How I found to have fun with my backlog, fun with games again, and moving forward

 I'll play it someday...why not today?

Several days ago, I bought a handful of import games online which I was excited about, because my game purchasing has drastically gone down over the past few years. Several years ago, I knew exactly what games I had and which I didn't. However, as my collection has grown, I've started using an app on my phone called GameEye to enter and keep track of my collection in its entirety. This came about after buying several lower dollar games that I already had bought years ago and never realized. After receiving my new import games, I entered them into my collection app, when I realized I had just passed the 700 physical games owned threshold. Even typing it out it seems like so much! It made me stop for a moment and think back on how many of my games I've actually played or enjoyed vs. how many I've never even touched. It also made me think of how many times I had thought about starting a game, but never actually did. Whether it was the game that was just purchased, or something that was sitting on the shelf for years it gave me a call to action. Earlier this year, I set some ideas/goals that I wanted to follow when playing games that were reinforced after adding my 700th game to my collection. I feel like it's really helped me overall with my enjoyment of games, so I wanted to share some concepts that I've been practicing and see if it helps other people!

 

1. Don't hesitate to play something just because you haven't finished what you're currently playing 

This was a big one for me personally. I would start a game that I knew had a reputation of being a bit on the longer side. I'd play around 20-30 hours of that experience, but I would get burnt out around that point. However, because I just invested 20-30 hours of my time, I now am pushing through the rest of the game trying to finish it to make the experience feel worth it. Because I've now locked myself into one game, I felt guilty playing another game or starting a brand new story out of fear that I would never get to finish the first game. I realized this more than ever when playing Elden Ring. I started playing Elden Ring for the first time early 2024. It was my first true soulslike experience, and I was having a ton of fun fighting difficult enemies and traveling an amazing, uniquely built world. I felt like this for about 30 hours, when I started to feel fatigued after playing nothing but Elden Ring for the past 2 weeks or so. Even though I was fatigued, I said to myself "well I must be close to the end, I'll just keep pushing to the credits". I played the game for about another 15 hours in total over the next few weeks, but in doing so I was not having as much fun. I wasn't exploring the side dungeons as much as I was. I found myself just running past enemies just to get to the next point in the story. I felt like I lost my sense of curiosity and was just going through the motions so I could play something else. I stopped playing Elden Ring around the 45 hour mark and felt kind of crappy about it, but I just wasn't having the same amount of fun. That's usually where my story would end with games like Elden Ring, but earlier this year I decided to play a little bit more, picking up where I left off. I ended up falling in love with the game all over again, and put another 40 hours into the game! I realized that I shouldn't just rush through a game to say that I beat it. Fun is king when it comes to games, and if I wasn't having fun, then I'll just play something else. My save file will be there when I'm ready to play again, and there's plenty of resources both in games and online to help me remember where I left off if I forgot. Because of this mentality, in 2025 I've played more games than ever!

2.  Replaying is fun, but I could be missing out

Earlier this year, I was playing through Pokemon Platinum when my roommate walked over, saw what I was playing, and said "ah the annual Pokemon playthrough". I hadn't realized it, but every year we had lived together and even some before that I had played through an older Pokemon game once a year. I don't think that there's anything wrong with replaying a game that you enjoy, but what about the games that you might enjoy even more? I love when I find out that a game that I've had on my shelf for years becomes a new favorite. After playing some Pokemon, I decided to try out Dragon Quest V for the first time, and it easily became one of my favorite RPGs on my DS. Now this isn't to say you should never replay your games. Just before you decide to boot up a game that you've experienced before, think about the stuff you haven't experienced yet!

 3. Spread the love across your consoles/devices

 Now obviously your mileage may vary with this point, but I still think it's worth making even if you only have 2-3 devices. I have a wealth of consoles and handhelds to play stuff on, but I tend to stick towards my favorites. In turn, because I play those consoles more often, I tend to feel like I'm running out of things to play. In actuality so much of my collection is underplayed or consoles just unexplored. It's important to pick up a console or handheld you haven't touched in a while to help remember why you have it in the first place. For example, I've had my PSP for quite some time at this point. Most of it's library that I owned I had already played through when I was younger, but I had never forgotten that I had a PSP and always kept an eye out for new games to add to my collection. Although my collection had grown by double, I wasn't using it. So I decided to charge my PSP for the first time in about a year and check out some of the games I had purchased. I had played Lumines as one of my favorite games growing up, but I never played Lumines 2 so I started there. Did you know that Lumines has not just unique music created for the game, but also some licensed tracks from the early-mid 2000's like Hollaback Girl and Pump It? It reminded me in a more literal sense that these retro games are a product of their era, and they're fun to experience past the time they were originally released. Also that Pump It is dangerously easy to get stuck in your head. 

4. Play games in handfuls

 Whether just for the evening or over a longer period of time, it's good to have a few games that you're "currently playing" at any given time. I usually split things up into a console RPG or action game as well as a handheld game for a more relaxed experience. For my older consoles that have more arcade experiences like my Genesis or NES, I'll play several games over the course of one evening. That way if there's an experience that really grips me, I can continue to play that while still actively trying the games that I haven't touched whatsoever.

5. Bring friends along for the ride!

Just because you're experiencing a game for the first time doesn't mean you can't share that experience! As mentioned above, I recently bought some import games with one of them being a Sega Saturn game called "Anarchy in the Nippon". It's a 3D fighting game similar to Virtua Fighter 2, and I mainly purchased because it was cheaper and looked to run pretty smooth on the Saturn. However, fighting games are always meant to be played with an opponent, and thankfully my fiancé was down to play as well. She honestly beat me pretty bad overall, but we both really enjoyed some of the characters. The game primarily consists of what I assume are high school students (I can't read Japanese) but also features two older people. One is a middle-aged Japanese salary man type, while the other an older businesswoman or teacher, but both play nothing how they appear. I don't think I would've liked the game as much as I did if I was playing it by myself. So recently, I've been more encouraged to share my new experiences with friends and family, because what good is having such a collection if I can't play with or talk with them about it?

Thanks for reading if you made it this far!

