The 2023 Backlog Challenge

[Sumez | 2,988]

I have, unsurprisingly, decided to scratch Bayonetta 2 from my list. I grew tired of it about halfway through (fighting that big underwater thing in a flashback I think), took a break, and haven't felt the drive to return to it ever since.

The game is almost completely like the first one, so most of my thoughts on that is repeated for this game. I decided to play the sequel on hard mode, which I think made it generally more enjoyable since you couldn't just button mash through all the encounters. But the pacing is still just as abysmal. Long, long cutscenes with goofy interactions that I just don't find particularly interesting. The boss fights seem even more numerous in this game, and I just don't find them enjoyable. They all have a ton of flashy stuff going on, but ultimately all of them come down to being able to recognize each of their attacks so that you know when to press the dodge button and then keep on wailing on them. This setup got repeated so frequently throughout the game that I just couldn't muster the will to keep on.

I doubt I'll ever be returning to either game, much less explore the third one.

In the context of a backlog that still counts as a "completion", because it still represents crossing the game off the list.
That leaves me at only two games remaining from this year, which is definitely a new record for me.
One is SaGa Frontier, which I'm certain at this point I'm going to have to postpone to some other day. And the other is the PCE port of Rainbow Islands. This one is currently held up by me not being able to find the DC plug adapter required for the CD-ROM unit, which annoyingly is of a slightly different dimension compared to the core PCE system, and by extension pretty much every other old-school console system which might have had an interchangeable PSU.

It's not a big gripe if I have to skip that game, because Rainbow Islands is already among the games I'm the most intimately familiar with. I had it on my list because it looks like the only home port of the game that's actually plays sufficiently well, and I was interested in investigating it thoroughly. Both NES ports are horrible, and the MegaDrive and Amiga ports, which both appear very good, have a few unique issues that unfortunately screw up the core gameplay completely.

I could try to squeeze in one of my missing "bonus games" before the end of the year, but I think I'll be better off getting a head start on my 2024 backlog now, ending at a satisfying 48/50+2, unless I somehow find a working PCECD PSU before new years!

Edited December 19, 2023 by Sumez

[Floating Platforms | 738]

13 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Sounds like you guys should go revisit it 

You mean go back to hang out and reminisce with my boys Goro and Tom while spending all my money at Tomato, or on Sonic gashapon? Doesn't sound half bad to me.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,572]

Shenmue

I started this all the way back in February or so, and then shelved it because I could tell I wasn't gonna have a very good time with it.  Well, it's December, my list is nearly empty, and I spent the last 3 days sick and couch-ridden, so I finished it off.

I wanted to like it.  I really did.  I'm a positive guy when it comes to games, I've had a good-to-great time with basically everything in my list down below.   Look at all those stellar (on the Reed scoring scale) numbers.

But I just couldn't do it.  The controls are awful.  The dialogue is awful.  The voice acting is infamously bad.  The town is boring and doesn't offer many compelling things to do, aside from the arcade.  Didn't especially care for the combat.  Didn't really care for wandering around town over and over again trying to talk to the right NPC to trigger the next event.  Hated the pacing.  That was the major problem.  Open world games have spent the last 20 years figuring out what works, and what doesn't.  This game is full of things that don't work: evolutionary dead ends.  Making a player sit around until 7pm, with no way to speed things up, is a mistake.  Making me do the same forklift race over and over again for no real reason is a mistake.  Bugging out and forcing me to repeat one of the "work days" several times was just the added insult to injury.  Making me sit in a parking lot and do moves over and over and over and over and over again to strengthen them is a mistake.

Shenmue II is being bumped to the 2028 backlog.  I just have too many other things (including like 10 more Yakuza games) that will be a better experience for me.

No disrespect to others who enjoy this game.  I obviously caught it way too late, after playing too many other games that took the ideas here and ran with them.  If I played this in 1999 I probably would have been a lot warmer to it.

