Messages

1

General / Re: Do you still prefer physical games or digital?

« on: April 13, 2026, 08:03:55 pm »

I'm probably in the minority in that I actually prefer digital. It's just easier to manage imo, and on the more modern systems you kind of need a network connection to download all the patches, texture packs and sometimes the game itself even if you have a physical copy.

Now physical for me is reserved for my favorite games on the system I want to own. They serve as kind of decoration I guess, cause honestly I would prefer to own them digitally. I want people to look at my physical collection and be able to tell exactly what games I love. So my collection is more a reflection of my taste in games than a reflection of the games I've played. I own a flashcart for most of my older systems (or I've hacked them to play downloaded games, like my PSP and 3DS) so I can just download games to try before I buy them.

I wasn't always digital over physical though. Back when I was a maximalist collector (just trying to get the biggest collection I could) I was physical over digital 100%. To the point I kind of missed a lot of great digital games cause I didn't want to spend my money on digital games when I could be spending it on games for my collection.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

« on: April 12, 2026, 08:10:58 pm »

31. Pilotwings 64 (N64)

I feel like all gamers have those special comfort games they play when life isn't at its best or maybe they just need to be reminded of simpler times. In my case, I felt like I needed both. I found out last week I'm getting laid off from a job I've had for 8 years. I don't work from some mega corporations where layoffs are the norm and the company is certainly small enough to where everyone is fairly connected to everyone else, even the executive management team. So the fact that I was one of about 40 people that were told we're getting let go soon came as a complete shock. This unfortunate news derailed my playthrough of Chrono Trigger, a game from a genre I struggle to get into even when I'm not dealing with life changing events. When I finally did feel like doing something other than frantically navigating a terrible job market, I decided to play a game I've thoroughly enjoyed since I was a young kid, and one that reminds me of those simpler times better than most.

I know this game isn't typically discussed when the upper echelon of N64 games is brought up, however I feel like Pilotwings 64 almost belongs in that conversation. If you grew up with this game like I did, you'll no doubt be unable to resist its mid-90s video game charms, but more than that, the game and its various modes still control and play very well, and its various areas all have a distinct charm to them, even of they are relatively small in scale. Pilotwings 64 is an absolute must play on the N64 and a game I'm very thankful to have right now. (4/10/26) [39/50]

Sorry to hear that. I'll also be leaving my job in August, at which time unfortunately I'll also have to leave Japan. In my case though I knew it was coming as my contract is up and there was no chance of renewing it. Hopefully you are able to land on your feet with a smooth transition into your next endeavor.

On the topic of Pilotwings 64 though. it's one of those games I've been thinking of picking up but haven't pulled the trigger on. I've only recently started to collect N64 after getting an Analogue 3D last year, and so far I've basically stuck to the "sure hits" I know I want in my collection like Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda titles. I think I've got somewhere around 15ish games for the system right now, but I'm basically out of games I know 100% I wanted. From now I have to be careful with what I buy so I don't waste money on something that won't stay in my collection. Once I play the games I already have, I think I'll start emulating stuff to figure out if its something I want to keep, and Pilotwings will likely be one of the first games I try.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

« on: April 07, 2026, 11:10:53 pm »

I was left a bit surprised by how much this game feels like a prototype to Mario Kart 8 than its own distinct Mario Kart game. Don't get me wrong. MK7 dos have enough of its own unique stages, music, and visuals to set it apart from 8 or any of the other Mario Kart games, but I guess I was surprised by how similar the gameplay mechanics were between 7 and 8, as well as most of MK7's better tracks being included in MK8, many of them within the vanilla game.

It's funny how playing them in this order can change your judgement on the game. It's like playing Mario Kart DS after Mario Kart 7 and pointing out how they play alike and that some of the best tracks from DS are in 7.

Not saying you're wrong. It's factually the case that 8 is an improvement over 7. But that's kinda the case for the entire series (outside of the latest entry imo).

Just thought it was funny how the order we play games can affect people's perception on games. One of the reasons I tend to play games in release order when I try a new series.

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Modern Video Games / Re: Report: PS6 2029 | Switch 2 price increase soon?

« on: April 06, 2026, 02:03:38 am »

Although I've gotten more use out of my PS5 this past year, it's still far from where I wanted it to be when I bought it.

