Community: What Was Your First Ever Nintendo Game?

Super Mario Bros of course

NES was the first console I ever played. Nintendo 64 was the first I ever owned. I saved for a year when I was 11 to buy one. Super Mario Bros was my first game... and Super Mario 64 the first one I bought.

My first memory ever with Nintendo video games, is playing Super Mario Bros. 3 on my aunt's NES back in the day. I wanted to play it every time I went there, it was awesome. And then I got a Super Nintendo with Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World as my first Nintendo console and game. I was hooked.

Super mario 64 got it with the system christmas of 96 first game I bought was pokemon stadium yeah it took a 4 months of allowance but hey what can you expect of a then 7 year old nintendo fan

Mario Kart DS. Still my favourite game, and in my opinion easily the best in the Mario Kart franchise

I remember getting the NES, Super Mario Bros/Duckhunt cartridge, and a light gun on Christmas morning back in the 80s. My first Nintendo experience.

I grew up with two older brothers who had an N64 and eventually each got a GBC… so started watching and playing Nintendo games as soon as I was capable of, well, being a functioning human lol. I’m not sure what the first game I ever played was but it was probably Pokémon Red/Blue or a multiplayer N64 game.

So many good memories. I really wish I could experience being a child playing games with my brothers again.

First one developed by Nintendo was probably for me Pokemon Diamond on DS

I didn't play a ton of Nintendo games growing up since my household was mostly a PlayStation-playing household outside of a brief encounter with a GameCube at a McDonald's kiosk in the early 2000's (the DS Lite was my first Nintendo console I ever owned), so my first exposures to platformers and the like were from stuff such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Crash Bandicoot, LittleBigPlanet and Ratchet & Clank. By the time I got exposed to Mario Kart likewise with the Wii entry, I was already into arcade-y style racers thanks to the likes of ModNation Racers and the Burnout series. To Pokemon's credit, it was the first RPG I played but not the one that would get me to become a fan of the genre, which ended up being Persona 3 Portable and later Final Fantasy X

Played the original Legend of Zelda at a friend’s house when I was 8. I was hopelessly hooked and we got an NES the following Christmas.

Super Mario Bros. 3

Nintendogs on the DS lol. I realised how creative Nintendo is and I fell in love ever since.

Super Mario Bros. 2 or Super Mario USA as they call in it Japan and also Zelda II. I got a NES bundle with both sequels back in the day.

My first game was Nintendogs! Somehow I reached age 7 without anyone telling me about Mario, Zelda or Pokemon… thankfully a friend finally introduced me to Nintendo via adorable virtual puppies

The Zelda from the N64.

Does Donkey Kong on my dad's Atari 2600 count? That was my first exposure I remember.

Later I played a lot of NES games at friends' houses.

The first game that was actually MINE was Donkey Kong Jr Game & Watch.

The first full fledged Nintendo system I owned was Gameboy and the first game I ever beat was Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins.

Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles (UK-based here) and Gradius were my first 2 NES games I got with my console back in the early 90s. Amassed quite a collection back then with personal faves includes Super Mario Bros 2, Zelda, Chip n Dale, Captain Skyhawk and more. My biggest surprises are the fact I never owned SMB or SMB3 but the time I was old enough to choose my own games, the SNES had made its way into my life.

It was the NES Super Mario Bros. The very 1st conscience thought I had, where I knew, games would be a part of me for the rest of my life. I was 12. I’m 48

I was really to young when I played my first Nintendo game, but I remember that it was a Wii game. It might've been Mario Kart Wii or Wii Sports, but I completely forgot.

As for the first Nintendo game I owned (instead of playing a relative's console), I'm almost certain that it was New Super Mario Bros Wii.

My very first NINTENDO game was Donkey Kong on the Atari 2600. Other than that, Super Mario Bros and the NES. Guess I'm old.

Mario Bros. And most of us here are pretty old @JLPick , haha. Don't feel bad.

Donkey Kong on the Colecovision Christmas 83. Good Times 😁

I got a 3ds with Pokémon ultra sun around the time it came out, Ultra sun is still one of my favourite games of all time

My first (handheld) console was Gameboy Advance sp, i was 3 when i started gaming
I don't really remember what i played first but i think it's Super Mario Bros or Zelda

The Cube so probably Luigi’s Mansion IIRC.

The old Game & Watch. I still have most of them to this day.

I started with Pokémon Alpha Sapphire.

The ds was my first video game console, and the first game I played on it was a shovelware ninjas game in 2008, only 4 at that time. Played that and the wii for a while. I only seriously got into video games with the 3ds, as of 4 years ago, and the switch I got 2 years ago.

My first console was a Wii, so my first game would be Twilight Princess.

The first time I ever played a Nintendo game was on a DS my friend had. The first Nintendo console I owned, which was the first time I actively played Nintendo games, was the Wii and it came with NSMBW.

It's hard to know for sure, since I had an older brother who owned a GBC probably from shortly after I was born. The first game I actually remember playing is Pokemon Yellow. My brother let ne play on a new game, as long as I didn't save over his new file, but I didn't realize that messing with the PC would save the game. Oops. I could read from a very young age, but I guess my comprehension wasn't always there

I played my friend's NES - Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt. It blew away the Atari I thought I wanted at that age. That Xmas, we had a brand new shiny NES plugged into the TV. Best Xmas present I ever got.

