The 2022 Backlog Challenge

[Sumez | 2,963]

Metroid II: Return of Samus - Beaten 28/8

Where Bionic Commando was pretty much the NES game except on GB, the Game Boy sequel to Metroid is quite a bit of a different beast from its predecessor - but I doubt I have to tell you that, given it's arguably one of the most famous GB games from its early years. But somehow it's been stuck in my backlog for literally decades, with me just never really "getting around to it".
The first Metroid game was big and sprawling, and often required stumbling upon obscure and inconspicious secrets in order to make basic progress, while endlessly reapeated identical corridors made navigation difficult without a map. It still had something really intriguing about it though, and I think most people would agree that the formula really came together with the third game in the series.

Meanwhile, however, Metroid 2 had ambitions of its own, and tries to fix those shortcomings in its own way. Where the first game has you trek across its gigantic map to locate every area, this game instead guides you through a linear sequence of dedicated areas. Even though the game still does takes place on one big map, you are never once expected to return to a previous location to make use of your newly acquired skills.
While this might sound very similar to what Metroid Fusion did, a game I'm generally not a particularly big fan of for those same reasons, I think Metroid 2 feels a lot more clever about the way it guides the player forward, and manages to do it without compromising the elements that makes the original Metroid formula really memorable.

The game actually has no elevators or otherwise segmented areas in the ways most other Metroid games do. What it does instead is limiting your progress with tunnels filled with lava. The overarching goal is finding and killing 39 metroids (reportedly the last remaining ones), and every time you destroy all the ones that are currently accessible, the lava level will drop, giving you access to new areas, some times multiple far-reaching areas, or some times just a couple of smaller metroid nests. Gating off progress this way probably sounds counterintuitive to the metroidvania formula, but I don't think it ever has that effect. Because every new area you visit can get quite large and cryptic on its own, and one massive change from the previous game is that rooms will now scroll freely in both directions, allowing for areas that some times seem impossibly gigantic, especially juxtaposed against the limited screen size of the game boy.
Exploration is really expertly handled, and there are loads and loads of secrets to find, with most of them being straight up required, in proper Metroid fashion. A lot of these can be really obscure, and I often found myself thinking that it's crazy I was even able to find the places I did, but at the same time there was never any locations that I missed. As cleverly hidden as some passageways can be, they are never just located in some random innosent looking wall, they are always in places where you'd have more reasons to suspect something being there. It's an extremely fine balance between being obscure and intuitive, and Metroid 2 walks it more confidently than most other games I have tried.

You might think that the limited graphical capabilities of the Game Boy, and the monochrome display especially, could be a big obstacle when navigating the mazelike caverns, but the segmented momentum of the game structure does an amazing job at preventing that. Where Metroid 1 pretty much requires you to draw your own map, Metroid 2 is perfectly content with you just forming a mental one, keeping notes of the occasional fork in the road you have yet to explore. The small resolution makes a few corridors a bit tougher to map out because you can't see both opposing walls at the same time, but it never becomes an issue, rather the cramped and claustrophobic feeling gels incredibly well with the whole mood of the game.
The only place where it really works against the game is in the way enemies are handled, since the moment anything moves off screen, it stops moving, and can no longer be attacked, this gives you a very small window to dodge or attack certain enemies. It's especially notable against the primary metroid "bosses" that you are hunting down since they are all quite large and move erratically.
I say "metroid", but this game doesn't really care about the classic representation. It seems like the well known jellyfish'ish shape is apparently just cocoons for a larva state, after which they evolve into various completely different forms. I'm assuming this is probably still canon lore, but I feel like this is the only game where it's really a thing?
Anyway, a common criticism of the game has also been how the primary "boss fights" of the game are just those repeated encounters with four variations of the same enemy type, but I don't really see that as a big issue. Their behavior is usually simple and predictable, but the layouts of the room where you encounter them is what really defines each individual fight. While a few of them still do turn out as pretty much the same fight, it's also over so quickly it doesn't really matter. The game is about hunting these things down moreso than fighting them.

It's been many years since I've last felt really engaged by a metroidvania style game, so I'm really happy I finally got around to playing this one. A very nice palate cleanser after the generally super forgettable Metroid Dread, and proof to me that yes - the Metroid series *does* have a lot more to offer than just Super Metroid!

