Apparently, We Are to Blame for Days Gone Not Getting a Sequel

 

If you don't feel like reading, this is a very good video that covers a lot of what I'm going to talk about. Mind you, YongYea is long-winded, but still a good video nonetheless.

“If you love a game, buy it at fucking full price. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen gamers say ‘yeah, I got that on sale, I got it through PS Plus, whatever’.”

That statement miffs me. So John Garvin, the lead designer on Days Gone, is passing the buck off to us, the consumer, as to why Sony axed the sequel to Days Gone. Supposedly, it didn't sell enough copies or we didn't buy enough at full price. Yet, Days Gone sold millions of copies. It was the best selling game for the month of its release. It was also the best selling game Bend ever put out, selling more than all previous games they ever made. It was profitable. So, if Days Gone sold, why did the sequel get canceled?

Because it got a 71 on Metacritic.  Now, you can make the argument all you want about how too many publishers focus on Metacritic scores, but review aggregate sites are a fantastic tool to see how well a game's quality is fairing at a glance, and it's not just the industry that follows these scores. We do, too, obviously some more than others, but it's simple math here. Let's say I have 90 dollars left from payday. And I can only afford two games for the month. I'm looking at God of War, which is a 94, and Days Gone which is a 71. Obviously, I can't afford both games at full price, so my 60 is going to God of War and my 30 is going to Days Gone when it goes on sale. But according to John Garvin, because I don't make all the money, he can't make all the money, thus it's my fault that we're not going to get a Days Gone 2. 

Whatever. The onus on making a quality product worth full price is ALWAYS ON THE DEVELOPER, and the publisher if they apply unreasonable requests, but an average game not selling as well as it should or scoring higher than it could IS NOT THE FAULT OF THE CONSUMER. Of course, I don't blame Garvin coming to this conclusion as he seems to be buddy buddy with David Jaffe, another game developer who attacks gamers for not shelling out their hard-earned dollars not paying full price, and equates the used game market to piracy. 

I cannot stand this mentality the industry has of expecting its consumers to only buy games new and at full price. It's unreasonable. What is with the gaming industry being the only industry that feels so obligated to get every last dime out of us? Gaming is for everyone and unfortunately, we are all not rich. We can't afford to buy all the games we want and we can't afford to buy all the games we can at full price, so pardon us for not wanting to drop 60 (and now 70 for most PS5 titles) on games that barely break 70 on Metacritic. If you want us to buy your games at full price, make them WORTH buying and full price! I'm sorry your game didn't sell enough, but your issue is with Sony's high demands of wanting millions of sales PLUS high Metacritic scores. You can either aim higher with your next project and increase quality control, or you can try to reason with Sony to lower their expectations, but you are NOT putting YOUR failures on US. 

Sad to say, Garvin, I've never viewed your studio to be AAA quality. Even the Syphon Filter games you were known for before you started dabbling with Uncharted and other franchises weren't really all that great. The first game, yes, but as fun as it was, it was still rough around the edges. I wanted to get Days Gone at some point, but unfortunately, it just wasn't scoring well enough for me to put it higher on my priority list, because you must realize you aren't the only people making games. THOUSANDS of games get released every generation. THOUSANDS. There are so many studios vying for people's dollars and one of the best ways to ensure a high number of sales is with high review scores. "Review scores don't mean everything." True, because a lot of average games are fun, but again, when you have higher quality games on adjacent shelves, people with less income are going to pick those over yours. And Sony also wants awards attached to their best-selling games, which high scores grant, and if they feel they aren't going to get them, regardless of how well a game sells, well, that's their business model and YOUR problem. Leave and make a new studio if you can't work with Sony's expectations.  

It's funny that you mention PS+, Garvin, because that's how I finally got around to getting your game. Then mere days after, your run your big mouth.  I'm glad I didn't buy it at all now, even used, because now no one made anything from this particular copy of your game. Call me petty, but your sudden outburst at us has made me not care about you or your studio any longer. I'm sorry you got thrown into this horrible situation with Sony, but just as with any business, you don't take it out on your customers. I truly hope Sony comes around and changes their minds and lets you make your sequel, because I always feel devs should have an opportunity to improve on their games, but if you do get your sequel, best believe I'm going to wait until it drops on PS+

POST EDIT: I just realized I made another Sony blog, which I promised I wouldn't do in the previous blog. But, I did say "unless they do something stupid again," which they did. Ah well. 

Would a Sony Boycott Work?

 

I already know the answer to this question, but let's explore it anyway. 

Unless you've been living under a rock the past couple of months, you know that Sony is closing up shop on PSP, PS Vita and PS3 stores. I already talked about this a couple times, so I won't be delving back into detail. Yet as the days go by, more news is coming out that the stores closing are only the tip of the iceberg. The real problem comes in the form of a battery that's in the PS3 and the PS4, a CMOS battery, and once that fails, both the PS3 and PS4 cannot sync the systems to the internet and verify dates against what's on PSN. This renders not only digital games unplayable.. but physical games as well. Yes, when the CMOS battery goes out, it will effectively brick your disc games. Hmm.. what does that sound like? Oh yeah, 2013 when MS tried to release the Xbox One with an always-on system check.

When MS tried to pull that on us, we did not take kindly to it. We threatened to boycott MS and their Xbox One. They buckled. We also didn't like the fact that Kinect 2.0 was forced on us jacking up the price of the console by 100 dollars and not being able to be turned off. We put pressure on MS and they buckled on that too. MS actually listened to us when we said bad ideas were bad and did something about it. Although I'm still wanting them to improve their first party line up, but that will happen over the years. 

Anyway, long time Sony gamers are pissed. They don't want their massive collection of games they've accumulated to be rendered useless. There was a day where they thought their physical copies would be safe, but that looks to be in jeopardy now. Sony already knows that their customers are angry with them, but they aren't going to do anything about it. They've got them by the balls. The PS5 simply cannot be found anywhere, in large part thanks to component shortages and scalpers, but rest assured, the demand for them would still be high even without those complications. So with that kind of demand, would it even be possible to put any kind of pressure on Sony to do something about their legacy games?

The sad reality is that a boycott simply wouldn't work. They'd lose a little money, yes, but it's clear Sony is ready to leave the past behind. They're even leaving the little guys behind as it looks to be they're going to continue to focus on mega million blockbuster titles that will carry them through their fiscal year like ice cream stores that do all their business in the summer. Boycott all you want. Sony will just laugh. There simply isn't enough angry gamers that would be willing to make an impact in Sony's future sales to get them to realize they're losing money as a result of not preserving their legacy games. This would be similar to trying to boycott Nintendo for any wacky reason that causes a new controversy.  Look at Pokémon Sword and Shield. All those people complaining about it yet they went out and bought it anyway.

The boycott for Xbox One worked primarily because MS doesn't really have a legacy outside of Halo and Gears.  They rely on tech and services to sell their hardware so when the problems are rooted in the very system itself, they don't have a massive list of must have games that will get enough people to compromise. Sony and Nintendo don't have that problem. Nintendo will keep making underpowered hardware and you will buy it because you HAVE to have the new Mario and Zelda. Sony will keep making weird policy decisions and make it so hard to find a PS5, but you NEED to have it for God of War and Horizon. What, you're just not going to play the biggest games of the generation? Yeah, we never had that problem with Xbox. It was an easy system to ditch if need be.

