In console gaming, there is a legend known as the Third Console Curse. Most consoles are not successful enough to receive a follow-up. If they are, then a third console is still not guaranteed. It is a hard industry not only to break into, but sustain a market share in. Yet something happens with the third console every time. It fails to meet the company's initial goals. Maybe it still sells fine, maybe the console has a wonderful library of games. Even if that is the case, the company loses market share and is in a worse spot at the end of the console's life than they were going into it. It could be arrogance from success. It could be a lack of perspective from being too used to success. Maybe it's just rotten luck. But it's consistent.

Even from the outset, Pseudoregalia proves to be a fascinating game. Visually, it's striking - evoking the PlayStation 1 - you won't see many games that look quite like it these days, and few, if any, are able to pull off the style successfully. Similar to a title on the PlayStation, you're dropped into the game without much fanfare and with only the ability to jump. You have no map to help you navigate, no weapon to defend yourself, and compared to later in the game, extremely limited mobility. Exploring Castle Sansa and its surrounding areas will net you a sword and upgrades to it, as well as myriad upgrades to your movement abilities, enabling you to reach more parts of the castle.

Revisited this week on Xbox 360:

Happy 250th birthday, America!  To celebrate, here are some reviews I’ve recently written over at GamerDad.com.  Please click on the links and read as many as you can, and maybe post a ‘like’ or comment or two.  I’d appreciate it.  OK let’s begin!

Yesterday, Sony dropped a few bombs on the gaming world - first, they are discontinuing support of the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita stores by next year, at the latest, with support ending immediately in some areas. Second, they will cease production of physical games by January 2028 for all releases on PlayStation consoles, leaving only another year and half before you'll no longer be able to grab the latest games pressed to a disc.

It's my pleasure to present to all of you the latest iteration of PixlBit! It feels unreal to finally be launching this new version of the site - I've spent a lot of hours over the past few months building everything out and getting things in a state to launch. It's particularly unreal to be typing this in the brand new editor and getting this new content posted after such a long dry spell.

When a game console is considered “dead,” I like to write a tribute blog about that console and its games.  While most people would probably consider the PS4 ‘dead’ for a while now, I’m still reviewing games for it.  I guess a game console is really only considered ‘dead’ once you stop playing it.  But since recently I wasn’t able to get simple games like LEGO Batman and Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection on the PS4, I figured it was about time.  I’ll probably do a similar blog with the original Switch later towards the end of this year.  Most of the games on this list you can play on other consoles as well, I mostly used the PS4 as a third party machine if I couldn’t play or review it on the Switch, or if I’d rather play it on the PS4.  Anyway, there are so many games I’m going to split this up into two parts.  And the first part is going to be all about classic game collections, and remakes of classics and styled games.

I kinda can't wait to do this sort of overview for DS games when I get there in a few weeks. 

A launch sequence ensues, Thunderbirds style. 

I dove through a bunch of my PS2 games in chonological order. I'm in the 2003 games now. Then I played a lot of my rental game, Mario & Luigi Brotherhood and took another stab at Ys Origin on Xbox. Also a few digital purchases. 

I got through a lot of GBA/PS2 stuff this week and retro on Xbox Series S. I got some good purchases on sales this week too. Also progress through the Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue show, books and podcasts. 

When the Nintendo Switch 2 released earlier this year, one of the launch games was the download only Welcome Tour.  It was set up like a museum, and you controlled a little person as they walked around a giant Switch 2 and its accessories.  You could play mini-games, try tech demos, and take quizzes on facts about the new console.  To me, it sounded like a lot of silly, quirky fun.  And I love games that have museums in them, whether it be Namco Museums or Animal Crossing.  There was only one problem.  They charged you for it.  It really should’ve come with the system, and that’s what it’s going to be known for from here on out.  I really wanted to boycott it and not buy it to support that kind of behavior.  But here’s the thing.  I only believe in boycotting if it doesn’t hurt yourself.  And the game still sounded interesting enough to me that I didn’t want to miss out on it.  Life is too short to miss out on what you think is fun.  So I got it.  It was only ten bucks anyway, and I can spend more money than that on fast food!  So I figured I’d take you all on a tour of the Welcome Tour!

Mario Kart World was recently released as a Nintendo Switch 2 launch title.  I was lucky enough to get a Switch 2, thanks to help from my family.  So let’s take a road trip tour at all the tracks you can race on in the game.  So grab your road trip snacks and let’s roll!

Around this time of year, I like to make a list of my best games SO FAR, because usually the AAA titles are released later in the year during the holiday season, and the titles that came out earlier tend to be forgotten.  So here’s when those games get their due.  Keep in mind that this is my list only and no other outside opinions contributed.  And if a game isn’t on this list, it either just didn’t appeal to me as much or I haven’t had a chance to play it yet.  Ok with that out of the way, let’s begin!

Game maker Capcom is known for lots of things, like Mega Man, Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, etc.  But probably what they are known best for is their large roster of fighting games, such as Street Fighter.  They did a collection of them a few years ago, plus one last year that had all their Marvel games on it.  And now they’ve got another one with even more fighters!  So let’s take a look at the games on this collection.

Platforming. The thing I most often complain about in gaming. It seems the most natural game design, though, especially for kids because it's just basically what they do when let outside: run, jump, climb, explore and make up stunts to pull off. I was one of those kids.

I'm ending April this week even though there are a few more days left and moving on to my next theme. It was a grueling month for me who has so little patience for repeating levels and making that perfect jump; but I, like they do in special ops training, pushed beyond my limits as much as I could. I'll be putting up a blog of all the games I played over at wordpress very soon and a what-I-liked best of blog here. Here's what I got to this week before I decended into incremental games out of exhaustion.

The month is basically over, and so I'm wrapping up my hack 'n' slash games and getting ready to start my platform game theme for April. Here's the last stuff I played this week. 

Yeah, not doing any more 70s games but I will just mention Space Invaders Extreme 2 as being awesome before moving onto my theme for this month, twin-stick shooters. 

Around this time, I like to make a list of games that are releasing in the coming year that I’m looking forward to.  Of course, this isn’t a full complete list, as there will assuredly be titles announced throughout the year that I may get as well. But anyway, here’s what I know now, for the most part, so let’s take a look at what games I’m looking forward to in 2025!

I have a few half days of gaming in my week that I thought, from hear on out, I would devote to handheld games. Then I'd attack the console stuff on full days off from work. That is, barring any other distraction. So this week I played 3DS and then returned to Xbox Series S. 

The Castlevania Domina collection just cemented something that's been creeping in my head ever since I picked up my PSP again earlier this year: The DS library's highlights looks better today than the PSP's highlights. Back in the 00's, the PSP's graphics were a huge selling point, offering games close to console quality over a decade before the Switch. But despite a strong launch, most gamers were shocked at how it merely carved a niche while the DS took over the world. Yet one thing that the PSP had in its favor at all time were its graphics. Games looked better. 

I’ve been a big fan of the Super Monkey Ball games ever since the GameCube ones and the original arcade game (which was called just Monkey Ball and the joystick was a banana you had to hold…kind of embarrassing).  The series is still going strong today and SEGA recently released Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble on Switch.  So I though I’d do a little review of it and go over the mini-games and even talk about what’s in the “Legendary Banana Edition” you can get at launch.  So let’s roll!