I don't know why I read your update as Contra HC, but hey, any excuse to talk about Contra is good enough for me. I did just play through Shattered Soldier last year, I found it to be super tough. Almost TOO difficult, but the more I played it, the more I liked it. I liked how you start with every weapon, actually. I eventually beat it on normal mode and felt that was good enough. Next I guess I'll check out Neo Contra, not sure what to expect out of that one. There's no way it could be worse than the PS1 Contra games, anyway.

Hope you enjoyed Contra HC. Probably one of the toughest in the series, but also one of my faves. In case you're not aware, the Japanese version of that game is actually easier! You get 3 hitpoints and infinite continues. You can actually play it on the Genesis mini if you change the language settings. Might be worth checking out, anywho.

I was surprised, too! He even replied to the old message saying that it was coming up, and I thought, "You work hard on this show every week, and you have NEWBORN TWINS, and you still took the time to reply to my old message." Wasn't expecting the shout-out, either.

That's cool that you know how to do it. I'd like to fix my LttP someday, (my SMW's battery died to, come to think of it..) but I'm lazy, hehe. I'd rather get me one of those flashcarts so I can have everything in one place.

Wow, it must be pretty uncommon then. Mine's still in the wrap, too. I was gonna open it when I start the game up. From what I could find out, all shirts were size large though. If they sold it separately, I would think sizes would be an option.

Nothing wrong with that, if the game is special to you! I spent more than I'd like to admit for the Kenji Eno game Short Warp, because it came with the packaged condom still intact. I'm probably the biggest Eno fan I know. Hope you're able to get a good deal on that Illusion of Time, some day.

I appreciate that; thank you for checking in with me! Just know that nobody out-crazies Ophelia. So yes, all is well now, and I hope it is with you, also.

Oh, it is very frustrating, to be sure. It's not a bad RPG at all, though; I was really enjoying it, up until I hit a brick wall boss fight. It's just got a lot of bullshit in the localized version. There are rebalance patches up on Romhacking that I've heard good things about, but I'm unsure how accurate they are to Elnard.

It's interesting, I'm curious about the origins of that shirt and where it was sold. That's cool it was one of your first games! I first played in probably '09 when I was in high school and just getting into emulation, but I never finished it. I never knew of the big box release. That's crazy. Good luck if it ever goes up on eBay. Hopefully it's an auction so you can snipe it last 20 seconds. That's how I do it.

Wish I knew how to replace save batteries on SNES. It can't be too hard, with a little soldering experience.

Edit: I see some buy it now listings on eBay for the big box Illusion of Time, but they're all 200+ bucks... at least they're not EarthBound expensive, but damn. That's a beautiful box.

Oh nice, Terranigma! I'm actually going on a bit of an Enix binge this year, currently with 7th Saga. You ever finish that? I'm so underleveled where I'm at now that I'm just stuck having to grind for who knows how long. It's an interesting game, though. I'm so excited to get to Illusion of Gaia that I now own the official t-shirt from the '90s, hehe. I guess I'm going down the list of published SNES Enix games by release order for the most part.

I wish I could say the same, I was just so caught up with work and everything else last year. I've had more time to play games ever since the start of January this year, conveniently enough. I reached 600 , and ranked up a bunch of on top of that that I don't have any plans on going back to. So that at least condensed my backlog a little bit.

That's actually a good idea, rather than picking one random game and sticking to it. I'll probably do the same.

I think it gives off that tone of adventure more so than just a plain gold cover art would; that's why I like it more. Sadly, the save battery on that cart went bad, and I lost my save in the middle of my second 100% run. So, I just started over and did the whole playthrough in one sitting, anyway. haha

Aww, that's a shame. I was never one to throw away game boxes, but most of my GBC/GBA games as a kid were loose, because seemingly everyone else never kept them around.

Same. In all honesty, I might've discovered Mario through Smash Bros. Melee, unless I played Sunshine before that. I can't quite remember. I was a PlayStation/Sega kid, up until the GameCube release, though. I think the cheapest I ever saw EarthBound complete was around $300, but that was around the time when people thought FF7 Greatest Hits was worth 70 bucks.

Added ya back.

That's cool! I remember buying a bunch of WiiWare titles at once before they shut the store down; or, at least all the ones I cared about. Last year was kind of a bust for the backlog, but I'm hoping to change that this year. Got a line-up in my page note going, and I also kinda want to dick around with the fortune cookie in between games. That way, I might find myself enjoying games I wouldn't otherwise think about playing.

Yeah, it is a shame... I would love to see a rerelease on Switch, because I think it would totally be doable with the Joy-cons. With Eno's passing, I don't think it'll ever happen, though. I think the game's atmosphere overall gives me Intelligent Qube vibes; that was another quirky little puzzle game, but on the PS1.

I had some cool deals back then, too, but no boxed games sadly. The only CIB I own is A Link to the Past, but I'm happy with that. I actually had a choice between the original gold box art, or the Player's Choice; I went for the latter, 'cause I liked the rocky texture art over the gold, hehe... Even though the Player's Choice logo kind of obscures it a bit. I guess my personal favorite physical SNES game would have to be my loose cart of Super Mario RPG, because it has a big Hollywood Video rental sticker on the back. My friend must have bought it back when they were closing down. I used to rent games from there quite often.

Ah, that's a real shame about EarthBound. Did you play it when it was new, or did you get it used later after it came out? I know it was expensive even around 2009 when I wanted it. I'd see loose copies selling for upwards of $200-300.

Oh my, someone's playing You, Me, and the Cubes! It was Kenji Eno's last released game, and honestly probably the hardest puzzle game I've ever played. There's plenty of charm, though, that kept me coming back, until I saw the "end"... I want to know if you manage to clear all levels.

I should also say that's an impressive SNES collection. Lufia.

I d or d 122 games in 2020
36 in the month of December
21 beaten in the last week of the year
13 beaten in the last two days
8 beaten on New Year's Eve
Take THAT, backlog!!

Here's to another great gaming year in 2021!

That is a glorious pile of SNES games, my dude.

... ... ...

You're absolutely right. There's no reason to read or listen to any of the negative stuff I see and view all the time. The negative stuff is indeed louder, but... I'm gonna do my best to shut it out. You're right, it does make me more bitter overall, but I should just accept it and move on.

I listen to a lot of drama videos (usually old, just to have something to listen to while I play games) and I sometimes look at tweets from some people (ironic considering I don't use Twitter), but all it's does is make me more sour because of how people can act. Well, enough is enough. My new years resolution will be to try and be more positive and not let peoples actions affect my mood. I think a lot of other people should do that too, but I don't gotta worry about them, it's none of my concern.

Thank you, SamuraiSam, for giving me the slap in the face I needed.

And now, I can't pick one over an hour long to save my life; guess it all evens out. They probably shouldn't have even taken me that long - my lady didn't spend nearly as much time finishing the first Borderlands as I did - but leading up to that (actually for over a year by now), the American Southwest has been SCREAMING my name; I just can't shake it. Something like a cross between the world outside of Pee Wee's Playhouse and a South Californian diner in the alternate universe where OutRun takes place, but with like deserts and palmetto and saguaro cacti and shit. Borderlands did a pretty good job of grabbing me right there with its music and atmosphere, so you ever see that meme that has 3 adventurers and it says something to the effect of him and his friend defending his girlfriend from incoming enemy attacks while she admires the pretty scenery? Like that, except that I fly solo, so I'm working triple time. Borderlands 2 has a wide variety of wild environments, including a surrel volcanic hellscape that would give that eruption event in Eldin in Skyward Sword a run for its money in the horrifying department (and an even more perfect version of the bizarre Southwestern fucksplosion I described above), and The Pre-Sequel went on to have the best video game moon I have ever experienced. And also, they have an arsenal more ridiculous than any Turok game, and they did it Ikea Style: everything's modular. Did not expect to love them so much. But yeah, apparently, somewhere in there, I managed to pass 1500

It's been Introvert Spring Break here in this small outpost: strip naked, dance on the counters, just STAY THE FUCK INSIDE. Given that both of us are introverts and Chungus doesn't mind just looking out the window, we've adapted pretty well to it all; we've been that couple that actually enjoyed getting to spend more time together. I'm now permanently working remotely, too, so I get to revert to my natural hermit state, even. Right now, we're working on getting in some new furniture to finally get this mess all organized, and we're getting somewhere; would be better if ANYTHING WAS IN STOCK, but we're safe, sound, and sane as we get. I hope that all is well in your world.

Good job, man! I've done a bad job this year, because I had so many other projects to work on and then got stuck into some really long games; between the .hack series and the Borderlands series, I've spent hundreds of hours on just a few games. Maybe next year, I'll get to blaze through shorter games, like... Octopath Traveler... sigh... But here's to ya; great work this year!

Congrats!

I did it, guys, I have d or d 100 games this year! And on top of that, all this time at home has been amazing for my gaming life and tackling my backlog. I have a much better sense of what games are really worth my time and I've played much more than those 100 that I've realized aren't really worth having in my backlog. COVID is awful, no doubt about it, but when life gives me lemons, I make lemonade! Here's to another great backlogging year in 2021! (Though I won't be beating 100 games again, haha)

For those who are interested, I'm planning to start streaming a Pokémon FireRed randomizer Nuzlocke run tomorrow (Sunday) at 1:00 Eastern Standard Time! [Link]

11 Agosto:
En español, y recuerdo aprender palabras nuevas con ese juego Si quieres hacer una "second run" creo que es buena idea siempre que sepas que va a ser más elaborado. Yo sé entender el inglés cuando se pone a hablar de forma arcaica (Thou, forth, thine...) así que imagino que no tendrás problemas. Creo que es peor cuando los idiomas usan lenguaje "callejero" o moderno xD Me podrías preguntar también si algo te resulta extraño.

Sobre Prehistorik Man, en aquella época era muy raro ver juegos en español que no fueran hechos aquí, así que le perdono esas fallas. Sólo era común en juegos de ordenador. En consola el más antiguo que recuerdo es Maniac mansion de NES (incluso tengo el cartucho), pero también estaba Soleil (Crusader of Centy) en la Sega Genesis. Me llamaba la atención que usaba nombres muy casuales en español como "Pepe" (Johnny).

05 Agosto:
Cielos, qué horrible xD Yo ando jugando ahora a Shantae 4 en inglés porque la traducción al español es la peor que jamás ví. Por darte un ejemplo, tradujeron "You fell asleep" como "Te sientes dormido" (You are feeling asleep, which doesn't make any sense either). And everyone treats Shantae as a male, herself too. Bad english translations are a thing of the past, but they still happen with other languages nowadays with some indie releases. Thankfully Shantae 5 is well done from what I saw.

Volviendo a Breath of Fire 2... de momento seguiré con el 1er juego. Creo que tiene fama de ser mucho mejor el segundo, así que quizás le haga honor y le busque ese parche si lo acabo jugando, aunque tenga que prescindir del sistema de rebobinado.

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03 Agosto:
Jaja, lo peor son los nombres de objetos tan acortados, pero me puedo hacer una idea por la mayor parte.

Lo que sí me ha molestado de los diálogos es que en los pueblos muchas veces hay tres diálogos que se repiten una y otra vez. Cuando el robot estaba a punto de atacar con su láser al pueblo de la boda, por ejemplo, la mitad hablaba de que el pueblo estaba en peligro y la otra mitad se asustaba. Espero que con BoF2 se tomen más en serio los diálogos xD

Seguramente sería mejor jugar una versión parcheada con otra traducción, pero el snes online me resulta muy cómodo para partidas rápidas por la función de rebobinado.

I remember seeing an article in a Dreamcast magazine where some professional dancers were invited to play Space Channel 5 and they all said that the timing was a bit off throughout the game. I'm not sure if the timing is any better or worse in the PS2 port, but it ruined the original game.

I just bought this bundle, and...wow, there's no way I'm even going to begin adding ALL these to my backlog, I'll probably pick out the few that interest me and do that. Get all these games for cheap AND support a good cause! [Link]