The 2022 Backlog Challenge

[Sumez | 2,963]

Ristar (beaten 12/10)

Ristar is such a bright and cheerful game, it's one of those attractive titles where just looking at screenshots makes you want to play it.

And that's how I've felt about this game for the past 27 years now! Yet, every time I've played the game in the past I've always just made it to the first major boss fight, and then stopped playing. Although Ristar is a fairly short game, I've never had the patience to play it all the way through. And even this time, sitting down with the goal of actually completing it, that same feeling was impossible to ignore.

There are video games that just pull at you. Games where you're itching to get home and continue playing. Games where you end up spending your free time looking up strategies, mechanics and details even when you're not playing. Games where you immediately sit down and play them again after you've completed them. I'm sure anyone here who loves video games like I do have experienced the same thing many times. At the very least, there are games where you just want to keep playing them all the time.

The reason I mention this is that Ristar somehow managed to be the exact opposite for me. Getting through it felt like a massive chore, and that's not really something I'd usually expect from such a bright and cheerful platformer.
The game's core mechanic is Ristar extending his arms in front of him, which can be used both to attack, walljump awkwardly, and interact with all sorts of objects. Unfortunately the traversal aspect of this doesn't work very cleanly, and the game really lacks the clean forward-moving flow you'd expect of a Sega game so reminiscent of Sonic.

Most of the stuff you're using your stretchy arms for is quite context sensitive, and the game frequently throws new mechanics at you, where the primary aspect of the puzzle is figuring out how they work, or that it's a mechanic that exists at all. Some times it's fun, other times it's confusing and tedious.
At best, that creates a constant creative energy, with no two stages really feeling the same. But most of the ideas thrown at you are half-assed or tedious, such as when you're expected to carry around and babysit a series of metronomes for the entirety of one stage on the music planet. Same goes for the boss fights, which are often fairly challenging, and some times feel really fun and satisfying to master, but other times they just seem unfair and kinda buggy.

Overall, Ristar has some merits, and it's definitely a joy to look at - and occasionally to listen to, definitely feeling at home next to the better Sega outings of the 90s. But if you're expecting the next Sonic the Hedgehog you'll be very disappointed. If the game had ever had a real sequel, it could potentially have been interesting. But the one game we did get (if you consider the Game Gear one a port) really isn't something I could recommend in good conscience.
 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,545]

@Sumez My quick tally says you're at 32/47.  Very impressive.

Think you can hit 40 by year's end? 

[Foochie776 | 1,052]

I hit a snag with Link to the Past but I made it past. I’m half way through Turtle Rock and I reckon it will be done within a week. 

[Sumez | 2,963]

12 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

@Sumez My quick tally says you're at 32/47.  Very impressive.

Think you can hit 40 by year's end? 

A month or so ago I decided to sort my remaining titles by time to beat according to HLTB and cut off anything over 30 hours (13 Sentinels, Dark Cloud, Black Flag, Arc Rise Fantasia, Bravely Default and Darkest Dungeon). That leaves exactly 8 games remaining, so maybe. Folklore and Nightmare of Druaga will be the toughest ones to crack. And I'm not sure I'll have any time at all for video games in December.  

[Sumez | 2,963]

Luigi's Mansion (beaten 13/10)

I got this game when it came out, I can't believe it took me twenty years to finally get around to it. But something about Luigi's Mansion just keeps it from appealing much to me, and honestly, playing through it didn't really do anything to change that.

I played it a bit back then, only to leave it behind for the next couple of decades, and my immediate impression from then was that it doesn't have much of a "game" to it. Or rather, it doesn't seem to have any single thing it really wants to do, and I think that first impression still holds true - in fact it's quite descriptive of the game. You go around and fight ghosts, but it's not an action game, you're just repeating simple motions. And you solve situations in all the different rooms in order to progress, but it's not a puzzle or adventure game either, since it's all extremely straight forward. It's just a big mushy non-genre.
And I guess it goes without saying that of course it's not a survival and/or horror game either, although a lot of its progression - as well as the setting, obviously, feels oddly reminiscent of one.

You go around unlocking doors in the mansion to gradually gain access to more and more additional rooms. In each of them you vacuum up everything, including the ghosts you meet, and maybe figure out what needs to be done in order to activate a fight with one of the unique named ghosts that turn into a portrait. After completing each chapter, you get to fill a gallery with those portraits, but that whole feature seems kinda pointless. I'm not sure why anyone would spend time just walking around looking at those. I get that it's a kids game, but I don't think kids get that much enjoyment from that either.
And it's not like the portraits are special achievements that you earn either, if that's what you think. Basically most of the entire route through the mansion from the start till the end is pretty much set in stone. Usually you'll only have a single key on you at a time, opening up a single specific room, or a couple of them, of which one will have the next key, dictating where you go next. I'm gonna sound like a broken record about this soon, but I don't understand why so many games are so scared of giving the player just a little bit of agency - especially in a game like this where each room is pretty much an independent setpiece, there doesn't seem to be any single reason to gate the player's path so heavily. The mansion itself is open to roam freely once doors have been opened, but there is only a couple of times you actually have any reason to return to them.

Well, despite the game never really feeling engaging, I think it does score high on that unique first-party Nintendo charm. It's not quite as polished as many of their other games, but it's a cute addition to their library, and kinda pinned down Luigi's modern characterization in most of the games he has appeared in since. It's not a game I'd ever go out of my way to play again, but given how short it was to get through all of it, I can't regret the time I've spent with it either. And I'm actually somewhat curious to try the sequels some time. I'm pretty sure I got at least one of them lying around as well.

[Sumez | 2,963]

Lol just came across @twiztor's post on the same game from earlier this year:

 

It's kinda funny how it makes pretty much all the exact same points. I guess that helps confirm I'm not completely on the wrong track

[twiztor | 851]

yeah, your take and experience while playing seems to mirror mine very closely. i'd say that must be a pretty common opinion on the game, as people seem to appreciate the game without anybody heaping praise upon it. it's a solid, good game, with a very un-Nintendo-like atmosphere that makes it stand out from your normal Mario games.

i don't know how much more reading you did, but i also played through #2 and 3 this year. Dark Moon was my favorite of the trilogy.

Edited October 25, 2022 by twiztor

[MegaMan52 | 2,450]

Beat the GameCube version of Resident Evil 4 on Professional difficulty. 

I've beaten the game on Normal difficulty several times but felt there was some unfinished business. What a nightmare this playthrough was. Still a great game after all these years, but man Pro difficulty is extremely hard. Even though we've gotten into the colder months, I was sweating while playing the game.

I played a file that I've had for several years. If you're wondering why it says "Round: 1" even though you have to play through the game once to unlock Professional difficulty, it's because I deleted the system file but kept the progress file. The game forgot that I've beaten it on Normal difficulty, but still remembered my progress on Pro difficulty.

I've played the game since 2005, so it wasn't too difficult until I got to Chapter 3-2. The room with the red guy who uses a Gattling Gun/Mini-Gun was a little hard. Not surprisingly, Leon takes more damage on Pro difficulty. I decided to avoid this battle and shoot the red guy from a distance with my Shotgun (he stands arounds for a little while). When he ran to the nearby room with stairs, I dropped down and went to the other door that leads to the same room. There he was, standing near the door. I followed him up the stairs and shot him. He died before he could get to his Gun.

The Garden Maze area was also a little difficult. Not the Maze itself (I know my way around it), but the dogs. I would get through most of the Maze only to run out of Shotgun Ammo and First-Aid Spray. No big deal, I backtracked to the Merchant and upgraded my Shotgun's Firepower. This made getting through the Garden Maze noticeably easier, as the dogs didn't stand a chance. On the left side of the Maze, I threw an Incendiary Granade at three dogs locked up in a Kennel which killed all three of them. Not too difficult once I upgraded my Shotgun.

There is a glitch that you can do in the sewer area of Chapter 3-2 (actually, it works in several areas) to walk through walls and watch an unused cutscene (video below).

Rocket Launchers are seriously overpowered in this game. Even on Pro difficulty, one Rocket Launcher can take out a boss. When Salazar opened up/showed his face, I used a Rocket Launcher and BOOM...he was toast. And the boss on Chapter 5-3 ("IT")? All it took was a Rocket Launcher and a shot from my souped-up Shotgun.