And well, if you know a boycott isn't going to work, why deprive yourself of the games you want? I still boycott certain game companies because I can always find different games to play on that platform, but boycotting an entire platform....ooof. That's a tall order. I can't imagine not having a Switch or a PS5 because the Switch's library has been fantastic up to this point and the PS5's is slowly picking up speed. Have you seen Ratchet and Clank: A Rift in Time? WOW! But I could easily give up the XSX if I needed to as everything it has I want to play can be played elsewhere. That's why Phil Spencer has been working so hard trying to reverse all the damage Don Mattrick did with Xbox One. He wants Xbox to be a bullshit-free platform and I got to be honest, it's looking better every month.

But I would like to see an attempt of a boycott, though, just to see how much more arrogant Sony will continue to be. They thought they were the shit in 2006 when they sold the PS3 for 600 dollars and that nearly ended them, so there is a precedence of them readjusting their strategies as a result of financial consequences. Again, though, Sony is not having a problem selling the PS5, glitches and missing features be damned. They're under no pressure to fix the PS5 or put out games at a faster clip. So then really, why bother preserving their legacy games? 

And that's what it really boils down to. We all care about our old games. We don't want our digital games to disappear and our physical games to be turned to coasters. But do we care enough about them to say no to future games? I love playing retro games, but I can't subsist on them. Sometimes, they really do become too old to play. I love seeing games evolve with new ideas and larger worlds. This is why as much as I want to boycott Sony, I can't.  There's simply too much coming down their pipeline for me to say no to. I know some people will, but they also know it won't make any difference. At least they're sticking to their principles. My hats off to them.

There's also something else to take into consideration. The games we're buying now may end up going through the same thing when Sony releases the PlayStation 7. As much as we want the new PS5 games, maybe we shouldn't, unless Sony is prepared to do something about game preservation. I get that they can't keep servers up forever, so that's why they either need to disable whatever CMOS crap is affecting PSN checks, or the most preferred method would be to finally institute backwards compatibility and bring the older games to newer storefronts. Hah... you've better lucky with buying a winning lottery ticket. 

Anyway, enough Sony. I'm tired of talking about them, nevermind that my PS5 suddenly decided to pitch fits with my router and can't finish any downloads. Unless Sony really does something stupid again, I'll promise I'll write about something next time. Thanks for reading. 

I'm Concerned That Sony Is Shoehorning Itself

 *sigh* I remember a time were Sony was actually the company doing everything right and were laughing at the other two (MS and Nintendo). But things are changing quickly. I already wrote a blog on what I thought about them closing the PS3, PSP and Vita stores, so I'm not going to bother going over any of that again. I will repeat, though, that I really hope they bring their catalogue into the PS5 store. But I'm not holding my breath. They need to make the PS5 backwards compatible with older systems first. 

Now, news has come out that Sony is ordering Naughty Dog to make a remake of The Last of Us. Just the headline by itself doesn't seem like that big of a deal. This is hardly the first time an old game has been remade. Hell, PS5 launched with a remake of Demon's Souls, another beloved PS3 game. What gets me, though, is why. For starters, The Last of Us on PS3 is still pretty damn good looking by today's standards, and it was already remastered for the PS4. Even if Naughty Dog rebuilds the first game with the second game's engine, it's not going to look THAT much better where it's worth pumping millions of dollars into it. I'm sure Naughty Dog would have loved to work on something else. Maybe the third in the series? Maybe a new IP? 

The thing is, they didn't even have to. Sony's Visual Arts Service Group gathered roughly 30 developers in an attempt to make a Last of Us Remake, but Sony ultimately ended up shifting the project to Naughty Dog. Obviously, ND will do a better job with it than anyone else, as its their game. Sony also wanted a new Uncharted, but ND didn't want to do it, so Sony gave it to another of their studios, Bend, who voiced their opposition because they didn't want to always be involved in ND projects. They wanted to make their own games. Despite Bend releasing Days Gone in 2019 to mixed reviews, it still sold millions of copies. I guess those millions weren't enough millions, though, because in that same article I linked up above, Sony canceled a sequel to Days Gone. Perhaps they weren't happy with the Metacritic score of 71, and to be honest, Bend isn't that great of a studio so they were probably right in not placing faith in them to make a much better game. But that's not the point. 

Sony is just being weird right now. They're closing down all these different studios that they see incapable of making AAA multimillion selling games that get nothing but high 9s and 10s. They dismantle Japanese studios like Japan Studio that have made some really damn fine games, but unfortunately don't get the hype like God of War and Uncharted. Is this really the direction Sony wants to keep going, to focus all their time and energy appealing to Western gamers by making them wait four, five, six or more years for a 20 hour long interactive movie experience? Sony is more than Kratos; more than Drake; more than Sakai. Well, Jin Sakai isn't a household name yet, but based on the critical success of Ghost of Tsushima, he will be. 

But HOW did Jin Sakai even come out? Because Sucker Punch didn't keep making inFAMOUS games. Naughty Dog is going to be stuck making Uncharted and Last of Us games until their dying breath because they keep making them so good. Santa Monica, the same thing with God of War. Maybe Bend dodged a bullet, because if they made a much better Days Gone game, they may be stuck as well. "Days Gone is a successful franchise. Keep making them."

We have Ratchet and Clank: A Rift in Time coming up. That game looks absolutely amazing, but again, Insomniac will be stuck making R&C games because they do so well. They also made the past two Spider-Man games, and so they'll be busy with Spider-Man 2 once A Rift in Time is finished. At least they're more varied than Naughty Dog is, but what kills is me we'll never see a sequel to the amazing Xbox exclusive Sunset Overdrive because MS botched the marketing and killed the sales. Had Sunset Overdrive performed well, Insomniac would have made a sequel, but well, they got snatched up by Sony and are now making Spider-Man games. Don't get me wrong, I love the Spider-Man games, and I don't have anything against Insomniac making more of them, but at the end of a day, it's just another comic book game. I'd trade Spider-Man 2 for a far more original game like Sunset Overdrive 2 any day of the week. 

And well, there is that damn Vita. It had so much potential but Sony couldn't really figure out a way to make it successful so they stopped trying. I really enjoyed its first year, and even though Golden Abyss wasn't the best of Uncharteds, it illustrated what the Vita could do with a with console-quality games on the go, something Nintendo is now highly successful at doing.  Yet, Sony ended up belittling it with smaller handheld style games, such as Bend making the next Uncharted a card game. The Vita ended up getting more support from its own community and indie publishers than Sony themselves, all because it wasn't a money printing machine like the 3DS was. Just a shame.... If you ask me, the only other machine to get worse treatment was the Dreamcast. 

We're losing more and more diversity within the PlayStation family, and it's very disheartening. The PS5's line up in its opening launch window pales in comparison to the Nintendo Wii U, which might be a ridiculous thing to say, but if you do a bit of research, you'll see the Wii U actually did launch with more games in the same time frame. "But... but.. Miles Morales and Demon's Souls!" It's April.... you're still leading with those two games? 

