They've thrown so many things out the window with Zelda II, and what did they decide to keep? That the best boss strategy is cheesing by staying in the corner and slashing mindlessly.

Return of Samus aka the GameBoy one. I love it!

NOBODY SAY RUSSIAN LACQUER ART.

Ha! It's slightly similar for me. I immediately went to check rdio to see if this album is online already and while it's not it, turns out there's a bunch of new Cheikh Lô singles! I adored him since Lamp Fall, which I discovered around the time Proof of Youth came out, which was my introduction to The Go Team. Happy…

Since Kojima's apparently leaving Konami soon, I dicked around with MGS5: Ground Zeroes again, specifically the Deja Vu mission. It was so sweet that I decided to give MGS4 another try, but nope, I still don't like it. It just feels half-baked and also quite ugly compared to MGS5's beautiful but understated lighting.

Do you know how Your Lie in April stacks up against the comic? I got the first one for free via Dokodemo Honya-San a while ago and was positively surprised.

I can't answer this in a way that doesn't involve SST Band, and while After Burner, Wilderness and Magical Sound Shower are all arguably better compositions, these days my heart goes to the Space Harrier theme/Stage 1 music: https://youtu.be/emgdshpl_hk
It's propulsive, melodious and adventuresome, plus finally playing…

By the way, Sphere Coin, FFX-2's rudimentary-math-but-under-crazy-pressure puzzle minigame, was also amazing and it doesn't get enough love.

Yeah, the reason I played lots of Elevator Action Deluxe definitely wasn't Elevator Action Deluxe.

Yooooo. Up top.

AW YEAH MINIGAMES.
Generally speaking it's obviously FISHIIIING cause I'm a cool person who knows what's up. Breath of Fire and Okami had particularly great ones.

Yep. And if you ask me, it's the Balloon Trip-like coin heaven in Super Mario World (scrolling left-to-right) that feels weird.

I've played God knows how many hours of MH4 on a regular 3DSXL and didn't have any problems. The touchpad thing isn't great, but it works well enough for me (my gripes are mostly the same I always have with fingers on a touchscreen, namely that it's just a very boring tactile sensation), and usually the lock-on system…

Aznavour is hard to imagine for me. I can't listen to Emmenez-moi without singing along (where I can) and gesticulating wildly and I certainly couldn't listen to La bohème without clocking out and going to drink by myself.

What's important is that it's interesting enough to stimulate, but without being distracting. So easily digestible classical music (chamber music by Mendelssohn or Bach; Schubert's lieder; soundtracks by Hisaishi or Jóhansson), laid back instrumental hip-hop (Klaus Layer; instrumental versions of Five Deez, Large Pro)…

I wouldn't say the best part and I wouldn't necessarily listen to harpsichord pieces while working, but the idea that someone who generally likes Baroque music could hate Couperin's best work definitely puzzles me too.

Did you play Grandia 1 first? Maybe they just didn't shake up the formula enough so if you had already figured out the system it didn't offer anything new. I definitely remember not dying once.

I'm currently mostly playing Zelda II - The Adventure of Link, which is indeed a great action adventure, except some of the fetch quest-y parts suffer badly from either a botched translation or a general lack of room for explication. Having more than one text box is fine, people! Other than that, I really enjoy the…

I'll vouch for Daymare Town as well. It's incredibly bleak and, while unique, right at home in the pantheon of awesomely oppressive Eastern European art. You can buy the HD versions on Skutnik's website or play the original ad-supported windowed versions for free.

That swap is so, so maddening on PS3. Play a Japanese game and ☓ means cancel and ◯ is confirm… until you get to the OS-level load/save menu where it's reversed again and you're soon greeted with a sheepish "Do you really want to abort the save operation?"