Super Mario Bros. 3, when I was reaaaally young lol. I loved it so much!
However, the game that really showed me what Nintendo was capable of was Zelda: A Link to the Past. One of the finest games I've ever played.

As I was born in the early 80s I must have played Super Mario Bros on NES at least once at a display stand in a shop. My friend had a Game Boy and I remember playing Tetris, Super Mario Land, Double Dragon and Fortress of Fear.

I’m terms of owning a Nintendo game, my little sister got a Game Boy (I already had a Game Gear) and her first games were Tetris and Super Mario Land, so naturally I got to play them too. However, my first Nintendo system of my own was a Game Boy in 1996 that came with Killer Instinct and Star Wars.

I didn’t actually get my first Nintendo console until 1998, which was an N64 with Star Wars Shadows of the Empire. Before that I was strictly a SEGA kid!

Gyromite for the NES

you know…that one of two games that actually utilized R.O.B.

My first game was the NES super Mario 3 pack In.

Super Mario & Duck Hunt were my first ones!

NINJA APPROVED

Kung Fu, and the rest have been all downhill 😄

I selected NES, but that comes with an asterisk since my first actual Nintendo game was Donkey Kong in the arcade when I was 4-5. As far as home consoles, it was the NES, and the first game I played was SMB. Blew my mind and have been Nintendo gaming since.

my first console was a Game Boy Color that my beloved late grandfather gave me in my 6th birthday with Super Mario Bros Deluxe.

Honestly? Breath Of The Wild - Switch is my first console in, like, 25 years.

The first Nintendo game I played was Mario Bros....on Atari 2600.

I remember watching Super Mario Bros. on a NES time later and thinking "oh is the same one from the Atari?"

My first game was Super Mario Land on a friend's game boy when I was on holidays with my family. The year after I can still remember how we went to a shop in the nearest town (I grew up in a very small village) and the shopkeeper showed us another, cheaper portable gaming device (I think it was a Gamate, but I'm not really sure). But Mario was way to attractive and so my parents bought one for me and one for my sister. I remember, beside Mario Land, we got "Bubble Ghost", a game I loved... This brings back wonderful childhood memories

"Mediocrity vs Mediocrity vs Zelda"

Well that's a funny thing to call the Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World cartridge on the SNES.

Though ok I did play Duck Hunt on NES at my cousins' before we got a SNES.

Donkey Kong in the arcades, then the Colecovision conversion on a display console in Hamleys…

The first Nintendo game I've ever played was Lego star wars the complete saga on Nintendo DS looking back it's kinda funny that's the first video game I literally ever played. After that I got new super Mario Bros for it and have loved Mario ever since. Kinda funny because I also got into Pokemon and Kirby but didn't get into Zelda until link between worlds on 3ds which is now one of my favorite games ever. But starting on the ds makes it my favorite console I love the thing to death

I'm not sure, it was so long ago. I think it was Super Mario 64 DS or maybe Mario Kart Wii. Either way, the memories I made from those games will be a part of me forever.

I have a hard time remembering which console I played on first. I think my first exposure was at this after-school program when I was in kindergarten. They had an N64 there and I used to watch some of the kids try and make it to the end of StarFox 64, but I never played it myself until years later. I also have a bit more vivid memories of playing smash bros melee on my cousin's Gamecube as well. The first console that I actually owned myself was the Nintendo Wii!

I first tried out the NES at a family friend's house, and the first game I ever played was Trojan (the Capcom arcade game). It was bad, and I probably should have tried a different game, but our visit there was brief, at least from what I remember.

Super Mario Bros, I suppose, although borrowed - ironically, I don't recall actually owning it on a cartridge. IIRC we did have Duck Hunt later, though. Come to think of it, these two, Wild Gunman and Mario Bros (all four being common choices for multigame cartridges) were the extent of Nintendo I would know for years. Stuff like Zelda or Metroid never seemed to show up on bootleg shelves of Minsk, so my acquaintance with them was only through cheat/guide compilations popular back then (linked is the one I had as a kid, although my copy actually looks comparatively better off these days - but I don't feel like tinkering around with photo hosters now), and I remember my imagination picturing Zelda quite differently based on these descriptions than what it was actually like.😄

The broken SNES we briefly had (while my engineer father gave it a revival attempt) came with a few first party classics since they were distributed in the neighbouring Russia officially by then, if nonetheless still as exotic over here as the platform itself. A Link to the Past, Super Mario World, Star Fox... too bad none of it worked on the dying machine. Father only briefly succeeded in having it process the Desert Strike cartridge for a tangible while, a game we were impressed by and would later get for Mega Drive in the early Noughties. But my experience with Nintendo games, slightly advanced via Super Mario Land on my friend's GBC, would otherwise remain this superfluous all the way until I discovered emulation years later.

Maybe this is why I can be so nostalgic and/or fond of Nintendo hardware without much of the typically bundled reverence for Nintendo games - they just had a tad bit smaller impact on my gaming childhood. My happiest 8 bit memories are dominated by the legacy of third parties like Capcom and Konami, Kemco and Namcot, Virgin Games and SNK (the latter produced Iron Tank, the OG Battlefield 1942 - or technically 1944 - of my childhood😆). Nintendo games I mostly hold in high regard for what I know they did, including how they paved the way for pretty much everything I listed above. Personal bias would come much later as I discovered the likes of Fire Emblem, Sin & Punishment and Xenoblade.

