My early years were dominated by GameCube, especially Mario Kart: Double Dash and Super Mario Sunshine. Both the system and games are within arms reach right now and I still play them occasionally.

I also have a great fondness for Lego Racers 2. It had a great open world and exciting races with entertaining and effective mechanics. Shame I lost the disc a few years ago.

I'm sure that my mind changed based on the age I was and the system my parents owned.  We were never really a gaming family and so we didn't play games often.  I remember, for example... loving Lemmings on the Amiga.  And I remember enjoying WATCHING my siblings play games on gameboys.

I think, however, that I -really- got into games when we had the N64.  Although I won't play it anymore, my favorite (by a close call) was Zelda: OoT.  I was TERRIBLE at it and could hardly make it past that first boss in the tree.  With much, much work, I could make it to the lizard-like boss that swallowed bombs.  As hard as I tried...  I never could make it beyond there.  I loved watching my siblings make it further, and always wished I could do better.

I think one thing that really captured me with Zelda: OoT was the ability to explore lands and not be stuck to strictly linear game play.  (Yes, it was linear, but it was also flexible.)

The first game I ever really played was Fire Emblem, and it continues to be one of my favourites. For my 13th birthday, one of my dad's coworkers gave me a used GBA SP with 7-8 games, including Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword and Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones. I'd be scared to find out how many hours I invested into those two games, lol, I'd expect at least 2-4 thousand in each game. Fire Emblem was love, Fire Emblem was life.

Kirby's Adventure, it was the first game I found online that I could actually beat compared to me trying to finish the original Super Mario Bros. Though, I was never able to save on the ROM site so the farthest I ever got was Butter building. When I was 11 I started playing it for the first time. This was around the time that Kirby's Epic Yarn was going to be released in the United States, so I did know that Kirby existed, but unlike anyone else I thought Kirby was the most violent video game character alive (not like swallowing enemies alive and whole into a black stomach abyss is violent). I saw him turning into a tank and being a vehicle of destruction and sought to never play that game (funny enough my Mom I think bought the game a year after it's release). So when I viewed all the online ROMs of the site and saw there was a Kirby game there my mom came into the room and asked what I was doing. I replied, "It's a Kirby game. I just going to play it to see how DUMB it is!". I got sucked into the game and forgot whatever misconceptions I had about Kirby. My brother and I obsessively played this game everyday in our free time. My brother, who was 7 at the time, found out that Kirby could copy abilities which sparked me even more with possibilities in the game. I've never actually finished the game to this day, however I do have Kirby's Dream Collection and I'm on the final level at the moment. 

I think my favorite game when I was young(er) was Super Smash Bros. Melee for GameCube. I loved the original too but that one I got to put in probably 1,000 hours on playing with friends. If I could practice for a few weeks to break off the rust and go into a World Championship for that game, I would ruin so many people's day. I always played as Link, and I've never played anyone who could beat me. I remember sitting in my room alone for days at a time after school doing 1 vs 3 AI on hardest difficulty.
My favorite of this generation ( I haven't played past PS3 / XBOX 360 ) is for sure The Last of Us. The story and character interaction is 10/10 (personally I think the game is 10/10 in every category, except maybe length, but you can only fit so much into a game) and I love nothing more than Stealth kills

When I was younger My 2 favorite games were Dragon Ball Z budokai 3 and Mario kart double dash I could play those games for hours I would most likely still would if I was not playing mine craft so much.

My favorite childhood game would have to be Spyro: Year of the Dragon. Everything about was appealing to me; from the story and it's characters to it's rollerskating park and shooter mini-games. I used to play it all the time and see how far I'd go without saving ('cause we didn't have a Playstation 1 only a 2). The farthest I was able to make it without saving was to Midnight Mountain's name reveal (I didn't explore any deeper). I was too traumatized and heart-broken by the previous boss because he used to be a rhino. The main antagonist turned him into this.

There were a lot of games I really liked but the one that stood out me one when I was younger was Pokemon Collosseum. I was obsessed with Pokemon but didn't really get any chance to play any of the games because we couldn't afford any, but then my brother surprised me by getting a gamecube and some games this being one of them. I loved it from the start, in fact I remember playing the game so much that the disc eventually broke which was a sad day for little Zlinqx. I never managed to beat it because I was at the final challenge when it happened and I haven't played it ever since. 

Hoping Nintendo makes a 3ds remake or something of it and Gale of Darkness, likely has no chance of actually happening but I can dream or at least a port of the games like an HD collection or something of the sort would be nice. It's probably not nearly as good as my nostalgia makes it out to be but I would still like to relive it.

kittehnat : back in my childhood days I enjoyed playing arcade games like space invaders dig dug and moon patrol on my ATARI since a lot of these games were made when I was in my childhood years then in 86 I got a NINTENDO and started to play adventure island the legend of ZELDA and ZELDA 2 the adventure of link even to this day I still enjoy playing the older games especially here on Viz

My favorite childhood game would have to be Super Mario Sunshine! I remember playing this game the most and all the time as a kid! It's a true classic!

