I Finally Opened My Playstation 5
Last year at launch, I was able to get a Playstation 5 but I didn’t spend very much time playing it. Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate was the first game I bought for the PS5, but I never even opened it. At first, I used my PS5 to play a little of God of War (it was free) and I played some Madden. A few weeks later I picked up Cyberpunk not realizing the PS5 upgrade wasn’t available yet. I played about an hour and put it down. About a month into the PS5, Madden got a PS5 update, and that was really the first “PS5” game I ever played. Unfortunately, my progress from the PS4 version didn’t carry over to the PS5, so I had to restart. After a couple of games I lost interest, and it wasn’t even Christmas yet.
One of my friends was looking for a PS5 to get his son. They never had got the Playstation 4, so backwards compatibility was going to give that system good use even without PS5 games. He asked me to help him hunt down a PS5, but we weren’t able to find one. Realizing, I didn’t have the time, or interest for the PS5, I decided to sell him my PS5 for MSRP since it had less than 10hours of play on it and I had all the boxes and packaging, I was able to repack it up and look like new. Nothing big was coming for PS5, I already had a PS4 Pro, and I knew I’d be able to get a PS5 again if I needed to.
It wasn’t until this past September I decided to try and get another PS5, and I did, but it sat sealed, in my office until a couple of weeks ago. I simply just haven’t had time to play games this past year, even though I still buy them in some sort of denial that I’ll be able to make time for it. I still had my PS4 from launch and I bought a PS4 Pro in mid-2019 when Sony was still saying the PS5 would only be compatible with the Top 100 games or so. Both of my consoles were complete with the boxes, the Pro, like my old PS5, had less than 10 hours on them. I saw the prices online and decided to sell them. Combined, I got about $720 after eBay fees. That paid for my PS5, so I opened up my PS5 and transferred over my PS4, packed them up and shipped out.
Playstation 5, I’m ready, are you?
There still isn’t much that excites me for the PS5, as I explained before, I kinda made the jump now because I was able to shed the PS4 and come out ahead in the move to the next gen. But over the past year I have purchased some PS5 games I found cheap or that interested me (especially over this recent Black Friday). I also have a good amount of PS5 games with PS4 upgrades. As of today, Madden is still the only PS5 game I have played (and I hate myself for playing Madden so much). Here is what I have in my line-up, and I’ve never played any of them (* means it’s a PS4 game with PS5 upgrade)
- Borderlands 3*
- Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition
- Far Cry 6*
- Final Fantasy VII Remake
- Judgement
- Lost Judgment*
- Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate
- Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
- Resident Evil Village*
- Returnal
- Scarlet Nexus*
- Spider-Man: Miles Morales Ultimate Edition
- Terminator: Resistance*
- Yakuza: Like A Dragon*
5 Recent PickUps on Super Nintendo
I buy games pretty much every week, they’re often a random mix that I come across in yard sales, thrift stores, game stores, new releases or random ebay purchases after I discover a new game. I have a lot of purchases over the past few months to go through, but I thought it would be fun to break them down into posts showing them off. Here are 5 Super Nintendo games I got for a total of $8, I have never played any of these before (Previous Play). I didn’t include photos of the actual game cartridges I picked up, but maybe in future posts I’ll do that.
Robocop 3
Price: Free ($10 Off Promotion)
Previous Play: No
Why I Got It: I can’t recall ever playing a Robocop game and this looked fun. The local retro game store had a promotion that gave me a $10 credit with my other purchases, so I used it on this $10 game.
Vortex
Price: $2
Previous Play: No
Why I Got It: The local store had a promotion where all retro games normally priced $8 were on sale for $2. I scooped this up because I had previously sought it out to to have a bit of a SuperFX collection.
Read the rest of this entry
Nintendo Select Titles Are Overdue for the Switch
Nintendo is notorious for keeping their games at full price longer than any other video game publisher, especially one that also sells hardware. I don’t knock entirely Nintendo for it, I understand it, it’s a different business model than most of the other companies use, and for the most part the games still sell well long after release. Some of the bigger games still sell millions of copies years after release, at full price. But eventually, the sales decline on the big sellers and become stagnant on the smaller titles. Sequels start to arrive, which logically should drop the prices of their precursors. Some games need reprints, and some need a boost to move the remaining copies out of circulation. All of these scenarios are currently happening with games on the Nintendo Switch, so it’s about time to look at reducing the prices, permanently one some of Nintendo’s best sellers. The best way to do that, is their Nintendo Selects series (Personally, I prefer the Player’s Choice name more, but Nintendo has been using this since the Wii era).