Anyway, Ratchet and Clank: A Rift Through Time is the only major AAA game I see coming out this year. Kena: Bridge of Spirits looks amazing, but I still know very little about it, but even then, it's not getting anywhere near the same level of hype as established franchises are, and EVERYONE who has a PS5 needs to know of this game. Maybe it'll happen closer to launch, but it still feels like Sony is underselling this game. And well, there's Returnal, but again, we know very little about it and honestly, I just don't get powerful enough vibes from this game that justifies paying 70 for it. 

And well, Sony's being pretty arrogant when it comes to the 70 dollar price tag for games. For the PS5 launch, I could see why a lot of people just had to cough up the dough for some 70 dollar games. They just had to have SOMETHING to play on their new machines. As much as I enjoyed the Demon's Souls remake (god, Bluepoint REALLY knows how to remake games!), even I had trouble really convincing myself I needed to pay 70 for it. Meanwhile, most games on Xbox Series X are still at 60, and you can buy them on Xbox One X and have free next-gen updates. Although, this is primarily up to publisher discretion. 

Xbox Series X may not have the level of AAA first-party titles Sony has, but the one thing they certainly have is a better service. Although I'm not a subscriber to Gamepass because I don't like to play so many games at once and continue to pay in order to access them, I recognize the value of XSX. Sony has yet to match that service, but they say they have a "counter punch" coming. We'll see. But what's EXTREMELY weird to me is that Sony's newest baseball offering MLB The Show 21 is not only on Xbox, but also on Gamepass! Yes, a brand new SONY game can be played for free (provided you sub to Gamepass). Meanwhile, Sony is asking 70 dollars for it, AND IT'S NOT EVEN ON PS+! What the hell, Sony? I own both consoles, but if I subbed to Gamepass, I'd definitely play it there instead of paying 70 for it on PS5. I don't know what the deal was like for this, but I'm sure Sony's accountants drew up a formula that would have their losses covered by MS's offer. But still... 

Sony is just being reckless this generation and I want to give them the benefit of the doubt that a lot of their plans they were making last year got wrecked by COVID, but COVID can only excuse so much. Meanwhile, you got Nintendo still killing it and MS dropping billions of dollars on a publisher so large, it routinely had their own conference at E3. Maybe Sony's just really betting that their AAA Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Santa Monica and Sucker Punch games are pretty much all they really need to carry them through, and I get that. You want to invest in your biggest money makers, but not all gamers have the level of patience that Sony is asking for. Sony's going to see an exodus if they're not careful. Nintendo and MS are doing loads of new things to try to attract new customers via games and services. Sony's got to stop riding their lapels. 

Sony Closing Shop Illustrates Everything Wrong With a Digital Future

 

Let me preface this blog by saying that if you expected me to go on some sort of Jim Sterling-inspired rant cussing up a storm and condoning everyone to commit piracy, I'm sorry. You'll not find that here. Also, I in no way am defending Sony for their decision, because it ultimately sucks. The point of this blog is an attempt to get extremely irate people on the internet out of the lofty clouds of unreasonable expectations and back down to the terrafirma of reality. Let's begin.

By now, everyone should know that Sony will be closing three digital store fronts: PS3 and PSP stores on July 2nd, and Vita on August 27th. This gives gamers roughly three to four months to shop for any last minute games. And while this really sucks, we do have to remember that these stores are at least a decade old, with the exception of the Vita being several months shy of a decade. Sadly, this is the ugly, bitter truth of digital games. They simply can't exist forever. 

This should come to no surprise to any of us. Every time we hit that "Purchase" button, we give our money to companies knowing that some day, they'll no longer be available. This is nothing new. Nintendo has shut down DS and Wii eShops and even 3DS and Wii U eShops in some regions. I've lost access entirely to the TMNT and X-Men arcade games on my 360 and PS3 and never got around to buying the Simpsons arcade game before Konami delisted them all. Speaking of Konami, the removal of the prototype Silent Hills demo P.T. caused an uproar and we saw PS4s with the demo being sold on eBay in upwards of 1000 dollars. 

Another crowning example of the downside of digital games is obviously:

Originally released on Xbox 360 and PS3, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World was adored by gamers the world over. It featured a terrific retro visual style and played very similar to classic beat 'em ups like River City Ransom. Then suddenly at the end of 2014, the game was delisted from XBL and PSN most likely due to publisher Ubisoft letting the license expire. Ever since then, gamers have been crying out for someone to put the game back up and nearly seven years later, Ubisoft finally did this past January. Also, all eyes were on limit run game maker Limited Run Games to press physical copies so that the game would have some permanence and thankfully, they did. I bought the game on the PS5 digitally to play with a friend that night, but I also double dipped and bought a physical copy for the Switch. Even with all the kerfuffle, Scott Pilgrim will not exist forever on these store fronts. 

Now, just because this is nothing new doesn't mean it doesn't suck entirely, but let's be rational here. Do we honestly expect companies like Sony, MS and Nintendo to give us lifetime guarantees that the games we bought digitally will be unavailable? Do you want them to keep servers running for 10 more years? 20? 30? To keep games alive that you'll probably never play again? I understand that companies bleed money left and right and can still run marathons, but the point of any business is to keep making money and if games aren't selling on their servers anymore, it's not really ideal to keep them up and running, so some hemorrhaging has to be stemmed. They're also under no obligation to keep the games alive. They only need to sell them. If you're worried about losing your digital games, there's a wealth of options out there to back them up. 

But again, think about it. Do you expect Best Buy or Game Stop or Wal-Mart or Amazon to guarantee your game's availability for the rest of your life? That's dependent on the publisher. If they feel their games aren't selling anymore that they would lose money pressing more copies, they're going to stop making the games, and retailers are under no obligation to make sure their games will always be around. We have secondhand markets for that. Now, that's were the real issue lies.

There are no secondhand markets for digital-only games. The PlayStation stores closing that are selling games like Jak and Daxter, Last of Us, Uncharted, God of War, etc., shouldn't cause concern for anyone because they can always find those copies floating around physically. But digital-only games don't have that luxury, so I get why people are upset over the closing of these stores. Don't stay upset, though, because this is the future you chose for those games. You voted with your wallet that you'd rather buy a game digitally versus physically, so more and more developers and publishers began to move to digital-only. 

If you want to pirate these games because you're pissed off at Sony, I'd say you're rationalizing and that doesn't place you on any higher moral ground. If you're upset that these games are being removed, then buy them. They've been around long enough. They've had enough time to sell. If you never got around to getting Generic Button-Pressing Retro Fest and your only recourse is to pirate, well, that is the only time I'll defend piracy. I do believe that games should be preserved. I just don't believe it's the companies' responsibility. Backup, archive, and share. This happens all the time in other mediums. Movies get lost to time, someone will restore it. A lost album is found, and someone releases it online. A box of comic books from a dead artist is bought at an estate sale and then given to a museum. The originators of these mediums can't keep their works alive forever. They need help from people either capable or willing to do so. 

And we need to come up with a better way than piracy. We need more companies like Limited Run and iam8bit to keep pressing digital-only games so they can be found physically when they're delisted. We should actually call on them to take up archival duties as well, preserve them and work with publishers to obtain licenses to continue to sell themselves should the publishers chose not to do so. Personally, I feel the best option would be to have a physical on demand company who can press physical copies for any system at any time. Of course, it will be pricier, but at least the games will continue to exist. 

