PixlBit

I found more interesting video game print ads in old comics I picked up in the bargain bin at my comic shop (Ren and Stimpy and Pirates of Dark Water no. 1).

I'm using May as board game month this year. My theme for the month is the 1950s. I think board games might have been the most popular form of gaming back then. So it's a good excuse to explore them myself this month. First up is Stratego. 

I always download every Games with Gold freebie on Xbox every couple of weeks and give them a try. Sometimes I find something I like and stick with it for a while. MX vs ATV Alive, out originally in 2011, was one of them.

I've gotten a bit frustrated with my randomized game lists. I've got some great choices upcoming but I can't seem to get to them because of Gems of War. My friend and I have been playing it obsessively for weeks now, maybe it's been months. It never seems to end. So I created a new list of most recent games I'd like to try and I'll see if I can't wrench myself away from Gems with it. Here's my Spring 2022 list (covers months March, April and May): 

I always save any game ads I see in comics. Some of them are pretty cool. They don't seem to do this in recent comics though. Here are three I found recently.

Shinobi, the 1987 arcade game, seems pretty good but I don't much like the way enemies act the same everytime you restart a level. I get quite bored of that pretty quickly. However, I'm not sad I spent $5 on Xbox Series S to play it again. I played it before as an unlockable in Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection when you played Shinobi III. I liked that game a lot more. Well, I'm taking it off the random list. It's not something I am looking forward to trying again even though I believe it's a quality retro title. Below is a video. 

I finally set up my new OLED Switch. Boy this thing is small. It's even a third of the size of my Xbox Series S, which seemed small to me for an Xbox console. The Switch has such a minimalist design. Those joycons are so small. I couldn't figure out how everything plugged into the holder until I popped the little piece of plastic off the side to expose the jacks for the HDMI and power cord. This is such a Japanese design. There is no waste of space. It all fits together like a work of origami. 

Both my friend and I beat the main story in Lego Batman 2 this week but there is plenty left to explore in this, one of the first if not the first, open-world Lego game. 

I made up my own list of 41 PC games from several lists online. It's basically one for every year 1981 to the present. I rolled Jet Pac from 1983. Luckily I could play it right away within Rare Replay on Xbox Series S. I used to own it on disc but it's on Game Pass now anyway. There was even the Jet Pac Refueled remake in that collection which I played as well. 

I rolled "arcade" on my consoles list and then Stargate (Defender II). I played it within Midway Arcade Origins on Xbox Series S.