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[Grand Theft Scratchy]

For me, the ones that come to mind are:

Driver
Kinetica
Wreckless: The Yakuza Missions
MotorStorm
Unit 13

Basically all demos for driving/racing games except for Zipper's very last game at the end there.

The demo for Driver was interesting because of the open-ended environment and impressive damage modeling on the vehicles years before Grand Theft Auto III. Kinetica just looks kind of silly now. I would much rather see a reboot/remaster of Jet Moto. Wreckless: The Yakuza Missions looked amazing with its dynamic shadows typical of other Xbox games like Doom 3 and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. Then there's MotorStorm which I had been obsessed with ever since I first saw the pre-rendered trailer. The graphics still looked next-gen back then with its real-time track deformation and vehicle explosions. Unit 13 was okay. They should have just released an actual SOCOM for the PS Vita given there were like four of them for the PSP.

 

[coolmast3r]

Original Motorstorm for PS3 as well! It was also the first time I saw a PS3 system with my own eyes. Playing a demo for that game that day is an unforgettable experience for sure. I still think it is the best arcade racer ever released. Hope one day I'll be able to reexperience it in high resolution and framerate... So, on PS5 (if it has PS3 BC) or RPCS3 I guess.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Played Super Mario World inside of a SEARS. We had a local Christian bookstore with a kids' section that had a full NES display unit inside. Sometimes it would be playing a religious games like Spiritual Warfare (Legend of Zelda) and Joshua & The Battle of Jericho (Sokoban + shooting) but sometimes they put TMNT on there.

 

[Grand Theft Scratchy]

Original Motorstorm for PS3 as well! It was also the first time I saw a PS3 system with my own eyes. Playing a demo for that game that day is an unforgettable experience for sure. I still think it is the best arcade racer ever released. Hope one day I'll be able to reexperience it in high resolution and framerate... So, on PS5 (if it has PS3 BC) or RPCS3 I guess.

I think MotorStorm: Pacific Rift was better but the original MotorStorm was the most excited I had been for a launch game.

 

[Cattlyst]

I remember playing Super Mario 64 on N64 before it launched in the UK. There was a small crowd watching and it was the stage where you confront Bowser for the first time. I also remember playing UEFA Striker on a Dreamcast kiosk in the same branch of GAME several years later. The thing that sticks in my mind about that Striker demo is that I remember the crowd being animated (and the whole thing looking just *incredible*) but I'm sure that in the retail version the crowd was just a flat texture. Maybe I'm wrong though. It was a while ago.

 

[VertigoOA]

Mario 64 at toys r us. Haven’t seen a demo kiosk since then really... then again I cut out retail a long time ago

 

[12Goblins]

I remember going to funcoland playing this beat em up game on the saturn every day until they threw me out

Maybe someone can help me recall the name of this game. It was in 3D and you had the save presidents daughter or something

 

[Shifty]

Sonic Heroes... And we all know how that turned out

 

[Cattlyst]

I remember going to funcoland playing this beat em up game on the saturn every day until they threw me out

Maybe someone can help me recall the name of this game. It was in 3D and you had the save presidents daughter or something

Was it Die hard Arcade?

 

[SpiceRacz]

Christmas Nights Into Dreams at Toys R Us. Sonic & Knuckles at Best Buy. Kirby's Dreamland 2 on a giant GameBoy kiosk.

 

[VulcanRaven]

Peter Jackson's King Kong on Xbox 360. The graphics felt really good at the time. I didn't have the console yet.

 

[bucyou]

first one I remember is some NBA game on the original playstation

 

[NewYork214]

King Kong on 360, prelaunch at a walmart. It looked so damn good. Generational leap from ps2/xbox to 360/ps3 was insane. Ended up getting the game for ps2 and still have fond memories of that game.

