I'm enjoying myself so far. With 4-main buttons of just punch, kick, guard and throw, so the fighting starts to feel a little button-mashy but intuitive at the same time.
The campaign is an easy combination of the backstory and a tutorial. Enjoyable without being too strenuous.
The figurine mode is a little pervy but it serves its purpose.
The pre-renders are nice, oddly some cutscenes have non-mouth flap characters while other scenes do and then sometimes characters are a little jaggy in head-to-head fighting. It's weird.
However, the 3D isn't gimmicky or distracting and the graphics are pretty good overall.
Music is forgettable, and while I was initially worried about Americanized voice settings becoming annoying, the Japanese language voices and subtitles can be selected in the audio options.
It's a lot of mashy fighting fun for the little system. Have yet to try mutliplayer and streepass yet.
In all, I like it so far.

If this were a game, it'd be the casual game to define casual games. And yet, it's not really a game.
It's more so your digital vacation home.
It's the childhood some of you didn't get.
It's an RPG if your character aspires to be an unassuming townie.
--It's Animal Crossing.

Play, because there's not really a score that matters.
Dig holes if only because you have a shovel.
Hunt bugs, pick fruit, and antagonize your neighbors.
Come inside, play your Nintendo, organize your music collection and then drag your bed across the room.

Whatever it all means, at least it's better than working.

I married the meanest girl in the (story) world.
I've never been happier.

It's a Dragon Quest RPG, but it also feels like a Pokemon in that one can focus on creature recruitment as much as story completion.

With a surprisingly deep and variable inventory, including a somewhat quirky "special item collection" chamber/museum; Dragon Quest V calls out to the RPG grind enthusiasts everywhere.

The story's great. The musical score is well produced (though some may find fault with the 8-bit era sound effects).

The battle is turn based RPG style, and while the game consist mostly of random encounters...
... at least there's a casino for those wishing to test their in game luck and their Slime's ability to race.

A charming and decidedly odd take on the JRPG.

Genre breaking (even 'til this day), Ness (a non-amnesiac pre-teen boy) awakens one night when a meteor strikes his town.
RPG hijinx ensue.

And while some may say "I've heard this story before," but the details of the story far from what you've heard before.
Travel the (suburbs of the) world, meet some friends...
... wait behind a waterfall for 3 minutes real time to enter a base. Hold up a Yard Sale sign, even in the deepest dungeons. Get homesick, and have to call home.
Yeah, it's a funny game too. But, it's also a game that works really well.
Race against the clock to win a fight before your HP finally trickles down to zero. Item grind for a sword that has a 1 in 127 chance of appearing.

It's hardcore for an RPG, but doesn't really take itself too seriously at the same. Despite that tone, it's also really touching as well; still hailed as having one of the best ending experiences.

Not a game, but required homework...

For every hour you give this game, the game gives you back just a little bit of love in return.
Cruel, cruel mistress or no, this game is literally epic.
In the same vein as the Tactics Ogre series, this is the title that mainstreamed many grid based RPGs with its Final Fantasy branding.
The terrains, variable by height, size, features and make-up, set the stage for some slow paced, but remarkably tense, showdowns between the team you've recruited... and whomever else has shown up that day to kill you.
The music is okay, but many sound effects feel dated on the PS1. The graphics feel generic after awhile, but the terrains are still deep and the style is iconic (with limitedly revolveable 3D camera).
The game is deep. While one can blast through the early missions with no problems, the enemies scale to your level and prove to frustrate in later campaigns. And yet, there's something satisfying about throwing rocks as a Squire at the start to Dragoon jumping down on a dragon later.

A sampler of games demos released for an era of long gone PS2s.

However, this disc's true value is that a bug in the "Viewtiful Joe" completely erases all the data on your Memory Card.
... which is especially helpful if you want to get rid of a large sector of corrupted data. Very handy to have (thanks to Gamestop and/or cheaply made 3rd party cards!).