I think it was super Mario land on game boy as my first Nintendo franchise that I played, did a play through the other day in about 30 mins! Xx simple fun good times xxx

My first experience was Mario / Duck Hunt on someone else’s NES.

My first owned experience was a Game Boy with Tetris, Mario Land, Double Dragon, Duck Tales and Fall of the Foot Clan

Apparently I'm the same age as Zion lol As a wee babe I was introduced to the SNES and luckily a strong lineup of games. If I had to guess my first, it would probably be Super Mario All-Stars or Kirby Super Star.

Probably duck hunt and mario bros but thru some cheap knock off plug n play boxes that they'd sell a lot in swap meets

Are we counting the hotel box with Mario Kart 64, F-Zero, and DKC2? ... and if so, as what? MK64 definitely the first and biggest draw there, for me.

Other than that, my first console was a Wii so probably Wii Sports was the first thing we booted up.

I was born into my 3 older siblings owning a SNES, but we missed out on the N64. We all shared the GCN when that came around, but the Wii was the first home console I personally owned. My older siblings also each had a GB Pocket, but my first handheld was the GBC. The first two games that my family owned were Super Mario Kart & Super Mario Land (due to the Super Game Boy), the first game I played was the former, but the first console game I had to myself was Super Smash Bros. Melee. I believe that the first handheld game I individually owned was Donald Duck: Quack Attack.

First games were Mario Bros, Duck Hunt, Teenage Ninja Turtles, and Sunsoft's Batman, all on the NES.

I'm afraid I am in the "old" category...

I think my first taste of Nintendo was Donkey Kong in the arcades, then lots more Donkey Kong on our Colecovision at home. Around that time also an awesome uncle gave me and my sister each a Game & Watch one Xmas in the early eighties. (Mine was a green & silver Donkey Kong Jr.)

Later I played Super Mario Bros. and Goonies 2 and a few other Nintendo games on a PlayChoice 10 machine at the local bowling alley. It was eye-opening - compared to the arcade titles of the time those NES games were so primitive-looking, but paced differently and a different kind of fun! I knew right away I wanted to save up and get my own NES console at home.

My first personal purchase of a Nintendo game came a few months later - an NES console packed with one controller and SMB. I bought Excitebike at the time, too. Very memorable because I worked for my dad and saved up all summer to afford those!

Many MANY purchases later, I still love playing Nintendo!

I'm still remember my Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt cartridge who was my first experience with videogames.

I'm still hate the Duck Hunt dog!

It was super smash bros brawl, first nintendo game and first video game, I ever played.

Looks like most of the people that visit this site skew older, I'm guessing most of you are nearly hitting if not already in your 40s?

Anyways I got my first taste with Super Mario World when my dad bought me an SNES. I bet he regrets that day now. 😈

I was a 2000s kid playing her parents' NES. I only played it a handful of times, but Mario 1 and Duck Hunt were my first games.

Admittedly, my time playing video games during that era was so sporadic that I didn't REALLY get into gaming until the late Wii era.

Technically the Atari was my first video game experience, with the likes of Qbert and Arkanoid. However, that was technically more of the ‘family’ console. The NES was the first true console my sister and I received and poured hundreds of hours into. As expected, Super Mario Bros was my first love, followed closely by Legend of Zelda and Metroid. We didn’t have many games back then and resorted to renting when possible, so I was able to dedicate obscene amounts of time exploring every nook and cranny of those game worlds.

On a side note, I’m impressed by the number of people on here who first owned and played a NES. I guess I would have expected a slightly younger audience.

I had a gameboy that came with tetris and Boulder Dash . When i bought my gameboy Electronics Boutique was giving Boulder Dash free with any console / computer sold.

I wasn't born in the 80's but I had older siblings introduce me to the NES as a kid and Super Mario Bros was the first Nintendo game I ever played

NES for me and I think the game was either Contra or Super Mario Bros!

SNES afterwards and the first game was either A Link to the Past or Super Mario World.

N64 next with Banjo Tooie.

NGC and Super Mario Sunshine

Wii and Wii Sports

Finally, Switch and Breath of the Wild.

Damn I feel old lol 😆

NES bundle with R.O.B. the Robot and the Light Gun. We had Gyromite and Duck Hunt as our first games. I remember being so frustrated trying to operate the robot. It was impossible. Then we figured out we could use the 2nd controller in gyromite as a two player co-op and it was much more fun.

My older brother paved the way by getting an N64 around the time that I was born. So I grew up playing Smash Bros. and watching OoT!

My brother and I got a Game Boy each for Christmas, then the NES followed. The GB was bundled with Tetris but we were allowed an additional game. They were Turtles Fall of the foot clan and Super Mario Land.

NES with Super Mario Bros and Duck Hunt on the same cartridge

I started with the Game & Watches (and still actually have them all). The first one I had was Donkey Kong, although while I don’t sadly have the original box I was able to buy a repro for it.

I first got the NES when I was a kid. My dad told me to pick 2 games to go with it (the NES model I got didn’t come with a game). I ended up picking Kid Niki & Deadly Towers.

Kid Niki was great! Deadly Towers was…did I mention Kid Niki was great?

@Goat_FromBOTW You lucky boi.

Donkey Kong Country 3. A friend's parent had given/sold to my parents a SNES with games. The very first game me and my mum tried was DKC3. Also had Super Mario World and ALTTP. I remember beating Super Mario World first, and the furthest I got with ALTTP was the fight with Agahnim.