1. Elden Ring (10/10)
2. Hades (9.5/10)
3. Baba Is You (9/10)
4. Deathloop (9/10)
5. Doom Eternal (9/10)
6. Jamestown+ (9/10)
7. The Last of Us Part II (9/10)
8. Gradius V (8.5/10)
9. Control (8.5/10)
10. Super Mario 3D World/Bowser's Fury (with the kids) (8.5/10)
11. God of War (8.5/10)
12. MGS: The Twin Snakes (8.5/10)
13. Resident Evil 2 (8.5/10)
14. Ori & the Will of the Wisps (8.5)
15. Ghost of Tsushima (8/10)
16. Sin & Punishment (8/10)
17. Nier Automata (8/10)
18. Dusk (8/10)
19. Into the Breach (8/10)
20. Prey (8/10)
21. Nioh (8/10)
22. Danganronpa (7.5/10)
23. Deus Ex (7.5/10)
24. Hellblade (7.5/10)
25. Dark Souls II (7.5/10)
26. Ace Attorney 2 (7.5/10)
27. Trails in the Sky (7.5/10)
28. Uncharted 4 (7.5/10)
29. Eternal Darkness (7/10)
30. Xenoblade (7/10)
31. Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold (7/10)
32. Yakuza Kiwami (7/10)
33. Dicey Dungeons (7/10)
34. Resident Evil 3 (7/10)
35. Onimusha (7/10)
36. What Remains of Edith Finch (6.5/10)
37. Paper Mario (6.5/10)
38. Everblue 2 (6.5/10)
39. Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order (6.5/10)
40. Yoku's Island Express (6.5/10)
41. Dear Esther (6/10)
42. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II (6/10)
43. Crash Bandicoot 4 (6/10)
44. Pilotwings 64 (6/10)
45. Contra Shattered Soldier (6/10)
46. Strife (6/10)
47. A Short Hike (6/10)
48. Ion Fury (6/10)
49. Mischief Makers (6/10)
50. La Pucelle (5.5/10)
51. Buck Bumble (5.5/10)
52. Indigo Prophecy (5.5/10)
53. Shadowgate (5/10)
54. Yoshi's Story (4.5/10)
55. Winback (4/10)
56. Shenmue (3.5/10)

TBD:

1. The House in Fata Morgana (good)

[Webhead123 | 687]

Guardian Legend is done. What a little gem of a game. It's one of those titles that I didn't even know existed until I started getting back into NES in the early 2000's and I kept hearing its name but never really put more than 5 minutes of effort into it. It's not perfect. Navigating the huge mazes can get intimidating sometimes, especially when you're trying to backtrack to that one shop or portal you need but didn't have enough doodads to make use of the first time you found it. And while at least the game gives you a map screen, it's not always as helpful as it could be, since the map doesn't show you pathways, only the relative position of room tiles. I have to admit that, at a few points, I caved and looked up some level maps and guides to help get through some sections quicker.

Still, the whole adventure is incredibly well-made and very ambitious for the NES. It was no surprise to me when I discovered it was developed by Compile, who made some of the most awesome games of the 8 and 16-bit era. It's part Zelda, part Blaster Master and part Gun-Nac. What a combination and who would have ever thought it would work so well?

Edited December 20, 2023 by Webhead123

[Philosoraptor | 468]

Class of Heroes 2G is done. This is going to be a long one.

HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. I don't know who to blame for this one. I think a lot of it is on the original developers, Zerodiv, who went on to develop the Wizardry game for the PS3. But, some of it is on Gaijinworks (for all intents and purposes, Working Designs). Together, they've certainly made a game of all time.

First off, this is a first-person POV, Wizardy-inspired dungeon crawler. I missed out on Wizardry, but I have played several Etrian Odyssey titles, Dungeon Travelers 2, and other, better games that are similar to CoH2G. From the 10 races and 19 classes in the game, you can create a party of 6 students, place 3 each on the front row and back row, and set out for "adventure." "Adventure," in the context of this game, means menial tasks and backtracking for 70% of the playtime.

First, let's start with the races and classes. Some classes require certain races, like you have to be a Felpur to create a beast or a Gnome to create an Alchemist. Some races have special abilities, like Celestians, Fairies, and Gnomes can float (remember this). When creating characters, you get a random number of bonus points. I got from as few as 6 to as many as 37 (I'm sure you can get more, too). There are only 6 stats, and you can only put 10 bonus points in each, but you can keep rerolling new characters for more bonus points. The game tries to dock you by giving you "worse" stat increases for level-ups later, but you need high bonus rolls to make a lot of the classes. Levels are also Fire Emblem-style (aka random). You're guaranteed an HP and SP increase, but any other stats can increase or decrease on level up, making for lots of soft resets. I hope you like soft resets, BTW.