[Floating Platforms | 720]

On 8/29/2022 at 2:40 AM, Sumez said:

Metroid II: Return of Samus - Beaten 28/8

It looks like this and Bionic Commando are un-beaten in the yearly Game Boy thread, in case you want to cross-post there.

Metroid 2 is still currently the only Metroid game I've completed. I remember spending a ton of time looking in every single possible path for secrets using that sticky spider ball and feeling so proud of going into the final boss with full health and missile upgrades.

[Webhead123 | 678]

Metroid II is boss. I remember beating it for the first time a few years ago and it surprised me how much I enjoyed it. I was expecting something kinda janky, pretty short and without much substance...but the little GB cart rather impressed me. Definitely a game I plan to revisit in the future.

[Foochie776 | 1,052]

Finished another game that was not initially on my backlog. 
 

New Super Mario Bros Deluxe, Switch. 
 

I thought this game was much better than I’d expected. I love that Nintendo has been bringing back that “old” Mario feel but this one felt even better. The heavy Super Mario World vibe was a nice touch. It wasn’t very challenging, which I don’t expect from a Mario game but there was a few levels that stuck me. All in all a good game but I doubt I’d ever return to it. 
 

I am STILL trying to pluck away at Kingdom Hearts. I’m stuck on the second fight within Monstro and I’m trying to grind hard. It’s not going great

[Philosoraptor | 468]

I spent last weekend tackling some 2D games in a franchise I should have been playing more of a long time ago: Sonic.

I ended up playing Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic 2, and Sonic Chaos on the SMS and Game Gear, and was able to beat 5 of the 6. 

So, first off, all three are basically the same on both consoles. Some bosses were altered to fit the smaller Game Gear screen, but for the most part they play similarly, have similar if not the same level layouts, and play at the same speed. The gamebreaker, however, is the screen resolution; the SMS is 256x192 and the Game Gear is only 160x144. Sonic 2 was released at the same time on the SMS and Game Gear, but the Game Gear versions of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Chaos were released a month or two later than their SMS counterparts. After playing both versions, I think the games were originally created with the SMS in mind.

How does that affect the games? Well, it makes the SMS games way easier. The spikes on the ceiling that drop from off the top of the screen in Sonic 2? You can see those on the SMS. Bosses? Typically way easier. On both consoles, Sonic Chaos was the easiest, Sonic the Hedgehog was next, and Sonic 2 was the hardest.

Sonic the Hedhehog's difficulty is pretty similar on the SMS and the Game Gear. It's not really as fast paced as most Sonic games and has much more platforming, making it a highly enjoyable experience on both consoles.

Sonic Chaos's Game Gear port didn't seem as smooth as the SMS version, and the speed of the game and resolution of the Game Gear certainly take its toll. Initial playthroughs had me losing four times as many lives on the GG version as I did on the SMS version, and I played the GG version right after the SMS version. I knew what was coming, and it was still significantly harder.

And then there's Sonic 2. The SMS version is polished. It's tight. It's got great levels. It's got a glider with crap controls. But most importantly, it was painfully obvious it was made for the SMS. Sonic 2 is very generous with rings and extra lives to balance out the higher difficulty. However, on the Game Gear, the game plays extremely fast and the reaction times required are amped up significantly. The cramped screen also makes the somewhat toothless bosses on the SMS significantly harder. I didn't even bother trying to beat the Game Gear version of Sonic 2. I'll come back to it one day, but it's going to be a headache.

Feeling confident, I popped in the Genesis version of Sonic the Hedgehog, and I got a game over in act 3 of the Marble Zone (stage 2 of 7). Brutal. Compared to it, all the SMS and Game Gear games somewhat to quite a lot easier. 

Oh, all five games I beat are very good and very fun. Sonic 2 on the Game Gear can be frustrating, but I'd say it's still worthwhile. I feel like the screen resolution makes it cheap, whereas I think the Genesis version of Sonic the Hedgehog is just hard (but still great).

Edited September 1, 2022 by Philosoraptor

[Sumez | 2,963]

@Philosoraptor of the three games (on SMS), which did you like the most? Sounds to me like you had the most fun with 2, but I kinda like how the first game is more platforming focused. I haven't personally tried 2 yet.

[Philosoraptor | 468]

5 hours ago, Sumez said:

@Philosoraptor of the three games (on SMS), which did you like the most? Sounds to me like you had the most fun with 2, but I kinda like how the first game is more platforming focused. I haven't personally tried 2 yet.

