The year is now past the 50% mark.  For our family, we have one annual retro game convention down (CORGS) and one to go (CCAG).  E3 is still fresh on the news, and prep-work is in full swing for the Autism and Gaming Convention.  Our South Korean foreign exchange student has gone from a non-gamer to finishing Dark Souls II and Dark Souls III (quite a few times) before returning home soon.  "Free" time has been spent battling both household illnesses and the massive pile of test systems, cords, and accessories for our CCAG table.  I think it's time to grab a breather and take stock of the situation.





First off, CORGS!  Great time as always.  We briefly hung out with Michael Thomasson (and bought a near-complete Miracle Piano NES piano set from him!) and Brett Weiss (who signed both volumes of our SNES Omnibus books) and grabbed the names of a handful of vendors to hit up for our Autism and Gaming Convention.  My Beloved has been on an Atari 2600 game hunt lately and found several we didn't have and we nabbed a SupaBoy SFC (that was immediately swiped by our middle son as soon as he saw it.)  We even found some rare Atari Lynx games we had never seen.  Lots and lots of great finds for cheap, as well as some stuff for the future repair/test table.  Also, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that TWO DeLoreans were on display, one with a built-in Outrun arcade game.  Overall, a wonderful show as always.

As for E3, it is always interesting timing because it is usually sandwiched between the two retro conventions we attend.  We see a vision of the future of gaming in between getting immersed in the retro community.  The big push this year aside from new systems on the horizon is, of course, a greater emphasis on cloud gaming.  As streaming services such as Ubisoft's Uplay+, Google Stadia, Sony and Microsoft's Cloud Gaming Service, Microsoft's Gamepass, etc. get bigger, I'll have that much more time to catch up on my backlog.  The more gaming moves into a games-as-service, the less interest I have in keeping up with the new tech.  Not that I'd never play it (I still enjoy some like Fallout 76) but my interests are much more in line with the Evercade, the new TG-16 mini, the Intellivision Amico, and even the new Atari VCS, as long as they support physical media.  Speaking of which, I was more interested in Limited Run's revival of older game carts than much of the new stuff announced. 

That said, we did see a number of titles we intend to pick up.  Here is our list of interests, excluding some of the more obvious  'gimme's, such as the new Zelda titles.  Not all of these were featured at E3, so all the more reason to highlight 'em;


Cyberpunk 2077
I've had the Cyberpunk 2020 Sourcebook since middle school, and it remains one of my favorite pen-and-paper RPG worlds.  Seeing Johnny Mnemonic as the ghost of Johnny Silverhand gave old-timers like me a special smile.  Given the high bar of quality CD Projekt typically sets, I'm sold.

Doom Eternal
I enjoyed the 2016 reboot far more than I expected, and the followup looks like a lot of fun.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
As a fan Koji Igarashi's work on Castlevania, I've been eagerly awaiting the spiritual successor.  Curse of the Moon, incidentally, is a great appetizer.

Super Mario Maker 2
The first is still one of the most played games during weekends at our home, so with all of the additions this one's easy.

Battletoads and the new Streets of Rage
Curious how these will actually play, but both are on track to be easy pick-ups.

Panzer Dragoon: Remake
Day one from me for the obvious reason that beside being a fantastic game, we all want the rest of the series to get the same treatment.

Umihara Kawase Fresh
The very definition of a quirky 2D platformer series, finally coming West. 

Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot
Maybe a bit generic overall, but these VR games can be a lot of fun.

Trine 4
The charming 2.5D platform/puzzle solving series finally getting a new title.  The original trilogy is coming to modern consoles as a package too.

Killer Queen Black
2D Multiplayer mayhem, gives me vibes of Towerfall mixed with Joust and a touch of strategy.

Collection of Mana
While I did pick up a repro cart of the translated Seiken Densetsu 3, this compilation is a great excuse to replay the Game Boy Original too.

Buildings have Feelings Too
Seeing my Beloved's delighted reaction to the trailer for this game made it an instant preorder.
https://youtu.be/qlzWG8fhezI

Gears 5
We've gone through each game since the beginning and played a ton of multiplayer, and this one finally looks to be going in interesting directions with the story.

Borderlands 3
We're already planning/arguing who gets which character.

Ni No Kuni (on Switch)
My PS3 died and took my original save file with it.  Maybe now I can finally finish it.

Baldur's Gate 1&2, Planescape: Torment & Icewindale, Neverwinter Nights
Never had computers that could run these well back when I had time to play them, maybe having the portable Switch version will finally give me a chance.

Contra: Rogue Corps
I have to admit I was disappointed to find the developer was going with a top-view twin-stick game, but we did really like Alienation, so we'll give it a go.

MediEvil
The original was classic if a little dated now, so I'm looking forward to trying it out again.

Star Child
A VR-supported 2.5D platformer with a beautiful art style.

Death Stranding
Because there is no weird like Hideo Kojima weird.  If nothing else, it'll be different.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
I always hope the next Star Wars game will get anywhere near Force Unleashed.  Here's hoping!

Aquanox: Deep Descent
Futuristic submarine exploration and combat.  I Like.

The Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors (Originally Ninja Warriors)
The 2D beat-em-up classic remastered.  Kinda came out of nowhere.  Yay!

Arcade Love: Plus Pengo!
The 360 import of this is one of our favorite competitive family games (specifically the Pengo arcade port,) and supposedly the Switch offers the original 8-player mode!

As you can see, our interests are as much retro as modern.  In fact, playing older games in new ways or games that build upon classic foundations are as interesting to me as the new and different games on the horizon.  That ol' time traveling Delorean may be the perfect metaphor of my gaming; using something from the future to visit the past.

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