For me, it was the game Rocket Jockey released by Sega Soft in '96. It was perfect. The game featured a surf rock soundtrack by Dick Dale. The entire premise of the game was to ride around on rockets and using long cables to yank your opponents off theirs. Referees were also fair play. I don’t think I’ve met anyone else who has played the game, so if you have, let me know!
For me personally, that has to be Broken Sword 1 and 2. There’s always been something about those games that keep me coming back on yearly basis - there’s few games that can do that for me.