Wow. I am the only one so far who has a non-mainstream favourite childhood game. My favorite game as a kid was Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers for the Super Nintendo. Alongside TMNT IV: Turtles in Time, and Super Mario World. We owned more but those were the only ones I really liked. I was pretty good at video games, but for literally every one I owned there was a level that I just couldn't beat, because I would die all the time in the same places. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was the first game that I ever actually finished, and I am a master at it. Once I broke the barrier and beat my first game, I slowly got better and managed to beat more games I owned. Now I am a pretty skilled player. I owe my gaming life to this one video game.

no 8120 : Yeah I love my Zelda games I'm waiting till I can afford a controller for the pc to go back and play the older systems due to using the keyboard is a bit complicated for me to grasp with the variety of buttons that would be on a n64 controller. I love the fact I found this site its good to just blow off some steam with all games located in the one place rather than digging out the old consoles and finding the games to go with it lol

My favourite childhood games ? Mario series ,ninja gaiden series, shadow of the ninja, ninja turtles series,contra series,nintendo world cup  and fire bird !

I loved numerous games when I was younger and I know this is cliche but Pokemon has always had a special place in my heart. The first Pokemon game I played was Silver but I don't think I really fell in love with Pokemon until Emerald. I loved playing Smash Bros. Melee, Sarge's Heroes, and Mario Kart but there was just something about being able to play Pokemon anytime and anywhere that really sucked me into Pokemon. I'd play it on the bus after school, on long car rides, late at night when I was supposed to be asleep, etc. I still play it occasionally to this day and I've retained all the Pokemon knowledge that I learned in my childhood.

I played so many different games in my childhood the most notable are Pokemon Emerald, Ratchet and Clank Up Your Arsenal, Super Mario 64, Mario Power Tennis, Luigi Mansion, Mario Kart Double Dash, and Super Smash Bros. Melee so as you can clearly see this was no easy choice for me. If I had to pick one though it would be Banjo Tooie because I invested a lot of time into that game compared to my other childhood games and I remember loving it in my childhood. Additionally whenever I play this game I can't help but feeling nostalgic and it really brings back so many great childhood memories as well. Too bad it was developed by a company who Nintendo gave to Microsoft because if it wasn't for that Banjo Tooie would've had a worthy successor but I occasionally have my doubts that we probably wouldn't have been able to play a fourth game in the series with the third being the game on the GBA.

I think my favorite childhood games would be the original Namco Museum on PS2 and Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus also on PS2.

I was raised on the arcade classics featured in Namco Museum, and I still love them to this day.  Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus was actually the first video game I ever beat all the way through.

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For me it has to be Banjo-Kazooie.

It was the first game that absolutely amazed me. I've played games before then, but nothing that interested me for a variety of reasons. Most of which boiled down to me being bad at the games(Sonic, Mario, some Lion King Game) or me not understanding the game(Zelda). But Banjo-Kazooie came out around a time when I was seriously getting into video games.

And the me as a kid thought it was magic. Everything from the bright colors to the music had me captivated. It was so different from what I played when I was extremely young(the games mentioned earlier came out when I was around two or three). I could actually move freely around, I could jump on pretty much anything. It felt like I was in a wide open world without any limits. The cute characters and cartoon graphics really helped with my enjoyment of the game as well. Usually Mario 64 invokes these kinds of feelings in people, but I'll be honest I never owned that game as a child(weird I know).

My mom also played it so when I myself wasn't playing I'd watch her and vice-versa. We really bonded over this game another reason why I hold is so dear.

It would be WAY too hard to nail it down to just one game. But I'll be unfair to myself and nail it down to just two. Spyro and Crash Bandicoot were probably my favorite games as a kid, both for the playstation 1. I wasn't blessed with the N64 or gamecube as a kid so all I had experience with was GB and PS games. As well as Runescape for PC.

I played a lot of games as a little kid, so it's hard to pinpoint which one is still my favourite today...
Wait. No it isn't.
Paper Mario. Pokemon XD is a close second, but Paper Mario is just that little bit more to me. The characters were fun and unique, the battle system was amazing, and only got more polished in the second game... I'm pretty sure I still have one save file with over 99 hours on it. Over 90 of those hours were just spent grinding trying to beat Huff N Puff. As awkward as it is coming back to the original after Thousand Year Door, the original is still one of my favourites to play when I feel like living out nostalgia.