 

[DetectiveBananas]

First time was using one of those M-82 Nes units in a Sears in the mid/late 80's and I was able to test out Super Mario Bros. and Kid Icarus. Played each for about 5 minutes total and knew i wanted a NES. Fast forward years later and I remember trying out an original Xbox demo unit in a Target that had a Football game playing. The controller seemed massive in comparison to the PS1 and N64 controllers.

 

[12Goblins]

Was it Die hard Arcade?

that's it, thank you! what a dope ass game this was at at the time ;_;

 

[Cravis]

I remember playing Street Fighter II for the SNES at Wal Mart. I played a lot of the virtual boy at Sears lol.

 

[93xfan]

I’ve played many, but I will never ever forget my time with Mario 64 at Toys R Us.

probably the most jaw dropping game I had ever played. At the time I regretted my PS1 purchase.

runner up would be Super Mario World that I asked to be able to play for an hour on my birthday in October as I anxiously awaited a SNES for Christmas.

 

[Teslerum]

Hercules on ps1. Tekken Tag Tournament.

 

[Diddy X]

Halo 4, played it for a minute, graphics blew me away

I also played some Uncharted once and that's about it, I've never been much of a demo guy lol

 

[Mistershine.]

PGR on the OG xbox. Sold me on the console.

 

[Shakka43]

Devil May Cry 2(PS2) I used to stop on my way home from high school to play it at GameStop several times. At that time I was a huge fan of the first one so I was pretty hyped up for the sequel

Uncharted Golden Abyss, bought a Vita a few days later.

 

[Jigsaah]

Super Mario 64 and the Virtual Boy. I remember thinking the Virtual Boy was dumb as hell. I also remember literally going to Target on my way home from school everyday just to play that demo before the N64 came out.

 

[EverythingsOverrated]

I'm not sure if it was a demo, or the full game, but I rember playing the first 10 minutes or so of RE1 inside a video store when I was a kid. I nearly shit myself, then I asked my brother to rent it for us.

 

[Secesh]

Mario 64 at Walmart. Went in for something and saw a kid playing it. Watched him for an hour. Unreal how good that game looked at the time.

 

[EightBit Man]

In some shops I could ask to try a certain game for some time (even on Game Boy if I took mine with me). Two of the game I remember trying out were Batman Returns and J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I on the Super NES.

I remember playing the NES game Isolated Warrior in Maastricht, The Netherlands somewhere in the early 90s too.

Entered the Starwing Competition in early 1993 in a German department store, and won a button and t-shirt. Really wanted that game after that.

At my favorite department store I sometimes played some of the SEGA Mega Drive games in a row of kiosk units: T2: The Arcade Game, Ecco the Dolphin, Aladdin, Jurassic Park, ... The latter two games were also playable in The Hague's museum Museon at the time.

And of course trying out the PlayStation when it was brand new was amazing; trying out Battle Arena Toshinden and Ridge Racer.

And I remember playing Colin McRae Rally at one of the two now-defunct video game shops here in the city.

I've played tons more, but these are the ones I remembered best.

 

[johntown]

I remember playing a demo of The 7th Guest on PC but I can't remember the name of the store.

 

[Bathtub Fart]

For some reason playing the intro of Majora's mask and seeing link side flip jump to other platforms was so cool as a youngster lol that's all I can remember

 

[EverydayBeast]

A game store can't be complete without some playable demos!

 

[Nightrunner]

Tekken 6. Me and some other friends used to be big into Tekken at the time but we only had 2 Arcades and no owners were interested in picking it up + PS3s were expensive af here though to be fair all of us were also too poor to afford a 360. There was a high end store that sold mostly AV stuff and that guy was letting people try out the PS3 and play games like Resi 5, Tekken 6 and a few more I don't remember so we played a quick match of Tekken 6 and that was it for our Tekken days. After that I got a 360 in 2011 but all of us had moved on by then.

 

[T8SC]

Metal Gear Solid (PS1)
Tekken (PS1)

 

[SleepDoctor]

Super Mario 64. I remember walking to best buy just to play it.