The Nintendo Selects series is the equivalent of Sony’s “Greatest Hits” line or Microsoft’s “Platinum Hits” line. These are popular games, that sometimes meet a certain sales criteria to get a permanent price drop, and rebranded in different (uglier) packaging. It’s often used to rejuvenate sales in a game, or franchise, but is also beneficial for the publisher to help clear out excess copies and connect with less informed gamers or gift shoppers that are looking for one of the more popular games at a cheaper price.
The Switch is now 4 1/2 years old, it’s time for Nintendo to start discounting some of the Switch’s earlier hits and re-introducing them to the customer base. Nintendo has sold a little over 85 million Switch consoles so far, and roughly 67 million of those sales came AFTER year 2, so over 75% of Switch owners weren’t even around to get hyped on the earlier titles. Add to that, most people buying a 4, or 5 year old console usually look at one of the biggest benefits of an older system is that there should be a lot of popular games at cheaper prices…the Switch currently doesn’t have that perk. I honestly thought Nintendo would’ve unveiled a Nintendo Select title LAST Holiday season to combat the PS5 and XBox Series X launch, as a way to show that their system has some excellent exclusives available at good prices, but they didn’t. They didn’t need to either, I don’t think it would’ve made much of a difference in console sales, those systems were so hard to get, Nintendo probably still got some sales from people that “settled” for a Switch and their exclusives before upgrading their PS4’s and XB1’s. This Holiday might not be any different with the competitors, but for new and old Switch owners, it’s time they got some prices slashed on the older titles and Nintendo gave a boost to some of the games that have their interest dissipate in the past few years.
This is what I think Nintendo should, and realistically could, put out for their first Wave of Nintendo Select titles on the Switch.
The Legend of Zelda
Breath of the Wild
Release Date: March 3, 2017
Total Sales: 23.20million (As of 6/31/21)
My Suggested Select Price: $30
With over 22 million sales, it is the best selling Zelda game of all-time, so clearly it should qualify as a Nintendo Select title. It was also a launch title for the Switch, so it is the oldest Switch game out. One of the highest quality titles of the past decade (if not all-time), Breath of the Wild still sells fairly well at full price, it sold 1 million copies between March 31st and June 30th this year according to Nintendo. Even so, with a sequel coming soon, it is about time Nintendo considers repackaging BotW and selling it at a discounted price, especially when they launch a Nintendo Select Line.
Kirby Star Allies
Release Date: March 16, 2018
Total Sales: 2.93million (as of 12/31/19)
My Suggested Select Price: $30
Kirby Star Allies was released to some excitement shortly after the year anniversary of the Switch launch, but most attention and mention of this game disappeared quickly after. Star Allies is a great single player Kirby game, but an even better co-op game. Sales for this have certainly declined hard over the 3 years since it’s release, I never hear it recommended or brought up. Rumor has it a new Kirby is coming soon, a discounted price is overdue, and although I suggested $30, it might need a $20 price tag to really give it a boost.
ARMS
Release Date: June 16, 2017
Total Sales: 2.38million (As of 12/31/19)
My Suggested Select Price: $20
ARMS came out very early in the Switches’ life, it was the first non-port for the Switch (besides SnipperClips) that wasn’t Zelda. There was some hype around this game being the “next Splatoon” from Nintendo, another new quirky IP hit. While ARMS fell short of being the phenomenon that Splatoon was, it still was a cool new fighting game with it’s own unique gameplay and style. This is a game that I feel has been TOTALLY forgotten about and ignored since late 2017. Outside of hardcore Nintendo fans, anyone who bought a Switch after 2018 probably never heard of this game, or ignored it because of it’s $60 price tag. Some dedicated Smash Bros fans might have given this a look after ARMS characters were added as DLC to Smash, but this game really needs a price cut to reintroduce it to newer Switch owners that weren’t following 2017 releases and to build a base for ARMS 2.
