PixlBit

I tried a Retron 5 because it played GBA games, but it kept crashing randomly, no matter which system's games I tried. Plus, no used game shops would take it. :(

Stage Select:

The Ding Dong Dell theme from Ni no Kuni, from Ghibli composer Joe Hisaishi.

Cage Match:

Going with Rhapsody on this one, as it was pretty much America's introduction to the zaniness and style of NIS. I've been playing it on Switch as part of one of the NIS Classics collections. It wins just because you can actually attack your enemies with a stack of giant pancakes with syrup. Kartia was interesting, too, as it was illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano, whose art-style was noticeably absent from FFVII. The main character looked a lot like Terra from FFVI. 

I want to go to PAX Prime and Tokyo Game Show. If things are settled down, I may make serious arrangements to go to TGS. I've always wanted to visit Japan anyway.

E3 was hugely expensive, and that was a long-standing criticism of it that predated the rise of Nintendo Directs and Sony's State of Play. In 2007, they even tried to scale it down to a "strictly business" form, the E3 Media and Business Summit, which was basically like a business seminar. Nobody cared about that, so they tried to go back to the glitz. The other problem is that inevitably, Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo would drown everyone else out and suck the oxygen out of the room. Mostly, it was Sony doing that, not because they intended to, at least with regards to their third party partners, but simply because they are the largest single presence in the gaming world. 

Companies just decided it was more cost-effective to do their own presentations on their own schedules. And frankly, I like the Nintendo Directs approach better. I think part of why Nintendo prefers them is because Nintendo now seems to prefer making its major launches in spring and summer rather than Christmas, strategies that worked well for the 3DS and Switch.  Most of what E3 showcased was for holiday announcements.

I think E3 was also undone by the fact that it was an exclusive club for business and media, and that's really kind of a wasteful for what amounts to an echo chamber. If E3 had been open to the public from the beginning, it might have survived. Instead, shows like PAX filled that niche with both press events and public events. Tokyo Game Show likewise is open to the public.

I think the last one I really paid attention to was E3 2013. That was the one where the PS4 and Xbox One were showcased, and Sony absolutely roasted Microsoft over their policies on Xbox One used games, "always on" Internet, mandatory connect, and "TV TV TV." I think E3 2015 was where they had all those Kickstarter games. The Wikipedia edits were pretty funny, too.

I hope to see you here more often, though I see you in other places. That said, self-care is key. 

Stage Select:

Parasite Eve on PS1 came with a demo disc that had videos of Final Fantasy VIII, Bushido Blade 2, and Brave Fencer Musashi, but more importantly, it had a playable demo of Xenogears, up until the Gears attack the village. Xenogears was a pleasant surprise that became one of my favorite PS1 games and was the forerunner to one of my current favorite series, Xenoblade Chronicles. 

Dragon Quest XI S had a great demo on the Switch, and you could transfer your progress to the final release.

Speaking of Dragon Quest, I got a demo for Dragon Quest VIII on PS2 which really sold the game for me. And the final version of the game contained a playable demo of Final Fantasy XII, which was a great twofer.  The DQ8 demo played up to the first boss, while in FF12's demo, you could pick between two different areas with two different sets of characters.

Doom Episode 1: Knee Deep in the Dead was a shareware title composed of the first eight levels. A lot games from id Software and Epic Megagames, as it was called in the 90s, were distributed this way, with the full releases being episodic as well.

Cage Match:

It takes a lot more than virtual tiddies and azz to make a game these days, and there are plenty of games that offer that in more robust titles. So I'm going with Super Mario Sunshine. It may not be Mario's best game, but it was emblematic of the experimental nature of some of Nintendo's Gamecube classics, and it is still a Mario game. Fun fact: I actually have Tomonobu Itagaki on my Facebook friends list.

Stage Select:

Lynels in Breath of the Wild. It's satisfying to beat them after a hard battle. Also, they gave me a hard time in the original NES game. 

I like setting God mode in classic Doom games and playing them on Nightmare difficulty, where they respawn, and setting up a bunch of infighting. The best places to do this in Doom II are Level 17, Level 18, and the Cyberdemon and Spider Mastermind in Level 20, where you can watch the four toughest monsters in the game kill each other over and over again. Usually Cybie kicks everyone else's asses and it takes them a few rounds of respawning to take him down.

The "Mover" enemies in the Northern Cave of Final Fantasy VII, mostly because you can power-level materia with them by loading the materia into your triple-growth weapons. They give out 1000 AP each. 

Cage Match:

Imma go with the Easter Bunny because Cadbury Creme Eggs and Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs. 

It was basically the Aliens arcade game with the serial numbers filed off. Except that I enjoyed that game.

It was an interesting game. The main character's diary included with the game (which also served as a form copy protection) really throws the whole plot into question, namely, is he a hero or a delusional sociopath? The game's ending never really answers that question. 

It did have a pretty great soundtrack for a mid-90s PC game, composed by Matt Seldon, who only composed for a few games before leaving the industry (he actually posted on RPGCodex in response to inquiries as to what happened to him) to pursue other projects.