Author Archives: dahubbz
Spent Today Cataloging My Video Game Collection
Hey guys. I should have been a little more productive today then I was. However, I took the time to catalogue my Wii U, N64 and Gamecube collection. Next week I plan to maybe, hopefully tackle OG Xbox, 360 and Wii games.
My Wii U collection says 161 out of 165. However, I have a little different system than most, so in my list there’s only about 163. I am not sure what the exact differences are. I know I only count Bayonetta 2 as the only release. It had an original printing with Bayonetta 1 included and a second print run without the original included. I also include New Super Mario Bros, New Super Luigi Bros, and the 2 and 1 bundle as one game. Others include all 3 as separate releases (in their defense, they are all separate). I’m missing Devil’s Third and Just Dance 2019.
My Gamecube collection clocks in at 108 after a last minute impulse buy of Zoocube. Jessica said I should own the last game alphabetically speaking on the gamecube. Some of the highlights include Skies of Arcadia loose, both Pokemon Colosseum games, all the Mario Party games, and the Zelda collection including Zelda 1, Zelda 2, Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask.
My N64 collection only has 62 games. I thought for sure I had already broken 70, but alas, not yet. Some of the highlights include Super Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, Bomberman 2nd Attack, Silicon Station Space Valley (yes, I know this is wrong. It’s actually Space Station Silicon Valley but I can never say nor type it right.).
Despite being almost done with the Wii U and the N64 containing most of my childhood games, Gamecube is my collection I am most fond of. It is such a great console!
N64 and Gamecube games.
Not a very flattering photo, but Jessica took this picture of the N64 games and Gamecubes stacked how she did.
Anyway, I don’t know how many of the regular readers are into retro games or video game collecting, but here’s just a small look into the collection! Thank you guys for reading!
As always have a great day!
I Finally Decided to Play Final Fantasy 7 (Original) on Game Pass! My early thoughts.
I won’t lie. Growing up an N64 fan, it felt like it was a debate, a war even. Which was better? Ocarina of Time vs Final Fantasy 7. I knew where my loyalty lied. I still think being indoctrinated into Zelda instead of Final Fantasy is a big reason why I am more into action adventure games over RPGs.
In my adult life, the FF7 remake was hyped up to no end. As a PS3 owner I thought maybe we would get a version of the remake, but it just snuck onto the PS4’s library. While I plan to get around to the remake, now that I own a PS4 as well, I decided to start with the original on the Xbox Gamepass. Here are some of my thoughts.
For the record, spoilers will be minor. I have put almost 7 hours into the game and finally made it to the world map on my way to the town of Kalm.
For starters, the graphics do not look horrible for a PS1 game. Admittedly, I am not a techno wizard. Maybe this is due to the fact I am playing it on the Xbox One on my nice TV. Either way, graphics are not a turn off here.
Combat is still not great, but I have yet to find a turn based battle system I enjoy outside of Pokemon. The timing system is less than great and having to maneuver those arrows has led to many accidental wrong attacks and spells. Such as using a phoenix down on a living player, curing the wrong member, or not being able to target a back row character.
So, far that is really my only complaint. The game is well written and different from most RPGS and Final Fantasy games I have seen. It is over the top weird, vulgar and very funny. I would be surprised if they did not have to clean up and adjust a lot of the humor for the hyper sensitive modern day crowd. I like how anybody can learn any spell. This almost reduced roles and classes found in former entries, but makes it where you can build each character to be anything you want. I like to put my head in the mindset of the late 90’s when I play. As a result, the cutscenes blow me away. They are so visually striking. They remind me of Resident Evil 2 cutscenes from when I was younger and of course there is nostalgia tied to that.
The game has opened up now with the world map. I wouldn’t say the game has been strictly linear like FF13, but it has been close. Still, I have liked the balance of a very focused approach to story telling while also being able to explore towns and talk to NPCs. I don’t think it is perfect, but it still feels good.
So far Sephiroth has really only shown up by name, but his reputation is starting to proceed him. Having never played Final Fantasy 7 prior to this week, I would say just from what I know about him, he stands up there with video games’ greatest evil forces and I am excited to see more of him.
Which brings me to the story. The story is compelling without giving too much away. If Sephiroth is an ancient and he is still alive, I wonder how many more ancients are still alive as well? I cannot wait to explore more of the world, the lore and the characters.
So far, I give the game an 8 out of 10. I plan to keep playing further and we will totally revisit as I go.
Happy 4th of July! A new Video Game Music Mix has dropped!