September 2021 – Ranking My Backlog
I got so busy with life since I last made a list at the start of July, that I actually didn’t get a chance to play a single game these last 2 months. Not just from my backlog, I didn’t play ANYTHING. So let’s try again. I removed some of the “horror/spooky” type games from July and expect them to revisit the list next month, I figure I can wait another month for October before I try to play them.
So what do I say is a Backlogged game? My definition is: A game that I bought more than 6 months ago, but I’ve owned it less than 3 years. I consider something shorter than that time-span to be too recent of a pick-up to be in a backlog. Anything longer than 3 years from when I purchased, I consider to be a “shelved” game, and less likely to get played after sitting so long while my pile of games keeps getting larger.
Here are the Top 10 Games in my current Backlog that I would like to play soon…
The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
September Update: My interest in this really shot up over the past couple of weeks because I think it would be rather simple and easy to play and get through.
I played the original Link’s Awakening on the GameBoy when I was a kid, and I got pretty close to the end. Unfortunately a glitch occurred that got me stuck on a statue and I couldn’t move, I stupidly did “Save & Quit”, and was forever stuck there, I never finished the game. This seems like a smooth, fun game to play with not much stress or hassle and I’ve always been a fan of top-down Zeldas. This game almost seems forgotten on the Switch, but I’d like to get to it because I could probably enjoy it and complete it much faster than some of the other games here.
Y’s VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA
I’ve heard about the Y’s series for decades but never gave much attention to it. However when I saw Y’s VIII on the PS4 I thought it looked pretty good, I almost picked it up but I held off for it to come to the Switch. I bought the Collector’s Edition at launch, then it shot up in price, so instead of opening it, I bought the standard, then that shot up in price, and instead of opening it, I bought the digital for $23! Now Y’s IX is about to release!! I need to play this! I have only heard good things about it.
Yakuza 0 / The Yakuza Series
I’m already breaking the “rules” of a backlog game, because this is a game I got a little over 4 years ago, so why did I include it? Because I have also bought Yakuza 6, Yakuza Kiwami, Yakuza Kiwami 2, Yakuza Remastered Collection and Yakuza Like A Dragon over the last 4 years and played NONE of them. So some of these games “qualify” under my backlog rules, I feel like I can’t play those before starting at the beginning of the story, with Yakuza 0. I’ve heard nothing but great things about this series even since the PS3/PS2 days and it seems like my kind of game.
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
Dragon’s Crown, Muramasa and Odin Sphere are the only games I’ve played by VanillaWare and I thought all 3 were unique and special. VanillaWare is one of those developers I occasionally check their Wiki page to see what projects they’re working on, I had seen 13 Sentinels in development for a while and when it released, I got picked it up with the intent of making time to play some day soon. I’m confident this is going to be a great game that slid under everyone’s radar last year. This should probably be higher in my list
Read the rest of this entry
Under The Radar Wii Games
The Wii has a huge library, 1262 different games hit retail shelves. There are definitely some classic games on the Wii, and there are of course a bunch of junk shovelware titles that hit this hot-selling console. There is also a group of games that just seem to be unrecognized, or forgotten, that don’t quite get the proper respect as other good – great games.
It seems like whenever I’m talking to friends about older games, the Wii gets laughed at or shrugged off, it can’t “shake” (sorry) the stigma of wiggle controls and elderly Wii Bowlers. Whenever I try to mention the Wii has some great exclusives, people kinda nod thinking I’m just talking about Mario, Smash, Zelda and are ready to move onto talking about other systems. I want to list here and talk about some of the Wii games I often recommend that a lot of gamers don’t know about, and deserve a playthrough.
I plan on doing this in multiple parts, I’m sure the hardcore Wii aficionado’s will not be surprised by some of what is on this list, but maybe as we get further in the series, you’ll find some surprises too.
Mad World
The black and white comic book art style is so unique and enticing to me, blood red is the only color you see in this game and it is part of what makes it stand out on the Wii. Your right arm is a chainsaw and the violence is over the top, interacting with items in the environment you can impale enemies with street signs and other objects. The game uses some motion controls and actually does it very well, it has never been released outside of the Wii.
