PixlBit

As of January 1, 2020, we're entering a new decade in gaming (let's not go into pedantic debates about the.year zero here). It's hard to believe, it just seems like 2010, a time of Wii, PS3, Xbox 360, and Kinect, was just yesterday, and the world of the 2000s was still fresh in my mind.

Since 2019 is, for all intents and purposes, over, I am posting my top 10 games of the year for 2019. 

Back at the beginning of 5th gen, I got a N64, and was looking forward to games like Zelda 64 (Ocarina of Time) and Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon. I remember being impressed by screenshots from the N64 prototype of Mother 3, which Nintendo Power called Earthbound 64. The realization that it was going to be vaporware and games like Quest 64 were going to be representative of what the N64 would get for RPGS eventually drove me to get a PS1 and Final Fantasy VII. Mother 3 ended up being a Game Boy Advance game, and of course Nintendo still shows no signs of localizing it. 

Right now, I'm playing Dragon Quest XI S on Switch, along with Astral Chain and Ni no Kuni. It is an amazing game and is currently battling it out with Fire Emblem for my GOTY, so if you haven't played it yet, I strongly recommend it. 

Last month was a great month for gaming. Seriously. It was better than some years of gaming. I went on a buying spree I haven't been on since I was a young adult buying PS1 games.

One of my favorite games of the early 80s, Oil's Well, was a computer game made for early 80's 8-bit computers by Sierra On-Line. Its premise was that you had discovered oil (conveniently in the form of pellets), and you were trying to drill it before big-name oil barons pirated it from you.

The first week of September 1999 was a busy week for Electronics Boutique, Software Etc, and all the other video game retailers at the time. You were in one of two lines, or perhaps both. One was for a new console, the Sega Dreamcast. The other line was for one of the most anticipated games of the year - Final Fantasy VIII. I was part of the latter group, excited for this game having played and replayed FFVII. 

The next few weeks are going to be loaded to the gills with games for me. 

A couple of weeks ago, I was lucky enough to score the Seasons of Warfare Edition of Fire Emblem: Three Houses at Best Buy in Scottsdale.  It was sold out everywhere else in town, and was only available online through scalpers selling it for $150-200 and up, so as soon as I found it at Best Buy I was on the 101 to snatch it up.

My best friend in childhood got an Atari 2600 Jr. in the twilight years of the system. The 2600 Jr was one of those newer Ataris that was black plastic instead of wood grain. So until he got a NES, we played a lot of well-renowned classics that benefitted from advances in coding but are sadly sometimes hard to find today, like Solaris. One of my favorites, however, was Vanguard. As a kid, I thought Atari made this game, since Atari did the home licensing. I would have never connected it with the same company that did games like Athena, Ikari Warriors, and King of Fighters.