The Old School Otaku Lounge

Earthbound. I bought it when it came out, and I had the strategy guide with the scratch & sniff stickers and everything. "This game stinks!" Such an awesome game. Too bad it bombed and they never released Mother 1 or 3 in English.

Scratch-n-sniff stickers? That's amazing! That must've been a first and last for that, I bet. Pretty unique. I misssed out on this, because I was kinda late to the RPG party in the '90s.

Playing some Batman: Arkham City. I've spent a heckuva lotta time so far just swinging from rooftop to rooftop and admiring the scenery.

I am about to put Alice the Madness Returns, Catherine, and The Walking Dead into the PS3 tonight and whatever happens happens.

I've been playing Gundam Battle Assault 2 (PS1). I used to play this game so often back in 2002 and had everything unlocked on a PS1 memory card. But, since I've been on a Gundam kick lately, figured I'd pop it into the PS3 and unlock everything again (ah, a time back when extra characters and gameplay modes were on the disc and not exclusive to pricey dlc scams!).

llj wrote:Playing some Batman: Arkham City. I've spent a heckuva lotta time so far just swinging from rooftop to rooftop and admiring the scenery.

The Arkham games are incredible, especially City. It easily sits in one of my top ten favorite games of all time. The upcoming release of Arkham Knight is really pushing me to get a PS4.

Pinball Arcade for the PS4. Since the demise of the only arcade left in town this past week, that's the only way I can play other than on my friend's emulator. The translations of the tables though on the PS4 is much better and it's fast, just like the real thing. I got the game cheap during a recent sale ($20) and its been money well spent. But it's hard to find. I wanted to get another copy for my friend as he has a PS4 as well but couldn't find another copy in the whole city...

I spent some time on Saturday playing Tenchu: Kurenai for the PS2. I've always loved this series. I found the Japanese version for a real low price at a used media store in the USA back in '09 and played the first few levels, but I hadn't played it since. I try to get the best score possible without being spotted. It's particularly exciting to wait for a long time for two guards to have their backs turned, then run out and kill both before they know what's going on. The very first Tenchu game for the PS1 was particularly bloody, with amputations and splatter all over the walls. They toned it down with the other games.

I recently started playing Call of Duty: Finest Hour on the Xbox. It's been a long time since I have played this. It is not as polished as CoD2: Big Red One, and it can be glitchy and buggy. It can also be very frustrating. Still, it has its good moments. Sometimes stuff just disappears, or enemy soldiers can just be running in place mysteriously. Sometimes I feel like a little boy playing guns with other little boys and shouting, "Hey, come on! I shot you first!" There's one part of the game in which you must get a column of tanks through a grid of streets in France, but there are too many Nazis with panzershwrek bazookas waiting in amush. So, you must go through building after building, ridding them of enemies. There's one part I remember clearly where as soon as you step foot into the building, there's a Nazi at the end of the hallway who suddenly appears and shoots you. It's unavoidable. Even if I toss a grenade there, he still blinks into existence and shoots me. It's dumb, but manageable. The very last mission in which you single-handedly storm a high tower is really challenging and exciting.

I also started playing From the Abyss on my DS. It's somewhere between Gauntlet and Secret of Mana: just go from screen to screen and whack the monsters until they're gone. You can suck the life out of enemies, steal abilities, and use them against them. It's a rather straightforward dungeon grinder that focuses on action rather than story.

I started playing "Attack of the Friday Monsters" on the 3DS last night. So far, I'm liking it--the art is very charming and it's set in a universe that has a retro feel to it. So far it's very simple, but it's got a lot of elements that are right up my alley, so I can't wait to play more of it.

Finished up Dragon Age: Inquisition recently. Decided to work back through Dragon Age: Origins, though the switch from PS4 to PS3 graphics was a tad jarring. However, the story holds up just fine, and it's easy enough to pretend it's 2009 all over again for the rest of it. Aside from the DA:O DLC, the core game was only $5.00 on the PSN, so that was a nice change of pace for the ol' wallet.