PS4 was a step down from PS3 for me, and PS5 a step down from PS4. Just the selection of games has gotten thinner as dev times have been stretched out, meaning a single letdown hurts way more. Back in the PS3 days there were usually a dozen or so games I was looking forward to in a given year. I mean really looking forward to, like I wanted to play them Day 1. PS5 though? I'm lucky to have half that in a year. And in years 1 and 2 there was even less.

I will likely be focusing on retro next gen and not making the same mistake of expecting things to pick up after a slow start. Unless they come out of the gates swinging in year one to change my mind, PS6 will largely be a skip while I focus on more affordable consoles of yesteryear.

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General / Re: April 2026 - Recently added to collection/recently purchased

« on: April 05, 2026, 08:52:28 pm »

Visited a friend in Tokyo over Spring break, and of course had to stop into Akiba to try and hunt for some harder to find games in my area.

Ended up picking up:

• Mega Man World 3 (GB)
• Super Smash Bros. (N64)
• Advance Wars 1+2 (GBA)
• Banjo Kazooie (N64)

The Mega Man World games were my top priority as they are impossible to find CiB. Traders had 3 and 4, but I didn't like the condition of either copy of 4 they had (for the price they were charging). I tried my luck at Super Potato expecting to get fleeced, and was pleasantly surprised to find a nice copy of Mega Man World 1 for a somewhat reasonable price. Was super stoked only for them to tell me the real price was 3x what was on the sticker...... yeah that's why I usually avoid Super Potato lol Great for finding rare games but you have to pay 2x or more market price for it...

The other 3 games I picked up aren't exactly rare but I've never been able to find clean copies of them where I live so it was a good opportunity to pick them up. Been collecting the N64 more since I got my Analogue 3D and these 2 games were high on my priority list.

I was a bit miffed that I forgot to add the two GBA Castlevania games I own into Game Eye, so when I was in Akiba I couldn't pick up the ones I was missing....

It was kind of weird leaving Tokyo with such a small haul but that's what happens I guess when you are looking for specific things rather than everything that catches your eye. I remember as a college student leaving Akiba with bags of games lol I returned to Canada with a suitcase filled with nothing but retro games at that time. But hunting for specific things was still pretty fun. It gave me more time to spend at places I usually don't have much time for such as Shibuya 109, the mecca of J fashion. I also go to go to Nakano Broadway again for the first time in 10ish years. Such a cool spot for finding anime merch. If I were to guess there's probably more figurine stores in that mall than the entirety of Akiba.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

« on: March 26, 2026, 01:03:12 am »

29. Xyanide (XBOX)

One pet peeve of mine is how freely the word "hidden gem" is thrown around online. At this point, saying hidden gem is more or less just a buzz phrase to bait people into clicking on your YouTube video or Reddit post. The reason I mention this is because over the years of playing countless examples of supposed hidden gems, I've come to discover that the overwhelming majority, probably around 90% of them, range from being wildly mediocre to absolute trash in reality. For most of these obscure titles, there's a very good reason they remained obscure and relatively rare. And while I realize there are exceptions and special cases when it comes to this, most obscure games remained that way because, well, they kinda suck. Case in point, Xyanide on the original XBOX.

Yeah it annoys me too lol. I feel this 100% If they were good games, even if they didn't sell well at the time for whatever reason, collecting is such big hobby now that they would have been found by now.

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General / Re: Older consoles or handhelds that you regret sleeping on when they were modern

« on: March 25, 2026, 08:15:15 pm »

I'm usually one of the older people in online spaces, but I guess it makes sense that I actually seem a bit younger than everyone on a forum such this lol

I grew up on Playstation and then switched to Nintendo for the Gamecube and Wii, and then moved over to the 360 for middle and high school. Sega was already basically almost gone by the time I was playing games. I got a PS1 in 98' as my first console at 4 years old, so the only Sega system I could have really even had the chance of playing while it was "modern" was the Dreamcast, and tbh I don't think I ever saw one. My cousins had an N64 I saw a few times but never played myself, mostly just watched them play.

I think you're within a standard deviation of the average age on here, which if I had to make assumptions is probably early 40s. I'm in my late 30s and when I talk about the 90s, it's mostly from the perspective of an elementary school aged kid. I was in middle school in the late 90s.


