PixlBit

The PS1 era. The SNES's RPG library, while it has some enduring classics, was pretty dependent on Square, at least in the US since Dragon Quest V and VI were not localized. The PS1 and PS2 had a much deeper and broader library of RPGs. We had a lot more different styles of RPG on PS1 and PS2, including some of the best SRPGs, and companies like Capcom, Namco, Konami, Working Designs, Tri-Ace, Level-5, Atlus, and many others contributing to the PS1/PS2 RPG pool. 

I'd honestly say that the Nintendo system with the best RPG library is the Switch, and the Switch is damned near an RPG golden age in itself that's coming pretty close to the PS1. DQXI, Fire Emblem, Xenoblade, Valkyria Chronicles, and SMT V are all amazing. 

Other than Mario and Zelda, Dragon Quest is the series I've stuck with for the longest, having played the original when it first came out on NES. That said, it was hard for the seventh game to make a splash on PS1 compared to the Final Fantasies or even more offbeat fare like Lunar or Enix's own Valkyrie Profile. But I did get the Game Boy Color remakes of the NES games. Level-5 was the best choice they could possibly have made for VIII, as not only was that game great, but I think it was an eye-opener for Horii and Toriyama that they could both stick with tradition, yet work with more modern technology. 

My favorite western RPG company is actually Obsidian. New Vegas is the best Fallout, South Park was good, the Outer Worlds is great. It's too bad Obsidian got swallowed up by the Redmond anaconda along with Bethesda. 

Nintendo satisfied me with SMT V (finally a firm release date), Metroid Dread, and Advance Wars.

Kazuya is cool enough, since he goes with characters like Terry, Ken, and Ryu, but I would like to see Lloyd Irving or Yuri Lowell representing my favorite Namco series. It would also be cool to see Virtua Fightee represented (I do have the Akira Mii Fighter costume.) I also would like Scorpion or Sub-Zero. Scorpion could probably be done in a way that wouldn't upset players with Mario getting a gory Fatality. Maybe Nintendo will be cool about it. They seem to like the Witcher, and they've been pretty friendly with Netherrealm over the years. 

Some of the visual elements in the levels were also meant to evoke a play. For instance, the platforms that seemed to be suspended by strings or bolted to the backdrop. Also, the way the levels all ended was supposed to be an "exit stage left" (which it would be from the perspective of Mario as an actor on stage.) 

Nintendo does that a lot, actually. Look at the intro to Super Mario All-Stars or some of Nintend's online presentations. Those seem to be probably deliberate callbacks to Warner Bros cartoons that showed mortal enemies like Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd as colleagues and actors when off-camera("What's Up, Doc?") Mario was designed as an "actor" like Bugs or Mickey that could be plugged into any situation he was needed for. 

This section covered my two favorite PS2 games: Dragon Quest VIII and Final Fantasy XII. DQVIII was a shock in how big of a leap it was from its PS1 predecessor. I took the day off from work for FFXII's launch. 

There were a lot of Galaxian clones on pre-NES consoles and computers. Some of fhem were close enough to be sued over, but there was one I liked on TRS-80 called Galaxy Invasion. That one had the twist that the boss "flagship" enemies would occasionally fire unavoidable lasers if you didn't destroy them in time. There were no official Galaga ports until the NES, so I think Galaxian actuallly did better on the home market since Galaga had to compete against Super Mario Bros. It's obviously a different story now: Galaga is one of the most evergreen arcade games out there and is in almost every collection Namco puts out, alongside Pac-Man and Dig-Dug. Galaxian occasionally gets put in colllections for historical context, but really shows its age while Galaga is a legit timeless classic.

I always thought of early 80s shooters as falling into one of three categories: Space Invaders clones, Galaxian clones, and Centipede clones. 

Fighting games are among the few games thaf I do get into in terms of online play. A lot of it is the character designs. I'm a fan of the Guilty Gear series, and ASW has really been doing well for itself over the past few years with DBFZ. That game was a definite improvement over the old Budokai games.

Cities Skylines is what SimCity 5 should have been. The king is dead, long live the king.

Fun fact which Cary probably already knows: By now a lot of us know that SMB 2 started out as Doki Doki Panic in Japan. What a lot of people don't know is that Doki Doki Panic started out as... a Super Mario game.