PixlBit

I still play Balloon Fight and Vs. Balloon Fight. At this point Balloon Fight returning seems more likely than Joust returning, since Warner Discovery doesn't seem interested in anything other than Mortal Kombat and DC games.

The Nintendo series I most want to come back is Kid Icarus. I'd like a full on 3-D action third person shooting/flying platform game, where you can explore at your own leisure. Ratchet and Clank have a good template for such a game. 

I'd also like them to look at Mother, but I know they won't without Itoi's involvement, and heck. it looks like Mother 3 will never be released over here, at least until Nintendo's next sales slump. Failing that, I'd like a follow-up to Tokyo Mirage Sessions, perhaps have Itsuki and company in the Fire Emblem world in a SRPG.

I liked the Wii Sports boxing the best, but what I really want is a Punch-Out for the Switch. 

Stage Select:

Been playing Shin Megami Tensei V lately, so my pick is the battle theme, which is kind of a headbanger.

Cage Match:

Okage wins this nominally. Neither of these games was honestly anything to write home about, but Okage was a serviceable enough 3-D adventure. I wanted Unlimited SaGa to be better because I enjoyed SaGa Frontier. But nope. 

Incidentally, I have more games to suggest for Cage Match: any combination of Quest 64, Plumbers Dont't Wear Ties, Lester The Unlikely, and Life of Black Tiger. Exploring the crapulent underbelly of the gaming world never gets old. 

Alternatively, you could pit some good games against each other. Say, Ys vs Alundra, Dark Cloud, or Trials of Mana. Tokyo Xanadu vs Tokyo Mirage Sessions. Pokémon Sword/Shield vs. SMT V. 

I've done a better job at investing in video games than I did investing in stocks. That's kind of sad and hilarious at the same time. 

Besides the Norse flavoring (one of my favorite NES games is the Greek flavored Kid Icarus), I had rented Star Ocean: The Second Story a year prior. The similar artistic style of VP helped win me over. Between VP, FF9, and Lunar 2, I had a great winter gaming-wise, which thankfully didn't tank my third semester of college. 

To quote Ringo Starr on The Simpsons: "Dear Jamie. Please forgive the lateness of me reply. Thank you for the fab review of Dragon Quest V."

One of my favorites of the series, along with DQ 8 and DQ 11 S. This game was as good as any Final Fantasy game on SNES. When I played through it, I picked Deborah, who is the high maintenance controlling wife. She's the best fighter of the bunch. 

The enemy types do make some sense in context, I guess. A lot of African wildlife reserves were so fraught with poachers in the 80s thaf the local governments empowered park rangers to shoot poachers on sight. 

Yoh Yoshinari, the lead art designer, has a pretty extensive resume in the anime world, including Evangelion, Kill La Kill, and Gurren Langan. I also had Silmeria. I prefer the original game. 

I actually enjoyed MK vs DCU, even though the games subsequent to that have been better.

Valkyrie Chronicles 1 on PS1 is very pricey these days. Video games have been a better investment for me than some stocks nowadays.

Yep, I have Odin Sphere as well. Great game.

One thing I didn't mention in the blog is that the original PS1 dub was done by 4Kids Entertainment, the company that handled the original English dubs for Pokemon. So most of the voice actors in VP were from Pokemon, including the actors who played Ash, Misty, and Brock. Lennetjh's voice actor is Megan Hollingshead, who voiced Nurse Joy.