Mad World is developed by Platinum Games (Bayonetta, Vanquish, Nier Automata etc) and is one of my favorite games from the developer. It’s current metacritic score is a 81, but it was given 9’s by publishers like IGN and Game Informer.
I always recommend this to anyone who thinks the Wii doesn’t have any good Mature games or action games.
ExciteBots Trick Racing
How can a game published by Nintendo be on an “Under The Radar” list? Because you likely never heard of this game, or ignored it when you did hear about it.
I’m sure most are familiar with the Excite-series because of Excitebike and probably even the Wii launch title Excite Trucks, but ExciteBots is the weirdest and most unfamiliar.
The vehicles are designed to look like insects, animals and different creatures, as you do tricks they flap their wings, kick out their legs, whip their tail and come to life. The game is all about getting stars from tricks and other tasks in the race, the winner isn’t determined by finishing first.
The goofiness of this game is what makes it so entertaining, while racing you will shake tambourines, kick soccer goals, throw pies in a clowns face, and so many other crazy things I can’t list. This is the most insane racing game I can recall playing. It’s oddly Nintendo-esque, and reminds me of the “Play It Loud” era of the Super Nintendo.
Demand for a racing game likely wasn’t high when this released because it was only 1 year after Mario Kart, and this was came out during a crowded Spring release season. It took me about 2 years after to release to get around to playing this and I’m so glad I did, I highly recommend it.
Read the rest of this entry
The Nintendo Switch Pro is Unnecessary in 2021
To start off, I’d like to say that IF Nintendo did release a Switch Pro in 2021, I would be excited for it, I would pre-order it and pick it up on day one. The point that I’m making here though is that not only is it unnecessary for a 2021 release, I actually think it would be more damaging to Nintendo’s business/profits than if Nintendo waited another year.
Cannablism
The Nintendo Switch has been the best selling console for 31 months straight, Nintendo would be foolish to interfere in any way that could drop the appeal of a Nintendo Switch right now. When the holiday season rolls around, the Playstation 5 and XBox Series X will almost definitely still be the most in-demand consoles, but the Switch will likely be the most available, which potentially means it might still rule the holiday season.
If Nintendo were to announce a Switch Pro, or release a Switch Pro before the end of the year, of course interest will be very high, maybe even surpassing the XSX or the PS5. But it’s almost guaranteed to have supply issues similar to the competitors, while simultaneously making the regular Switch less desirable and potentially killing most interest in the Lite altogether if the regular Switch is forced to take a price cut. I don’t see how the Switch or Switch Lite could keep the same momentum with the Pro out on the market, and it seems like Nintendo would be unnecessarily cutting their lives short, to roll out the Pro, which may not even have a reason to exist yet.
2021’s Lack of Releases
E3 2021 showed the not so well kept secret, but the pandemic has affected development time for a lot of games and compared to past years, we aren’t getting many new games in 2021 for any of the consoles. Due to the lack of big titles coming to the PS5 and XSX in Q3 and Q4, I don’t think Nintendo needs to fear losing relevancy yet. Even so, a Switch Pro would likely be comparable to the power of maybe a PS4, or XB1S, so it really only needs to look at what games are coming to PS4 and XB1 in 2021 (non-exclusive) to see what we’re missing out because of a lack of a Pro.
- Back 4 Blood – While it looks like a fun game, it is primarily focused on online multiplayer which is not a strength of the Switch and when given the choice, would likely buy on another platform than Switch. This doesn’t seem like anything that people would preference for their Switch
- Battlefield 2042 – This falls in a similar situation as Back 4 Blood, but this game would probably be even more demanding of near flawless performance and who knows how probable that would be for the Switch Pro to deliver on.
- Dying Light 2 – I barely played the first Dying Light, it didn’t seem bad though, and I would pick this up on a Switch Pro and I could see this being preferential for a lot of people over the PS4 or XB1, but the PS5/XSX would likely be the most preferred console because those owners are thirsty for something to play
- Far Cry 6 – Pretty much the exact situation as Dying Light 2
- Rainbow Six Extraction – As with the other multiplayer games, this just doesn’t seem like it would be desirable for the Pro
- Sports (EA) – I know there is a long list of reasons Madden is garbage, but yes, I would buy it on Switch or Switch Pro on Day 1. I don’t know if EA would even bring it to a Pro, seeing as they never brought Madden to the regular Switch, although EA is more friendly with Nintendo these days and they would just have to port over the PS4 version, so maybe.