But between my friends and I most of us had Sega consoles, and a few had Nintendo consoles. Funny enough, it was just my cousin that had a PS1 back in the day. Other than that I didn't really get to play the PS1 all that often. The first time I played the PS1 was on a road trip my parents took me on in 1996 where I played Destruction Derby at someone's house. The damage effects blew my mind back then. Now it's nothing special. I really didn't come to appreciate the PS1 until the console was nearly sunset, however I do remember specific games being shown off in gaming mags I had during the time that really made me wish I had one. Funny enough, one game that made me obsessively want a PS1 for a brief period was Star Wars Masters of Teras Kasi. The idea of a Star Wars fighting game blew my mind back then. Of course, now we know that game is complete crap, but hey, 9 year old me would have probably loved it lol.


I still can't believe that between my brother and I, we had all four 6th gen consoles back when they were considered modern. And it wasn't like we were rich, we just had some excellent birthdays and XMASes around that time I guess lol. My brother mainly gamed on XBOX (he was a Halo 2 XBL addict), while I played Dreamcast and PS2 primarily. I bought a Gamecube around 2003 or so just to play Resident Evil Remake. I only had a handful of games for it back then, half of them being Resident Evil games, but remember also enjoying Smash Melee and a few others too.

Yeah I'm 31, but usually in online spaces I'm an Unc talking to early 20 somethings who grew up on Xbox 360/PS3/Wii, whereas I was already a teenager in that era so we had vastly different experiences with those consoles. Unless they had particularly lax parents, they missed out on the Xbox live party era of gaming (though now Discord kinda recaptures some of that to be fair).

Here though the shoe is on the other foot so to speak. A lot people talking about experiences I never had, because I either wasn't even born yet or was too young to hold a controller lol. The NES for me was an "old" system my parents played. I was born into the 3D era, my first game I remember playing was Crash Bandicoot 3 on the Christmas I got my PS1. I didn't even know Sega made consoles until I was a late teenager and started collecting as a hobby, whereas people here seem to have a kind of nostalgia for them the same way I have it for PS1/N64.

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General / Re: Older consoles or handhelds that you regret sleeping on when they were modern

« on: March 24, 2026, 08:58:59 pm »

I'm usually one of the older people in online spaces, but I guess it makes sense that I actually seem a bit younger than everyone on a forum such this lol

I grew up on Playstation and then switched to Nintendo for the Gamecube and Wii, and then moved over to the 360 for middle and high school. Sega was already basically almost gone by the time I was playing games. I got a PS1 in 98' as my first console at 4 years old, so the only Sega system I could have really even had the chance of playing while it was "modern" was the Dreamcast, and tbh I don't think I ever saw one. My cousins had an N64 I saw a few times but never played myself, mostly just watched them play.

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General / Re: Older consoles or handhelds that you regret sleeping on when they were modern

« on: March 23, 2026, 07:59:32 pm »

PSP and Vita I guess? It wasn't so much that I slept on them and more that I was a broke teenager lol Well, for the PSP anyways. I was in Uni and working part-time when the Vita was still "modern" but I just thought that it had no games lol

I haven't started to collect Vita yet as I am still collecting / playing PSP, but I do plan on getting to it eventually.

I hope I come around to the PSP at some point. Funny enough, I recently just sold my Vita and the 10 or so games I had for it. I got a wild hair and bought one from a game store back in like 2014 or so. I played it a handful of times around the time I got it and it's literally been untouched ever since. I decided it wasn't going to get played anytime soon so I sold it. I still have a PSP and a healthy collection for it, however it's just never sparked much joy for me despite playing some pretty good games on it.

I haven't dug that deeply into the PSP yet, but what I have played so far has been great. Monster Hunter is one of my favorite series so playing its early entries has been fun (if not a little annoying, cause the series has made a lot of improvements over the years lol). And it has a bunch of cool games you just don't see much of today outside of the indie scene like Patapon.

Vita I really don't know much about. There are a few standout games I really want to try like Gravity Rush, but other than that I know nothing about the system. Makes it kind of exciting to start collecting though as I have no expectations as to what I'll find lol

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General / Re: Older consoles or handhelds that you regret sleeping on when they were modern

« on: March 22, 2026, 09:04:39 pm »

PSP and Vita I guess? It wasn't so much that I slept on them and more that I was a broke teenager lol Well, for the PSP anyways. I was in Uni and working part-time when the Vita was still "modern" but I just thought that it had no games lol

I haven't started to collect Vita yet as I am still collecting / playing PSP, but I do plan on getting to it eventually.

