With all the remakes of hit games being released this year, you'd think we'd see some more familiar faces in the gaming landscape. We have at least a couple of big A list titles coming this year, namely Resident Evil 3 remake, and Final Fantasy VII remake (at least the first part). Both games are highly respected in the gaming community as being some of the best gaming experiences ever, even more than 20 years after their original release. I wouldn't be surprised if Capcom is planning to remake more games of the Resident Evil franchise. And Final Fantasy...well let's just say we'll have plenty of nostalgia come early April.

Before I was going to play Final Fantasy VII remake, I went through playing the original, as well as Final Fantasy VIII remastered. I wanted to make sure I platinumed the original on PS4 and Xbox One before I delve in to this reimagination. In doing so I found myself playing most of my back catalogue to add them to my PSN and Xbox profile. In doing so I experienced some lovely nostalgia in the form of Ninja Gaiden. While this is the reboot franchise I'm talking about, I'm definetly a big fan off all things Ninja Gaiden. As I'm typing this I'm listening to playlists from the NES trilogy.

Ninja Gaiden is one of the most memorable gaming experiences for me on both the NES and the previous few generations with the reboot. Both have excellent story telling, and both are challenging gaming experiences. Of course Ryu Hayabusa has been hiding out in the Dead or Alive series since it's beginning. It wasn't until after Dead or Alive 3 was released that we got a more modern take on the most loved Ninja in all of gaming. Tecmo was very consistent with the Ninja Gaiden Reboot trilogy. Each game was about 4 years apart and each one was hard as hell, and payed homage to the previous game that came before it. With every new entry that arrived we got more content. ..even if it took a second/director's cut esque kind of game to get it.

Despite what many gaming publications may have said about Ninja Gaiden 3, and Ninja Gaiden 3 razor's edge, I still enjoyed the game as a whole. This wasn't the first time i've enjoyed a game that most of the general gaming population hated. I'm still playing through Razor's edge right now to get some of the other trophies that take a little bit longer to achieve. But in thinking about that. We haven't had a new Ninja Gaiden title in about 7 years....8 if you count Ninja Gaiden 3/Razor's edge as the same game (which it kind of is) I don't really count that spin off game that came after Ninja Gaiden 3 Razor's edge, mostly because that's not a game where Ryu is the main character.

Even though Ryu appears in the Dead or Alive series, as well as the Dynasty warriors series, it would be nice to see him in the spotlight again. I'm sure given some of the backlash the community dished out 8 years ago, Koei Tecmo may just be waiting for the right time to bring Ryu back. Also the 8th generation is about to end and the 9th is about to begin. With the PS5 and Xbox Series X just around the corner (and possibly another Nintendo system as well), maybe it's a valid assumption to make that a new Ninja Gaiden game could be in the works? I sure hope so! I think it would even be an awesome idea if the NES trilogy was remade for the current generation. I know that's wishful thinking, but hey, you never know.

So here we are in the year 2020. A new decade full of hope joy and endless possibilities. At least that's what I'd like to think going into the new year given my current status (which is not appropriate here)

The end of 2019 for me was a year of change with respects to gaming. Although it took me more than 20 years, I finally played a pokemon game for the first time...the first one...Red! lol I didn't understand it then, but over the years I still respected pokemon as a very successful gaming franchise. Card collecting and playing (table top to be specific) was one of those things I didn't understand and had no interest in, but I respected those who enjoyed it. I think with the recent release of Pokemon Sword and Shield for the Switch, that's what got me interested....that and one of my friends always playing Pokemon GO....(and he wasn't a pokemon fan either) Some may think where have you been all this time? But lets be realistic here. Some people need more time to warm up to a game to discover it for themselves. Also not every single person will appreciate a game or a franchise the way another person does. Just yesterday I played Uncharted for the very first time...a game I had known about for years. I had the original PS3 versions, never played them sold them, only to get the PS4 trilogy. It sat unplayed for nearly 2 years until yesterday. Why do you ask?

