PixlBit

I've played Seiken Densetsu 3 on an emulator. It's much better than Secret of Mana. The battles are a lot better, for one thing. I didn't like how awkward the battles in SoM were compared to Zelda or even later Mana games. I see why they didn't release it on this since it never got an official English translation.

I never was a huge fan of Rare. I'd have traded Rare for Square, Capcom, or Namco in a heartbeat. Goldeneye and Perfect Dark were the best FPS's on consoles at the time at least.

I'd actually like a GameCube Classic more than a N64 Classic.

I've played all three of those games. I played them on our Atari computer. I played Hitchhiker's Guide before I read the book. When my sister got me the book at the age of 10, the game made a lot more sense. I also played the sequel to Archon, though it was a bit more esoteric and the computer was really hard to beat. I also played a number of computer games that came from the UK, like Breath of the Dragon and Jet Boot Jack.

I actually did not know that. I started out on 1UP.com when I was in my late 20s. I'm now coming up on my 40th birthday in January. Looks like we'll all be chasing kids off our lawns soon enough.

The SNES Classic Edition appeals to me more than the NES Classic Edition, but I have almost all of these games on Virtual Console. It could have used a few more games like Zombies Ate My Neighbors. I also wish they could have bought the fan-translations of Final Fantasy V and Seiken Densetsu 3 (which blows Secret of Mana out of the water), but that was never going to happen. Ogre Battle would have been nice, too.

SNES games were generally better than their NES counterparts, but Super Punch-Out was the weakest game in the series IMO. I didn't like it as much as I did the NES or Wii Punch-Out games.

If they do the N64 Classic Edition, I hope they put Ogre Battle 64 and Harvest Moon 64 on it along with the usual standbys of Mario and Zelda. I doubt Goldeneye, Banjo, or Jet Force Gemini will show up on it unless Nintendo makes a deal with Microsoft. What I'm really hoping for is a GameCube classic edition that includes games like the Zeldas, Metroid Primes, Tales of Symphonia, and Viewtiful Joe. That would be a day one buy for me.

There's only one game for Chrono Crossing that comes to mind for 1985: Super Mario Bros. It was really awesome for its time. My friends, cousins, and I spent hours at a time on this game. What else can you say about the game that single-handedly resurrected home video games from the dead in the USA?

And yes, I did indeed have a number of completely inappropriate responses to the last question. But you gotta admit, that question was pretty out there. Listening to the podcast, it is good to know that my worries about going over the line were completely unfounded. :)

GTA is the one series that really stands out to me when I think of stagnation. Personally, I always wanted to see GTA take on Texas, with all the tropes and stereotypes people have of Texas.

There are two reasons EA stays in business: the NFL and FIFA allowing EA to hold a monopoly on their licenses. The NBA, NHL, and MLB all allow competition between developers, and I wish FIFA and NFL would do the same.

Nintendo: Doomed since 1889.

Part of the reason that EA pushes this narrative is that they want all of their games to be services that people pay for on an ongoing basis, and whose use EA can control (this is the same company that tried disabling games you bought based on you getting banned from EA's forums!). They want to have perpetual revenue streams through DLC and microtransactions, but not every game is going to be a Call of Duty or a Clash of Clans. Most online-focused games are pretty barren a couple of weeks after release with the exceptions of a handful of eternally popular franchises such as Call of Duty, Halo, or Blizzard's games.

Congratulations on the new baby!

Visceral Games is just the latest in EA's graveyard. I hate what EA does to the industry. Origin is gone. Maxis is gone. Bullfrog is gone. I have no doubt that we'll be reading about Bioware's closure at some point, maybe not now.

Sadly, there are two reasons why EA gets away with this crap without going bankrupt: the NFL and FIFA. A stream of guaranteed Madden dollars and FIFA euros keep EA afloat, and they seem to think that every property they have can be turned into a perpetual cash cow. They honestly seem to be trying the mobile microtransaction-based "pay to win" model on console gaming. I wish the NFL and FIFA would open their licenses to other publishers, because that would really break EA's stranglehold on the industry. "EA Sports" isn't even a big brand anymore because other companies made better NBA and MLB games and pushed EA out of those markets. Yet they are allowed to continue to hold a monopoly on both kinds of football. Sigh.

I don't really have a Halloween game of the year. Castlevania is usually what comes to mind for that. Or Ghosts 'n' Goblins. Or Zombies Ate My Neighbors.