Genre Hopping

Inspired by the "Genre Aversions" discussion over at Gamers with Jobs, I posed the following question to the UKGamer crew...

Can we all dig deep and come up with 3 games (from the past or present) that encouraged us out of our comfort zone and to hop into a genre we wouldn't normally play in? Sort of, the game that inspired you to try something else, whether it be a totally new genre defining game, or whether its just a game that sucked you in and broke your normal game genre favourites. Sort of name the games, with genre, and then what was it about the game that pushed you into the genre hop.

Since then, I've been thinking long and hard about the genre hopping question I posed, and I must say with a memory like mine its difficult to come up with historically accurate examples of this.. however a few of them immediately stand out in my gaming history..

Tekken - FIGHTING

Which sort of hit me with a double whammy, because it was the game that not only introduced me to fighting games as a genre, but it was also the game that pushed me over the edge and into the money leeching caverns of console gaming. A friend and I had planned a weekend of renting an original Playstation console from Blockbuster, along with the game Tekken. We used my membership card and hefty deposit and began a costly adventure in console gaming. Needless to say, after that weekend, I purchased my first PSX console, and spent the rest of my life funding a life of gaming. I also joined the ukgamer mailing list, or psx-list as it was then. It was 1995.


NBA Live '96 - SPORTS

This PSX game was responsible for my mid-nineties obsession with basketball. And ultimately it lead me into other sports (mainly American ones), where previously I had not tread. As an early teen I was a computer nerd (Vic-20, Commodore 64 were my life), I was always so far away from sports of any kind, that they just didn't exist to me. 1996 and NBA Live '96 changed all that, in the game I found a competitive spirit I'd not seen before, I'd found a game that required team play, but from my own gamepad, personalities I could begin to collect and learn, cool moves and dunks. Suddenly I had stepped into a world of fandom and love for The Game. I began watching basketball, getting US shows on VHS tapes from a mail order company (because I couldn't source any TV with Toronto Raptors games over here). I began going to UK Basketball matches, and watching local basketball matches, as well as creating websites for local teams and generally soaking up all things bball. It broke the ice for me on the sports genre, and I began to eat it all up, with my NFL addicition floating to the surface much later. It even opened up my eyes to football, something I'd never have dreamed of watching, playing as a game..

Colin McRae - RACING

The original rally game on the PSX, was the only driving game I'd taken to, because of the muddy slide physics. Most other driving games left me cold. And although I did hop onto the driving genre for a bit, with Metropolitan Street Racer on the Dreamcast, and Gran Turismo on the PS2, I still only have limited success with driving games, and I tend to gravitate more to ones where you can engage in combat as well (such as the Twisted Metal games).

Sled Storm - PHYSICS RACING

With my foray into the racing genre, I become indirectly involved with other physics based racing genre's such as sledding - with Sled Storm being one of my favourites, the handling and feel of the Sled, and the amazing music that accompanied the game (Econoline Crush, Rob Zombie), I was hooked and was propelled into the world of snowboarding like Cool Boarders, hoverbiking like Jet Moto and speed boat racing like Rapid Racer.

Since I'm a gamer who has a PC gaming pedigree of strategy, roleplaying and action based shooters (FPS and third person) the above genre hops were really out of character and ultimately all console bourne.

Damn those consoles.