Hey guys. Some of you may remember I have a secondary channel dedicated to making video game music mixes and play lists. I published a new one today centering around Yoshi Video Game Music! I’d appreciate it if everyone gave it a listen! Thanks in advance!
The video can be found here: Happy Yoshi Music (Over 30 Minutes of Peaceful and Calming Yoshi Music!)
Subscribe to my second channel here: Been Boozled
Thank you guys for reading. Have a great day and enjoy the holiday!
Games at E3 2021 I’m most excited for!
E3 has come and went. While the presentation did not quite live up to the hype, there was still plenty to be excited about. Now, full disclaimer. This list is based solely off my taste, my anticipation of the game, and how close it is to coming out. So while the new Zelda game is probably the game I’m most hyped about, it doesn’t have a release date and will get docked points accordingly.
Starting the list off is Monster Hunter Stories 2. Admittedly, I missed the first entry in this game series. I also wasnt a huge fan of the Monster Hunter on Wii U. Still, the trailer for this game looked pretty solid and interesting. I’m not fully convinced I’ll pick this game up short of a sale, but I can say it looks fun nonetheless.
Next up is Final Fantasy Origin: Strangers in Paradise. Part of me is excited for this game due to my renewed interest in the series, namely FFI and FFVII. But that’s what’s so cool about it. I beat Garland again in FFI the night before Square’s presentation . The game supposedly plays like the Soul’s franchise. Again, another franchise I’ve never really played. In fact, it is a bit of a turn off. However, I do enjoy the lore of Final Fantasy so I’m willing to dive into this game. Especially if it pops up on Gamepass.
Halo Infinite is Xbox Series X’s flagship title. With a purchasable campaign complimented perfectly with a free to download multiplayer experience, Halo Infinite will attempt to kickstart Microsoft’s foray into the next generation of gaming. I believe this will be made available immediately on Gamepass, so I’ll probably visit this soon after it drops on Gamepass. I did not own an original Xbox, so I missed out on Halo 1 and 2. However, as a proud 360 owner, my brother and I beat the campaign of Halo 3. I fell out of the series after that installment marked the end of the Bungie run on Halo. I am hopeful this iteration of Halo will capitate me again like Halo 3 did nearly 15 years ago!
Now, Metroid Dread. I think Metroid 1 is very outdated and Super Metroid is a joy to explore. I’ve never played the GBA entries but Dread looks a great return to form for 2D Metroidvania games. This is most likely not a day one purchase but a game I’d love to grab eventually. Bonus points for the extended gameplay shown off.
Next is Elden Ring. Elden Ring is what I always imagined the Zelda franchise turning into. Skyrim feels almost like what Zelda BOTW would be if it was developed by not Nintendo. Elden Ring feels like what Twilight Princess or Zelda 2 would be if it was developed by not Nintendo. Truthfully, I cannot really tell you what’s going on, but this game looks epic. That is enough to get me excited. If this comes to Gamepass, it is a day one download. I am still a physical collector at heart, even with the new generation of consoles out. With that said, I need to see more in-game footage before I commit this to the day one purchases.
Zelda Breath of the Wild 2 (for the record, not the official name as of the writing of this post), Starfield and Stalker 2 all seem too far out to judge now. However, I think it is safe to say, they will be some of the best in show at E3 2022 and be in competition for game of the year next year. We did not see a lot, but what we did see, gives me plenty of hope in these titles.
Far Cry 6 seems to be one of, if not the biggest multiplat coming out this year. Ubisoft can be hit or miss in their business practices and games they release. However, there is no denying their juggernaut status in the world of 3rd party developers. Owning titles like Rayman, Assassin’s Creed and the Tom Clancy games to name a few, Far Cry is another long running franchise under their belt. Far Cry 6 stars Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad and The Mandolorian!) as its villain. That alone is plenty enough reason to be hyped for this game. The setting looks good, the weapons look fun and the last few Far Cry games have been instant hits. Far Cry 6 is sitting pretty close to the front on the hype train this year.
Guardians of the Galaxy has become one of my favorite MCU movies and teams. While that has not translated into me reading their comic series more, I am beyond stoked to suit up as Peter Quill, Star Lord. This was one of the few games that received extensive screen time. I would say do not listen to the haters of this game. Everybody is judging it off the fact no one liked Marvel’s Avengers the game. This game seems, for now anyway, completely different. We could be wrong and it could suck. However, nothing about the in-depth breakdown gave me any concern. For the most part, if I had to name anything to be worried about, it is repetitive gameplay. I am not always into brawlers. Hopefully there is more than mindless action to keep me engaged. If not, the decision making dialogue and the way Peter can call on his members individually to take advantage of their power’s will potentially keep things interesting throughout the play through. This probably won’t be a day one purchase. It comes out pretty close to Black Friday and the holidays in general. I am hoping it will go sale as there’s about 3 or 4 other games I will be picking up around this time.
