Anyone play a game you didn't like or had a hard time getting into at first, but you heard good things about it and stayed with it and fell in love with it? Two games for me would be Adventures of Batman and Robin (Genesis version), and the Shining Force series. They both are very well made games with that ooze quality.
Batman and Robin turned me off at first with its tough difficulty and odd music choice. But after playing it often, it turned out to not be so tough, I even once managed to beat it in one life. And I found out that to truly enjoy the music, I had to play it through my stereo with subwoofer. Now, in my opinion, it is the best Genesis music I have heard. I especially love the music on the Mad Hatters stage.
I started playing Shining Force right after I finished Phantasy Star IV, still hungry for more rpg goodness. But, I had a hard time getting used to the battle system, eventually gave up and played Shining in the Darkness, another great game. So, I decided to give Force another try, and I am glad I did. I ended up playing a little every day until finished, and I am now working on SFII.
Now the next game on my list is Gunstar Heroes. I have played it quite a bit, but still don't find it to be the gaming masterpiece that some consider it to be. The art style kinda turns me off from it, but I will definitely give it another chance considering the enjoyment I got out of two other games I didn't like at first.