 5 Peripherals I'd like to own 

Peripherals for video games, while still something that is used in games today definitely had it's heyday in years prior. Whether it was something that you had to have in order to enjoy the game, like a memory card or 2nd controller for multiplayer, or something more specialized that gave a new way to play or offered more options and content for a game. After collecting games more seriously over the past few years, I realized that I had a lot more peripherals in my possession than I realized. From light guns to arcade sticks, from cables to adapters you end up amassing peripherals as your collection grows. Today I want to highlight 5 peripherals that I have some interest in getting, whether to experience a game in the best way possible, or to expand the possibilities of a specific system. 

Saturn Taisen Cable

A big part of Sega's experience on the Saturn and their marketing behind it was that they were trying to bring the arcade experience home. All the favorites were available, from arcade wheels to light guns, the mission stick to the Netlink modem for online play. One that I want to highlight today and have on a gaming bucket list is obtaining and using a Saturn Taisen Cable. The Playstation had a similar option for its OG models, but the main idea behind it is you link 2 systems up to one another, and play multiplayer games on 2 separate screens as opposed to a split-screen. For a lot of people, this would be the closest experience possible to having an arcade experience at home (at least in the late 90's, way before Arcade 1Up made aftermarket machines more accessible). There aren't very many games supported by the cable, but the main one I want to play multiplayer in this way is Daytona USA Circuit Edition. It'll require 2 Saturns, 2 copies of the game, 2 TVs, and another person. A boy can dream...

E Reader

The E Reader was an add-on for your Gameboy Advance that let your read specialized cards that unlocked items in certain games, play games that are bound to the cards and more. My main reasoning behind this are the Animal Crossing E Reader cards that let you unlock certain items in the original Animal Crossing on Gamecube, along with artwork with each of the villagers. The Amiibo Cards for New Leaf and New Horizons were something that let me scratch my card collecting itch, so it would be nice to have another set of cards to compare and contrast with the newer ones. There were also some pretty cool expansions for games like Pokemon Pinball, F Zero GP Legend and others that I would be interested in taking a look at, so at least it's multi-purposed.

NeGcon Controller

Early on in the Ps1's lifespan the controllers didn't have any sort of analog option. That wasn't more regularly available until the Dualshock 1 controller got released a few years after the console got released. How are you supposed to enjoy racing games or other games that require more finesse? That's easy with the NeGcon controller! Instead of having a normal analog stick, Namco actually designed the controller to twist in the middle as the analog. The controller was made for the Ridge Racer series and continues to work even into the Ps2 era of games, but it also has compatibility with games outside of Namco games which is really interesting. I know the controller was created with racing games specifically in mind, but I wonder how the older Ridge Racer games play with this controller.

PSP GPS

I just found out about this the other day, but apparently there was a GPS released for the PSP that has data saved on it as opposed to accessing the information from the internet or satellite. The data itself is old, but it's still usable today and I always need an excuse to use my PSP more. Definitely more of a novelty but kinda neat. 

Vectrex Light Pen

One of the coolest systems that I have is the Vectrex, although I don't take advantage of it as much as I should honestly. With the official games I'm on the lookout for dwindling to 2-3 games, I'm starting to turn my attention to the homebrew and peripheral scene. The 3D imager is completely out of the question because of its price, but the light pen gives enough novelty to be interesting. This allows you to use specific cartridges as a drawing program straight onto the Vectrex. I'm not much of an artist myself, but if there's a way to draw on a system I like spending some time with it to see how it works. I got a kick out of a homebrew Saturn title a few years ago Sartist and took an evening to create a little landscape using my Saturn controller, so I imagine I'll do something similar to that. Personally the Vectrex will always fill more of a party trick role in my library as opposed to something that I play on a regular basis, so having another trick to show off would be cool.

So yeah, that's some more obscure items I have on my radar to expand my peripheral collection. Some of them will definitely take longer than others, like the Taisen Cable or Light Pen, but my local store has a NeGcon controller so maybe I'll get them closer than I expected! I wanted to make a bit of a shorter post after the longer review of Sega Touring Car, so let me know if the shorter content is something I should do more often? Or stick to more in depth reviews that get put out at a slower pace? Let me know! Otherwise thanks for reading as always!

Games I Played through in 2023

 I actually play my games?

Believe it or not, I don't just buy games to look at the box art (most of the time). This year was one of the first that I really took in and tried to look at things more critically as I played through and completed games. In my head I didn't think I played that many different games fully through this year, but my list is bigger than in years past I feel. I'll be chronicling my thoughts on games either in brief or in more length depending on my enjoyment of the game, whether or not I beat them, and so on. At the end of the year maybe I'll even put them all into a tier list of sorts to rank every game I played. All of this is mostly for my personal recollection so that I can have something in the future to look back on, and as my tastes evolve and new games come out I can see where priorities change. These games aren't in any particular order to start, but most of the games at the end will most likely be some games I've played recently.

YS Chronicles (YS 1)

I had a stretch of a few weeks where I was playing a lot of my Vita, mostly to feel involved with the investment of the system and games I've bought this year because outside of Persona 4 Golden or the occasional game of Hot Shots Golf, I really haven't played the Vita a ton. One of the games I panic downloaded a few years ago while the Vita store was getting ready to shutdown before Sony switched the decision was YS Chronicles. I figured getting into the YS series made sense to play the first game first, and I can say it was a good decision. As Falcom has made updates to the original game and ported it to multiple systems, the Chronicles port still holds a lot of that appeal from the original game. It was also nice to play a game that had such fast combat but not a ton of thought behind it if that makes sense. It was perfect to just run into enemies for an hour or so after getting off work, but outside of some initial grinding at the very beginning it never got tiring. In a lot of ways YS had a lot of Metroidvania elements to it as well with items as a prerequisite for traveling to new locations, killing certain enemies and so on. The story wasn't bad and felt different enough to stand out among other contemporaries I've played from the time period. Still, it wasn't anything to write home about just quite yet, I'll have to see how YS II carries the story on at some point soon. In my opinion the crown jewel of playing YS I now is the soundtrack. Whether you're listening to the PC-88 original soundtrack, or one of the remixed soundtracks available in the Chronicles collection you cannot go wrong. Each tune is necessary in pushing the mood of a given situation, whether it's your first time stepping out into the field and getting ready for an adventure, or entering a town that's seen better days, or entering a dungeon that could be your last. The soundtrack has been something I've been listening to on and off all this year and I'm excited to play YS II sooner rather than later. Getting to experience a major stepping stone in a genre that's more prevalent than ever in Action-RPGS was a major highlight this year.

