As some other guy said, unless you were actively following gaming mags and such, you would generally not really be in the know about what came up. I still vividly remember the hype building up before Kingdom Hearts 1’s release, so that would be my answer.

No social media when I was growing up I just wanted a N64

Halo 3

Resident evil 4 remake was 17 when it arrived

Super Mario Brothers 3, after watching the movie The Wizard.