I'm thinking of dedicating one day a week to RPGs on my YouTube channel. I'm also thinking of doing a SRPG Saturday/Sunday on my channel where I play one of those. My debut for that may well be Shining Force III.
I played Zelda when it came out in the US in 1987. It was the most amazing game I'd ever played up until that point. I have a tattoo of the Triforce on my left leg.
Most of this stuff is on Sega Genesis Classics and NSO Sega Genesis. I'd always hoped that the Data East titles, Chelnov: Atomic Runner and Midnight Resistance, would see releases as Arcade Archives titles, but right now that company seems to be laser-focused on Taito and Namco.
Shining Force II was one of the best Genesis/SCD RPGs, along with Lunar 1 and 2 and Phantasy Star IV. I'd have definitely bought this mini-console if they'd included Lunar on it, but licensing on it is a bit of a mess, from what I understand. I'm trying to get myself psyched up to do a longplay of Shining Force III (Saturn) on my Youtube channel.
Sky Kid has catchy music. There's a game on the Switch called Sky Skipper, which is sort of like Sky Kid, except that instead of being an automatically scrolling game you fly in all directions through a closed area. It was one of Nintendo's first arcade games.
Being able to play Spy Hunter on Switch would be nice, but WB Discovery doesn't care about Midway's old library. I'm stuck playing the Midway Arcade Treasures collections on GameCube.
Nintendo ramping up that marketing machine.
My buddy at the time had a 2600 Jr, and we played late 2600 games like Vanguard, Kangaroo, Mario Bros, and Solaris. Vanguard actually wasn't too bad on 2600, but I did end up getting the Atari 8-bit version, which was great.
Rampage is a classic, of course. WB actually made a successful movie out of it. It would be nice if they'd make a home video game, but they don't seem to care about anything that isn't Mortal Kombat or Wizarding World.
I didn't play Dragon Warrior until my friend got it. I have always felt that Dragon Quest on NES was better than Final Fantasy on NES.
My favorite game of 1986 is Starflight, a PC space sim from EA and Binary Systems. It nailed the Star Trek experience better than any licensed Star Trek game ever did. Its modern spiritual successor is No Man's Sky.
Stage Select:
1. Super Mario RPG. Looks like an already awesome game is going to get even better. This shot up to the top of my list the second it was announced.
2. Mortal Kombat 1. Looks amazing, with all my favorite fighters, and a Jean-Claude Van Damme skin for Johnny Cage.
3. Super Mario Wonder. This game reignited my excitement for 2-D Mario in a way that I haven't seen in a long time.
I actually have quite a few anticipated games coming up, like Star Ocean: The Second Story Remake, Metroid Prime 4, and the next Zelda. Also strongly considering Baldur's Gate 3.
Cage Match:
Speaking of Star Ocean 2....
Tough call. Grandia is a successor to the Lunar series, which is near and dear to my heart, and also held cult status as the Saturn's queen-bee RPG (at least other than Panzer Dragoon Saga). Honestly, though, given that both games were trying to accomplish similar things with their battle systems, I have to give the edge to Star Ocean: TSS, which has a much smoother battle system reminiscent of Tales (no surprise since the Star Ocean series was made by many of the same people.) Motoi Sakuraba's banging soundtrack only sweetens the deal.
My antipathy towards Microsoft goes back to over half a decade prior to the launch of the original Xbox. I always viewed them as an out-of-control, rapacious company that ruined whatever it touched. It's colored my perception of both the Xbox line and PC gaming.
I actually owned a 360 in its early years, when Microsoft was paying Japanese developers to make games exclusive to 360. Almost all of the companies who took them up on it, ended up regretting it. It's why you saw enhanced versions of games like Eternal Sonata and Tales of Vesperia on PS3, because the companies were trying to make their money back. That plus the E74 error that fried my Xbox (that MS was still trying to deny at the time and wanted to charge me $150 to remediate) soured me on Xbox for good.
And if that weren't enough, Microsoft locked my Microsoft account, which had Xbox 360 content tied to it. They won't release my account until I can remember the number of the credit card I used to buy this content, 15 years ago. I pretty much stopped using my Microsoft account after my email became a spam-ridden hellscape. I've been having to switch a lot of stuff that was tied to my Microsoft email to iCloud while my passwords still work because it's clear that nothing I do will satisfy them, even though their shoddy security is why I stopped using Microsoft email.
So yeah, I'm done with Microsoft.
And even in everyday computing, my last Windows computer was bought in 2011. I switched to Mac and have no interest in going back.
Rant over.
Friends of Mineral Town linked up with A Wonderful Life through the GBA Link Cable.
Me too. I lost some digital games because I can't remember the credit card number I bought them with from Xbox 15 years ago. Where possible I buy physical. I actually bought Switch versions of games instead of PS4 versions simply because the Switch versions came on cartridge, and to me that justified the (often grossly overblown) drop in graphical fidelity. I have the cartridge versions of Atari 50 and SNK 40th Anniversary. Sadly, Donkey Kong is digital only.
