Oh man, that Japan trip sounds great! I hope I get to go one day. That's really neat that you had a friend to show you around. Touristy stuff is a good starting point but it sounds like you really got to enjoy some of the country's best stuff.
I did not know that Jupiter developed The World Ends With You. I am still playing their Picross games. What a wild swing for them but it really paid off.
Kirby Canvas Curse is what sold me on the DS touch screen. It legitimized something that had only been gimicky up to that point. They made a sequel for the Wii U but I like the DS one better. Definitely recommended.
I'm a big fan of Tetris Attack and Pokémon Puzzle League but I was disappointed with Planet Puzzle League. A big part of that is the presentation. The games before it had prominently featured Yoshi and Pokémon characters but Planet Puzzle League came out post Lumines and went for a more minimalist "cool" vibe that I felt sucked all the life out of it. Still plays fine but it's missing a soul.
I've always had a soft spot for Dinotopia and it seems like no one remembers that property exists! That's cool that the game was decent. If you're interested, there was a decent live actioin miniseries that they did during the aughts. I don't know if it's streaming anywhere but there was definitely a DVD release.
"Beachside pirate resort" really cracked me up. I'm imagining thugs in traditional pirate garb sipping mimosas around a pool when you roll in and start sniping people lol
I got Black Ops III from PS+ and my Destiny group played some of it once during a lull in Destiny. It plays really well. What cracked me up, though, is that there is an NPC with you during the campaign that is the most dude-bro dude ever. Every time he opened his mouth it was something said 100% seriously but boiled down to stuff like, "We're awesome! Explosions! Suck it, bad guys! Adrenaline for life!!!" 
There has got to be millions of those discs floating around for the 360, so hopefully you can get a good deal.
You didn't like Modern Warfare??? Egads! The three MW games are the only CoD games I've really gotten into. I even played quite a bit of the multiplayer.
The new amiibo all look so good but they're so much more expensive than they used to be. That MetaKnight one sure is tempting though.
We saw the Mario Galaxy movie as well. It's a very shallow movie (like the first one) but it sure is fun to watch, especially on a big theater screen.
Dang, I had no idea Far Cry was so complicated before getting to Far Cry 2! You know, Far Cry 4 was the first PS4 game I bought but I never did play it.
I totally forgot that Darkwatch existed but yeah! I remember that coming out now! I have never played it but it did look really cool.
As soon as Sonic started coming to Nintendo console's, I started playing them and really wanted to like them. But it wasn't until Sonic Mania that I finally realized that I just don't really like 2D Sonic. It's just not for me.
Man, I am feeling the weight of the years tonight. There's too much of everything and not enough time. I was looking for a certain artist from OCRemix, found out he died in a boating accident in 2007, and then remembered that I had already learned that at some point in the last 19 years...but I still felt sad all over again. There's too much cool stuff. At moment's like this I better understand why some people will stop buying newly made games to focus on older things.
Anyway! *AHEM* Pardon my brief existential crisis. I don't have experience with as many of these, though I did play the first X-Men Legends game with my younger brother. I wish I had played its sequel and spiritual successor.
I've got Psi-Ops and Black on PS2 and I bought Snowblind once as a boxed PC game on clareance and have never played any of them (probably can't play Snowblind at this point). A lot of cool games in this bunch though. I've always heard good things about Shaolin Monks.
