PixlBit

I got really fed up with brick breakers mainly because the Xbox controller is just terrible for these games. I watched a youtuber complete NES Arkanoid with the Arkanoid controller you could get for NES. THAT is what I need on Xbox. I may try and get that thing. So, I added some other games to my list and began the deep dive into pinball. Here's all:

Game Pass Games for Rewards Points:

SteamWorld Build - I enjoyed the city building mechanics in this. Probably annoyed everyone who played SteamWorld Dig, but I liked it. Probably a little easier to play on PC, but not bad on console with all those menus to utilize. 

Maquette - Got farther and into the more challenging puzzles. 

While the Iron's Hot - Got farther here too but put it aside for the quicker achievements I needed for Game Pass dailies. I really like this game and want to get much farther in it. Love being a blacksmith. 

New Gen 1 Style Games:

Geometry Wars Evolved - So more of an homage to Gen 2 vector graphics games, but so basic I thought I'd add it to my Gen 1 play anyway. Man is it difficult. 

Peggle - Peggle is like pachinko which predates video games, so it seems to fit my Gen 1 plan. Imagine if this was an arcade game in 1976. I wonder, actually, why no one thought to make a video game out of pachinko back then. I'm finally beating the adventure mode. 

Arkan: The Dog Adventurer - Got through the first set of puzzles and started the second, more difficult set. Enemies fire at you more, witches appear and set up freeze spells and undead hands come up out of the ground to make you keep moving from platform to platform. Great game! Imagine this as an Atari game. Maybe it's like a cross between Breakout and Yars Revenge. 

Gen 1 Fudging:

Lost Artifacts: Time Machine - 8Floor games are so addictive to me. I love sending my gnomes out to build and clean up the place. The key is making priorities so you don't run out of resources and upgrading to increase overall speed. I'm trying to 3 star every level but some are really tricky. This one is scifi themed and has scientists that need to activate portals.  

Gnomes Garden 5: Halloween - Halloween themed GG5. Same gameplay as the Lost Artifacts and Royal Roads series. Some new items to make like jack-o-lanterns. 

Royal Roads - Another 8Floor game series of the same gamplay but with variations. This one has a new look with more detail. Not sure I like that, but I'm okay with it. This one you are helping dwarves underground, at least for the part I'm on. This one has 100 levels, a little more than the others. I do about 10 at a time and move on. 

Pinball on Xbox: These are all the Pinball platforms I've found on Xbox. For Gen 1 ('67-'76) I'm looking for EM tables (electro-mechanical) which are few. 

Pinball FX (360) - The orginal Zen Studios platform on Xbox. There's really not much here anymore and FX2 doesn't seem available in the store. 

Zaccaria Pinball - This is an Italian company that made a ton of pinballs. There is a whole section of EM tables too, which I bought and played. They are generally a little more simple in design than the American tables but are still fun to play. The simulation play is excellent. Also, the platform has a few unique modes like Campaign and Story that have you play challenges across all the many tables in the collection. Also there's a Zombie table where you fight off zombies with your pinballs. Fun!

Stern Pinball Arcade - All these tables were made after 1980, and so I'll play them for Gen 2 or 3 in the coming months. 

Pinball FX3 - I really love what Zen Studios did with this version and wish they had stayed with it. I'm mainly interested in simulated tables though. They have a Williams collection here but nothing is before 1980. I'll get to these later. 

Pinball FX (new Zen Studios platform) - They tried to redesign what was already awesome and generally made it terrible. Menus are difficult to navigate and unintuitive (unless maybe on PC) and it loads slowly because they tried to give you a realistic game room to customize. I much prefer the online tournaments and cartoony UI of FX3. There are a few new Williams tables here though, so I may buy them later on since none are before 1980.

Pinball Arcade (Farsight) - The is the best! Farsight made the Pinball Hall of Fame games for 360, PS3 and Wii and they include many older games. Here there are a few EM tables, and I'm going through them now trying to best my high score and complete skill challenges. I think these are the best looking and playing simulated tables out there today. 

And that's a week. I can't wait for February and the early 80s Gen 2 gaming. I've already got my Retron 77 in a case under my Xbox Series S ready to go. I'm so going to get into arcade and Atari games like nobody's business.