DoctorEncore

If you leave in the Seattle area, you can find dozens of games with these stickers without even trying. They're everywhere.

100% agree. I loved PH, but abhor Spirit Tracks.

AI-powered art is certainly interesting and can be quite beautiful, but it should have it's own category in art competitions.

The game looks great! Thanks for sharing.

I'd be shocked if we hear anything in 2022 at all. My guess is that the supply chain for the Pocket is still extremely tenuous and until they can move another big batch, the Duo will stay on the backburner. I just hoping things will start moving by summer 2023.

I looked through at least a dozen articles and threads before writing my post and didn't see Shinobi mentioned in a single one. It's such a cool game and I wish more people would experience it. It's almost like the PS2 library is just too vast to reasonably explore. I suspect the Switch will be similar.

I enjoy a challenge and try to beat most of the newer "difficult" games. I don't think I can choose a single hardest game, but a few that crossed my mind: Super Meat Boy Celeste Cuphead Returnal Hollow Knight Trials HD series Bonus Pick: Shinobi (PS2). This one is an under the radar, underrated gem, but is ridiculously difficult. It's been a long time since I played it, but it still lives rent free in my mind. Along with Rygar, this was one of the really cool 3D updates from the PS2 that seems to have been forgotten with time.

Every now and then I get serious with competitive Rocket League and Halo. I can still get to a respectable rank, but I no longer enjoy the grind, so I drop off quickly. At this point in my life I want my videogame time to be relaxing or I want to choose how the pain is inflicted upon me (Returnal, Dead Cells, Cuphead, etc).

I can't put it any better than @fox already did, but here are a few of my thoughts. Overall, it's just a really well-crafted game that punches way above its weight. The combat won't blow your socks off and is even kind of bad at first, but it can be really satisfying later on when everything clicks. It's a lot of fun to zoom around with your hoverboots, shooting the baddies while you activate your teammates' abilities and watch them absolutely dogpile onto the boss and stomp it into the ground. The huddles are super entertaining as well. Upgrade system is very straightforward and dumps the insanely complicated tech trees and crafting bullshit that dominates every game nowadays. The highlight is definitely the story and character interactions. Everything is just really, really well-written and the voice acting is strong. I like all the characters and right from the start they seem like a family that you've known for years. The fight and argue and grow, but ultimately seem to really care about each other. Everyone has an interesting back story and their motivations are explored in thoughtful ways. Even the ancillary characters are great. After a few hours, these are now the default Guardians of the Galaxy in my brain instead of the movie actors. I'm only about a third of the way through the game but I'm already hoping they'll make a sequel just so I can spend more time with these characters. I'm not trying to oversell it. It's not a 10/10 game, but it is miles better than I expected and a lot of fun. Definitely worth $20 and 15-20 hours.

Nope, these are true reprints. They've done it for quite a few games now. Here is the link for recent reprints (https://videogamesplus.ca/collections/vgp-recent-re-prints?bg_ref=jyGCdTlTpT). The reprint may cost more than the initial MSRP since the cost of reprinting a small batch is high, but it's still far cheaper than eBay. Also, their prices are in CAD so that may throw you off if you don't do the conversion (Astral chain is $79.99 CAD which comes to $61 USD). I'd recommend following their Twitter if you're interested. As for limited release games, they are often the official retail partner for Canada (similar to Best Buy in the US). They are also the exclusive retail partner for some games like Metaloid Origin from Red Arts (see embedded tweet). They're definitely legit and one of the best companies I've ever interacted with.

Video Games Plus (videogamesplus.ca). They are a Canadian retailer that seems to have grown in prominence recently. They have really good prices, great customer service, and have been aggressively pursuing reprints of hard-to-find games. I've picked up quite a few reprints s from them over the past several months such as Astral Chain, Persona Q and Q2, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Torna, and Tales of the Abyss. They also just reprinted Soul Hackers, but it went extremely fast and I missed it. Recently, they've also become the exclusive retailer for some limited Switch releases as well. They're probably my favorite videogame specialty store at this point.

I will look forward to both games, but anything on Kickstarter is a no from me. Early investment with zero chance of profit and very real likelihood of loss? No thank you.

I just started Guardians of the Galaxy on XSX and am really enjoying it. Eidos-Montreal did a phenomenal job of capturing the essence of the Guardians, without feeling like a straight rip-off of the movies. In most games, I just read the subtitles and skip through the voice acting, but the writing and voice acting are so good that I'm taking my time and listening to the performances. Combat is probably the weakest part of the game, but still serviceable. I definitely recommend giving it a shot at current prices or through Game Pass. I also loaded up Aliens: Fireteam with my brother the other day. It's a class based, level-based co-op shooter similar to Left 4 Dead. We only played the first two missions, but it seems pretty good with nice variation between playstyles for the different classes.

While the true retro collecting remains on hiatus, I have been taking advantage of VGP's reprints (another one coming today at noon EST!). I picked up a couple steelbooks, another PSVR title, and a reprint of Astral Chain which is surprisingly tough to find in new condition. Unfortunately, the Soul Hackers 2 CE and Xenoblade Chronicles 3 CE were both delayed, so I'm stuck with just the games for now. I also had to grab a couple more Xbox controllers (on sale from VGP) since my son and I have been putting in some hours.

I'd go so far as to call them Good condition, especially Aero Fighters. If I wasn't in the middle of switching jobs with a new baby coming next month, I'd be all over that. Good luck!

This is how I felt as well. I played it for a few minutes when it first came out and it left a mark on me, even though I never solved any puzzles. Fast forward almost 30 years and I just beat the latest remake. Totally worth it.

1121. Good group of songs.

This awesome! Thanks for sharing.

Same. I've been itching to start Yakuza Kiwami, but don't know if I'm ready to go down that rabbit hole. I'm a little surprised they haven't announced Switch ports of at least the early games. I'm pretty sure they'd sell like gangbusters.

Damn dude, nice get!

The NES version is also unbeatable without the pack-in map, I believe due to poor translation of in-game dialogue. In fact, I think early copies may not have even included the map, although I'm not sure about that.

Nice one! You don't see many in that good of condition. Great pickup.

This is why I've moved all JRPGs to Switch. I just can't imagine spending 100 hours in front of a TV anymore.

Great list! I love that it spans so many generations. I'm always a bit bummed when someone's top ten is exclusively games over thirty years old. Don't ge me wrong, I love retro games. But there are also so many amazing modern games! I had the same experience of dialing down on the gaming in my late teens and early twenties. There was a period where I just didn't have time with school, social engagements, extracurriculars, jobs, etc. My first two years of college were even worse as I was struggling just to survive. I really missed out on the PS2, Xbox, and PS3, although I did sneak in some time with the 360 towards the later years of college. In terms of default notifications, if you are following a thread (light blue button above the first post), you should get notifications whenever someone adds to it. Since you started this thread, you will automatically be following it (you can confirm this by clicking the "1" just to the right of the word "Follow") and should receive notifications whenever someone chimes in. Additionally, you will receive notifications when someone "reacts" to your post or quotes you, even if you're not following that thread. If you don't like these settings, notifications are all customizable through the Account Settings page (https://www.videogamesage.com/notifications/options/). Welcome!

Welcome! Sounds like you've got a lot of experience with the truly retro stuff, which is always great. Do you have a favorite game and console?