Star Soldier

If you're interested in more of my thoughts on Star Soldier, take a look at one of my blog posts from a few months ago. Just to go over things briefly, I thought Star Soldier was a fun enough time for a few dollar pick up. If you do play the game today, definitely play it with a turbo controller as it makes things much more enjoyable. I'm sure it might've felt outdated at the time it came out, and even more so today, but as something to pick up and play for 30 minutes or for someone who has played the same NES games over and over Star Soldier is a fun enough time.

Spy Hunter PS2

I played Spy Hunter for like a day or two and got kind of bored of it quicker than I thought I would. I'm a vocal arcade racing fan, and the PS2 era of games had some of the best games. Spy Hunter isn't one of those games but is far and away from the worst on offer. I thought it was a neat idea to revive one a classic arcade game and give a fresh coat of paint, but I'm not sure how many people were exactly buying this game solely off of name recognition. The driving controls are pretty solid and I like how your vehicle evolves as the situation does like a real spy car should. One other thing they brought over from the arcade game was the music that plays during most of the stages and menus being the same as the original arcade release which was a pretty big let down. Similar to shmups, arcade racers are one of the few genres where I look at the soundtrack as a key part of the experience and a great way to differentiate your game from the competition. Spy Hunter does this but in reverse, because it feels like there's only one song and you won't be able to forget it after playing unfortunately. I think this game would be better if it wasn't so linear in its mission structure, or having strict requirements of achievements you have to get in order to move on to the next mission. If this game was more open world, or had a few hub cities that you could drive around and do some smaller spy missions in between the big ones and unlock either cosmetics or new weapons to use, I'd still be playing. Unfortunately, Spy Hunter as it is can be fun for a little while, but it overstays its welcome in areas with repeating missions to move on to a new stage, and a great soundtrack with the TV muted. On the flipside, at least this made more time for me to play other games lol. 

Willy Wombat

There aren't many 3D platformers on Saturn unfortunately. While the PS1 and N64 were redefining what you could do in a platformer in a 3D space, the Saturn got games like Willy Wombat. If you don't know, Willy Wombat is a pseudo 3D platformer with most of the characters and objects in the stage being handled by 2D sprites and the stage itself being 3D spaces. Not a bad idea, especially on a console like the Saturn that could mesh games with 2D and 3D very well, just look at a game like Bulk Slash for example. Where Willy Wombat falls is its controls. Controlling Willy is a little slippery, attacking from close range is almost impossible, and the camera is pretty basic only being able to shift it left or right around Willy. The soundtrack drags a bit as well, with the only shift in songs being in between worlds and not stages. The songs themselves aren't anything to write home about, almost trying to be more atmospheric than anything which doesn't work in the game's favor. This game is more of an oddity than anything, I might try to play more of it in the future but most likely not for a while.

Persona 4 Dancing All Night

Another local game store pickup, I was happy to pick this one up after playing P4G a few years back. With P4G easily one of the best reasons to own a Vita, Persona 4 Dancing All Night had some big shoes to fill in. I'm happy to say for the most part it delivers for a fun spinoff. The story isn't nearly as involved as the main series, but deals with topics of the difficulty of making connections, expectations, and dealing with grief. The story early on can drag for the first few chapters as you're getting introduced to characters and playing tutorials for the actual rhythm sections of the game, but around Chapter 4 I ended up really enjoying and stuck around to actually finish the story. As far as the gameplay itself, its a solid rhythm game experience reminding me of the Hatsune Miku Project Diva games. Starring remixes of classic Persona 4 tunes along with some new songs that were a nice addition. Some main standouts were "Dance!", "Signs of Love - TK Remix" and "Your Affection". However that's not to say the track list has some down turns. I wasn't a huge fan of some of the slower songs, and some remixes were a little too "dubsteppy" if that makes sense. Overall though, I was happy to play this one this year. I'll always take some supplementary material for some of my favorite characters in a game, and if you don't look at it as more than a fun side-romp then you'll have a good time with this one.

Endless Ocean

This one was a revisit from my childhood because I wanted to originally go to school to be a marine biologist. Living in Ohio and being landlocked put a damper on that idea, so Endless Ocean was the next best thing for me. Endless Ocean is nothing more to me than one of those games that I can turn my brain off for and just wind down an evening with as I try to find new kinds of fish to fill out my encyclopedia. A chill experience, I was happy to play for some of my evenings this year. 

Sea of Stars

I'll make a full review of this game at some point, but this game delivered to me in a big way after being hyped in my head for quite some time. One of the few games that held my attention beginning to end, I beat with both endings, and almost immediately went back for a new game plus which I never do. I could talk endlessly about visual effects, the soundtrack, battle systems and the characters, but like I said I'll leave that for a more full review. Please play this game, it's out on basically everything and is more than worth your time. 

Phantasy Star

One game I got out of my backlog was Phantasy Star. It almost feels like a right of passage to play the games that define a genre, and Phantasy Star I think has aged pretty well. With an interesting cast of characters in a setting that's unique for it's era on a quest to avenge your family and stop the galaxy from being taken over. The big thing that stood out to me was the presentation. Battle scenes being somewhat animated and having designated backgrounds in the overworld, colorful panels during major plot events that show more character, and the 1st person perspective from the dungeons were all more than I was expecting from a game of this vintage. There were some issues I ran into however. If I wasn't for me playing the Sega Ages release of this game on Switch, exploring some dungeons would be a nightmare without a map. I was also fine with talking to NPC's to figure out where to go next for a little over the first third of the game, but I did get pretty stuck in the ice planet and couldn't wait to get off of it honestly. Walking around and trying to figure things out on my own did have it's advantages, I didn't have to grind almost at all apart from the first few levels, and I got to experience some optional dungeons that made life a lot easier during points of the game. Overall, I would say if you do go back to this game play the modern re-release on Switch for some nice bells and whistles along with the FM soundtrack. 

