Gaming off the Beaten Path

  I'm not one for overly difficult games, but this one has been on my list for a long, long time. I think I've covered more Mega Man titles than any other series. What can I say, I've always loved these games. Despite being an iconic video game character, the blue bomber fits more into the whole "off the beaten path" theme than you would think. I forget where it was, I ended up looking at the series' sales figures and was shocked to find just how few units it has moved. I guess it makes some level of sense. Mega Man has had quite a few fits of starts and stops, often coming out with two, three, four titles in the span of a few years before going dark. A lot of this is due to spinoffs, I always considered the classic and X series to kind of be one and one A, but there is also Battle network, Legends and a host of other interesting outliers. A lot of folks consider these games to be incredibly difficult. Honestly, I just don't see it. Maybe it's because

  I've been reviewing games for quite a while now and it's really changed the way I think and talk about games. I look back at some of my old blog posts, mostly from my college years, and it I can't help but feel a bit embarrassed. It's not so much that my writing is bad, though I have certainly grown as the writer. It's more the language I use that just doesn't sit right with me. I did a top 100 games of all-time list, but is that really what I should have called it? It's not really "THE" top 100, it's "MY" top 100. I'm sure some people would agree with my opinions, though most wouldn't. There are a lot of games I wouldn't rank even close to my top 100 that many people consider to be classic and vice versa. The thing is, it's not just me. It seems like a lot of online discourse around gaming is filled with hyperbolic declarations and personal attacks against people that disagree with them. I have certainly been guilty

  There's nothing special about being courageous in times of need The golden era of RPGs was in full swing in 1999, at least I would say it was. The PlayStation had officially pulled away from the pack and had become a haven for the genre, the Saturn had come to be appreciated by fans for its lesser-known RPGs and the Nintendo 64....had Ogre Battle and Quest? Of course, that also meant that some of these games started to feel a little bit formulaic. That's not necessarily a bad thing, if it ain't broke don't fix it, but it's always nice to see some level of innovation. Honestly, I think the best games tend to find a middle ground, they have just enough new stuff to feel fresh but they don't throw out mechanics that have proven to be enjoyable. As great as RPGs were in this era, I feel like 1999 to 2000 was when a lot of games started feeling similar. A lot of them were still awesome, but they just sort of felt like they were doing more of the same. I felt that w