Intros to the Genres

What would you say are some good intro games for genres you enjoy? Like if a friend says 'hey, I want to get in to fighting games or RPGs' or whatever other genres you enjoy, what would you recommend they start with as an approachable intro to those genres

For example, I think MeiQ is a good intro to dungeon crawlers. It's less indepth and grindy and more straightforward and simple. It's also easier than the average dungeon crawler so its a friendly way to check out if they might like that style of gameplay


List as many or as few genres as you like

I'm gonna be lazy and say all the games that introduced me to my fave genres

Fina lFantasy VII for JRPGs. It has humor, it has drama, it has amazing music, it has a decent battle system. It has everything.

Dragon Age: Origins for WRPGs. Excellent writing, a great variety of choice, romances, cool music and voice-acting.

Tekken 3 for Fighting games. Light on plot but high on cool characters and music.

• Um Jammer Lammy for Rhythm Games, it has a quirky plot and easy to understand gameplay.
• Chrono Trigger for JRPGs. Great story and cast, good battle system, and you can actually go through the whole game and never have to grind.
• Street Fighter II for 2D Fighters, will teach you the fundamentals which are still like 80% of the games despite how gimmicky the genre can be.
• Tetris for Puzzle Games simple to learn difficult to master.

RPGs: I'd probably say FFVI. It's relatively easy, but has decent depth in gameplay and story without being overbearing. Or even Pokémon LG/FR. Simple like the original, but without the weirdness.

2D Platformers: Super Mario World. It has some challenge and a lot of levels, but it's not unforgiving like the NES titles can be.

3D Platformers: Banjo-Kazooie. While actually more difficult than Mario 64 (my other thought), it's overall more solid in gameplay and level design. So much more fun as well.

I might come back with more later. My mind isn't super focused tonight.

I feel like for fighting games you were either indoctrinated by Tekken or Street Fighter. Weirdly enough, I started with Blazblue, because none of my friends wanted to teach me how the hell you actually played Tekken when I was growing up. But yeah, that being said, I'll go with Street Fighter II.

My gateway drug for JRPGs was actually Final Fantasy X; good thing too, because I think that game actually does the best job of explaining the positives and negatives of each character in your party. Final Fantasy VII comes in a close second because there's so many minigames and set pieces to offset the perceived tedium of RPG gameplay.

For 3D platformers, I'm going with Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy. The interconnectedness of the world, combined with the more context sensitive approach to power-ups helps with some of my issues with earlier collect-a-thons.

I think Viewtiful Joe is a great intro to Character Action games. The 2D action makes it harder to feel overwhelmed imo, and there's a greater amount of platforming and puzzle solving than in most CAGs.

I'll just speak from experience:


JRPGs - Final Fantasy VII. It was the gateway to both Japanese and role-playing games for me. Never looked back since.

Fighting games - Street Fighter II & Super Smash Bros. 64. I actually started with SFII Turbo on SNES, but I really got into them with SSB64.

2D Platformers - Donkey Kong Country. It was my first ever platformer, and it's still one of my favorites to this day. Got me into other games including Super Mario World.

3D Platformers - Super Mario 64 & Banjo Kazooie. SM64 is considered the best game of all time by many for a good reason. :P