I liked Sonic the Hedgehog the most, Sonic 2 next, and Sonic Chaos the least. Chaos has floaty physics that make it the Super Mario Land 2 of the trio. Sonic 2 is the "most Sonic" of the three, if that makes sense. Sonic and Sonic 2 are neck and neck for me, but the glider is what loses the race for Sonic 2. If I were to rank all 6, I'd probably go with:

1. Sonic the Hedgehog (SMS) (Best)
2. Sonic 2 (SMS)
3. Sonic the Hedgehog (GG)
4. Sonic Chaos (SMS)
5. Sonic Chaos (GG)
6. Sonic 2 (GG) (Worst)

[G-type | 2,482]

Gameboy has always been one of my blindspots... 

[peg | 372]

My list has remained stagnant for a few months now but that doesn't mean I've given up.  Some of these things take months or years to achieve. Also I've cleared a ton of shit not on my initial list so eh I'm not feeling that bad about my apparent lack of progress.

[Makar | 1,946]

On 3/13/2022 at 7:41 PM, Makar said:

Didn’t make a list this year but I did just beat my first game yesterday - Pokémon legends Arceus. 

And I’m up to two games beaten this year now lol. Just finished up Wargroove on the switch. Excellent game 

 

 

Edited September 3, 2022 by Makar

[T-Pac | 7,560]

Update: I cleared Gradius II: Gofer No Yabou [PC Engine] on the easiest settings.

I played on the TG-16 Mini, and set the game to Easy Mode, Unlimited Continues, 7-Stock, with Turbo enabled. It was still a challenge for me despite all those crutches, and it took a few days to power through (technically I used save-states as well, but only as an extended pause between gaming-sessions).

The effort only got me a copyright screen and a prompt to play Normal Mode, which I might actually try sometime in the near future. Gradius games are always fun, and this one had some great boss-fights (including at least one boss borrowed from Salamander) and nice level-variety.

-CasualCart

[Sumez | 2,963]

Environmental Station Alpha - Beaten 4/9

So here's a game that made me erase everything I'd written down about it while playing it, only to start over from scratch.
When you first start playing Environmental Station Alpha it's a very normal metroidvania game. As in, it's pretty much the blueprint for an indie metroidvania game made some time between around 2010 and now. You have the segmented areas with distinct visual styles, access to new areas gained by acquiring a double jump and so on. There is even a lava area that you need a protective suit for, in order to avoid taking damage.
It's so bog standard that it's very easy to just dismiss it as another one in the bunch, but for what it does, it's still a super well made one, and generally at the top of its game. If you really like metroidvanias, ESA is already a must-play at this point, it would be stupid to pass over it. If you're only mildly curious however, it doesn't seem like a game that does anything you haven't seen a hundred times before. At least for the first few hours, but be sure to stick around...

One thing that sort of sticks out early on is how the game really feels more designed around the late-game experience. Many enemies for example don't work well with the limited skillset you have starting out, leaving you unable to dash away from ones that have basically positioned themselves on top of you - but even in the context of exploration, you will constantly see visible detours you can take to explore new areas which will eventually lead to dead-ends due to limits in your traversal skills - even when you think you're being clever and forcing an obstacle that appeared unsurmountable with your current abilities, it will more than likely just lead you to a straight up wall that can't be broken through yet.

I think that is actually a bit of a contrast to many of the better metroidvanias where the limited mobility early on, and the constant exploration of mysterious unknown locales, is the bigger appeal that far outclasses the rote backtracking you'll likely be going through towards the end. Environmental Station Alpha however, and this is where it gets exciting, doesn't truly start until the credits roll for the first time!
By the time you reach the "postgame", the game just changes gears entirely, and rather than outright telling you where to go, you're now left completely to your own devices when it comes to unraveling the many... many obscure secrets of the station.
If you've been paying attention, you probably bumped into a few mysterious rooms here and there along the way, and it's time to figure out what it all means. I really think almost any game benefits from easy-to-miss hidden optional content, as hunting for that stuff, and discovering extra elements to games you already love is something that can elevate most titles from great to truly memorable. And this is where ESA refuses to hold back, it goes all in with super secret areas and challenges, hidden boss fights, and obscure mysteries sprinkled throughout the entire map. Including a lot of red herrings as well, or straight-up fourth wall breaking jokes, or just really absurd stuff that I would hate to spoil here, you have to experience it for yourself.

