PixlBit

Hey Donkey Kong is a hard game!  One of the reasons why I didn't like Donkey Kong as much as a kid is because I had a hard time wrapping my head around it.  I loved mazes in activity books so Pac-Man seemed like a more natural transition for me.

Even though Pac-Man is the first arcade game I ever played, Donkey Kong had to have been the second or third one.  The first time I saw an arcade machine was at the front entrance at Kroger past the checkout lanes.  There were three of them: Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and Space Invaders.  I don't remember if I played them all the first time I went, but I know I did the second time.

I'm planning a trip to Super Nintendo World in LA at the end of April, actually.

I missed the Stage Select where you talked about games we'd like to revisit again for the first time.  I would've replied to that earlier, but I let time get away from me.  So I want to do that now if you don't mind.  Some I would love to play again for the first time include Klonoa (I forgot how much I loved those games when I played the recent collection.  And that ending...wow).  Chrono Trigger, Katamari Damacy, Okami, Link's Awakening, and Rocket Slime.

As for this stage select, it's hard for me to think of bad games with good ideas.  I think Sonic games have good ideas in them, but there are few games in that series I like.  I guess Yuji Naka has a lot of games like that, such as Balan Wonderworld.  I guess we won't be seeing any games from him for a long time, if ever.  Another fairly recent game that has a sequel that just came out is Octopath Traveller.  I liked the ideas of that game, both visually and gameplay-wise, but it was just too grindy.  So I won't be getting the sequel.

Even though we have totally different views on some things, I think it would be fun to be on the podcast with you all sometime, too.  I have NO idea what we'd talk about, and you'd have to be patient with me as I do my podcasts very old fashioned and dated.  But maybe that can be something we can think about for later.  Your podcast is interesting because of your different views of games than what I have.

I mostly just played Sodoku on the Brain Age games on the DS and 3DS.  They're ok, but I'm not a big fan of math so I didn't get into them much after that.

I'm glad I got to review this.  Kind of sad I didn't get to review the first one.

http://www.gamerdad.com/blog/2022/08/15/capcom-arcade-2nd-stadium-ps4-switch-xbox-one-pc/

I reviewed Shredder's Revenge.  Excellent game.

http://www.gamerdad.com/blog/2022/07/08/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-shredders-revenge-ps4-switch-xbox-one-pc/

Never had an Xbox One.  Too few games on it I wanted to play, and even then, a bunch of those games eventually made it to Switch!

I got the PS4 on a Black Friday sale, too.  Around 2016 I think.  And it's still the most current PlayStation console I use even today!  I don't feel the need to get a PS5 anytime soon.  I think the PS4 runs way better than my PS3 did.  I try to get most of my games on the PS4 instead of the Switch, unless it's only available on the Switch or if it's something I'd rather play on the go.

The main reason why I didn't like the 3DS as much as the DS is because I'm blind in my left eye and couldn't see the 3D effects.  But otherwise I loved the handheld.  Kirby Triple Deluxe, Planet Robotbot, A Link Between Worlds, Super Mario 3D Land, and so many others.

I think the best unique thing about the 3DS was the StreetPass feature.  I loved taking the 3DS with me everywhere and StreetPassing people.  It made going to conventions like E3 and PAX extra fun because you got to StreetPass a lot of people.  I loved the games they made for it, too.  Only problem was it was made for densely populated areas in mind (like Japan), so my friend and I would arrange StreetPass meetings at local GameStops back then, which was a lot of fun, too.

I love all of the Game & Watch Gallery games.  I love how the updated versions have more than just better graphics, they tweak the gameplay to really encourage you to get a high score.  I really liked G&W Gallery 3 because Turtle Bridge and Greenhouse are some of my favorites.  And even though most of the unlockable games aren't that special, I was pleasantly surprised with Spitball Sparky, as it was a combination of Space Invaders and Arkanoid.  

It's a shame that Nintendo doesn't make G&W Galleries anymore.  I think the WarioWare games kind of replaced them.  Did you know the G&W Gallery games were made by TOSE, who also did Super Princess Peach and Starfy (and tons of other games)?  You can play G&W games on other titles, like in America's Test Kitchen, a DS virtual cookbook, you can unlock Egg and Chef to play while the timer runs when your food is cooking!

Nintendo claims the Game and Watch was super popular back then, but honestly, I don't remember seeing any G&W handhelds until AFTER the NES came out.  And even then all I saw were Super Mario Bros. and Zelda in stores.  And one time a kid brought Mario Bros. to middle school.  And that's all of my early memories of Game & Watch.

I got my Wii at launch.  We went to Wal-Mart at 6 pm before the midnight release and waited outside in a line.  We weren't the first to get there, but we were ahead enough that we knew we'd get one if we waited.  Luckily we got to wait in the garden section so we weren't out in the cold or anything.  My brother Jeff went with me and we spent the time playing PSP and watching movies on a portable DVD player.  But around 10 pm the manager came out and gave us tickets and told us to go home and come back at midnight to pick up our Wii.  So we really only had to wait in line for about 3 or 4 hours. Then after we got the Wii, Jeff and I went over to one of my friend's houses and played Wii Sports for another few hours.  Jeff was still pretty young so he thought it was cool to be able to stay up that late with the 'big guys.'  So I have a lot of good memories of that night.

The Wii was great, but it's not my favorite Nintendo console.  Like how the N64 was the catalyst for me getting a N64, the Wii was the catalyst for me getting a 360.  Just not enough games.  And the motion controls got pretty gimmicky pretty quickly.  Actually after the Wii, all of Nintendo's consoles have been kind of gimmicky.  

But there were still a lot of great and memorable games on the Wii.  Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 are some of my favorite 3D Mario games.  Heck, I even liked Wii Music!  Lots of great Kirby games and the Virtual Console was pretty amazing.  I loved how it even had Turbo Grafix 16 games on it!  Hudson was really a major supporter of the Wii.  I miss them.