My Most Valuable GameCube Games
I believe the GameCube was the first system I really started “collecting” for. After being out of gaming for a while, and the interest recently renewed by the Dreamcast, I got a job at Funcoland (now GameStop) right before the GameCube came out. A new Nintendo console made me nostalgic for the days of the original Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64 and all of the Nintendo franchises. As I worked at the store, I got to see or know about all of the games coming out for all of the systems (XBox and Playstation 2 also) but the GameCube was the one I was most fond of, and I pre-ordered, purchased or used the employee rental program on almost anything that even slightly interested me. I have a little over 200 GameCube games at this point, and I would guess that 185+ of them were purchased in 2001 – 2005, so these are not recent finds.
I’ve watched the value on these games continue to climb over the past 15+ years, and it has amazed me. This is my favorite game library that I have in my collection, and I wanted to take a look at the 5 most valuable games I have in it.
Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest
$567.50
$571.93
I purchased Cubivore back when it released in November 2002. I was an employee at Funcoland/GameStop and the GameCube was my favorite system, I pre-ordered everything because I was interested in everything and it also helped boost my sales numbers. This game was developed by Intelligent Systems (Advance Wars, Fire Emblem, Paper Mario) and published by Nintendo in Japan, so this was a game I had to get. At the time, Funcoland/GameStop had a 7 day return policy on new games, even if they were opened, so I always figured in a worst case scenario I could return a game if I didn’t like it. Fortunately, I enjoyed Cubivore a lot and played it with friends often after it came out. The game is weird and unique, and if you press the Z button, you take a crap. The value on this keeps going up, and I doubt we will ever seen any kind of re-release, sequel or remaster, so this game is likely forever buried on the GameCube. Since is really a Nintendo title, MAYBE we will see it if Nintendo’s Online Service ever includes GameCube games.
Why is it valuable?: It’s published by Atlus, and almost everything they release is small print and desirable, but this game is also co-developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo in Japan. Originally planned as a 64DD game, this is an odd Nintendo game that made it to the West because of Atlus, a great combination for a niche, desirable and valuable game.
Mega Man made me a huge fan of Capcom at an early age, most of their games had the kind of gameplay or artwork that I enjoyed. Gotcha Force looked like my kind of game and the potential for another Capcom classic. I pre-ordered it while I worked at Funcoland/GameStop and got it at launch, but I never really played much of it. From what I remember, I may have played this game once or twice for an hour or so each time. It seemed interesting/fun, but I used to jump around from game to game so quickly back at this time, I barely spent enough time to share any kind of opinion on it (ah imagine if I had kept it sealed!). Capcom sometimes will do random re-releases, but this game reviewed poorly and I think it’s only really sought after because of value, I doubt we will ever see a re-release but I wouldn’t rule Capcom out.
Why is it valuable?: I’m assuming this game flopped at released and there weren’t many copies made in it’s initial run. Nintendo released a similar game a few months later called Custom Robo. Custom Robo didn’t sell that great either, and it had better marketing and better review scores. Still, Gotcha Force is by Capcom, which has a pretty dedicated fanbase, so it keeps this game desirable.
Read the rest of this entry
July 2021 – Ranking My Backlog
My Backlog of games is so out of control that I’ve decided to create a specific definition of what a “Backlogged Game”, and I’m also going to rank the games in my Backlog that I’m most interested in playing. Each month I will create a new list, hopefully having played a few of the ones from the month prior and cleared some space for new entries. I need some organization and structure to tackle this Backlog.
So what do I say is a Backlogged game? My definition is: A game that I bought more than 6 months ago, but I’ve owned it less than 3 years. I consider something shorter than that time-span to be too recent of a pick-up to be in a backlog. Anything longer than 3 years from when I purchased, I consider to be a “shelved” game, and less likely to get played after sitting so long while my pile of games keeps getting larger.