Anyone new going into this game, I recommend going completely blind, don't read up on guides, but do make note of every single thing you spot, even super early on, that sticks out as being unique and something that could potentially be relevant in the future, because there's a good chance that it will be, and the game will expect you to remember. It could be as inconspicious as a distinct symbol in the background or a mechanism whose presence is unexplained.
Also, just start out beelining for every location the game tells you to go, at least until you get the ability to clear red blocks on a floor or ceiling - don't spend too much time trying to force yourself into areas that seem like they would be challenging to reach, at least unless you have a good reason to believe there's probably a hidden energy tank there. There's a good chance the game will just blueball you instead, and you'll have to come back there later anyway when you're more decked out.
I really love games that makes you take notes - or rather, I love games that make you want to take notes! Here's a bunch of scribbles I made while playing the game, though of course that doesn't include all the pictures I took of mysterious rooms, unsolved puzzles, and weird patterns in the background that looked like they might become relevant at some point.

Of course, all of this wouldn't mean anything if the core gameplay wasn't solid, and Environmental Station Alpha is generally well designed in this sense as well. The grappling hook you can use to swing around has a really fun momentum mechanic that allows for a lot of interesting experimentation, and for all the good things the game does, the highlights for me are actually probably the boss fights. All of them are unique and challenging. Beating one always feels satisfying, though they are never frustratingly difficult. There is a super well hidden secret "super boss" whose many stages makes for an epic experience far beyond what I'd ever expected from this game when I took the first few steps early on.

The timer says 11:19, but that doesn't account for all the hours I spent running around aimlessly without saving, deaths to bossfights, or all the research I did on paper from images recorded on my phone 

[Foochie776 | 1,052]

I’ve recently discovered I could leave Monstro and go elsewhere playing KH… so I’m not happily back on the track!

[Sumez | 2,963]

Metroid: Samus Returns - Beaten 7/9

Having finished both Metroid II and Metroid Dread this year, I felt quite prepared for what to expect with Samus Returns, and to be honest, those expectations weren't sky high.
But I think I'll establish this right out the gate - Samus Returns is a much better Metroid game than Dread is. And as far as Metroid II remakes go, it has so little in common with that game, it's hard to really fret over the many things that were changed. This was a surprise to me, considering this was the game that enabled MercurySteam to make their own brand new Metroid game in the first place, and the original reception for Samus Returns wasn't exactly beaming - but this game absolutely IS a brand new Metroid game.
It retains the overall structure from Metroid II, gating Samus through a series of segmented sections (this time sadly with elevators added to mask load times) to hunt down and destroy a number of metroids until taking down the queen, finding the baby metroid that sets the plot of Super Metroid into motion, and return to her ship. There are a few stretches of level design that are mildly recognizable, from climbing along the ceiling of large caverns with the spider ball, to the small detour leading up to the metroid queen fight, but overall the stage layout is well over 99% completely brand new.

And in terms of maneuverability I think MercurySteam did a good job of involving all of Samus's skills in a satisfying manner. The game feels fluid and well controlled just like Dread does, but where it has a lot more issues is when it comes to enemy encounters. A lot of them just aren't interesting to fight. Instead of the common enemies having basic predictable patterns, they instead follow a simple AI that will target Samus and try to attack her. By far the most of them will then predictable engage in a dash towards you that's really just a prompt to perform your flash counter move - this was really bad in Metroid Dread, and it's even worse in this game, once again reducing nearly every enemy encounter to bait out that move and return fire to finish them off quickly. Any enemy that cannot be finished off this way will take act as boring bullet sponges, forcing you to get out of their way until they are dead, instead of inviting any type of exciting gameplay.

This is by far the weakest aspect of the game, and one that seeps through it, because honestly every other aspect is otherwise decent and competently made. Even the exploration aspect is, much unlike Metroid Dread, a lot more satisfying. As mentioned, you're still funnelled through a number of set larger areas, so you might think the game is just as linear - but much like the original Metroid II, you are left fairly open about where to go in each of those areas. Of course, some paths will often be blocked off until you acquire skills down other paths, but you never feel that you are getting pushed along the same way you do in Dread. It doesn't seem like much of a thing to praise, but merely actually giving the player some sort of agency, which Dread is entirely devoid of, makes Samus Returns end up feeling much more like an actual video game.
Of course, the claustrophobic mazelike atmosphere, and the mysterious sense of discovery from Metroid II is nowhere to be found here. Not only is there (of course) an in-game map, there is even a button which you can press to activate a radar, revealing every unexplored room in a radius around you, as well as which blocks can be destroyed, and the locations of hidden items. Not only are you never required to search out secret passageways, the game flat out desuades you from doing so, which to be honest begs the question, why even have what appears as hidden passageways in the first place?