I don't like the thought of some people losing out on the ability to buy games for any reason. Hell, we just saw Super Mario 3D All-Stars delisted from the eShop this week, and we're starting to see physical copies get marked up. I even bough a second copy just in case they go way up in value, although I don't think it's going to be for a while. But what I don't want to see is gamers continuously pissed off and try to justify piracy to stick it to Sony when the games are still up on their stores. Sony didn't just decide to do this over night. They gave people plenty of time, just as Nintendo gave people plenty of time to get 3D All-Stars. Again, if you really want these games, buy them before they're gone. You'll at least be supporting the developers this way. Once they're gone, then do whatever the hell you want, but DON'T justify piracy when the games are still up. 

"But they're multi-billion dollar companies!" You know what? I honestly hate that defense. People try to conflate rich people with needing to be robbed from, like they're trying to be modern day Robin Hoods, only I know that most people who pirate have no intention of redistributing the wealth. I'm not rich myself, but I can afford to buy a PS5 every month. Just because I can, does that mean it's OK for people who can't afford one to rob mine every month? No. Again, don't rationalize when it comes to theft. Anyway, I digress. I don't want to turn this into an anti-piracy blog anymore than it needs to be.

This entire situation just sucks. Digital-only games are a great convenience, but they come with several caveats, which we're again seeing happening with the closure of Sony stores. The EULAs that we never read  are written in such a way that it pretty much guarantees they can do whatever they want with their games, because they technically aren't YOUR games. It's only a license to use them, and licenses can be ended at their discretion for any reason. This is why every single gamer needs to advocate buying physical copies and archiving games that aren't physical. We have to commit ourselves and it needs to be a concerted effort, or a digital-only future will loom ever closer. I just downloaded Oddworld: Soulstorm yesterday because it was free on PSN+ and I wanted to play it right away, but I also just preordered a physical copy which releases July 6th. I want Lorne Lanning and Sony to see that people are still interested in physical copies and even if games release on digital first (Kena, I'm looking at you), I want Sony to know there are people willing to wait BECAUSE I don't want see what's happening now happen 15 years later with the PS5 store. 

And it really sucks for the little guys who don't have money to press their own copies so going digital is their only recourse. But Sony isn't the only digital store front. Pitch your game to Nintendo and MS. You can always put it on Steam or GOG, or even the Epic store who's all about giving devs bigger cuts. And again, work with companies like Limited Run Games and see if you can get some physical copies out. There's always options. But yeah, we're always going to deal with these caveats if we continue to buy digitally, and at some point we need to hold ourselves accountable as well for ushering in a digital-only future. 

Revisting the Sony PlayStation Classic

I'm going to be bluntly honest. I was really hoping that I did a games impressions blog when I first got it, so I wouldn't have to do one now. Unfortunately, I did not. This is by far my least favorite of the mini consoles. If you haven't been following it, the reason for it is its lackluster games collection, its minimal presentation and the fact that nine of the 20 games are PAL versions. They are: 

• Battle Arena Toshinden
• Cool Boarders 2
• Destruction Derby
• Grand Theft Auto
• Jumping Flash!
• Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee
• Resident Evil Director’s Cut
• Tekken 3
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six

So what's the deal with PAL anyway? Well, PAL is the European region and TVs over there back in the day ran at 50 Hz versus 60 in the States. PAL games were programmed to run on those TVs with slower refresh rates, so when you played a PAL game on an American TV, the result was a stuttering performance. For whatever dumbass reason, Sony decided it was smart to release NINE PAL versions on AMERICAN PlayStation Classics. This thing was obviously rushed trying to head off Nintendo's inevitable N64 Classic... that they never bothered to release. I'm going to be bluntly honest again and say I'm probably not going to revisit a game again if I already played a little of it when I first got the Classic. One last thing to note, because the system doesn't have a true off state, it keeps itself on in standby. Therefore, it keeps my wireless adapter on which in turn keeps my controller on. I didn't discover this until the next morning when my controller was completely dead. Annoying.

Battle Arena Toshinden

Back in 1995, Sega was the first out the gate with their 32-bit system, the Saturn. It launched with the amazing Virtua Fighter, an all 3D fighting game. Sony would need to follow up with their own 3D fighter so they launched the PlayStation with a weapons-based fighter Battle Arena Toshinden. Its graphics featured textured polygons,  which Virtua Fighter did not have, but its gameplay was slow and clunky. Revisiting the game today, it has aged poorly. It's quite ugly and thanks to being a PAL version runs even worse than the original. Shame Sony didn't swap this out with the far superior Soul Blade. I couldn't even be bothered to complete one game.

Cool Boarders 2

Wow, I forgot a lot of PS games had FMV intros. This one tried to splice together FMV with footage of the gameplay, which I guess may have been impressive back then, but it's so grainy now that it really showed its age. I could not play this game. It's extremely rough around the edges, and it makes me wonder if it was really playable back in the day either. Could be because it's a PAL version, or I just really really suck. It's just extremely choppy and it really doesn't control well. I played some Competition and it seems like it's split up with doing tricks off a ski jump and doing downhill courses. I couldn't really figure out how to land tricks, but when I did the downhill course, I started having a bit of a fun, but I couldn't catch anyone. When I did the second course, I couldn't steer sharply for whatever reason and it made turning in that course almost impossible. I was bouncing back and forth off the walls like a pinball. 

Destruction Derby

Another PAL game and another game that aged poorly, I actually had a lot of fun with it when I was a kid. I still kinda had fun with it now. The game's presentation was pretty poor, but the gameplay was rather fun when you got good enough to hit cars and make them spin out for big points. I think the game also had a vendetta system that would make the AI racers go after you if you hit them hard. I also remember this was one of the few System Link games where you could hook up two PSs and TVs to play two-player. I remember doing this with my friend and having a blast. I just really wish this was the NSTC version, though. 

Final Fantasy VII

I don't need to revisit this one at all considering I beat it twice back in the day. It's still very fresh in my mind. I remember when I first started it, I was a bit puzzled by the fact that you started at level seven. I've always enjoyed starting games from level one. Anyway, Final Fantasy VII isn't just classic; it's historic. It helped give rise to Sony's dominance in the console industry when Nintendo stubbornly stuck to cartridges and lost FFVII to Sony. When FFVII released on the PlayStation, it broke numerous sales records and birthed millions of new RPG fans. It also contained one of the most infamous scenes in gaming history when the penultimate villain Sephiroth killed Aerith. Also, seeing classic summons being rendered in full 3D was awe-inspiring.  Writing, music, gameplay, everything about this game incorporated the very best gaming could offer.

Grand Theft Auto

Before there was Rockstar, there was BMG Interactive and DMA. People who only started playing GTA with 3 and after are in for a shock if they choose to play the first and see where the series began. And well, thanks to being yet another PAL game, this game is just too ancient for me to play. Also, I completely forgot that you have to hold down A in order to move. You can't just move around with the d-pad! I played a few missions just for the hell of it and it was all I really needed to relive to the game. I do remember having a lot more fun with it when I was a kid. We got bored of doing the main missions and tried to see how may people we could run over before we got busted. Fun fact, did you know that the developers originally were making this game to be a peaceful law-abiding open-world game, even having you stop at traffic lights? Yeah, they quickly discovered it was a lot more fun to break the law. 

