Lately, I have been playing the Game Boy Color version of Donkey Kong Country, and Super Mario Kart, although not much else. I was mostly playing DKC’s GBC version for a review I am going to put up on the website on Tuesday, and playing Super Mario Kart in Time Trial mode. My best record so far on Mario Circuit 1 is 1"04"89 with Bowser, on the PAL version.
Both games were played via emulation, on my PSP system.
Final Fantasy VII. I last played this game to completion 12 years ago, so it’s been quite while since I’ve seen the entire game. I’m basically at the end of the game at the Northern Cave, completing side quests and collecting everyone’s ultimate weapons and limit breaks before going in. I may try killing Emerald Weapon and Ruby Weapon this time after I kill Sephiroth, though it will take some extra AP farming to get some required materia mastered to stand a chance.
I’ve also completed Final Fantasy VI (with Relocalization Project patch), Final Fantasy V Advance (with Sound Restoration patch), and the PSP version of Final Fantasy IV. I considered using the retranslation patch for Final Fantasy VII but I heard it currently had issues with Mednafen PSX (and with real hardware) so I decided against it.
After I’m done with VII, I’m probably going to skip Final Fantasy VIII since I’ve played it more recently and play Final Fantasy IX which I have never completed.
I’ve been playing Sky Render’s translation of FF6 but maybe I should switch over to that relocalization… So far I’ve liked the GBA translation best among the ones I’ve played.
I’ve also been playing Castlevania: Circle of the Moon on GBA. That’s a surprisingly huge, grindy game for being on a handheld console. I gave up on Metroid: Zero Mission when it came time to do the pirate ship stealth b.s. I watched a video of it on youtube and was like “nope.”
It’s like a 5 minute long section and not really that stealthy though. Just run and you’re usually fine. You can use charge shots to stun enemies if you have to.
I’ve played again all those Castlevania handled games a while back, I really like them all. Harmony of Dissonance is perhaps the weakest of them all (no secret and a castle design a bit linear, makes you feel like “need red key for red door”, something Castlevania usually manages to make you forget), I enjoyed it too though.
Playing the Snes/GBA Metroid games after that felt a bit disappointing. I had good memories of those games but now I can’t help thinking the metroid-vania formula is a great improvement. Back to Metroid I was wondering why I was fighting those monsters: no XP or drops, they just give you some HP and missiles if you need them. The Snes levels are so tedious to travel again and again without any kind of teleporters. I just couldn’t enjoy them as much as before which is a pity, I really like that Alien SF mood.
Super Metroid is my favorite of the genre. I agree that warps would be nice but I also find that backtracking is less necessary in that game than in the handheld Castlevanias, which would be hellish without the warps. I like Aria of Sorrow, but all of it looks the same to me and I get easily disoriented (I have this same problem with Symphony of the Night). I also prefer the lack of XP in Metroid because I hate having to stop and grind levels to beat bosses.
Re: Zero Mission, the youtube video I watched was like 20 min long and s/he really powered through it, so I imagine it would take me 10x as long!
The payoff when you get your suit back and all the “unknown” upgrades unlock is well worth it!
I used to rank Zero Mission slightly higher than Super, but I’d have to replay them both again to see if I still feel that way. I like the simplified, tighter controls of ZM, but with the Control Freak hack Super is closer to it. Just with floatier jumps, which are fun. I think AM2R really nailed the controls; it’s like the perfect fusion of both with the added conveniences of dedicated morph and spiderball buttons.
For IGAvanias, I always liked Aria the most since I thought it had the tightest castle design. SOTN’s upside down castle is just awkward to traverse. I’d still put that as my second favorite, with maybe Ecclesia in third.
Relocalization Project is about 80% the same as the GBA translation, but it’s slightly rewritten in certain parts with some inspiration from Sky Render’s translation and another ‘accurate’ fan translation. It really feels like the definitive translation to me, since it’s basically a more polished GBA translation. People who swear by the original Woolsey translation will probably like Ted Woolsey Uncensored Edition more, though.
I have this game and Age of Wonders 3, and have never played either one beyond the tutorials because they didn’t run great on my old system. I flipped a coin and Endless Legend won out to be played first on my new system. All I can say is wow, where has this game been all my life. One of the best 4x games I’ve ever played. I did play Endless Space quite a bit but found it to be too limited in some ways. Legend definitely takes a step in the right direction. It has elements from a lot of other games but does them all with a higher amount of polish. You build cities, design your own units, recruit and level up heroes, do quests, pacify local tribes to get access to unique units/bonuses, research interesting technologies, it’s all there and then some. All of this handled by one of the best UI’s I’ve ever seen. It’s just so elegant and clean and functional at the same time. I plan on picking up all the expansions next time they go on sale, since each race has unique mechanics which makes them all play a bit differently.
ignorant question: what system is zero mission on?
Super Metroid and Dragon Quest on fda at the moment.
I remember seeing dragon quest a the arcade and be amazed at the side scroller/beat em up/ rpg style of the game. i was like “whoa, you actually gain xp points and weapons here?!?” at the time, mind was blown…super metroid is more of a “never had a snes, so…”.
I do have a DS lite that use mainly for metroid prime hunter. that’s probably why i went straight to super metroid on retroarch/lakka.
S.mario world and mario 64 are other favorites, right up there with sonic 2, and ms pacman 
Zero Mission is on GBA.
I’ve been playing Shining Force CD, Far Cry 4 on PC, KOF 98 for NEO GEO AES and soon Rise of Tomb Raider.
Now that I’m finally playing games again. I started up Shining Force & Legend of Zelda, The - A Link to the Past.
Both gems that I missed back in the day.
I haven’t made any posts here in a while, but here goes:
The last game I played was Street Fighter II Special Champion Edition for the Sega Genesis; I have yet to try out the Street Fighter II Turbo beta for the same system, though.
Finished Chrono Trigger (SNES) and now i’m at second CD of Chrono Cross (PSX). Never had played Chrono Cross before. Got a little disapointed, since felt Chrono Trigger a lot better.
I’ve been playing Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (just finished, no 100% souls tho cause i’m not a masochist) and now i’m playing the sequel Dawn of Sorrow.
Need to defeat Dracula in all those castlevanias, that monster needs to die, he doesn’t belong in this world! 
Never tried DS emulator… Do you use the controler analog to draw those signs, or you emulate in PC with a mouse?
There was a hack that made symbol drawing easier I was going to try, but this hack that removes the need for any touchscreen input just came out: http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/3408/
Nice, I will try this soon! Thanks!