For comic #2295...
1. A bit late in saying, but wall-picture of young Emily is quite cute.
2. I expect the "lake party" story-arc to go on for a while, especially since Jeph is in the process of giving up smoking, though probably not as long as the "QC in space" arc. So while I expect more guest & filler strips, I also completely understand if these things occur.
3. Oh gods... Super NES, one of the major players of the early Console Wars. So much nostalgia, and yet also featured hallmarks of video-game history. My personal and memorable favorites...
- a. Chrono Trigger (#1). Lauded as the best of the Chrono-series. Chrono Trigger was notable for its non-linear storyline (time travel!) & various optional quests which affected the myriad possible ending(s). Think Mass Effect #3 on 16-bit graphics, but with more than 3 endings and most of the endings very satisfying to the players (even the "evil" endings). I spent months playing & replaying to see all the endings, and enjoyed them all.
- b. Final Fantasy #6 (JAP) / #3 (US). Second only to the more widely acclaimed Final Fantasy #7 in the FF-series, Final Fantasy #6 was tale so epic in length and story-telling, that when the Apocalypse occurs and passes, that only marks the first-third of the game. A evocative soundtrack despite using a simple MIDI. A wide cast of playable characters, each with a story to tell & learn.
There was an opera scene that was both heart-touching & (later in-scene) hilarious; when the rakish but noble-souled thief jumped in to romance the beautiful clone-general away from the amorous & vengeful advances of the giant talking octopus. [....what? it's opera]. I played the Final Fantasy #6 to its maximum time & levels without regret.
Oh, and my personal topmost favorite characters amid the wide playable cast were the twin crown-prince brothers, one of whom sacrificed his own personal freedom & dreams for his twin's, by "cheating" his brother out of a king's crown (& its heavy responsibilites) that neither brother wanted to bear, via a coin toss with a double-sided coin.
- c. the Legend of Zelda (#3): A Link to the Past. A hero's journey & struggle across two parallel worlds, begun with a special "soulmate" bond between the young nephew (Link) of an elderly swordsman, and a desperate princess (Zelda). A bittersweet ending for the hero Link and princess Zelda, because despite having defeated the evil overlord (Ganon) and restoring both worlds and the lives lost, the soulmates are tragically separated by the gulf of parallel worlds in the end.
- d. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. Taking most of the Super Mario Bros. cast into a "traditional" RPG setting, most players never understood the game was actually a tongue-in-cheek comedy-adventure rather than the "standard" RPG theme(s). Super Mario RPG parodied & spoofed many other popular RPGs of its time, and poor Mario was the butt of many a joke and pseudo-abuse. I had a lot of good laughs playing through.
- e. Super Metroid. A strong female action-hero (Samus Aran) years before Lara Croft strut across PlayStation-1 video screens with her large pair of...guns. I even felt a bit sad when she had to fight the baby metroid alien that imprinted on her (forcibly grown to giant monster size by the bad guys), which later sacrificed itself to protect Samus from the end-boss.