On Chapter 5-1, Regenerators were a bit of a problem. For some reason, I didn't get the Infrared Scope in the freezer room. I guess I wanted to avoid dealing with the Regenerator, because the door locks for a short time when you take the Infrared Scope. But when I got to the room with the Regenerator that has a card, I had a limited amount of Ammo and money. So, I decided to go back to the freezer room and grab the Infrared Scope which makes the Regenerators a lot easier to beat since you're able to see where the Plagas inside of them are.

Krauser was a little hard to beat. You know when the game tells you to press certain buttons to dodge Krauser's attack in the cutscene before the battle starts? I don't know if it's because I used a Wavebird and had possible interference, but I pressed the buttons and got hit anyway, lost half of my energy, and had to climb back up. Yes, I know you have to be very quick about pressing the buttons. I learned in 2005/2006 to not bother using Guns on Krauser and use the Knife instead.

The battle with Saddler was time-consuming, but surprisingly not overly hard. In previous playthroughs, I usually just stayed in the area with the Elevator, shot Saddler, climbed on him, and stabbed his eye. But on this run, the battle seemed to drag on longer. I know you can shoot his eye to do more damage than stabbing it (by using the "Climb" command), but I chose not to. I ran all over, shooting Saddler when I could, and shot some explosive barrels. I also crossed the bridges, jumping and grabbing the ledges if I needed to. I pulled the lever and used the Crane, hitting Saddler with some steel bars. I used up all of my Shotgun Ammo, Herbs, and First-Aid Spray. All I had left were my Handgun and Rocket Launcher. I used the latter, but Saddler still kept going (he definitely took a lot of damage by this point, though). Ada finally left the Special Rocket Launcher. I crossed the bridge, picked it up, and used it. Of course, it took out Saddler as it normally does.

Escaping the Island is still pretty easy even on Pro. I did crash once but escaped on the next try.

Anyway, I know the game has been ported to many consoles and PC since 2005, remastered in HD, and with more features. Heck, there's even a VR version and now a remake is in development. But, I've been pretty content with the GameCube version of Resident Evil 4 all these years. Even without Separate Ways, the GameCube version still has a lot of extra content. Besides the Professional difficulty, there's the alternate title screen (which can be scrolled left or right by using the C-Stick and zoomed in and out with the L and R Buttons), Assignment Ada, Mercenaries mode, alternate costumes for the main single player mode, unlockable characters in Mercenaries mode, the Matilda, Chicago Typewriter, Handcannon, and Infinite Rocket Launcher weapons, the Shooting Gallery game that can be played to win collectible bottle caps of the characters, an extra music track that plays if you choose to watch the Assignment Ada credits again, and two Trailer videos that play if you don't press any buttons for a few seconds on the title screen. The vast majority of the game's content is on the first disc, including Assignment Ada and Mercenaries (though you can use the second disc for those modes if you want). The second disc is really only needed for Chapter 5. Also, I believe the Japanese and PAL releases have the Easy difficulty that the other versions have.

My GameCube is hooked up to my HDTV with its Component cable. It is also hooked up to a Sound Bar and Subwoofer. The game still looks and sounds pretty good after all these years.

Happy Halloween.

Edited November 1, 2022 by MegaMan52

[peg | 372]

Finally got around to my list again. Happy Halloween you knuckle heads

[Philosoraptor | 468]

Beat game #200 on the year tonight! it was one I had been saving for a bit: New Pokemon Snap!

This is definitely more of the same greatness captured by the original N64 game, just with more to do and better controls. It's also a great game to wind-down with after a long day at work. I'll probably come back and play this one more later in the year. There's lots of postgame things to do and lots of challenges, bobs, and scores to chase. 

I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the original or is a Pokemon fan. 9/10.

Happy Halloween! Don't eat too much candy, y'all!

[Foochie776 | 1,052]

I finished Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past last night. 
 

