Webhead123

I can't put my finger on exactly why...but I never quite developed the same affection for Mario Kart 64 as everyone else did. Granted, I didn't own it but I did play it at friends' homes on several occasions. It was good for sure but maybe it's because it controls so differently from Super Mario Kart (a game I put hundreds of hours into, I'm sure) that, at the time, I never quite got comfortable with it. But yeah, I can't deny that it's a classic and probably one of the most iconic couch-multiplayer games ever made. 4-player compatibility was a huge deal at the time.

I've played every game in the series except Mario Kart 7. Honestly, choosing a favorite is next to impossible between the original, Double Dash and 8 Deluxe...but I think I'm giving it to Double Dash. It (and Super Mario Kart) is one of only a handful of games I've ever 100% completed. I'm working on 100% on 8 Deluxe...but there's just so many dang courses and speeds in that game that I have to put it down for a while and come back to avoid burn-out. The original SNES game might be my most-played game on the console. So many hours of 2-player GP and Battle Mode with my brother and friends. I love that game dearly. I'll never forget the time that my brother managed to get me hit with my own red shell. Or the time we crossed the finish line at the exact same time down to the hundredth of a second. But Double Dash represented an nice evolution for the franchise before the items got out-of-hand like in Mario Kart Wii and before the gimmicky stuff of Mario Kart 7. I loved being able to mix and match drivers and choose custom carts and how each driver had a different special weapon. 8 Deluxe is probably the best, most full-featured game in the series and it is amazing. I wouldn't question why anyone would call it their favorite.

My guess for All-Stars is Wind Waker HD/Twilight Princess HD/Skyward Sword HD. I think there's a slim chance that we could get OoT instead of Skyward but I think the latter is the more likely candidate, simply based on some nebulous rumors I seem to recall drifting around.

This is my guess. Ideally for the anniversary, we'll get a "Zelda All-Stars" type collection and a quick update on the progress of BotW2 but *at best* I'll call that it gets a "Winter 2021/Spring 2022" release window.

Wow! Has it been 30 years already? I still vividly remember the very first time I saw World Warrior at the local arcade. It was a whole new genre of game that I had never even heard of before. Blew. My. Mind.

Yes, I agree that I think the game's approach to longevity was through getting you to unlock new mech squads. The idea that those are out there certainly offers some motivation to keep going but, for me anyway, it wasn't enough. I think it would have helped if the individual campaigns lasted longer and thus there was more of a chance to actually upgrade your squad beyond "+1 move speed for this guy, +1 damage for that guy...campaign's over. Reset." To combat this, in addition to the ONE pilot you get to take with you, it would be nice if they would let you take one upgrade or maybe at least one reactor core with you on your next run. You know...so it felt like you could actually develop your squad into something cool instead of just almost literally repeating your same progress multiple times. I'm thinking something like Rogue Legacy, where you have to start over when you lose but each run feels like it's accomplishing something by the incremental little upgrades that you get to build up over the course of time. I will say, there was a positive to my time with Into the Breach...and that is it's gotten me to load up Darkest Dungeon again. What a great (but also sometimes frustrating) game!

Well, I did the bare minimum necessary to get Into the Breach crossed of my list. I hate to say it but I was rather disappointed by it. By all accounts, it should be a game that really won me over and got dozens of hours out of me. I enjoy turn-based tactics/strategy games, especially those with an RPG-like level-up system. I have hundreds of hours in stuff like X-COM (both the old and new series), Darkest Dungeon, Invisible Inc., etc. But it turns out that Into the Breach just didn't captivate me like I was hoping it would. Really, I think it comes down to two major issues: 1) That there are really no "crafted" levels at all. It's all driven by RNG. This means that you might get one battle that is ridiculously easy because of the way terrain and enemy spawns play out...and then the next battle proves to be moronically impossible to mitigate losses because of the same. 2) The rogue-lite RPG elements feel too empty. That is, all the upgrades and such that you're gradually putting into your mechs...you keep NONE of it when you have to reset the timeline. You get to keep ONE pilot and that's it. No weapons. No reactor cores. No XP. You get one guy with one skill. And because individual runs can wrap up before you've really accumulated that much as-is, you just end up playing the same stock mechs with the same stock weapons over and over and over again. I guess I know why they do this. 'Cause the game is super short when it comes down to it. And maybe it's my problem for wanting something different than what the game delivers but yeah...I wanted more of a sense of progression. The game is going for "wide not deep" in design, I guess and that's just not what keeps me coming back to a strategy game of this type. So yeah, I was not terribly impressed with my time with it. The core game play (less the frustration of the swingy-ness of the RNG) is actually great. I just wish they had taken that core game idea, crafted an lengthy, detailed campaign of missions and let the player have some fun upgrading mechs and experimenting with custom load-outs. Objectively, it probably deserves at least a 7/10 but I gotta be honest, I'm probably going to uninstall it and not look back.

I'm in the same boat. It wasn't a game I grew up with but it is Contra, so it had my attention upon learning of it. I've not sat down to beat it yet but I have spent a fair bit of time fooling around with the first few stages. It's good and I'm blown away that Sega got a Contra game but it definitely isn't preferable to the NES or SNES entries. Actually, I think I liked Contra: ReBirth better than Hard Corps. And I have yet to play Contra 4. I really need to get ahold of that one.

I clicked 9/10 on the poll and immediately regretted not giving it the full 10. While incredibly simple relative to what contemporary gaming resembles, Tetris' gameplay is timeless, accessible to anyone regardless of age, gender or gaming exposure and is an absolute core classic right alongside Pong, Space Invaders and Pac-Man. I don't think I'm all that good at Tetris and I don't exactly sit down with it for hours-long sessions or anything but that's one of its other incredible strengths: that you can find challenge and satisfaction whether playing for 5 minutes or for an afternoon. My personal favorite and most nostalgic version will always be the one I played on the the family black-n-white Macintosh but it was around that same time that I also got a Game Boy and spent many hours with the portable version as well. So yes, not the most complex or fully-featured game but that's not what its trying to be. It is the definition of "easy to play, hard to master". Tetris Macintosh Music

Ages and Seasons are on my "2021 backlog" list and I've been meaning to play them for a long time, since Link's Awakening is one of my very favorite games. Is there any particular recommendation or advantage to playing one of them first? I know one is more action-focused and the other more puzzle-focused but is there an ideal order to play them in?

Doom 64 is an under-sung game, I feel. The biggest issue with the original N64 release is the controls. I mean, you can get used to them but they're certainly far from ideal. If you can, I highly recommend playing a version of it on PC, or at least on a more modern console with the benefit of dual analog controls. Just a simple change to the control scheme turns it from a good but janky game into a terrific one. Jurassic Park (SNES) was one of those games I owned growing up and I think rather highly of it as a result. It's unfortunate that, for such a long game, it doesn't have any way to save your progress but if you can spare the time to get through it (about 3-4 hours as I recall), or if you have the benefit of save-states, etc., it is a game very much worth finishing.

Facts. Tears or joy or tears of rage (or maybe even a little of both), you're gonna be crying before it's all over.

I've been trying to dedicate at least some time to clearing my backlog commitments. After getting a bit frustrated with Duck Tales, I thought I'd switch over to Sunset Riders. Great game that I really wish I had played more when I was younger. As a big fan of the Contra-style run-and-gun games, I would have eaten this game up for breakfast. I've still got a little more practice to put into it but I'm getting close to completion. I'm currently trying to learn Chief Wigwam's pattern. What a great game. Wish I had some local couch co-op buddies for games like this one.

I'm definitely not a "series fan" as it were, since I basically stopped playing them after the SNES. With that in mind, FFVI takes my vote. Although I have more personal nostalgia for FFIV, I recognize that FFVI is largely the better game all around. FF on NES was "okay" but I was much more into the Dragon Warrior/Quest series in those days. I watched a friend playing FFX from time to time. Nice graphics and all that but the barrage of cutscenes and the obnoxious-looking and sounding characters kinda killed it for me.

It's an incredibly charming and addictive game, despite being designed as something of an exercise in masochism. Before the game ripped out my heart, threw it on the floor and stomped it flat, I put quite a few hours into it. I may go back at some point with dreams of vengeance (that will likely never be fulfilled).

Well, thank you all for the ideas and recommendations. The "Sparkplug" and matching scart cable arrived today and work like a charm! The TG never looked so good and every cart (including the Everdrive) powers up and plays without any issues.

I'm also just about ready to start looking into this. Although, for simplicity sake, I'm thinking about buying an Arcade1Up cab and then swapping out the stock board for a RaspberryPi configured with MAME or some such. Still, I wanna do it right the first time, so I really need some good sources before I dig myself into a hole.

This is why I find Backloggery's distinction of "Beaten" vs. "Completed" useful. Or GameFAQs' "Beaten" vs. "Conquered". I consider a game "beaten" if I've reached an ending screen, whether or not I've experienced the game's entire content. I consider a game "Completed/Conquered" once I've done all that there is to do.

The Saturn is one of those consoles that I've never owned nor knew anyone that did, so it is sadly one that I have absolutely zero experience with. I would love to own one but who knows if that will ever really happen. I have played Panzer Dragoon Orta a time or two but that is the extent of my experience with the series. Seems cool enough and I rather enjoy rail shooters. Maybe one day.

In its day, it was unrivaled in its ability to bring the literal arcade experience home. However, both back then and especially today, it is entirely hamstrung for most potential gamers by sheer cost. It was and is the luxury of luxuries for console gaming and because of that, a relatively few people will ever experience what the machine had to offer. 10/10 in its day for the ambition but I have to knock it down a few points for the simple inaccessibility of the thing. Final score: 7/10

To be fair, I've been out of the "collecting" loop for about 5 years now, so I'm probably carrying over assumptions from that previous era. The last I paid attention to it, it seemed like most of the major Zelda titles (like the original and LttP) were going for $40-$50 loose, although Pricecharting is telling me that that the average has fallen off a bit today (which is good). Even so, my experience has been that most games (particularly the popular ones) rarely go for those rates and most local shops/sellers (at least in my area, back when I frequented them) and eBay tend to go for a bit higher, which is one the reasons I stopped bothering.

Sucks, man. The Zelda titles are popular and demand higher prices, so I can understand why folks would fake/repro them...but the fact that you seem to wind up with so many has to be obnoxious. For getting as close to the original experience as possible but without all the frustration, it might be worth picking up Everdrives to play them on. While it wouldn't be on the original cart(s), at least you would be able to play the original ROM and do it on original hardware. It's an incredibly convenient and reliable way to get an authentic-feeling experience.

I put no real stock in Metacritic (sometimes, I actually forget they exist). But one example did jump out at me. TMNT: Out of the Shadows scored an average of 38. That's incredibly harsh, especially considering crap like Lost: Via Domus and The Deadliest Warrior averaged in the mid-50's. OotS isn't a great game by any stretch but there was clearly some effort behind it and it was enjoyable as a budget Live Arcade title. The graphics and sound were actually pretty good and it has a surprisingly detailed combat system, where each turtle plays VERY differently. It certainly belongs somewhere in the 50's at least and ranking it a "38" just seems a little silly. I mean, that's the same aggregate as the Pimp My Ride game. What the hell?

I've been meaning to fire it up again. I haven't played it since the 90's and never did finish the game (it was only a rental, I never owned it).

I tested it with both original HuCards and with an Everdrive. What's odd is that different HuCards seemed to behave differently (with some examples noted in the post above). The console itself (as far as I know, not being the original owner), is un-modded and is still using the OEM power supply. I pulled the trigger on a "sparkplug" adapter and cable and going to test that out to see if it makes any difference. If this one gives similar issues, then it sounds like it's either an issue with the rear expansion port or could be a power issue. I'm no expert on such things though, so I'll just have to play it by ear.