Oh, ok, @WeepingWeeb you might want to put that one in a list of removed nominations or something!
マリオ＆ルイジ RPG // Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga
Genre: RPG
Summary:
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga is a 2003 role-playing video game developed by AlphaDream and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance. It is the first game in the Mario & Luigi series. The story follows Mario and Luigi as they travel to the Beanbean Kingdom in order to combat Cackletta and Fawful, who stole Princess Peach’s voice for the purpose of harnessing the power of a special artifact called the Beanstar.
Availability:
The original game was made for the GameBoy Advance. The Japanese version can be purchased secondhand on Mercari, or, I assume, acquired using other means.
There’s also a remake with new graphics that was made for the 3DS, but I’m not sure if it can be purchased legally anymore since the 3DS marketplace shut down. It may be on that Nintendo Switch subscription thing that has older games.
Personally, I prefer the pixel art of the original.
Time to Beat: Main Story: 18 hours
Personal Opinion:
This is the first video game I ever played in my life (besides, I guess, pacman on the arcade machine or whatever). I have lots of fond memories of not understanding how the game worked at all, and being terrible at it. Ahhh… なつかしい。I’ve replayed it a few times as an adult and honestly I think the gameplay is really fun and the script is so charming! It’s worth playing imo!
Pros
- Listening to Soggy’s childhood stories about playing the game each week and opinions on which areas are the most fun.
- Charming script
Cons
- It’s an old-ish game so some of the mechanics could be better, but honestly it’s not that crunchy so that’s only a light con.
I know it’s not quite the same but people are usually watching old threads so if you decide to play stuff still and share your thoughts that’s always encouraged.
Also Superstar Saga is a great nomination; I’m down.
Made the home thread and an initial schedule based on the walkthrough!
In two minds with Pokemon really, but leaning towards giving this one a miss personally. Hope those that do play enjoy
More on my reasoning here
I think Pokemon was probably my least favourite pick of the list. I have enjoyed Pokemon games in the past, but I would probably rather play any of the other games here. And since my time is already at a premium, if it’s not calling to me then I don’t want to force myself to stick around for it. Probably doesn’t help that to my mind Pokemon is a fairly basic game language-wise with most of it being spent doing the gameplay with very little in the way of interfacing with the language. That said, it probably makes for a more accessible club for newer players so I won’t begrudge it that. I get why people want to play it, I just don’t particularly have a strong desire to
TLDR: I’d rather play something else, so may as well and hopefully rejoin next game
Same here, I’ve tried to get into Pokemon a few times but it just doesn’t do anything for me. Believe me, I’m sad that the little pokemon guys don’t call to me too! Imagine all the plushies I could be buying! 
You’ll just have to rejoin the club when we play Superstar Saga next, right? 
Ah, for me it’s not even that I don’t like Pokemon - I do. I even went to the Pokemon cafe in Japan and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon was one I am hoping will get picked soon (I have a physical copy of Explorers of Sky in Japanese). Though I’ve never been a hardcore fan because stuff like EVs completely eludes me and I never got into competitive pokemon. But it’s more about a lack of strong desire to play the mainline stuff, and at its most basic I guess. I’ve got other things I want to get to that I feel will better serve me
Again, I do hope those who play enjoy. And maybe I’ll change my mind in future and decide to join after all
Earthbound is officially finished! Thanks to @Daisoujou and @ChristopherFritz for running it and I hope everyone had a fun time playing!
I was thinking of opening the week 1 thread for pokemon 1 week early (this friday) just to give people a little extra time to read all the starting information and get familiar with the game if its new to anyone 
I enjoy RPGs that have a strong world exploration angle, so I think I’ll like this.
I’m eager to start playing, so starting early would work for me!