PixlBit

This is true, but it's only part of the picture. The problem is that whether something is a fair price or not is a matter of perception, and when you're used to seeing $200, yeah, seeing $500 is going to hurt. There is nothing that can be done about simple human psychology, but it is what console makers must contend with, because their job is to persuade the consumer to agree that $500 is a fair price, not the consumer's job to accept $500 as a fair price, especially in a time when there are plenty of other options. The 3DO in particular was kind of a ripoff, but that doesn't make price complaints over the launch PS3 or Xbox One any less valid.

The other problem is that wages haven't kept place with inflation for the most part, so unless your last name is Gates or Buffett, $500 is still a lot of money for most people even if it's worth what $200 was in nineteen-something, and especially when there are other, much cheaper options. The mobile market, with all the freemium and 99-cent garbage glutting it, is also creating a race to the bottom. When someone tries to put out a good game on mobile platforms, one that's a little more involved and cost a bit more to make than matching three candies, buying darling dresses for your virtual paper dollies, or cutting strings to drop candy in some nondescript googly-eyed creature's mouth, people scream in protest all over the App Store and Google Play. Never mind trying to get those same people to invest $20 or $30 into games like Fire Emblem: Awakening or A Link Between Worlds.

I liked Ni no Kuni's battle system. It wasn't perfect in execution, but I thought it made the battles quite lively. Its battle system reminds me a lot of Tales, and maybe that's why I like it. It's also a lot like Level-5's great PS2 RPG, Rogue Galaxy. I'd love to see a spiritual successor to Ni no Kuni come to PS4. I do know Level-5 is working on a PS4 game.

I think Ni no Kuni is probably the closest we'll see to a console Pokemon, but its story does take a bit of time to pick up. That doesn't bother me in the slightest, because I like RPGs and most of them start at a leisurely pace, but your mileage may vary. Once you get more playable characters and collect more familiars the game really rocks.

I do love me some SRPGs, that's true, but The Last of Us was a great production from Sony. Hopefully they'll have something just as good in the works on PS4.

The only Pilotwings I actually played was Pilotwings Resort, which was a launch title for the 3DS, at the store. I thought videos of Pilotwings 64 were pretty impressive for their time. I never saw the SNES game in action.

The first line of your review really shows how times have changed. The NES (with Super Mario Bros in the US), Game Boy (Tetris and Super Mario Land), SNES (Super Mario World, Pilotwings, etc) and N64 (Super Mario 64) all launched with strong titles designed to showcase their systems. I guess Wii Sports falls into this category as well even though Wii games like Xenoblade, The Last Story, and Fire Emblem are more my speed.

For other systems, their good games didn't come until the consoles had been out for a year or two.  Even Nintendo hasn't been launching with the same kind of system-showcasing titles since the Gamecube, while Sony and Microsoft have always had kind of lackluster launches. That said, the PS3 and 3DS, my current favorite systems, both launched with rather weak launch titles, and look at them now!

Vanquish is one of my favorite shooters ever. Wish they'd do a sequel or a successor.

I'm an early PS4 adopter and I also own a Wii U, but honestly there isn't much to invest in the next generation just yet. Hell, the PS3 still has a full slate of great games coming in 2014, and I've really been digging the 3DS now that I finally got one, although I guess the 3DS belongs to the equivalent generation in handhelds that the PS4, Wii U, and Xbone do.

Thanks for the shout-out. Surprisingly, though, when I first got my 360, one of the first games I got with it was Halo 3. And I actually spent a fairish amount of time on it. I wasn't great at it, but for the most part I had fun, as long as my mic was muted or I was playing with friends. The actual people playing were mostly assholes, however, and when you consider that during the game, you can only talk to your teammates, that brings to mind the old cliche "With friends like these, who needs enemies?"

Before I finally gave up on Halo 3, my finest moment in the game came when I was playing team deathmatch. I was in one of the big Wraith tanks, I aimed and fired at an enemy that was dead in my sights, and some dumbass from my own team runs out in front of me and gets his ass blasted. The dumbass then gets on his mic, screaming about how I ruined his killstreak and for everyone on the team to "kill the n****r f****t." Next thing I knew, my teammates were after me. The other team must have wondered why our team suddenly stopped attacking them. Anyway, after I realized what was happening, I drove my Wraith over to our base, parked it there, and invited my "allies" to bring it on. Long story short: We were up by about ten points when the friendly fire incident happened, and my team was down twenty before they finally booted me in desperation. That was my proudest moment in Halo 3.

Halo 3 is the only Halo game I own. I didn't bother with ODST, Reach, or Halo 4, and I have no plans to buy an Xbox One in the foreseeable future, so that leaves out Halo 5. But honestly, although Halo isn't my cup of tea, I greatly prefer its style of gameplay and artistic design over the likes of Call of Duty or Battlefield.

This list of anticipated games is a list after my own heart. You know I'm down with Namco's flurry of Tales love. I'll be getting FFX/X2 HD, but I hope Square will consider a HD remake of FFXII, perhaps for PS4. I'll probably get most of these games, in fact. I already have Bravely Default's CE on preorder. Oh, and let me know when you get back into FFXIV. I'll be getting the PS4 version as well. I have it on PS3, but supposedly you're supposed to be able to upgrade to the PS4 version.

I've got my collectors' edition of Bravely Default reserved. Lots of good Wii U choices. As far as the indies go, I'm looking forward to Pier Solar HD, which was a homebrew Sega Genesis RPG originally that got big acclaim. I'll probably get it on PS4, but it's coming to all the big consoles and PCs. I think they're even making a Dreamcast version of it.

Definitely looking forward to Zestiria!

I haven't downloaded the demo myself. I did go and preorder the Collectors' Edition yesterday. I have the Zelda 3DS XL, so I'm good on screen size.