PixlBit

When we did our podcast on top five favorite home console games, the 360 was on my list.  Which is weird because I didn't own the Xbox consoles before or after it.  The 360 just had a wide variety of games I wanted to play on it, and to me it was the first console that did the online thing right.  Consoles today still imitate what the 360 started with that.

My only problem with the 360 was the dreaded 'red ring of death.'  It happened to me twice.  I have a rule with consoles and games and that's "three strikes and you're out."  So any time I play a game that freezes up on my three times or more, I stop playing it.  So it's a good thing the red ring only happened to me twice.  Still probably too many times for that to happen, though.

When we did our top five favorite handheld console podcast, the DS was on my list.  I liked it better than the 3DS because even though the 3DS had meatier games and StreetPass, the DS had more creative games and I didn't have to worry about the gimmicky 3D stuff (because I'm blind in my left eye and can't see that effect anyway).

I first got to play a prototype DS at E3.  A select few of us got to go into a room and play a select few prototypes of games.  I was lucky enough to play what would become Pac-Pix, a game even Miyamoto wished he had come up with! One cool thing is that when I left that room, Charles Martinet was there to greet me!  He's the voice of Mario!

So many great games to talk about, but I think my standout favorite on the DS was the Phoenix Wright series.  It started out on the GBA in Japan, but the touch screen support worked wonders and I'm glad Capcom brought that to the US.

When we did our podcast on our top five favorite consoles, the GameCube was my number 5 choice.  It was real hard to pick from that and the PS2, but ultimately the GameCube won out because this was when Nintendo was really firing on all cylinders and making some pretty experimental games for it.  Case in point, the launch title for it was not a Mario game, but Luigi's Mansion!  I got the black GameCube at launch at Wal-Mart with a few of my friends.  This was back before game consoles weren't hard to get.

Other games I liked included Super Monkey Ball, Mario Sunshine, Zelda: Wind Waker, Four Swords Adventures, F-Zero GX, Metroid Prime, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, heck, even the first Animal Crossing came out on GameCube, and that's one of my top five favorite games of all time!  Oh yeah, and the Game Boy Player was a game changer!

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I never owned an Xbox.  I sure did like the 360 that came after it, though.  There just wasn't enough games on the original Xbox for me to warrant purchasing the system.  Some I kind of wanted to play included OutRun 2001, a new Toe Jam & Earl game, a 3D Spy vs. Spy game, and some of Rare's offerings.  But that's really about it.

Typing was probably one of the most important classes I took in high school.

When the PS2 came out, I had just graduated college so I was low on funds so I couldn't get it right away.  Plus it was really hard to find for the first few months.  I finally got one around March or April that next year.  Aside from stuff like Kingdom Hearts and Katamari Damacy, I don't have many PS2 specific memories because most everything I wanted to play came out on both the PS2 and GameCube, so it was just a matter of what system I'd rather play them on.  

I was still reviewing games for the newspaper when the PS2 first came out.  I remember my editor saying, "Cary, you need to get a PS2!"  And I was like, "I just got out of college.  I have to get some funds first!  Maybe if you hire me full time I can get one soon.  Or let me have your press copy which I know you have."  My editor didn't like me much.  Not sure why.

Yeah it's hard to put my finger on what made those games so great and why the imitators can't get it right usually.

I got my Dreamcast not on launch day, but at the Christmas right after it.  It was a surprise, too, because I didn't ask for it.  But I'm glad I got it because I was still reviewing games for the newspaper at the time and it really helped.  The Dreamcast was my first SEGA console and really upped my respect for the company.

Some of my favorites include Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, Space Channel 5, Crazy Taxi, Samba de Amigo (still have the maraca controlellers under my bed), Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Cannon Spike, Soul Calibur, and many more!

Even though the N64 is what caused me to buy a PlayStation, I still really liked the N64.  Some of my favorites include Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Diddy Kong Racing, the Zelda games, the Banjo-Kazooie games, Kirby 64, Tetrisphere, and many more!