PixlBit

Nintendo released Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training for Nintendo Switch in 2019 in Japan, Europe, and Australia. I'm guessing the 3DS game didn't do so well in the US.

Tales of Vesperia was probably the only Xbox 360 game I cared to revisit, I was glad to see it get a Switch release. It is a beautiful game, and it has one of the best casts of playable characters with great voices to boot. 

I, too, miss world maps sometimes. Tales of Hearts, which came immediately after Vesperia, was the last Tales with a world map. A lot of games not only don't have a world map, but travel is accomplished just by selecting an icon to a number of disconnected areas. However, Dragon Quest VIII and DQXI did drawn-to-scale game worlds just right.

I actually thought about the Secret of Mana snow region and the music that Julian brought up during the podcast. That was some really good music. One thing about Narshe that I forgot to mention was the sound of the wind that played in the background. Final Fantasy VI has some of the best wind sound I've ever heard in a video game to this day. I actually got to hear the first World of Ruin Theme, which has the wind sound overlaid by funereal organ and piano music, played live at the Distant Worlds concert in Omaha in 2013, for which I had bought backstage passes to meet Yoshitaka Amano. He signed my FFIX cover art.

Stage Select: 

1. Tifa. She's tough and she legit seems like she'd be good company. I wish FF7 had a longer segment with her as the party lead. It has absolutely nothing to do with anything like this.

2. Geralt. In addition to his knowledge of monsters and poisons, I like his deadpan delivery. Plus, he knows where to hook up with the ladies. 

3. Going to go in a slightly different direction with Laura S. Arseid from the Trails of Cold Steel series. I've been on a pretty big Falcom kick lately, even writing a blog on some of their games back in February, and I've been playing through the Cold Steel series. She's a proud noble swordswoman, striving to become a master of her family's school of swordsmanship, yet she's willing to learn and grow, and she's one of the best party members in battle.

Cage Match:

Super Mario Bros. all the way. Tetris is a pretty versatile game, but in the end I'll take tight platforming action over dropping blocks any day. Super Mario Bros is simply a timeless classic that's still playable to this day. Even on the Game Boy, i spent more time playing Super Mario Land than Tetris.

However, one version of Tetris that I think doesn't get enough appreciation is the Atari version by Ed Logg. It has some really good music that because of the greater popularity of Nintendo's versions never got as much traction as Korobeiniki (the "type A" music from the Game Boy that's now a staple in almost every version released since). Tengen's NES Tetris, which was taken off of shelves after Nintendo sued Tengen because Nintendo held to Tetris on Nintendo systems at the time, was based on this version, and it's really close to the arcade. The music on the NES sounds almost identical to the arcade version.

Kind of surprised the Burnout series died after Paradise, which was in the beginning of 7th gen. I thought it was pretty successful and it was definitely a blast.

There are a lot of arcade collections on Xbox. I wish they'd make Midway collections for modern systems, and I wouldn't mind a Taito collection. But I do like that Arcade Archives brought most of Nintendo's arcade catalogue as well as a lot of other Japanese games to modern systems, as well as SNK Arcade Classics and Capcom Arcade Stadium. 

The Xbox was the only 6th gen system I skipped, I had both PS2 and Gamecube. The only Xbox exclusive that really interested me were Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Gaiden Black.

Dragon Quest Xi is the game that keeps on giving.

Also a great game. ????

I dusted off Shining Resonance Refrain aftet a year, I got stuck on a boss and put it down. Boss fights in that game are brutal. 

I got TMS, The Outer Worlds, Xenoblade, Trails of Cold Steel 3, SM3DAS, and ACNH, along with Witcher 3 and Pokemon Sword. I found plenty to play on the Switch, and with its library it has a real shot at being my all time favorite system.

Even mainstream outlets like Bloomberg and Forbes are saying an upgraded Switch is in the works, though it's not a new platform. Supposedly the new Switch will have an OLED screen and upscale to 4K when docked. Hopefully all that is true. i might buy an upgraded version. 

Wind Waker's art style definitely looks better in motion than in screenshots. It does have excellent combat and animations. I liked how the soundtrack and the enemies were a big step up from the N64 titles, which often had few enemies in an area with extremely limited movement. Along with BotW and A Link to the Past, the GameCube Zeldas are my favorite of the series. 

One thing Falcom has always been known for is music, even in the 8-bit days. They were one of the first Japanese video game companies to put out soundtracks, and their use of Redbook audio in some of the earliest CD-ROM RPGs ever made won a lot of acclaim.