PixlBit

Happy birthday. My present for you is a puppy. His name is Repede. He smokes a pipe.

This month, sequels to two of my all time favorite games hit: DQXI and Valkyria Chronicles 4. VC4 has a really sweet collectors' edition and it has the bonus of being on the Switch, which is my preferred platform nowadays, so that's what I went with. I've had sequels to nearly every one of my favorite game series drop over the past year. I'm still playing Breath of the Wild.

Sedona is a great hiking area, too. My friend and I were going to hike in Sedona, but she has trouble getting going in the mornings, LOL, so instead of hiking we went to a wine-tasting and an expensive steakhouse. People are pretty stupid about hiking in Phoenix in the summer, though. Most days, there's a story about someone getting overheated and having to be rescued because they go hiking in the middle of a 120-degree day.

I want Dragon Quest XI, but I already preordered the collectors' edition of Valkyria Chronicles 4 for the Switch. So DQXI will be on the back burner for a bit. I missed a couple of other games I wanted too.

That's pretty neat. Somewhere in storage I have a knockoff Pong console, from Venture Electronics I think. It was powered by six C batteries.

A lot of my PS2 favorites - FFXII, FFX, and Okami in particular - are on PS4 and Switch, in the case of Okami. I wish DQVIII would get a PS4 or Switch remake.

I was kind of interested in Maximo as a 3-D follow-up to Ghosts 'n' Goblins and Ghouls 'n' Ghosts, but I never picked it up.

I remember this one escort mission in GTA III. I stopped my car next to a girl in a miniskirt and picked her up.... wait, was that the kind of escort mission we were talking about?

Minter always was rather proud of his games. Tempest looks cool at least, never was hugely into it to begin with though. One of my favorite of Minter's games was an 8-bit game called Hover Bovver, where the object was to mow your lawn - using a lawnmower stolen from your angry neighbor.

I kind of want the Midway Arcade 1UP cabinet. I actually bought one of the Dig-Dug mini arcades after I read about it in your blog. It seems like they've actually cut the price on these machines down to $300 from the original price of $400 I was seeing. I'll bet you know what kind of cabinet I would really like to see them release, though.

Stage Select:

1. The Double Clawshots: Doubles as a weapon and as a means of getting around.

2. Knights of the Round Materia. 129,987 damage in one attack is a must for long enemy battles.

3. Either the Edelweiss or the Hafen as the transportation. Can't go wrong with a good tank. Squad 7, move out!

4. The Space Jump for getting through areas with no platforms and hand holds

5. Orthopedic underwear.... for... uh... support... on those long quests....Weeeeellp, 'bout time for me to be hittin' the ol' dusty trail... there's the fire door...

VC4 is badass. Can't wait for the full game. It's been my most wanted game this year.