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General / Re: What are you playing?

« on: March 22, 2026, 08:57:03 pm »

My PS5 has gotten a workout this year.
Most recently, I’ve been on Avatar:Frontiers of Pandora. It’s a good one. It’s open world Avatar goodness. I can fly on an Ikran and cause a stink for the Sky People

Mine too actually. I think I just ignored it for so long that now I have a pretty big backlog of games I want to play on it lol Metaphor is going to take a while to get through, and then after that there are another half dozen JRPGs I want to play.

Last year I think it was really only Ark Raiders and Monster Hunter Wilds that I played (I played both for over 100 hours though lol). But now there are so many games that I've put on the backburner waiting for sales that I have a pretty descent backlog of games to get to that I really want to try on it.

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General / Re: March 2026 - Recently added to collection/recently purchased

« on: March 22, 2026, 08:47:52 pm »

I picked up SaGa 3 on Gameboy (FF Legend III). I think I paid around ￥6000? Something like that.

Not sure if I am going to display the SaGa games in my FF collection or just my general GB collection. In English they are considered FF games due to their titles, but in reality they are the beginning of the SaGa series. Kind of a weird situation when you think about it lol (I'll probably keep them separate, since they are technically their own series after all)

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

« on: March 22, 2026, 08:39:48 pm »

5. Rune Factory A Fantasy Harvest Moon - Meh. The series has potential. But the execution of the first game was just very medium all around. Combat for the most part is just spamming the attack button. Some enemies will require a more "hit and run" style, which I found to be a lot more engaging as you had to actually somewhat think about what you were doing, but those enemies were few and far between. The bosses were fine though and required some thought and preparation to take down.

My biggest "gripe" was that forging weapons and accessories are locked behind upgrading your house which takes a while to do. I was about 3/4 of my way through the main story before I got it. The problem with this was that you need to craft strong weapons and accessories to get through the last few dungeons, but in order to craft them you need to level up those skills. So you are kind of forced to grind mining ores and making weapons for a few hours to level up before you can make any more progress. If they just gave you access to this mechanic earlier on you could level it up naturally as you explore and grow your character. Ideally, you would be able to do it from the start so you can naturally level these skills as you play instead of stopping everything to grind.

I also played the EN version, which after checking the JP version has super compressed audio. A bit of a shame.

Overall, a very mediocre/average game. Nothing special, but it gets enough right to make it enjoyable as a whole. I'd give it a solid 5.

Games still in progress: Pokemon Diamond (DS), Metaphor Refantazio (PS5), Octopath Traveler (Switch)

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General / Re: Intro thread

« on: March 22, 2026, 08:20:40 pm »

That is interesting, japanese gba you really like the box art and the way the boxes look I'd assume. cause out of all them japanese consoles I'd argue even in japan it's pretty pricy boxed for quite some games even the rpg's it's not that far off if not higher priced than western versions for allot of stuff. it's quite pricy in comparison to most other of the popular retro consoles that cost a fraction in comparison. japan really loves them handhelds it seems.

Not really. CiB Emerald is like what? 600USD+? (I actually stopped tracking that one cause its gotten too out of hand). My JP copy was ￥8000. Still expensive yes, as it's about the same price of a new Switch game. But much more reasonable for a retro game with such high demand (imo at least). Sapphire and Ruby I bought for about 5000 each CiB, and Fire Red/Leaf Green for about the same (a bit more actually but I forgot wat exactly). All those games are in the $300-$400 range.

Outside of Pokemon I can give other examples. Like Castlevania Aria of Sorrow, which is about a $200 game, but I found a copy for ￥8800 this weekend. The Fire Emblem Games are about $150, but I bought mine for closer to ￥6000. Golden Sun is about a $100 game, but here you can get them for ￥3000-4000. The Super Matio Advance games were all ￥3000 or less CiB. Sure they are not that expensive for NA copies (like $40-$50 maybe?), but still that's some good savings over all the games. Anyways, I think you get the point lol

Another reason I collect JP is because there are a lot of games I like that are JP exclusives that I want in my collection, A good 20% of the games in my collection are probably exclusive to the JP side of the GBA (Ace Attorney trilogy, Fire Emblem Binding Blade, Rhythm Heaven, Mother 3, Legendary Starfy series and so on).

