PixlBit

No, Namco Museum Arcade PAC has the Namco Museum game that was only on Switch, plus Pac-Man Champion Edition DX.  Basically they took two previously downloadable only games and put them on one cart.  

And in other news, I caved in and imported the physical Namcot Collection for Switch because it was only 25 bucks.  I also got the Mr. Driller Drill Land physical copy version imported as well because it was only 30.  Not bad for import prices.  I'll have a Drill Land blog up next week.

Yes, these are all NES and Famicom games.  No arcade.  I wish there was a physical release, too.  The Switch got one in Japan, but it has different games on it!  Maybe I'll import it someday if import prices get cheap enough.  After the first Namco Museum came out on the Switch, they did make a physical release of that with Namco Museum arcade PAC, so there's a small hope for Archives as well.

Falcom is awesome!  I think it was Legacy of the Wizard that made me a Falcom fan, even if I didn't know they made it when I was a kid.  I never could get into Faxanadu, though, when I rented it.

Speaking of Falcom, I'm glad NIS America is bringing most of Falcom's stuff over here now.  I was glad they just announced Ys 9 for a US release next year, even though I kind of knew that would happen anyway.  Ys Origins is also coming to the Switch, which is a cool little side game.  Did you ever play Ys 8?  One of my brothers called it "Jurassic Park: The JRPG!"  Dana was cool in that game because she had blue hair and was really strong.  That fills two of my criteria for cool characters.  My favorite is still Ys Seven on PSP.  Mother Earth Altego is one of my favorite overworld themes ever.

I didn't mention it in my blog, but apparently Mendel Palace was called Quinty in Japan.

Volume 2 has a lot of good games, but Volume 1 is almost worth the price for 8-bit Pac-Man CE and NES Splatterhouse.  Although I still think both volumes are overpriced and they should've put them both on one collection.

I think the Japanese liked Tower of Druaga the same way how we liked to share game secrets at the playground.  While we were talking about how to get to the Minus World in Super Mario, maybe they had conversations like, "Hey I figured out how to get the treasure chest on the fifth floor!  You have to kill 3 black slimes!"  That's probably why the NES Druaga game was a big deal since now they didn't have to spend all those quarters to discover all the secrets.  But it's still a pretty slow and clunky game, though.  I could never get into it.

You should try Dig Dug 2 sometime, as it's an interesting take on the gameplay.  The first Dig Dug is still way better, though.  You should try Galaxian just to see how it evolved into Galaga.  

Yeah even though Nintendo is one of my favorite game companies, they do things sometimes that I don't always like.  I can see both arguments being valid in this Namco vs. Nintendo tussle, though.  Namco was right to be mad at Nintendo's policy since they were such a staunch supporter right away, but Nintendo also had to be stubborn about their rules so they could be fair to ALL third parties.  But one good thing about Namco is that they've always been versatlie and open to change, so they just go to where the money is usually.

1997 was the year I got a PlayStation.  I really couldn't afford one as I was just a poor college student, but it was one of the best gaming purchases I ever made.  After that, I was reviewing PlayStation games for the newspaper left and right.  The N64 just didn't have enough games!  The orignal PlayStation is probably one of my top favorite game consoles, but my favorite is still the SNES.

1997 was also the first year I went to E3 and it blew me away.  I think the most memorable game for me that year was probaby Klonoa on the PSX.

Oh sure, just give her lots of energy! (I can be pretty silly sometimes, huh?)

You'd better or else Blaze from Streets of Rage will come over to your house and throw you across the room and eat all the turkeys on the floor!

Mystery Science Theater 3000 is my top favorite TV show of all time.  Did you watch the new ones on Netflix?

The PowerPuff Girls was actually Craig McKracken's baby, but Tartakovsky worked on it, too.  Those were really good cartoons.

1996 was a big year for video games.  We got Super Mario RPG at the first half of the year, and the second half was the release of the N64 and Super Mario 64.  1996 was also the year I started writing game reviews for The Dallas Morning News, one of my most proudest accomplishments.

I know I've said this before, but FF9 is what FF7 and 8 should've been, at least I think so.  But I also say that when Square released FF9, they said, "Ok FF fans, we're going to be taking the franchise in bold, new directions in the future, so here's one last classic styled game for all you old farts who fear change."  Hard to believe that was 20 years ago!  I still remember playing it early at a friend's house who imported it!  Even though I like FF6 more, FF9 is definitely one of my top favorite FF games, and RPGs in general.

That one sounds cool.  If you ever find it and get it, you'll have to write about it.