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Post by VectorX on Dec 3, 2022 0:29:39 GMT -5
The Nintendo 64 port supports four player co-op if you have the required Expansion Pak, which I do, so if I can ever get three other people together, it might be fun to give Gauntlet Legends a go. Oh well, even just 1-2 can be fun enough...
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Post by wyldephang on Dec 29, 2022 14:17:29 GMT -5
I am closing out 2022 with a few new additions to the library. Of note, I finally returned San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing (N64) back to the collection. I used a own a copy of this game, but it was stolen from me sometime in the late '90s. The suspected thief was a friend who ended up becoming a notorious klepto and had stolen not only several items from me but from other mutual friends as well. Rush isn't necessarily a must-have game for the console and didn't cost much on eBay, but it does feel good to add it back into the collection after all these years. Continuing with the car vibe, I also acquired a copy of Twisted Metal 4 for the PS1. I'd only rented this game once in the '90s, so it'll be nice to revisit it. Finally, I bought a copy of Mega Man X6 for the PS1, thus completing the Mega Man X trilogy on the PS1. I don't remember playing this one back in the day, though I do have fond memories of X4 and X5. I am sure X6 will be more of the same fast-paced robot carnage.
Also, I don't normally report my digital game purchases, but I did score Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order during the Steam winter sale. The sale runs a little longer, so don't be surprised if I add some more games to this later. Overall, it's been a fairly eventful 2022 for game collecting and I look forward to continuing the streak into next year. In case I don't say it later, Happy New Year to everyone!
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Post by VectorX on Dec 29, 2022 15:08:57 GMT -5
I used a own a copy of this game, but it was stolen from me sometime in the late '90s. The suspected thief was a friend who ended up becoming a notorious klepto and had stolen not only several items from me but from other mutual friends as well. Oof, that sucks
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Post by wyldephang on May 18, 2023 19:44:15 GMT -5
The collection has grown this year, albeit by only a little. Most of my time is taken up by household duties--new parent life, phew--but I have managed to sneak in a few acquisitions between diaper changes here and there. In April, I picked up a copy of San Francisco Rush 2049 for the Nintendo 64, which is based on the Rush series of games that I've spoken about before. Rush 2049 occurs in the future, so while it is still a racing game at its heart, all tracks and vehicles are adapted into a futuristic, almost sci-fi-inspired setting. The next acquisitions came this month. First among them is Doom for the PlayStation 1, a faithful port of Doom and Doom II with some enhanced visual effects and revamped music and sound effects. I've always been intrigued by this version of Doom, as it is quite different from other ports, and while I already own numerous versions of the game, I'm of the philosophy that one can never have enough Doom. Next, and most recently, I picked up Ghouls n' Ghosts for the Sega Genesis, a port of the successful Capcom arcade game. I already own Ghosts n' Goblins on the NES and Super Ghouls n' Ghosts on the Super Nintendo, but the Genesis version is different in interesting ways, so I'm looking forward to giving it a try--though I understand my chances of beating it are slim, as the games are notoriously difficult. This particular copy of the game was complete-in-box, which is always a treat and something I don't necessarily always strive for. Other than that, I did make a few acquisitions for modern consoles. For the PlayStation 5, I was gifted Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion. For the Nintendo Switch, I got Octopath Traveler II and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. I've been looking forward to the latter one for years now. The most substantial gaming-related purchase I made this year, however, was the Steam Deck I bought a couple months ago during the Steam sale. It's essentially a handheld gaming PC that runs Steam as its launcher. I've been playing around with it here and there, when I have time, and so far, it holds up very well. It's a powerful little machine.
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Post by kokovec on Jun 10, 2023 11:20:52 GMT -5
The collection has grown this year, albeit by only a little. Most of my time is taken up by household duties--new parent life, phew--but I have managed to sneak in a few acquisitions between diaper changes here and there. A belated congratulations on the new family member! All I had time and money for when I became a new father (30 years ago) was for work, food, gas, rent and the occasional PC based video game. I believe the first one I bought was Wolfenstein. A couple of years later I bought Descent. I haven't bought a retro game since last year. The last games I purchased were PETSCI Robots for the C128 and Vectorblade.
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Post by wyldephang on Jun 10, 2023 11:24:07 GMT -5
Thank you! Here's hoping the little one (Adria) develops an interest in gaming.
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Post by VectorX on Jun 10, 2023 20:31:50 GMT -5
^Oh sure, like they'll have a choice!
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Post by wyldephang on Oct 13, 2023 23:13:40 GMT -5
Since it's been a while since I've written an update on my collection, I thought I'd combine the last few months together into one post. To kick things off, I picked up a copy of Immortals Fenyx Rising for the Nintendo Switch. When the game first came out, it drew comparisons to Breath of the Wild due to its gameplay and open-world environment. Now that Tears of the Kingdom is out, I'm not certain that Immortals is going to get much playtime, but we'll see. For the PS4, I bought Persona 5 Strikers. I know a bit about the Persona series of games, having beaten Persona 4 Golden earlier this year, but I understand Strikers is a different style of game, so I suppose I'd be a total newcomer whenever I do get around to playing it. For the PS5, I bought Resident Evil: Village. Technically the eighth mainline game in the Resident Evil series, Village was celebrated for pushing modern consoles to their limits. On the SNES, I picked up Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow, a game featuring Disney's beloved Donald Duck in his Maui Mallard detective persona. I participated in a game review podcast several years back featuring this game; we spoke about the SNES version and the Genesis version and compared the two. Buying it all these years later feels like I'm coming full-circle; I never had much interest in owning the game before, but looking back on that podcast made me nostalgic and I decided to hunt the game down on eBay. On the Sega Genesis, I picked up Road Rash III, a competent motorcycle racer with a brawling aspect. I used to like playing one of the 3D Road Rash games, so I decided to go back and own some of the original ones. Finally, on the PlayStation 1, I picked up Breath of Fire III. I own the first two games in the series, but the third one receives pretty consistently good reviews. It's an RPG by Capcom, so you really can't go wrong. Overall, it looks like I have quite a bit to keep me busy this fall. Hope everyone is staying well.
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Post by wyldephang on Nov 26, 2023 20:25:23 GMT -5
Hey all. The collection has grown a little since my last post. There were some Black Friday deals that were too good to pass up, including some that came from a retro game store that was running a 20% off promotion. For the PlayStation 5, I picked up Resident Evil 4. This is the remake of the original game that was released on the GameCube. It has gotten good reviews across the board and seems to be a faithful recreation of everything that made the original great, so I'm looking forward to playing that, especially considering how much I liked the Resident Evil 2 remake. From the classic gaming store, I purchased Ristar and Streets of Rage 3 on Sega Genesis. For the NES, I picked up Blades of Steel and Double Dribble. Overall, not a bad haul as we round the corner into the holidays, when I am sure to pick up at least one or two more games for the collection. I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!
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Post by vectrex360 on Dec 16, 2023 3:30:26 GMT -5
I picked up a few games since last time I posted. I recently decided to get rid of my Xbox Series S and buy a PS4 Pro. I decided on the Glacier white console. I picked up the following physical games: Valfaris, Slain, Bloodborne, Ratchet and Clank, Spider-Man, Caladrius Blaze, Jamestown+, Medievil, Nex Machina, Matterfall, Gravity Rush Remastered and Gravity Rush 2, Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War, and Super Meat Boy.
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Post by TrekMD on Dec 16, 2023 21:59:27 GMT -5
Here are my latest arrivals...
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Post by wyldephang on Dec 27, 2023 20:08:58 GMT -5
Nice haul, Trek! It's good to see such a variety in there. I made a few more additions to my collection on Christmas, and I am excited to start playing them. For the Nintendo Switch, I got Super Mario Bros. Wonder. For the PlayStation 5, I got Dead Space and Final Fantasy XVI. I have heard a lot of great things about the Mario game; I think it will be an ideal one to pick up and play in short sessions whenever I have the time. Dead Space and Final Fantasy XVI also get near-universal praise on review sites, so I'd say I have a busy gaming schedule ahead of me. Happy New Year, everyone!
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Post by TrekMD on Dec 27, 2023 22:47:05 GMT -5
Thank you, wyldephang! Happy New Year!
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Post by wyldephang on Mar 3, 2024 15:46:34 GMT -5
Well, 2024 has already proven to be a fruitful year as far as expanding the collection goes. What began as an intended minor game haul to deepen my PlayStation 1 library has developed into something more involved, so while most of the games below are for Sony's beloved 32-bit workhorse, there are a few games for other consoles sprinkled in. The first of those games is Conker's Bad Fur Day for the Nintendo 64, which is a long-awaited addition to the library. Conker's Bad Fur Day is one of the later games in the Nintendo 64 library and is also one of the few to boast a Mature ESRB rating due to its suggestive themes and profanity--two things you don't often see on the console. Its status as a quirky outlier to the Nintendo 64 standard fare made it an early collector's piece, and I'm happy to finally bring a copy home. Also for the Nintendo 64, I acquired Forsaken 64 and Vigilante 8. The former game is a six-degrees-of-freedom shooter, where you have full control over your vehicle in a 3D space. The closest thing I'd compare it to is the Descent series. Vigilante 8 is a car combat game a la Twisted Metal. Though I prefer the Twisted Metal games for the most part, Vigilante 8 offers a nice break from the dark, foreboding themes of its spiritual predecessor.
