sp1nz

Insane depth and skill ceiling in a mathematically perfect package. I have the Tetris kick now and then but I can't give NES Tetris full marks cause of hypertapping, brutal RNG, no hard drop, no ghost piece and no hold piece. I'm not sure what the absolute best version of Tetris is but maybe one or more games in the series could garner a 10/10 from me, while NES Tetris 1989 is a solid 9/10.

AES was the "ferrari" of consoles back in the day. Graphically the games are top of the rung spritework and there is lot of gold in the library but playing something like Metal Slug still has slowdown and they bring that arcade authentic slowdown even into ports *pfft*. The AES is one of those systems though that I've chosen not to collect as of yet due to the cost and abundance of fakes. Consolized MVS doesn't feel as epic but would be far more reasonable way of playing the real deal. 8/10

Here are my current 25 favorites that fit the description either throughout or where it matters: Eraserhead (1977) Incendies (2010) Threads (1984) Mulholland Drive (2001) Enter the Void (2009) Prisoners (2013) Love (2015) Mother! (2017) Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975) Eden Lake (2008) Hereditary (2018) Grave of the Fireflies (1988) We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) I Stand Alone (1998) The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017) In a Glass Cage (1986) El infierno (2010) Requiem for a Dream (2000) Martyrs (2008) Taxidermia (2006) I Saw the Devil (2010) Scum (1979) The Snowtown Murders (2011) Melancholia (2011) Possum (2018)

That's a good example. I would say that in any medium the very beginning comes from discovery and is rarely "the best work", then more people latch onto the medium and create with passion and early limitations enhance the need for solid design, and lastly the medium reaches the mainstream audience + creating itself becomes easier for everyman + the limitations become less about tools = overabundance of content and competition resulting in many great creations being lost in the overwhelming amount of throughput and many celebrated creations being successful due to marketing money or lazy risk-free mainstreaming for lowest common denominator. This is also where reviewing becomes important because "right" way of reviewing is about informing the consumer (this does not exclude funny and entertaining reviews but they have to have meaningful takes to matter). Everything does become harder when so much can be attributed to taste but you can try to find the special reviewer that ticks your boxes or you can aggregate the results when there are enough reviewers doing their best in trying to be objective and also have breadth of experience with the medium.

I wish Super Bomberman R Online wasn't Stadia exclusive

Old vs. new, now that's a battle. I would say it's not about age but design. Bigger does not equal better - good sound does not equal memorable composition - quality of life does not equal necessity - better graphics do not equal striking style - more buttons do not equal better gameplay - and so it goes on. This is easier to see, if you have seen gaming change and have played through that change. "Right" way to review doesn't really exist but if you want to be objective about it, you should consider all of the game's elements with appropriate weighting. Gameplay, content, difficulty, graphics, sound, composition, writing and so forth. Even then comparing games is asymmetrical and different genres should have more weight in appropriate elements. Also not all games have every element included but good games often have all of their elements done well and they can even be better than the sum of those elements through some kind of synergy and cohesion - and that's what design is all about.

When you want to keep it private you can only widen your search or have more patience. I tend to have eBay saved searches and sometimes after years of notifications the actual item emerges - not that the saved search is always reliable in showing items as they appear, so you can miss the buying window when you go the automated route but you save so much time also.

Tried this out of curiosity, beat the first level with 1 life left on my first try. I mostly died to the fast blue zig-zaggers cause I wasn't ready for them. Very long level with lots of repetition in enemy appearances and what they do but that repetition helps with the survival and you have 6 lives to start with. You can only have one bullet sprite of your own on the screen, so that makes shooting slow unless you do risky close quarters play. Enemies take more than 1 shot to die but their purple bullet patterns are quite easy to dodge even if they are sometimes dense, if you fail to kill enough of them fast enough. So the biggest difficulty here was the quick pop-in of multiple enemies around the screen and the erratic fast moving things, if you are not ready or know a safe-ish position in advance for them. The first boss was very easy but quite tanky. By no means is it an easy first level but that was my experience. As for what I think is hardest first level, maybe The Three Dragon Story for MSX/SMS.

Okay here's why Mega Drive/Genesis is the GOAT for me and only console I will give a 10 as per the score descriptions: It was my first console, so nostalgia points for that. Sonic the Hedgehog was the first game I ever played and I was 4 years old. I used to sneak in my big brother's room when he was sleeping and I would play with the sound off. Eventually he just let me have the console so I wouldn't bother him about playing it. More powerful processor (this is what the term "blast processing" basically means) than the SNES hence less slowdown in busy or action filled games. I prefer action games to RPG games (which SNES is strong at) so less slowdown is a really big deal for me. I prefer the SHMUP selection to that of the SNES and again faster processor helps here. When talking of resolution or colors I prefer gameplay to graphics in any case but SNES definitely has MD beat often in those departments but also sometimes the SNES multiplatform games are too zoomed in or whatever. In general for multiplatform games between MD and SNES; I prefer MD versions in more than half of the games. Lots of sports games in the library (well SNES has quite a bit too) but many of those are fun with friends at least and of course some are more quirky like Mutant League games and Super Baseball 2020 - I could argue that my love for the MD made me more open to appreciating "real" sports games instead of just dismissing them as trash. Dragon's Fury is my favorite pinball game even if not full on exclusive to MD, I remember visiting "Musta Pörssi" appliance store with my dad and buying that game on a whim from the box art or something and damn was it good. Shining Force II is my favorite strategy game although it's more of an RPG adventure than hardcore strategizing - then again Fire Emblems didn't get western releases in those days, so it was a great boon. Once as a child I randomly found Alisia Dragoon and Super Hydlide in some closet's upper shelf, never knew we even had those games - Alisia Dragoon was great and Super Hydlide not so much, especially cause I couldn't understand the English language at the time. I used to play the weird art game "Art Alive!" a lot and animate or edit some random ToeJam and Earl or Sonic sprites and watch them bounce across the screen. Comix Zone had a baller style. Streets of Rage series is GOAT. I could babble on endlessly about all the known and unknown MD games but I'll leave it at that. When utilized correctly the YM2612 sound chip produces my favorite sound for any video game console and maybe even favorite sound among all of music. The rich FM synthesis waveforms just resonate with me but sadly a lot of the western developers didn't really dig deep into the sound chip and also some console models and versions sound way worse, so combining lazy approach and bad console model leaves worse impression forever in the minds of many. Controllers are not my favorite but not bad either and there are many variants to choose from and if you emulate then you're not limited either. During the market time of MD I feel like everyone knew certain games but had way different exposure to the other parts of the library, so you could always find some great obscure games when visiting a game store or your friends. SEEGAA!

Went with Mania but if Sonic 3 & Knuckles was its own thing I would have a hard time choosing between the two. Knuckles & Knuckles mode for the win.

My vote is for "other". My favorite is when someone is passionate about a game series and has shrine(s) / dedicated space(s) filled with all kinds of goodies. A great dedicated space can include most of the voting categories too or possibly goes into the "unique organization" category. Then again organization alone doesn't mean you'd be knee-deep into collecting a game franchise.

I tend to buy the PS4 version: -more powerful machine -achievement support -lower print runs (not that they're gonna be more in demand than switch games) -on limited editions the artwork is not blocked by switch logo

I'm only ever interested in selling/trading duplicates and after that I might not want to own the same game on multiple platforms or every variant of every game but it all depends on the platform goals and how much I appreciate a game or a series. Like say I own a GB CIB of Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge -UKV (England's country code for most Nintendo items) and later get a CIB -SCN (Scandinavian version) of it, then I will consider -UKV inferior, and while it's nice to have I might let it loose at some point. Even though Mega Man is a great series and the game is good, I don't see myself hoarding every variant of every GB Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge because hoarding minor variants is not my main interest in Nintendo collecting nor is it the best use of my space, since I collect for a ton of platforms. I made a trade recently, where I traded away a better condition box (maybe 8.3-8.8 condition) of a high rarity GB game and received lesser condition box (maybe 7.5-8.0 condition) + rare variant CIB of a GB game I was after (only country variant with English on box/instructions) and 50% of what I paid for the original CIB of the high rarity game. Without getting a sufficient condition box in return, I wouldn't have traded, without the extra game I was after, I wouldn't have traded and without the sufficient cash difference I wouldn't have traded. It was more than fair trade on my end and they felt it was fair on their end and they suggested the trade conditions in the first place. I wouldn't have sold my CIB or my box for straight cash because I want to own it. Some items take years to appear on public sale (whatever the cost is at that point) and I don't want to return to being the bidder from being an owner - especially with the speculative and hype-driven nature of current game market. If someone legitimately offered me $1,000,000 for a game "worth" $2,000 then I would seriously have to consider my position because more than likely you can get another copy of most items or just not owning that game or set ever again against getting your whole collection's worth many times over from one game sounds crazy. But not even the comic book dentists would go this far and I doubt I have anything they'd want, so we're all good on this hypothesis.

