I was just thinking about what got me into different things like anime/ games/ comics etc and thought it would be fun to see what brought others into the fold. For me it was
Anime: Princess Mononoke, saw it when I was 10? And it completely floored me with the art style, story, and lore. Still my favorite anime movie to this day.
Video games: Sega Genesis/ sonic the hedgehog and altered beast with my older brother were great times when I was little and got me into gaming.
Comics: Spider-Man and X-men on fox kids in the 90s and Spawn in 97. My first official comic/ graphic novel was Wolverine: Origin
The warp whistle blew my mind when I discovered it.
There were three you could get in quick succession, I'm pretty sure all of them in World 1, and so long as you cleared World 1 first, they could then take you straight to World 8.
EDIT: Okay, 2 in World 1, 1 in World 2. But if you claimed both World 1 whistles and cleared World 1 normally, then you could use both whistles to go straight to 8. Using the first in World 1 would only warp you to Worlds 2 through 4, but using it in World 2 would warp you to Worlds 5 through 7.
Yeah, you could basically skip the whole game. Mind: blown.