Another thing that's weirdly missing in this incarnation of the story is the intense build-up to the final boss when you have a single Metroid left on your tracker, and you pass through a long series of mysterious rooms with no enemies in them. In Samus Returns you're kinda just there whenever. It does however handle the final stretch of the story excellently, from the part where you find the baby metroid until the return to your ship, which has been elaborated a lot better here, in a way that makes sense and fits into the series as a whole.
I think the boss fights are generally great too, and a lot better than the mediocre mash-fests of Metroid Dread. Some of them can get a little frustrating in terms of random patterns causing longer wait times for the ability to deliver damage to the boss, but at the same time the interaction with said patterns are well done, and the game is pretty much a textbook example of how to properly signal upcoming attacks. Unlike Metroid II, I think this one does suffer more from the repetition of repeated boss fights in the metroids that you are hunting down, but it is not a massive dealbreaker, and the other unique boss fights (including one cool surprise one) are all very enjoyable.

One thing I praised Metroid II for was never having any forced backtracking. Samus Returns goes the other route, and places occasional items here and there along the way (usually just a 3-missile pack) that requires an upgrade you won't be getting until much later. Given you'll never come back to those places ever again except with the purpose of cleaning up those missed items, those locations don't really serve any purpose outside of creating more work for the player. At "best" they'll make you run your head against the wall a few times before you even realise you're not supposed to be able to get that item yet.
Interestingly, the game has a lot of teleports placed around that enable quickly going back to get those items if you do want to, but in a casual playthough from start to end you, the game is designed well enough that you never actually need to make use of them. I got all the stuff I could along the way, but I don't really feel compelled to ever go back and get 100%, I'm not sure the game will benefit from that at all.

So yeah. Not the best Metroid game by any stretch, but absolutely not the worst one either. I prefer this one to Fusion, and to be honest it probably measures up favourably to Zero Mission as well. If only the flash counter just wasn't there, and common enemies weren't as terribly handled, it could have been a genuine classic.

[twiztor | 851]

7 hours ago, Sumez said:

Metroid: Samus Returns - Beaten 7/9

i played through the Metroid series a couple years back, but skipped this one because i had JUST played Metroid II and didn't feel the need to "replay" a remake. thanks for your review, it made me want to give it a shot. And since i found Metroid Dread to be great, i think i need to add it to my list!

[Reed Rothchild | 9,545]

It's apparently a hot take to think Dread and Samus Returns were both good games.  I'd say any Metroid fan should check them both out 

[Brickman | 3,991]

3 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

It's apparently a hot take to think Dread and Samus Returns were both good games.  I'd say any Metroid fan should check them both out 

Dude don’t you know that the rules here are that unless it’s a NES game it’s garbage?

A lot of people here have the most ridiculous standards that I just skip right over most reviews (besides your SNES reviews). Either that or I’m a lot easier to please.

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

On 9/9/2022 at 12:08 PM, Reed Rothchild said:

It's apparently a hot take to think Dread and Samus Returns were both good games.  I'd say any Metroid fan should check them both out 

 

21 hours ago, Brickman said:

Dude don’t you know that the rules here are that unless it’s a NES game it’s garbage?

A lot of people here have the most ridiculous standards that I just skip right over most reviews (besides your SNES reviews). Either that or I’m a lot easier to please.

I didn't hate Dread but it just felt so mediocre to me. I really didn't enjoy the gameplay and it felt very padded from a content perspective. I'm not sure if it's because I've never been a big Metroid fan (outside of Prime) or if I've just played way too many Metroidvanias, but it just didn't do it for me.

I've never played Samus Returns but I'd like to some day.

[Floating Platforms | 720]

I finished Chrono Trigger this past week while on vacation

This is a game that I've been playing off and on for many years, mostly off.  It was the game I would play anytime I was on an airplane and could devote a large chunk of time to it. The problem was that I didn't take many flights so each time I spent half the next session wandering around lost and trying to find something that would help me make progress.  Rinse and repeat for years.  Well, no more! I have pretty much no clue what happened in the first 2/3rds of the game anymore, so any story impact from the last act didn't resonate with me as strong as it probably should have.

