Messages

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General / Re: Nostolgia for the collecting era

« on: January 26, 2026, 10:30:01 am »

Because of COVID I really reduced my wishlist and laser focused on game genres and platforms that mean the most to me. Before, I was buying whatever I could that was cheap enough. I got lucky and bought most of my holy grail games before COVID hit and they were reasonable prices. I started seriously collecting in 2007 when I got my first job.

Now, some games' prices just can't be justified. I also switched to flash carts, softmods, and ODE drives for most of my retro consoles because I had a feeling prices would just keep going up and there were so many games I wanted to play that I didn't get to buy before the prices went insane. I have a pretty nice collection of stuff, and still occasionally spend a lot on a grail item here and there, but for the most part I'm staying laser focused. I know many people who just got started right before COVID just gave up and switched to emulation and I can understand that. There are still a few systems that are cheap to collect for (mostly HD era systems), but I would have done the same if I didn't already have all of these systems and just had to modernize them. Now, because of the tariff situation in the US, I'm glad I got all of these parts for my consoles as prices are skyrocketing. SD cards, SSDs, pretty anything tech related is starting to price so many people out. It's a constant race to stay ahead.

I sometimes wonder if I would have got into collecting as much as I did if flash carts had been around back when I started collecting. I'm pretty sure I would have at least gone after copies of games I owned as a kid, but part of me doubts I'd have collected with the same intensity I did during my hardcore collecting and game hunting years. Sadly, if flash carts had been way better like they are now and ODEs had existed back then, I'd have missed out on all those gret memories I mentioned in my first post on this thread. Still, Flash Carts and ODEs are incredible and I other than emulation, they're really the a miracle in terms of preserving games while also being able to play them as they were originally intended, on original hardware.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

« on: January 26, 2026, 01:45:51 am »

9. Cyberpunk 2077 (PS5)

Having bought Cyperpunk 2077 (CP2077) on day one when it came out in 2020, I was one of those crazy people who stuck it out with the game despite glitches and game breaking bugs galore. Adding to the insanity of my perseverance even more, I purchased the game on the PS4, which was infamous for being the least optimized, poorest running, and most unstable release compared to all other platforms CP2077 was released on. The fact I was able to beat the game at all on the PS4 back in 2020 (I actually beat the game on 1/1/2021, but whatever) was a miracle akin to V dodging a cascade of bullets and coming out the other end unharmed. Maybe the craziest thing of all was I actually walked away from this early build of CP2077 on a console it probably should have never been released on to begin with, with an overall positive impression of the game. Sure, some of the bugs and glitches, and the fact there was terrible frame rate and pop in issues throughout certainly dampened my opinion of the game somewhat, but I still had a great experience by the time the credits rolled.


Hearing nothing besides how CDPR turned the game completely around and even made it way better with its expansion, Phantom Liberty, had be eager to replay CP2077 and see how much more I'd enjoy it now that the game was fixed and no longer borderline unplayable. Originally, I was going to review the base game of CP2077 and Phantom Liberty as one game, however after beating base CP2077 and completing what the internet tells me is the first 1/3 of Phantom Liberty, I just ddin't feel right lumping the main game and expansion together. Phantom Liberty, at least so far, is a very different experience in so many ways compared to the base game. Some of this, again so far (I haven't beat Phantom Liberty yet), is a good thing whole some I'm not quite sure about just yet. Either way, it just feels very jarring and shoehorned into the pretty solid, cohesive narrative present in the main game of CP2077. However, with that out of the way, here are my thoughts on CP2077 5 years since originally playing it.


CDPR has improved virtually everything in this game as of version 2.31. Almost every gameplay mechanic and system works way better, possessing a level of polish almost every feature in version 1.XX was missing. Stealth works a 100 times better, shooting is actually fun and effective now, hacking and completing missions or areas outside of the box now actually feels doable, and the leving/progression system is noticeably tighter and better thought out. Honestly, the only thing that still feels kinda crappy is driving, which obviously sucks, but it's a far cry from how almost everything in CP2077 was pretty busted back in 2020/2021.


The game offers an almost overwhelming amount of missions, side objectives, oddities to explore, and other fascinating things to see and do, that you'll rarely feel bored or underwhelmed by what CP2077 has to offer. Unfortunately, many of these missions do play out the same way more or less (break in, steal this, kill that guy), but luckily the writing does a fairly good job at spicing some of this side content up. Beyond just the combat and exploring Night City, there isn't a ton of more out of the box side experiences, which is a bit of a shame, but the core of CP2077 is so good now, that it hardly needs that side crap anyways.


The story of CP2077 is pretty good overall. There are so many ways to experience this game differently depending on what back story you choose, what dialogue and action options you decide to make, what side missions you choose to complete, and so may other variables, CP2077 can almost feel like an entirely different game between playthroughs. Whle the middle 50% of the game mostly plays out the same, the beginning of the game and the ending can look dramatically different depending on your in game choices. While I'm not going to spoil anything, the ending I got during the playthrough blew the alternate ending I got doing my 2020 playthrough completely out of the water! And what's even crazier is there are even more ending I could see depending on choices I make. Combine all this with some excellent character writing, dialogue, and a pretty original, gripping plot and you have a video game that rivals many sci fi books and movies in terms of how interesting it is.


Still, with all that said about the story, it still has a few parts that aren't as interesting or great. The writing in side missions can outstay its welcome at times. And if I'm being completely honest, the dynamic between certain main and semi-main characters can sometimes feel all over the place, even when not talking dialogue options into consideration. Still, these are fairly minor gripes to what is otherwise a really enjoyable, well made story.


I honestly don't have a single bad thing to say about the visuals or audio in CP2077 on the PS5. The game runs silky smooth, even during more hectic sections of the game. The amount of detail in Night City absolutely makes it feel like a real living, breaking place. There are random allies you can explore that look completely unique even if there is otherwise nothing remarkable or noteworthy about it. Just the level of visual detail is off the charts in CP2077 and I can say with absolutely certainty that this is one of the best looking video games ever made. Audio is also amazing. Great soundtrack, nearly perfect voice acting, amazing sound effects of all sorts. The audio is legendary and needs to be heard to be believed!


While some of its flaws and shortcoming do hold this game back for me as being one of my favorite games of all time, it's still no understatement to say that CP2077 is one of the best games ever made. It's nothing short of incredible how much CDPR turned this game around in just a few years and delivered the title we had all hoped for back in 2020. But as they sau, better late than never. Now, I just hope I enjoy Phantom Liberty just as much, if not more, even though that game is quickly turning out to be a bird of another color. (1/25/26) [42/50]

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

« on: January 25, 2026, 12:23:58 am »

8. Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Switch)

Occasionally, my wife and I will pick out a local co-op game to play together. In recent years, this has typically been some sort of two player platformer. About a week ago we decided to finally play Kirby and the Forgotten Land, a game that we originally started playing in 2022, right before we moved into our new home. Unfortunately between the move and other games the two of us started around that time, Kirby got shelved until finally nearly 4-years later we picked it back up. While it wasn't the amazing game I hope all first party Nintendo platformers will be when I first start playing them, it was a still a decent little game overall.


Being a mainline Kirby game, Forgotten Land has most of the same mechanics of Kirby's previous main series adventures. You're sucking up various enemy types and absorbing their powers. All the power up staples of many previous Kirby games is here  as well, with the added bonus of being able to power them up to become stronger and stronger. While powering up your umm...power ups makes them more powerful (I will try not to saw "power" again) and therefore making the game easier, this actually plays into Forgotten Land's greatest flaw, at least in my humble opinion. It's difficulty.


Nearly every mainline Kirby game I've ever played ranges for moderately easy to laughably, close you eyes and just press forward and auto win easy. Unfortunately, most of forgotten land leans closer to the latter and it wasn't until the last couple areas of the game where I felt like anything resembling a challenge presented itself. The result of all this was me being fairly bored throughout this game, and that's despite the pretty good 3D visuals and adorable Kirby game charm. In fact, had I not been playing this game co-op with my wife, I don't know that I'd have finished the game, simply out of sheer boredom.


The 3D stages and visuals are Forgotten Land's best quality. This is probably the best, most visually impressive Kirby game ever made. Unfortunately, that doesn't translate to this game being a stunner for the eyes. While there are a lot of recycled assets, both stages and enemies, my main issue is how a lot of the characters and enemies sort of clash with the setting overall. The forgotten land this game is named after resembles some sort of post apocalyptic world, more similar to a cartoonish earth than what we've seen on Planet Pop Star and in other Kirby titles. Some stages definitely feel like they fit better than others, but many of them just feel out of place for a Kirby game. This, however, is a fairly minor compliant to what is otherwise a pretty good looking 3D platforming game.


Finally, the audio in Kirby is fine for the most part, if not bordering pretty good. There are some pretty good tracks, although I never felt like any of them particularly stood out and really caught my attention. There is almost no voice acting of any kind unless you want to count little grunts and noises from Kirby, his allies, and some of the enemies and bosses as voice acting. The non-OST audio certainly fits, but just like the character visuals, it somewhat clashes with the levels and settings throughout the game.


I can't say Kirby and the Forgotten World is the best Kirby game I've ever played, but for what it's worth, it was a pretty fun, little game that I derived more enjoyment out of playing it with my wife than I did out of the game itself. I feel like your mileage with this one will absolutely vary depending on your tolerance for remaining engaged in easier games, as well as your love of the Kirby franchise. I definitely like Kirby, but there was enough I didn't care for in this game that beating it solo would have been more of a test of my endurance than I'd care to admit. Still, I beat Kirby and it was a decent platformer overall that I'd recommend other fans of the genre, or Kirby, try out if they can grab a copy for relatively cheap. (1/24/26) [34/50]

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General / Re: When will your backlog actually be completed?

« on: January 23, 2026, 11:12:33 am »

Entire genres became dead to me

This has been a harsh realization for me as well. While I wouldn't say any genre is 100%, absolutely dead to me, there are a few that I enjoy significantly less compared to 15+ years ago. JRPGs specifically have really taking a downward slide when it comes to my enjoyment of them. It's a genre I want to love again just as much as I did in the 2000s and early 2010s, but I just can't bring myself to get into the vast majority of them. To a lessor extent, I've been finding I'm not as big on RTS games as I used to be. Every time I've gone back and tried replaying an old Westwood Studios RTS game and various others I just get bored or overly frustrated.

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General / Re: Nostolgia for the collecting era

« on: January 21, 2026, 03:49:56 pm »

I would say the golden years were over by around the time I first joined this forum, 2013/14 or so? Game collecting was getting so popular, and so competitive already by that point, you couldn't find stuff the way you did in the years before. This is when it started to go from being purely a joy, to sort of a chore. You had to be more crafty, more diligent. The world was slowly turning to shit because everybody was getting a smart phone and corporations were beginning to take over the Internet and subsequently destroy society. So there's this sort of split between game collecting in the old days before Internet was real life, and you would just use it to communicate about your real world findings, and then the era after it had taken over where there was little left out there in the real world to find, but everyone online had everything that you wanted and was dangling it over your head like a carrot. I'm not so nostalgic for that era where it all got tougher and tougher, and was mostly relegated to buying things online. The fun was all but gone by that point, especially by the later 2010s.

Once the pandemic hit, the hobby was wrecked. I continued on collecting for several more years beyond that, but it was honestly painful at that point, not fun at all. I haven't actively been a game collector in nearly two years. I don't really miss it, because of what it eventually came to be. I do think of the early days a lot, hence the topic. At this point, I know all of the retro libraries quite well. The sense of discovery is gone, I own most of what I ever wanted, everything feels like a ridiculous waste of money now... the past can't be repeated, is the point. You had to be there. I'm just thankful I'm not subject to the present day, where all the most followed and praised hacks of the retro gaming scene, are all these reseller jerks. Those clowns were probably still in daycare when we started collecting. Little did we know they'd come along to turn the entire hobby into a racket a decade later. If you just want to play the games, you're probably just modding or emulating at this point.

Covid was such a negative experience for many that people got to be penny pinchers, just like how many companies made allot of rules to milk as much money as possible. I remember this one retro store named cex which in the middle of covid removed free shipping, now charged shipping for ever item purchased in a single order (4$) imagine buying multiple 1$ dvd's) individually and worst of all while their prices where dirt cheap for many years suddenly hiked up their prices by a fuck ton for almost everything including niche stuff. also unironiclly eventhough they increased their prices and trade in values they didn't get as many trade ins compared to prior to covid so it's not even that their supply got better. they bankrupped now in my country unironiclly. but they made so many bad decisions that pretty much shoved their old userbase away from them. I used to come there daily, people knew me on a first name basis over there. when covid struck and them rules got implemented 1 by 1 I returned less and less till I just stopped coming.

I will agree with you. I did start in 2012 and it was definitely a different era of collecting. deals where everywhere stuff was dirt cheap I wish I where more seriously collecting at the time for especially nintendo cardboard, maybe stacked up on some boxed pokemon games. That being said till 2019 collecting was pretty great. when pandemic hit stuff just tanked. For me personally best memories of collecting where 2012 to like 2018. collecting is still fun for me but I won't deny it wasn't more fun prior to the pandemic.

I will however say even in the early era's while allot of stuff did pass through if you where casual. if you did put effort in you did get the peak stuff. in every era effort does reward a collector or that's just how the world works in general. although it wasn't a bad era if you did buy at retro stores market considering people already complained when a game was over 40$, you'd have the good stuff at a fraction compared to what allot of stuff costs today.

Still at the end of the day if your not having fun, it ain't a bad time to move on.

I'm incredibly grateful I was pretty much done collecting retro games once COVID began. I remember seeing prices go absolutely insane on older games to the point where even making what I do now, I'd never pay most of what people were asking (and mostly getting paid) for certain titles. The prices on Pokemon stuff still disgusts me seeing how common most of those games are. And what's ironic is how many people jumped into retro gaming and collecting around that time period too. You'd think the prices would have deterred most of them, but I think it was a matter of people not knowing any better and really needing an escape from the state of the world back in 2020 and 2021. I felt sorry seeing people pay $200 for a yellowed NES, a few controllers, and few common games. I would just think how 10-years prior I'd find practically the same set of stuff for under $50 easily all day long. But times change I guess, and if that's what people are willing to pay, who am I to tell them how to spend their money?


But yeah, game prices are still an absolute joke. I'm glad there really isn't much else I have a desire to own, especially older stuff. I almost never play retro games with their original disks or carts; everything is through ODEs and flashcarts now and seeing how it's all running off the same hardware, I honestly don't miss playing them the way they were originally intended to be played.

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General / Re: Nostolgia for the collecting era

« on: January 21, 2026, 03:40:38 pm »

But yeah, sorry for the massive tangent there.


tl,dr: I have a ton of nostalgia for my collecting era between 2008 and 2022, and especially between 2010 and 2014. Those were such fun, special years for me. I acquired literally thousands of games during that 4 year period, most of which I bought for a bargain. Deals were everywhere, some of the best places I've ever looked for video games were still around, and I also met a ton of great collectors too during this time. Also, the online zeitgeist around gaming felt so alive and vibrant around this time. Hell, it's during this time I joined VGcollect and my most wonderful memories of using this site were during the first 5 or so years I was here. I do miss that time and even though most of the places I used to buy games at are gone, the world has changed heavily since then, and so have I, I still remember that era maybe just as fondly as I do being a young kid and experiencing some of those older games for the very first time when they were brand new.

No apologies necessary, the tangents are the reason for the thread. I like the stories. Sounds as though we had a similar trajectory in game collecting.

Although, when I started out I had very limited amount of money I could spend on the hobby. At the time, you really didn't need a ton of money, but it would've helped of course. It always seemed to me, like the more money I had to spend on games, the more the prices would continue to rise, resulting in making it just as difficult as it was before regardless of what I had to spend.

Around here, I didn't have a ton of brick & mortar game stores besides GameStop, but back then I loved those stores. I used to go to GameStop so much that I felt self-conscious about the employees seeing me come in all of the time, and that was between three different stores that used to be in my town. I would hit them almost on a daily basis, checking for new trade-ins, price drops, and clearance stuff. Man, Nintendo DS games were so cheap and plentiful there back in those days. Of course, most people then still felt like DS was a gimmicky child's console that would never be worth collecting for a serious gamer. So I would regularly pick up $10 DS games that are now going for $100+ today. I probably spent thousands of dollars buying super cheaply priced games at those stores over the years. That's why it guts me to go in there these days, and the whole store has like 20 games over in the corner, and the rest is all a bunch of non-game junk. You have like 10 Switch 2 games on the shelf, and 3/4 of them are key-cards. I don't think the joy of the hobby could be any further obliterated than it is, short of every major video game company shutting down completely, which seems like that's not too far off.

I remember discovering that you could buy used games at Blockbuster, they had some pretty good deals too. We never had anything like Hastings here, but I did order from their website one time. It's funny how I can still point to any game on my shelf that I got all those years back, and could still tell you where I got it at, and roughly how much I spent on it. That stuff is just etched into my memory for some reason. A lot of my retro came from flea markets, and Salvation Army (because Goodwill here never put any video game stuff on the floor) and a few pawn shops. Aside from that I was always at GameStop, Blockbuster, and Kmart. A lot of people didn't realize how good Kmart was for modern game deals back then, because nobody ever shopped at those stores, their video game department would always mark the prices down little by little and you could get sealed games for like $10 - $20, where other places were still asking MSRP for the same game, so I did that a lot. CheapAssGamer used to have a dedicated Kmart price-list thread that I would follow regularly. The guys over there had so much pull with that thread they made some sort of connection with a guy who worked for Kmart corp and started I believe it was a loyalty program called Kmart Gamer which latest for all of a few months. I remember trying to pre-order a game there one time, and the manager had no idea of anything about it and he's like "why don't they just wait until we have the product before they make us sell it", but he somehow managed to do something on the register and give me a pre-sale receipt. It was so disorganized and half-assed, I don't know how it even become a thing there for a bit.

Then there was the time I went to look at some guy's games advertised in a local ad. I got there, ring the doorbell and slip and fell into deep snow. I get up, he opens the door and invites me in and I'm covered in snow head to toe, looking like Jack Frost while I'm melting in his living room. Didn't end up buying squat from him, but hey I got the memory. I'll never forget that. Good times, good times.

What's funny is during my collecting heyday years of collecting, I had this irrational hatred of Gamestop which I now deeply regret based on what you just mentioned. When I finally lightened up a bit about them around 2015 or so, it was the twilight years before they stopped carrying 6th gen stuff (and before they started carrying them again in recent years). i did manage to get a few hard to find gems on the PS2 and Gamecube from them, but for the most part i was mostly getting my 6th gen stuff from Tradesmart. The reason I was so into that store for a bit was because they priced all retro games at $3 regardless of title. I found some insane deals at that store. Of course, this made it a popular place for other collectors and resellers eventually, including the employees. I also used to love scoring games in what I called "plain sight." This is where I'd go to an independently owned game store and look for crazy deals within their inventory. I scored a ton of games doing this, especially at a now defunct chain of games stores called Buy Back Games. Their pricing system was all over the place. They'd be way overpriced on something like Mario Paint, but then they'd have Kirby's Dreamland 3 right next to it for like $5. I loved that store for that reason lol.


I never really hit up rental stores, mostly because the majority of them were gone by the time I started collecting, and the ones that were still around definitely weren't renting games out anymore. Still, I've heard some crazy stories about people finding out grocery stores putting out their old rental games out for like a buck a piece and having games like Action 52, Contra Force, and other heavy hitters mixed in.


One thing I really regret never doing was going to one of the big retro gaming conventions back then. I really, REALLY wanted to go to the Retro Games Expo in Vegas, mostly thanks to how amazing The Game Chasers episodes were on that event. I actually began to arrange to go around 2015 or so, only to find out that the fate of that con was up in the air based on a few factors. Unfortunately, they never had another one and I never ended up going. I went to a local retro gaming con around 2018, but found it pretty underwhelming compared to what I'd seen on Youtube over the years. But whatever.

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General / Re: Nostolgia for the collecting era

« on: January 20, 2026, 02:33:01 pm »

Oh absolutely!


I started collecting in 2008, but my video game collectorism really took off in 2010. I had just freshly graduated college, my girlfriend, now wife, and I had just moved into our first place together, and I had recently started my first real job, which didn't pay a ton, but enough to fuel my collecting hobby, at least at the time. I lived for the hunt and would visit thrift stores daily, religiously refresh Craigslist for deals, and on the weekends, I was a regular at my local flea market. There were also a ton of indie video game stores and second hand media stores (ie. Gohastings, Entertainmart, 2nd and Charles) within a 40 mile radius of me. At least for the first few years I was collecting, very few other people were doing it which meant tons of deals. The deals were really the best part; I'd go to the flea market with $60 and come home with 30+ games and consoles, none of which I'd even consider filler.


On top of all that, the youtube gaming scene was really starting to take off around the time I heavily got into collecting, so I was constantly learning about all sorts of games for older consoles I'd never even heard of or completely overlooked when I was younger. It was just an fun, interesting, and productive time to be a game collector and I threw myself into it all 110% at the time and loved ever minute of it.


I feel like the writing on the wall about these good times coming to an end began to show its ugly head around 2013 for me. Nearly every place I used to go hunting for games had become less and less lucrative. Beyond just way more collectors and resellers visiting these same places for games being a factor in this, many of these places, especially thrift stores and second hand media shops began to get "collector employees" who seemingly worked at these businesses just to snipe the video games as soon as they were brought in. The worst place I used to hunt for games that fell victim to this was a media store called Tradesmart. By about 2015, it seemed like half the employees that worked there were either collectors, resellers, or a combo of both. I had to get very aggressive and clever to even stand a chance of getting any desireable games from that store, which of course made me the target of ire from most of the staff that worked there. I'd later find out from a former employee of that store, that it wasn't just me, but the employees were literally fighting amongst themselves over games that were brought in on trade. But yeah, it was around 2015/2016 especially that I realized collecting games, and more specifically hunting for deals on them, had become noticeably less fun for me, but it was still my primary hobby.


I feel like my collecting era officially died in 2017 thanks to me being forced to sell off a decent chunk of my collection to fund what insurance wouldn't pay for back to back medical emergencies. I didn't immediately go, "welp, I'm not a game collector anymore! That's that!" but rather it was the gradual realization that by that point I'd acquired 90% of all the games I'd ever wanted and also that my games were far less important to me than I'd originally thought. Having to sell so many of them, especially some real heavy hitters was the catalyst for me realizing this. Still, I fought against my diminishing interest in collecting by trying to collect more for systems I'd previously only collected casually for, or trying to collect boxes and manuals for loose cart based games I owned. Still, every time I'd acquire some new US Saturn game or a new box for an N64 game I owned, I noticed myself experiencing less and less joy as a result.


I feel like the moment I had where I realized I was more or less done collecting games, especially retro games, was shortly after I moved in 2022 and met up with a local collector who was selling off a bunch of his games to make way for his first child which was on its way. I bought a ton of Genesis and Saturn games off him for around two grand. As I was on my way home from doing this, I realized I felt practically nothing for the huge score I'd just acquired. I got home, put the games on my shelf, and went about my business as usual, just $2000 poorer.


At least by the strictest sense of what a collector is, I guess I still am technically a collector, but I certainly don't maintain a massive list of games I'm after like I used to. I buy almost no retro games now thanks to flash carts and ODEs satisfying me there, as well as all the retro games I still have. I still buy and add a ton of modern games to my collection, but only stuff that I have immediate plans to play. And unlike in the past, if I play a game and don't like it, or realize maybe I'm less interested in the game than I originally thought, I have zero reservations about selling it. As I said earlier, I'm far less attached to my games than I once was, which overall I feel like is a good thing.


But yeah, sorry for the massive tangent there.


tl,dr: I have a ton of nostalgia for my collecting era between 2008 and 2022, and especially between 2010 and 2014. Those were such fun, special years for me. I acquired literally thousands of games during that 4 year period, most of which I bought for a bargain. Deals were everywhere, some of the best places I've ever looked for video games were still around, and I also met a ton of great collectors too during this time. Also, the online zeitgeist around gaming felt so alive and vibrant around this time. Hell, it's during this time I joined VGcollect and my most wonderful memories of using this site were during the first 5 or so years I was here. I do miss that time and even though most of the places I used to buy games at are gone, the world has changed heavily since then, and so have I, I still remember that era maybe just as fondly as I do being a young kid and experiencing some of those older games for the very first time when they were brand new.

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General / Re: When will your backlog actually be completed?

« on: January 20, 2026, 02:02:45 pm »

I just look at my back log like my retirement reward. When we get to a certain age, we won't want to leave the house as much, and god damn those video games will be delightful 

With all do respect, why not start playing them now? Obviously everyone's situation is going to be different (work, kids, and other responsibilities obviously play a factor), but there there is no guarantee of tomorrow or that you'll ever reach retirement, either due to death or other unforeseen life circumstances. Why not just jump into the backlog now? At least that's how I look at it. I definitely don't want to wait until I'm old and possible unable to play games for one reason or another to really tackle my backlog. I want to do it now while I'm still able to.

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General / Re: When will your backlog actually be completed?

« on: January 19, 2026, 06:13:28 pm »

Never. And I'm 100% okay with that.


I constantly add games to the backlog and replay games I've already beat. Even if I live for another 40 years and am able to beat 60 games on average a year (40 x 60 = 2400 games beat), I'll still have games I've yet to play. However, I don't see this as some sort of failure or act of futility, but rather an opportunity to play as many games as I can in my relatively short time on this planet. Even if there are games I never get to, I'd rather think of all the ones I did play, good or bad. Obviously, I prioritize games that I think I'll like more or ones that are widely considered good games. I've also become more okay with dropping a game if I don't like it, especially if it's a longer game (10+ hours). If I do live to be 80, I hope i get to look back and smile at all the amazing gaming experiences I had throughout my life.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

« on: January 14, 2026, 08:21:04 pm »

7. Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (PS4)

Last year I beat my first GBA Castlevania game, Aria of Sorrow, and despite going into it with the expectation I'd enjoy it, I guess I underestimated just how much I'd enjoy it. It definitely inspired me to tackle some of the other handheld metroidvania Castlevania titles, so I decided to start this year with the first one released back in 2001, Circle of the Moon. Unlike Aria/Dawn of Sorrow, Order of Ecclesia, and even Portrait of Ruin, I don't hear people talking about Circle of the Moon nearly as much. The game had a very tough act to follow with it being the first metroidvania style game in the series following in the massive footsteps of Symphony of the Night. Even though I was well aware that Kogi Igarashi was not involved in Circle of the Moon's development, that didn't stop me from wanting to experience this less acclaimed entry in the series for myself.


Like Aria of Sorrow, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Circle of the Moon. However, what makes me even more surprised is how I really liked this game despite some pretty big gameplay faults, as well as this game being WAY harder than either Aria of Sorrow or its predecessor, Symphony of the Night. Like those two games, you'll be exploring Dracula's castle while doing tons of backtracking and revisiting new areas once you obtain an a new ability that will allow you to do so. Where Circle of the Moon differs from this formula is the game remains very difficult to ridiculously difficult all the way through. A lot of this has to do with a lot of thought being put into enemy placement, but for better or worse, things like the lack of an item shop, very rare and random item and equipment drops, lack weapon variety, and very spread out save rooms all contribute to Circle of the Moon's noteworthy difficulty as well. Most of this does feel deliberate, albeit maybe a little on the ill advised side of things, but throughout Circle of the Moon you can tell the dev team spent a lot of time thinking about things like enemy placement, obstacles and other features to maintain a somewhat stable level of difficulty throughout the game.


Unfortunately, one of the game's key mechanics is also one of the things that holds this game back from being better than it could have been. Circle of the Moon uses a card based magic system called the DSS that allows you to mix and match cards you find throughout the game to unlock an impressive array of magical abilities to aid you on your quest to rescue your friends and kill Dracula. This would be all fine and dandy if cards were just scattered throughout the castle for you to find, but rather some bonehead at Konami decided it was better to have fallen enemies randomly drop them. Because of this, you either have to get very lucky to get certain cards or grind a ton to get them. Outside a few useful magical abilities, many of the abilities unlocked through specific DSS card combos aren't terribly helpful outside of maybe a few encounters or sections. You'll mostly be using the same 3 or 4 DSS abilities throughout the game, which makes the system in general feel ultra gimmicky. Despite how flawed the DSS system is, it doesn't drag the game down too much, but certainly does make add to its difficulty for the wrong reasons.


Speaking of Circle of the Moon's difficulty, this game has some of the most notoriously challenging bosses and even enemies in the franchise. There were a few that took me what seemed like forever to beat. However, one positive aspect to this is despite how hard some of the enemies, bosses, and sections can be, I never felt like beating them was completely out of my grasp or that they were just so insanely cheap that I'd have to get lucky if I were ever to beat them. This really kept me going in this game. Circle of the Moon does a tremendous job of straddling that like between hard but fair, with very few times where I felt like the game was being cheap or unfair. A lot of this is thanks to how well this game controls and how fun it is to play. In some ways, despite being a metroidvania game, it feels like almost a bridge between classic Castlevania games like the NES titles or Rondo of Blood and the newer, sleeker metroivania games like Aria of Sorrow and Symphony of the Night.


For a launch title on the Gameboy Advance, Castlevania: Circle of the Moon was and still is a pretty impressive looking game. Sure, Harmony of Dissonance and especially Aria of Sorrow definitely showed what could really be done from a presentation standpoint on the GBA, but as a trailblazer not just for the series, but also for the platform it was originally released on. Some of the backgrounds for the various areas of the background can look a little on the flat side, again, especially compared to later entries, and many of the sprites in this game don't look nearly as good as what we'd get in Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow, but for what they are, nearly everything in this game looks pretty good. There are a ton of interesting, varied settings in the castle and even more enemy variety. Sure, there many recycled enemy skins that are given a color swap and new abilities, such as the skeletons and armors, but at no point did I feel like this game felt stale or uninteresting from a presentation point of view.


Probably Circle of the Moon's best quality is its audio. The music in this game is unfreakin believable! There are a lot of borrowed and remixed tracks from older Castlevania games, but there are also a decent amount of original songs in this game too. While I did play this on the PS4, it's audio is essentially unaltered from the original GBA version. What Konami was able to compose here is nothing short of excellent. There are also tons of great sound effects and other noises that really add to the fun, cool, spooky atmosphere of the game, creating a near flawless audio presentation as far as I'm concerned.


While I didn't like Circle of the Moon as much as Aria of Sorrow, and especially not more than Symphony of the Night, what's impressive is this game wasn't that far off from how good or enjoyable its aforementioned GBA counterpart is. I had a hard time putting this game down most of the time, and even when I was getting my ass thoroughly kicked by a specific area or boss, there was almost never a time where I didn't want to come back for more. Do not sleep on Circle of the Moon; it's a game worthy of your time whether you're a seasoned Castlevania fan or a complete noob. Just be prepared for a pretty hard game. (1/14/26) [39/50]

11

General / Re: VGC's Anonymous/"General" Topic:

« on: January 14, 2026, 12:16:30 pm »

SUPER NINTENDO IS DAD

My super nintendo story!


So anyway.  I was sick over the past 3 weeks so bad I was basically out of comission.  I hear a loud crash.  I get up to find a big bin fell off one of my shelves somehow and knocked a full cup of tea I made. The tea fell off my desk and somehow upside down into a display with my super nintendo.  The entire cup went into the top cartridge port.  It literally couldn't have gone more into the super nintendo. My floor was literally less wet than it should have been because the super nintendo got most of it.  I was irate.


Literally so much that when I moved it you could hear the tea sloshing inside.  Like holding a small bowl of water. It was pouring out of the controller ports.  I couldnt even get my tools quick. It stayed like that at least 15 minutes. I opened it up.  Began airing it out.  Unscrewing things. I seen pools of tea in the shell. Near the board. On the board. In the pins.  And then I blasted the whole board. I knew I couldnt get all that tea out by drying. So I had to wash it. So I used alcohol. 71 percent. I assumed it would be not harsh enough to peel the board. Not wesk enough to corrode or dillute the tea and spread it.  Chips. Pins.  Blasted with alcohol. Spray bottle all of it.  Letting it just drip onto the floor.  Alcohol the board. The circuits. The av port.  All of it.  I blew dry it. Hung it above my space heater to get deep heat dry air pushed through it for a while.  Then did one more more intricate alcohol clean. Microfiber cloth on open board. Brush the tiny parts gentle with a small dust brush. Avoiding capacitors. Clean. Alcohol.  Dry. Reassembled. Had no faith I actually helped matters. It was perfectly clean and pretty. Like shiny silver contacts. But I assumed it shorted or something would remain messed up or damp. The thing works first try. Every try. Like it came right out of the box. I am at a loss for words.   So I honor the fabled SNES.   If anything. It used to give a slightly fuzzier picture before. It looks like a new unit.  Works like one too.



The super Nintendo is just unreal. They dont make em like that anymore.  And I feel more bonded with the thing.

Just a random testament of the super nintendo strength.   

Reminds me of my sister in laws Macbook she used to have. That thing somehow survived being submerged in water during a flood and dropped out of a second story apartment balcony, and it still lasted her like 7 years. Some electronics just got it and others will break of you look at them the wrong way.

12

General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

« on: January 07, 2026, 05:56:54 pm »

6. Castlevania (NES)


I'd originally given up on Castlevania yesterday due to how little fun I was having just prior to getting to the Death boss. After trying years ago to beat this game, and once again the other day, I fully realized once more that I'm not a fan of the first Castlevania game, or really most NES games for that matter. Still, a little voice in my head kept on egging me to return to it, if for nothing else than to say, "yep, I beat the original Castlevania." And stubbornly, that's what I chose to do. However, after beating Castlevania, I somewhat wish I hadn't.


Like most "hard" NES games, the game's difficulty stems more from gameplay limitations of the time, poor game design, and just really outdated mechanics. Castlevania is a prime example of this, and this game drives me crazy even when it's not at its most relentlessly difficult. Moving is very stiff and slow, jumping and even basic platforming is overly difficult, navigating stairs sucks, and certain sections of this game feel very half baked in terms of their design. This game is a literal test of patience and endurance over how many cheap shots and needless deaths the player can endure before wanting to turn the console off and just walk away. The gameplay isn't all bad however, but whatever it does right, it easily does two or three other things wrong.


The presentation in Castlevania is fantastic and I adore the gothic horror art direction of the game and how well the artists at Konami portrayed this with 8 bit pixels. Bosses and enemies are mostly all great and memorable, and there is a level of detail not seen in many other NES games for the time. The soundtrack is also very memorable and catchy and goes so well with everything else going on. In many ways, Castlevania's presentation really carries it and makes it a standout game on the NES.


While I am happy in a way that I beat Castlevania, I didn't necessarily feel a sense of accomplishment or even really relief. I was just sort of pissed off and a little annoyed with myself that I just HAD to go back and play this game again. I didn't enjoy it when I played and dropped it yesterday, and I enjoyed it even less getting through the rest of the game, include two of the most obnoxiously annoying bosses in the entire game. I definitely don't plan on playing Castlevania ever again and will instead spend my time with the newer entries that definitely refined nearly everything from the first game. (1/7/26) [29/50]

13

General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

« on: January 06, 2026, 08:58:25 pm »

First abandoned game of the year.


1. Castlevania (NES) - ABANDONED

Even though I was born in the mid 80s and many of my family, friends, and neighbors growing up had NES consoles, I'm still a bit ashamed to admit that the NES is just a little too old school for me. Most NES games I've played, even the ones that are considered among the best on the console, I typically get minimal enjoyment out of. The combination of archaic gameplay, annoying old video game mechanics, and just general technical limitations keep me from enjoying vast swaths of the NES's library. Still, with that said I'll occasionally I'll get the urge to play an NES game.


Given how much I've fallen in love with the Castlevania franchise in recent years, I decided I was going to play some of the game that started it all. Keep in mind this isn't my first rodeo with the original Castlevania. Many years ago when I still collected NES games and thought I liked the console way more than I actually did, I got my own copy of Castlevania, played it quite a bit for about a week, and then just never had any desire to pick it back up. I can't remember how far I got, but all I remember is not beating it back then. I decided I was going to try it out again and see if maybe I had misjudged the game or possibly I'd find myself enjoying it more if I played it now. Unfortunately, that was not the case.


Like many "hard" NES games, its difficulty is more the result of technical limitation and poor game design than the deliberate planning of Konami back in 1987. The placement of enemies, the slow, stiff controls, the annoying knockback, and of course needing to restart a stage when you die, all will drain your motivation to continue playing. As you play through Castlevania more and more, you will learn to compensate and adjust to its meh gameplay, even at times tricking yourself into thinking it's maybe not that bad. But then you'll reach some section later in the level or on the next will will make you wish you were playing a better game. As I'll soon discuss, there is so much I do like about the original Castlevania, however its gameplay is definitely not one of them and had me quitting just before I reached the boss, Death. I do not enjoy playing this game or think it's fun, but that's not to say I hate everything about Castlevania.


From a visual and audio standpoint, Castlevania is a very appealing game. I'm a sucker for horror aesthetic and art direction in video games, and Castlevania nails it with its gorgeous 8-bit pixel artwork. The is a surprising level of detail in every stage. Enemies and especially bosses all look great and do an excellent job of representing whatever monsters they were meant to look like. This game's art is a true love letter to the horror genre and I could not get enough of it as I trudged through actually playing this game. Castlevania's audio is also pretty excellent and has some truly catchy and iconic tunes. I also am a fan of the sound effects weapons made and just the overall sound design Konami was able to accomplish here.


Castlevania is a game I really, really want to like. I can almost forgive this game for being the first entry in the series and creating the blueprint that future titles would improve upon (well, except Simon's Quest maybe). Unfortunately by the time i get to the Frankenstein boss battle, I'm just so burnt out and honestly a little bored with playing this game that I just don't really want to play anymore. At this point, I'm fairly certain I'll never actually beat Castlevania, but that's honestly okay with me. I've played enough of it at two separate times in my life to know this game isn't for me, and luckily i have a ton of newer titles that I enjoy significantly more. (1/6/26) - ABANDONED

14

General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

« on: January 05, 2026, 11:29:00 pm »

5. Dead or Alive 6 (PS4)

Up until last year, most of my love for the DOA series was the result of one game in the series, DOA2. I played the hell out of DOA2 on my Dreamcast and PS2 back in the early 2000s. The combination of its fast, action packed gameplay and umm...certain female character attributes heavily appealed to my teenage brain at the time. While I have dabbled in some of the later entries in the series, I'm a little bit surprised and disappointed I didn't play some of the later mainline DOA games more until 2024. Having played so much DOA relatively recently has definitely helped me decide which games I like better than others. In all honesty, they're all pretty good, some do stand out as being better than others for one reason or another. The final mainline DOA game I still needed to get my hands dirty with was the latest entry in the series, DOA6. And well, DOA6 was in many ways one of the most surprisingly good entries in the series while also being somewhat of a disappointing step backwards for the series as well.


I'll start things off on a positive note and say DOA6 might have the best gameplay in the entire series. Seriously, this game is so incredibly fun to play! Controlling nearly every character feels fluid, intuitive, and accessible than any other entry in the series. That's not to say this game is easy, but it certainly does make feeling like an absolute champion in a DOA game easier than ever as you're stringing together crazy combos and counters while the typical craziness of a DOA game plays out around you. This great gameplay is in no small part thanks to the knew Break system which acts as both a combo breaker and super system simultaneously. There is a gauge that fills up as you fight and once it reaches a certain level of fullness you can unleash a variety of supers on your opponent. The closest thing I can think of in terms of a similar system, both in implementation and how it looks (albeit WAY less violent) is the Xray special system in the newer Mortal Kombat games. I had a hard time wanting to stop playing this game, which isn't always the case when it comes to me playing fighting games.


Like most DOA games, DOA6 has many unlockables, mostly relating to costumes and accessories you can obtain for the fairly impressively sized toster of characters. Unfortunately, DOA6 has the distinction of having the most grindy unlockables system in any fighting games I've ever played. You don't just unlock costumes like you do in all previous DOA games. You literally unlock pieces of costumes by playing as the various characters, which also require you buy the costume with in game currency. Of course, being a modern video game, costumes and in game money can be purchased using real money, but I guess in a way it's nice they allowed you to unlock most of this content without needing to purchase it via DLC. Of course, there is plenty of content that is only paid DLC too, including a decent chunk of characters. But yeah, if you want to unlock anything decent in this game, be prepared to play this game for hours upon hours, sometimes for a single character costume. It's bullshit to be honest.


As mentioned, DOA6 was as much of a step forward as it was a fairly big step backwards. While DOA6 totes possibly the best gameplay in the franchise, it also tripped the series of a lot of its identity thanks to some questionable artistic decisions. Like it or not, DOA as a whole is loved just as much for its fun gameplay as it is for its overly sexualized female characters, over the top jiggle physics, and unapologetic promotion of TnA. While this part of DOA certainly appealed to me more as a guy in his teens, it's still an undeniable part of what makes a DOA game what it is and without it, the game just feels off. It's like if Mortal Kombat removed the blood and fatalities (MK vs DCU anyone?); it just doesn't work. Female characters have been undeniable defanged and the almost patented jiggle physics are almost non existent. I don't know whose decision it was to change these things or tone down the sex appeal of the female characters, but it honestly makes this game feel a bit generic and not as DOAish as nearly all other entries.


But even if DOA6 had all those staples of the DOA franchise in them, the game still doesn't look that much better than DOA5, a game originally released on 7th gen hardware. Stages are a noticeable downgrade as well. While there are a few memorable ones, many are simply generic looking Japanese villages or fighting rinks. There is far less verticality in stages too, meaning less opportunities to kick your opponent off rooftops or cliffs, and have them crash into the hard ground 50 feet below. Even the character models don't look as detailed or polished as they did in DOA5, which also includes the swear, damage, and dirt effects present in that game. This is still a fairly good looking game, but not nearly as good as a the previous entry in the series.


Finally, the soundtrack in this game is probably one of the worst in any DOA games I've ever played. DOA soundtracks jsut have this catchy, coolness to them that makes nearly all of them great. Unfortunately, DOA6 doesn't have a single track I really liked, yet at the same time none of them feel woefully out of place or offensive to the ears either. It's essentially a serviceable soundtrack, nothing more. Aside from the OST, the sound effects and voice acting is pretty good, at least if you turn on the Japanese voice audio.


I absolutely will be returning to DOA6 again at some point, albeit it will be almost exclusively for the game's stellar gameplay. It's a real shame this game didn't continue many of the staples the DOA series is known for or put more time and effort into the overall presentation of this game. This could have easily been one of the best DOA games ever made, if not the very best had they done so. But with how good this game plays, it's hard to be disappointed with DOA6 and I'd still strongly recommend people play it, even if it fell off the wagon in other ways. (1/5/26) [35/50]

15

General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

« on: January 04, 2026, 11:59:39 pm »

4. Halo 3 (XBONE)

Despite Halo CE and Halo 2 coming out while I was in high school and it being all the rage at the time, I never "loved" Halo, but I certainly liked it. By the time Halo 3 got announced I had graduated high school and was living 1200 miles away out of state for college. My little brother and I shared joint custody of our XBOX 360 Elite console; I'd have it for about 3 months, ship it to him, and he'd send it back in another 3 or 4 months. Around the time Halo 3 came out, my brother was in possession of our 360, which was absolutely appropriate given he LOVED Halo, definitely way more than I did. Funny enough, he went to a huge Halo 3 launch event that was holding an all ages tournament and he ended up winning it along with a free copy of Halo 3, a giant Master Chief cardboard cutout and like $100. I guess that's what playing Halo 2 thousands of hours on XBOX Live amounts to. But anyhow, the combination of my brother having the 360 when Halo 3 came out, me living so far away from all my high school friends whom I used to play Halo with, and the fact that I was never crazy about Halo to begin with meant I didn't play this game back in 2007, or in 2008, or for the rest of the 2000s....or the 2010s. Nope, here we are in 2026, nearly 19 years since Halo 3 originally came out and I finally sat down and played through the campaign. Better late than never I suppose.


As mentioned, I only played the campaign which is where most of my interest in Halo games lies. I enjoyed playing local multiplayer in Halo CE and Halo 2, but in recent years I've only ever played the single player campaign in those games. Same goes for Halo 3. With that said, i am aware how robust Halo 3's multiplayer and map editor modes are and how this games legendary for its multiplayer back in the day, both locally and online. The reason I mentioned this is because your mileage will vary greatly depending on how much you value the multiplayer aspect of these games and my review may not reflect how balanced or enjoyable this experience might be. However, if you're just interested in the single player experience, read on if you'd like.


I'm a bit bummed to say, Halo 3 was not nearly as impressive and many have led me to believe over the years. With that said, I sort of expected to like this game roughly about as much as I did Halo CE and Halo 2, minus the nostalgia I directly have for those two games. And sure enough, I enjoyed Halo 3 about just as much. With me saying that, i have to stress that Halo 3 did have aspects about it that I did genuinely enjoy more than any of the previous Halo games, mainly how much better paced Halo 3 is. There isn't nearly as many chapters and sections that just drag on and on like they did in Halo 2, and especially Halo CE. This meant the action and story just kept coming and coming, which is something I really appreciate. Unfortunately, the final chapter to the original Halo story arch was not as cool as I had hoped, but at the very least ties things up nicely and the final chapter of the game was appropriately epic.


Halo 3 also luckily refined the gameplay from the previous two Bungie Halo games. Shooting feels a little more crisp, vehicles control way better, and level design is generally way better. Speaking of vehicles, there are a decent amount more to pilot compared to the previous two games, which makes the improvements to how they control that much more appreciated. Most of Halo's chapters are very well made, however the sections and chapters that aren't are so bad that I dare say they are some of the worst in the original Halo trilogy. Particularly, the double scarabs fight and the final couple stages that bombard you with flood to the point where it's more frustrating than fun. There are also more weapons, although many are just variations of other weapons that have existed in the series for some time. In saying all this, the gameplay of Halo 3 is certainly improved, but it still has some notable flaws that prevent this game from being the incredible experience this game was often lauded for around the time of its release.


Probably Halo 3's weakest quality is its visuals. That's not to say Halo 3 is a bad looking game, but unfortunately the jump in visual fidelity compared to Halo 2 just didn't wow me as much as I was hoping. Maybe I've forgotten how old 7th gen game graphics can look, but honestly Halo 3 didn't look that much better than Halo 2. This lack of visual sharpness and detail is most evident in character models and animations which again, don't seem to look that much better than how they looked in Halo 2 back in 2004. Sure, some textures are noticeably better, but overall the visuals crispness of Halo 3 is not the leap forward I thought it would be. The beefed up hardware of the 360 seems to have gone more towards the spectacle and scale of the battles that take place; there are definitely way more enemies and just general chaos during the game, and fortunately there are rarely any framerate dips or stutters when these large scale skirmishes occur.


Finally, there's Halo 3's audio which is just as epic as it was in the previous games. Keeping with the Bungie era Halo games, many memorable and iconic tracks from Halo CE and Halo 2 are also present in 3 as well. There are some new orchestral tracks which really complement the action on screen and also fit in well with those classic Halo songs as well. Voice acting is also competent and well done too, with nearly the entire voice cast from Halo 2 reprising their respective roles in this game. As you'd expect, there are a ton of explosions, enemy growls and screams, cool weapon sounds, and just overall the audio design in Halo is something that needs to be experienced. My only real compliant about the audio is sometimes the volume of character dialogue can sound really quiet, even during cutscenes. Seeing how I commonly play games with voice acting on this same TV and almost never have this compliant, this definitely seems to be more the game's fault than my setup.


While it's a shame I wasn't blown away by Halo 3 as I'd hoped, I'm at least happy to say I liked it about as much as Halo CE and Halo 2, with Halo 2 being my favorite of the three by only a small sliver. Still, despite me not thinking these three games are the unparalleled masterpieces thousands, possibly millions of other gamers seem to think, I can still appreciate these games for what they are, but also what they mean to gaming culture. The original Halo trilogy practically defined the zeitgeist of 2000s gaming. I have so many wonderful memories of playing Halo CE and Halo 2 with friends back in high school, and those are honestly just as special to me, if not more so than the games themselves. As for Halo 3, I obviously never played it until just the other day, but I certainly remember the almost indescribable hype surrounding it before and after release in 2007 and 2008, and also how at the time of its release, it was practically synonymous with gaming. In a way, Halo 3 and its predecessors have become a bit of a time machine for me, reminding me of the fun times back in my teens and early 20s. It's for those reasons that I will always hold Halo CE, Halo 2, and Halo 3 in high regard, even if I think the games themselves are just pretty good for the most part. (1/4/26) [36/50]