PixlBit

If you give me more specific details, I might be able to help you in Banjo-Tooie.  I played that one to death on the N64, and I got all the achievements when it came to Xbox 360.

I just finished Illusion Island, so I finally got around to playing a game I got last Christmas called Ace Angler: Fishing Spirits.  It's based on an arcade game and the Switch version has a theme park and an aquarium you can walk around, kind of like Animal Crossing.  I may write a blog about it in another month or two, since my plans for writing a blog on Everybody 1 2 Switch fell through.  I wanted to talk about all the mini-games in that one, but since they pick them for you randomly, that would've been too hard to do.

I reviewed that Chicory game as well.

http://www.gamerdad.com/blog/2022/02/09/chicory-a-colorful-tale-switch-ps4-ps5-pc/

I think there was also a SNES game based on that King Arthur cartoon.

I reviewed Rune Factory 4 Special

http://www.gamerdad.com/blog/2022/01/19/rune-factory-4-special-ps4-switch-xbox-one-x-s-pc/

No Stage Select?  Aw, well I guess I'll just use this time to comment on stuff I've heard you all say in previous podcasts.  You don't have to read this aloud if you don't want to.  

A few podcasts ago, you were talking about if high school bands have their own fight song or if they use college band fight songs.  From my experience, I think all high school bands use a college fight song.  I was in band all through middle and high school.  I know in our middle school band, we played the same fight song that Texas A&M had.  And sometimes in high school, we'd play another team that had the same fight song as us!

Also, while I know we probably have different views on politics and religion, I know one thing we all agree on.  I hate country music, too!  And I also live in Texas!  Country music is either too depressing, too pandering, and/or too twangy.  Blech!

And as far as names go, I'm OK with my name but I am so tired of people either misspelling it or telling me that "Cary" is a girl's name.  So much so that if I ever had a kid, he or she would have a clear boy or girl name.  Not any of that unisex name business.

And here's a shameless plug for the latest episode of MY podcast!

https://open.spotify.com/episode/71wfoWsy5IF7CekOlBTWlS

You know it's strange that I never got into The Tick.  Especially since I really like a similar underground humorous comic series.  That being Sam & Max.  They're my favorite comic book characters and they also had a funny yet short lived Saturday morning cartoon.  And a bunch of great point and click adventure games, too.  If you haven't checked them out yet, I recommend that you do!

The big draw for me with Collection of Mana was I was finally able to play Trials of Mana in the US.  Unfortunately it was a hot mess.  The first SNES Secret of Mana game is really good, though.

It's a mess is what it is.

It's not fun at all.  Seriously, go check out the review and see if you can tell where your character is in the screenshot I posted.

Yeah it's a nice throwback to action adventure RPGs from back in the day.

I don't think the arcade version of X-Men was ported to the Genesis.  Did you ever see the orignal six player arcade game for that?  It was huge!

FFV annoyed me because when I would change jobs, I had to change equipment so I'd have to grind to save up to buy what they could use.  Got old after a while.

Super Mario Land 2 isn't too hard of a game.  And Kirby's Dream Land is even easier!  You'll be able to beat that one.  I could in an hour.  It wasn't the original game that got me into Kirby games anyway.

My friend and I rented Contra 3 a few times back in the day.  I was horrible at it, but it did have some neat graphic effects for such an early SNES title.

For Mega Man V, I'd start with Star Man's stage.  He's the easiest.  Charge Man isn't too hard once you get his pattern down.

Mega Man X is one of the easier Mega Man games, mainly because he's way more mobile and faster than the original Mega Man.  You can climb up walls for instance.  The original MMX is one of my top favorite Mega Man games.  I can beat it in my sleep.

FF4 was really the game that got me into RPGs, even though I had played Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior prior.  The problem with the DS port is they made everything way too hard!

I'm not a big fan of Castlevania games, mainly because Simon Belmont controls like he ate a big breakfast before going out to fight vampires.  With that said, Super Castlevania IV has neat music and I like how you can hold out your whip and swing it all around.  If you have the Castlevania collection, try Kid Dracula.  That's my favorite.

Unfortunately the Mega Man games just keep getting harder.  For Mega Man 4, I'd try Toad Man's stage first, as his pattern is pretty easy to figure out.  Or maybe Ring Man.  His pattern is a bit harder, though.

The game where Link washes up on a shore is Link's Awakening, which came out after Link to the Past.  Link's Awakening is my top favorite Zelda game, so if you play that one, I'd be happy.  But Link to the Past may be my second favorite Zelda game.  

For me, a sidequest needs to be one of three things to be worth completing.  It needs to be fun.  It needs to give you a good item to help you in the game.  Or if you like the story, it needs to flash it out.

I would've used Chocobo Hot and Cold from FF9 as an example, but in the past I remember you all saying you didn't like that one.  But I liked it.  It was like a treasure hunt that used the whole world map. 

I had to beat a lot of sidequests in Tears of the Kingdom to get good enough items to beat certain bosses.  I would just pick and choose which ones sounded fun and didn't take a long time to beat.  I finally finished that game at the end of July.  Took me three months and my Switch says I spent 100 hours on it.  I think I enjoyed about 50 percent of that.  Sorry Tears of the Kingdom, you're not getting my GOTY award.

There was one sidequest in Tears of the Kingdom where you had to find Nazca-style lines in the ground to flesh out the story, and that one was fun, though.  There are a lot of sidequests in FF6 and Chrono Trigger that help flesh out the story, and I did all of those.