One cool thing this game does is allow you to have multiple parties at the same time. As I got to other two schools, I created all the unique classes at each school, picked my favorites for my main party, and parked the extras in town or schools across the map. Your inventory is shared between all parties, so when it's full, switching to another party to sell stuff in a town or craft stuff at a school a pretty big time saver.

OK! Now you're all ready to set out on your grand adventure! Fair warning, this game is exponentially more difficult at the beginning than at the end. When you start out, some of your backliners may have as little as 9 HP. So, if you get ambushed and one of your backliners is hit, it's almost a guaranteed KO. You have two chances to resurrect a character with spells or in a town. If the first fails, you have to try again. If the second fails...permadeath.

However, aside from the very last few floors of the very last dungeon, monsters are actually the least dangerous things in a dungeon. The real dangers are traps. In the early game, electrified walls (which the game loves to run you into with tiles that spin your character in random directions), electric traps, and treasure chests are more likely to kill your party than anything. Due to your low HP at low levels, electric traps can easily wipe your party in one or two hits. You can cast a spell to float to avoid the electric traps on the floor, but there are tiles that dispel spells and tiles that are "deep," like bodies of water or lava. This game LOVES to combine those two traps, and if your characters don't float (Celestians, Fairies, and Gnomes) and if you don't have the shoes with absolute garbage stats that allow non-floating classes to cross those deep tiles on EACH of your non-floating characters, it's instadeath. Oh, chests are almost always booby trapped, and do everything from cut your MP and HP, to fully paralyzing or petrifying your party, which counts as a wipe. This includes chests dropped after battles. They're booby trapped too. However, certain classes can identify and disarm the traps on chests.

I'm completely fine with all of the information above. That's all stuff that comes with the genre, none of those systems are buggy, and the game is reasonably fair about all of those mechanics. If the game was competently executed and just had the above mechanics, I would have had a lot more fun with it.

So let's get to why I didn't have as much fun with it as I'd hoped:

• Battles—In a dungeon crawler, a significant chunk of your time is spent battling. This isn't a surprise. Therefore, combat should be exciting, challenging, or at least somewhat unique depending on which monsters you encounter. In Class of Heroes 2G, it's not. You get nothing special for dispatching monsters in various ways, such as using magic or the various attack types on weapons, like piercing or slashing. The major thing that makes some monsters harder than others is whether they're resistant to physical attacks. If they aren't, hold X to auto select attack/defend and watch as your characters destroy everything. If they are, hold X to auto select attack for your melee characters, select a spell for your magic users, and then hold X to auto the rest of the battle. That's all there is to it, even for bosses. If you need extra insurance, you can use a team attack once or twice on a boss to decimate them that way. The monsters themselves have a similar visual style to original Yu-Gi-Oh monsters, albeit slightly worse ones.
• Crafting—Nothing like a poor crafting system to drag a game down. You can buy some equipment from towns and schools, but they're limited. You have to make a majority of the equipment you'll end up using from monster drops and broken weapons/armor obtained as battle rewards or from chests. That's fine. However, to craft weapons, you also have to have the recipe, which are only sold by schools. Every school sells different recipes, so you'll get drops and materials for stuff that just fills up your inventory (unless you store stuff at the schools). But let's say you've got the materials AND the recipe. You have to navigate to the broken material in your inventory to see what it makes (because the names aren't always self-explanatory), then navigate to the recipe in one crafting menu, and finally craft the item in another menu. CoH2g also won't tell you what you can make; you have to scour your inventory for the items and then add the right materials and quantities in the other menu. Short some materials? You have to back out of that menu, go to the school shop, buy what you're missing, then go back to the lab to craft. Why it doesn't just give you a list of craftable recipes with what you have in your inventory or the ability to buy missing materials from the shop in the same town from the same screen boggles my mind, but easily 25% of your playtime will be eaten up by item management and this bad set of interfaces alone.
• Bloated class and race systems—Initially, 10 races and 19 classes sounds impressive, but when only some of those races have special skills like floating and many classes are nearly identical to others, the real number of useful races and classes is much smaller.
• Dungeons—Probably a minor gripe comparatively, but some dungeons look identical to others throughout the game. Worse, dungeons are pretty straightforward compared to the other dungeon crawlers that I've played. They are full of traps, but I never found them to be particularly well-thought-out. They seem to be placed sporadically throughout the maps to surprise you, densely placed in small areas of inconsequential value to annoy, or, most occasionally, placed in a way that actually hinders progress, but never in a clever way. The anti-magic/deep square combo is about as clever as they get. There are only a few secret doors in the game. It's less about exploration and puzzle solving and more about just getting through the dungeons to make progress.
• Time-wasting systems and backtracking—In addition to the poorly implemented crafting system, CoH2G is chock-full of other time-wasting systems. You get no warps to towns you have discovered, meaning you always have to start out from the same school you start the game at. You have to teleport through each dungeon and navigate the menus in each town to exit the town to get to where you need to go. Say you want to get to the tower at the top left of this map:
  