Well lately I've been adding all my recent friends to my PSN account and Xbox account. Sometimes we communicate through the chat app on the device as it was the only thing available to keep in touch with. Most of my friends have higher trophy or achievement levels than me. For some it was a friendly competition thing to see who could get their first platinum trophy or be the first to 100% a game. That being said not all the games I had which had trophy support had been listed on my profile. So I went back through my library and started adding all the games that had trophy support to my PSN. And while doing so I started playing them for a bit. Some games I didn't play for long while others I played for much longer. In some cases I played long enough to actually earn a trophy or two. I had just finished getting 100% on Final Fantasy VII for PS4, and was slowing moving my way through Final Fantasy VIII. I was at level 7 with about 49%. Since I started adding all my old PS3 games as well as some PS4 games to include my entire library...that level has gone up to Level 8 at around 17%. and I'm only about 50% through Final Fantasy VIII remastered in terms of trophies.

It's always exciting when I get an achievement, even if it's a small one. Call me a trophy whore if you want, but I like getting them. Wheather it be on Xbox or Playstation, it doesn't matter. I will say though that I like the Playstation structure a lot more than I do the Xbox one. Some games I just need to play for a little bit to add them to my list. I was going through the Kingdom, Hearts remasters to add them to the list only to discover that some games didn't have trophies....let alone actual gameplay. Some of the so called HD remasters were nothing more than 3 hrs worth of cut scenes instead of the original game itself with the actual gameplay. And as some of us know sometimes games have older versions which also have their own trophy set. Some games have all the versions as the trophy list, while others have individual trophy sets. For example I have both the PS4 and Vita version of Senran Kagura Estival versus. On the PSN that's listed as two separate trophy lists instead of just one. So basically you can play the same game twice and get two sets of trophies instead of just one.

With regards to Kingdom Hearts though, it was a little disappointing to discover that two of the games on the PS4 version of he 1.5, and 2.5 release don't actually have gameplay and are just cutscenes. That would also explain why there are no specific trophies for these games. Of course the PS3 versions of those same games do, which means there is actual gameplay. The games in question are Kingdom Hearts 358/2 days and Kingdom Hearts coded. Of course this just makes it harder to catch up to finally being able to play Kingdom Hearts III. Prior to actually getting a copy of Kingdom Hearts III I bought all the HD collections in the hope it would allow me to appreciate Kingdom Hearts III more. While that's 100% true, I wasn't expecting no gameplay from two of those entries. So now I'm on a hunt for the versions that do have gameplay (and trophies) as well as the original versions..which may be hard to find at this point in history. But it's just a never ending quest to get the whole story and learn about the whole series. I'm sure like pokemon if I start from the beginning and build a foundation and understanding I'll learn to appreciate these works of art more. That being said there are many many games coming out this year that I long to play, but first my new years resolution for games, is to sit down and play these old games and have fun with them first.

I know for a fact right now, that I most likely will not be investing in the next generation of gaming from day 1. This is mostly because they will be very expensive when they get launched and more than likely 100% of the titles that come out I won't have much interest in playing. So I think for now I'll just stay where I am and concentrate on the games I do have and have fun with them. I may not collect every trophy that a game has, Hey I may not even want to. But I will have fun with the games, That much I can guarantee.

I grew up in an era where the only video game companies that were around were Sega and Nintendo. To me the greatest accomplishment that a kid could do with regards to video games at that time was just beating the game. In fact most games back in the day only had that. Of course now that he online aspect of gaming has become a norm, we now have gamer scores and achievement rankings. Some of the achievements can be rather difficult to achieve while others are very easy. As an older gamer you'd think that it wouldn't be an attractive feature. But actually I enjoy the achievement and trophy system. Of course I'll also admit that when you're playing just to unlock all the trophies a game has, then it takes a way from the fun of it...at least a little bit for me.

There are certain titles where i can easily unlock most if not all of the trophies. Games such as Final Fantasy and Mega man come to mind. Today I played Crash Bandicoot N'sane trilogy on my Xbox One, along with Bloodstained Curse of the moon, and I earned a couple of achievements. My achievement score was about 6000 before I played today, and now it's at 6400 something. Bloodstained is a fun game, but can be tricky at times. Same thing goes for Crash. I do enjoy the retro look of some of the games. It takes me back to an era of gaming that was fun. I'm not saying that this generation isn't fun, but it's far and few between that I find myself playing literally all of the so called Triple A titles that win game of the year awards these days. I also tried out a demo of Shining Resonance refrain which was visually a beautiful game. It turns out is related to the shining series of games from the early 90's. Anyone remember Shining force? Yeah that series. I think though like the Final Fantasy series, each one is a unique title on it's own and you don't have to play the previous game that was released to understand what's going on. As it turns out it's an enhanced remake of Shining Resonance for the PS3 which was only released in Japan. This is the first time it's available worldwide, and on an xbox console no doubt.

