PixlBit

Your one year old nephew is in school?  Wow!

I went to Vegas a long time ago.  Like, more than ten years ago.  It's an interesting place.  Not a good family vacation spot, no matter what they try to tell you.  

Quick bits about what I remember in Vegas: slot machines are boring, I went to an M&Ms store, pictures don't do the Grand Canyon justice, Circus Circus has a cool arcade but the hotel itself is really run down, and neon lights are cool.  We stayed at the Excalibur and was only there for like 3 days, not near enough time to see everything.  Not sure if I'll ever go back. I'd like to, but you know, money.

Like I said eariler, my brother Jeff LOVED classic arcade Spy Hunter when he was little, so we had to get this one.  We liked the 3-D one pretty well, but I remember it getting too hard later on.  There was a sequel to this game, and did you know at one point they were planning on making a Spy Hunter movie?  Can't believe they went with a Rampage movie instead.

Did you know that back when I was writing for The Dallas Morning News, I reviewed the original Legacy of Kain game?  I didn't like it because vampires are gross.  I was more willing to review any type of game back then, though, because I was getting paid for every article I wrote.

Right now I'm reviewing a game called Bite the Bullet.  It's a run and gun 2-D classic Contra style game, except you can eat everything to power up.  And I mean everything.  Good idea, but kind of gross.  Like if you mixed Contra with a Mutant League sports game or aomething.  The female character you can play as is really strong and buff, though, so that's cool.

Sometimes I play games for fun and DON'T review them, and since I finished Ys 9 a couple of weeks ago, right now that game is Balan Wonderworld.  It's a colorful 3-D platformer that reminds me of the ones you'd see in the late 90's/early 2000's.  Only big problem I have with the game so far is that you have to collect too many gold statues to open up the next set of worlds.  I'm around halfway through the game, and now I have to collect nine more statues to move on.  Ugh.  Normally I don't mind backtracking, but I'm just more impatient with this game.  There's a different between game length and artificial padding, and this game is crossing that line.  I'll try to make a dent in it tomorrow when I'm off work, but we'll see how long I keep playing.  Balan Wonderworld was made by Yuji Naka, which is further proof to my theory that he has a lot of good ideas, he just doesn't exceute them very well.  Did you know that at E3 one year, i StreetPassed Yuji Naka on my 3DS?  I thought that was cool.

At the end of this month, one of the games I've been wanting for 20 years now is finally coming out!  And that game is New Pokemon Snap!  Really looking forward to that one.  I'm working on a blog right now about my favorite Pokemon spin off games, in anticipation for the new one.  The original Pokemon Snap is a very special game to me, and you'll find out why when I post that blog at the end of this month!

In real life, I'm playing a game called "Try to find a job where you work from home and make more money than you do now."  That game really sucks.  I hate looking for jobs, espeically when I'm already working full time.  But I have to do this if I want to be on my own in the next year or two.  Otherwise I'll be forced to move out to the country with the family I do live with now.  Nothing wrong with living in the country, but everything would be 30 minutes away at least, and since I can't drive becasue of my disability, that would really suck.  I tell you, American public schools and state colleges don't prepare you for the real world.  I don't see how people do it.

Puzzle Fighter is one of my top favorite puzzle games of all time, right on up there with Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move and plain ol' Tetris.

Wow that was fast! It took me two months to beat Ys 9!  Right now I'm working on Balan Wonderworld.  Probably will take me a long time to beat, too!  Hope I can finish it before New Pokemon Snap comes out!

I've played much better volleyball games than DOA Beach Volleyball.  Like Beach Spikers for GameCube.  It was made by SEGA, and you could dress up your characters to look like Ulala from Space Channel 5, so that was cool.

All the other stuff you did in the DOA Beach Volleyball game wasn't fun either.  One time I bought a purple flower and wrapped it in purple wrapping paper and gave it to Ayane, who has purple hair.  Well she didn't even accept the gift!  That's so mean!  I could give my Animal Crossing villagers garbage and they'd gladly accept it.  Ayane was just being a butt!

Yeah nothing beats Spy Hunter in the arcade.  My local Pizza Inn had it for the longest time, and when we went there (at least once per week), it was THE game to play.  It was so popular that they added Spy Hunter 2 later on, which was one of the only times I ever saw it.  The arcade sequel isn't that good, though.  But yeah, that local Pizza Inn had a knack for bringing in really obscure arcade games.  It's one of the only places I ever saw Bomb Jack!  Anyway, the 3-D Spy Hunter games are good, too.  I remember them being kind of hard later on, though.

I reviewed this game for the newspaper back in the day.  It's a great puzzler, but for some reason it doesn't stick out in my head when I think of all the other PSOne games I liked.  Such as Ridge Racer Type 4, Klonoa, Namco Museums, Ape Escape, The Misadventures of Tron Bonne, Tail Concerto, Brave Fencer Musashi, Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo, etc.

I liked the arcade version of Arctic Thunder because the machine would blow cold air on you as you raced.  It was a nice way to beat the heat in a hot summer arcade!

I reviewed a Dead or Alive game once.  You know, if you can get past all the fan service, it's a good fighting game.  Now, the Dead or Alive Beach Volleyball games, now those were horrible.  My favorite DOA characters are Tina, Helena, and Ayane.

My brother Jeff LOVED Spy Hunter when he was little.  He'd play the old one on one of my arcade game collections for hours!  That's a long time for a five year old!  Later when the 3-D Spy Hunter games came out, we had to get those and he played them a lot, too.  Definitely one of his favorite old school arcade games!

I'm not sure if they're around anymore, but Terminal Reality was based near where I live.  I even met them a few times at E3s a long time ago, when they just started out and only made PC flight simulators.

The only BloodRayne game I played was a 2-D platformer one made by WayForward.  It was pretty good for what it was.  I don't really like vampires, though.  I think they're gross.  I can't believe they made movies out of BloodRayne!

That Ghostbusters game is really good.  I have it on 360.  Probably the closest thing we'll get to a true movie sequel.  Definitely try it if you're a fan.

In Octopath Traveler I started with the hunter lady because she looked tough and strong.