NFSU2

"Riders on the Storm... Riders on the Storm... Into this House we're born... Into this world we're thrown... Like a dog without a bone, an actor out on loan... Riders on the Storm"
I got way further than I did when I was a kid, just a bunch of nostalgia on this one.

Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild

7 years after the Switch releases, I finally get around to playing the game that sold so many systems on it's release. I'm not a huge fan of the normal 3D Zelda formula, I feel a lot of things that are easy in 2D Zelda become a chore in 3D so I tend to put the games down pretty quickly. BOTW kept me decently engaged from beginning to end. I liked the excitement of climbing a new tower and unlocking part of the map that was brand new, or finding a new shrine with a new puzzle. The freedom to do whatever you want and tackle the dungeons in any order you want was refreshing, and I didn't feel any rush to go to the next objective. Some of the divine beasts as dungeons were a little underwhelming and they didn't have a real way to stand out visually. I would say playing BOTW for me was good starting out, great after the first and second divine beast, then after that it was downhill in terms of my enjoyment for most of the playthrough. I can appreciate the freedom that BOTW allows, leading to a good amount of replayability, but a lot of it felt very repetitive towards the end. You'd go to a new area, find the tower, look for shrines/stables and if there wasn't a major city or landmarks to explore you go to the next tower whenever you're ready. The final battle was nothing compared to some of the regular enemies you could come across running around, but being able to walk straight up the castle path and go straight into the final Ganon fight was an awesome feeling. Last little side rant here, fuck the rain. For a game that wants you to explore and encourages different ways of exploration and the paths you take, the rain completely stopped me in my tracks of progression at least on 10-12 different occasions. I figured after getting the Zora spirit and that I could swim up waterfalls that it wouldn't be a big deal anymore, but I never found anything that helped climbing in the rain. With that being said, overall I had a good time with BOTW, but it doesn't really make me want to play the sequel if it's going to be more of the same.

Yakuza 0

I have a full review from my perspective around the 15 hour mark into the story of Yakuza that I will most likely redo at some point, but after finishing Yakuza 0 I'm excited to play more. Balancing a tonally and thematically serious plot with fun, self aware mini games and hilarious situations/dialogue couldn't have been easy, but Sega pulled it off and then some. I think my only complaint was with the combat. One or two points during the story the combat was much harder than in other spots for whatever reason, and I wasn't a fan of the skill tree in which you unlocked things, but I tried to use the new tools that were given to me when the opportunity arose. The combat itself was a lot of fun, heat moves were a blast to pull off and I was always trying to find new ones. Yakuza from my experience had more to do than in BOTW, and you could either spend a large portion of time doing side quests, playing mini-games and just chilling, or if you want to go through the story as is the game allows you to do so. Very happy I picked this up and played this year.

Metal Gear Solid 2

I think I played and beat this at the very beginning of this year or late last year, I honestly can't remember. Either way I'll rank it this year because I had a great time with this game. The new ways to deal with foes always had me trying out every new tool I got, and it increases playability in my eyes because you can go about situations differently on repeat playthroughs. Getting to shake down enemies after holding them at gunpoint was fun and I didn't even realize I could do it until I did it on accident. The story was all over the place at the very end, but up until that point I thought that it was scary how well the story holds up to today's technological and political environment. My only gripes were with some of the bosses and a difficulty spike towards the end of the game. I felt like the bosses in MGS1 were cooler and more varied, outside of Fatman and his bombs I didn't really care for any of the bosses. I was also stuck on the part toward the last quarter of the game where you lose your gear for a section, I got caught and died a lot there. Outside of that, it really does feel like you're playing a movie, and the twists of the story are sure to take you for a ride so I won't spoil them here, but I'm excited to play MGS3 soon.

Pokémon Scarlet

This was one of the last games this year I sunk time into. I wanted to give the game some time after hearing so many bad things on release in terms of performance, visuals and bugs, but now that both DLC's are released for the game is it any better. From my experience, there are still some pretty big issues with the game. A lot of lighting errors during battles and cutscenes, textures not loading in correctly, and I even ran into a bug where my campsite that I had set up was completely invisible. I still haven't been able to see my picnic table in any capacity and I just beat the 8th gym. Pokémon's strong suits have always been the Pokémon that are available to you and how you construct your team for upcoming battles, as well as seeing the new creations that Game Freak have come up with. I skipped out on Sword and Shield, so a lot more Pokémon were new in this game which has been a breath of fresh air. Other than that, I don't have a ton that I really enjoy about this Pokémon game in particular. The open world is nice to wander around in, but it means the game is poorly optimized as they try to load the entire map in at once. If they had some minor loading zones in between major regions I feel like they would've looked a lot smoother. I hate all the characters, except the gym leader that's just a normal business man, he's pretty chill. I'll continue to be skeptical of Pokémon going forward, but I'm happy they haven't made a new game this year and just focused on DLC.

From this point on I don't have as much to say, either because I haven't beaten the game or didn't have a lot of thoughts on the experience as a whole, but still wanted to keep track of to say that I've played it.

Ridge Racer 7

Damn they need to make a new HD Ridge Racer. The game looks amazing and carries on the formula that was established in the PSP title, but at the end of the day it's Ridge Racer. You'll either love it or hate it, and I love it.

Project X Zone

I really don't know what's going on with the story in this one, but shit is going down. The battles are a lot of fun and don't feel overly difficult which I like for an SRPG. I mainly got this for the characters interacting with each other, but the gameplay and soundtrack are a good enough reason to keep me around for more.

Revenge of Shinobi

Holy crap this game is hard. Hard but fair for the most part. I really enjoyed the music and the levels in this one, but that damn double jump I just can't get the timing down for. I'll beat this one someday.

Super Mario Wonder

I can't binge a 2D Mario game, I found Mario Wonder much more enjoyable as a game that you can play for an hour or so and then come back to. As someone who hasn't played a new 2D Mario game since the Wii, this is the game I've been waiting for. Awesome powerups, the best creativity in levels I've seen maybe ever, the amount of ideas this games throws at you is the best part of the experience. Still wish I could pick up player two in co-op to throw them around. 

