S.C.G

It compares very favourably indeed, I'd go as far to say that I rank it almost equally alongside Symphonia as one of my favourite Tales of... games. I was planning on writing a review for it, no idea when it will be done but I already played in on the Xbox 360 back in the day so most of my opinion is based on that. The version on the Switch runs very nicely indeed though, better on the big screen but perfectly playable in portable mode as well. You're really in for a treat with this one as it has one of the best sets of characters, overworld maps and story as well.

Well, it is sad to hear that you're reducing down your collection that drastically but... it is your collection so of course I respect that and I understand as I've been taking stock too. Although, when you say that you're reducing down to just SNES and Mega Drive... Does that mean that you're getting rid of N64, GC, DC, PS1, PS2, Xbox, handhelds and obscurities? I would be interested in the Panasonic Q... maybe not right this second though, unless you were interested in trades? As there are some SNES and MD games I can trade. It would depend on what you're after though, also I've noticed a lot of other collectors are having similar cutbacks to their collections, maybe it's a good time to trade? Anyway, thanks for the heads-up, I'm potentially interested in a few things depending on what they are, even though I'm being selective now and I wish you the best. I'm at the stage of putting things into boxes and sorting through so if I can offer any tips then I'm happy to do so but if there are any games you are after then let me know. 2019 seems to be becoming the year of games collection culling and/or curation. It does make sense though if it makes games easier to play and enjoy in the long run, even if the decisions can be tricky to make at first, it does get easier.

Right, it's game time! Time to play through Resident Evil 2 remake for the first time, as Leon on Normal mode. I've waited long enough already and this game clearly deserves to be played and played it shall be, hopefully many times.

Nicely done @Hero-of-Time I'm glad to hear that you've been enjoying the game. I'm hopefully going to finally get around to playing it tonight, so I had a question regarding the difficulty... Is it really worth me bothering with Easy? I don't like the idea of the slowly regenerating health but I do like the idea of just being able to save on Normal difficulty. I hear that Hard mode is as close to the original as you can get with the ink ribbons for saves but I think it might be best to save that for a future run. Either way, I'm looking forward to it but I thought I'd ask your opinion seeing as you've experienced it a fair bit, so any tips you could offer me would be appreciated please. Thanks for posting your thoughts on the game as well, I enjoyed reading them and I can't wait to get stuck into the game now.

It looks like A Hat in Time should be getting a release date for Switch soon. Assuming that it might get a physical release as well, this will probably be the time I decide to play it. Either way, good news for anyone who has been waiting for the game to come out on a Nintendo platform.

I'm waiting for the physical release, as with every other major Switch game, all of my games are in a couple of boxes at the moment while I'm sorting out my collection. #gonnaneedabiggershelf This game should be one to look forward to though, I only hope that I'll find the time to play it.

A lot of decent Sega fighting games in this video, I think I'll fire up the Virtua Fighter games and Fighters Megamix when I'm next playing on my Sega Saturn.

Well this is certainly news I didn't think I'd be posting about today but welcome news it is indeed and a pleasure to put it up on the main site.

N-E's quick info roundup, thanks again to @Ashley for the press release. (also on reflection there are quite a few titles I'm interested in) Let's hope a few of them get physical releases as well.

Well, at least it was short and it was easy to skip the stuff that I had no interest in. Overall though, there were some good announcements in there for a short presentation. Cross Code coming to the Switch with exclusive content was the best thing about it, I thought. (hoping for a physical version for that one)

Yeah, I thought something similar when I first saw them but when I finally got one and started using it to recover from an injury, I did find it useful. Probably best to start off with the wrist support though.

I would say to put some ice on it but... you've probably had enough of ice for one day by the sounds of it. In all seriousness though, I hope your wrist is OK, I know what it's like to come off your bike and to have injured your wrist as I've done so while moving boxes before. It's good to exercise your wrist when you can, after its rested for a while but only if it doesn't hurt to do so, I've found the Power Ball to be quite helpful in recovery. I think you can still get them, it's one of those gyroscopes in an enclosure which can be used to build up wrist movement gradually.

in

Another great video from Jeremy Parish on the Virtual Boy game Teleroboxer. I've only watched a few videos on this channel but they all seem to be well researched and have excellent production values. Definitely worth checking out.

A genuinely amazing video here about Tom duBois who was behind a lot of the iconic boxarts of Konami titles on the NES, SNES and Megadrive in particular. I've been a fan of his work but I never knew a thing about the man behind the artwork, he's definitely an inspiration and has a really honest outlook on it all. I can't recommend watching this video enough if you really love the artwork from all of those classic boxarts from back in the day. The influence this person has had on how we remember a lot of videogames is staggering and of course you can say that for a lot of other illustrators as well... ...but it's just when you watch a video on it all and stop to think about it, I find it gives you a new level of appreciation for the amount of work that went into those boxarts.