Here are the Top 10 Games in my current Backlog that I would like to play soon…
Luigi’s Mansions 3
I’m a huge fan of the Luigi’s Mansion series and still have not managed to put any time into this game despite buying it at release. This is the game I want to play the most that’s in my backlog, but I keep hesitating because I feel it’s an “October/Halloween” game. I might have to ignore that feeling and just finally play it
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
I love the Castlevania series, and like to see people do their own independent thing, this was a project I actually gave money to when it was in the kickstarter phase. I was excited to play at release, but held off due to performance issues that would be fixed in a later patch. By the time the patch came out, I was buried in other things to be able to play. Like Luigi’s, this has also been kinda pushed off as a October/Halloween game, and again I should just ignore that.
Y’s VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA
I’ve heard about the Y’s series for decades but never gave much attention to it. However when I saw Y’s VIII on the PS4 I thought it looked pretty good, I almost picked it up but I held off for it to come to the Switch. I bought the Collector’s Edition at launch, then it shot up in price, so instead of opening it, I bought the standard, then that shot up in price, and instead of opening it, I bought the digital for $23! Now Y’s IX is about to release!! I need to play this! I have only heard good things about it.
Read the rest of this entry
My Most Wanted Nintendo 64 Games
One of the downsides to being a collector is that you’re almost never satisfied because there’s always more for you to collect. My Nintendo 64 right collection right now sits at 76 games, but there’s still about 20 – 30 games I really have my eye on that I’d like to fill my collection with. Some of these games I have been wanting ever since they came out 20+ year ago, and others I’ve just recently discovered. Below are a few that are on “Most Wanted” list
Mystical Ninja: Starring Goemon
Metacritic: 67%
Current Market Value: $62.06 (loose) / $283.49 (complete) (Source: Gamevaluenow.com)
I’ve wanted this game ever since it came out in 1997, and for some reason, I’ve never played it. I don’t think I’ve ever even seen it in a store. I’m familiar with the series because I have played the SNES Mystical Ninja numerous times. This game has been described as a mixture of Super Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time so I’m very intrigued. I understand it’s a niche title, so the reviews probably don’t represent it well. It’s from the “good” Konami days, so I’m pretty confident I will enjoy it as long as I recognize it may feel a bit dated as a N64 title. I think sooner or later I’m going to make the jump and get this, I doubt I’ll pay the price for a complete copy, but a loose copy isn’t bad.
Read the rest of this entry
New Section: My Collection
The main purpose of this website was for me to track my collection and write about my experiences or opinions on the games, consoles and collectibles that I own or want. Since the creation of this site, I’ve posted a section that lists all of the games in my collection, I keep it pretty well updated. Recently I realized that list is really all the attention I’ve given my collection here, outside of a couple posts about a backlog. So I’ve given thought on how I can display, and discuss my collection in a way on this site, that would help represent the room, the character, opinions, etc of a gamer’s room, or “pad”.
This new section I’m starting here is called “My Collection”. I expect to put up posts that focus on different parts of my collection, such as my most valuable games, how I obtained certain collections, franchises or developers I target collecting, most wanted games, favorites, backlogs, display options and other ideas or discussions will form as this goes on. I’m excited to explore this part of my collection, as it gives it more purpose and seems to fit more of the vision I had of this site.
In the past couple of years, life has made me too busy to play and enjoy my collection, but I’ve still been buying and collecting. The lack of attention given to this site, and the previous Discord also was represented in my play time. Every year Nintendo sends out an email to users with a “Year in Review” and gives them data of how much time they played. According to Nintendo, I played the Switch for 94 hours in 2020 (down from 276 in 2019), out of those 94 hours, I played 69 of them by mid-March. The Switch was by far my most played system of 2020, I played the PS4 and PS5 for maybe about 10 hours at the end of the year. That means for 8 1/2 months of 2020 I only played about 35 hours worth of gaming, I used to do that in a week!
I’m trying to make more time for myself and my hobbies going forward, relaxing, having fun and playing some games again. Despite my lack of time playing games in 2020, I actually picked up over 400 games in the year, so through 2021, my emphasis is going to be more on playing. As I play I plan to record and stream, and maybe have some fun with that and making videos. Stay tuned
thegamerpad 