  Whelp, each line is at least one dungeon with multiple floors and each green circle is a town. That means you could be teleporting through seven dungeons every time you need to get to a new quest (Addendum: I see a dragon in the image above, which might be a way to warp to specific locales. However, I never unlocked it, and the game never gave me any indication it was a thing; the screenshot above is from Class of Heroes 2 on the PSP). CoH2G also has three separate quest boards (one in each school) and it likes drip-feeding quests to you, meaning more teleporting. Finally, quests are usually worded like "go to dungeon to find a thing/fight a monster." The actual location in the dungeon is not marked on your map. Some quests open new dungeons, but a majority have you hunting through already-explored dungeons, teleporting around, hoping the spot the small yellow question mark. That is, unless you look up the locations of the question marks on the internet...
• Bad translation and UI—CoH2G has far, FAR too many menus that prop up bad or poorly thought-out mechanics. Some classes learn magic that can identify a trap on a chest. Other classes learn skills to disarm chest traps, which I JUST LEARNED AS I WAS WRITING THIS REVIEW!!! I had the identification magic long before I actually knew how to use it. When you examine a chest, you're given six options in Class of Heroes 2: Examine, Show Trap, Unlock, Disarm Trap, Open, and Leave. For whatever reason, in Class of Heroes 2G, "Show Trap" is "Satchel," which makes no sense. Why would I access magic through Satchel? Also, when you access the map from a town, you get the map above, which only tells you the name of the marked points (towns, schools, or bases). However, when you depart from one of those marked points, you're given the names of the dungeons that are between locations you can access from the marked point. Some marked points give you three or four options to choose from, and remembering which dungeon connects which green dots was irritating.
• Story pacing and translation (again)—I honestly don't expect a story from dungeon crawlers, much less a good one. However, if you're going to include one, for the love of all that is holy, don't make so bad it actually detracts from the game! Until late game, all of your quests are school activities or assignments masquerading as quests.
  Spoiler

  Later, two teachers kill the principal and start a war to take over a parallel world, which adds 10 more hours to the story. You get access to a fourth school, and you must liberate all the towns and dungeons in the parallel world.

  Honestly, this isn't a bad plot. What kills it is the translation, and maybe also the original script. In all the other Gaijinworks/Working Designs games I've played, they've really excelled in taking the source material and crafting witty dialogue, making memorable characters, and preserving the underlying story throughout the game. But this time, not so much. The wittiness they go for falls flat, and no single character stands out from the others or above the high water line of staunchly mediocre. Script-wise, each time you accept or turn in a quest, you're treated to one or more short dialogue sequences that honestly don't add much to the game. Since 70% of the quests have to do with the bog-standard school plot, only 10% of the quests cover the major plot points in the above spoiler, making them very, very disjointed and rushed. Lots of situations where major character growth occurs or motiviations are spoken are only given a single sentence. The remaining 20% of the quests are only available in the postgame, and I wasn't about to stick around and find out what they were about. (Note: All percentages were pulled from the quest completion status, so they're not guesstimations.)

Overall, Class of Heroes 2G doesn't contain any noteworthy mechanics and can't stop getting in its own way. It's different enough from the first (according to the internet) that it might be worth playing the first, but this is also (according to the internet) the vastly superior entry in the series. Both games were developed by Zerodiv. The game ended up taking me about 55 hours to beat, and I think it would have been more compelling if they cut the fat and got it down to 30-40. I find CoH2G hard to recommend in this day and age unless you've played every other great, decent, or OK dungeon crawler out there, and I wouldn't recommend the upcoming Class of Heroes 1 & 2: Complete Edition unless they do some serious revamping of both games. I give it a 5/10 on Reed's scale.