 

[GAMETA]

The first time I saw and played a GameCube was at a shopping mall toy store.

They were setting the console up for display, Eternal Darkness in, and were confused as to how start the game without a memory card (I live in Brazil, all games were in English).

I showed how to do it and the guy asked if I wanted to play some of it. I said sure, and so spent 15 or so minutes playing the game, mesmerized by the graphics and by how the girl had all fingers modeled individually

 

[VooDooChicken]

not a store but a showroom, Little Big Planet

 

[RAIDEN1]

ShenMue 1 and I think maybe Jungle Strike

 

[jshackles]

The best video game kiosks were at Toys-R-Us. I remember they used to have a demo unit of every game system at the time - SNES, Gameboy, Genesis, and Virtual Boy.

I remember playing Red Alarm on the Virtual Boy, and I had to have one. I also vividly remember being impressed by Super Mario All Stars on the SNES and a few years later (at the same kiosk) Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island.

This shit used to sell itself to teenaged me.

 

[*Nightwing]

takes me back to when I used to spend like 20 hours a week playing the Ninja Gaiden demo for the XBOX at the local gamestop I was a manager at when I was supposed to be doing work

 

[GnomeChimpsky]

Superman 64. I remember thinking it seemed like an awesome game.

 

[Potato Chip PRO]

Cod 2 on Xbox 360. Me and my pops were taking turns playing the demo at Walmart and being excited how awesome it looked on an HDTV. And played Mario 64 DS demo since I wanted the original Phat DS when it was sold out for a good while.

 

[Potato Chip PRO]

takes me back to when I used to spend like 20 hours a week playing the Ninja Gaiden demo for the XBOX at the local gamestop I was a manager at when I was supposed to be doing work

That game was Quality.. Used the $20 Rebate from Ebgames back then and bought it for $30 brand new on launch. Wanted to go home straight away since I played the demo for 2 whole weeks.

 

[Ovek]

I distinctly remember playing Doom64 and as someone who at that time already belonged to the glorious pc master race I scoffed, I left shocked at how great it was and immensely pissed off that it wasn’t coming out on PC.

 

[brap]

Parappa The Rapper at target. Game was creepy to me as a kid and on that same day there was a big thunderstorm and the power went out while I was there. Scary shit.

 

[Kdad]

Intellivision Football at Woolco

 

[Zephir]

They had Final Fantasy VII running on a demo station in a tech store...unfortunately, back then we weren't learning english in school, so neither me or my friends had any idea what the hell was going on and we just walked randomly and pressed random buttons when the battle started (it was the very beginning, inside the reactor). No surprise I ended up buying FF8 first, since it was the first FF translated in Italian.

Also, I remember asking myself "Why the characters look adult when fighting" and "Where is that giant black man coming from?"

 

[Ikutachi]

Pokemon Snap in a McDonald's.

 

[spawn]

Didn't exactly play in a store, but I remember playing Super Smash Bros on Nintendo 64 in a Mcdonalds back in the 90s. Also, growing up my mom sometimes would leave my sister and I at one of those indoor playgrounds while she studied for college exams and they had a Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo with Lion King, Alladin, and toy story games

 

[Grand Theft Scratchy]

Pokemon Snap in a McDonald's.

Although I remember them at Blockbuster.

 

[V4skunk]

Super Mario World at the Marktkauf supermarket in Germany early 90's.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

Smash Bros Melee in Toys R Us

One of the Mario games on GBA in Toys R Us

Sonic Adventure on Dreamcast in Woolworths

Lost Planet on Xbox 360 in GAME

 

[Clinton514]

Wolfenstein 3D on a PC in Radio Shack.

 

[Grand Theft Scratchy]

Parappa The Rapper at target. Game was creepy to me as a kid and on that same day there was a big thunderstorm and the power went out while I was there. Scary shit.

Haha, I like that you found that scary while this was on the same demo disc: