Switch
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Splatoon 2 - $46, complete - One of my most-wanted Switch games.
Xbox 360
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Beautiful Katamari - $12, complete
[And the rest of these are from a 'get 4 games under $10 for $20' deal at Gamestop, which ends up being $4 each with the club card.)
Kinect Rush: A Disney-Pixar Adventure - complete (also for 360, this is a Kinect game)
Wipeout 3 - complete (another Kinect title)
Xbox One
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Dead Rising 3 - complete
PS Vita
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Wipeout 2048 - cart in generic case. This has always been my most-wanted Vita game, and I went there today to get it. Getting Splatoon 2 as well was kind of a bonus... I mean, Splatoon is probably the best game I got here, but I also really wanted this one.
Switch
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Fire Emblem Warriors - $40, complete. Hyrule Warriors is a pretty fun game, so I decided to get this one too. I'm liking it so far, though I do think I like Hyrule Warriors more. ON that note, the Switch version of the game is kind of tempting, since it's got the Wii U version's graphics but with the additional content of the 3DS version... it'd be nice to play all of those added adventure maps with TV console-quality graphics. I do have both other versions of the game though so I'll hold off for a while on that one, until the price goes down, I think.
NES
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Gun.Smoke - Cart only, $20. It's a somewhat popular classic Wild West shooter from Capcom.
PC DD - I got the last track DLC addon for Redout for $5, currently on sale.
PC DD - Today is the last day to get Quake Champions for free (on Steam or its website) and For Honor for free (on UPlay), so I got both of those. For Honor is a pretty fun game (I have it for X1), so it's cool to also own it for PC. Of course they're giving it out because the game has lots of DLC which is still very definitely paid, but still, it's nice.
PC DD - GOG sale. There are a lot of things I could have gotten in this sale, but I went with only a few.
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Pillars of Eternity: The White March - Expansion Pass - $15 (on sale). So, I got PoE as a physical box thanks to having backed the Kickstarter. I never got the expansion, though, because I was unhappy that they never allowed people who got the kickstarter version to buy the expansions for their physical-disc copy of the game. I do want to play this stuff, though, so I finally redeemed my PoE key (choosing GOG over Steam) and got the expansion since it's on sale.
Beyond Divinity - $0.60 (on sale) - The second game in this series.
Jazz Jackrabbit Collection - $8 (on sale) - It's awesome that JJ1 finally got a digital re-release, so I had to get it eventually. The discount wasn't much, but the game is worth getting anyway. I've actually never played the full version of Jazz 1 before, only the demos... (this is why I didn't get JJ2 also, that one I do have. It does include an expansion I don't have, so I'll get it eventually, but not now.
Also since I spent over $20 in the sale I got both of the bonus games they're offering -- you get Sunless Sea for spending $5, and Rime for spending $20. Both of those games look interesting and aren't games I had, so they're nice bonuses. The GOG sale ends tomorrow, I should say.
Switch DD
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Blossom Tales - $11, on sale. This is an indie Zelda clone which has gotten some attention. I've played it some now and it's fun. It's not on par with Zelda, but it is fun and has some nice ideas. This is a very classic Zelda-inspired game, with many items, puzzles, and enemy styles taken right out of the Zelda series, but there is enough different here to make the game unique. Unoriginal, but unique. And yeah, it's probably worth getting.
Spiral Splatter - $4, on sale. This is a difficult but fun game that's very much like Irritating Stick, except with some added complexities like switches. It's kind of in between Irritating Stick and KuruKuru Kururin in complexity. I think it's also on mobile, but any game this hard is going to be a lot better with a controller... preferably a Gamecube one, since it has a better analog stick. See the Switch OS thread for my issue I had with that when I wanted to stop playing, though... but it's definitely the right controller for this game, when I switched from Joycon to GC controller I instantly got better at the game.
Wii U DD
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Family Tennis SP - $4, on sale. ... I don't know, I was curious about whether this is actually any good... and it's playable, but not that good. The tennis gameplay is alright, but there are next to no options and it does some weird things, most notably that there is no 'you need to win by two' rule -- so if it's 40-40, the next point wins the game right there, which is really weird for Tennis. Also matches are to two points per round, with two rounds winning the match, so they're short. The gameplay is a lot better in any Mario Tennis game too. Still, for the low price this costs it's not THAT bad.
Also I got all the XBL Games with Gold titles for the 360 and X1 since whenever I last mentioned it.
3DS
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Sushi Striker - $37, new. I like puzzle games and as I think I've said the Switch demo was good, so I got this today. I chose the 3DS version because I expected that playing this game with a stylus would be dramatically better than playing with a finger is on the Switch, and I was right; the controls are great here! The game has no 3D support, but given that you spend almost all of your time looking at the lower screen that isn't a big deal. It'd be kind of nice in the cutscenes, but that's all, and regardless it's definitely the better version of the game... unless you want to find a match online apparently, as the two versions don't play against eachother apparently and more people got it for Switch it seems. That's fine, I probably won't be playing it online much anyway.
Switch
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Xenoblade Chronicles X - $40, complete. I don't know that I really need this right now, but this is a good price for this game and I definitely need to play it at some point, so why not now?
Nintendo DS
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Pac-Pix - $5, complete. Somehow I've never gotten this game despite always being interested in it since before its release. I have finally corrected this.
PC DD - Steam summer sale. I finally did it and got a bunch of stuff in this sale that ends, Thursday, I believe it is. I spent quite a bit, but $60 of it was from money I already had in my Steam account from a gift card from earlier this year, so it didn't cost me as much as the total suggests thankfully.
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Dawn of Discovery Gold $3.74
Scary Girl $0.97
Reverse x Reverse $2.49
Turok 2: Seeds of Evil $9.99
Ittle Dew $4.99
Kero Blaster $5.99
The Order of the Thorne - The King's Challenge $1.99
Koihime Enbu $4.99
DreadOut: Keepers of The Dark $2.09
Skylar & Plux: Adventure On Clover Island $4.49
INVERSUS Deluxe $5.99
Tales of Berseria $14.99
Princess Remedy In A Heap of Trouble $0.50
Slain: Back from Hell $2.59
OVIVO $1.59
The End is Nigh $5.99
TrickStyle $3.49
TRIZEAL $5.99
Rosenkreuzstilette Freudenstachel $9.79
Sonic Mania $14.99
BlazBlue Centralfiction $13.59
Embers of Mirrim $7.99
The Hurricane of the Varstray Triple Bundle Edition - Includes 3 items: The Hurricane of the Varstray -Collateral hazard-, The Hurricane of the Varstray MU-Edition, MU edition soundtrack $5.43
IFI Complete Neptunia Bundle (the four titles in the bundle I didn't previously own, specifically) Includes 4 items: Megadimension Neptunia VII, MegaTagmension Blanc + Neptune VS Zombies, Superdimension Neptune VS Sega Hard Girls, Cyberdimension Neptunia: 4 Goddesses Online $37.56
Switch DD
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Riptide GP Renegade - $4, on sale - A game in this decently fun but not as good as it could be jetski-racing series.
ACA The Last Blade 2 - $8 - The Last Blade 2 is one of my favorite fighting games ever, and it's been released on the Switch uncensored (ie, the game has red blood and such, unlike the original US release)! So I got it. And yeah, it's still one of SNK's best games... really really good.
Vita DD
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Cladun Returns: This Is Sengoku! - $18. This is the main thing I got here, and it's the third game in this series. They're kind of odd games but I do like them and have been thinking about getting this one since I got a Vita. It also has a PC port, but I'd rather get the original version...
Touhou Double Focus - $6
Also I got a few game manuals -- the manual for Secret of Mana (SNES) for $8, Mega Man in Dr. Wily's Revenge for Game Boy for $4, and for $1 total the manuals for a few more 2600 games -- Summer Games, Megamania, and MASH.
I recently picked up the first 4 Megaman World games (the gameboy series), so with 5 which I already had, that makes the whole set.
Wily's Revenge is definitely the worst of the bunch. II isn't much better, but at least it's incredibly easy so I never got frustrated. The first one though, that one is filled with way too many "leaps of faith" and insta-death nonsense. Very frustrating game, that one. II, as I said, is hardly an exemplar of level design, but its easy so the game passes by quick. I think I died perhaps once the entire playthrough. III is a bit more challenging, and starts to feel more like a proper Mega Man game. IV is actually approaching V in quality, except for Crystal Man's annoyingly frustrating stage that reminded me of the worst problems with I.
The Game Boy Mega Man series is mostly great! MMIV for the GB was the first Mega Man console game I owned, and I really love it not only because of that but because it's an amazing game. MMIV is fantastic, period, with its great gameplay, levels, visuals, music, etc. Just about as great is MMV. I like the original bosses, though some things in it are weird, like the knockback on the full-charge gun, which make me maybe like IV more, though nostalgia might be a good part of that. Third is III, which is an outstanding game but is frustratingly hard; it's a really, really tough game which I liked a lot, but ... maybe it could have been a little easier? It's a fantastic game though and I think it's under-rated. People love to heap praise on V, and often also IV, but III gets overlooked in comparison. It deserves better. Fourth-best is the original, which I've owned since the mid '90s (it was the other GB Mega Man game I owned as a kid). It's a shorter game than its sequels and on a technical level it lacks, as you see with the bad slowdown and such, but the engine, gameplay, levels, and everything else are all there, and are good. It's a tough game, I thought at the time, but it is fun. There may be only five levels, but they all present a reasonable challenge. I wrote a review of the game years ago which is on this site, go read it for more. I gave it a C-something score, so I thought it was alright but average. That's probably about right. I have always kind of liked MMI and still do, it's fun and if I reviewed it now I might give it a higher score than I did then.
Then, worst, MMII is by a very wide margin the weakest of the series on GB, and the worst Mega Man game on either the NES or Game Boy. With zero difficulty -- I beat the game in under two hours the first time I played it in the late '90s when I played my cousins' copy, and was very glad that I wasn't the one who had paid for that game; the worst music of any 8-bit Mega Man game; forgettable stages; graphical issues; and more, MMII is a pretty bad game. What about II do you actually like over 1? Because I can't think of even one single thing except for maybe some elements of graphical design, that it does better. That soundtrack is painful to listen to, the complete lack of challenge makes the game boring to play, etc; it's got nothing. The first game on GB might be annoyingly hard at times, but at least it's a complete game! You got plenty of money for your money there. But anyone who paid $30 for MMII kind of got ripped off.
It was pretty frustrating when Nintendo re-released Mega Mans I and II for the Game Boy in the Million Seller line back in the late '90s... and then didn't do so for the other three. Come on, re-release the good ones, not the disappointing ones! This is why IV and V cost so much.
As I said above, I don't think MMWI has reasonable difficulty at all. It's full of far too many traps on the "next" screen that just instantly kill me, with zero chance to react, just for being on the wrong side of the screen when I transitioned. The last Wily level is a gauntlet of "do it on one shot or you're out!". MMWII is, as I said, the easiest of them, and you're right that the music (namely the notes) are a problem, but I'll take too easy over frustrating unfair difficulty any time. Frankly, the MMWII stages are better designed, at least in that respect. (I can't really call then original or a fair challenge or any of the other things, but dangers are telegraphed far better, and when it comes to those two games, I'll take what I can get.) MMIII is very hard, but fair in it's challenge, and I think it is a good game. I prefer the MM4 style charge shot that MMWIII also uses, no kick back and it isn't lost on hit. MMIV is really good though, VERY good. The only criticism I have when it comes to stages is, as I said, Crystal Man's stage. It's the worst combination of a pointless path split (I did both paths just to see if anything important was hidden there, and nothing), that same "blind jumping to your death" nonsense that made MMWI so annoying, and just being far too long, even compared to the other stages in the game. Its for that reason that I had to keep it marked below MMWV, but as I said, they're close.
Oh, and MMWII was developed by a totally different team than the other 4 GB games. I think that goes a long way towards explaining why sound quality slipped so badly, and other odd choices.
Also, I have to say that the melodies are solid enough on the GB, it's the instrument choices that ruin it. Want proof?
You'd take too easy any time? You would rather spend $30 for a game you beat in two hours and probably find pretty disappointing, over one that keeps you playing for a lot longer but is frustrating along the way? There are some great easy games, sure -- see the Kirby series -- but I do not think that MMII is one of them. MMI is challenging, and I have plenty of memories of being quite frustrated by that game, but it's the kind of frustration that kept be coming back until I finally beat the game, probably years after getting it. The last two levels are really hard, but it was so satisfying to finally finish them! You're right that the game requires some memorization, but isn't that most any game? I guess MMI does have some trap bits, and that's not good, but you learn them. No, MMI is significantly better than II. I is still only average, but that's still better than II. II is barely even deserving of a passing grade, if it even deserves one at all.
Quote: Also, I have to say that the melodies are solid enough on the GB, it's the instrument choices that ruin it. Want proof?
Yeah, that's pretty impressive stuff and it definitely makes MMII's music dramatically better than the ear-gouging disappointment that Capcom shipped. You can really tell that a different team made that game. There's such a huge quality gap between it and all of the other four games...
I'm ok with hard, I'm ok with frustrating. I love Battletoads, for example, but Mega Man World I has far too much of the cheapest sort of tricks. Yes, I can memorize where the traps are, but there are just so many, and it's basically all the stage design has going for it. It doesn't help that the bosses, like Cutman for example, are almost impossible to avoid the attacks for. Sheer luck, that's how I beat Cutman with the p shooter. At least he's much more managable with his weakness.
I'm not exactly defending MMII here, it is easy, and the choice of sound effects on those songs is ear grating especially at higher volumes. What I am saying is I can't consider MMWI a good game. They basically go in opposite directions on the spectrum of mediocrity. What I can say is that MMWII is a much better "baby's first Mega Man" than MMWI. So, that's what I mean, I would rather play a pathetically easy game that's over in an hour than a frustratingly annoying game where the only emotion I felt upon beating it was a steadily cooling rage. Heck, I blasted through MMWII a second time just to get the last password saved to a document I store such things in. I have zero desire to ever play MMWI again. I may pop in MMWIII from time to time, it's ok. I definitely will be playing more of MMWIV.
By the way, look up Quint's Revenge. It's a fan-made sequel starring Quint that basically is MMWII done right, with some head cannon about why Quint could be so easily beaten (he was suppressed). I love stuff like this. I wouldn't mind seeing Wily's Revenge "done right" in fact.
Cutman's level is the hardest of the first four, you should be playing it last and not first. It was really weird when I first played the NES game, I thought the order would be the same as the GB (Fire easiest, Cut hardest), but it very much wasn't!
You said that that bossfight was hard with just the P-shooter, though. And I said that yeah, it's supposed to be since it's the hardest of the four levels.
But really, I think you're exaggerating how many cheap traps MMI has. It's a quite hard game, but most challenges are on the screen you are on, not "you need to memorize where to fall or you'll die" cheapness, or something like that...
I also think it handles the disappearing blocks in a cheap way, especially near the end of the last Wily stage, where following them means you get hopelessly stuck unless you know in advance to perfectly time your jump to get to the platform that's about to murder you by preventing you from jumping onto itself.
Minakuchi Engineering handled 4 of the 5 Gameboy Mega Mans, as well as the Wily Wars Genesis port which was unreleased in the US (except as a Sega Channel exclusive). They also did a lot of the coding for X3, one of my favorite games in the X series (alolng with X4).
In any event, just to do it I went ahead and beat Wily's Revenge a second time. The unfair stuff is still there, and I still gotta knock it for all that stuff, but this time I went in with the benefit of hindsight, and beat it without getting a Game Over. I even tried for an all P shooter win and (with the benefit of a little luck on the part of 1up drops) made it through. It's not exactly a bad game, but again it's hard to really recommend either. I still say anyone wanting to try these should start with MMIII. That one's still hard, but its entirely fair challenge, and the boss's attacks are actually avoidable rather than a series of fights where you basically just brute force take hits until the enemy explodes before you do (They're not all like that, most of the MM2 bosses are avoidable, as well as Iceman).
I've always said to skip II but play the other four, and I still think that. But maybe just play II also, since it's so, so short... but skipping it really is a better idea, it's not worth it. I'm sure part of it is nostalgia, but despite its definite issues I do like MMI for GB. III through V are far better games, and I of course particularly love IV (just like on the NES, the fourth game is the best!), but I is an interesting game and can be fun once you learn it.
As for disappearing blocks though, doesn't the first NES game do that stuff too? Iceman's level on the NES is also a pretty big pain at times thanks to that stuff. The second one for NES has quite a bit of that of it too, though you can get an item to get over them in that one that isn't an option on the GB. Still, things like the Iceman level, Gutsman's lifts, the instant-death beams in Quick Man's level... the NES Mega Man games aren't quite as hard as their reputation suggests, but they are challenging and so are most of the Game Boy games. Really, thinking about it right now, compared to Mario, the GB Mega Man games are probably closer to the difficulty of their console counterparts than the GB Mario games are... Mario Land 1 is challenging but a lot easier than the NES games, and while Mario Land 2 and Mario World are both easy Mario Land 2 is probably easier.
Game Boy Advance
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Double Pack: Pac-Man World and Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness - cart only, $1.50. These two games are actually ports of the console games of the same names and not different titles, interestingly. Competent ports really.
Mario Pinball Land - $3, cart only. I remember hearing this was not that great so I didn't get it back then. Well... yeah, it's not that great. For this price I couldn't refuse, but the ball physics aren't too good and it gets boring quickly... not sure how much more of this I'll play.
SNES
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Bubsy in Clawed Encounters of the Furred Kind - $5, cart only. Yes, I actually finally got this game. I really don't like the one hit deaths in this game... you go way too fast for that.
3DS DD
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Witch & Hero III - $3, currently on sale. I didn't know there was a third game in this series until I saw it in the currently-on-sale list, but there is and it released this year, so I got it. These are amusing little single-screen action games.
Xbox One
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Destiny - $1, disc only. I probably shouldn't have gotten this and just buy the digital collection with all the addons, since if I play much more of the game I will need them (presuming you can carry your save over from the 360 version which I'm pretty sure you can), but... for only a dollar I decided to get this anyway.
PS Vita
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Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana - $27, complete. Now, Ys VIII is on four platforms, Vita, PC, PS4, and Switch. I don't have a PS4. All of the versions have issues, from framerate problems to a sometimes-terrible translation to bugs and glitches and more. This Vita version is the original version of the game, and it's missing a bunch of stuff that the other three versions added, including some new modes for a character, a new added dungeon and harder difficulty level, and some other stuff. So really it's the worst version... but the PC or Switch versions would cost me about twice as much money, and both have issues too, including framerate problems, crashes, poor performance, and more, on both formats. The Vita version apparently doesn't match the PS4's 60fps framreate either, but at least it should be mostly stable... so yeah, because it's cheaper and the original version I got this. If I like it I'll probably also get it for PC at some point, once the price goes down and they fix it. Ys games are fun.
It's great to find a fellow fan of MM4 (NES). I think it's woefully underrated myself. Personally, I still think MMWV is the best of the Gameboy line, where they perfected every aspect of level design and introduced a whole new mechanic that was put to amazing use. The unique bosses are a nice touch too, and I have to appreciate the unique OST as a result of that freedom. Tango is a bit of a letdown, but that's basically the only complaint I have with the game.
I'd say if your'e going to recommend playing 4 of them, might as well recommend the second one while you're at it. It really is short and easy, and while dull for seasoned vets is hardly a painful experience. Plus, Mega Man flat out nukes Wily from orbit while he's escaping into space, and he crash lands on earth and explodes. I don't know how he survived that, but that's hilariously extreme.
Should this Mega Man discussion be in its own thread?
But yeah, I love MM4 for the NES. I think it's a great game, but nostalgia is a part of that -- it's the first Mega Man game I can remember playing, as the one friend I had as a kid who owned a NES Mega Man game had 4. Unless I played one of the other NES games sometime a bit but forget about it (this is possible, but couldn't amount to much playtime), I wouldn't play the rest of the NES games until the '00s, either when I played them in an emulator or when I got the Mega Man Anniversary Collection, which I beat all 6 NES games in. Of course I also had MMI and IV for the GB in the '90s, and played II, while I didn't get V until much later; I'm sure this is part of why I like IV more than V. So yeah I love MM4, but I don't know how to judge it without nostalgia... still though, regardless, it's my favorite one.
On the note of V though, the original bosses and such are great and it's mostly fantastic and one of the best Mega Man games, but I don't know that I'm a fan of the weird Mega Arm charge shot...
Game Boy Advance
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Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team - $7, cart only. I've never played a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game, but I know what to expect and it's probably decently entertaining enough. This game is also interesting for being Nintendo's last first party GBA release (well, except for the US release of Final Fantasy VI if you count that, but Nintendo didn't originally publish that one...)
NES
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1943: The Battle of Midway - $11, cart only
Millipede - $6, cart only - The shrunken play window is unfortunate but otherwise it's a great version.
Game Gear
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Zoop - $7, cart in plastic case. Zoop is a good puzzler, so it's nice to have a portable version of it. It's also on the Game Boy, but without color this game would suffer a lot...
So I got another console recently. I wasn't really planning on it, but there was a sale on Ebay and after looking around I... got a Colecovision. Yeah. It was $125 after the $25 discount, which is pretty expensive but is a fair price for a Colecovision -- they're oddly expensive consoles considering that it sold pretty decently... maybe that's because of their poor reliability record and decent amount of demand, but the Colecovision is one of the more expensive mainstream consoles from before the current generation. It's odd but true.
It came with the system, power supply, RF cord, eight games (below), and five controllers -- two regular controllers, two Super Action controllers, and a Roller Controller. It also came with a small pile of manuals, including one for the system itself (which is mostly ads for games), several of the games (listed below), and the Roller Controller, along with several warranty cards. The ebay description said that all four of the regular and Super Action controllers had issues, but the roller controller was good and the system worked perfectly. That description was accurate -- the system itself works great, which is important considering how poor the Colecovision's build-quality reputation is. Coleco regularly cheaped out on build quality, apparently. Both of the regular controllers, however, have malfunctioning left side buttons. The Colecovision, like all three major consoles of the early '80s, has a 12-key keypad, with some the main action buttons on the sides. In this case there are two side buttons, left and right, and they are different buttons. So yeah, the sticks and keypads work, but the broken buttons are kind of a problem. The Super Action controller is a large thing you hold, with four trigger-style buttons and a keypad and arcade-style stick on top. It looks durable, but apparently the sticks often fail, and indeed both have somewhat flaky sticks. They work fine in some games, but in others, like Donkey Kong, I found going up ladders with these sticks pretty much impossible. I was thinking about just using the Super Action controllers for games, but not with sticks that don't work in some games...
So last, there's the Roller Controller, which is a trackball. It's got the trackball and some face buttons in the middle, and two wells on either side to clip two regular Colecovision controllers into. That this controller was included with the system was the thing that convinced me to buy this console, because it has some nice features that I like. First, it's got a solid six or eight foot cord, so unlike my other early consoles (2600, 5200, O2...), I can actually put the Colecovision with my other consoles, and not on the floor right by the chair. That's pretty nice, because regular Colecovision controllers have the expected like two foot long cord of consoles back then, and they're made even shorter because they have spiral phonecord-style cords. With the Roller Controller though, I just need the trackball near me and not the whole console. It has plugs to connect to both controller ports on the console, and also, oddly, needs a passthrough at the consoles' power input, but it works great. The console itself looks really ugly this way because the Coleco has two big holes in it to fit the controllers into, but it works better this way and the thing is perhaps one of the ugliest consoles ever anyway, so that's fine. (Seriously, though, Coleco could have invested in some people who could do design, they clearly didn't have many...) The roller only has a few games which natively support it in analog mode, including one which came with my console, Slither, but it also can (badly) emulate a gamepad.
Better, though, the roller also has two wells in it for controllers, and these kind of latch into place and have plugs inside. These controllers work just like if they were plugged into the console, which is pretty cool. Well, kind of; they work great, but there's one really weird quirk -- both controllers control both players all of the time. Most Colecovision games are two player alternating, not simultaneous, so it works for them, but I haven't tried a two player simultaneous game yet (Super Action Baseball might be the only one I have?) so I don't know how that would work.
Anyway, my solution for the busted controller buttons problem is to use the Roller Controller as an arcade-style stick, using the stick on a controller plugged into the lefthand port and the two* face buttons in the left-center of the roller controller itself. This solution works great and, large size aside, is pretty comfortable. It's surely much more reliable than the side buttons on the Colecovision controllers itself!
So yeah, games.
Colecovision games
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First, these first eight were bundled with the console.
Zaxxon - cart only. This is an alright version of Zaxxon, but while it is a pretty important classic, Zaxxon's isometric view can be annoying...
Donkey Kong - cart and manual. The system's packin, this is the most common Colecovision game. There isn't much reason to play it now though, the NES version is better, as are the Switch arcade port, the N64 version, etc.
Donkey Kong Jr. - cart and manual. This is a pretty good port, though again the NES version is better. It has the same issues as the first game but I've always liked this one more than the first DK, so it's nice to have...
Cosmic Avenger - cart only. This is a decent port of a Scramble / Super Cobra clone game originally made by Universal. This game's no match for Super Cobra (which I have on 5200) and is kind of boring, but it's okay.
Slither - cart and manual. Slither is the game which requires the roller controller. It's a Centipede clone, and sort of like Cosmic Avenger, it's fine but isn't as good as the game it copies. The Roller Controller in analog mode does work well, but this game kind of reminds me of those TI 99/4A overhead shooters, more so than it does Centipede... and those games are fine, but again, Centipede is better. Still, this game is good. It's not great but is good.
Super Action Baseball - cart, manual, and scorebook (no overlays included however). This game requires the Super Action controllers. And yes, I said controllers, because this is mostly a two-player-only game -- sadly, unlike Atari's RealSports Baseball on the 5200, this game has no AI opponent so you can only play another human or play a practice mode where you try batting and such. That's unfortunate, I know that most sports games on the 2600 and Intellivision are two player only, but by this point I'd hope for more, particularly from a game that was originally bundled with two very large controllers! So, I haven't played this yet and doubt I will have many opportunities to.
Q*Bert - cart only. Q*Bert is an arcade classic, but it's never been a game I played a lot of. This seems like a good port of the game, but getting used to the isometric controls would take some time... up goes up-left, down down-right, etc.
Carnival - cart only. Carnival is a port of a Sega arcade game. It's a shooting-gallery game, and is kind of mediocre. It's not too bad but is forgettable stuff.
It's an okay but largely uninspiring selection of games, really.
Additionally, since the console arrived late last week I have gotten some games locally, from two places which have old games. I found some pretty interesting stuff! There are a few more games I'll need to go back and get, but I got eight so far. These first three I just got today, and the five below I got Sunday.
WarGames - cart and manual, $16. This is an interesting game for the time well worth a look. The game takes some getting used to so having the manual is great. It's kind of like Missile Command but slower and more challenging, and with multiple screens at once.
Smurfs: Rescue from Gargamel's Castle - $12, cart only. This is a platformer. Yeah, I've got a bunch of those for this system. I'm not expecting much from this one but got it anyway...
Defender - $8, cart only. I love Defender so I had to get this. I've heard this has some issues compared to the 5200 version -- that version is fantastic and probably my favorite 5200 game, but I've heard this one has no difficulty options and is easy -- but it's from Atarisoft so they'd make their version better... still looks nice though, and it's Defender.
Space Panic - $5, cart and manual. Space Panic is an interesting early proto-platformer. It heavily inspired Lode Runner, and has similar gameplay to that classic. The arcade version might be the first game with a side view where you move a character around, which is interesting! You can't jump, but otherwise it's platformer-style, except of course you dig holes to trap enemies. It's a simple but good game.
Miner 2049er - $9, cart and manual. This was a really cool find, as Miner 2049er was an influential early platformer and it's still fun to play. You have to walk over all floors on each screen, within a time limit, to progress, and there are twelve stages. Simple graphics, but it's a good game.
The Heist - $10, cart only. This is another platformer, where you explore around 10-screen levels collecting all of the paintings on each level. Visually it seems inspired by Keystone Kapers, but with quite different gameplay. The graphics are nice for the time. It seems to be a very hard game, as you'll need to memorize everything in each level to have any chance of finishing within time. Whoever played this last knew that, as included with my purchase was a sheet of paper with hand-drawn maps of the first two levels... pretty cool stuff. Level 3's apparently the hard one though, as they gave up there.
Linking Logic - $6, cart and manual. This game is licensed from Fischer-Price, and is a kids game... a kids' puzzle game. This is actually an interesting game, as you have to set up a level, using items you can place on the stage, so that your character (a boy or girl child) will get every item if they go straight ahead. Once you start you can't turn around, but do need to hit a button when passing each item you can interact with, so you do need to pay attention. Basically, this is one of those puzzle games where you put things at points to get around obstacles (pits, here), sort of like a Mario & Wario or some of the more recent Mario vs. Donkey Kong games. There are five puzzles per difficulty and four difficulties, and there are bonus versions of each stage as well where you can freely control the other child, but the maze turns invisible so if you want to get all the things you'll need to remember where the holes are. It's a neat little game, I like this kind of thing.
Monkey Academy - $10, cart only. This kids game is less interesting. It's very much like Donkey Kong Jr. Math, pretty much -- a math problem is presented on the screen, and you move a person around, platformer-style, to go to the answer while avoiding some enemies.
After getting all these the Coleco's looking better, it has some good games. I still wonder why the things are so expensive, but it's interesting, anyway. There are also a lot of homebrew games for Colecovision, as it's nearly identical to the Sega SG-1000 internally so the games from each system are easy to port to the other and people have done a lot of that, and it's also similar internally (not identical, but similar, particularly in its graphics chip) to the hardware in the MSX and people have also ported some MSX games to Colecovision. There are also modern homebrew games. I'd need a flashcart for any of that, though, of course.
For one last thought though... seriously, the Colecovision is a pretty ugly looking thing. The Atari 5200 released the same year and looks much nicer! It has a cover for its controller holders too, so you can hide that part if you don't use it, as I don't. The Coleco is just left with big holes on the top if you're not using those. It is noteworthy for being the first console with an expansion port for hardware expansions, and is very notable as being the console Nintendo designed the NES hardware to beat, but it's not a very nice looking box. The 12-second long delay before Colecovision games actually boot is weird too, and the flaky and failure-prone controllers (and consoles apparently) are not good from a reliability standpoint. Ever since I started looking into early 80s consoles some years ago, for some odd reason, while the Colecovision is the popular system as it sold better and has a lot more games, I was more interested in the Atari 5200. That's still true, but it is nice to finally have this as well. Also I do see Colecovison games in person sometimes, as its 2-million-sold number suggests, so it's great to have the system for them. (This is one argument for this system over, say, the Atari Jaguar or Atari Lynx. I've seen stuff for those MUCH less often. I keep thinking about a Jaguar, then getting some other console instead. This years-long process apparently has continued yet again!)
Finally, I also got a manual for Wrecking Crew (NES) for $6. Also free with what I bought today, I got manuals for Carrier Aces (SNES), Battle Clash (SNES), and Super Sprint (NES).
First, I got a case and screen cover for the Switch, because I'm going on vacation for a week soon and need those.
So MS has a big sale right now, but only one thing interested me enough for me to get it.
Xbox 360 DD
--
Final Fantasy Crystal Defenders - $5. This was on sale for this same price on PS3 recently, but I passed because I'd rather have multiplatform games on 360, not PS3. It's nice that the 360 version is now on sale.
These remaining four are from Gamestop, buy 4 $10 games for $20. After the club discount, that means each of these cost $4 instead of $8, which is nice. All four games were priced at $10.
Xbox One
--
Carmageddon Max Damage - $4, complete
Nintendo 3DS
--
Super Monkey Ball 3D - $4, cart in generic case
Fossil Fighters Frontier - $4, cart in generic case
I have a case as well. There's no telling what in my bag might brush against that screen. It's true, a clamshell design does a better job of protecting the screen,but hey, there's no point when the screen is just THAT big.
So I ended up mostly using my Vita during the vacation, and rarely used the Switch... heh. I started Vs VIII (for Vita) and got some hours in, it's pretty good!
But still, I definitely needed a Switch case. It is true that with a system that large having it fold probably is unfeasible, but the DS line are fantastic for this because folding protects the screen really well... it does introduce another possible failure point on those hinges, but I think the folding design is more good than bad for a portable system.
it could work if it was something like the iPad/Surface "flip around to the back" design, where it was on a detachable hinge that just flipped entirely around to the back, seamless for the user without the weird weight distribution issues.
So back from vacation I finally had a chance to look around for more Colecovision games, and got more pretty interesting ones. I think I've gotten all of the ones around here right now at the places I usually go, but it's a nice collection now so that's fine. Some of these I knew about but hadn't gotten yet, but a few were new, and one of those is maybe the best of the bunch. I got some other interesting stuff too.
Colecovision
--
Fortune Builder - $20, complete. This very interesting game is an early building sim, sort of like a proto-SimCity. It's even got two player co-op, interestingly. The game has a large hard plastic case which opens, book-style, and the manual is great to have.
Facemaker - $8, complete. Much less interesting, this is a very basic educational software toy for kids which lets you make faces and look at them. Yeah. It is in another one of those hard plastic cases, though, so it looks kind of cool... I remember last year this store had several more of these hard plastic case games, in addition to these two, but I didn't get them and now these are all that's left. Fortune Builder's probably the interesting one of them though so that's fine. The hard plastic cases were apparently mostly use for the Coleco Adam, so on Colecovision it seems to mostly be edutainment games that used them.
Memory Manor - $6, cart and manual.
Dance Fantasy - $6, cart and manual. These two games are the other two games in Fischer-Price's line of Colecovision software for kids, the other of which is Linking Logic, which I got a few weeks ago. That one's actually a pretty good and interesting game, but these are far less so -- Memory Manor is just Concentration, and Dance Fantasy is a very basic thing where you program dances and then watch them. Yeah. They are pretty rare though, so collecting-wise these are fantastic finds, way below ebay value particularly with the manuals!
Mr. Do! - $12, cart only. Colecovision-wise this is probably the gem of the day. Mr. Do! is a great arcade classic, kind of like Dig-Dug but better and with more variety. It's great to have this, I really like Mr. Do but hadn't previously owned any versions of the game...
Omega Race - $12, cart only. Despite the title, Omega Race is a vehicular combat game. You drive around shooting enemy cars. The arcade game was a vector game, but this obviously uses sprites. I have the 2600 version of this, but it needs an uncommon controller addon I don't have, so I can't play it. It's nice to get this game.
Dreamcast
--
Virtua Fighter 3tb - $17, complete. VF3 is not considered to be one of the best VF games by most, but I've never played it and couldn't resist this...
Pod Speed Zone - free with other purchases (would have been $8), complete. I've played this a lot before of course, and reviewed it, but this complete copy is in great condition and I didn't have a complete copy of this game before so I got it.
Playstation 2
--
Growlanser: Heritage of War Limited Edition - $31, almost complete (it's missing the keyring, but has everything else -- artbook, pins, holo-cards, media dvd, game.). This game is known as being the worst of the Growlanser games, and I think they mess with the great strategic combat of previous titles, but the PSP Growlanser is maybe my favorite PSP game so I wanted to get this anyway even if it isn't nearly as good. The price is good, this will cost this much or more on ebay now.
3DS
--
WarioWare Gold - $37, new. Yeah, I got it. The demo was great so I decided to get the game, it's surely really good. Unfortunately this is probably the 3DS's last great year, but with games like this one it is another good year for the 3DS for sure. WarioWare is finally back!
Vita DD
--
Civilization Revolution 2+ - $5 (on sale). This is the only console version of CivRev 2, and it's digital only and on sale now.
Playstation 3
--
Wonderbook: Book of Spells - $8, complete. This weird thing is probably not much of a 'game', but it seemed interesting enough to pick up for this price.
Saturn
--
NHL All-Star Hockey '98 - $4, complete
NBA Live '98 - $3, complete. I've never actually owned a NBA Live game before, oddly enough...
Sega Master System
--
Paperboy - $5, complete. This has never been a game I love, because of how frustratingly hard it is, but I got this anyway; it is an alright game, and I don't see non-sports SMS games for good prices often... and looking it up it was a great choice, because this game sells for $30 on ebay! It's a 1990 release, relatively late in the SMS's life here, so it probably didn't sell too well...
Game Boy
--
Space Invaders - $7, cart in plastic case. This game is somewhat famous for having a full SNES game on the cart -- if you play this in a Super Game Boy, there's a mode which actually launches a full SNES application version of Space Invaders. As I've had actual SNES Space Invaders, which has more options than this, for years, I've never much cared about that, but as a GB fan who does like the SGB I really should have this thing... and I'm sure it's a good version of the game too.
Colecovision
--
Venture - $3, cart only
Mouse Trap - $4, cart only. Yeah, I found a few more Colecovision games! I hadn't been to this place in a few months and was happy to see they had some. Venture's a good find, that's a fun little topdown action game. Mouse Trap's good too, though it's more of a clone (it's very much like Pac-Man).
Game Boy
--
Turok: Battle of the Bionosaurs - $8, cart only. This is actually a good platformer.
N64
--
NBA Courtside starring Kobe Bryant 2 - $3, cart only
PS Vita
--
Muramasa: The Demon Blade - $15, card only - I have this for Wii of course, but this Vita version has several exclusive DLC addon characters so I picked it up. I haven't gotten the DLC yet though.
NES - these games are all cart only.
--
Puzznic - $11
Barker Bill's Trick Shooting - $3
Skate or Die 2 - $3
Xenophobe - $5
Rocket Ranger - $2
Mission Impossible - $4
Game Boy Color
--
Looney Tunes Racing -$5, cart only
Also I got a Switch Pro Controller. Expensive things, but I had to get one eventually... it was my birthday a few days ago so I guess it's kind of a gift for myself.
NES
--
Cobra Command - $9, cart only
Dig Dug II - $10, cart only
Ninja Jajamaru-kun - $6, cart only (Famicom game; I have three other FC games in this series but not this one)
Yup, I got even more mostly-cheap NES games... and one other thing.
NES (all games cart only)
--
Lunar Pool - $4 - An interesting pool game.
Qix - $16 - at first I thought this seemed oddly expensive, but then I looked it up and... huh, it actually sells for even more than this on ebay! And I like Qix, so I got it.
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves - $5
Track & Field II - $4
Dragon Warrior - $5. The original.
Nintendo DS
--
Contra 4 - $15, complete in box. This is a pretty good price for this game, so despite my only moderate interest in the game -- I really only love the Genesis Contra game, after all, and not the rest of the series -- I bought it on sight. Hopefully it was a good decision.
I've also seen a bunch more rarer NES and SNES games recently, but they're all at or above ebay value so I haven't bought them. Like, RunSaber? Awesome, that game's great! ... But for $97 cart only, like $30 more than the cheapest ebay copies? No thanks...
So I've mostly kept up with the Xbox Games with Gold titles, but forgot to check in for too long recently (been busy...) and missed an X360 GwG title. Fortunately it's a game I already own, Lego Star Wars III. I have it for Wii, but whatever, same game. I have all the other recent ones though, and all the Xbox One ones. The current X360 GwG game is pretty cool! it
s the Monster World Vintage Collection, including Wonder Boy in Monster Land (English arcade version), Wonder Boy in Monster World (arcade version, not quite as hard as the made-harder US Genesis version), and Monster World IV (the never-before-released, newly-translated one). I got MWIV for WiiWare back when it released and it's a fantastic game, but don't have these other two games on modern consoles and it's a great series so this is pretty nice to have.
3DS
--
Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy - $27, complete. This 2014 Layton game sells for well over this at Gamestop and such, so finding the game for this price was pretty cool and I got the game. This is a good series and it's great to have a second one of the 3DS games.
NES
--
Defender of the Crown - $4, cart only. This is a classic of sorts, on computers anyway. Somehow I don't think I've ever played it though...
PS1
--
G-Police: Weapons of Justice - $3, complete. This is the second and final G-Police game. I got the first one for PC way back in the late '90s, as one of the games bundled with my Voodoo2 card, and didn't think too much of it, but for this low of a price why not complete the series...
Wii U
--
Mario Party 10 - $20, complete. I'm no big series fan (I only have like four Mario Party games, including this one), but they are good for the genre and after seeing it for this reasonable a price I decided to get it.
... You know, despite buying a whole lot of NES games over the past month or so, I still haven't plugged my NES back in after unplugging it to make room for the Colecovision, since that absurdly large power brick needs to go on the end of a power strip and the NES power supply was the easiest one to unplug... I really should get some more good power stripes or surge protector things so I can plug everything in again.
Switch
--
Poi - $12, complete. An average indie 3d platformer.
Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap (remake) - $27, complete. A very nice remake of a classic! I've been thinking of getting this for PC, but it's cool to have a physical media version of the game, so I got this. The Monster World series, which this is a remake of the second game of, is great and it's very cool to see it come back like this.
DS
--
Metroid Prime Pinball - $8, card only. I know this is from the developer of the kind-of-bad Mario Pinball Land (which I got not long ago), but I've heard it's a lot better...
Vita
--
Senran Kagura: Estival Versus - $16, card in generic case. This is the less good series of these games (the 3DS beat 'em ups are better...) but I got it anyway.
Genesis
--
Urban Strike - $7, complete. I may not be the biggest fan of this series, certainly, but it is kind of ridiculous that I don't have any home console versions of Jungle or Urban Strikes... well, this gets me one of those.
Atari 2600
--
Gangster Alley - $2, cart only. Like a lightgun game, but with a controller... yeah.
NES
--
Burai Fighter - $8, cart only. I have the GB version of this but not the NES game, so I got it. It's a quality shooter with some original elements.
Game Boy Color (GBC Only) - I found these three European-exclusive licensed platformers in a local store, surprisingly enough. So I bought them. Tintin and Asterix I got because I like the licenses, and Lucky Luke because it is a sequel to a US-released GBC game I do have, the first GBC Lucky Luke game.
--
Tintin: Le Temple du Soleil [E] [Prisoners of the Sun] - This game is mostly a platformer, but it has some adventure and puzzle elements and isn't always on a flat plane. $5, cart in plastic case.
Asterix: Sur la Trace d'Idefix [E] [Search for Dogmatix] - This is a fun platformer with some interesting elements to it. Levels are short but varied. This is the second GBC Asterix game; I got a previous one a few years ago, which also was only released in Europe. $4, cart in plastic case.
Lucky Luke: Le Train des Desperados [E] [Desperado Train] - $5, cart in plastic case
Genesis
--
Hardball '95 - complete, $2. As a definite fan of the Hardball series, and the third one in particular, I've been hoping to find a copy of this game for a long time but never have. It's pretty great to finally have this last Genesis Hardball game! And as expected, it's very good.
SNES
--
X Zone - $6, cart only. This is a Super Scope game from Kemco. It's a nice find! There aren't a lot of Super Scope games, so with this I'm closer to having all the US-released ones...
Pac Attack - $7, cart only. I have this game for other platforms, and actually have a very similar (but not Pac-Man licensed) puzzle game on Super Famicom, but I don't have this one and it is a good game so I decided to get it.
Mario's Time Machine - $12, cart only. I don't think I've actually ever played the two Mario edutainment games (unless I tried one in an emulator sometime?) but despite knowing how bad this is, decided to pick it up. ... I like history?
Game Boy Advance
--
SSX Tricky - $3, cart only. In full 3d... something usually not a good sign on the GBA, but it could be good.
Soccer Mania - $4, cart only. A Lego-licensed soccer game.
Nintendo Switch
--
Kirby Star Allies - $40, complete. This is a game I've wanted to get since I got the Switch, but not for full price. This is the first time I've seen a used copy for this price so I had to get it.
The Lost Child - $34, complete. This is an RPG which got somewhat average reviews, but I've kind of been wanting a dungeon crawler for the Switch and chose this one first. (I've tried the demo of the other one I know of, Labyrinth of Refrain, and it's alright...)
The first four of these are from a 4-for-$10 deal Gamestop currently has. Minus the discount that made each game $2 each. That discount will only remain at 20% for me through this month, before it goes up to 10% because they're ending that discount program since it was a response to Best Buy and Amazon's deeper discount programs which they have abandoned... ah well.
Nintendo DS
--
Wacky Races: Crash & Dash - $2, cart only
Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol - $2, cart only
Xbox 360
--
Deca Sports Freedom - $2, complete. This is a Kinect game.
Vita
--
Hot Shots Golf World Invitational - $2, complete.
Ys: Memories of Celceta - $16, complete. The other Vita Ys game, this one is a remake of Ys 4. Much like the Ys 3 remake, this game changes a LOT from the original games, probably mostly for the better. There is also a PC version of the game, but it's just a Vita port, so unlike Ys VIII (which I probably will eventually also get for PC, though I like the Vita version quite a bit) I'll probably just stick to this one, because it'll look better on the small screen probably...
So there's a buy 2 get 1 free deal at Gamestop this weekend for X360, PS3, DS, Wii, and Wii U games. They're calling it a "last-gen" sale, though the Wii U isn't really last gen like those others are... but anyway, it's a sale so I got a bunch of stuff, plus a couple of other things I saw while I was there.
Wii U - These mostly aren't games I would have gotten without a sale like this, but I want to have most of Nintendo's first-party Wii U games, so I had to get them sometime... plus a couple others.
--
Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash - free (would be $16), complete. Very content-light, but it's fun.
Paper Mario: Color Splash - $24, complete. This second game like the 3DS Paper Mario game still has that bad card system and way too many Toads, but I'm sure it's fun...
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 - $8, disc in generic case. Because it has some Nintendo-exclusive stuff.
Snoopy's Great Adventure - free (would be $8), complete
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD - $28, complete regular case copy (not Amiibo ver., though I'll get that Wolf Link Amiibo sometime) I'm far from convinced that I'd want to play this over the Gamecube version, since it's apparently more based on the Wii version, but I got it anyway...
Wii
--
Deca Sports - $4, complete
DS
--
Emily the Strange - free (would be $2), cart only
Henry Hatsworth - $2, cart only
Xbox 360
--
Alan Wake - $8, complete. Because the PC version was delisted from sale years ago and I didn't get it before then.
and not in that deal
PS Vita
--
Dungeon Travelers 2 - $24, complete
Switch
--
Wild Guns Remastered - $16, complete. Way cheaper than the rare SNES original!
Game Gear
--
Outrun Europa - $8, cart only. This is a Euro-made Outrun spinoff, which is kind of more like Road Rash than Outrun I think... but not as good as either. It's a neat find anyway though, I don't have the game and you don't see it often.
Game Boy Color
--
NASCAR Racers - $2, cart only.
Game Boy Advance
--
Gauntlet Legends - $6, cart only. This was a fantastic find! I've been very interested in playing this game for years, but never have seen it locally before now. I tried it in an emulator years ago and wasn't too impressed, so I didn't buy it online, but some people like this game and I only played like a level, so I'll definitely have to play more now that I have it. Given how much I love the console games I had to play this handheld rendition sometime. And maybe it'll be better than I remember...
Genesis
--
Ms. Pac-Man - $5, complete. This was one of the best-selling third party games on the Genesis. Might be the best selling third-party Genesis game, actually.
ESPN Speedworld - $4, complete. A racing game with 3d polygon graphics on the Genesis. It's probably not good, but that makes it interesting at least.
SNES
--
Congo's Caper - $23, cart only. This game is the sequel to Joe & Mac, though it's pretty different from the first one. I don't see it often, so it's a nice find, though the price is just okay; you can do a bit better online, but still it's a good game for a reasonable price.
Animaniacs - $8, cart only. I have the Genesis game, but the two are quite different so this hopefully will also be worth it.
Genesis
--
Deadly Moves - $6, cart only. This is a pretty bad fighting game. It's amusing levels of bad though, so that's alright.
Game Boy
--
Nigel Mansell's World Championship Racing - $3, cart only.
Atari 2600
--
Fast Food - $7, cart only
Genesis
--
ToeJam & Earl: Panic on Funkotron - $15, cart only
Jungle Strike: The Sequel to Desert Strike - $8, complete - And now I own the whole series.
Playstation 1
--
Razor Racing - $2, complete
Hello Kitty Cube Frenzy - $5, complete
NES
--
Freedom Force - $10, cart in slipcover with manual. Light gun shooter.
Odyssey 2
--
Math-a-Magic! / Echo! - $2, cart only. It's always a shame to get only a cart-only O2 game since they have some of the best box art ever, but I don't have this game so I got it anyway. I expect it to be an edutainment thing, but it's probably amusing, O2 games usually are. ... Looking it up, Math-A-Magic is a basic math game as expected, and Echo is basically a more complex version of Simon where you have all the numbers to remember, not only four directions. Sounds tough.
Genesis
--
Virtual Pinball - $8, complete. This game is sort of a sequel to the famous C64 game Pinball Construction Set, as it comes from the same person, Bill Budge. I haven't played that game as the C64 isn't something I've ever touched much, and this isn't nearly as well thought of as that game, though, but I got it anyway because who knows, it could be fun. It is an interesting thing, too -- this is a pinball game maker, you get to redesign the tables if you want.
We're Back: A Dinosaur's Tale - $10, complete. This game is a Genesis-only licensed platformer based on a kids' movie I haven't seen. It was published by Hi Tech Expressions so I'm sure it's no good, but I wanted to get more than the other two games here so I got this one, and pricewise I made a good choice -- this game seems to be uncommon on ebay and is worth this much at least. It looks playable, anyway...
... So for black friday (weekend), I got a bunch of stuff. Most of this I got Friday, some today.
..
First, I got some new games that were on sale.
Xbox One
--
Assassin's Creed Odyssey - $27, new. This sale was at Gamestop. I was thinking about getting this for PC, but that's $40 now, so I got this. Considering that the PC version would definitely look better (better screen, and my pc is more powerful than a XO S), but oh well, I got this. That's a big discount for a recent release...
Xbox One + PC - DD
--
Sea of Thieves - $30. Maybe I shouldn't have gotten this, but I like Rare enough to want to try it out, and got it digitally since this gets both PC (MS Store, but PC) and XO versions of the game.
Killer Instinct Definitive Edition - $10. This game is also crossbuy, and while I have it from Games with Gold that version only includes some of the characters and not all of them, plus it's console-only. This gets both versions and all the characters.
Switch
--
Starlink: Battle for Atlas - $35. This sale was at Best Buy. And yeah, it's another big discount for a recent release. I played some of it, seems fun. Very Ubisoft open world, though. The toys to life element's good, the ships look pretty cool. I will get more. Actually, I already got one more ship and a weapons pack today, and I ordered a few more... they were on sale for the weekend ($17.50 for ships, $7 for packs of two weapons)... but the game IS good and the plastic ships look good so it's probably worth it. The Arwing ship it comes with is pretty cool. Interestingly, this game doesn't use NFC like Skylanders; it's all hardwired, and connects to Joycons through a joycon grip that it comes with. That's pretty interesting and unexpected.
Switch DD
--
Sega Ages: Lightening Force - Quest for the Darkstar - $6, on sale. I have this great classic shmup for the Genesis of course, but I got this because it's not only a fantastic game emulated well, but they added new content -- if you beat the game you unlock the ability to play the game as the ship from Thunder Force III. Pretty cool.
3DS DD
--
Pazuru - $3, on sale
Balloon Pop Remix - $1.50, on sale
Shift DX - $1, on sale
Zen Pinball 3D - $1.30, on sale - the one Zen 3DS pinball game that's entirely original.
Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe - $3.50, on sale - expanded from a minigame.
Kirby Fighters Deluxe - $3.50, on sale - another expanded minigame.
I got a bunch of used games too. Unfortunately Gamestop didn't have buy 2 get 1 free for all used games, unlike last year, but did have it for older and handheld platforms -- everything except the PS4, XO, and Switch that they sell, essentially.
Xbox One
--
Tempest 4000 - $9, complete. This wasn't part of a deal, but there's no way I could refuse a physical copy of a Tempest game! This game is basically a port of that totally-not-Tempest Vita game from Llamasoft and probably isn't as great as the original T2K, but it's still really good and this is very cool to have.
Wii
--
Guilty Party - $4.50, complete
Need for Speed Undercover - complete, $7.20
DS
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Ridge Racer DS - free in B2G1, cart only (would be $4.50)
The World Ends With You - free in B2G1, cart only (would be $18)
Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer - free in B2G1, cart only (would be $4.50)
3DS
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Pokemon Rumble Blast - $9.00, cart in generic case
Bravely Default - $22.50, cart in generic case
Miitopia - complete, $31.50. This RPG is simplistic, but charmingly weird -- I mean, Miis go on a fantasy RPG adventure? And it has a Mii download feature so you can get Miis other people made too? It's fun stuff.
PS3
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Witch and the Hundred Knight - disc in generic case, $7.20
Motorstorm Apocalypse - disc in generic case, free in a B2G1 (would have been $13.50) - The third and last game in this series on PS3.
Drakengard 3 - complete, $18.00
X360
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Armored Core: Verdict Day - complete, free in a B2G1 (would have been $4.50)
Wii U
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Disney's Planes - complete, $4.50
Vita
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Persona 4 Golden - complete, $18.00
Shinobido 2 - $13.50, cart in generic case. The first and only game in this Tenchu-like series with a US release, this was a great find. I have a few of the earlier Shinobido games, but the Japanese ones are really hard to play due to the language barrier...
I got a few indie games from Steam during their recently-ended sale for Thanksgiving.
PC - DD
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Black Jewel - $0.50 - pixel-art platformer where you're a barbarian guy.
Spark the Electric Jester - $3.50 - a Sonic-style game.
Orbital Racer - $4.50 - This is an attempt at a realistic space racing game, so it's got momentum and such.
Touhou: Scarlet Curiosity - $10 - A twinstick-style shooter Touhou spinoff game.
FreezeME - $2.50 - This is a little 3d platformer. I've heard it's short but for this price it's probably worth it.
140 + THOTH bundle - $1.60 - These two games are a platformer and a twinstick shooter, both with simple, somewhat Atari-ish graphical looks. They look nice.
Also, the stuff I ordered last week online arrived...
First, I got a 400GB micro SD card that I'm using in the Switch now. I hadn't had a micro SD card in the thing and its internal 32GB isn't large and filled up, so when I saw this on sale ($80 for a 400GB Sandisk card, from Amazon! Great deal there.) I picked one up because this should be enough space to last a good while.
Also, I got a 4TB USB3.0 hard drive, which I've connected to my Xbox One. My XO has only a 500GB internal drive, and I got a 2TB external about a year ago, but that drive now has under 400GBs free which at Xbox One game sizes won't last at all, so I needed another drive... and when I had to decide between sales, either spending $160 for a 8+TB drive versus half that for a 4TB one, I eventually decided on the cheaper option both to save some money, and because I'd only really need the larger amount of space if I had a 4K TV and an Xbox One X, to download all those 4K-enhanced original Xbox and 360 games and such... but with this TV and an S? 4TB should be plenty for some time.
So yes, because Nintendo doesn't support external hard drives, for the same price I got 1/10th the amount of space. How "nice".
Additionally, I got a game:
Xbox One
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Soulcalibur VI - $35, complete. This Black Friday sale was from Best Buy. This is a game I'm pretty interested in, so it's cool to get it for this reasonable a price.