PixlBit

Legacy of the Wizard was a surprising addition to this collection, considering it was neither made by nor published by Namco here in the US. I had to look twice to make sure it was the same game. My most recent physical purchase was the Switch version of Trails of Cold Steel III, so I'm on kind of a Falcom kick right now. You just got me hoping that Nintendo brings Faxanadu to the Switch, that game was right up there with Dragon Warrior and Ultima 3 on my list of favorite NES RPGs.

Mendel Palace was a little surprising too. It was apparently Game Freak's and Satoshi Tajiri's very first game. 

I bought Volume 2 for LotW, Gaplus, and Rolling Thunder. My cousin had Rolling Thunder, which was on one of those unlicensed black Tengen cartridges. He even sketched out the cut scenes. The original NES version wasn't quite as difficult as this one. My cousin passed away five years ago.  

And I seriously don't get what Japanese gamers see in The Tower of Druaga.

Final Fantasy VII.

That is all.

Nice finale for the PS1. I have my original copy, and in 2013 I got it autographed by Nobup Uematsu af Distant Worlds in Omaha.

For me 1996 was the year of Super Mario RPG and Super Mario 64. The latter was the mosf amazing game I'd seen at the time. Too bad the N64 was kind of a bust overall.

FF8 is a special game to me as well. Besides the graphics (better than most games on the Dreamcast, which launched at the same time) and the music, the story resonated with me. Squall was a lot like me when I was that age. i also got it right before I started my first semester of college, which I was anxious about, so the school setting really appealed to me. 

I always thought Hsu and Chan was a better video game comic than Penny Arcade.

In 1995, Chrono Trigger was the best video game, but I wish I'd have gotten Earthbound. I did get Mortal Kombat II on SNES for my birthday. My dad and I went to see Mortal Kombat in movie theaters. And the other really memorable media I remember is Who Shot Mr. Burns. I actually correctly guessed that Maggie was the shooter. Unfortunately I didn't win the Simpsons house. 

Like Snee, I have only a passing familiarity with R&C, given that my tastes run more towards RPGs and Nintendo. Sounds like you're having a ball. What does the Decryptor do that you hate it so much?

Stage select:

1. Breath of the Wild. One of my favorite games of all time and certainly my favorite game of the 2010s. There will never be a launch title to equal it unless Nintendo makes an even more amazing Zelda as the Switch 2's launch title.

2. Super Mario 64. it wasn't just a game, it was a marvel of technology that showed off the promise and potential of the N64, even if the systen fell short of that.

3. Final Fantasy IV. Got the SNES off to a great start with a game that was a huge leap over its NES predecessors. The music was amazing in its time.

Cage Match:

Tales of Vesperia wins easily. Beautiful anime graphics that still held up when it was re-released on current systems, a  thoughtful story, good combat, and a consistently likeable cast of characters. The playable characters had good chemistry and were one of my favorite playable casts, the bad guys, especially Duke and Yeager, were quite villainous, and even supporting characters like Don Whitehorse were memorable. The standout was Yuri, voiced by Troy Baker, but this was one of the best localizations of a Japanese game I've seen. 

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: