Mortal Kombat did drop the numbering between MK5 (Deadly Alliance) and MK9 (which was simply called Mortal Kombat). It came back with X. King of Fighters XV is getting ready to release soon as well, and up until KOF 11, those games were numbered by release year. 11 was also where they stopped doing annual iterations.
Stage Select:
1. Mostly I feel bad for the kids in my family for school. For me, personally, too much of what I missed because of the pandemic is basically First World Problems, so not really something worth going into here. I certainly haven't slowed down in my gaming.
2. I'd have to say the Hitchhiker Trilogy, by Douglas Adams (a trilogy which made it to five books before he passed away, no less.)
3. I've always been into video games. My local grocery store had Donkey Kong and Dig-Dug when I was a little kid, and the former is still my favorite arcade game of all time. I also just liked being able to move stuff on the TV, and this was back in 2600 days. The game that really made me a "hardcore" gamer was the original Legend of Zelda. I got lost in just playing it for months, and the Zelda series has consistently been my favorite game series ever since.
4. Favorite album would probably be Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, by the Beatles.
5. Not sure about what Transformer I'd want to be. I suppose I'd like to be some kind of muscle car.
6. I buy them whenever they wear out. My friend got me two pairs of Nikes for my birthday last year, and I'm still wearing those.
Cage Match:
Final Fantasy VI still far outshines Chrono Trigger in my book. FF6 has a better story line that is long enough to really carry a 40-hour epic, a better soundtrack, and world that at least seems much more expansive. Plus I really like the cast of characters in FF6, 12 main characters plus two surprise characters. Chrono Trigger has some good bad guys, but none of them quite stack up to Kefka, who was really a standout villain who had his own evil 16-bit laugh, and Ultros provided a few moments of comic relief during otherwise heavy moments.
2017 was the year I finally gave up on living in Baltimore and moved back west. Watched The Greatest Showman and Coco. I also got a Switch, and Breath of the Wild was the most awesome game I'd played in over ten years, I also got Xenoblade Chronicles 2. But I also liked that the Switch was the system that finally got the arcade versions of Nintendo arcade classics like Mario Bros.
Valkyria Chronicles 4 is awesome. One of my favorites of the decade. And I understand the third wheel. I've had it done to me and also have been guilty of it myself.
I downloaded Doom 64 on the Switch. Probably my favorite Doom game. It felt meatier than the first two games, the weapons seemed to have real heft to them and less like toys. Just wish they could have fit all the enemies. With thaf 3 of my favorite N64 titles are on Switch, the other two being Super Mario 64 and Turok. Right now I've been playing Super Mario 3D All-Stars more than anything.
Alpha Centauri sounds near. I didn't have a PC capable of playing it back then.
There is a remake of Shadowgate on Switch, which the original designers worked on. Not the same without the NES look, though.
Also been on a bit of a Falcom kick lately. Trails of Cold Steel 3, and Legacy of the Wizard became available on Switch as part of a recent Namco collection. Hopefully Nintendo or Konami will release Faxanadu.
In 2016, I left a company I had been with for 9 years and a job I had moved halfway across the country to do. I took a job in home health, and really got to know Baltimor, Annapolis, and the DC metro area as a result. My parents got in a bad car wreck in Phoenix.
Started out with Star Wars 7 at the theater on New Years Day with my wife. Game wis, FF15 was my GOTY, but I also enjoyed a remake of Odin Sphere, Tokyo Mirage Sessions for Wii U (I bought the remaster on Switch this year), and The 7th Dragon 3 Code: VFD on 3DS, which I wish would get a Switch port.
I remember this game. It was supposedly designed by disgruntled Call of Duty designers, while Call of Duty was designed by disgruntled Medal of Honor designers. I was probably looking forward to Dragon Quest 8 at the time. Hard to believe it's been 13 years. And I think Matt Baker was based on a real WWII vet.
This game is brutally hard, especially Death Mountain where you are trying to get the Hammer. But I liked how big and mysterious the world was. Its overworld was a lot like the NES version of Exodus: Ultima III, the side scrolling areas were also good. Just the same I was glad when they turned to, and refined, the top-down gameplay of the original for A Link to the Past.
Stage select:
1. Amaterasu (Okami): when it comes to dogs, can't really beat a sun goddess, and her midget companion.
2. Repede (Tales of Vesperia): he's such a good boy (except to Estelle). He can even cook, except the only thing he can cook is dog food.
3. Hewie (Haunting Ground): one of the game's key mechanics is building trust with Hewie as he is necessary to protect your damsel in distress character from being gruesomely murdered or mutilated. In fact, the worst ending comes if you mistreat Hewie too much.
Cage match:
Final Fantasy X for the win here. Persona 5 is good, but FFX is a classic. It's the first game I got for PS2. It was visually stunning in its day. It also had the laughing scene.
It was made for the more powerful New 3DS.