I guess the main reason is just convenience though. I've been living in Japan for almost 5 years now. And whenever I go to a game store that sells retro games I would always see these super cheap (compared to their NA counterparts) GBA games. I was collecting GBA for 5 or 6 years before coming to Japan and prices for some games were just too high for me personally, and it has only gotten worse (especially from like 2018 onwards). The fact I just see all these sweet games in stores makes it more fun to "hunt" for them too. I feel like finding CiB GBA in Canada was super rare. Almost all NA GBA games I had to buy online, which takes a lot of the fun out of it for me.

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Classic Video Games / Re: $100 Collection Challenge

« on: March 18, 2026, 08:28:10 pm »

• RPG: Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter - $17. Y'all, I struggled with picking an RPG. Not only is it my favorite genre, but the PlayStation 2 is filled with them. Many of them are still super affordable, which really warms my heart. I landed on Dragon Quarter because it's one of the most unique, challenging, replayable, and stunning options for the genre. I can't recommend it enough. I love classic, traditional RPGs, but I also love it when a game like Dragon Quarter enters the market and flips things around.

I've yet to play a breath of fire game. I didn't get into RPGs until I was a teen, and by then I was well into my FPS addiction lol But I love JRPGs (helped I'm sure by my love of JP media in general) so I eventually want to get to all the big series / titles, Breath of Fire obviously being one on my radar. I'm happy to see that it remains a reasonable price.

If I had to recommend a first console to someone who doesn't play video games, I'd go with an XBox 360, particularly a 360 S. Not only is it a beautiful redesign that fixed every major flaw with the original model, it (along with the PS3 Slim) represents a time where 3D gaming was in its golden age and the player didn't have to worry so much about online accounts, microtransactions, hard drive sizes, massive update files, and whether or not the entire game was on the disc. Granted some of those things did exist, but they were far less egregious than they are now. Heck, DLC expansions used to get physical releases back then! The XBox 360 S does narrowly edge out the PS3 Slim due to its better controller, unified RAM that allowed for higher resolution, and more normie-friendly library. With that said, my recommendations would be:

Platform: Xbox 360 S

Games:

Racing: Forza Horizon 2 ($22)
2D: I don't know, Rayman Legends? ($13) (I rarely play non-Mario 2D platformers, so I just stuck something cheap in here.)
RPG: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim -Legendary Edition ($12) (Was gonna pick New Vegas Ultimate Edition, but that alone would have eaten up the budget.)
Shooter: Halo: Reach ($13)
Strategy: Another genre I don't play, hmm... Halo Wars? ($9)
Wildcard: Batman: Arkham City GOTY Edition ($10)

Total: $79

Pricing: Amazon used prices.

360 is maybe my 2nd or 3rd favorite platform, so I also would easily recommend both the console and these games to someone. Though personally I don't like Skyrim, I do think it is a super safe recommendation considering how popular it is. I know I am in the minority on that one. New Vegas on the other hand is a must play on the system, but after you mentioned it was pricey I went and checked and..... holy. I probably 1/3 that when I bought it lol

Despite not playing those genres, you managed to pick top 3 games on the 360 for both 2d platformers/sidescrollers and puzzle/strategy lol Great choices. My personal favorite puzzle/strategy game on 360 is Portal 2, but Halo Wars as I said is a top 3 game in that category. Rayman Legends and Origins are my favorite 2d platformers on the system, but tbh I haven't played that many on it. Limbo and Trials HD are notable ones that come to mind (and both come in a physical release triple pack so you get both along with Splosion Man on a single disk), but I would personally pick one of the Rayman games over it. I would rather 1 amazing game than 3 good games, but that's just me.

Halo Reach is a obvious must play on 360. Horizon 2 is a great pick too. My own personal pick would be either that or maybe something a bit unique to the system, like Split/Second, or maybe Blur depending on the price. Horizon 2 is right up there too though.

It's kind of embarrassing, but despite being such a big 360 fan I didn't play the Batman Arkham games on it :/ I really need to get to them. $10 is a super easy price to get into what many consider to be one of the all time greats though. Man I love how cheap 360 can be sometimes lol