PixlBit

The Angry Video Game Nerd did a funny video about ROB and the two games made for ROB.

Ah, the joys of save-scumming.

I beat the Game Boy Color version of Dragon Quest ! (released in a double-pack with DQII). I downloaded Dragon Quest 1-3 on Switch and am probably about halfway through DQI, and have just gotten to Africa on DQ3. DQ3's world map is based on the real world, and there's even a town in North America that's fighting for its independence from an evil empire, LOL.

Joust was awesome. I had the Atari 8-bit version of it at home. My sister would play it from time to time. Unfortunately, most of Midway/Williams's pre-Mortal Kombat arcade library has fallen into obscurity now because Warner Bros, which now owns Midway IPs doesn't seem interested in it. We haven't seen a compilation of their games released in almost ten years, when they released a collection for PS3 and 360.  Arcade Archives did great at bringing Nintendo's library to Switch, but they only publish Japanese arcade games and not American games.

So I've contented myself with getting my Joust fix through Balloon Fight and Vs. Balloon Fight on Switch. Balloon Fight was Satoru Iwata's first game. He also handled the NES version of Joust, which was published by HAL.

Even though Sir-Tech went bust shortly after Wizardry 8 released, Japan is keeping the series alive. There was a Wizardry game released on PS3 and Steam a whole back.

I enjoyed it, flaws and all. It gets much easier once you clear the first boss. I was into Greek mythology at the time so I dug it even though it played fast and loose with Greek mythology (a more recent favorite, Valkyrie Profile, does the same thing with the Norse myths). The instruction manual showed a female enemy character with bare boobs, which somehow never created an outcry.

Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters on Game Boy is a genuinely great game. They did away with the cheap falling and improved on the original in every way except ehe lack of color. Surprisingly, despite being Japanese-made it was US-exclusive until it was released on the 3DS. It made me wish Nintendo had made a Super Kid Icarus or a Kid Icarus 64.

Not quite on par with Final Fantasy VI, but still a well-done game with a lot of style. Sadly, I've never finished it. However, my favorite RPGs on the Genesis were Lunar: Silver Star and Lunar: Eternal Blue on the Sega CD. Those were the best RPGs ever made for Sega consolse.

Sega's actually done pretty good as an RPG company. Valkyria Chronicles is still one of my favorite SRPGs of all time, Sakura Wars was a precursor for both VC and Skies of Arcadia, and of course Sega now owns the SMT/Persona franchise when they bought Atlus. I wish they'd get busy with SMT V on Switch.

I had a Gamecube and GB Player, but they got stolen. :( I'd really like to play Mother 3 on my TV.

I never played Wizardry on NES. Instead I played its rival series, Ultima, specificaly Ultima: Exodus which was a NES port of the third game.

Hard to believe this game is 12 years old. Seems like an eternity ago while also somehow seeming like it was yesterday. Does that sound weird?

Graphics aren't the be-all and end-all they used to be, either. We've reached a point where artistry counts for as much as engineering, and a lot of games, even on PC, don't really stress an integrated graphics chip, let alone a high-end graphics card. Switch is my primary gaming system these days. 

I thought about building a gaming PC. Then I thought that most of the games I might play on it were games I could play on PS4 or even Switch anyway, only without a lot of stuff that won't be coming to PC. And again, as far as everything else I need a computer for, my Mac blows away every Windows PC I've ever owned, and my Mac isn't even the latest model.

Looks like the Loot Crate fad fizzled out.