Intelligent Qube

This was one of the games I played when I first got my PS Classic. I remember renting this as a kid and loving it. I got addicted to it and I thought the same thing would happen again, but it didn't happen. I don't know if it's just because I couldn't remember how to play it or if it just succumbed to old age but it just wasn't as fun. If you never played it, it's a puzzler that has you running around trying to destroy waves of advancing cubes by positioning tiles underneath them as they fall to make them disappear. It's  definitely a game that requires you to get into a groove in order to do well and I guess I just couldn't. I've no real desire to return to it anymore and honestly, there's hundreds of better games Sony could have replaced this one with.

Jumping Flash

Before you could jump around in 3D as Mario, you jumped around in 3D as a robotic rabbit named Jumping Flash. You fired off all sorts of fireworks as you navigated stages with varying degrees of verticality and hunted down enemies to destroy. When I played this game again when I first got my PS Classic, I had some fun with it but it was short-lived. It didn't really help that it was a PAL version so of course, it aged worse. 

Metal Gear Solid

Yet another game I don't need to revisit in order to talk about. I used to speed run this game. MGS was to action games as FFVII was to RPGs. In fact, legendary game designer Hideo Kojima coined a new subgenre: stealth action. MGS's main selling point was sneaking around the hidden base of Shadow Moses and taking out guards as silently as possible. Stealth wasn't always an option,  though, and you encountered some fantastic boss battles. You even got to take down a helicopter, and who could forget Metal Gear Rex! The game also had memorable dialogue sequences via the Codec and even had a secret channel that could only be accessed by looking on the back of the box. Those without the original box had to search the internet for the code. Also, who could ever forget Psycho Mantis and how he read your memory card and moved your controller by making it rumble on the table! If anything gets me to play this again on the Classic, it will be to see how they do this without the memory card and me using my Switch Pro Controller. Will he be able to make that rumble?

Mr. Driller 

I never played this back in the day but I heard a lot of good stuff about it. I played it when I first got the Classic and fell in love with it. It plays kinda like Dig Dug but more heavy on the puzzle elements, like if Dig Dug and Tetris had a baby. I actually really got addicted to it and probably played it way more than any other game on the Classic. Would I call this game a classic? No, but it was a lot of fun so I don't really mind.

Oddworld: Abe's Oddyssey

Ok, now this one was just a punch in the gut to me. I LOVED the original Abe's Oddyssey, so much so that I bought New 'n' Tasty for the Vita. Actually, I finished it recently just months prior to buying a Classic. When I fired up this game again after I bought the Classic, I was really disappointed by it. Being a PAL version, it didn't animate very well and sadly was just too ugly for me to really enjoy. Maybe if I didn't play through the spectacular New 'n' Tasty, I might have been more forgiving. Still, for its time (and if you can get the NTSC version), Abe's Oddyssey is a fantastic action puzzler. It actually reminds me that Soulstorm is about to release next week, AND it'll be free with PSN+!

R4: Ridge Racer Type 4

"RIIIDGE RAAACER!" - Kaz Hirai. I absolutely love Ridge Racer games. I played the absolute hell out of the first game. I'm not sure if I played any of the sequels before V, which I didn't care for much, but I consumed every Ridge Racer after. I even set a world record once on a time trial in 6. I thought I was going to play this one for a good while before I moved on to the next game, but I don't know. There was just something about it that I couldn't really get into. Maybe it was the structure of the game. Honestly, I think Sony would have been better off swapping this one out for the original. The first Ridge Racer is a certified classic. 

Rayman

I honestly can't remember if I've ever played the first Rayman. This series has greatly evolved over the years, but at least the first game is certainly playable. I still think it looks good for what it was, and it animates well. Thank God it isn't a PAL. I played a few levels, but they're definitely tame by today's platformer standards. That may change later on in the game. Heh, for a while I thought you were able to punch in the game and I couldn't figure out how. I didn't know you had to get the ability to do that first. There was also a bonus level I was playing that I was trying to finish, but I accidentally died outside of it and then had enough. I definitely want to come back to this game at some point and play more. One of the few games on here that's actually a classic. 

Resident Evil: Director's Cut

Haha, ok, I've had enough. I played up until Barry saved me (playing as Jill, the "Master of Unlocking") from the trap room where he says the infamous line, "You were almost a JILL sandwich!" The cheese is strong with this one. The opening FMV movie is about as B horror as you can get. The acting... it's so terribly classic! Now I never played Director's Cut, and it's a shame that this is the PAL version, but I fondly remember the original. I guess the only real difference with Director's Cut is the rearranging of certain items. I was so early in, I didn't really notice anything different. But man, the tank controls... are just not OK anymore. I know, I know, it was an intentional design decision in order to increase the tension of encounters, but the series has evolved so much now with 7 and 8, it really does make playing the old games too frustrating to be fun. Back when this was all you had, you learned to deal with it. Anyway, regardless of the shape its in, it's still very much a a classic. 

Revelations: Persona

I suppose I should give this game another shot sometime in the future as it's the first in the massively popular Persona franchise, but I could just not get into it today. It sounds like it would be a great story, but it's so clunky to control. I was supposed to meet someone at the hospital, but all I got was that it was somewhere northeast of me, and I went all over the north and east trying to find this hospital and couldn't find it. Not having quest markers really makes it hard to hold my attention. I was trying to play the game long enough to at least see what the battle system was like but after spending five minutes wandering around the city and still not finding the hospital, I just gave up. Again, I should give it another try sometime, because apparently, it's good enough that people are willing to pay several hundred dollars for it on eBay. 

Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo

I know a few people that debated that this shouldn't be in a classic collection, but I consider it a classic. I never played the game on the PS, but I played the hell out of it on the GBA. This is one of those puzzlers that I put up on the same tier as Tetris, Dr. Mario and Puyo Puyo in terms of addictiveness. I only played a quick game on the PS just to see what the graphics were like (obviously better than the GBA's), and I had to force myself to play a different game or I would have spent the entire day playing it again. In fact, I remember I bought a GBA Micro and played it exclusively with Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo when I was work because it was easy to conceal when supervisors passed over my cubicle. Say what you want about this game being included over an actual Street Fighter game. I still consider it to be very much a classic. 

Syphon Filter

Unpopular opinion: Syphon Filter is better than Metal Gear Solid. Granted, MGS has the better production value, but I've always found myself gravitating more towards Syphon Filter in terms of gameplay. I just thought the mission structure was better and the gameplay was more varied. I really loved the cat and mouse missions and scoping out buildings to find the best way in. Plus, tasering bad guys in the head NEVER gets old! But yeah, this is a classic to me, but unfortunately, Sony just couldn't keep the series going strong as each sequel got progressively worse. 