Streets of Rage

I played the sequel last year and forgot that I had the 6-pak Genesis cart with the first game on it, so I played that this year as well. The bosses are impossible in the first game, they really take some memorization to know how to avoid their attacks. Outstanding soundtrack and awesome visuals as well, shoutout to Stage 5. 

Soul Hackers 2 

A departure from the gameplay in the first entry, most likely to have it be more like Persona. I found the dungeons kind of boring, but the visuals and sound were good. I might give this one more time in the future, but I mainly just played the week before Sea of Stars came out and haven't touched it since lol.

Street Fighter 6

I liked E Honda and Dee Jay, but I ended up playing KOF XV more this year because I like SNK and their characters a lil bit more.

KOF XV

I sunk a lot of time into KOF this year, building out my team and at least getting decent with the systems in place. I'm working on finding a definitive 3rd character, but doing the combo trials and trying out all the characters really make me appreciate the combo freedom and versatility of characters that SNK has on offer. I'm about to buy the game again on PC just to have a better connection to start playing online and get my ass whooped.

Super Mario RPG (Switch)

If you liked the original, you'll have a good time. A lot of what made the original hold up still works today, and the quality of life changes that were made like the quick travel and spread damage on perfect timing of hits in battle were nice touches. I'd say the game was too easy, but there were some nice additions to the post game that are there to challenge people who've played the original. 

Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind. 

Easily one of the coolest things Nintendo has done during the Switch era, I love when they do something absolutely no one asked for because no one knew it existed. I want to get more into the VN genre of games and I figured this would be a great place to start. The music slaps and it's nice that they give you several different arrangements. Expect to hear a full review once I beat the sequel as well, because the games do connect.

SSX (PS2)

Couldn't get into this one. I enjoyed SSX Tricky for it's fun tricks and smooth controls, but the first game was much more difficult, and I just found myself getting frustrated. 

Burning Force

I really ramped up my Genesis collection this year, with Burning Force being one of the main pickups I got at TORG. I love the super scaler look on a home console, the soundtrack is nice, and it's a nice preview of what else Namco has to offer on Genesis. 

Raiden

I played a lot of the OG Raiden this year with my flip grip that I received for Switch, and the game still isn't getting easier. I can make it to the 3rd stage usually but anything after that it's too hard. I wish Raiden 2 was on Switch because I have a much better time playing that game, but as of now I still have to wait. 

Other than the games I've listed above, I played games that I had already played before, or didn't really play long enough to have thoughts about the experience that weren't "I like this" or "I don't like this". I feel pretty satisfied with the amount of games that I played this year, and I got some items off my backlog that I was happy to complete. Now I'll give my Top 5 games that I played this year, just because it's fun to.

1. Sea of Stars
2. Yakuza 0
3. Ridge Racer 7
4. Legend of Zelda BOTW
5. Famicom Detective Club/MGS 2

Next year, I look to get more games off my backlog including things like Grandia, Metal Gear Solid 3, Gunstar Heroes, and more. I also look forward to collecting more games to add to my curated collection in 2024, so keep your eye on the blog here for updates to the collection, along with more modern reviews on games both old and new! I'll have some more articles on the way soon, one being my aspirations for 2024, some items I got for Christmas and afterwards, along with another magazine spotlight coming as well! Thanks for reading, and have a Happy 2024!

 Video Games and Preservation

This post is gonna be a little different from some of my other posts, but I wanted to use whatever small platform I have, if any at all to spread awareness about something I'm passionate about. It is no surprise if you've read any post on this blog that I love video games the history of them. Video Games as a medium for entertainment are still a generally new concept when compared to other forms of entertainment like literature, music or movies. However, the medium of video games has a rich history behind it, and its still recent enough that my parents were alive and were able to experience the rise of video games in the entertainment industry. Last year in 2022 the video game industry as a whole made $220.79 billion and is expected to hit the $500 billion mark within the next few years. With an industry that has changed so much over its lifespan of 50 years or so in pop culture, why is it so hard to view or experience the steps that were taken to get to where we are today? Recently, the Video Game History Foundation conducted an excellent study as far as how many classic games were available on the market today. I highly recommended checking the study out for yourself as its really insightful, but of the games that they researched for this study they found that around 13% of them were playable in some way on modern platforms today. To put that into perspective this is comparable to the percentage of pre-WW2 audio recording availability (10%) as well as the survival rate of American silent films (14%) which to me is just insane. Imagine if movies or TV shows were in a similar state where a majority of them weren't viewable outside of very major releases. I understand that games are a unique medium because unlike film, games have their own formats and consoles that can make experiencing them tricky. Emulators solve a majority of the problems that accessing old games have, but the industry doesn't approve of and actively fights/lobbies against them. Just recently Dolphin, a GameCube and Wii emulator, announced that it was going to get released on Steam. Nintendo advised Steam to not release the emulator citing DMCA as a reason not to release, and thus Steam refused Dolphin to have a store page. Once the industry stops lobbying and starts allowing emulators to be used on a wider basis is when we will see some classic games become more available. Video game remakes and remasters don't solve the issue either, especially for historians who need the original hardware and its limitations. Personally I say enjoy video games however you can, emulators and the retro aftermarket has made things much more accessible than in the past. 

I've included some links with sources along with additional resources that dive deeper into this topic, and I highly recommend reading the Video Game History Foundations post in full for their summary of findings. Thanks for reading!

Dolphin Emulator and Steam

Video Game industry worth

Video Game History Foundation initial blog post

Full Study

Game Developer Conference Emulator talk 2016 

Game Developer Conference Emulator talk 2019 

Star Soldier: A Preview of What's to Come

Why Should We Remember Star Soldier?