Easy 9 from me. It was my 2nd console as a wee lad and there is so much gold in this system's global library. I once made a 64-game PAL mosaic of the library and it's just touching the surface:

It has to be this bad boy; I love the PAL style box layout with the flipped American box art, orange with black is top tier coloring, great game, great series, rare region etc.

This phenomenon is definitely more centered around sealed games but of course there's certain spiking in other areas too, but nothing lasts forever, so collect how you can and like during your lifetime. Still I know of hoarding examples in the CIB realm too, I know someone who had like 5+ Trip World CIBs and bunch of Hammerin' Harrys on Game Boy, either it's searching for the best copy and flipping the rest on the journey or artificial scarcity through hoarding already rare games. Anyway there are no rules what a collector can or can't do in what or how many things they collect, it's on the other collectors to not get roped into a stupid game of compulsion.

True but in relative terms, even though the buyers are being stupid, their purchases probably have very minimal impact on their finances. That kind of misguided demand is the breeding ground for hoarding false grails and market manipulation though. I imagine these types of profiteers are stuck with their fails unless the stupidity keeps rolling forward in the specific circle it started in. The future demand won't be what they assume it is, so getting into the market impatiently with high aspirations and deep pockets from other collecting mediums is a fool's game.

The demographic throwing that money is speculators with low video game market knowledge.

Well here's something I found that seems very comprehensive: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=197962 but at the same time it mentions "slipboxes" too and imo something with flaps being only way of entry is not a slip-anything.

Here are some European slip cover releases: Red circle: Horizontal cardboard slip Yellow circle: Vertical plastic slip (steelbook slip) Green circle: Vertical cardboard slip

Dark Souls is a masterpiece in my book. The grimdark world, hidden lore, punishing gameplay, multiple paths open to you early on (even though there is the "expected path"), menacing bosses, area design and connectivity. I fought Sif as my third boss and I would die in 2 hits if I recall correctly. I stubbornly beat Sif after much pain and fast forward to this day: I own the First 4 Figures statue of Sif in honor of that early game Dark Souls experience I had. I played 80-90h in 8 days and beat the game, that's how into the journey I was. The game is masochistic gaming 101, not for everyone and not that hard if you chow down hard games by nature but a definite modern treat and it even popularised the gimmick of Souls-likes. https://gamicus.gamepedia.com/Soulslike

How I collect depends on the platform in question. On some I collect full sets and beyond, and on some I go for a handful of software/hardware that I find worth owning. So in essence a quantity of quality approach for my particular tastes.

Well I have owned games since 1992 (I was 4 years old at that point) but I didn't think of them as a collection nor did I ever sell anything during those times. Then somewhere in my teenage years / early adulthood I offloaded most of my games on my sister's family but I have no idea what happened to my Mega Drive games. Then at some point in 2011 I was in some store and saw a PS3 for sale and just went for it. This was pretty much the turning point for me and after playing for a couple of months on my PS3 the year turned to 2012 and I started thinking about the "good old times". I soon ordered a bunch of PS2 games from UK Amazon and some weeks later a bunch of Mega Drive games from a Dutch retro game site. These purchases I consider the start of my collection, so I started actively collecting in the early 2012 and had some games from 2011 prior to that. I did later buy back a couple of choice games from my sister (not for market prices or anything because I would've felt wrong just taking them back, since I had gifted them previously) and at some point my friend returned my Game Boy Advance and my whopping 3 loose games. So I have a few childhood games in my possession, earliest being Scandinavian copy of Armored for PS1 from 1997. So I present to you the only childhood games of mine in my possession: Bonus: My console/handheld timeline before actively collecting: Mega Drive | Game Boy -> PlayStation 1 -> Game Boy Color -> PlayStation 2 -> Game Boy Advance -> GameCube -> N-Gage (I actually used this as my mobile phone and only had Tomb Raider for it I think) -> Nintendo DS.

I've played through it on an original European cart. It was alright but doesn't hold water against the NES originals and I'm saying this as a Sega fanboy. The extra content might not be that big of a deal to you unless you are a Mega Man fanatic who wants to experience everything that the franchise offers. As a part of the Mega Drive/Genesis Mini library it's still a great addition, as it hasn't been in Sega compilations before and prices out many collectors in physical form.