New Game Pickups as of 5/6/23

 New Game Pickups!

Here we are back again with a new game pickups. The rest of this month has been pretty good overall, found some decent games that I've known about for a while now, as well as some games I just picked up on a whim. Local game shops have been pretty good as of late, the one closest to my house had some uncommon games brought in. I mostly have been buying lower dollar games, I haven't found anything super interesting as of late that's higher dollar. Research has been slow as well finding those games that I'm SUPER interested in, mostly because I've been learning about my new job, but I've also been actually playing some of my games (crazy I know). With that being said, lets look at some of the new games!

Game #1

It finally came out! At this point I never thought it would with all of the delays from it being one of my most anticipated games of 2022, to one of my most of 2023. Originally developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Gameboy Advance, with this remake developed by Wayforward and published by Nintendo, Advance Wars is a strategy RPG where you control an army and it's units in order to defeat another army. I grew up playing the original Advance Wars and it's what got me into branching out into some other SRPG's. The charm of the units and character design, music and simple to understand yet difficult to master combat were things I was looking forward to in the remake. Something interesting that I saw (haven't confirmed yet) that because the game was delayed for about a year, if you got the physical version you aren't able to redeem the gold points for the game because you have to do so within a 12 month period of buying the game. Strange how this series has a history of delays due to real world events, with this game being delayed because of the war between Russia and Ukraine, and the original release being cancelled in Japan and not released until several years later in a combo pack because of 9/11. That being said, I'm glad the game is out now and I can't wait to sink my teeth into this game once I finish some other games.

Game #2

This I picked up on a whim, and because it said Sega on the cover lol. The DS was heavily marketed towards general audiences, so games like this with real world connections and just being simple to understand were prevalent. Sega Casino is another in a line from companies just capitalizing on the trend of the time. It's got 11 different games on the cart that originate from casinos like Blackjack, Texas Hold em' and Roulette. I'd be excited to see if Sega has any of their flair in the music or extra options, maybe see if I can customize my cards or something neat. If not, I got it for 5 bucks and its another piece of Sega to add to my collection.

Game #3

Similar to Sega Casino, this game is part of the Touch Generations series of games that Nintendo put out meant to appeal to a broad range of people. This game however, is a little bit more serious being a murder mystery visual novel. Nintendo has a history of visual novels, originally making a few for the Famicom and actually rereleasing some on the Switch as the Famicom Detective Club games. The game plays similarly to the investigation sections in a Phoenix Wright game where you play as a detective using the touch screen to find evidence, talk with people and try to solve the mystery. As of recently I've been gravitating towards the Visual Novel as a genre, its something that has become much bigger in the states but it wasn't always that way. 

Game #4 

This was another game I picked up on a whim. Growing up I played the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games quite a bit and was always wanting something more than that franchise. I'm hoping that this game will fill a little bit of that gap. Here you play as a Chocobo that ventures through randomly generated dungeons trying to get to the end of it, and maybe fight a boss, leveling up through battling other opponents in a mix of top down SRPG and JRPG combat. The Chocobo series has been prevalent since the PSX era with racing games, mystery dungeon games and other minigame collections. This game also got a remake on the Switch, known as Chocobo Mystery Dungeon: Every Buddy!. I don't think this game will have it, but I'm looking for a mystery dungeon game that has some good multiplayer, maybe have 2 players explore each floor simultaneously. I don't have super high hopes for this game, but it's something that I don't see very often so I just had to pick it up. Most of the time when I do pick something up without any substantial research, it's because of a franchise or company that I know from prior experience, or because the cover art looks cool, which this game falls under both categories for me.

Game #5

Personally, I'm not huge on GameCube collecting at the moment. It's that perfect time for most people that grew up with the system to 1. be nostalgic for GameCube and 2. have the income to throw around on reliving that nostalgia. The cost along with me having most of the GameCube games I would already want means I'm not really on the look out. However, Wave Race caught my eye. I've been playing a little bit of the N64 original on my switch, and knew that the GameCube game was the only direct sequel to that. Picked it up for a decent price, and I'm excite to try it out!

Game #6

Similar to Sega Casino, picked this one up on a whim. I liked the specific branding of the New York Times, and I thought now that I'm a little bit older I would know more items to put on the crossword puzzle. I was wrong, still suck at them. Not horrible though.

Game #7

Here's a game that I had known about for a long time, but never really got into until the past few years. I had originally read about the game in Nintendo Power, and then saw Issac in Smash Bros. Brawl as an assist trophy, but I hadn't played the GBA original until about 3-4 years ago. Overall, I enjoyed my time with the game and have the direct sequel. This was the only time i've seen the DS game out in the wild, and so I just had to snatch it up while I had the chance. Probably not going to play in the near future but it's nice to know that I have it in good shape waiting for me to get around to it. 

Game #8

A few months ago I watched a video detailing by Sean Seanson on every Psygnosis game ever released/published by them on the PS1. There were quite a few games I knew that I had to pick up at some point or another, and Demolition Derby was on my list. Also released on the Sega Saturn, this is a racing/car demolition game from the very early era of the PS1. I found it for pretty cheap and it good shape, so another one off of the Psygnosis list.

Game #9

An all time classic. Ice Climber was one of those games I had seen around at a few stores, but never actually pulled the trigger on them because I knew what the game entailed. Not exactly the pinnacle of platforming, but influential on the early NES landscape as part of the Black Box series of games. I think that I enjoy the game a little bit more than most people do as I have a little bit more patience for it. That being said, don't ever spend more than like $20 on this game, it's just not worth it at that. 

Game #10 and #11

For me, these were just pure nostalgia purchases that I didn't have in my collection yet but did when I was a kid. Wii Play still holds up quite well, and it's collection of minigames were a great way to introduce the Wii to my brother and I along with Wii Sports. Wii Music I can't really say the same about. I didn't play it as much as a kid, but the novelty is still fun to just go in and try out some of the instruments. Maybe someday I'll get enough people to have a jam session with 3 other instruments. Probably not, I want to keep my friends not try to push them away lol. 

Game #12

Another old Nintendo Power recommendation, Zach and Wiki was a game that I had my eye on for a long time. Created by Capcom the game was a great showcase for motion controls early on in the Wii's lifespan. I don't really know too much about the game itself, but I had finally found it at a local game store, and I knew I had to grab it then and there.

Game #13

Here is probably the best game out of everything that I had bought in this batch of games. With the new remake out it brought a few people out to praise this game and how it improves upon the original without ignoring what made it fun in the first place. I do want to eventually play the remake and enjoy the RE series from the little that I have played, and I feel like I'll enjoy the remake even more once I play through the original and take note of all the improvements on the series thus far. 

Well I believe that's everything I bought since the last time I did one of these posts. I'm pretty pleased with the amount of games that I was able to find, and got to go to some game stores that I don't normally go to on a regular basis. With that being said I think I'm going to take some time out and focus on a few bigger games rather than just impulse buying games off of their cases/cover art. Probably will end up importing a game or 2 for my Saturn, and looking into some PS2 and PS3 games that I would really want. Thank you for reading and go get some new games yourself!