That's a serious question by the way. Of all games to be underappreciated, it makes sense that it would be a space shooter. The genre has evolved so much since Space Invaders, and is still innovating even today. But Space Invaders came out in 1978, over 40 years ago so it makes sense that the genre advances. With that history it also makes sense that some steps would be looked over along the way. Enter Star Soldier. For most people Star Soldier isn't a game on anyone's radar. Most mid-level NES games of this era and vintage if they don't have an explicit reason to go back or they aren't touted as a classic. Now if you are familiar with the genre, you may be familiar with some of the later games in the franchise released on the PC-Engine/TurboGrafx like Soldier Blade or Super Star Soldier. You might not have realized that this original game existed, but don't feel like you're missing out. The future games in the franchise expand on so much gameplay wise and presentation wise, so outside of curiosity there isn't much reason to go back. So if the game itself isn't impressive today and its sequels are similar but just better overall, then why should we remember the original Star Soldier? To understand this we need a little history lesson

Star Soldier was created by and published Hudson Soft originally for the Nintendo Famicom in the summer of 1986, then getting published in the US later in 1989 for the NES. The game itself is a spiritual successor of sorts to the game Star Force, which Hudson published in 1985 to home systems but was developed by Tehkan, an early name of the company later known as Tecmo. Star Force as an arcade game and early space shooter was a decent success and ended up spawning some sequels later on, but once Hudson actually published Star Force this gave them the idea to do their own space shooter. Hudson then went on to partner with electronics company NEC and helped co-develop the PC-Engine console, so it made sense that the future games would release on that console. In later years the game saw several different re-releases on virtual consoles as well as a Gameboy Advance in Japan as part of their Famicom Classics line of games. With that being said what makes Star Soldier notable? 

To understand Star Soldier's story you have to understand the context of its release and the promotion centered around the game. Like I said earlier, Japan has always had more of an appreciation for space shooters. Xevious was still one of the biggest releases at this point and countless games took what made that work and stole that for their own games and Star Soldier is no exception. Also keep in mind that for the time when Star Soldier came out on Famicom it was considered graphically impressive. Keep in mind that in 1986 the Famicom Disk System had come out a few months prior, and people were used to the limitations of early Famicom games without the add-on chips that were more frequent in later releases on the system. Hudson was also had the advantage of being one of the earliest 3rd parties to release games on the Famicom, and so they had a decent pedigree when it came to their releases. All of this would've made for a great game upon release in Japan, but the thing that stands out in my mind that contributed to Star Soldier's success was the promotion around the game. 

Hudson had these events held in Japan known as Famicom Caravans, where they would travel across the country and hold competitions and activities where people could come and compete for high scores and play upcoming games. For 1986 it was way ahead of its time and a genius way to attract business for Hudson, but what was even smarter was that they filmed the events and had broadcasts about what went on at the events for people that weren't able to go in person. These videos also included a recurring character of sorts which was the game master himself Takahashi Meijin. Takahashi was known for his impressive skill at Star Soldier which was shown on the broadcasts giving viewers new strategies and secrets on how to get bonuses and high scores. He also was known for his incredible button pressing ability of around 16 times a second. With this button pressing along with game knowledge its no wonder how he was able to achieve such high scores. Takahashi went on to be a sort of mascot for Hudson in Japan not only in appearing adverts for Star Soldier, but also appeared in games like Adventure Island. In Japan, Adventure Island is actually known as "Takahashi Meijin no Bouken Jima". The story of Takahashi goes on after Star Soldier as well, where he goes on to help develop the idea of a turbo button on controllers as well as later becoming an executive of Hudson. 

This idea of promoting the game through live events with hands-on testing along with tips and tricks from one of the games best players has evolved so well in the digital age. Now if you want to play a game before it comes out, a lot of the time they'll either have demos available to download or they're out in early access so that you can show your support for a game while they're still tweaking it. Takahashi today would be the equivalent to an esports player or notable streamer where he's known for his gameplay skills first and you are able to learn from actually watching his gameplay. Hudson was also ahead of its time here as well. While not necessarily a full blown esport by this stage, you can see the inspiration start here with a company that supports its upcoming or current game by having competitions. Hudson in my mind is the first step in the evolution of major events like Capcom Cup or the International for Dota 2 where people can tune in and see people compete. Takahashi would also have an influence on the immediate future on the idea of a game guru of sorts. Nintendo and even Sega would have something similar in the states with hotlines where kids could call in to get advice from a game expert. These phone calls along with gaming publications like Nintendo Power or Gamepro were good for giving kids tips and tricks, but these weren't anywhere near the caravans that Hudson held that were televised. Keeping all this in mind its important to remember Hudson, Star Solider and Takahashi and their influence whether intentional or not on games today.

 With that being said, unfortunately the game didn't see as much success in the states. When the game was released in '89 so many more games graphically more advance and gameplay innovations evolving at such a rapid pace, Star Soldier was already outdated by the time it came out. For example games like Life Force, Section Z, and Zanac were all already released in '87 and '88, so what does Star Soldier offer in comparison to those games? Well nothing really, compared to those releases Star Soldier is lacking in content and not as impressive presentation wise. That doesn't mean that Star Soldier is a bad game. You control your start ship and kill pretty stereotypical enemies as you try to make your way to the end of the stage and fight a boss. Star Soldier does do a few things in order to stand out. For one, its scoring system is a little more advance than other games at the time with bonuses everywhere for you to find by shooting areas to make them appear, or shoot specific enemies in specific ways. For example at the end of every stage there are 2 eyeballs that you can shoot to make them shut and then explode, and if they both explode at the same time you get a major bonus. Star Solider also has you interact with the background in stages as well. Several times throughout stages you can go underneath the background to fly underneath it and avoid enemies. However this mechanic isn't implemented to the best of its ability because you can't tell which parts of the background you'll fly over or fly under. Lastly, the bosses are pretty repetitive with the same boss appearing for 3-4 stages in a row before a larger boss appears that you have to defeat. If you don't defeat the boss within an unspecified time limit, the boss will fly away and you'll have to replay the stage in order to get another shot. Barring a few annoyances of older game design, like the aforementioned background issues and the lack of an in game turbo, Star Soldier is still a good time. Enemy patterns are varied and the challenge is still there especially without a turbo button.