Tekken 3

One of the best Tekkens around is marred by being a PAL version! God dammit, Sony! I mean, it's still playable, but you can definitely tell it's not the NTSC version. This was probably the worst possible game for Sony to make that mistake on. Anyway, Tekken has always been a strong fighting series, and I absolutely loved Tekken 3's roster. My favorite was Eddy Gordo, because I loved his Capoeria style. It was tricky learn, but was also tricky to fight against. I had lots of great fights with my friends, and I loved all the new CG intros and endings each character had. Oh, if only this was the NTSC version. I would have played much more of it. 

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six

WHY?! WHY out of all the games available is this on a Classic console? Whoever thought, "Gee, you know what would go great with a list that contains games such as FFVII, MGS and RE? Rainbow Six!" I tried playing this game when I first got my Classic and not only is it unplayable, it's a PAL game so it only makes it that much worse. The graphics are abysmal with such a short draw distance that I can't make out enemies until it's almost too late. The game itself is too complex in my opinion to be a console game as these are much better experienced on PC. It doesn't help that you're stuck with the original PlayStation controller, so you don't even have analogue sticks to aim with. Trying to shoot in an FPS with a digital pad? Forget about it. 

Twisted Metal

I dunno, maybe it's because I'm half drunk at this point, but I cannot get into this game. It's actually giving me a headache. I remember I had a lot of good times with this game, and I do consider it a classic because it is one of Sony's most memorable franchises... that they unfortunately haven't done anything with lately. It's pretty much dead at this point. Anyway, I had to play as the iconic Sweet Tooth and I played the first round a couple of times until I figured out the controls enough to get me to the next level, but after that, my ass was handed to me over and over in the second round where I just got tired and gave up. I do remember I also used to use Mr. Grim a lot. Even though I still consider it a classic, it's just too basic to want to go back to when Twisted Metal Black is just so much better. 

Wild Arms

Finally, the final game on this PlayStation Classic. It hasn't been much fun revisiting this console. Anyway, Wild Arms will always be one of my favorite RPGs on the PlayStation. It's one of my favorite RPGs in general. Mixing JRPGs with a Western theme was such a fantastic idea. I loved the whole ARMS mechanic where you use your guns in combination with magic to do some really good damage. I played the game again until I beat the first boss. I love how the first boss was just called Zombie when in reality, it was more like a dragon, but I had to force myself to turn it off after the boss fight, otherwise I would have kept playing. I really want to play through this game again, but that will have to wait for a rainy day. I'm not sure if I ever played Wild Arms 2, but I do know that I have Wild Arms 3 still sealed on the PS2. Some day, I'll get to that as well. If anything can be said about the PlayStation Classic, at least it has a few classic RPGs on it. 

So that's it. I'm now caught up on my mini console impression blogs. The Sega Astro City Mini Arcade should be arriving soon, and I'll most likely split that up into segments as it will be a fresh take. I just really regret that the PS Classic didn't turn out to be much better than it was. The collection could have used several substitutions and of course, it could have done without the PAL versions. Anyway, if you've kept up with all the blogs at this point, thank you very much! Look forward the Sega Astro City Mini Arcade blogs!

Revisiting the SNES Classic

Continuing from my previous blog, it's the SNES Classic's turn. I'm still using my adapter, and fortunately, it didn't require any adjusting to work with the SNES. It uses the same coding as it does for the NES. The SNES Classic was the one Classic that I really wanted, mainly for Star Fox 2, which I'll cover in a little bit. Also, I'm still disappointed by the fact that it was 20 dollars more than the NES and contained 10 less games. The library could have really benefited with 10 more games. The SNES catalogue is just too great to contain to only 20 games. Anyway, let's begin. 

Contra III: The Alien Wars

The one thing I loved about the SNES era was seeing franchises continue from the NES to the SNES and seeing just how much greater the games have become. Contra III is one of those games. Everything - and I mean EVERYTHING - has been improved. You can swap between weapons, detonate nukes, climb walls and ceilings. The graphics still look good to this day with loads of Mode 7 effects used on bosses and the overhead levels. Even the music is better and sounds better thanks to the better audio chip of the SNES. Konami unfortunately was never able to top this game, the pinnacle of the series. It was so good that I even bought it again on the GBA. 

Donkey Kong Country

This game was EPIC! Just when the new systems started coming out and flexing their muscle, Rare's like "We're doing CG rendering on SNES." Granted, it doesn't look as impressive as it did back in the 90s, but it animates smoothly and is still a lot of fun. I love how you can grab Diddy Kong along for the ride and tag off, or if you die, the other takes your place until they die too. The levels were also full of secrets, and it was a joy to find all the K O N G letters. I'm trying really hard to remember if I've beaten this game, and I want to say I did. I also remember there was this crazy yellow VHS tape that I got in the mail promoting the game. I wish I still kept it. I don't believe I played 2 and 3, though. Maybe some day I'll hunt them down. 

EarthBound

I know fans of EarthBound will be greatly disappointed by the fact that I just now started it for the first time in my life, but hey, it's always been on my mind. I played it for about the first 30 minutes and got Picky by the meteor crash site. I got to be bluntly honest, though. I'm not a fan of the battle system. It's too slow for me and I prefer to see the hero characters actually making attacks on the enemies instead of being largely text based. I know that this is a well-written game, though, so I plan to return some day and finish it. I just don't have much time for it at the current moment. 

F-Zero

Anyone who knows me knows how badly I'm waiting for a new F-Zero. It's one of my favorite racings series, but it's also one of my most infuriating. When the courses get complex, they become really rough. When I was a kid, I played the hell out of this and beat every cup on every difficulty level and set as many time trials as I could. When I played this again, I was just going to do a couple of tracks, but I ended up beating the Knight's Cup. But, I HATE Death Wind. Seriously, who thought it was fun to add high winds to a racing game to constantly blow the vehicles around? But yeah, F-Zero is such a classic and I love how there are F-Zero tracks in MK8. I love Mute City and Big Blue's music!

Final Fantasy III

Guess what? The most popular and beloved Final Fantasy pre-VII is a game I never played! *gasp* Well, I'm finally starting it, but don't get too excited yet. It will take me a long time to finally finish as I don't have any intent to go back to it anytime soon. Coincidentally, the mechs that Wedge and Co. are riding in the intro scene is a mount I just purchased (not with real money) in Final Fantasy XIV. Also coincidentally, the music that plays while the three of them are crossing the snowy fields has been renditioned for one of Final Fantasy XIV's new areas in Stormbringer. As for what I've played so far, the game starts me out with a party of three in Magiteks (and they play a huge part of FFXIV: ARR, btw) and I'm just so overpowered right now, it's stupid. This of course means that something will happen soon that will knock me back down to level one and remove me of all my powers. Anyway, I beat the first boss, a lightning-emitting whelk, which is actually a boss in FFXIV btw, and I'm really wanting to play more now. But, I've got to force myself to move on. Maybe I'll return to this sooner than later. 

Kirby Super Star

This might be one I'll have to return to at some point. It's an "8 Games In One" thing, and it seems like there's a bunch of mini-games packaged with what I hope is a regular sized Kirby game. I played Gourmet Race where I had to race against King Dedede in order to eat the most food and I did not care for it at all. I believe the main game is Spring Fever where you actually do regular Kirby stuff, and to my joyous surprise, you can actually spawn a helper by releasing an enemy after you swallow them. I simply love NPCs that fight alongside you! But, if Spring Fever is over in just a couple of levels, and the rest of the games are just hackneyed mini games, I don't really think this title will have any staying power.  

Kirby's Dream Course

This isn't the first time Kirby's been taken out of his element and been made into a completely different kind of game. Kirby was once a pinball game on the Game Boy. Anyway, I remember loving this game as a kid. I'd play it with a friend and we would just laugh as we forgot about sinking our putts and juts focused on knocking each other out of bounds. What I loved about the game was using different power ups from the enemies to make otherwise impossible shots. Although I forgot how to do that when I played this game again. I finished the first course and I might come back and play more sometime. I don't remember if I've beaten it.

Mega Man X

Just as with Contra III, Mega Man was another franchise I got to see begin to really evolve thanks to the power of the SNES. Mega Man X not only had better graphics but better gameplay thanks to things like the Charge Shot, the wall jump and riding atop robots. It's been too long, though, and I don't remember the robot names or the order you're supposed to fight them in. I went after the chameleon first and he was so hard, I gave up after a stock of lives. I don't really have much interest to play anymore of this, though, because I played the crap out of when I was a kid. Funnily enough, this was one of the games I got for bringing home As on my report card. 

Secret of Mana

I'm not even going to bother playing this one again in order to talk about it. I have a completed file on the Collection of Mana for Switch. When I had this game as a kid, I played the crap out of it beating it several times at level 99. It still remains my favorite RPG of all time. I loved the characters and leveling up their weapons and magic system. I loved the real time action combat and riding the dragon to different places. Mode 7 effects were all the rage back then. Plus, terrific music and story. Such a shame that the Secret of Mana remake didn't turn out very well as I really wanted to experience it with updated graphics. Maybe some day, a better developer will give it another shot. 

StarFox 

Turns out, I had a save file on here. I must have played a level when I first got the SNES Classic. I continued on and played another level, but ran out of the lives before I could beat the boss. I don't really have a desire to play this game anymore. It's a title of its time. Yes, the SFX chip was amazing back then doing polygonal graphics on a 16-bit machine, but it's sorta headache inducing today. I also had such a hard time with depth perception in this game. It was really hard to tell exactly how close some objects were to you. I did remember beating this game back in the day. Unfortunately, my jackass friend moved on me when he was still borrowing my original copy, which I never replaced.

StarFox 2

I've no desire to play this game again. It was the first one I tried when I got my SNES Classic, and it disappointed me greatly. I was so hyped for this game because it was the first time it was officially released, and it was canceled when it was still in development because I believe it was Miyamoto who believed it wasn't going to live up to the hype. He was right. Instead of being made as a fully fleshed out sequel, it was broken up into little mini missions that you flew all over a map to carry out. This made the game a lot less fun and pretty much removed any desire for me to want to play this game. Such a shame. I could have easily waited to find an SNES Classic at a better time had I known how terrible this game turned out. 

Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting

It doesn't get much more classic than this. Capcom's legendary fighting series launched a plethora of clones when the first Street Fighter 2 was released around 1991. A near perfect port of the arcade version made its way to the SNES and the series kept evolving with Championship Edition, which let you play as the bosses, and then Turbo: Hyper Fighting, which brought in a slew of enhancements such as faster speeds and new moves for some characters, such as a fireball for Chun-Li. The thing is, I'm not that great at fighters anymore, so before I even started, I put the difficulty down to one star. I chose Guile and flew through the stages until I met M. Bison and even on one star difficulty, it still took me three tries to beat him! Plus, playing with the Pro Controller doesn't really seem to be the best option. I think the game plays much better with a traditional SNES pad. 

Super Castlevania IV

Even though a lot of people might consider Symphony of the Night to be the greatest 2D Castlevania ever made, IV remains to be my favorite. I played it so much as a kid and I lost track of how many times I've beaten it. This was the second game I played when I got my SNES Classic. I actually have a save file from the clocktower, but god DAMMIT I'm sick of this input lag! Everyone who knows the clocktower knows that it's a platform-heavy stage, and I've missed so many jumps because of it. I kinda wanted to start over again, but if I did, I know I'd just keep playing it again until I got to that part, because I don't actually have trouble with the game until the clocktower. But man, this game is so incredible! I love the 8 direction whip, the music and all the Mode 7 Effects! Truly a classic!

Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts

No thank you. 

Super Mario Kart

Holy crap, I forgot how to play the original Super Mario Kart! The game has evolved so much that the first game in the massively successful series doesn't even feel like a Mario Kart game. I forgot that you can actually spin out turning too hard. Mode 7 is cool and all but it also plays with perception and it's just much easier in later games to line yourself up after turns. I played through Mushroom Cup on 50 CC and because I was still trying to adjust, believe it or not, I struggled to keep first. I played the crap out of this game when I was a kid and beat it god knows how many times. Even though there were clear omissions from this collection, Nintendo KNEW they couldn't omit this. Also, people, get ready for Mario Kart 9 in 2022! Mario Kart turns 30 next year and Nintendo would be crazy to miss out on the timing!

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars

Hey, Super Mario RPG turns 25 this year! Watch Nintendo not care! Anyway, this isn't just a classic RPG, it's a legendary RPG. It's one of the best collaborations Nintendo has ever done with another third party studio. Although it looks dated now, back then, it was an amazing game to look at because of the prerendered graphics. Then, you had the absolutely fantastic writing. You also had a terrific battle system that would carry over to the Paper Mario and Mario and Luigi games. I started a new file and I really wanted to play this game from start to finish, but I only did so for about a half hour and beat the Hammer Bros. and got the hammer from them. Then, my dumb ass messed up the save state, so I have to do it all over again. I beat this game a couple of times already, though, so it'll be hard to find time to do it a third time. Also, fun fact: I practically highjacked the game from a friend of mine who got it before I did. He only played for a couple of hours at first, and when I came over and started playing it, I was hours ahead of him when he finally kicked me off his SNES. It was THAT good!

Super Mario World

Ah yes, one of the greatest SNES games of all time and one of the greatest Mario games of all time. This was also one of the last games that became a standard pack in with launch titles. I remember when I first got my SNES and started playing this, I was so taken aback by the graphics and sound. It was so much better than SMB3, although I still love the game more than SMW. Also, no one ever forgets the the first time they flew with the cape and the first time they rode Yoshi. When I first got my SNES Classic, I went back to this game and beat the first couple of worlds, so I started in World 3. And well, once again, the input lag has kinda ruined the experience. All it took was one missed jump and a fall to my death to make me turn it off and say, "I've had enough." Seriously, this wireless adapter is really starting to seem like a waste of money. 

Super Metroid

You know, I'm not entirely sure if I've ever beaten this game. I think I may have, but that would require me having to haul out my original SNES and check the cart again, of which the battery might have quit and lost my save file. Anyway, what can really be said about Super Metroid other than it launched an entire subgenre of action adventure games: the Metroidvania (I guess you could argue the genre truly began with Symphony of the Night as you would need a Castlevania to combine with Metroid). Anyway, I'll be honest and say it's just getting too late for me to put up with the game's constant backtracking. Find a new area, can't access it. Find a power up/ability, try to remember where you saw that area you couldn't access, find another new area and can't access THAT area. As much as I love Metroid games (especially the Prime and GBA titles), I got to admit, backtracking has never been my favorite aspect. I doubt I'll ever return to this game and try to beat it again. 

