Two-Parter Question!!
1. What was a game that you remember fondly as a kid, but coming back to it now, you wonder why the heck you loved it so much?
2. What is a game that you had NEVER played before and got it either on a whim or recommendation and were blown away by?
I was recently thinking about the first part this on my recent play-through on a certain game. I loved it as a kid, but coming back to it as an adult it was frustrating and strangely unsatisfying. I found mechanics in the game difficult to get used to and faults that I had either over-looked or had gotten used to as a kid.
That game? Super Mario 64. I know, right? It's remembered as a classic! Not to mention, pretty much any "Top however-many Mario Games" list has the game on it, with many of them near the top in contention with Super Mario World and Super Mario 3!
But yeah, Mario 64... I would spend hours on this trying to collect all the stars in Tick-Tock Clock, or trying to find all the Secret Castle Stars.... But coming back to it now, the camera was probably my biggest complaint. It rarely goes where you need or want it. You have some control over it... sometimes... And I found that many of my deaths were happening because I couldn't see what was happening - and particularly annoying after using the first-person perspective to look first. Now, despite all this, the game is entertaining and quite enjoyable, but certainly fell quite a few spots on my "Top however-many Mario Games" list.
On the flip-side of that, I was blown away by Earthbound. I had never played it as a kid, but got it just about a year ago for my birthday from my wife. LOVED it! And, what's more, my wife liked watching the story and game develop as I played through it - how awesome is that?! It was actually the first game that I recall playing where I was legimately disappointing when I had finished it because it meant I was done. I'm wanting to start a new game on it soon since I missed the super rare items and such, but primarily just to play it again. It was, in a word, fantastic.