Star Soldier today doesn't hold a ton of merit in terms of a game worth replaying today compared to other games of its era. However the real value of Star Soldier today comes from looking at the game comparatively to when it came out. Takahashi Meijin was not only big during his time, but also influenced the industry in ways that we are still feeling the impact on today. Stories like this are part of the reason I love video games and their history. If you're interested in trying out Star Solider, its available on Nintendo Switch Online and I recommend giving it a try to see a little bit of history. 

Thanks for reading!

Not Really A Review But Just Some Thoughts on Chained Echoes

     I don't really like being someone who writes a full on review for a game that they haven't completed. I think its disingenuous to the games' creators because there will be plenty of things that you haven't experienced but still will give their review as if they've played the entire game. However, I am one for expressing some thoughts while playing or looking back at what you just experienced with a video game. It helps find things that you might not have thought about while you're playing and just increases your appreciation of the game overall. So that's what I'm aiming to do today with an indie JRPG I'm playing through right now named Chained Echoes. After playing the Sea of Stars demo a month or so ago I had an itch for something new to fill the void until August when I remembered a game that was on my radar for the past year named Chained Echoes. Chained Echoes takes a lot of inspiration from the golden age of RPG's in the mid to late 90's in its visuals, but its very much on its own with some great modern touches. Right now I'm about 11 hours in to the experience, but how have those 11 hours been thus far?

    

    Chained Echoes opens up with continent that is constantly fighting and in war. You start off the story following a duo of mercenaries, Glenn and Kylian hunting a treasure known as the Grimoire that is supposed to hold great power. After fighting your way up to the Grimoire you try to destroy it so that the enemy doesn't have that advantage in battle, but it causes a huge explosion that kills pretty much everyone in the surrounding area except for people that were closest to the blast. Then the story fast-forwards a year to a city that had just signed a peace-treaty ending the long war between them and another faction. Here you get to experience multiple characters perspective before they all meet up before the parade where their fates align. Personally, I love when games do this kind of thing. It really gives a good concept of what characters personalities and backgrounds are before the adventure begins. One example of this in the game is Lenne and Robb, Lenne being a princess undercover who's nation just signed the peace treaty and traveled with her servant Robb who's protect at all cost attitude is amicable at first, but is also very quick to judge and has that classic upper-class harshness. Lenne generally is the opposite, strong yet understanding and really only wants what is best for her people. I won't go too much into the story after this point because there have already been some big twists and turns with it and I expect more going forward.

    The main thing that I wanted to talk about today however isn't the story, but rather my love-hate relationship with the combat system and difficulty. The combat system is one of the most unique that I've seen in an RPG and really takes advantage of fans of the genre by pushing it's systems to the limits. In a nutshell, the combat in Chained Echoes is a fine balancing act of attacks, buffs, de-buffs and healing to go along with the main mechanic, the Drive Gauge. Every battle will have your Drive Gauge in the top left hand side showing you your current level. You'll always start at a base level, but almost every action that you take or damage that you take from enemies increases your Drive Gauge until you reach Overdrive. In Overdrive, your special skills do more damage, cost less tech points to do and you'll take less damage meaning you always want to be in Overdrive. However, go past the Overdrive point and you'll enter Overheat where pretty much the opposite of Overdrive happens and de-buffs your entire party. Now lowering this gauge can come in a few ways. The main way is by performing a specific type of skill that you can view in the top left, like elemental magic or a slash attack that will decrease the gauge. Otherwise you'll have to defend, switch out your party members or perform an ultra move to decrease your Drive Gauge. In typical battles, you'll have access to 4 party members at any given turn that you're able to switch out with the press of a button with up to 4 reserve members that are tied to each other. You are also able to view the battle turn order with you and the enemy which is something that I always appreciate. The amount of options that you have on any given turn along with a variety of characters to do so makes for an intuitive system that makes every battle engaging. This does come at a big cost in my mind and why I said I have a love hate relationship in the difficulty. Levels aren't gained through a typical experience system, rather every time you fight a boss, they'll drop a Grimoire Shard that you can then use to level up one aspect of your character whether its a statistic, adding a new special move or a trait that they have in battle. That on paper makes for a cool system that every time you beat a boss it makes you feel accomplished that you can learn a new skill every time. With this freedom comes the difficulty along with it. Normal battles in a new area can be ridiculous sometimes in how tanky the opponents are and how much damage they can deal out. You don't get experience from these difficult battles either, only skill points that you can add on to your traits that you gain from beating bosses, making fighting enemies that aren't bosses feel a little tedious and not rewarding. I've lost more than a dozen times to basic enemies you find on the field in the areas that you're supposed to be going to in order to progress, which I can't say for most RPGs. Normally in that situation, I would sit down and grind an area until I was comfortable with the enemies and continue on, but because grinding doesn't work the same way in terms of raw statistics you gain like in other RPGS, I get stuck dying over and over trying to progress. I don't really consider myself a bad player either, I feel like I'm trying multiple methods of attack battles and ways to get into overdrive, and I still end up losing to basic enemies more than I have any boss. The game is generous in that after every battle your party is fully healed, so at least that's nice. In battles though, even after 10 hours I have no party member that's able to heal the entire party consistently which is difficult because a lot of enemies have attacks that go across the entire party. I have spells that can heal one member or boost defense or shield me for a turn, but nothing to heal me which I think is holding me back from enjoying this game to its fullest. Because of what I've experienced so far, I wouldn't recommend Chained Echoes to the general gamer off of the combat alone, its too difficult for people who don't have experience with the genre. If you are a JRPG fan, this system is breath of fresh air in most areas and brings in a lot of cool ideas for you to play around with if you can deal with the difficulty. 

    Visually and musically, the game looks and sounds great. Important characters have more detailed portraits that give you a little more insight to what characters look like. Sound effects have a good punch to them and are satisfying to slice enemies with your sword or attack with elemental magic. The music I wouldn't say is super memorable to me right now, I think if I were to play more it would stand out a bit more, but it suits the game well and there hasn't been anything that I would say is bad. I might have to listen to the OST outside of the game as well. One of the only other gripes I had when I first started playing was actually the move speed of my character. I thought it felt way too fast for some reason and wished there was like a walking toggle or button I could hold down. The environments and pixel art is all very well crafted and are distinct. Weather effects look especially beautiful as well. Like when it rains and you can see the drops falling into the pixel art puddles. However if you don't stop to appreciate it, you move so fast that you can miss some of the minor details that got put into the environments. 

