, beat Red, lose cartridges, find cartridges, lose cartridges again more ultimately . . . it was a wild and crazy ride all around. I'm still looking to actually finish a Pokémon game after the original Gold, after all these years. While I am not actively playing it right now, my resolution is to achieve this with Black Version while it still has a ghost of relevance. Or at least at all. My obsession with training all of my monsters has somehow slowed me down substantially after Gen II, even though that was what was encouraged back then . . .)

Edited July 14, 2015 by Tamarsamar

[DodgeDusk]

My first memory is me playing Pokémon Blue on my purple Game Boy Colour. While I don't remember how she exactly got it, my grandmother had a SNES in her house, which myself and my brother used to play Castlevania IV on. Since then, I've owned: GBA, GBA SP, Gamecube, DS, DS lite, Wii, DSi, 3DS XL, and recently the Wii U. Nintendo has effectively been a part of me since my earliest memory

[The Geek]

Started with a GameBoy Color and Donkey Kong Country. Stuck exclusively to handhelds on the Nintendo front (my home console growing up was a PS2) until the Wii came out, then my family got one. Didn't play too many games on it, and now I'm back to handhelds with the 3DS. Then again, being in college handhelds are about all I can manage.

[Emeraldfox]

My mum was actually the best at Super Mario Bros...until the jumping board of 2-1 thwarted her forever.

This made me chuckle, I like this.

One day I walk into my grandparents' house as a wee tyke. Boom, NES with Super Mario Bros. on the TV. "Wh-what is this?!" my young mind raced. Then I played it and had fun wooooooooooooooooooooow. Then we brought it home, and we got an SNES afterwards. Which was the start of my Mario Kart career/legacy. The libraries we had for both the NES and SNES weren't impressive compared to the N64 library we had. Speaking of the 64, seeing Mario in 3D for the first time was ~amazing~. The 64 days also gave way to my immediate family not giving too much of a hoot for video games in general, except for me, mind you. Anywho, I had the handhelds(still have my GBC, GBA, DS Lite and DSi), the Gamecube era was like, great and quiet. The Wii era was great too, I have yet to buy a Wii U, which I will enjoy.

I didn't realize I was a mostly Nintendo gamer until my dad gave me and my sister a choice between the Xbox and Gamecube.

[DragonLord]

I'm only 18, but my best friends (and then neighbours) owned an NES and a GameCube. I remember playing the original Super Mario Bros and Duck Hunt for hours on end.

[Robert Stewart]

My parents bought my sister and I a GBC when we were young. I don't recall what age, but I think it was before I was 8. (I'm 21 btw) We got 4 games, one for each member of the family. My mother got a Pac-man port, my dad got Super Mario Bros. Deluxe, my sister got Link's Awakening DX, and I got some crappy licensed game for the movie Dinosaur. I don't recall if we picked our own games or if my Parents picked them for us.

[Acacia Sgt]

Let's see... first time I played a Nintendo game was most likely Super Mario Bros. 2 for NES when I was around 6-7 years old or so. The NES was owned by someone from my Godmother's family, and I got the chance to play it whenever we visited them. Not that much time later I would also get to play with a cousin's N64, with games like Super Smash Bros and Pokémon Stadium. He also had a GBA, and got to play Pokémon Red and Gold that way.

Then when I was about 9 or so, my mother got a friend of hers who was a teacher to tutor me on... well, I forgot on what exactly, but said friend had a younger brother who had a lot of GBA games, and basically if I did good enough I could get to play with them. And so I did. He had a lot of games, but the only ones that got my attention to play more than once were Golden Sun, Pokémon Sapphire, Breath of Fire, Lego Island 2, Dokapon, and Mech Platoon.

And finally, at my 11th birthday, one of my gifts was a GBA SP and a couple of Pokémon games (FireRed, LeafGreen, Ruby, Sapphire, Red Rescue Team, and the Gold version of my cousin's that I used to play with), making it the first time I actually owned something from Nintendo.

And so here I am at 22 and owning that GBA SP, a Wii, and a 3DS when it comes to Nintendo. Truth be told, I never really leaned more towards it, prefering what I could and can play on my computer-then-laptop and the Playstation line. But still, it still covers a good chunk of my gaming life.

Edited July 14, 2015 by Acacia Sgt

[Nym]

I'm 17 so I didn't get a 64 because I think they were out but anyway I got my gamecube when I was 6 and the game I got with it is Pokemon XD. However I was so bad at this game that my dad had to help me out.

(It's funny how I always start to play a franchise with a game less popular or with a spin off).

Edited July 14, 2015 by Nym

[---Deactivate Me--]

I remember everyone at school started to get the Pokemon TCG and I started collecting them. after 2 years of throwing away my money on the TCG i decided to buy a DS and play Pokemon(Diamond at the time). From there i got into nintendo.

[Darrman]

It was a long time ago, 2008 or so. I believe I was in 1st class (that's 1st grade, Americans), being a mindless Xbox guy playing his movie tie-ins and sports games. Then a guy in my class broke his leg or something like that, and 42his friend brought in his DS to entertain him during lunch break. I was fascinated by the system. I remember him playing SM64DS and NSMB, can't remember anything else. When he was playing Mario 64, I was like, "who do you start with?" "Yoshi." "Who's the main character?" "Mario." Stuff like that. Anyways, I got a DS for Christmas that year, and the games I got included NSMB, 42 All Time Classics (Clubhouse Games) and some rubbish soccer game. I still intermittently played the Xbox 360 for another year or so, but by the time I got my Wii, it was soon a glorified DVD player. The thing broke all the time anyway. I remember trying to get through NSMB before the other guy, then Bowser's Castle's maze caught him and I beat him to Peach. If that guy in my class didn't break his leg when he did, I wouldn't be here now, as I'd probably be sneering on us from a Microsoft forum. Or be playing soccer sometime in the morning. My class loves soccer.

