New Game Pickups 4/13/23

 New Game Pickups!!

    My game pickups have been pretty slow over the past month or so, I was in between jobs and buying a ton of games wasn't exactly on my money saving agenda. I typically like to go out to some local game stores, which I'm super thankful that there are several in my area for me to choose from, but for today I just got some games off of ebay. Most places local to me don't really have import Saturn games, or Saturn games in general for that matter. 

Game #1

Side Pocket 2

    Side Pocket 2 is an early release billiards game for Sega Saturn by Data East. It was released over in the states as Minnesota Fats Pool Legend for Saturn. I enjoy billiards games quite a bit, Side Pocket on gameboy I enjoy quite a bit, along with the ios 8-ball everyone has played at some point. So it made sense to get a billiards game on my favorite system. I especially enjoy the awesome artwork that appears on the front cover. It has a classy style with the hand-drawn sections of it reminding me of a potential advert from the 70's or so. The game itself is pretty simple, a few different modes of play, 2 player modes as well as a story mode. The cutscenes are fully voiced fmv's in Japanese, which you can tell is just as bad as it's English counterpart. Overall it's a pretty simple game, no frills or anything like that, but as something cheap (I got the game for around $5) it seemed like a game that would be fun in a 2-player setting or just to kill an hour or so.

Game #2

Tokimeki Memorial: Taisen Tokkaedama

    I enjoy long form content on Youtube quite a bit, just someone who has done exhaustive research about games that aren't often talked about but have their fans I have an appreciation of. After watching the almost 6 hour review of Tokimeki Memorial on Action Button's Youtube channel, I wanted to get some adjacent products including a copy of the game itself. The Saturn version of Tokimeki Memorial Forever with you IS getting a fan translation, but it will be a very very slow process, so in the meantime of playing the actual game I bought a few puzzle games. This game has you choose one of the girls from the main game, has some in between match dialogue ala Puyo Puyo, and is a simple vs. style puzzle game. Match up the color icons to attack your opponent and clear them from your field, and set up combos for some impressive trash on the opponents side. One aspect I thought was neat was how the game deals with the trash it sends you. The trash pieces have their own color just the same as other pieces and need another line to be cleared to be fully activated and matched with. Similar to Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo, another great puzzle game on Saturn and other platforms, it can lead to your trash filler pieces becoming a big part of a retaliation combo onto your opponent. Again, another simple game that I got for cheap, but I was surprised at some of the goodies that came along with the game. Cute little stickers of each of the characters to be used anywhere, along with some chibi-style artwork in game and on the manual make for a comfy experience overall. 

    Like I said, overall a slow past few weeks for buying games, but I'm looking to check out some newer out of state locations and pick up a few things here and there from my local stores. I'll try to update these once or twice a month to continue showing what I'm looking for, and possibly some good deals or stories that come along with them. Thanks for reading!