PixlBit

I definitely rhyme Castlevania with Transylvania in my head, so I completely missed the rhyme scheme last time. 

BlueSky does sound better than Twitter but I'm fairly certain I'll have to make a professional X account for this PhD program and I'm gonna be annoyed about it. 

Video Game Cage Match: 

Code Vein and Astral Chain both have really cool art styles from what I'm seeing online but Astral Chain looks slightly cooler. Point: Astral Chain. 

Hope my vote is not in vain. 

Be cool if one of them had a level with rain. 

Hope these cheesy rhymes are not causing you pain.

Julian still hasn't messages me about hanging out. Come on, mang. Dang. 

I still need to finish Chicory. There were definitely some puzzles that got to be a bit too much though.

I don't know if the X series is gonna be much better if you're not a fan of platformers ...

The DLC was also a couple odd cliffhangers and even when I put it on easy, it was WAY too much of a pain to get there. Like each DLC only lasts about an hour or two, tops (if you just want to complete the story) but they ratchet up the difficulty in PAINFULLY clunky ways.

I definitely have not used Pixlbit's messaging system in a good long while. lol

Also, Julian, I uh ... definitely did not mean to send that message about being down for a pinball meetup to all of Pixlbit but at least nothing embarassing is IN the message. 

Anyway, yeah I'm down to drive to you or whatever, no worries. lol 

Just gonna repost my Stage Select and Video Game Cage Match here:

STAGE SELECT: Being in a Rya Ga Gotoku studios game; still incredibly hit or miss but damn, they know how to make them when they do it right. I'll say compelling storylines and world-building are most important and I'd include teaching me a mechanic or showing me a place on a map I wouldn't have thought about as part of world-building. Ultimately though, the MAIN thing that will make me actually want to complete a substory is that it tells a compelling ... substory. 

VIDEO GAME CAGE MATCH: Castlevania but I wonder how I'd feel if I'd played Mickey Mania more recently. I remember the towards-the-screen segment blowing my young mind when I rented it for SNES and in general the art design and graphics in that game were simply amazing and I think still hold up. 

But I haven't PLAYED Mickey Mania recently and Castlevania NES is still fun to play and began a series I've had tons of enjoyment with. While I think the farthest I've ever made it in the original Castlevania game is probably stage 3 or 4, I've enjoyed replaying those levels via emulation (we never really rented this one for NES, so I remember Double Dribble and Anticipation being more played in the house) for several years now and have played tons of Castlevania games since. Gotta go with the classic.

STAGE SELECT: Being in a Rya Ga Gotoku studios game; still incredibly hit or miss but damn, they know how to make them when they do it right. I'll say compelling storylines and world-building are most important and I'd include teaching me a mechanic or showing me a place on a map I wouldn't have thought about as part of world-building. Ultimately though, the MAIN thing that will make me actually want to complete a substory is that it tells a compelling ... substory. 

VIDEO GAME CAGE MATCH: Castlevania but I wonder how I'd feel if I'd played Mickey Mania more recently. I remember the towards-the-screen segment blowing my young mind when I rented it for SNES and in general the art design and graphics in that game were simply amazing and I think still hold up. 

But I haven't PLAYED Mickey Mania recently and Castlevania NES is still fun to play and began a series I've had tons of enjoyment with. While I think the farthest I've ever made it in the original Castlevania game is probably stage 3 or 4, I've enjoyed replaying those levels via emulation (we never really rented this one for NES, so I remember Double Dribble and Anticipation being more played in the house) for several years now and have played tons of Castlevania games since. Gotta go with the classic.

(For anyone confused how someone born in 1990 had access to NES/SNES, I have an older brother who's six years older). 

P.S.

Julian, I can drive to wherever as long as you tell me. I'm down for pinball. Before August 21 would be ideal, as that is when UT classes start but I'm sure I'll get some weekends where I'm not TOO bogged down with Ph.D. and TA work to go somewhere.

I actually looked at that review last night and thought the picture looked vaguely like MineSweeper. 

Mega Man X was my introduction to Mega Man, or maybe X2 was. I rented both quite a bit.