PixlBit

Oh man, you're gonna hate me.  So back when I was first trying out to write for The Dallas Morning News, I had to write two game reviews.  One for a game I liked, and one for a game I didn't like.  Since I was big into 16-bit RPGs at the time, the game I chose to write about that I liked was Final Fantasy 6.  The game I chose to write about that I didn't like...was Earthbound.

At the time I felt the battle system was a bit dated and took a few steps back from FF6.  And while I liked the weird story, it was so nonsensical that sometimes it was hard to tell where to go next.  The game came with a strategy guide back then for a reason.

If I had the time, I would love to give this game a second chance, though.  I will say one thing good about Earthbound.  Games like Earthbound and Super Mario RPG really brought good game translation to the forefront and paved the way for the future of translating text in games better.

I have the first Dragon Quest Builders game.  It's pretty neat, but I didn't feel compelled to get the sequel.  My brother Jeff really liked the first game, though.  But then, he loved Dragon Quest Monsters as a kid and played a lot of Minecraft as a teen.  My favorite Dragon Quest game is Rocket Slime on the DS.  Have you ever played that one?

Since I watched a lot of the Batman animated series from the 90s, I know a lot more about Batman characters than I do other comic book characters.  So I actually know who most of the characters are in Birds of Prey, i think.  I'll probably just wait until that Birds of Prey movie comes out on video or something.  I dunno, unless you can think of a good reason why I should go see it now.

That Black Canary lady is pretty.  The comic book character always looked kinda cool.  Only other thing I know about that character is that I think she can yell really loud or something.

I saw the Sonic movie this past week.  It was pretty bad.  But I really liked one of the post credit scenes.  Made me really happy.  If you know how I am, you'll know what I'm talking about.

Well, while I thought Power Rangers was dumb as a teen, I didn't vocalize my opinions on it because I knew that I watched stuff just like it (Godzilla and Ultraman) when I was younger.

I rented this game once, just because my younger brothers loved the Power Rangers so much back then.  For me, it was OK I guess.  Since I was a teen when the show was first big, I thought it was dumb, but I also watched it with my brothers and didn't complain about it either.  Mainly because when I was little, I watched stuff like Godzilla and Ultraman, which is basically the same thing as Power Rangers.

Well it was a Sound Warehouse before it was a Blockbuster Music.  Both stores sold music CDs and other electronics.  I mostly rented games from the mom and pop rental place in town called PayLess Video.

Gauntlet was super popular in the arcades where I was at, but I didn't get to play it a lot at first because the bigger kids would hog it.  But if there was an extra slot, the bigger kids would invite me to play and they were really cool and helped me out as we played and stuff.

I never saw TwinBee in an arcade, but I do have a TwinBee Collection I imported on the PSP.  The last game they made for TwinBee's 10th anniversary was really good.  But you don't pilot bees in that game series.  Instead you pilot cartoony robots with giant gloves and they're piloted by human characters, a boy, a girl, and a baby!  There was even a TwinBee anime cartoon at one point in Japan.

1943 is still one of my top favorite shooters of all time.  I just got done reviewing a collection of shooters from Psikyo on the Switch, you'd really like it.

Did you know there was a version of Shadowgate on the NES?

I never rented Mickey Mania nor did I own it.  But I played it a lot.  How?  Well, back in the day, my friend and I would go to the Blockbuster Music near my house, and they had a lot of video game demo stations.  Remember those?  One of them had Mickey Mania and I played it a lot there.  I liked the first level where it was first black and white and gradually changed to color as you progressed.

I don't think I could make a list of arcade games in the 80's that I liked, because there are just so many of them!  The early 80s was definitely the 'golden age' of arcade games.  I'd say the 'silver age' was when Street Fighter 2 came out.

I can only make a list of my top five favorite games of all time, and they are Pac-Man, Final Fantasy 6, Animal Crossing on GameCube, Super Mario Kart, and the PSOne Namco Museums.

My favorite 2600 game is Pressure Cooker, but it was made by the same folks who did Stampede.

I was always fascinated by Xevious as a kid.  One time as a kid I got a big roll of dot matrix printer paper and spread it out from the front door to the back.  Then I drew some Xevious backgrounds on one side (and Zaxxon scenes on the other), and got out my toy spaceships and played pretend Xevious on the printer paper.  I got in a little bit of trouble for using up so much paper, though!  Did you ever think you were flying over a golf course in Xevious?

I freaking love Time Pilot.  Sinistar scared me as a kid.  And Marble Madess is one of my favorite Atari arcade games.  I liked it so much I got the NES version.

Mega Man games have better graphics and sound than Mario games, I think.