Regardless, as someone who is not an RPG guy, I definitely believe this is one of the better ones. Honestly, just reducing the random encounters was a huge help, but the timer based battle system is much preferable to a standard turn based one. The enemies and bosses had a lot of variety in style and also in techniques needed, so you actually had to think about each encounter. Plenty of team configurations, elemental abilities, etc to consider.  I wish I would have dedicated more time to this from the start instead of playing it so haphazardly, but that's how things go sometimes.

Now that I've gone through the game on my own, it'll be time to go through a good commentary playthrough on YT to see it from scratch and let someone else get the other endings (I got #1 according to the DS log as well as the ending for doing the post-game dimensional vortex stuff).

[Sumez | 2,963]

On 9/9/2022 at 10:08 PM, Brickman said:

A lot of people here have the most ridiculous standards that I just skip right over most reviews (besides your SNES reviews). Either that or I’m a lot easier to please.

Reviews are kinda pointless if you just accept everything as "great", though, right?
I've found that we tend to have a very similar taste in video games, so I'd recommend that you do check out my reviews.  

Metroid Dread for sure isn't a bad game, but even if you are "easy to please", there's probably around 100 better or more interesting (but less advertised) games in the same sphere of modern metroidvania titles. Given that you don't have infinite time to play every game in the world, wouldn't it be cool to at least check out some of those before Dread?
I mean, you'd probably check out Dread regardless just to see what the hubbub is about, same as I did, but it's still a subject worth discussing.
I try to keep my mini-reviews to the points of "this game does this thing well, and is bad at that other thing, and I didn't personally enjoy this approach", etc., rather than just leaving it at "this is a shitty game" or "this is a fantastic game". Another good example could be Eastward which I think is commendable in a ton of ways (some of which might appeal to a lot of people), but ultimately isn't something I'd just recommend unconditionably.

[Brickman | 3,991]

3 hours ago, Sumez said:

Reviews are kinda pointless if you just accept everything as "great", though, right?
I've found that we tend to have a very similar taste in video games, so I'd recommend that you do check out my reviews.  

Metroid Dread for sure isn't a bad game, but even if you are "easy to please", there's probably around 100 better or more interesting (but less advertised) games in the same sphere of modern metroidvania titles. Given that you don't have infinite time to play every game in the world, wouldn't it be cool to at least check out some of those before Dread?
I mean, you'd probably check out Dread regardless just to see what the hubbub is about, same as I did, but it's still a subject worth discussing.
I try to keep my mini-reviews to the points of "this game does this thing well, and is bad at that other thing, and I didn't personally enjoy this approach", etc., rather than just leaving it at "this is a shitty game" or "this is a fantastic game". Another good example could be Eastward which I think is commendable in a ton of ways (some of which might appeal to a lot of people), but ultimately isn't something I'd just recommend unconditionably.

Yeah I probably should read some of your reviews because I have noticed that we have similar taste, so it would be good to check out some games I haven’t played that you enjoyed  

 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,545]

7 hours ago, Sumez said:

Reviews are kinda pointless if you just accept everything as "great", though, right?

We're spoiled and swimming in "great" options.  Release any of them into the year of 1999 and many look like one of the greatest games of all time.

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

1 hour ago, Reed Rothchild said:

We're spoiled and swimming in "great" options.  Release any of them into the year of 1999 and many look like one of the greatest games of all time.

Totally agree. I'm not sure if the actual percentage of great games is higher than it used to be, but the quantity certainly is. Also the quality of an "average" game now is light-years beyond the quality of the "average" retro game.

[Sumez | 2,963]

Agreed completely. I wholly enjoy a majority of the games I play, and my backlog is consistently growing much faster than I can possibly get through it.

It kinda just proves my point though. The more potentially great stuff is out there, the harder it gets to sift through all of it.

[Brickman | 3,991]

2 hours ago, Sumez said:

Agreed completely. I wholly enjoy a majority of the games I play, and my backlog is consistently growing much faster than I can possibly get through it.

It kinda just proves my point though. The more potentially great stuff is out there, the harder it gets to sift through all of it.

Very true. The indie scene has really contributed to my pile too. So many gems that are inspired by the greats and either match or even surpass them sometimes.