High on Life looks interesting, but I have neither a Xbox nor a PC.
Currently playing Persona 5 Royal and Crisis Core Reunion, which is an excellent remaster of the PSP classic. Oh, and Valkyrie Profile is out on PS4/5 now.
I always wanted to build a model train set.
Stage Select:
Honestly? I'm still on the Switch, and more interested in Switch 2 than the PS5 or the XSX|S. Those systems seem to be almost stillborn. Part of this is due to chronic supply chain shortages driving up prices and causing product shortages. To be honest, the PS5 and XSX really haven't justified their existence yet, other than the fact that nobody is buying the PS4 or Xbox One. The law of diminishing returns continues to apply with graphics, while none of the games really screams "I need a $500 console to play this." Hopefully FFXVI will change that. And to be honest, it seems like game companies are less focused on gameplay and graphics and more on how to get consumers to allow game companies to scoop money out of your bank accounts on an automated basis. Somewhere out there, Don Mattrick and Adam Orth are laughing their asses off, saying "we told you so."
Cage Match:
Giving this to Super Mario Odyssey. One of the best Mario games versus a lesser sequel is a no-brainer.
I had those Tifa and Aerith Bandai figues back in the 1990s. May still have them packed away somewhere.
I've mostly been playing No Man's Sky with a side of Pokemon Scarlet and Persona 5 Royal.
The musical resemblance probably was intentional, and like a lot of video game companies, Capcom hoped to change it just enough to fly under the radar, or that the movie was so old by that point that the copyright wouldn't be enforced.
John Carmack, the original producer of Doom, once observed that Bobby Prince, the composer, was also a lawyer who knew how to change songs just enough to avoid copyright lawsuits. A lot of Doom II's tracks are basically instrumental covers of Alice in Chains, Slayer, Black Sabbath, and of course Pantera, from id's home state of Texas (The level 23 music, based on AiC's "Them Bones," is the most notorious example.)
When it comes to 2-D platformers, if I had to do a top 5, they'd all be Metroid and Mario games, with Super Metroid coming out on top. My favorite series after those would be Castlevania.
One unusual platformer I enjoyed was Mischief Makers on the N64. I hope they consider putting that on Nintendo Switch Online.
Stage Select:
My proposal is an unusual one: I would like to see a Project A-Ko RPG, where you play as A-Ko, explore Graviton City, and battle B-Ko and her minions, ultimately facing off against the Cygnians to protect C-Ko. Or, if you find C-Ko really annoying, you could just let the Cygnians have her. This could be done by Atlus or by CyberConnect2, the makers of Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, or by the folks responsible for the upcoming One Piece Odyssey. In the movies, A-Ko's parents are implied to be Superman and Wonder Woman, while B-Ko's father is based on Tony Stark.
Cage Match:
Probably going to give it to Spider-Man 2018 due to technological improvements and a better developer, but honestly, never played either game.
I haven't seen a Marble Slab since I lived in OK. Marble Slabs are based in Texas, Cold Stone is based in AZ. Cold Stone was also successfully able to go national. I saw one in Times Square, over a decade after my dad and I went to the very first one in Tempe, AZ.
We actually have Kura Sushi here in my area, and I've eaten there. I had sushi and one of those sweet red bean dessert buns. Cold Stone Creamery is local to Arizona (our outgoing governor was its president for a time), and I like their Mario stuff. They have a Mario Kart cake that I would have been all over when I was a kid. I don't eat ice cream as much as I did when my metabolism was better, sadly.
Fates sounds like it was developed with the idea of trying to cater to both casual and hardcore SRPG fans. Birthright is more forgiving and structured more like Awakening, while Conquest is tougher and more rigidly structured, with less room for error. I'm guessing they probably took inspiration from the Zelda Oracle games in that regard.
I've gotta say, I'm more excited for Atari 50 than I should be. It seems to have a fantastic selection of games and content. Other than Solaris, I was pleased to see Miner 2049er, a favorite of the Atari 8-bit line, on board. They also made a new Yars' Revenge game, and Swordquest: Airworld, which was planned to complete the Swordquest quadrilogy but was canceled due to the 1983 crash and Warner selling Atari to Jack Tramiel. Atari Karts for the Jaguar is also on there, starring Bentley Bear from Crystal Castles.