My feels are kind of weird about this one. I was born in ‘92 and despite my age I played almost exclusively NES and N64 in my early days. Then moved on from system to system. The only SNES exposure I had was Donkey Kong Country, Mario World and Mickey Mania. What makes me feeling even more weird is I didn’t played my first LoZ game until I was 21 and finished Ocarina of Time. So while I can see the greatness that is OOT I feel that LttP lacks. 
 

Pros: colorful, fun graphics. Interesting story with the maidens. Diverse dungeons, much more diverse than expected. The use of the mirror to switch between light and dark was very cool in my eyes. Great final battle, that was a tough one and it felt very fair and well rounded. Also, being able to just easily access the fight was nice. 
 

Cons: (Full disclosure: I used a walkthrough for a lot of overworks traverse.) the overworld felt tough to navigate at times and excessive until you get them flute. The dark palace was (in my opinion) much tougher than any dungeon. The overall challenge just seemed uneven. Granted I got good power ups towards the end they felt too strong almost. 

 

All in all, the game was good but for a Zelda title it was very middle of the road. I have completed all but two Zelda console games (Zelda II and Majora's Mask) and I expect this one to rank along the lower portion. 

 

Is it that I spoiled myself with playing so many 3D Zelda games or did I just find this one underwhelming? I had a good time but I would he hard pressed to revisit it I feel. 

 

6/10, I just cannot see the hype. 

 

 

I will either get back on Kingdom Hearts or start up Vice City. I am pleased to have another Zelda title from my list. 

[Sumez | 2,963]

9 hours ago, Foochie776 said:

Is it that I spoiled myself with playing so many 3D Zelda games or did I just find this one underwhelming? I had a good time but I would he hard pressed to revisit it I feel. 

I don't think 3D Zeldas would spoil anyone for LTTP. A lot of people consider LTTP the best of the entire series, and I think there are great reasons for that. Hell, if I'd played OOT before LTTP I'd probably be surprised by how many things the latter does (IMO) much better.
I do agree the difficulty is poorly balanced, but I think the problem is that the whole game is mostly just a pushover, and never really challenges you. The 3D games have the same issue, but worse.

I guess you just prefer a different style of games entirely.
I'd be curious about how you feel about Link's Awakening or the Oracle games, though.

[Jicsan | 589]

Finally crossed another one off the list:

New Super Mario Bros. 2 on 3DS. I love the 3D effects in this one. I’m pretty sure the final Bowser fight is repeated in another New SMB game or else I was having deja-vu. Or maybe I had already beaten this one and just forgot. 

[Foochie776 | 1,052]

On 11/2/2022 at 4:08 AM, Sumez said:

I don't think 3D Zeldas would spoil anyone for LTTP. A lot of people consider LTTP the best of the entire series, and I think there are great reasons for that. Hell, if I'd played OOT before LTTP I'd probably be surprised by how many things the latter does (IMO) much better.
I do agree the difficulty is poorly balanced, but I think the problem is that the whole game is mostly just a pushover, and never really challenges you. The 3D games have the same issue, but worse.

I guess you just prefer a different style of games entirely.
I'd be curious about how you feel about Link's Awakening or the Oracle games, though.

I love Awakening, I feel the different story line and the Mario enemies made it unique. It was a fun little romp that wasn’t just cookie cutter Zelda, not that I don’t like cookie cutter Zelda.

 

I am very interested to play the Oracle games, the games are largely unspoiled to me and they seem really interesting in concept. 

[Foochie776 | 1,052]

On 11/3/2022 at 8:59 AM, Jicsan said:

Finally crossed another one off the list:

New Super Mario Bros. 2 on 3DS. I love the 3D effects in this one. I’m pretty sure the final Bowser fight is repeated in another New SMB game or else I was having deja-vu. Or maybe I had already beaten this one and just forgot. 

This one is on my list yet, I liked the first one a lot and this one just gets dunked on all the time.

[Foochie776 | 1,052]

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is done. 
 

Firstly I do have to say I did enter one cheat at the end because I grew overly frustrated with throwing myself at that last mission. This game was my introduction to GTA back in the day but with SA coming out so quickly thereafter, it’s allure was passed by. I played a couple years ago, mid pandemic and my save file crashed at the end and I haven’t had the heart to pick it back up. I’m glad to have this skeleton out of my closet and I won’t return back, e v e r. 
 

