PixlBit

I got my PS4 at a Black Friday sale, too.  I believe it was in 2016.  I still play it.  Don't feel the need to upgrade to PS5 yet.

I kind of liked Balloon Bomber.  It had a bit of strategy as you would try to shoot the bombs swinging around and not the balloons.  I also liked the derpy music they played in the background.  "Da-doop-a-doop, da-doop-a-doop."  On the PSP Taito collection Taito Memories, they updated a few of the games with better graphics and gameplay tweaks, and Balloon Bomber was one of the games they did that with, but they still kept the derpy music!

Sounds like one of those hidden object games.  Those are a dime a dozen on mobile devices.  You'd think I'd like those games more, since I loved the Hidden Pictures page in Highlights magazine when I was a kid.  But I don't have patience for those types of games anymore.

I love the Phoenix Wright series, too!  I'm currently plugging away at the second set of cases in The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles.  And when I checked My Nintendo 3DS Memories, Dual Destinies was my third most played game (right under StreetPass and Animal Crossing).  I'm surprised Capcom was able to craft such good stories with these, since normally they can't write their way out of a paper bag!

To me, the first three games had the most memorable music, thanks to the chiptune sounding quality of most of them.  But all the games have good tunes.  I swear the same composer of the Phoenix Wright games must've been the same composer of the Mega Man Battle Network games because a lot of the songs sounds familiar.  I remember one time Jeff heard me playing Apollo Justice and he said, "Huh, did Apollo just go into a NetNavi battle?"

My only big problem with Skyward Sword was that there really wasn't an overworld to explore.  Anytime you went down to the 'overworld' it was just a bunch of puzzles to solve, so it was like you're doing a dungeon before you get to the actual dungeon.  

But then, it was one of those situations where Nintendo couldn't win.  If they went with a traditional overworld, people would've been like, "Oh, Nintendo is just playing it safe and doing the same thing again."  So they tried something different and people complained anyway.  

I remember playing this game on Taito Legends 2.  The character designs were pretty neat.  

I'm going to list all the games I really liked on Taito Legends 2.  Hopefully you can try them!

Cameltry

Cleopatra's Fortune

Dungeon Magic

Elevator Action Returns

G-Darius

KiKi KaiKai (later games were Pocky and Rocky in the US.  Did you know a new Pocky and Rocky game is coming out this year?)

Kuri Kinton

Liquid Kids

Metal Black

Puchi Carat

Puzzle Bobble 2

Ramais

Space Invaders 95

The Xbox and PS2 versions had a couple of exclusive games.  Unfortunately I didn't have an Xbox so I didn't get to play Cadash and Bubble Symphony on those.  But at least the PS2 version had G-Darius!

I didn't think Skyward Sword was THAT bad.  I got the Switch version for my birthday but I haven't played it yet.  The orchestral music is very good here.  Around the time of the original game's release, there was a Zelda orchestral concert tour and my friend and I made a trip to Austin to see it.  That was very cool.  My favorite Zelda game is Link's Awakening.  Even that one has good music!

Of course my best game of 2020 was Animal Crossing.  Here's my full list:

http://www.gamerdad.com/blog/2021/01/01/carys-best-games-of-2020-awards-show/

For some reason, I remember seeing Alpine Ski in nearly every arcade I went to as a kid for a while.  Some Taito games like this and Jungle Hunt seemed very prolific in the arcades around me back then.

I have this game, it was one of the last games I bought for the DS.  Unfortunately I never got around to playing it!  Sounds like a neat idea, though, combining 2-D Metroid style gameplay with virtual pet elements.