What games caused you to fall in love w/ your fav genres?

[kingrat101]

Platformer-Donkey Kong Country, first game I ever beat
Fighting- Tekken 3, Killer Instinct, King of Fighters, Fatal Fury, Competition in the arcade was so much fun!

[psydswipe]

I guess Utopia on Intellivision got me into world building types of games, that continued with SimCity and Civilization II. Although I've enjoyed JRPGs, I've always preferred western RPGs. After watching my neighbor play The Bard's Tale, I purchased The Bard's Tale II, though I never finished it. My neighbor's love of AD&D got me into the Pool of Radiance game which I finished a few times. Wasteland is another great RPG on the C64 that I played through a couple times.

Starsiege Tribes got me into online gaming, and then I played Tribes 2 probably more than any other game ever Those two games make it very difficult to enjoy most other online shooters, there's just no comparison with the freedom of movement and large maps. Dynamix was ahead of everyone else when it game to online shooters. T2 had a built-in community with news, email, IRC, team pages for recruiting and getting tags, in-game demo recording, and one of the best server browsers I've come across. They made an attempt at in-game voice chat too, though that didn't work out so well they were thinking ahead. I did later play a decent amount of Battlefield 2, and had tried BF 1942. There are some similarities, but I need a jetpack and spinfusor when I game  I've played some Tribes Vengeance, and am now dabbling in Tribes Ascend, though neither is as good as the Dynamix games. 

Everyone's just making lists and here I am going on and on   

[atariboy]

I love adventure, Survival horror, and puzzler games. What got me interested in these was the 7th Guest, 11th Hour, and Phantasmagoria. I thought they were the greatest games when they came out. For the puzzler side it was the Incredible Machine. even though the others had puzzler influence it got me to appreciate games like adventures of Lolo and the such.

[monochrome]

Platformers - Super Mario Bros. 3
Though I started with SMB 1, 3 was really when I knew I'd be playing alot more of these sorts of games.

Fighting - Street Fighter II
yeah.

Shooters - Space Harrier
I only had one opportunity to play Space Harrier in the arcade as a kid.. it was something I wouldn't have traded for anything.  Space Harrier is the primary reason I love the 32X to this day.

RPG - Suikoden
I tried to get into FF3 in its day, but just couldn't for some reason.  When Suikoden came out, I really got into its story of political intrigue, rebellion as well as gathering up (most) all 108 heroes.

Racing - Outrunners (arcade)
I'd walk the long way home from school, to the arcade, just to drop a few quarters in this machine everyday.

[kirbysuperstar]

Pretty much got me into gaming in general.

[tmagtuna]

Shmups: First Gradius on the NES, then "Lightening Force" (Thunder Force IV) on the Genesis and Gradius III on the SNES, and Mars Matrix on the DC really helped cement my love for the genre. Also Jamestown on Steam is really good!

2D Fighting: Pretty much the same as everyone: SFII. I first played it at a pizza shop, then SFII:Turbo/Championship on the SNES/GEN. I also really enjoy Alpha 3 and Capcom vs SNK on the DC, and Night Warriors (Darkstalkers) on the Saturn.

3D Fighting: Soul Calibur, Power Stone… and does Super Smash Bros/Melee count?

There are tons more, but I don’t want to go on forever, but other notable games are Contra, Super Mario 3, Ocarina of Time, Portal, Goldeneye 007 and Warcraft 2/Command & Conquer/Civilization II.