Moving on from the Nintendo 64 acquisitions, there was a single addition to my NES library: Adventure Island by Hudson Soft. It's a fairly standard side-scrolling action/platformer that takes place on a tropical island. I do remember playing it as a child, so it's been on my radar for quite some time now despite not being all that challenging to track down or expensive to buy. For the Sega Genesis, I picked up Journey from Darkness: Strider Returns, better known as the unofficial sequel to Capcom's Strider. The gameplay is very similar to the original Strider game, though it was developed by a different team, and so, it is not as highly regarded as its predecessor. During the whole bidding frenzy, I managed to pick up a PlayStation 2 game as well, which was Dynasty Warriors 4. I liked DW3 and remember it as one of the first games I played on the console with my brother. I assume DW4 takes on the same hack-and-slash, big-battle flavor, so I'd like to give the co-op a try one day when I have the chance. The most modern pick-up was Metroid Dread for the Nintendo Switch, which is a return to Metroid's side-scrolling roots. Critics were mostly united in offering Dread praise across the board, as it offers a unique twist to the Metroid formula wherein Samus plays the part of the hunted rather than hunter. Furthermore, Dread won numerous Game of the Year awards, so I'm actually quite interested to play it for myself.
Getting to the real meat of the haul, the PlayStation acquisitions are mostly RPGs with some other genres thrown in. First up is Star Ocean: The Second Story, a sci-fi J-RPG by Enix that recently was subjected to a remake on current-gen consoles. Critics lauded the remake, but I wanted to try the original for myself and found it on eBay for a decent price after talking the seller down a bit. Next, I picked up Wild Arms 2, an RPG that is loosely based on "Wild West" themes and archetypes. It's one of the few Japanese games to do it, so it's definitely a unique part of the collection. Of note, these first two games were rebuys, which means that I bought them initially but was unsatisfied with the condition I received them in (e.g., sellers offering bad descriptions). I got refunded for them thankfully, but had to go out of my way to rebuy them, which quite frankly was frustrating. Next up is SaGa Frontier, which is a Squaresoft title. I don't have any experience with the SaGa games outside of just generally knowing they exist, so I've been meaning to check them out for a while, and this is my first foray into that. One of the stranger additions is Final Fantasy Chronicles, which is a bundle of two games I already own on the Super Nintendo: Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy IV. I suppose I bought it for the enhanced visuals and FMV cut-scenes in Chrono Trigger, but that's still kind of a silly reason to own it twice. Another J-RPG I picked up was Grandia, which is a port of a Sega Saturn game. I actually own Grandia II on the PS2, so I figured I'd need to start with the first one if I wanted to delve into it. Also, I bought a copy of Vandal Hearts, which appears to be a tactical RPG wherein you control units on a field in battle. I've always liked these types of games and heard good things about Vandal Hearts, which came out somewhat early in the PlayStation's lifespan. Switching things up a bit is Front Mission 3, another tactical RPG that features the use of armored mechs. I've never played it, but I like the concept and wanted to try it. To round out the RPG acquisitions, I'm excited to make two big ones: Suikoden and Suikoden II. The Suikoden series is unique in that you control a larger party size (six) in battle, so the battles feel more epic. In particular, Suikoden II usually lands near the top of the list of games that are considered among the best on the original PlayStation. It's rated very high but was also quite expensive--was actually my single most expensive game acquisition--so you can imagine why it took so long to add it to the collection.
The last few PlayStation games occur in various genres, so I'm grouping them all here. The first in this group is Bushido Blade, a fighting game by Squaresoft with a unique twist: the gameplay is supposedly based on real-life swordfighting techniques. I rented this game in the '90s and was surprised when the computer landed a one-hit kill-shot on me. Usually, the goal in a fighting game is to whittle your opponent's health down to zero with attacks; it hadn't occurred to me that a single strike, if landed correctly, could just end the whole match, but this is exactly the case in Bushido Blade, so you tend to take on a more defensive posture in your battles. Though I'm not normally a great admirer of sports games, I did pick up NBA Live 2001. It's basketball, and I really have nothing else to add beyond that. Believe it or not, it was a $1 listing on eBay with free shipping. There's no way the seller isn't going to lose money shipping it to me, so I don't know what the point of the listing was, but I wasn't about to turn down a game for one dollar. Lastly are some racing games that were bundled together for one price. Destruction Derby 2 is the first of them; I haven't played it, but it looks like a racing game with some combat elements. Next up is Gran Turismo 2, a series that really needs no introduction. It's one of the PlayStation's most respected and recognizable racing franchises. Finally, to wrap things up, the bundle included R4: Ridge Racer Type 4. One of the better games in the Ridge Racer series, I'm pleased to have had an opportunity to finally add it to the collection.
My apologies if this ran a bit long. As you can see, I've had a busy few months, so I think it's a good time to put a hold on the collecting and start playing through some of these games. More updates as they come.
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Post by TrekMD on Mar 5, 2024 23:25:47 GMT -5
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