PixlBit

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Back in 2013, My wife and I were about to move to a smaller space and I needed to drastically scale back my collection. Not only did I sell off most of my game systems, but in most cases, I also sold ALL the games for those systems too. This would lead to me making 3 mistakes that some part of me will regret forever:

1- MUSHA (Sega Genesis)- I originally purchased a loose cartridge of this game sometime in the early or mid 2000's from a mom & pop used game store for only $3. Looking back on it now, I suppose the store owner wasn't aware of how much the game was acutally worth, and neither was I. You can imagine how much I kicked myself when I decided to try and repurchase it a couple of years later after I decided to purchase a Sega Genesis again. I didnt know just what a treasure I had.

2- Dragon Warrior III (NES)- Okay, this one is going to hurt. Part of the hull I sold off was complete boxed copy of this game, which also included the additional world map and original packaging. Everything was in like-new condition. Originally I only paid like $20 or so. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

3- Sharp Twin Famicom- It’s a Nintendo Famicom and Famicom Disk System all-in-one system I imported from a game store in Japan back in 2004. I got the red/black color and it was beautiful. Man, I wish I never sold that thing.

I’ve never cared about hanging on to retro games in hopes of selling them for a high price later. What bothers me is that I didn’t think I’d repurchase some of the systems I sold later down the road. Which meant that I’d want to replay some of those games I gave up that are now too expensive for me to acquire again.

There’s a lesson here, kids. Don’t make my mistakes.

Yeah, I love both the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series. I enjoy FF because each new entry is radically different than the previous one. But Dragon Quest has that sense of continuity and familiarity that is woven through most of the series.

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Okay, here we go...

1. Mass Effect 2: While I did enjoy Mass Effect 1 on the PS3 trilogy collection, I still haven't gotten around to playing Mass Effect 2. But it is very much one of my favorite game I've never played. For years, I've heard everyone give this game such high praise as they go into depth about the crew members and mission they embark on. And after hearing you guys talk about it some months back, I feel as if I've played the game already although I clearly did not. Still, I get a really good feeling about Mass Effect 2 any time someone talks about it, and I hope to play it sometime before the next decade.

2. Radiant Silver Gun (Sega Saturn)- If memory serves correctly, Radiant Silver Gun is the spiritual predecessor to Ikaruga, right? I've always wanted to play RSG because I kept hearing how awesome it was on the Sega Saturn. And although I do have the console and the ability to play import games on it, the game just costs too much money these days. I guess it will just have to remain and legendary shooter in my mind.

3. Shadow of the Colossus: This is another one that I have in my collection, but never got around to playing it. I have the PS3 version came with Ico and I just downloaded the PS4 version a few weeks ago when it was made available for free on PS Plus.

I think it was on this podcast that I heard Angelo or Julian talk about how great it was to scale these giant monstrosities and bring them down once you figured out what to do. I'm also a big fan of atmospheric music, and I've heard the soundtrack is quite good, especially when you approach each new giant creature. I just have yet to make time to get into it. Which I need to do so I can move on to playing The Last Guardian.

Hey Cary! The way you and your friend took turns playing Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior while the other read maps and such reminds of me when I would do that with my older brother. That's how we tag-teamed Super Metroid back in the day. Those were some of the best moments of my youth. Felt like such an accomplishment when we beat the game together!

I'm so glad you mentioned Nasir Gebelli. I didn't play Final Fantasy back in the NES days, but I did have Rad Racer and in the attract mode you see the words "By Nasir" in credits. Now mind you, I loved Rad Racer and have many fond memories of that game over the years. But it wasn't until several years ago that I really paid attention to the name Nasir and decided to look up info about this guy.

I was floored to find out that he was also instrumental in the design work for both Final Fantasy and Secret of Mana. I really appreciate his contributions to Square. I've been toying with the idea of writing an article feature about him. But I'm not sure if I'll ever have time to really do it justice.

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While I definitely played my fair share of games over the past decade, many of the ones I enjoyed the most happened to be released within the last few years of the decade. Nevertheless, I was able to dig up at least one game from the start of the decade that made my top 3 list. Here we go...

3. Pac-Man Championship Edition DX (2010) - I instantly fell in love with this game because Namco gave Pac-Man something I always wanted but never thought would ever happen-- the ability to eat ghosts in a chain higher than 4. There's just something very satisfying about seeing Pac-Man gobble up an insane number of enemies and hearing that chime steady rise in pitch as you eat more ghosts. Not to mention, the updated graphics and thumping music further sold me on the game. It was just what I needed at the time.

2. Tetris Effect (2018) - While I don't want to over-hype this game, and I realize that it's just Tetris with music, I couldn't help but to really enjoy it. I've been a big fan of games designed by Tetsuya Mizuguchi ever since having played older games like Rez and especially Lumines. He has a knack for taking block puzzle mechanics and blending it with a musical score that really speaks to the part of my brain that thrives on that stuff. Tetris Effect was without question one of the most fun and beautifully produced games that I have played during the past decade. It's probably the closest thing I've come to having a spiritual experience in a video game. I throw on some headphones, and the world around me fades away. And no, I wasn't high while playing it. LOL!