TL;DR

    Chained Echoes is a game that knew exactly what it wanted to be before it was even created. The battle system and presentation makes you think of JRPGs of old, but it doesn't have those same older tropes that were better left off in the past. However, I can only as of right now recommend the game to fans of the genre who are willing to go through with the difficulty of some of its battles. You have to play older games in order to appreciate some of the QOL changes that are offered here and appreciate the game to its fullest. 

I don't know if I'll finish the game right now, I might look at it again later on down the line because right now I'm a little frustrated with it and I'm playing Zelda BOTW for the first time and that has my full attention. Thanks for reading I appreciate it!

First Thoughts on the Sea of Stars demo

 Sea of Stars (Demo)

    I'm a bit late on the draw for this one, as the demo for this has been out for a month or 2 now but this weekend I finally got around to checking out the demo for the upcoming RPG Sea of Stars. Developed by by Sabotage Studio, the same people behind The Messenger, is a prequel set in the same universe but centuries before hand. I didn't know any of this going into the demo and now that I'm finding this out I see why the game is like it is quality-wise. The thing that originally attracted me to the game like most indie games I find today was the art style. Most indie games are going for this "retro" pixel art style which I enjoy but I feel like can be a little overdone now. Sea of Stars hits that sweet spot for me where it doesn't try to mimic older hardware, but embraces newer techniques and hardware to make something unique. The more I looked into Sea of Stars, the more hyped I got for this game. Combat looked very similar to Chrono Trigger as well, where enemies were visible on the field, and when you run into them the battle takes place right there. Another concept carried over from Chrono Trigger was depending on how enemies were placed on the field, AOE attacks would strike targets differently if they're closer or further away from each other. So already I knew this would be a game that's officially on the Teeezy radar for cool games, but then they hit me with the real dinger. Yasunori Mitsuda of Chrono Trigger and Xenoblade Chronicles 3 fame was going to be a guest composer on the game! With all this in mind, why I didn't play the demo sooner I have no idea. I can confidently say now that come August, this will be my most hyped game of the year. Wow, this demo was perfect in giving just a taste of what's to come.

    Alright so let's start with the story. Not much overall has been revealed of the story thus far, as you're thrown into the middle of it. You won't have to worry much about spoilers either, because parts of the game have been [REDACTED] and areas cut off by some NPC's to make it a guided experience. They do let you however interact with characters from the local town and this gives a chance for the writers to flex their chops in this department. Some characters give that standard JRPG dialogue, where others are wittier and show much more personality. My favorite character so far is definitely Garl the Warrior-Cook, who is a ton of fun with lots of smiles and is light-hearted. Walking around the town also just confirmed how beautiful the game looks. Colors are vibrant and details sometimes are so minute that they make you appreciate them even more when you do notice them. The parts that got me the most excited were the music and the combat. Over the past few years I really started to appreciate video game soundtracks and music more and more, as a memorable track over a key moment really hammers home importance and emotion over scenes that make you remember them years after you've played the game. Mitsuda also being on the composer list also got me excited as he's composed some of my favorite tracks in games. The feelings I got when I first entered the overworld and this epic track starts playing have only been matched by the Wind Scene in Chrono Trigger after you first get sent back in time. I literally got chills and just sat on that screen for like 5 minutes. It's not just that one track either, the battle music is catchy too, and I didn't really get tired of it like I thought I would after the 10-15 battles I had. Nothing I heard I would consider bad or repetitive and I can't wait to hear every area of the game. Now for the part that I was the most skeptical on from watching trailers was the combat. In any JRPG combat should be one of the top priorities for the developer, as it's what you're going to be doing a majority of the time. Sea of Stars not only makes combat fun and engaging by bringing back older ideas, but also by incorporating new ones as well. Like I mentioned earlier, battle takes place on the field similar to Chrono Trigger, and placement of enemies can help determine your strategies. The battle system itself isn't an active time battle like most Final Fantasy games, it is strictly turn by turn. You can change what character you want to attack on which turn and you aren't limited to it being one characters turn per se as it gives you the freedom to choose. Another part of the combat that I was happy was there was timing your hits and defending against attacks. If you press the action button at specific times you'll either do more damage when you're attacking, or take less damage from incoming attacks. This concept is nothing new, the Mario RPGs have been doing that for years. However, they don't try to shove that down your throat and just have the timed hits as something that adds a little extra to combat which is always appreciated. When you do time hits however, they build up into a combo meter allowing you to do big attacks with multiple party members at one time so its well worth your time. Lastly, one of the coolest concepts I found was boosting your special moves or attacks. After attacking enemies on the field they drop little orbs that stay on the field during battle. During your turn, you have the option to boost your attack, and the orbs converge up to 3 larger orbs that will power up your next move. Its a clever way to power up your moves without having to spend a turn and use a power-up item or spell, and comes very naturally as you're always going to be attacking enemies. 

TL;DR

    Sea of Stars is shaping up to be one of the best traditional RPGs in recent memory. In almost every aspect Sea of Stars is hitting dingers in its presentation, combat, dialogue and characters. It combines old standard ideas with some fresh concepts for a mish-mash of excellence. The world looks diverse and I'm pumped to learn more about the lore and characters that live in it. Combat and music are the major highlights for me, with the music making me feel how I did playing some of my favorite games, and combat staying engaging and diverse letting me strategize how I want to go about things freely. My only regret was playing the demo so early, because now I have to wait 3 months for the game to come out! If Sea of Stars isn't on your radar, it needs to be as its shaping up to be one of the best games this year. I played the demo on my Switch, I'm unsure if the demo is out on all platforms, but the game is coming out August 29th, 2023 on Steam, Switch, Xbox and PlayStation, so keep your eye out for this one! 

Here is a link to their website for the game where you can Wishlist and view the store listings for the game. All artwork used in this post was sourced from this site. https://seaofstarsgame.co/