Editorial: Three Games I Wish I Could Play Again For The First Time

Everyone has games that they’ve played and beaten multiple times. There are games that just stick with you. Maybe they’re a favorite from childhood, maybe it was a surprising experience in your adult years, but there’s no denying that games, like any other art form, leave impressions on us as players. There are games that I know every nook and cranny of, but there’s no substitution for that first-time experience. Here are three games I wish I could play again for the first time!

Psychonauts

Psychonauts, released in 2005 by Double Fine Productions is a game that was destined to be a cult hit from the moment of its release. Critically lauded at the time, the game was a commercial failure at the time of launch but found life on Steam and GOG later.

The copy of Psychonauts I played on was borrowed from a high school friend for the original Xbox. It was like nothing I’d ever played before. At the time, maybe around 2007, most of the games I was playing were shooters, and a lot of retro titles on my NES and Nintendo 64, so I didn’t have a conception that a game like Psychonauts could exist; fluent, funny, heartfelt, and a blast to play and explore.  

I can remember waiting for my friend to get to school just so I could talk to him about the game as I completed it that first week, and I do mean completed. In that week after he loaned me the game, I had gotten everything, even all the fiddly little figments that littered each stage like so many neon signs. Psychonauts is a game that I can remember every song from, every line of dialogue, every secret area.

From exploring Camp Whispering Rocks to the Thorney Towers asylum and all the mental worlds in-between, Psychonauts is a game that gorges the player with catchy, memorable music, unique visuals, and genuine adventure. What a blast it would be to go through it all again for the first time.

Planescape: Torment

Fresh off the heels the explosively well-received Fallout 2, Black Isle Studios released Planescape: Torment in 1999. Based on the Dungeons & Dragons setting of the same name and using a modified version of the 2nd Edition ruleset, Planescape: Torment puts players in control of The Nameless One. Waking up in a mortuary with few clothes and fewer memories.

You are met immediately by a helpful, if rude, floating skull named Morte. Through many trials, tribulations, and too many things I’d love to talk about if we weren’t a spoiler-free site, Planescape: Torment unwinds a tragic story of loss, guilt, and redemption. Planescape: Torment is an unforgettable experience from start to finish, with memorable characters, settings, and more story than you can rattle your bone box at.

Luckily, Planescape: Torment isn’t so hard to find these days, with the Enhanced version of the game available on both Steam and GOG. If you’re a fan of games like Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, or even more modern experiences like Pillars of Eternity or Divinity: Original Sin I highly, highly recommend playing the game as it is an exemplar of its genre.

Banjo-Kazooie

This one is honestly the hardest to write about because it’s the one on the list I played at my youngest. But you must understand, dear reader, that I was OBSESSED with Banjo-Kazooie as a kid before it even came out!

When I was a kid, it wasn’t uncommon to get promotional VHS tapes in the mail. It seems odd now, but in the time before YouTube, marketing for products like video games was a relatively new thing. We would get tapes from Disney World, Sea World, but my absolute favorite was one telling me all about a brand-new video game, Banjo-Kazooie.

I must have watched that 11-minute tape twenty times, soaking in every visual, every sound. I knew the game’s stage names by heart and I would have defended to the death anyone trying to tell me the game didn’t look like the second coming of Donkey Kong Country itself.

Chances are, if you’re reading this, you know the game if not by direct experience, then by the duo’s inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Banjo-Kazooie is a game that’s difficult to describe. I could tell you how well the game controls, how sublime Grant Kirkhope’s compositions are, how much charm and humor the game is absolutely oozing with, but the experience of playing Banjo-Kazooie is more than that, at least for me.

With the inclusion of the game in Nintendo Switch’s Expansion Pack, now is the perfect time to revisit or play through the game for the first time. Just don’t get frustrated and rage quit at Rusty Bucket Bay for three years like I did.

What are some games you wish you could play again for the first time? Let me know in the comments!