Getting Pokemon Blue for my 13th birthday.

We'd been reading about the hot new RPG from Japan in games magazines for months, but only really after the US release (1998). The UK didn't get the game until almost a year later (unthinkable these days). We saw little screenshots of this relatively hefty RPG (by Gameboy standards), with great character designs, and a pretty unique catch-em-and-battle-em mechanic. Those little nuggets were enough to drive the anctipation for the UK release, which was just a few months before my birthday. When it came around, it absolutely lived up to the hype - I played it for months, perfected a team of 6, and did battling and trading with whoever I could convince to do so. That was the starting point of a Pokemon obsession that lasted several years (and died off from Gen 3/4).

🙇🏻‍♂️🙇‍♀️🏢🇯🇵

💁🏻‍♂️🥃

🚶‍♀️‍➡️👘🏯

👫🎤🍻

💃🛌🤦‍♂️

🙇🏻‍♂️🚕🫂

Anyone playing through and completing an Amiga platformer deserves a round of applause 🤣. These were rock hard games, and I remember Gods being particularly difficult. Maybe if I gave these another go I'd find they're not as hard as the likes of Cuphead and Hollow Knight... but I think they are :D

I'm not knowledgeable about non Premier League footballers, so this is based on hearsay about who's good lol...

GK: Oblak (Slovenia)

Def: Gvardiol (Croatia), Dias (Portugal), Van Dijk (NL), Bastoni (Italy)

MF: Wirtz (Germany), De Bruyne (Belgium), Xhaka (Switzerland), Rodri (Spain)

Attack: Mbappe (France), Bellingham (England)

Not so much a positive message, as a more positive feeling, my choice is Album Leaf's Twentytwofourteen. Could be anyone of their songs to be honest. They are adept at creating a soundscape that evokes calm, sometimes a bit of melancholy, but mainly nice melodic, ambient music which leaves you feeling happier and than you did 5 minutes ago. Can't go wrong with that.

I always enjoyed Friends for cameos and for some reason Chris Isaak always comes to mind. He played a kids’ troubadour and a brief love interest of Phoebe’s. A really laid back acting style but he fit in well into the cast and wasn’t so crazy famous he derailed the whole episode (see Brad Pitt, Bruce Willis).

Last Chance United (filled with older players) :)

Honestly not a great deal stood out for me. You can tell the big companies are holding back the good stuff for their own streams. The biggest hitter was, what, Lego Horizon? That’s fine but it’s not the kind of big original launches E3 of old used to see. And the format is repetitive with a few seconds of narrative between strings of short trailers. “Here’s another one”… “Wow! That was great. Here’s another one!” … “That’s out in 2025. Here’s another one”. 3/10 for me. I’m sure there’s lots others found interesting but little of interest for me personally.

Here's my entry. An early 00s nu-metal classic. I've left out the band title and album title, but it should be pretty easy to guess! Heavy use of the paint can 🤣

All Final Fantasy for me...

I really need a remaster/remake of Final Fantasy 13. It's the only main line FF I've not played, largely because I missed that whole PS3/XBox 360 generation. Every other FF is available now on the latest generation, but 13 has left a big hole :( I know it's not the best reviewed or well regarded FF entry, but it'd be great to be able to experience it.

That, and a surprise drop of pt 3 of the FF7 remake series 😍