New Game Pickups as of 6/15/23

 New Game Pickups June 2023

Welcome back to another edition of new game pickups where I highlight some games that I've been buying over the past month or so. This month was pretty busy outside of game collecting, my apartment just had some nice renovations done to it with a new kitchen/bathrooms being put in. This meant I had to put away all my games before the contractors came in, and I had to reorganize all my games which was nice change of pace. I did get some time to make some to do some decent game shopping and go to some game stores I don't normally go to, as well as a pretty big purchase that I'll detail a little bit more in another post. With that being said, let's take a look at what I spend my money on.

First off a DS game that I had known about growing up, and decided to check out, Trauma Center: Under the Knife. Developed by Atlus and published by Nintendo here in the states, Trauma Center is a visual novel/surgeon simulator with a fun twist where you find out you have special surgeon powers and you help as many people as you can. I think I originally found out about this believe it or not from Super Smash Bros Brawl, where they had the Chronicle section that showed every Nintendo published game up to that point. I started playing this one and so far it's pretty good. The characters have personality, and definitely takes some darker themes being that you're saving peoples' lives after injury or disease. Some of the surgeries I've done have been pretty stressful too, I don't think I could be a real surgeon lol. A lot of the surgeries that I have done have been pretty down to the wire, but you unlock some tools that make things a bit easier in order to fight off a new disease that pretty much only you can treat. So far so good, I'm interested to see where the story goes with this one.

Here's one that I was looking to get back after having as a kid. Fossil Fighters is a DS RPG where you dig for fossils, resurrect them and fight in battles with other dinosaur owners. Very similar to Pokémon with it's creature collection, pretty simple story and battle system but I remember having a lot of fun with this one. Trying to dig up fossils to the best of your ability trying to make sure that they'll get as strong as possible was pretty cool, and I liked how all battles were 3-on-3. Thankfully I still had the sequel Fossil Fighters Champions, but somewhere along the line I had lost my cartridge for the original game. I still had the case for the game so now it's sitting pretty on my shelf

 This was a mega cheap game that I only really got because the store I bought from I was using store credit, and didn't want to leave 3 bucks just sitting there. That being said, True Swing Golf has a neat little background. The game was developed by T&E Soft (who made every golf game known to man) and actually published by Nintendo and marketed as part of their Touch Generations line of games that were meant to appeal to a wider audience. Nothing could be easier than swinging a golf club with a stylus according to Nintendo until they figured out what a Wii remote could do. I enjoy a few golf games from time to time, so for 3 bucks I figured why not. 

This one I was really happy to find as Metal Slug games are some of my favorite to pick up and play. Metal Slug Anthology is a collection of games from the series 1-6 giving you every major Metal Slug game up to that point. I bought the Wii version of the game but it also came out on PS2 and PSP. I actually was going to buy the PS2 version, but the Wii version was 10 bucks cheaper, and my Wii collection isn't as big so I figured this would be a great addition. One thing I am a little disappointed in is that it doesn't support the Wii classic controller, but after reading the manual it looks like GameCube controller support is available which is enough for me. I really only played the OG Metal Slug and Metal Slug X so I'm excited to check out all the other games in the series, especially with some co-op too.

It's not every day I get to find a new racing game to obsess over but I think Auto Modellista will fill that void for me. Developed by Capcom, this was an era in the early 2000's when everyone was trying their hand at simulation racers after the major success of Gran Turismo. Capcom's attempt has a few things to help it stand out, with the main one being a cel-shaded art style. Most games from this era with similar art like Wind Waker or Jet Set Radio have aged really well, and Auto Modellista is no different as the game looks awesome. Capcom themselves have made a ton of great games in the past, but aren't really known for their racing games so it'll be interesting to see how it plays. I also don't really know why the GameCube version of the game is so expensive, I thought the PS2 version would be as well but the game was like 15 bucks. Look out for a review later down the line once I sink my teeth into it. 

Watching the new PlayStation presentation one of the games that had me most excited was the announcement of the Metal Gear Solid 3 remake. That game along with a few other games they announced might be the reason I finally get a next generation console. Along with actually playing Metal Gear Solid 3 before the game comes out, I wanted to check out some other Kojima games that he had made before the game came out. One of those I actually found while out shopping, Zone of the Enders. Zone of the Enders to my knowledge is a mech hack and slash game with a pretty involved plot. I learned about the game from SomecallmeJohnny on YouTube and his review of Metal Gear Solid 2. Either way, I think it looks interesting enough to check out.

As a Sega Saturn fan this one was probably the pickup I got most excited to find. Nights Journey of Dreams is the direct sequel to the Saturn game Nights into Dreams. The Saturn original is one of my favorite games for the platform with its great visuals for the console as well as gameplay that isn't really matched by any other game because it's so unique.  I remember this game being covered in Nintendo Power as well, so when I saw this on the shelf I had to pick it up. I'm sure the game will use some sort of motion control since it is on the Wii, but most games from the Saturn didn't get follow-ups so I'll take what I can get.

Last but certainly not least we have the only new release out of all of these games is Capcom's newest entry in the Street Fighter franchise, Street Fighter 6. I wasn't really following the prerelease information about this game too much so I didn't have that same hype I would for some other games, but I really enjoy a lot of the older games in the franchise and the game looked beautiful so I wanted to give it a shot. After playing the game for a few hours with friends and in the training room I'm loving it so far. Characters are more expressive and have some great new tools like the Drive Rush or the return of the parry system to all characters which I'm a big fan of. This is also the first fighting game that a lot of my friends are playing simultaneously which I'm excited about, because normally I'll just grind out combos in the training room and play the arcade modes. Right now though the characters I'm enjoying the most are Dee Jay and E. Honda, although Lily and Kimberly are pretty cool to mess around with as well. Capcom is having a hell of a year in 2023 and I can't wait to see what they put out next, including the remake of Ghost Trick to look out for!

Overall a little bit slower this month, I didn't really get a chance to go out and game shop the way I would like but still got some great games added in. There's another surprise coming soon like I mentioned at the beginning of the post, but I'm still working on that before I fully write that post out. In terms of what is on the horizon, my lovely girlfriend is very excited to play the new Bethesda release Starfield and I don't have a good PC to really play on, so a new Xbox will most likely be in my future as well which I'll be excited to sink my teeth into. I've never owned a Microsoft console, and I know it does have some backwards compatibility with the older consoles that I'll be interested along with some newer releases like the Metal Gear Solid 3 remake. Otherwise thanks for taking time to read and I hope you have a great rest of your day!