Such as Mario Party SuperStars for example. Another game that got plenty of screen time. I am sold already. Featuring 5 boards and 100 minigames from the golden age of Mario Party, this game is set to be a blast this holiday season. I cannot remember if they revealed any additional modes other than the traditional party mode. Regardless, this game should serve as a great stop gap until the next mainline Mario Party game comes out. I am truthfully ecstatic to play this game.
I should note, there are plenty of games that look good that just don’t interest me. Instead of naming them all, I will just highlight Shin Megami Tensei V. I don’t see the appeal of this game, but Jessica adores Persona 5 and wants to hop into the SMT series. This will probably be her jumping in point. Maybe it will grow on me? Either way, this is one of those games that cemented Nintendo won E3. This, Metroid and Mario Party SuperStars was enough to win it even without throwing in the BOTW 2 trailer and the other goodies they sprinkled in along the way.
However, the game I am most excited for is Psychonauts 2. I really want Psychonauts 1 to come to Gamepass. I played through some of it on Steam, but if they released it on Gamepass with achivements and the ability to play it on the big screen than I would be over the moon. Either way, Psychonauts 1 was great from what I played of it. Psychoanuts 2 looks like a beautiful, vibrant 3D platformer. I haven’t watched much of it past last years reveal trailer. However, I heard it is coming Day 1 to Gamepass and that is huge. I cannot wait to get my hands on it.
Man, this E3 got crapped on. And at times, it was horrible. However, I think enough good games got revealed or showed off that it was at least salvageable. There’s a lot of things to look forward to this year and next.
Thank you guys for reading and have a great day!
Manga Monday: Manga Haul! 10 Zatch Bell Volumes and Plenty More!
Hey everybody! Today’s post is another manga haul! Jessica and I recently went on our honey moon down to St. Augustine, Florida. While we were down there, we grabbed a ton of manga. Check it out!
As you can see, I scored quite a bit of Zatch Bell. Volumes 1-10 to be exact. This is so awesome for several reasons. For starters, I loved Zatch Bell as a kid. The anime anyway. I never read the manga. So I’m excited to give it a shot. Secondly, I bought this as a bundle. So I did not need to scour the web looking for each volume and I didn’t even have to pay shipping since it was in a local store. Shout out to Ancient City Toys in St. Augustine! For those wondering, Zatch Bell is now my 4th most collected manga series in just 1 purchase. Not bad!
The next round of pictures depicts mostly Jessica’s books. She took a shot on the Dot Hack Legend of the Twilight Volumes 1 and 2. She was only going to get volume 1 but I reminded her how hard it is to get mangas without resorting to the internet so she got the second one while we were there. Next she got Mahoromatic Volume 1. I also told her to get volume 2 of it for the same reason. Some how she forgot to grab it.
The last four books were bought at the local 2nd and Charles in St. Augustine. Two were mine. Two were Jessica. Jessica bought two discounted mangas named Fairy Tale Battle Royale (Sounds intense) and Faeries’ Landing (Doesn’t sound nearly as intense). I don’t know the first thing about these books.
I bought a discounted manga for myself, Dragon Drive. I also don’t know much about it. It does, however, look awesome. It will surely show up as a Manga Monday review soon enough. Lastly, I got The Way of the House Husband. This book sounds awesome. It stars a retired gangster member turned stay at home husband. This was a running joke with Jessica and myself as I was a full time student while she worked.
So there you have it! I think a pretty awesome, sound group of mangas that I am pumped to get around to.
Thank you all for reading! Have a great day!
Coming Back
The last post I made was about our cat, Elizabeth’s vet visit. She is fine now. At that time, we were stressing out about keeping an eye out on her. Our AC unit broke, our hot water unit messed up and we were planning our honey moon. And to make things even worse, Crunchyroll stopped playing anime. We had watched the first 3 episodes of Tokyo Revengers and than boom… Crunchyroll stopped loading anime.
With all that said, our AC unit is fixed, our water heater is fixed, Elizabeth is fine and Crunchyroll is working again. We would like to make another comeback.
I know we were doing daily post for a while and you may think we got burned out. Well, due to our broke AC unit, we literally burned out. But, metaphors aside, we have just been sorting out things in our life. Personally, I really want to get back into the swing of blogging and keep any momentum going forward.
