New Yorker’s Rank Favorite Retro Childhood Video Games

I’ll never forget the first time I laid eyes on an Atari. I was school-aged and my friend’s older brother saved his paper route money for ages to buy one. We sat, mesmerized, as we watched him play Space Invaders.

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I can’t say that I became hooked on video games then and there but they were interesting to me. My family couldn’t afford a game system so it was a treat to visit the houses of friends who had their own system.

I was in high school when my aunt and uncle bought me and my siblings our very own Nintendo 64 and I didn’t have to sit and watch someone else play Super Mario anymore, I got to actually play the game myself. It was instant love. And, instant tears as our game playing time was limited and I had to share turns with three other siblings.

Still, Super Mario has always been my favorite game, even all these years and through all of the different versions. My husband and I bought our son his first gaming device, a Nintendo Switch, and I insisted the first game he absolutely had to play was Super Mario.

Empire Stakes decided to survey New Yorkers to see what their favorite retro video games from childhood are and no surprise, Super Mario took a huge chunk of the vote of favorite retro video games with 32 percent of the vote.

Also ranking high on the nostalgia meter were Sonic the Hedgehog with 28 percent of the votes, The Legend of Zelda with 23 percent of the vote, and Pac-Man took 17 percent of the vote of video games from our childhood remain our favorite to this day.

Do you agree with the results of the survey? Does Super Mario top your list of favorite retro video games? What about the others?