I've been playing Final Fantasy II on the GBA. I'm in the final dungeon right now. Also started up Resogun on my new PS4 the other day. It's basically a fancy version of Defender but it's a lot of fun.
That sounds like a winner to me.
I played through Bloodrayne Betrayal a couple years ago and blogged about somewhere but I can't find it now. I think it was on 1UP but that site isn't working very well anymore 
Anyway, it's a really good game but it's very hard, so just keep that in mind. I liked it a lot though.
I think I might have become one of those absent people but even at my busiest I'm always back for my monthly recap blogs. Keeps me achored here, I guess. I've wondered about some of those missing foks too though. It's sad.
I should've seen this coming from you, Debbie Downer.
I've never been terribly good at strategy games, and that holds true for tower defense. But I can usually figure something out that works after a few tries.
That type of game is often called tower offense. The most well known is probably Anomaly: Warzone Earth. I've never actually played one myself lol.
Not anymore! 
That's a tough question. I don't play as much multiplayer as I used to since leaving home. Having two brothers made multiplayer a breeze. I play a lot of co-op things now with my wife but if I had to pick a favorite...probably Smash Bros. If you press me for which one I'd probably pick Melee.