With that in mind, I have been making a lot of video game related videos over on my Youtube channel. Be sure to check those out as I’ve been talking about the Zelda 35th Anniversary and how to make collecting fun and affordable for example.
Anywho, thank you guys for reading and sticking with me. Again, not promising daily post, but I am going to try and get some regularity going back on the blog!
Elizabeth’s vet appointment
This is going to be a short post. My usual readers may be confused why this is on the blog. I like to do life post so I can always go back and read these later, like virtual journals.
I’m not going into detail on this post because a lot is unknown still. Our cat is staying over night at the vet because she refuses to pee. They need her pee to know for sure what’s wrong with her. Long story short, she hasn’t used the bathroom in 48 hours (only little spots of pee here and there.). Jessica and I have spent the last 5 hours in a town 30 minutes away just fo be told they’re keeping her over night. It’s not their fault so were not mad. But were finally going home where we have to be back at the vet at 7am.
It’s just a little awkward with our schedule, but that’s our baby.
Anywho, I had a different post planned for today but that can wait for the weekend. Thank you guys for reading and have a great day.
A Trip Down Memory Lane: Yugioh TCG
I work as an online inventory specialist at a card shop. This is just a fancy way of saying I put cards online. As a result, I am surround by TCGs everyday. I handle Pokemon, Yugioh, Magic, Digimon, Dragon Ball Super and plenty of others on a less frequent basis.
Because of this, I’ve been on a giant Yugioh kick. Thus, I’ve been making more post about it lately. Today I want to talk about Yugioh and how I fell in love with it.
I dont exactly know the complete history of Yugioh and the timeline. I know it was a manga created by a man who loved horror but wanted or needed to make a more traditional Shounen. So he made a manga about a card game with very grotesque and disturbed creatures. Sadly, a tradition that does not seem to be nearly as prevalent anymore.
I also think the anime predates the cards, or at least the official rules. That’s my understanding of it anyway. The anime, along with Pokemon, made up my childhood. I’m pretty confident I loved Pokemon more as kid. Yet, I never really did more than collect the cards. However, I was obsessed with the Yugioh card game. It was by far the card game of choice at school. We played it so often, it got banned in my 3rd grade class. We played it so much in 2nd grade. I think everyone from this time period remembers schoolyard Yugioh fondly. It is kind of like school yard basketball or football where you just played to have fun and it was wild. The creatures were iconic and the duels were a blast. The game has changed so much, I think that only adds to the nostalgic factor. People see all the new XYZ, Synchro and Link monsters and it is so far removed from setting your creature face down and setting 2 cards in the back row and passing your turn.
I’m learning so much about hand traps and creatures that negate effects and spells. It really is a different time, but it has been for a while. Honestly, I loved all of Yugi’s creatures and pretty much any creature in the anime, but Yugioh GX gave the Elemental Heroes and those are probably my favorite archetype in the whole series. My Brother’s name is Jayden and he was born in 03, so it was really something to see the main character have the same name as him. I also loved superheroes. So this was a great match. I feel like they gave the monsters a lot of charm and that made it all the more awesome.
I remember going to my local K-Mart and buying the Yugi Starter Deck and Kaiba Starter Deck for me and my other brother to play and duel countless hours away with. Going to Walmart or K-mart was a real treat back than as we could pick out booster packs to add cards to our collection. I still have a ton of the cards I opened as a kid. My brother and I would fight so much over cards we had to write our initials on them. I still remember when my mom enforced this rule. As an adult, it might be the cringiest thing I did in my youth. But that was the rule. Every time I see those cards I laugh a little and die inside a lot.
When I finished 5th grade and the summer wrapped up, my mom sat me down and told me I had to grow up. She said I would get bullied if I kept playing Yugioh. She wanted me to throw away all my cards. Well, I told her she raised me better than to care about other people’s opinion. I think it gave her a heart attack as I’m sure her co-workers told her this small minded crap. She got her wish, sort of. I did not throw away my cards. But as I drifted away from my brother and lost my elementary school friends. I had no one to play with anymore. So I put all my cards in a tacklebox and stuck them in my closest.
Boy, am I glad I kept them. I know play Yugioh as well as a handful of other games like Pokemon with my now wife. We love it. And my job is literally handling Yugioh cards. haha So, I stopped playing Yugioh for about 10 years and again for another 5, but I’ve found my way back to it for the 3rd time in my life.
Who knows how long this ride will last but I am here for it.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!
Manga Monday: Manga Haul
The Manga hauls at this point have gotten completely out of order. So, again, this is one of my newer hauls (It might be the newest haul in fact.)