More of an expansion (or re-edit) to Diamond and Pearl, Platinum brings to the Pokemon world even more activities to lose your free time to.
The gameplay, still, is an adorably skinned classic RPG battler featuring an immense recruitment pool and largely (deep and) customizable moveset per warrior... all set in a happy go lucky "animal" world.
The villians are a syndicate of megalomaniacs... and a tiered championship prize fighting tournement.
The motto is "catch them all," and trading is incentivized to provide for a virulent fan base clamoring for trades, fights, and friends... even after all these years.
The graphics are cute, if redundent.
The music is there, but not all too inspiring.
For the most part... it all works splendidly.

With that said... if you've played previous Pokemon, you've literally played this one as well.
However, if you still wake up at night wondering why you haven't caught them all...
... we're all here waiting to trade with you too.

Either you love it or you'll hate it, this game has launched its own share of internet memes for a reason.
While I have nothing against the first Double Dragon... the first Double Dragon wasn't very fun (aside from its arcade style fighting game).
River City Ransom, however, does it right.
Friendly fire fisticuffs are bound to happen in two player.
Often times spastic, the two button brawler delivers a lot for its relative size.
Buy skills from the book store (that give access to special moves).
Buy stat leveling other goods from the stores (from chicken, to CDs, conger eel), and fight your way from one end of town (and back) to the Crosstown High school to free your girlfriend from the evil former acquiantenance, Simon.
A peppy 8-bit soundtrack supports your unlikely mass gang fights/muggings throughout, and the fighting holds up whether one goes bareknuckle, wields trashcans, or maxes out their Throw Power to cheap their way through...
... it's a good time had by all.
GET!

In my old age, this was one of the first games that made me feel like I was grinding through a co-op arcade game... in my very living room!
Cheese aside, the game has one of the most infectious soundtracks that will stick with you long after; most sound like pop-synth theme homages to thrill-movie classics.
For an SNES game, it looks good: most of the levels are thematic dungeons with large amounts of item tiling... but all living things have a fun sense of animation, and the weapons convey a sense of modern futility against legions of the macabre. (Squirt guns vs. Zombies... popsicles vs. psycho ax dolls on fire?)
While sometimes frustrating in the sheer length, with some baddies serving as lessons in futility, the game is fun mostly for the combative two-player dialogue it creates.
While one will have to continue from code-points many a-time, the experience is much like a hip 2-player iteration of Gauntlet with a sense of humor.
A fun, quirky and frenetic game... it's good.

Part Dating Sim, part RPG, and all parts fun.
Graphics are engaging and smart, often aping the styles of Japanese broadcast television with the in-window HUD icons. Locales and settings feel relatable... even for randomly generated dungeons.
The soundtrack is J-Poppy, but is largely listenable when compared to games like The World Ends with You.
Voice acting, (American English only option available), fits nicely in game, in animated cut-scene as well as during dialogue streams, but luckily can be skipped in dialogue streams.
Gameplay itself is a more forgiving version of the RPG mechanics found in Persona 3. The party travels altogether with each character having an alignment towards in game elements; the Main Character serving again as the wild card summoner. Battle is smart and engaging, and if grinding sessions seem to wear then the "speed up auto-battle" option will save many from sighs.
Characters are endearing for the most part, and the story isn't too insulting to swallow.

The graphics are an interesting mesh of 3D characters who run around around in 3D environments and fight 3D characters... and then go into town and talk to 2D animated sprites.
The sounds, like the sprites, sometimes are throwbacks to the classic NES sounds for attack turns and healing magic, but also have a pretty well balanced soundtrack of orchestrals and what-not.
The gameplay itself feels reminiscent to classic Dragon Quest fused with Persona 3/4, Earthbound, and somehow Animal Crossing. While there's a lot to do, most of it concerns level grinding, item grinding, ridiculous quest grinding, and then spending hours shopping and customizing skills and outfits. While some guest appearances enliven the after game, and the sheer volume of the actual game are remarkable, the lack of a casino will leave some Dragon Quest/Warrior fans perturbed.
Other faults: lacks a true online (DS!), chances of randomly canvasing another player is slim, but feels like an MMO on the DS at long last.