Thanksgiving is coming up, so I’ve prepared for you all a feast of game 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. After this feast of game reviews, you should all have nice fat little full bellies when you’re done reading them all!
15 Years of Super Mario Galaxy!
I read part two of the new Bloodborne Lady of the Lanterns comic, played several board games, bought some stuff at the convention I went to, and played a bunch of stuff I'll probably save for another time because this blog is already going to be longish.
Pac-Man World: Re-Pac was recently released, and it’s a remake of Pac-Man World, a 3-D platformer originally on the PSOne to celebrate Pac-Man’s 20th anniversary. Pac-Man World may not be one of my favorite Pac-Man games, but I have a lot of special memories about it that I thought I’d share with you in this blog. Plus my opinion on the remake, what has changed and stayed the same, etc. So grab a bowl of Pac-Dots and let’s get chomping!
“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.
For years, there has been a heated debate among fans of the Mega Man series regarding which one is the best of the original hexalogy. After the facts have been laid out and philosophical life lessons thoroughly dissected, the debate usually boils down to Mega Man 2 vs. Mega Man 3. Which is the greater of the two? Well, no matter which side you’re on, we can all agree on the thing- the cover art for Mega Man 3 finally got it right! No more awkward stances or that pistol-for-an-arm-cannon nonsense. Of course, he didn’t look as good as on the Famicom cover, but that’s another argument.
As a late bloomer to RPGs, I was mostly ignorant of the Final Fantasy series until 1997, when that commercial for Final Fantasy VII caught my attention in all its epic CG glory. But it would be another two years before I finally saw a demo of the game in action, which sparked my love for RPGs. The point is that I missed out on Final Fantasy VI (originally titled Final Fantasy III in the US) when it was released in 1994. Fortunately, the Super NES Classic Edition's release several years back allowed the opportunity to play Square’s magnum opus of the 16-bit series. And boy, was it worth the wait.
Technosoft’s Thunder Force series is rich with 2D shoot-'em-up goodness. After starting with the fifth game in the series on the PlayStation and then working my way back to Thunder Force II on the Genesis some years later, I have become obsessed with everything related to the Thunder Force series since then. One fateful day at a local game store, I stumbled upon Thunder Spirits on the Super NES. "Nah, no way it's related to the Thunder Force series. Probably just a coincidence of naming", I thought to myself. But after doing some additional research, I soon returned to that store and purchased the game. For, you see, this was no coinkydink.
There are several similarities between Final Fantasy V and its younger sibling, Final Fantasy III. Chiefly of which, both games stayed exclusively in Japan well after the series moved on to the PlayStation in the mid-90s. For a time, Square Enix (formally SquareSoft) was uncertain if western audiences would grasp the deeper gameplay mechanics that drove character growth. But after the global success of Final Fantasy VII, they decided it was time to start bridging the gap in sequels in the US lineup. As a result, Final Fantasy V was the first to be released as part of the Final Fantasy Anthology compilation on the PlayStation in 1999.
Can you believe Klonoa has been around for 25 years? That makes me feel REALLY old! I remember when I first played that game in college and reviewed it for The Dallas Morning News. If you don’t know (and shame on you if you don’t), Klonoa is a series of (mostly) 2D platformers by Namco. And they’re really good, too! The quality of these games really had an impact on me and they’re some of my favorite titles on the PSOne and PS2. For the 25th Anniversary, Namco released a collection of the PSOne and PS2 main games, which we’ll talk about here. But we’ll also go through the other games in the series as well! Oh yeah, there may be some spoilers here and there, but I’ll warn you when they come up.
When I was a wee lad in the arcades, motorcycle racers were not often a priority for me to spend my quarters. I was too busy playing After Burner, Galaga, or Ms. Pac-Man. But one day, I saw something that stood out from the usual bunch- Sega’s Super Hang-On, initially released in 1987. As I hopped on the mechanical bike and blasted around that first corner, I knew it was worth every quarter spent. I was one with the road- until I crashed seconds later. While I never won the race or played it in the arcade again, I always remembered how much fun it was. Thankfully, most of the traits that made the coin-op version fun translated well on the Sega Genesis.
Welcome to the Pac-Man Museum+! My name is Cary, and I’ll be your tour guide today. Oh man, wouldn’t it be cool if there really was a Pac-Man Museum and I worked there? I’d be in heaven. Anyway, Pac-Man Museum+ is a collection of arcade and console games featuring Pac-Man. Kind of like the Namco Museums, just with Pac only. It’s available on most current consoles and PC, but I got the PS4 version because it was cheapest at 20 bucks. Plus it was a physical version, which I always like. Although I’m tempted to get it on Switch as well so I could have all those games portable. And I hear it’s also on Xbox Game Pass as of this writing, so if you have an Xbox One or X/S, check it out! All right, so come along with me on the tour of the 14 games on this collection!
When Final Fantasy VII appeared in the late 90s, my initial reaction was that of shock at the significant gulf in sequels for the US. It was a harsh reality to learn that, of the three mainline Final Fantasy releases we received, Japan had double that number by the start of the PlayStation era. As time marched on, Square (now Square Enix) eventually released the sequels we had missed. Meanwhile, I’ve been playing a nearly 30-year-long game of catch-up since 1997. A particular blind spot for me was Final Fantasy III- the last one to be developed for the Famicom. However, after finally getting around to playing it, I now have a new appreciation for this long-running series.
Expansion Pass 2 Game #1/Blog a Day #28
Expansion Pass 2 Game #2/Blog a Day #26
