Outrun Europa is the game that turned me into a gamer. I've played quite a few videogames before it, but didn't care much about anything that I've tried. Usually would lose interest in under a week. An article in a local newspaper reviewing it gathered my attention. A game about high speed chases with vehicles like Porsche and Ferrari was like a dream come true for me. One day, when my father took me and my younger sister to a toy store to pick up a new game, there it was. I gasped at the sight of the game and shouted to my father "I want that one" pointing towards Outrun Europa, but my sister immediately followed with a "I want that one" as well while pointing towards a copy of The Flintstones. We exchanged "but I want that one" for a while until I gave up, turned my back to the shelf and said "just buy her game. I don't play that much anyway" and left. I was quite upset, so I left their company and started browsing the rest of the store in search for something else, but couldn't find anything that peeked my interest. From the distance I saw my father buying a game while holding my sister's hand. Despite being very disappointed, after all The Flintstones was another platformer game among many others that we already owned, I decided to give it a try. So I opened the bag and to my surprise, dad had bought Outrun Europa! From the moment I popped the cartridge inside our Master System, I got hooked. The music, the graphics and the fast and challenging driving mechanics made me keep coming back to play it. It was the first game that I didn't abandoned after one week. In fact, I've played it for many years. I struggled a lot as a kid, only managing to reach the last level once. I was 18 when I finally managed to beat it.
Ps. My sister would eventually get a copy of The Flintstones a few months later, so it worked out for everyone