It was a good one, maybe the best: SMB3

Marble madness and monster party. Accompanied with a nes max, best Christmas ever!

First Nintendo game I owned was Hogans Alley…my mom purchased an NES and didn’t know about the Mario Bros/Duckhunt bundle. I was pretty devastated , we later traded it in for the Super Mario Bros/ Duckhunt version and the rest is history. Owned every system since.

Super Mario World was the first one I owned. I may have played one of the NES Mario games (probably 3) somewhere else before I got my SNES though. I’m not sure. I still love Super Mario World.

Dragon Warrior

The Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt cart that came with our NES, which I'm almost still surprised my parents bought us to this day

A game boy and pokemon blue started my gaming addiction.

It was NES and me and my sister bought it with lawnmower money. It had Super Mario bros and Duck Hunt. My mom got me Kidicarus and my sister got Metroid. My older brother worked at Circus World and we got a 20% discount. We played Mario first and didn’t stop. For Christmas we got The Legend of Zelda and Popeye. At first, I didn’t really get into Zelda. I did not not know what to do. I was eight. We played Popeye. Little did I know I would be drawing maps of the over world and trying to find every secret 🤫 of that beautiful golden cartridge.

Perhaps you're old and started out with the Game & Watch, NES or Game Boy - ouch. My first console was a NES but I wouldn't say I was old at 43!!! Super Mario Bros or TMNT, can't remember which one I played first. Memory not what it was.......

Super Mario world and I was blown away still one of my favourite games even now everyone had mega drives at school so I had one but SMW was the first game I felt an attachment to

SNES in 1992 when I was 3 years old. My mom was very grateful for videogames since they made me stay in one place for more than five minutes. Still have that ol' yellow console

My first ever Nintendo game was a combination of my GameBoy with Super Mario Land and Tetris. I got them as a package for my birthday all those years ago.

And up until I got myself a GameCube I was was handheld only. And I had every handheld from the GameBoyColor era until the Switch. (and every console from the GameCube)

Super Mario Land for Game Boy, oh the times..

I'm pretty sure the first Nintendo game I played was Super Mario Bros 3. I had an Atari 2600, Spectrum 128k then Master System through the 80's so I never experienced Nintendo games until the turn of the 90's. If I remember correctly, my first time playing on a Nintendo console was when I swapped my MS for a friend's NES. He had Blades of Steel too, along with a few others including the original SMB. I'm positive SMB3 was what I played first though.

Mario bros wii on my birthday with my siblings. I was the only one who could reach the Larry mid castle and was able to beat larry

@Goat_FromBOTW yeah, man, you probably are lol. Reading a comment about someone having memories (from when he was 12 years old) about animal crossing new horizons is mesmerizing af.

Octopus, Game & Watch. But the very first Nintendo games I played were Donkey Kong and Punch-Out!, in the arcades.

First console I remember having as a family was a NES. I don't remember exactly when we got it. I was very young and really only remember it just being there. First game was the SMB/Duck Hunt combo cartridge.

My first home console bought specifically for me was the Super Nintendo (I had gotten a Game Boy a few years earlier). While there are consoles after that I have greater affection for, I will never forget that Christmas opening it up. I remember wanting it, but not necessarily asking for it. So it was a genuine surprise

Mario Bros. Although I didn't really get to play at first. My aunt who was baby sitting me wouldn't let me play, but gave me the second controller and told me I was controlling the goombas.

N64 is my first Nintendo console, along with my first console ever, that and the Sega Genesis. First game I remember playing was Banjo Kazooie which to this day is my favourite game of all time. Also have really old memories of Pokémon stadium, mario party etc.

First Nintendo game I played was SMB 3 with my older cousins. What an epic experience for someone that never played a videogame up to that point. First Nintendo centric game I owned was WCW/NWO Revenge. What.a.game. Still play today!

My first games were;

NES - Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt
Gameboy - Tetris
SNES - Super Mario World
N64 - Super Mario 64
Gameboy Colour - Pokémon Yellow
GameCube - Burnout
Gameboy Advance - Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo
Wii - Twilight Princess (excluding Wii Sports)
DS - New Super Mario Bros
Wii U - Zombi U
3DS - Super Mario 3D Land
Switch - Breath of The Wild

Only through making this list have I realised just how much of first party game fanboy I actually am. 😂

Donkey kong where mario was in.
I dont know for sure if it was on arcade or NES.
After that was mario. Mario was my plumber hero who could defeat every enemy lol.
I also loved the mario cartoons.

Kirby's dream land was my first nintendo game and my first ever game at like...5? and I remember thinking it was really difficult when I first played it! I also didn't touch another kirby game for a really long time and, when I saw him in melee (I had a PS1 instead of a 64 so I missed smash 64), I was so blown away seeing him copy abilities, have a hammer, a sword. I was like where the heck did this guy come from?!

The NES with Mario/Duck hunt was my first. The original Castlevania was also gifted to me at the same time.

1st owned game Donkey Kong Jr. Game & Watch.
1st played Nintendo game would probably be Donkey Kong at the pizza shop.

NES and Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt. Great memories!

Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt, Rad Gravity and apparently Gauntlet on the NES were the first games I liked playing according to my father, especially the latter.

But it was really the SNES where I started to get to a point where I was actually old enough to start understanding what I was doing (My father sold the NES by then) and I enjoyed the basic platformers and classics that mostly everyone played but I really started to get into the RPGs like Chrono Trigger and Breath of Fire 2 as well, at first I barely understood them but I liked watching my father play and through that I also learned to play those games myself. I did finish Chrono Trigger around the age of 6.

My first introduction ever to video games was either Super Mario World from a cousin's SNES or Sonic the Hedgehog from another cousin's Master System. The first one I actually owned was Donkey Kong Country.

First Nintendo game, I'm not really sure of, but I know it was the NES. We had a collection of games, most of them were third party.

This makes me sound older than I am, though. Lol. I was born in the late 80s and when I would have formed these early childhood memories of playing the NES, it couldn't have been any earlier than 1993 or 1994, which was quite some time after the SNES came out. My family just didn't get a SNES until later.

Wario Land II for the Game Boy Color. Great game.

I'm offended "Dokey Kong/Radar Scope Arcade Cabinet" is not an offered option in the poll!

But it's still funny that the poll is overwhelmingly in favor of NES. It never seemed like the active users here are so dominantly in the right age group.

I have memories of either TMNT or SMB3 on the NES. It’ll be one of those two I think but not sure which. I can’t remember, I’m old.

Super Mario Land 2 on the good old Gameboy Pocket!

I started off on the GameCube with Super Mario Sunshine, had absolutely no clue what other Nintendo franchises were except that they were represented in Smash. At the time, I was more of a Sonic fan.

But I truly became a Nintendo fan when the Wii came out. There, I also became a Zelda fan.

Mario will have been most everyone’s first Nintendo game as it came with the system back then.

Super Mario 64 for me

Donkey Kong Jr. Game & Watch

I think Mario Bros (attention not Super Mario) in 1986 on Atari 2600 since in Italy the NES was released the following year. however it was pretty damn well converted and in 2 players it was a lot of fun

My earliest memories are from being at a friends house who had a SNES, and playing Mario World and DKC. The first games I ever personally owned were Pokémon Blue and Yellow. My parents got this bundle that included the console, both games, and the strategy guide for Christmas. I still have that guide, and let’s just say you can tell it was heavily used

I got my 1st system when I moved out for college.

But at college I didn't have a TV, so no way to use a set-top console.

So I got a Nintendo Game Boy and it came with Tetris!

Saved me a lot of quarters versus playing Tetris on the arcade machine at the college bar.

As for the 1st Nintendo game, it was probably that baseball game for the NGB. LOL.

Years later, when I had kids we got the Nintendo GameCube. And we had Mario Sunshine, Mario Kart Double Dash, Super Smash Melee. Still have the NGC and our favourite games.

SMB/Duck Hunt/Track

Mine are probably the two player boxing game and watch thing with two circular controllers that fit inside the closed system, Donkey Kong for Atari 2600, and whatever the first Nintendo game was that I played at a friend's house (probably Super Mario Bros and Excitebike). My favorite memories are going to Kmart to try to buy Castlevania 3, but they didn't have it. They just got a huge shipment of Super Mario Bros 3, so I reluctantly settled for that and was completely blown away by it by the time I completed it however many days later. I also loved beating Super Mario Land with headphones on and digging the music. Also playing Megaman 1 and 2 and Castlevania 2 with friends.

My first taste of Nintendo was Donkey Kong in the arcade in 1981.

My first home taste of Nintendo was the NES with a copy of Super Mario Bros. 1 for Christmas 1987.

Reading a bunch of these comments really underlines how many quality games Nintendo (and Konami and Capcom)has released, and many quite early. I enjoyed Atari 2600 when very young, but NES games are much better. There's no game on 2600 that compares to my experience of playing Zelda, Metroid, Super Mario Bros 1,2, and 3, Megaman 1 & 2, Castlevania 2, Excitebike, Life Force, etc.

Ocarina of time or smash bros 64, i am not sure, but both were awesome back then!

We were a Sega household, with the Master System and then Mega Drive, so I think it was the N64, which I got with Goldeneye and Mario Kart one Christmas so I guess one of them would be the first Nintendo game I played (I think it would have been Mario Kart). I definitely remember owning a SNES at one point, but I feel that was after already getting the N64.

OoT was my moment of no return - I had to continue getting Nintendo systems from that point on (with the exception of the Wii U, but had a Zelda released exclusively for that I would have got one)

The Ocean Version of Mario Bros on the Commodore 64.

I had the tabletop arcade of Mario’s Cement Factory. My brother had the Popeye. Great games. They were both in color. I played them for hours. Went to college and my mom sold both in a garage sale for $5 each. We don’t talk about it at family gatherings.

Wii sports- shocker

Nice to see people my age and older on here, Twitter is full of punks in their teens and early 20s and it gets tiring. First was NES, of course, Super Mario Bros. That's what mom tells me, anyway, apparently I began playing when I was two.

My first Nintendo game was Tetris on a Gameboy I got as a hand-me-down from my older cousin. I now own every Nintendo handheld released after that from the Gameboy Color to the Switch.

Super Mario Land on my Game Boy

It was my father's NES. I was born in the 90's.And I grow up with Super Mario, Duck Hunt and the Olympics game that ises te power pad, until I got my 64 for the Christmas it was released. Those were awesome times.

I played Super Mario World on the SNES and a bunch of Gamecube/DS games as a kid, but didn't really get into video games until Breath of the Wild

My dad bought a NES bundled with Mario/Duck Hunt and World Class Track Meet back in 1988 when I was 5. I could have sworn it was earlier than that, but release dates don't lie. He also bought MLB baseball with it. Zelda and Punchout came shortly there after. GB (Tetris and Mario Land) was Christmas 1990 (also remember getting Metroid for NES that year), SNES was July 1991. N64 was release day with my own money (paper route, also bought Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64 same time). I think the first game I bought with allowance money was Final Fantasy back in 1990. Scary how much you can remember.

I got a N64 and Superman 64 for Xmas, plugged it in and I was hooked!! .. I kid, I kid.. NES + SMB / Duck Hunt, like 50% of people here haha

First I ever played was, obviously, Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt. When I received first NES personally, I was given Wizards & Warriors in addition to the Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt.

I’m later to the game than most, but my first “core” memory involving Nintendo and video games in general was easily Wii Sports at a friend’s house not long after it’s launch. Little me was just blown away by the fact that I could swing a controller to make the character that looks like me hit the baseball on the screen!

Super Mario Bros and Duck Hunt... but what really got me hooked was Super Mario Bros 3 and Tetris

To me, that would be the Atari 2600 version of Donkey Kong. That was my first Nintendo software experience.

In terms of hardware, I do recall playing an unspecified Game & Watch game as a toddler before being exposed to the NES. My first NES games were Excitebike, Duck Hunt and SMB1.

My dad owned a NES with the Mario Bros. + Duck Hunt cartridge and a light gun before I was born, in the late eighties. I pretty much rolled into it from a very young age.

Game & Watch for me, but I hardly count it as video game. The real deal was the NES ,and the first system I owned was a Game Boy.

My first 3 games I owned fully I got for my birthday along with a blue Nintendo DSi, they were The Trash Pack, I SPY Game Pack, and LEGO Battles. My first-owned Nintendo-published game I got for Christmas and it was Super Mario 64 DS. I don't remember what the first Nintendo system I played was, because I was just a baby, but I believe it was the Wii.

My first game on a Nintendo's system was Street Fighter 2 on the SNES (we had a master system instead of the nes) and the first Nintendo game was Super Metroid.

Gameboy with Tetris that my dad bought while on business in HongKong. Aaah, the good old times. I was sooo tiny! And hooked. Started playing when I was 4 or 5 years old, never stopped.

Pokémon Colosseum was my first Nintendo game, Pokémon game, and first game played ever. It may not be the best, but it and XD: Gale of Darkness will always be my favorite everythings.

Vividly remember first seeing a Nintendo game when I was maybe 4 or 5 and a hotel my family stayed at had Super Mario World available to play in the room.

If my childhood memory serves me correctly, there were 5 games on the NES (on a Nintendo console) with which I "made contact" for the first time, and although one of them is the most famous, Super Mario Bros, actually others are the ones I remember the most and if I remember them correctly:
Twinbee, 1942, B-wings and Road Fighter.

Those were the ones I saw and almost played for the first time, since the console was not mine, it belonged to relatives (cousins) XD, so I really didn't play much, I was rather a spectator, but they were the first I met at Nintendo.

I first played Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt on a Famiclone (they were more common than original consoles in my country) in a cousin's house when I was like 5, back in 1994. Shortly after that, my parents bought a SNES with F-Zero for my brothers and me and since then, I have been a Nintendo fan. Interestingly, my favourite videogame franchise is Pokémon, not Mario or F-Zero.

NES Action set with SMB and Duck Hunt. What a Christmas in ‘86!

Super Mario Bros that I think had Duck Hunt with it.

I was given a Game Boy for Christmas in the early nineties. The first game I had on it was Tetris, but my favourite Game Boy game was Monster Max. I could still hum the music to you now.

Super Mario Bros. NES. Around 1993 at age 2.

Embarrassingly enough.. The Simpsons game on reg Nintendo.. Zelda was my first real love though

I probably started with the Commodore 64. A game called ‘The Last Ninja’. (See my avatar) game blew my mind and I would rush home from school to play it.
My first Nintendo experience was super Mario bros at a friends 10th birthday party. Apart from super Mario, the next game I fell on love with was Zelda 2. So that is literally all my nostalgia right there

@Teksetter I'm in the same category, Donkey Kong in the arcades was my first Nintendo experience. Some of the best gaming times of my life there. I think I had it on the 2600 too, but I'm not 100% sure.

First Nintendo home platform was the Game Boy. That was something, too. It saw me through military service and a lot of travelling.

First Nintendo game I ever played had to have been Donkey Kong in the arcade. First Nintendo console I played was the NES at a friend's house. First Nintendo console I owned was a Game Boy Advance.

@NinChocolate

I still can’t think of any game that generated as much hype and had such a complete hold on the industry. Super Mario Bros 3 was the only game that mattered that year. It’s as if that game singlehandedly commercialized the gaming industry. The thing it doesn’t get enough credit for? Not only was is uber hyped but the game actually lived up to the expectations! I’m looking at Cyberpunk right in its bionic eyes….

Mario/Duck Hunt

My brother got an N64 for his 16th birthday with three games; Gauntlet Legends, Rayman 2 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. We played the first two for about a year and a half before even touching Zelda, because neither of us were used to the series. Changed our lives when we finally booted it up, and would eventually lead to creative writing as a huge hobby for me.

My twin brother & I got an NES for Christmas 1987 when I was 12.
Along with SMB/Duck Hunt, we also got Wizards & Warriors. Took us all day to realize how to progress past the first level (i.e. go up, instead of left/right). Seems like we got one other game that day, too, but I can't remember.

Tbh my first taste of Nintendo was either that really old pinball game with Mario, or Donkey Kong, or Hogan's Alley. But the NES was my very first system and of course, SMB/Duck Hunt came with it.

@JasmineDragon
Yes, I think I encountered DK, Mario Bros, DK Jr, and then Punch-Out in the arcades all before owning an NES, so I knew Nintendo was great at making fun games. I loved DK on the Colecovision and remember how superior it was to the Atari 2600 version.

We enjoyed multiple Xmases and accumulated dozens of games with the Coleco and it’s Atari adapter (the single best accessory ever sold!). But after Coleco was sued out of business, my interest in games waned a bit till Nintendo rekindled it with SMB and the NES.

I owned a Gameboy later, too, at like the end of high school. Tetris and Qix and that Capcom Demon’s Crest game were memorable for me. They built those Gameboys to last! Mine even survived abandoned with my little brother for a few years. I’m glad you had one for a faithful companion 😁

Super Mario Bros. was my first Nintendo game, on the good ol' NES. Technically, it was the Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt combo cartridge.

Growing up, I only had six games; seven, if you count SMB and Duck Hunt as two separate games, despite being on one cartridge. And of course, The Legend of Zelda was one of those games. I also had Tetris, The Black Bass, Jeopardy!, and the Jeopardy! 25th Anniversary Edition.

Throughout the 1990s (I was born in 1993), those six games were all I had, even though I knew about the SNES and the N64, especially the N64 and Super Mario 64. It wasn't until the early 2000s that I finally got a Game Boy Advance and later a GameCube that I started to build up my library/collection.

It’s so fun to reminisce about our first games, no matter your age! I went through and “liked” pretty much every sincere comment in this article. 😅

The advent of the NES (at least here in the USA) was just so epic, I’m not surprised to see so many of us old-timers who started with Nintendo games back then.

Even played on a hand-me-down 13” black & white TV, SMB was a magical game (once I figured out how to adjust the vertical hold just right).

Thanks for this trip down memory lane, everyone! 😊

SEGA Genesis was the first console I ever got. But the first Nintendo game I can remember playing was Super Mario Land on my cousin’s GameBoy. I got a N64 after the Genesis died and gotten every Nintendo console since. The rest is history.

@Ghostchip
Yeah a link between worlds is so good. Definitely the best 2d zelda for me. I feel like it is kinda under rated.

Mines was an obscure series called Boktai. The gameboy advance was my first Nintendo owned product. So alot of games were spent on there.

Megaman Zero was my second most played game.

Super Mario Land 2 was my first Nintendo game. It was my favorite 2D Mario game for years until New Super Mario Bros. It might still be my second favorite 2D Mario.

The first game I think I ever played was castle crashers on ps3 (still my favorite beat em up game by far). But my first taste of nintendo was with the wii mainly played it at other peoples houses. It wasn't until the wii u when I truly got in to video games though. Smash Wii u, Nintendo land, Super Mario 3d world, and Mario Kart 8 were some of my favorites. That console holds a special place in my heart.

My brother had a megadrive and I remember Vectorman, Street Fighter 2, and Golden Axe as the first games I ever played.

But the game that impacted me most at a young age was Ocarina of Time.

Donkey Kong 64 was my first game from the big N.

Crash Bandicoot 2 was my first game ever.

I love these posts that stir both memory and emotions. Ive enjoyed reading every comment, so thanks everyone.
The first game i personally ever owned was Super mario allstars as it came with my snes when my parents got me one after months of "bellyaching" . The first game i ever saw on a nintendo console, or paid attention to (from recollection) was Super mario world or Street fighter II as my brother in law (then my sisters new boyfriend 10 years my senior) purchased an US import snes with both and called me up to my sisters bedroom to take a look. Man, that street fighter II tin was awsome!! From that moment onwards a 7 year old me was hooked. Most memorable game must be DKC. We wasnt a rich family and being the youngest of 5 with 9 years between me and the next, Christmas was an expensive time for my family. One year my parents and siblings clubbed together to get me DKC as my main present. I remember crying when i opened it 😭My parents, when they were alive used to joke at family meals that it was all my bro inlaws fault that i got addicted to video games. Good times and cherished memories 😩

Arcade Donkey Kong, but I played (non-super) Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong Jr. more in the arcade before I played Super Mario Bros. in an arcade. I saw that the NES version looked identical and saved up painting a fence to buy the NES and SMB. Was such a great game in comparison to others because of all the secrets and organic feeling controls and I’d always wished the Atari 2600 and computer ports of arcade games were better — this felt exact!

My first Nintendo game? The Game & Watch game Tropical Fish. My parents got it for me in 1986 while visiting Bangkok. My brother got Donkey Kong Jr. I was always on it and even used it as alarm to wake up. I loved that little device!

My first NES console game? Spy Hunter!

Wow this site's readership skews oldest Millennials / cusp Gen X.

I was born in '89 and grew up with a Game Boy, but it looks like a lot of folks here played NES prior to SNES (my first home console was a N64 though that was because my mom was a holdout against the video game craze of the 90s and didn't like what it was doing to folks).

My parents/family weren't tech savy at all so my first experience with video games was at a cousins house.

Their son had a n64 but he wasn't home (guess he was at work/school) so I played whatever game was in the machine which happened to be mario kart 64 and played for hours till it was time to go.

My first Nintendo game was probably Pilotwings on my dad's SNES since we had that and the SNES was my first game system. I did get a GBC with Super Mario Land 2 when I was pretty young though, that's the first I remember playing. Pokemon Silver the first game I remember that I really fell in love with.

Played the SNES at a friends with I think DKC and didn't understand the appeal because I had a SEGA Mega Drive at home and Sonic was everything I ever dreamed of. When the N64 came out I bought it myself day one with Mario 64 and was converted.

It would be Game & Watch. Kids had it had school, then I bought my own, the first was probably Donkey Kong. The dual screen and d-pad seemed to offer more. Then got DK JR. Both I still have.

A bit older, my mom bought me NES and Wrestlemania for Christmas. That kicked me off with Nintendo. I recall her having doubts about the general purchase, saying the store recommended Nintendo over Sega and also telling me the games are expensive. I was thinking $20 or so to buy more games myself, not around $70 AUD ($50 USD). I was shocked at the prices.

Anyway, I enjoyed Wrestlemania a lot and began to buy other games in time. I believe Alpha Mission was the next one, then Wizards & Warriors, Donkey Kong, TNMTurtles, Super Mario Brothers, Ghosts N Goblins, Rad Racer and Punch Out followed over the months.

Most of us in Nintendolife are not exactly young anymore then.

Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt (the dual cartridge), of course. With the NES way back in the day. Which my brother and I played together on a 13" black and white dial channel TV. And it was glorious! And the first game I played straight through...beginning to end...over a weekend...was Dragon Warrior (the original NES one). It was the first RPG I got and played and I loved every minute of it.

Although it WAS better when our dad would let us hook it up to the larger color TV down in the living room. He got into gaming through us, and he's been a gamer ever since as well. So I guess you could say that we are a 3 generation gaming family (my dad, myself, and now my daughters are gamers).

Donkey Kong in arcades and on my ColecoVision. It was the best home version by far until the NES.

Gameboy. Surprised its so low tbh!

Someone left a Gameboy with Tetris, super Mario land, gremlins 2 and kid icarus at my house when I was a kid, been a fan ever since 🙂

Donkey Kong on ZX Spectrum in about 1982. For my other half it was the same game on a table-top arcade machine, probably the same year. He later went the Playstation route but I converted him to Nintendo with a red DS Lite and then a blue 3DS and Ocarina of Time.

I remember being super jealous of the kids in the playground with Game & Watch in the 80s, so was really stoked to get the new Mario one for Christmas 40ish years later... First Nintendo console I owned was a purple GBC with Pokemon Silver, skipped GBA due to lack of funds then saved for a pink DS Lite and have had several iterations of every handheld console since. Both my kids are Nintendo kids, oldest now works in the industry and cites Pokemon Yellow (bought second hand along with a second hand GBC the Christmas he was 6) as his earliest inspiration to get into coding, although he's more gaming PC and Xbox these days. Youngest got a 2DS and Pokemon Omega Ruby the Christmas she was 6, having played on my old pink DS Lite since she was 3, got a Switch Lite a few years later, and she also wants to be a coder (she's currently learning on Scratch and designing crazy levels on SMM2).

I played Super Mario Bros. At friends' houses. My mom was super anti video game when I was little, so I figured I'd never get too far into them. And then one year she had an abrupt change of heart and we found an N64 under the Christmas tree. I was totally blown away by Super Mario 64 and developed nostalgia-rimmed glasses so bad that I still cannot find a single flaw with that game (not even the camera controls 😉)

My first Nintendo game was Pro Wrestling, but I consider Zelda to be my 'true' first game. While everyone I knew was getting the set with SMB and Duck Hunt, I didn't want it. So my dad got me a regular NES and let my brother and I pick our own games. He picked Mike Tyson's Punch Out!! and I picked Pro Wrestling, but barely played it. Then later on because of good grades or something I was allowed to get another game, saw the gold cart and the rest was history.

Yoshi's Island on the GBA. I sucked at video games back then and couldn't even complete the first world. I finished it almost 10 years later at around 16.

First nintendo game was playing duck hunt NES at a store I think was called circuit city at the time. I was blown away by the graphics after having played some Atari 2600 before the video game crash. The light gun technology seemed mind blowing at the time. I bought the deluxe set with my paper route money which had R.O.B. Duck hunt and gyromite on actual separate carts. Always felt I got duped and should have got the action set, not sure if I even ever owned super Mario bros but I did play it plenty. When super Mario bros 2 came out it was sold out everywhere and I found the last copy at Kmart. Problem was when I tried to play it it ended up being a cart swap and was actually a different game so I had to return it and I couldn’t find the game for awhile.

My first Nintendo console was a Gameboy Pocket, but I really didn't have any first party Nintendo games for it. If we're talking first Nintendo GAME, it was probably Donkey Kong Country on the SNES. I remember playing that with my dad and brother. I still play through it to this day!

My first one? Hmmmmm......... It was either Mario Kart 7 or Super Mario Bros.

@zapswitch Well it's better link to the past and link to the past is the best besides it so it's a slam dunk

Game & Watch: Ball
(Take THAT, young people!)

NES and Duck Hunt. Then I think the next cart I eventually got after those was A Boy and His Blob. Hired a lot of games from the video store though...