Edited December 21, 2023 by Philosoraptor

[Floating Platforms | 738]

It took a bit longer than I expected but Super Mario Galaxy 2 is 100% done.  I beat the main game's 120 stars years and years ago, and always meant to go back to do the back half.

For some reason, I thought that the only extra challenge in this was to collect the Green Stars. Feel free to correct me I'm wrong, but in Galaxy 1, the post-game was only to get 120 with Luigi and then a freebie extra at the end.  Well, here you can be either Mario or Luigi (I stayed as Mario) but after getting all 120 green stars, the final level appears.

It's tough, but was manageable after quite a lot of attempts and learning.  241. All good, right?  Nope. Do it again without getting hit a single time and no more checkpoints.  This took hours across multiple nights, but I finally did it to earn that image above.  My dog will be happy that there will be a little less swearing at the TV for a bit.

[BlackVega | 583]

This was initially intended for PS1 completions thread so mirroring it here. Crash Bandicoot 3 Warped completed and this needs no introduction as this is essentially Super Mario for PS1

[BlackVega | 583]

Woah this is a big one. I've finally completed Zelda Minish Cap on Gameboy Advance in the past few days during the holiday season and I had been originally playing for like uh, a few years in total... I got stuck at some point and I decided enough is enough and said fuck it and just looked up playthroughs and got through these bullshit moments. I like Zelda games very much but those stupid bullshit moments in zelda games just kill the whole fun once you get stuck forever for months or even years. And with that said I completed this "challenge" 10/10 since I started doing it like 3 months ago

Edited December 29, 2023 by BlackVega

[Mega Tank | 969]

11 minutes ago, BlackVega said:

Woah this is a big one. I've finally completed Zelda Minish Cap on Gayboy Advance in the past few days during the holiday season and I had been originally playing for like uh, a few years in total... I got stuck at some point and I decided enough is enough and said fuck it and just looked up playthroughs and got through these bullshit moments. I like Zelda games very much but those stupid bullshit moments in zelda games just kill the whole fun once you get stuck forever for months or even years. And with that said I completed this "challenge" 10/10 since I started doing it like 3 months ago

Really? That's the system you played it on?

[spacepup | 2,409]

8 hours ago, BlackVega said:

Woah this is a big one. I've finally completed Zelda Minish Cap on Gayboy Advance in the past few days during the holiday season and I had been originally playing for like uh, a few years in total... I got stuck at some point and I decided enough is enough and said fuck it and just looked up playthroughs and got through these bullshit moments. I like Zelda games very much but those stupid bullshit moments in zelda games just kill the whole fun once you get stuck forever for months or even years. And with that said I completed this "challenge" 10/10 since I started doing it like 3 months ago

Really?  'Gayboy Advance'?  Are we in middle school?

I'm gonna be blunt - take that garbage outta this forum.  You can make your little 'jokes' like that elsewhere, but leave it at the door please.

[BlackVega | 583]

1 hour ago, spacepup said:

Really?  'Gayboy Advance'?  Are we in middle school?

I'm gonna be blunt - take that garbage outta this forum.  You can make your little 'jokes' like that elsewhere, but leave it at the door please.

Oh, I actually lied, I beat it on DS lite that is backwards compatible. BTW trust me, this really wasn't the worst "offence" (if that was even that) so to speak and other topics were kindergarten level at best... I can in fact try to explain the naming convention but at this point according to the request if this is such a big issue for some reason I digress

[Reed Rothchild | 9,572]

With just one day left, I finished my list.  Ending with a game that I originally started all the way back in 2021: The House in Fata Morgana, the best game about

Spoiler

torturing children until their faces start falling off

you'll ever play.

Spoiler

I made my list for next year quite a bit shorter because I won't have the same schedule.  But that was a hell of a run this year.  Tons of great games I finally managed to play through, and more than a few that will crack my top 100 favorite games of all time list that I've been working on.

1. Elden Ring (10/10)
2. Hades (9.5/10)
3. Baba Is You (9/10)
4. Deathloop (9/10)
5. Doom Eternal (9/10)
6. Jamestown+ (9/10)
7. The Last of Us Part II (9/10)
8. Gradius V (8.5/10)
9. Control (8.5/10)
10. Super Mario 3D World/Bowser's Fury (with the kids) (8.5/10)
11. God of War (8.5/10)
12. MGS: The Twin Snakes (8.5/10)
13. Resident Evil 2 (8.5/10)
14. Ori & the Will of the Wisps (8.5)
15. Ghost of Tsushima (8/10)
16. Sin & Punishment (8/10)
17. Nier Automata (8/10)
18. Dusk (8/10)
19. Into the Breach (8/10)
20. The House in Fata Morgana (8/10)
21. Prey (8/10)
22. Nioh (7.5/10)
23. Danganronpa (7.5/10)
24. Deus Ex (7.5/10)
25. Hellblade (7.5/10)
26. Dark Souls II (7.5/10)
27. Ace Attorney 2 (7.5/10)
28. Trails in the Sky (7.5/10)
29. Uncharted 4 (7.5/10)
30. Eternal Darkness (7/10)
31. Xenoblade (7/10)
32. Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold (7/10)
33. Yakuza Kiwami (7/10)
34. Dicey Dungeons (7/10)
35. Resident Evil 3 (7/10)
36. Onimusha (6.5/10)
37. What Remains of Edith Finch (6.5/10)
38. Paper Mario (6.5/10)
39. Everblue 2 (6.5/10)
40. Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order (6.5/10)
41. Yoku's Island Express (6.5/10)
42. Dear Esther (6/10)
43. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II (6/10)
44. Crash Bandicoot 4 (6/10)
45. Pilotwings 64 (6/10)
46. Contra Shattered Soldier (6/10)
47. Strife (6/10)
48. A Short Hike (6/10)
49. Ion Fury (6/10)
50. Mischief Makers (6/10)
51. La Pucelle (5.5/10)
52. Buck Bumble (5.5/10)
53. Indigo Prophecy (5.5/10)
54. Shadowgate (5/10)
55. Yoshi's Story (4.5/10)
56. Winback (4/10)
57. Shenmue (3.5/10)

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

Well, I just scratched Family Feud off my list to make three on the year   Probably the shittiest ending I've seen for the amount of work that went into it, but it's a fun enough game that I don't care too much about the mild disappointment.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,572]

Final tally, in rough order of how we did:


@Philosoraptor 78/50
@Jeevan 57/75
@Sumez 48/58
@Reed Rothchild 45/45
@Floating Platforms 42/50
@Brickman 24/34
@fox 13/39
@Gaia Gensouki 11/305
@twiztor 10/13
@BlackVega 8/10
@greenthunder 7/20
@Foochie776 7/25
@nesmaster14 6/10
@Webhead123 8/14
@Lago 6/20
@Renmauzo 5/18
@DoctorEncore 5/20
@MagusSmurf 5/36
@spacepup 4/15
@ConfusedCollector 4/41
@Gloves 3/9
@HANSOLOOOOOOOO 3/20
@PekoponTAS 3/21
@FireHazard51 3/31
@the_wizard_666 3/40
@Splain 2/6
@ScaryD 2/16
@Jicsan 1/1
@Matchbook 1/8
@darkchylde28 1/13
@Jaden 1/20
@G-type 0/1
@RH 0/1
@Murray 0/10
@Vectrex28 0/11
@Jynx 0/13
@BortLicensePlate 0/14
@ifightdragons 0/26
@ThePhleo 0/110

[Foochie776 | 1,061]

28% completion, woo!

[Splain | 2,581]

Props to you guys who slammed out so many backlog games, great job!

[Webhead123 | 687]

I actually managed 8/14 with a little mad dash in December. Carrying a couple I didn't get to over into 2024 and abandoning the others for now in favor of some other titles that came to mind. I'm making an effort to try to split the backlog across multiple consoles both to give some variety as well as to not neglect any particular library. I'm trying to pin down a couple of Genesis games that I want to tackle this year but I'm not super familiar with the library beyond the most popular titles, so I have to do some digging.

[spacepup | 2,409]

I beat 5 specifically on my list and I’m thrilled with that.  Idc about the percentage to my total list.  I’m very happy with it.