As you can see we scored 4 new mangas! 3 ongoing ones in Boruto, Dragon Ball Z, and Eden Zero. These are some of our favorite mangas to read. We also have 1 new comer to the collection, Black Torch.
Here’s the description straight from Amazon “Ninja and animal lover Jiro Azuma’s life is changed forever when he finds himself in the middle of a war of ninjas vs. demons. Jiro Azuma is descended from of a long line of shinobi, and he also can talk to animals. One day, he rescues a very unique black cat named Rago, a supernatural being, and is dragged into a secret supernatural war. Although he may appear rough-and-tumble, Jiro Azuma’s compassionate side emerges when it comes to the furry critters he can communicate with. But Jiro’s soft spot for animals gets him in major trouble when a suspicious stray cat fuses with him, granting him exceptional power but also dragging him into humanity’s hidden battle against powerful Japanese spirits, mononok“.
The cover and description honestly kind of leave a little to be desired, but as I was flipping through it I thought the art looked very solid. Sometimes I feel like I’m taking on more #1’s than I can handle. In recent memories I’ve taken on Jujutsu Kaisen, My Hero Academia and Eden Zero. I’ve enjoyed them all a lot and wanted to keep reading them. If I like Black Torch enough to justify getting more, I’ll probably have to cut something. Oh, well. Let’s wait and see how the book is before we make any rash decisions.
Thank you guys for reading and let me know what mangas you’ve picked up recently!
My TCG Endeavors: Building Classic Yugioh Decks!
Today, we’re starting a new series, My TCG Endeavors. Now, I’ve already made some post talking about TCG games like Digimon, Pokemon, Magic and now Yugioh. These are going to be all encompassing from collecting, building, and playing these card games.
Today I’m talking about early Yugioh decks loosely based on the anime. For my purposes I don’t care about the ban list so my list will often include Pot of Greed and other banned and restricted cards. Also, I say loosely because most of the characters only used 1 of’s which players don’t do in real life (Commander Players: Am I a joke to you? <.<). Also, I’m trying to improve strategies, consistency, and just the overall playability and fun factor of these decks. So the two decks I’m focusing on right now are Yugi’s deck and Kaiba’s deck.
Yugi’s deck is an evolution of the Summoned Skull beat down deck of the early days. It’s goal is to hide behind Kuriboh, Waboku and Swords of Revealing Light in order to amass the needed tributes. It will play 3 Dark Magicians, 3 Dark Magician Girl, 2 Summoned Skulls, 2 Gaia the Fierce Knight and 1 Cursed Dragon. I’m swapping all the effect creatures of Beatdown like Wall of Illusion, Hane-Hane and Man Eater Bug for more of Yugi’s iconic critters. I’ve got 3x Beaver Warrior, 3x Feral Imp, 2x Celtic Guardian, 3x Giant Soldier of Stone, 3x Silver Fang, 3x Kuriboh and some of other cards I have lying around like Gazella the King of Mythical Beasts. It will have a small search package with cards like Witch of the Black Forest that can get Summoned Skull later in game. This deck isn’t meant to be great or anything. It is mostly meant to be nostalgic because nothing beats drawing those classic creatures like Beaver Warrior and Celtic Guardian.
In the same manner, Kaiba’s deck is basically a worse version of Dragon Rush. It plays the Blue Eye’s package of 3x Blue Eyes, 3x Lord of D. 3x Flute of Summoning and some aggressive creatures like La Jinn, Battle Ox and Vorse Raider. I’m kinda stuck with where to go from here. Kaiba’s deck clearly out powers Yugi’s deck pretty easily unless Yugi sticks an early Summoned Skull. With that in mind, I’m giving Kaiba less removal and protection for just sheer power. I’m thinking of just pulling up the anime wiki and filling out the empty spots with cards from his deck list like Hitotsu-Me Giant, Rude Kaiser, Ryu-Kishin, Judge Man, and Saggi the Dark Clown.
So I’m very close to completing these list. I just need to finalize spots and see what cards I still need left to get. I’ll post the deck list on here when I’m done. It is worth nothing I am trying to keep these as “in time” as possible. I might use some updated cards, but for the most part, I’m looking for cards that pre-date the GX anime.
So thank you guys for reading. Let me know if you have any recommendations for improving the decks. Yugi’s will use Dark Magician matters tactics and Kaiba will use Blue-Eyes matters tactics. So any recommendations from before Duel Academy and that are budget are appreciated. Alright. That’s it for me. I’ll see you guys in the next one!
Da_Hubbz 