An interesting and short video on the Game & Watch. It had more than a few pieces of information that I didn't know about. - - - - - - - - - - I've always found the Nintendo Game & Watch fascinating since a very early age, I got some for cheap years ago and some for not so cheap recently. The first single screen G&W that I got was Super Mario Bros. which was purchased at a car boot for something silly like 20p in the Nineties. I was lucky enough that two dual screen G&W units (Donkey Kong and Oil Panic) were for sale in a local charity shop for only a few pounds at around the same time. Ever since then I've picked up a few of the ones I liked the look of the most such as Zelda and Squish when they weren't too expensive. If you ever see any these days, they are well worth picking up if they are a good deal because regardless of what they go for, they are just really interesting pieces of hardware. I'd love to write an article about them one day if this is something which would be of interest to anyone on here.

So, after attempting to connect my Wii to the internet via a wired connection and then giving up after going to the hassle of moving the console and an old 4:3 flatscreen monitor into the hallway so that I could have a direct connection to the router and it still not making a bit of difference, I turned the wi-fi back on just so that I could get onto the eShop at all with the consolation that being right next to the router, the downloads would be quicker at least. This is all so that I could use up my last 10,000 points which I put on there last March and after much deliberation, looking at what I already had, what I would miss, what I wouldn't... consoles which I now have better options for, titles which I know are still on the Wii U and which titles I likely wouldn't be seeing again or at least not quite in the same way, I decided that the only logical thing to do would be to buy as many of the Virtual Console Arcade games as I could. After adding everything up, changing my mind a few times and then making absolutely sure it all added up to exactly 10,000 points, here's what I got... 1942 800 points Altered Beast 900 points Black Tiger 800 points Commando 800 points Exed Exes 800 points Gaplus 500 points Ghosts n' Goblins 800 points Ninja Gaiden 800 points Rygar 600 points Space Harrier 800 points Starforce 500 points Super Hang On 900 points Tower of Druaga 500 points Zaxxon 500 points All points spent, no regrets and I've got a load of fantastic titles to play through or in some cases go through again but with the benefit of displaying them over RGB scart. It has also occured to me that in all the years I've had these games on the SD card, I've never actually backed them up, so I guess I should do that. Anyway, it's a relief to get all those points spent as there is now only just over two weeks until the 31/01/2019 deadline for spending Wii points already on the shop channel. Now watch Nintendo port a load of all these soon to be lost titles over to the Switch. (nah, it probably won't happen but I'd never rule it out)

Well, I ended up buying both Sonic the Hedgehog and Thunderforce IV in that recent sale, so I guess I'm committed to buying these digitally now. If they were to announce a physical collection for any number of the titles, it probably wouldn't happen for a while yet if at all. In any case, I don't think I could have waited that long to play Phantasy Star, Outrun, Puyo Puyo 2, Virtua Racing or even Sonic 2 for the... however many times I've played it now.

Nintendo Store UK, available to pre-order now.

Another game I own on the Xbox 360 and is still sealed... if this is getting a physical release on the Switch then I'll buy that and keep it sealed instead! And maybe get around to playing it, one day.

What day do we reckon this Nintendo Direct might be dropping on? The last one (at least) was on a Thursday I believe... so perhaps the same again this time?

I knew there was a reason I kept this in my PS1 collection. This year perhaps I'll make an effort to finally play Alundra. It strikes me as one of those games that you could just re-release today on any format and it would still find its market quite easily. And it has had a re-release of sorts, you can get it on the PS store for only a few pounds, so it's reasonably accessible, or pick up an original copy for £15 - £25 boxed. I can't remember when or where I picked up my copy, but I'll try and finally appreciate this gem when I get more back into gaming soon hopefully.

I found what looks to be a good video showing how to replace the sticks as well... It covers a few points that I hadn't considered and it's interesting to see how everything works. I really do love the GameCube controller and I hope that it remains a viable method of control for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and other games for many years to come.

You'll need a Tri-Wing Screwdriver. I was wondering which raplcement sticks you bought @Mr-Paul as I noticed there are some on eBay by ZedLabz but I'm guessing they are all pretty much the same. I'm currently using the brand new controller I got with the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate pack but I would like to breathe new life into some of my old GC controllers. As I was quietly sorting out a few bits and pieces, I found what I believe to be my original GC controller... it has definitely seen better days after a few thousand hours of use.

I'm wondering if those sales for Thimbleweed Park include the physical release from Limited Run games? Probably not I guess and even if it did, that would probably only up the percentage by 00.1% but still, it's an impressive number of sales all the same. If anything, it just reminds me that I still need to play Thimbleweed Park as I've heard that it's a fantastic title regardless of platform.