Can you recall any games you missed out on that you found several years later, and have become one of your favorites or favorite franchises? The catch for this topic is that they couldn't be new releases at the time you found them. Bonus points if they were at least a console generation old.
I'll bullet list and categorize mine for maximum readability. n.nb
I never owned a Nintendo Entertainment System growing up, I was on Sega's side (because it did what Nintendon't, etc (actually, not really)). So to play any oldies, they were either played by "other" means, or I played them at friends' houses years later.
Super Famicom:
And that'll segue into the final group...
Scrolling Shooter (Hori/Vertical/Danmaku):
I'll bullet list and categorize mine for maximum readability. n.nb
I never owned a Nintendo Entertainment System growing up, I was on Sega's side (because it did what Nintendon't, etc (actually, not really)). So to play any oldies, they were either played by "other" means, or I played them at friends' houses years later.
- Mega Man 1 - 6, with 4 coming out of it as my favorite even today.
- River City Ransom
- Most importantly to me, Kirby's Adventure, the one Kirby game I missed out on in my youth for legitimate reasons. Playing this for the first time was amazing.
- "Earthbound Zero". I'm lucky enough to have played EB when it was relatively new, finding this really upped the series for me, though.
Super Famicom:
- TwinBee Rainbow Bell Adventure
- Rockman and Forte
- Kirby's kirakira KIDS
- Gokujou Parodius
- Darkstalkers. Discovered this in 2004 or so? Favorite fighting game series ever since. Need more fighting games with so many of the animation principles recognized.
- Parodius Da, Gokujou Parodius and Sexy Parodius
- Pop'n Music. To be fair, I couldn't play this series anyway not being Japanese. Still, it was awesome when I finally did. The PnM Portable line was one of the best decisions Bemani ever came up with. And I'll segue that into...
- Rhythm Tengoku. I've touched on this one enough times.
- TwinBee Portable. Mostly acquired because I was so into the Parodius series. Really fun stuff, Pop'n Twinbee is hot, but Yahho! and Da! (the remake, yes yes "Patrick don't you hate remakes" I get it) are great stuff. Buying this led me to try Rainbow Bell Adventure mentioned above.
- Parodius Portable, if only for Parodius MSX and the PSX version of Jikkyou Oshaberi Paro.
- Salamander Portable. Salamander 2 is good for a quick fix, but my God that soundtrack by Naoki Maeda. One of my favorite soundtracks ever. Dear Blue kills so very hard. The Japanese can't get enough of Sensation, though. XEXEX is the only reason to really have this game, though. I didn't buy it for that reason, but after playing it, it quickly shot up to one of my favorite games of all time. My jaw dropped from the beginning and stayed down the whole time, especially knowing this was a 1991 release. Also, another winning soundtrack as well, holy crap.
- DoDonPachi Ressurection. Music's great, but I wasn't impressed initially. I'll come back to this, though.
And that'll segue into the final group...
Scrolling Shooter (Hori/Vertical/Danmaku):
- Gradius Collection. I got Gradius II/IV/Gaiden out of that. IV's smooth soundtrack makes great working music.
- Deathsmiles, a recent find. Like Salamander 2, great soundtrack discovery. However, the gameplay is addictive as well. If I didn't vaguely know that it was some kind of shooter beforehand, I'd've passed it up. This game got me intrested in Cave as a developer.
- Deathsmiles IIX. Not as fun to me, a weaker soundtrack, but I still like to play it every now and again since it's easier. The penultimate track, "Elegy..." is a beautiful song, though.
- DonPachi, played once at a specialty arcade, didn't care for it, but I played it again recently, and it's not bad.
- DoDonPachi, same as above. It had to grow on me.
- DoDonPachi Dai-Ou-Jou. The first DonPachi to really get me. This is also what I'm playing currently, and practicing at like a madman. Thanks to Dai-Ou-Jou, it got me to replay the others, and now I'm starting to see what the fuss over this franchise is about. Can't get enough of the DOJ soundtrack and arrangements. I haven't played my Xbox 360 in a while, but now I wanna try Daifukkatsu/Resurrection again, especially Black Label, and give it a second chance. Afterall, I've always liked DFK's soundtrack regardless, both white and black labels, so at least the game's music keeps me in. Plus, I appreciate the scrolling tricks in DFK now that I think about it.