Personal Gaming History ~The SEGA Years

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7Zy8AvkQEU

The first time I remember picking up a joy pad must have been around the age of six. My dad had bought me and my sister a second-hand Sega CD System with a load of games for Christmas, and I always remember the first game I ever played; It was ‘Mickey Mouse: World of Illusion’, a side scrolling platformer full of colourful Disney graphics and cool level design. It really captured my imagination, and amazed me at how I could interact directly with these characters and worlds. 
From this point on I was hooked.

Despite having a Sega Mega Drive with the Sega CD expansion, I rarely used the CD part, mostly as the games were either absolutely dire, or direct ports of Sega games i already had (and somehow worse quality despite being on CD. It also crashed at every opportunity, making even casual gaming a pain in the arse.

The biggest game I played on this system that I still regard as an all time personal favourite to this day is Sonic The Hedgehog 1 & 2 (I wouldn’t play 3 until later on). Me and my sister would play these games for hours on end, both on our own and in co-op (id usually end up with Tails what with being the younger sibling) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntr31RHoO

Golden Axe: another great game to play in co-op, loved the fact that you could ride creatures to use against your enemies. Though those bloody skeletons.... good job you could trick them into falling off conveniently placed cliff faces, though why they screamed like girls when you killed them is anyone's guess 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yViDeh3Ol4&feature=related

LANDSTALKER: The Treasures of King Noel, the first RPG I ever played. Pretty much SEGA's attempt at competing with the Zelda franchise, though they did a good job at it as this was a solid game that really gave the immersive experience of entering another world and I lost countless hours playing it. (Also like that the dialogue shown above seems to have been influenced by Mr T)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOUP1Y_h2AQ

Thunderhawk: Probably the only game I played on the Sega CD that was actually quite good,  the very fact that I could play as a helicopter pilot in first person really blew my mind at the time. Despite the fact that I cant really stand FPS today, at the time I would spend countless hours flying around, and basically having fun blowing things up (the times it wouldn't crash anyway....which was most of the time)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOJFcBSYHsA

Other games that I loved during this time were Streets of Rage, Shinobi, Cool Spot, Toe Jam and Earl, Eternal Champions and others too numerous to mention. The Sega years would definitely begin my interest in games, and in particular the characters and the design that went into creating them.