(I jokingly proposed to my friends that I could convert the soccer fans into 3DS owners by luring them in with the Nintendo Anime Channel, which contains a soccer anime. I don't think your side of the Atlantic have it. They'd probably get bored with the drama levels contained within. Probably.)

[Balcerzak]

Probably the Mario Brothers Arcade cabinet at the common area of one of the places we took summer vacations to. It involved checking out a cabin, going fishing, feeding the ducks, racing turtles, and visiting Paul Bunyan Land, if memory serves.

Either that or a Legend of Zelda Cabinet at Sears? When the neighbors a few blocks down got a NES, it was only a short while before me and my brother's combined begging acquired one for our own household.

Edited July 18, 2015 by Balcerzak

[Carter]

When I was either 6 or 7, my dad bought a GameCube for my brother for Christmas, and it was the Mario Party 7 bundle!

It was so much fun! My brother, sister, and I would always play it together, and then we got Mario Kart: Double Dash, and we became super competitive with one another. My sister and I would fight for who got to use Toadette, but we'd often to race together to avoid that.

Eventually my sister grew out of video games, but I know she'll play them with me or my brother if she sees something she likes. I was rather surprised when my brother asked me if I wanted Splatoon, and my sister just shouts "yes we should get it!" from behind me, because she's only ever seen me play the testfire, and seems to like it from then. I play more relaxed games like Captain Toad with my sister, but I know she likes Splatoon.

We all used to play Smash together, but my sister got tired of that too. She'd only play when my cousin would come over, and we'd put it on an endless timer, and make characters like "Alex" or "Lola" and we'd pretend the Smash characters were in college XD. But I always fight against my brother in more serious matches, and then I got better at Smash from wanting to beat him. He continues to beat my in Melee, but I trump him in Smash 4 :)

[Deviddo]

I honestly can't remember if I started on the Nintendo 64 with Ocarina of Time or the Nintendo Entertainment System with Super Mario Bros., but it was one or the other.

[Anacybele]

My sister and I would fight for who got to use Toadette, but we'd often to race together to avoid that.

Haha, I had something like that happen with me and my younger brother, only it was Ike in Brawl's SSE in our case. lol

[Dai]

Even though there was a too-loader NES in my closet, I do not recall anything about it, so I'm going to attribute my playing Nintendo to my daycare where they had an SNES with Donkey Kong, Yoshi's Island, Super Mario World, and a few other games. I got sucked in even more when my grandmother bought me a gameboy color (Transparent purple that I still own) and Pokemon Blue (that I still own).

[Blaze The Great]

When I was 9, I got Pokemon Emerald for Christmas. I've never stopped loving Nintendo since.

[Azura]

I saw one of my friends play Nintendogs once, and thought it was the most awesomecool thing ever. I got a DS with Nintendogs for my birthday, and then another of my friends dragged me into Pokemon.

[Tryhard]

I suppose I never really have. I enjoy the occasional Nintendo games, especially older ones from the SNES and such, but I was never really big into them like some people here.

[Erdall]

It all began when I was around 6 years old.

My daddy, like caught something from magically nowhere (okay, okaaaay, he didn't do any sort of magical trick, it was from the upper part of a rack, give me a break! I was of so damn short stature back then! D':), gave me a quite gigantic cardboard. It was the Super Nintendo console itself.

I didn't have any hint or idea about what it was, except that I just thought from the beggining for its looks: another toy among other few that I used to play with. But when we both managed how it worked ... my very first gameplay of all my life started with a kind of 3D racing game. Sort of vehicles that had eyes and looked alive, but it was hell of fun. Can't remember the name though.

Still, I could also play tons of other games like Prehistoric Man, many Marios, Sparkster and the list quite goes on. After that, however, I didn't want to stop: I utterly fell in love with gaming itself, and when I got my Nintendo 64 ... ah, such refreshing memories.

I also got a Game Boy, but I can't exactly remember after the Ultra 64 or even before. Perhaps sligthy after buying that console. Still, great times, hell yeah.

[marktheshark]

Back when I lived with my cousins for a few years (1995/1996-1998), they had a Super NES that they and my brother would play on. They had Super Mario World, Super Mario Kart, DKC 1, Super Punch-Out!, Zoop, Nickelodeon GUTS, maybe Batman Forever, & a bunch of crappy games like the last few I mentioned here. Not what I would call an extraordinary collection. I pretty much watched instead of played.

Around Christmas of 1998, my brother got an N64 as a gift & loved it. Then I started playing it around 2000 or so & loved it too. I remember enjoying Mario 64, Super Smash Bros, Kirby 64, Paper Mario, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Gex 64, Goldeneye, Mischief Makers, etc. It used to be my favorite system for years to come. By the mid-2000's, the two of us had dozens of N64 games. Nowadays, however, I don't like the system and its games very much aside from a few (Mischief Makers, Kirby 64, Paper Mario, & a few racing games are still pretty good to this day IMO.)

As for the first system that I could call my own? Well, I got a GBA back around 2002-2003 so that was my first handheld. My first console that I could call my own was a Super NES that I got back in 2006.

Edited July 26, 2015 by marktheshark