2013 is really the start Console Generation 8, but to me it's still Gen 7 because the Xbox One and PS4 came out late in that year, and I didn't get either one until maybe a year later. Yes the Wii-U was out in 2012, the 3DS and PS Vita in 2011, but it really felt like Gen 8 fully to me in 2014. So this is the last year I'll review until I get past all the Gen 7 systems in my retro journey this year.

This is the last of the OG Xbox games I played from my collection. It's all DS now for a while. 

First, some new stuff, then the old stuff. Eight more down and less than a dozen left. I'm chomping at the bit to start into my DS collection. 

Fourteen this time! I'm cruisin'. 

It's time to run down the list of GameCube games on Metacritic. It's fun and brings up memories and helps me decide what stays in my collection and what I need to pick up. Here goes. 

I'm all over the place lately. I'm trying to do games set in the 50s and keep up with the new stuff. I eventually just reduced it all to playing the largest files size games first on my hard drive. It's all a mess now, but I'm having fun, so I guess it's all good. Here's the sloppy story.

I got to 35 hack 'n' slash games in March. The early ones go quick and some later ones just stopped me dead at some point with confusing mission objectives, difficult mechanics or some other dumb thing I couldn't stand. I have been trying to stick to each game as long as I can, pushing beyond my limits. I'll try even harder next month. There's nothing like actually finishing a game. I think I finished exactly 6 of these - all mentioned below.

So for March I have console Generation 3 as the time period (NES, SMS, Arcades, Atari 8bit, C64, Amiga, Apple II and such - you know, second half of the 80s). To limit the choices, I thought about what genres were interesting at that time to me and Beat 'em Ups came up first but more specifically Hack 'n' Slash games are really my more focused favorite. Also a limit of 20 games, although, I did make a much bigger list in case I run out. Let's get into it. 

Seems like a lot of stuff I played this week but between retro games with low gameplay time and various rage-quits it's not as much time spent as it seems. Here's everything, 'cause I need to write.  

This week I played a lot of different stuff but mostly brick-breakers like Breakout and Arkanoid. 

Games Beaten

I explored some short Game Pass games and dove deep into Halo 5 this week. Also, a recap of Retrocon.  

I went to Classic Game Junkies on Friday and traded a bunch of Atari 2600 games for three Sega Genesis games. While I was there, I heard a rumble and then the whole store started shaking. A little later I learned that there was an earthquake of 4.8 magnatude about 50 miles away in New Jersey. There aren't many earthquakes on the East coast of the U.S.. Last one I remember was in 2011. Anyway, here are the three games and a little info about them. 

It was fun trying out a lot of NES games this month thanks to the NES collection on the Switch subscription service and a few available on collections on Xbox. I also had a few cartriges too for the original experience. Here's what I got to this week plus new stuff. 

Games Beaten

Looks like I'll be watching Phillies baseball next week too as they move on the NL championships. It's usually after video game time though, so I'll still have a report to make. Here's this week's by hours played as far as I can estimate since I didn't take exact notes. 

Most of my gaming's been done this week. I write this waiting for an oil change before continuing one more day. With time to kill, I thought I'd write down what I've played so far. 

My friend and I started playing this a month or so ago and haven't stopped since. Let's see the evolution of my Necromancer over time as I acquired new gear. 

I preordered DQ Treasures from my favorite indy game store (Gamebox Video Games in Topsham, Maine, because they deserve a shoutout) last fall shortly after it was announced. Dragon Quest is probably my favorite JRPG franchise, and Erik was my favorite character in DQ XI, so this was pretty much a no brainer for me. December rolled around and... I realized it wasn't going to be the game I wanted it to be. But that's OK, because I had fun with it anyway. Which is a first for most of the DQ spin-offs for me (with the exception of Rocket Slime, just because I know Cary will say something if I don't put this in, it's his favorite DQ title).

A lot went on while I was blogging daily in February. I thought I'd let y'all in on every game-related thing, but it'll take a few blogs to do it. I'll start with Serious Sam. 

Every time I start up the Xbox I first check for any rewards points I can get by watching videos or playing certain games. This leads me to try a lot of stuff and sometimes find a new favorite. Here's what I played recently before long sessions of Tiny Tina's Wonderlands. 

“And now, the most anticipated epic adventure of the year will never come to a theater near you. Final Fantasy VII.” And so began my interest in RPGs. That commercial blew my 12-year-old mind back in 1997. Besides the impressive animations shown (which we would later learn were only cut-scenes), I was intrigued at seeing that we somehow jumped from Final Fantasy III on the Super NES to now VII on the PlayStation. “What manner of sorcery is this?”, I wondered.