Amanda Kay Oaks

That sounds amazing!

Oh gosh, Soul Calibur was a big one for me but I always seem to forget about it for some reason. And Super Smash Bros of course!

Oooo, yes! I'd love to move to the Shire. That said, as a tall individual I feel like I'd be hitting my head on a lot of ceilings lol.

I miss renting games from Blockbuster! What a time.

Spider-Man 2 is a great example! One of the best sequels.

I keep forgetting this is even happening. I didn't care for the Hobbit movies and am fairly sure I never even finished watching the trilogy. And given how cursed the Gollum video game was... I'm probably skipping this one unless I start hearing that it's actually good.

That's a big early gaming memory for me too. I played it with my little brother, taking turns with the controller.

I'd want to live inside a cozy game. Just chill vibes, friendly neighbors, and simple tasks.

With today being Mario Day and Pokemon Go launching a campaign centered on memories with the game, I'm thinking about early gaming memories. Those moments that made you love video games or identify as a gamer. For me, I can remember playing Super Mario with my dad on our SNES when I was really little. But it was playing Mario 64 at at a friends house, then finally getting a Nintendo 64 of our own that really sold me on gaming for life. What are your fondest early gaming memories?

I'm so glad you're enjoying it as much as I am! It is 100% the best Pokemon spin-off ever.

It's all about Pokopia for me this weekend. Though I am also hoping to enjoy the nice weather with some Pokemon Go as a nice break and maybe finish the book I'm reading. But the Ditto life calls me...

This is such a great question! I think Skyrim will always be a nostalgic hit for me. I listen to it while I work a lot because it makes the day job feel more epic. But I also really liked the music and sound design for Hades 2.

I think about this a lot. I agree, people are a lot harder on games than they used to be, and social media can turn that negativity into an echo chamber pretty quick.

I tend to agree. There are some individual starters I don't love, personally, but every gen has at least one great design at least for its first form. I initially didn't like the Gen 10 ones, but I've already come around on them. Still not sure which one I'm going to pick when the game comes out, though!

I think for me it was Dragon Ball Z, followed closely by Digimon. Those shows were appointment viewing for little me, and Android 18 was the first Funko Pop in my growing collection.

I'm definitely looking forward to checking it out. With so many of these open-world games leaning into custom characters, it'll be interesting to see what they do with a more fixed protagonist. In theory that could lead to better storytelling since it won't be a scaled-back self-insert avatar. But it definitely feels like they've focused less on the story than other elements when promoting the game, so no idea how it'll go.

It would be amazing to finally get voice acting in a Pokemon game, for sure!

That's very fair. I don't think I've ever played a character that's not at least a partial caster, so I'm very excited to see the new options. I have a feeling Season of Champions will lean more into those melee classes after so much focus on horror and the occult at the start of the year.

After a longer-than-usual wait, we finally have the 2026 roadmap for new D&D content from Wizards. They're going with a "seasons" model starting with the Season of Horror, which will give us a new Ravenloft sourcebook. Then it's a Red Wizard-centric Season of Magic, and whatever "Season of Champions" will mean. I have to admit I'm feeling a lot more optimistic about this lineup than I expected to, though that's probably because I love the Ravenloft setting and always want to play a caster. What does everyone else think?

I'm looking forward to this one, too. I'm less familiar with that world and lore than I am D&D, so I look forward to seeing what they do with it.

Sylveon is great! There is room in our hearts for more than one favorite.

As cool as "Dunesday" sounds as a term, I agree with everyone saying there's too much audience crossover for this to go as well as Barbenheimer did. Doesn't mean either will change the date, but it does likely mean they'll be competing. May also mean my husband and I go to the theater only to part ways so can watch Dune and I can watch Doomsday lol.

Hi Skye! I haven't gotten a chance to attend any of the bigger conventions like NYCC and SDCC, unfortunately. I have been to my local con (Steel City Con in Pittsburgh). For a smaller con, I feel like they always have a pretty solid roster of celeb attendees and I always find something nice in the artist alley. Plus, it's kind of nice to have that smaller experience since I can get pretty overwhelmed with crowds.

Yeah, that is weird. They've been teasing that game for NSO for a while so I wasn't surprised, but it is strange to skip Collosseum.

Fingers crossed that it happens for you eventually!