Gaming has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. Whether it has been playing Super Mario Bros and The Legend of Zelda on the NES, to playing the best of recent gaming, it has always been present. But one thing has stood out in terms of making me the gamer I am, and that is Blizzard Entertainment. Their games helped expand my horizons and let me imagine new ways to play that I had not thought of before.
My first time playing a game from Blizzard was The Lost Vikings on SNES. It was so different from platformers that I had played before and was a game that truly made me think about what I needed to do. It was different in a good way and was an experience I will never forget. To this day, it remains one of my favourite underrated SNES games. But my journey didn’t stop there.
I began to get into PC gaming and my brothers introduced me to Warcraft and StarCraft and those games were an eye opener for me. I had played RTS games before, but none were as polished and refined as these. Warcraft and StarCraft actually helped get the story told on a more personal level and looking back now, I see a lot of the quirks in my writing were inspired by the little details in Warcraft and StarCraft.
Warcraft III was the game that forever changed how I looked at gaming. Every last detail was perfect and well placed, and every character fleshed out to make them feel real. I learned from this game how to develop a story and build a world. Of course, this isn’t even mentioning the hours of fun I had while playing. I will never get tired of Warcraft III, but I do wish a real Warcraft IV will one day be made. RTS/RPG games are making a comeback and Warcraft should lead the charge.
Diablo however, was a game I didn’t get into until after it was out for a while. I completely missed Diablo 1 but Diablo II did take a large part of my time. It was like Gauntlet, one of my favourite NES and arcade games, updated for the modern day and fully expanded into an action RPG and I cannot count how many hours I lost to Diablo II. What I can though, say is that they were all well spent.
Blizzard has always been a big part of gaming for me, and it always will be. In my case it helped shape me just as much as Nintendo did. I will always love these games, because of the impact they had on my life. But I want to know, what were your favourite Blizzard games and memories? Please share your experiences like I shared mine.