Super Punch-Out!!

I've probably played this game more than most games in this collection. When I first got it on the SNES, I played it until I finished all circuits with no losses. I beat all the time trials as well, I believe. When I got my SNES Classic, I think this was the third game I played and I started a new file. I finished the first three circuits with no losses. I even started a file on the Switch when they put the game on Switch Online. When I revisited, I started from the fourth circuit, which may have been a bad idea. I could not beat Narcis Prince. Too rusty, I guess, and I didn't want to work myself up before I went into work today trying to beat him. Anyway, this is one of the best sequels ever made. Everything is better with much bigger sprites, harder-hitting sounds and better gameplay. I really loved it when I could get into the rhythm of blocking, dodging and countering with super punches. Some day, though, I'll get that rhythm back. 

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Every Zelda fan knows this game intimately. Believe it or not, I've never beaten it on the SNES. I have beaten it on the GBA, though. If I remember correctly, when I first played it, I really got lost trying to get to some dungeon in the Dark World. But anyway, this remains to be one of the best Zeldas ever made. Seeing all the huge improvements from Zelda 1 and 2 really helped to further validate the need to get an SNES. The dungeons were great, the music was great, the graphics were great. Everything was great! When I revisited the game for this blog, I played up to the point where I rescued Zelda from the dungeon and got her out to the sanctuary. I really wanted to keep playing, but had to force myself to stop. This will be a great game to go back to on a rainy day.

Yoshi's Island: Super Mario World 2

Like Super Mario Bros. 2 to its predecessor, the "sequel" to Super Mario World was completely different. Not only did it star Mario's prehistoric sidekick Yoshi, it also relegated Mario to a baby that rides on his back who will annoy you to high hell should you ever get hit and cause Mario to fall off. Anyone who remembers this game is more familiar with that sound then they ever want to be. But regardless of all that, Yoshi's Island is a really good game. The visual style is completely different taking an aesthetic of a hyperactive child with a box of crayons. The gameplay is also really different, too. Arming yourself with a bunch of eggs you've made by swallowing your enemies, you shoot your eggs at other enemies, coins, flowers and other secrets as you make your way to the next yoshi to pass Baby Mario on. I believe I have all the Yoshi games, except Yoshi's Story. We don't talk about Yoshi's Story...

There you have it. I've finally gotten around to doing a blog about all the SNES games. Next up is the Sony Classic, which I really don't want to do... We'll see. 

That Mario 35th Anniversary Was Not a Celebration, It Was Extortion.

Before I begin, I'd just like to share this video. RGT85 has pretty much summed up what I want to say, and he's done it in a rather entertaining way. 

So, if you'd rather not watch his video and actually want to read what I have to say about it, thank you. Anyway...

It's April 1st. You know, April Fool's. I'm still waiting for Nintendo to post something on Twitter saying it's been one elaborate April Fool's joke... But it's definitely real. As of today, Super Mario 3D All-Stars, Super Mario 35, the Super Mario Bros. Game and Watch and for some reason that Fire Emblem NES game that was released in the States for the first time have been delisted from the eShop and are no longer being produced. At the time of this writing, Amazon is out of stock of the US version of 3D All Stars, but places such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy are still selling them. But once they're gone, they're gone. As for Super Mario 35, that game is officially ended. You can no longer download the game or play it if you already own it on the Switch. 

I decided to see what SM3DAS was going for on eBay and so far, it's not that crazy with listings between 50 to 70 dollars. One such yahoo tried doing this, though. 

I don't know if this person actually thought they were going to get anywhere near this, but it illustrates the problem that Nintendo has created by this whole limited availability thing. Maybe my title is being a bit premature, overdramatic and a little hyperbolic, as there isn't really any major scalping going on. Yet. Nintendo to their credit put out an insane number of copies, and they'll probably still be found in the wild for at least a week or two, but when the availability dries up, we should start seeing a rise in price. No one's profiting much right now, though, because everyone who currently has a Switch and wants the game got their copies. But a year from now, even six or so months from now when new Switch owners are looking to get this game, they're not going to have the luxury of buying it on the eShop. The only way they're going to be able to play it is physically. Because of the limited supply (how limited is anyone's guess), people who do have a copy probably won't be willing to let it go for cheap, especially if they have a sealed copy. We'll see the prices go up eventually. I guarantee it. 

What's frustrating about all of this is that there was no reason to do any of it. It doesn't benefit Nintendo in any way. Super Mario 3D All-Stars would have continued to sell way after its six month run was over. For some people, Super Mario 35 is one of the few reasons people bothered to subscribe to Nintendo's online service. I'm sure they're not going to see a huge dip in lost subs, but I know a lot people who loved playing it are greatly disappointed. 

Nintendo said they were celebrating Super Mario's 35th anniversary. It was awesome that they put together a classic compilation, although it could have been a much better package (which I rant about here). It was cool to see the Super Mario Bros. Game and Watch (at the time of this writing, there's no real demand for it on eBay). Super Mario 35 was a fantastic concept, but if this is a celebration, why take that all away from us? I get limited copies of SM3DAS, as this is hardly the first time a game's had a limited run (an entire website called Limited Run Games makes its money off pressing limited runs), but WHY remove it from the eShop? WHY kill a game that everyone loves after only six months? This isn't some MMO that's had a five year run and is losing its player base, or a game like Avengers that never established its player base. These are games loved by people who love Mario, and they want to keep on celebrating him by ... playing his games!

The thing that I keep coming back to is that Nintendo continuously provides an ecosystem that scalpers thrive in. I'm pretty damn sure not a single executive is unaware of the problems with scalpers. If they've just heard about it recently, they've seen it with the NES Classic when they didn't make anywhere near enough. They actually addressed it by creating so many more SNES Classics, and trying to get one of those was still an issue. So when Nintendo does these limited availabilities, they don't benefit from them; the scalpers do. The Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon 30th Anniversary Collector's Edition (that oddly enough only has the code) is going for around 100 dollars. Nintendo isn't seeing any of that extra money. Why not just keep making more and selling more? Why go out of their way and enact measures to limit the amount of money they can make? This is Nintendo we're talking about here, one of the greediest companies around. These are the guys who take cheap gimmicks and hardware and overcharge for them because they hate selling at a loss. These are the ones who shut down fan-made games because they're so overprotective of their legacy content. They sued go-kart organizers and used to take hefty cuts from YouTubers who played their games. But they want to limit these games and stop making money while people profit from their artificial scarcity... It's so bizarre. 

This did not feel like a celebration to me. It felt like they were trying to capitalize on people's FOMO and try to sell out of their games as fast as possible. Maybe they were trying to set a record? Maybe they're in collusion with scalpers? It just feels like extortion. Celebrations shouldn't involve pressure. They should be joyous occasions were everyone is left happy. Instead, we're left with people disappointed, scratching their heads, and still waiting on Nintendo posting that it was all a big April Fool's joke. I only hope people get their Switches soon so they don't start paying exorbitant mark ups that will inevitably come.