Stage select:
A lot of developers and franchises. Lunar, Ultima (and Origin Systems itself), Maxis and Will Wright. I miss Square and Enix being separate competitors and always think of what might have been had Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within not been made.
Cage Match:
I played Contra quite a bit on NES, and dabbled a little bit in Contra III. I remember the commercials for Contra: Hard Corps and I always wanted to play that. Operation C was a pretty competent Game Boy title. The first Game Boy game I played that wasn't a cut-down version of a NES game was Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters, and that game was actually better than the NES original (no cheap falls anymore). And then there were Final Fantasy Adventure and Link's Awakening.
I lived in Oklahoma at the time and there was actually a supermarket near me called the Super C Mart.
Gamingwise, Link's Awakening was the best of 1993, and I did play Doom quite a bit. In the arcades I was big into Mortal Kombat II.
Apparently the story in the US version was created specifically for the US version. The Japanese version had a typical sci-fi anime plot.
I used to see the Gold Box games, but I never had the opportunity to play them. I guess now you can play them online on DOS emulators. At that time I associated that kind of combat with Ultima 3, which I was familiar with through the NES version.
There was also a 1994 D&D game called Ravenloft that I always wanted to try. I bought it on Good Old Games. It's a first person RPG, and unfortunately the mouse-based combat moves way too fast. :( Let's just say Final Fantasy VI is in no danger of being dethroned as my favorite RPG of 1994.
I wish the collection had included Rondo of Blood, or at least Dracula X on SNES. It was a step back from IV in some ways, but it had great music and graphics.
I kind of hope that if Konami does a Castlevania Collection 2, they include Castlevania 64 and Legacy of Darkness. Everybody kind of dumps on those in favor of Symphony of the Night, but they were a good effort at 3-D Castlevania, especially LoD. At least Nintendo pushed them to try 3-D graphics.
I haven't picked up the Trials of Mana remake yet. I still want to get Xenoblade Chronicles Remastered and The Outer Worlds. Too many games, man.
I actually skipped out on SNK Heroines for the same reason - very fanservicey - and I used to play a lot of DoA 4 when I had a 360. I did get Samurai Shodown, though, and that game is really good.
After I completed the main story, I'd play multiplayer games with four teams of 2-3 bots apiece, give them stuff like grenades and rocket launchers. Surprisingly the unarmed bots were the toughest if they got close.
I kind of want the yellow one, but not at that price.
I wish Sega would do a Saturn Mini, with all the great games that are hard to find for less than $200, but that ain't never going to happen. Maybe somebody will redo Shining Force III or Panzer Dragoon Saga like they did the original PD for the Switch.
Just wanted to say, Julian, that I enjoyed the Stage Select last month, especially since my game idea was something I've wanted for years.
I also listened to your outro, which must have been very hard to record given everything going on. There's a need to take an emotional break from the world once in awhile, both for your listeners and for you guys. Keep on keeping on, and thanks for hanging in there.
Stage Select:
During the 5th generation, possibly as a response to the popularity of Evangelion, Japanese RPG makers really liked the Corrupt Church plots. Xenogears and FF Tactics come to mind, but my personal favorite of these was Althena's Chosen from Lunar 2. "Althena" was transformed from a benevolent mother goddess into an angry Old Testament deity whose priesthood behaves like the Spanish Inquisition and who can rain fire from the heavens when she's really angry. Her resurrected "Dragonmaster" nearly destroyed the world a thousand years in the past. They're actually prepping the world for the return of the devil. There's even a bit of American evangelical prosperity gospel thrown in for good measure, though I don't know if that was in the Japanese original or if it came from Working Designs during the localization.
Cage Match:
Two great games, but I give the nod to SMB3. At the time, it was one of the most highly polished video games ever made, and probably represented the absolute limit of what the NES could do. The levels are a little more bite-sized than the ones in SMB or SMW, but they're incredibly tight in design, with very little filler. The power-ups were also better than the ones in SMW, though the ability to ride Yoshi in SMW was pretty impressive at the time. I also liked that you could stockpile power-ups and use them as you see fit. I still hate those stupid giant fish in World 3 that can eat you in one gulp even if you're fully powered up.