I also played some Soul Calibur II on the gamecube this week. It took me back to when the game first came out in 2002. I specifically remember the opening movie and music being amazing. It still holds up even today. Of course I've played all three versions of the game as each one had it's own unique exclusive character, Link for the Nintendo gamecube version, Heiachi from Tekken for the PS2 version, and Spawn for the Xbox version. The gamecube one is the best because it has link who fits right into the universe. In fact I believe the gamecube version outsold the PS2 and Xbox versions sales combined. I've also heard a rumour that Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII was originally supposed to be the exclusive character for the PS2 version. Of course that fell apart due to licensing issues and they used Heiachi instead. If Cloud was in the PS2 version I'm sure sales would have been much higher. or on par with the gamecube version.

With all these new consoles coming out, it's easy to forget what came before. If you own an older generation console I say don't sell it to upgrade to the latest and greatest thing. I for one don't spend money on upgrading to whatever the current generation is, until a worthwhile game for me comes out. For example I didn't buy a PS2 until Final Fantasy X came out, which was about one year after launch. Also there's always some bugs at the beginning of every new system's life cycle. So it's best to wait it out and see what games will come out when more developers are on board. Of course the only system I'd probably even consider at a launch would be a Nintendo system. That's mostly because they have a family friendly atmosphere and would more likely have the games I'd want to play at the start. Xbox and Sony would have "kill everyone" kinds of games, or beat everyone in every sport types of games at launch usually. But it all depends on preference.

I'll always play something on each system eventually. But lately it seems that there's less and less of the kinds of games I play showing up. So it's a good thing to keep all your old systems around. And I'm glad I still do.

Maybe I'm some what of an old fart when it comes to gaming. I recently watched the game awards 2019 hoping there would be some form of excitement. In truth the only thing that I was pleased about was seeing new footage from the Final Fantasy VII remake. I played the original PS1 game back when it first came out. I love that game so much that I've got multiple copies of it across many different generations of consoles.

Truth be told I really didn't care some much about what else was shown and who won what. The fact that Super Smash Bros Ultimate is considered to be the greatest fighting game of all time now by some measure of sales or what not just boggles my mind. Don't get me wrong, Smash is fun series and innovative, but it's just not the fighting game I'm traditionally used to like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat or Dead or Alive.

I don't know when it was excatly, but the moment Video games became more mainstream and not just a hobby that was for children, I think that's when gaming changed for me. More than likely it was around the time the original Mortal Kombat was used to establish the ESRB. Ever since then games have been produced at an alarming rate, and more and more companies are trying to enter the market. In the early 80's to mid 90's It was strictly a Nintendo and Sega affair. By the mid 90's it had become a Sega Nintendo Sony thing. By the year 2000 Microsoft came into the picture.

As gaming as evolved over the years I've changed very little as a gamer. I don't have as much time to devote to playing hours on end, and the majority of what's considered popular doesn't excite me. I personally don't give a shit about games like Call of Duty or any EA Sports Property. And I could care even less about games like Fortnite and Minecraft let alone e-sports and all gaming celebrities. I'm just content playing my single player games of yesteryear and maybe the ocassional two player game that comes every now and then.

I consider myself to be a minority in this current generation of gaming. My top five gaming franchises all started on the NES are still having new games being made today in the current generation. That shows you how old I am. Some of these games from these franchises have been re-released as collections, HD remakes and what not. But at the end of the day the original game was always the best. Thankfully some of these franchises are considered popular enough that I'd still invest in gaming for at least a little while longer. In case you were wondering the franchises in question would be Mega Man, Final Fantasy, Ninja Gaiden/Dead or Alive, Metroid, and the Legend of Zelda. I also like others like most of the other Nintendo franchises, the odd anime game here and there, and maybe even an indie game. I will always keep my old systems, and hook them up to play if I have the space available to do so. I invest more in previous generations than the current one, as my time is mostly devoted to the necessities of life. At the end of the day I don't need to be known or super great at any game I play. I do admit I do like trophies or achievements, but sometimes having so many is just inviting trouble. I think i'll retire from gaming though when it stops being fun, or when they stop making the games i like to play.