They weren’t on my initial list so I didn’t include them, but I beat a ton of other games in 2023, including several backlog games that just weren’t on the first list.  All in all, I made a ton of progress on backlogged games so 2023 was super duper successful for me there.

Looking forward to 2024!

[Webhead123 | 687]

15 minutes ago, spacepup said:

I beat 5 specifically on my list and I’m thrilled with that.  Idc about the percentage to my total list.  I’m very happy with it.

They weren’t on my initial list so I didn’t include them, but I beat a ton of other games in 2023, including several backlog games that just weren’t on the first list.  All in all, I made a ton of progress on backlogged games so 2023 was super duper successful for me there.

Looking forward to 2024!

Aye. 2023 was a great year of gaming for me overall. Some highly-anticipated titles that finally released and ate up many hours as well as just getting more organized with my digital collections and being able to knock out several games that I hadn't anticipated playing. I'm looking to carry that energy forward into this coming year and thank you to all you fine folks here at VGS for the continued inspiration, motivation and camaraderie!

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

I was fully expecting to completely bomb and not get anything because I hadn't touched my NES between January and November, so knocking off three games was a nice plot twist.  Now that I've expanded to other systems though, I think I'll end up doing better this year.

[Rhuno | 109]

I finished 21 games in 2023 and took screenshots of each: https://imgur.com/a/srglbBt. It was a nice mix of games I'd played before and ones that were new (to me). Some of the standouts:

Super Castlevania IV: I had somehow not played this one before, but man, it's great. It's now my favorite in the series, surpassing the original game.

Atelier Ryza: I wasn't familiar with the Atelier series, but bought this on a whim because I thought the screenshots looked neat. I really enjoyed the game and look forward to checking out parts 2 and 3. It was a fun experience that reminded me of renting random games based on the screenshots on the box. It's fairly rare that I find a modern game I enjoy so this was a real treat.

BattleToads: I've been playing this game off and on for like 30 years and finally managed to finish it. Definitely a standout moment for the year.

And a couple that just didn't click with me:

Metal Gear Solid 3: I've been making a conscious effort to play some games from IGN's most recent "top 100" list that I'd never played before. Some I've really enjoyed, but not this one. I liked MGS 1 and 2, but this one just felt frustrating and slow. Thank God for Eva.

Hades: I didn't actually finish Hades so it isn't included in the imgur post. It's another one from the top 100 list that I decided to try. It's fine I guess, but wouldn't go near my top 100.

[Rhuno | 109]

On 12/20/2023 at 10:57 AM, Webhead123 said:

Guardian Legend is done. What a little gem of a game.

Congrats! That's one of my all time favorites...now I want to go play it. 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,572]

1 hour ago, Rhuno said:

I finished 21 games in 2023 and took screenshots of each: https://imgur.com/a/srglbBt. It was a nice mix of games I'd played before and ones that were new (to me). Some of the standouts:

Super Castlevania IV: I had somehow not played this one before, but man, it's great. It's now my favorite in the series, surpassing the original game.

Atelier Ryza: I wasn't familiar with the Atelier series, but bought this on a whim because I thought the screenshots looked neat. I really enjoyed the game and look forward to checking out parts 2 and 3. It was a fun experience that reminded me of renting random games based on the screenshots on the box. It's fairly rare that I find a modern game I enjoy so this was a real treat.

BattleToads: I've been playing this game off and on for like 30 years and finally managed to finish it. Definitely a standout moment for the year.

And a couple that just didn't click with me:

Metal Gear Solid 3: I've been making a conscious effort to play some games from IGN's most recent "top 100" list that I'd never played before. Some I've really enjoyed, but not this one. I liked MGS 1 and 2, but this one just felt frustrating and slow. Thank God for Eva.

Hades: I didn't actually finish Hades so it isn't included in the imgur post. It's another one from the top 100 list that I decided to try. It's fine I guess, but wouldn't go near my top 100.

Nice work, that would have placed you near the top.  

[FireHazard51 | 2,047]

On 1/1/2024 at 1:35 AM, Reed Rothchild said:

Final tally, in rough order of how we did:

@FireHazard51 3/31

 

[fox | 1,673]

Lock it up.  See y’all in the 2024 thread