1. Dragon Quest XI (2017 / 2018) - Dragon Quest is a series that I'm still playing catch-up with. But DQ XI was the perfect game to bring me up to speed with the series in terms of its world and characters that inhabit it. I really enjoyed the contrast of current-gen graphics mixed with super simple battle mechanics. Forging weapons was challenging enough to be fun without being overly complicated. I was sold from the get-go of hearing the orchestrated DQ theme over the opening sequence (with I watched far more times than I skipped). This game reminded me of Dragon Quest V with its deceptively lighthearted tone that gave me a few gut punches along the way, like the stuff with the mermaid looking for her lover or that thing with Veronica late in the game (you know I mean Julian). I laughed. I nearly cried. In the end, Dragon Quest XI is one of the best games I've played this decade.

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Gonna have to rapid fire this one since my time is short tonight. The following games are fairly recognized as good games and I loved them, but I was surprised when I found out how many people disliked them for one reason or another:

Crash Bandicoot series (PS1)

Sonic the Hedgehog series (Sega Genesis)

Metroid II

Legend of Dragoon

Star Tropics

 I apologize for not having the time to expound on the reason for my selections, but I didn’t want to miss another stage select.

Keep up the good work nerds!

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At first, I had a hard time narrowing my choice becuase so many edgelords have come gone since the PSOne era and beyond. But then, it came to me. There's one edgelord that stands out above the rest for me. Jak from the Jak and Daxter series on the PS2. In the first game, he was a (assumably) good-natured silent protagonist with Daxter being the wise-cracking sidekick.

But two years and one Grand Theft Auto 3 game later, Jak and Daxter 2 comes out. Only now Jak talks, and is all dark & gritty from being subjected to traumatic experiments, and has a pointy goatee.....and has a gun, becuase you can't take an edgelord seriously if he ain't got no gun! And as the cherry on top, he can carJak (see what I did there?) any vehicle just like in GTA 3! Finally...a damaged, gritty, just short of being an anti-hero character the angsty teenager in me can identify with!

He knows my pain. He is...the edgelord!

Cage Match:

I have played very litte of both games, though I have re-purchased Brave Fencer Musashi and need to give it a second go. That being said, I did play a good amount of Mystical Ninja on the Super Nintendo and really enjoyed the Japanese humor. I suspect that Goemon on the N64 had the same humor in it too, though I didn't play enough of it to know for sure.

Even so, I'm going to have to give it to Brave Fench Musashi. I'm a bit more familiar with that game and I liked the voice acting in it. Also, Musashi was voiced by Mona Marshall- the same actress who voiced Izzy in Digimon back in the day (and many other shows). Her voice always stood out to me and back then, it blew my mind whevever I heard a familair voice in my video games.

Future cage match booking:

Gran Turismo 1 vs. Ridge Racer Type 4

Stage Select: I've never played a dating sim before, but I'd love to see the Ace Combat series turned into one. I don't think it's too far fetched, given the drama they've injected into each successive sequel.

You can play the role of a cadet in their final months before graduating from "Air Force School". All battles during this time period are VR simulations preparing you for the real thing. 

After graduating, the relationships you've developed with your classmates (romantic or otherwise) will determine how well they support you or if they follow your orders at all. Between battles, your time is filled by hanging out with potentential romantic partners or you can decide to just be friends and maintain the relationship on a plutonic level.

But beware! Perhaps that long-forgetten lover (or several lovers) you spurned back in Air Force School suddenly reappear in your life just when things were starting to go well with your current romantic interest. Spurned lovers can sometimes defect to the enemy's side. Or perhaps a past flame or two might now show up as your commanding officer who sends you off on high-risk missions in hopes of having you killed!

And finally, the game could throw another curve by having your current lover have some sort of misguided "epiphany" and defect to the other side, forcing you to confront them in the final decisive battle. The battle of love.

Namco could call it Ace Combat Hearts. The catch phrase on the back of the box art could say "Love is in the air".     Sold!

Cage Match: The only thing I knew about Quest 64 was the commercial for it back in 1998. It surprises me that Nintendo actually tried to pass this off as a replacement for Final Fantasy VII because the commercial definitely didn't attempt to even make it seem nearly as dramatic or interesting.

But with FF VII, you had a better feel for what you were getting into even without seeing the actual gameplay footage (besides the CG cut scenes). Hands down, FF VII wins this match. It's not even really a fight against Quest 64; it's...it's a slaughter man.

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1. Enemies that float in a sine wave pattern in 2D plaformers (like the Medusa heads in Castlevania for instance). It's really annoying, especially if your character gets knocked back from enemy contact.

2. The bosses in stages 2 and 4 of Streets of Rage 1, as well as the twin sub-bosses who where palette swaps of Blaze. All of these characters are hard to hit with conventional punches and kicks but they can efforlessly make short work of you, especially those infernal Blaze twins.

3. The license tests in the Gran Turismo series. I can accept that they put it in the first game. But did we need it for 5 additional sequels? No. No we did not. Joke's on them though. I Game Sharked my way pass the license tests for GT 1,2, and 3. I have learned aboslutely nothing! HA ha ha!

Cage Match:

I've never played either game, so I'm going to side with Clayfighter 63 1/3 for its odd numbering in the title name. I appreciate that sense of humor.