What got me hooked was the TV commercial for FFVII. I was amazed by the graphics, amazed! I got the game for christmas, played it for 20 minutes, then threw it away because I didn't understand it. (Norwegian 11 year olds suck major ass at English, and life. Mostly life, though.)

Then I picked it up half a year later!

Anyway, commercials and advertising maybe? I don't know. I don't remember many other games being as heavily advertised as this one. Maybe just Ocarina of Time and Super Mario 64.