Pros: City was easy to navigate and fun, the 80’s styling and music was great. The side missions were very varied and there was a challenge present. 
 

Cons: Car controls feel like your sliding on ice at all times, bike controls are so overly touchy. Water = deaths most times and the boat controls are atrocious. Map is vague and the cops come after you so aggressively, it felt impossible to try and evade. 
 

Im glad to have played it but I won’t come back. San Andreas is a top 5 game for me and it just took everything VC did and made it better. I recognize where VC was significant but I just didn’t like it that much. 
 

7/10

[MegaMan52 | 2,450]

Beat StarTropics.

Edited November 12, 2022 by MegaMan52

[PekoponTAS | 171]

Better late than never! I'm not going to wait until the new year to join in. I'll keep my list nice and small though. There are two games I've been putting off for a while now, and I feel this is a good chance to finish them up.

Games I want to finish by the end of the year:

Yoshi's Woolly World
Nintendo Land

To finish Nintendo Land, you have to get a star on every attraction. I've been intimidated by the game in videos, since a lot of it looks pretty stressful. I'm going to buckle down and go for it now that I'm inspired by a goal.

Yoshi's Woolly World I've technically played the first world of already, but I could easily start over for the sake of the thread. I haven't played much of the game because it's really dull. I've been told it gets better later though.

When the new year hits, I'll have a more ambitious list to aim for.

[PekoponTAS | 171]

On 10/21/2022 at 2:17 PM, Sumez said:

Although Ristar is a fairly short game, I've never had the patience to play it all the way through. And even this time, sitting down with the goal of actually completing it, that same feeling was impossible to ignore.

 It could potentially have been interesting. But the one game we did get really isn't something I could recommend in good conscience.

I couldn't agree more. I feel like Sega systems live on in an overly positive light by their vocal fanbase. Every Sega system has a game like this which is really hyped up, but isn't actually very special. Games like Ristar, Nights into Dreams, Kolibri, Sonic CD, and Samba de Amigo are all very underwhelming to play when you consider how beloved they are amongst Sega fans.

Moving on to the thread itself...

I took an entire afternoon to play Yoshi's Woolly World, and I gotta say I was unimpressed.

While it has more interesting level design and better controls than Yoshi's New Island, Yoshi's Woolly World cares so little about itself that it feels like a waste of time. There's really nothing there to interest you as you play through its completely average levels. The music is also very bland, and compares poorly to Yoshi's New Island.

In Yoshi's New Island the level four boss fights were all against Kamek, which was a clever way of not needing to create more boss fights. Fighting Kamek in a new way in every world was always a highlight. In Yoshi's Woolly World you fight a Mega Mole and Heavy Troopa three times each in exchange for the Kamek fights, which is incredibly lame.

The yarn art style adds nothing to the game, and the whole thing would have been nicer looking if it just featured the colourful world of Yoshi's Island. Yoshi's New Island looks a lot nicer than Woolly World.

I keep comparing this to New Island because they were released very close together, and are both very polarizing games. Yoshi's New Island tends to get a harder time from fans, but is way better than Woolly World.

Edited November 15, 2022 by PekoponTAS

[twiztor | 851]

On 11/15/2022 at 1:54 PM, PekoponTAS said:

I took an entire afternoon to play Yoshi's Woolly World, and I gotta say I was unimpressed.

While it has more interesting level design and better controls than Yoshi's New Island, Yoshi's Woolly World cares so little about itself that it feels like a waste of time. There's really nothing there to interest you as you play through its completely average levels. The music is also very bland, and compares poorly to Yoshi's New Island.

In Yoshi's New Island the level four boss fights were all against Kamek, which was a clever way of not needing to create more boss fights. Fighting Kamek in a new way in every world was always a highlight. In Yoshi's Woolly World you fight a Mega Mole and Heavy Troopa three times each in exchange for the Kamek fights, which is incredibly lame.

The yarn art style adds nothing to the game, and the whole thing would have been nicer looking if it just featured the colourful world of Yoshi's Island. Yoshi's New Island looks a lot nicer than Woolly World.

I keep comparing this to New Island because they were released very close together, and are both very polarizing games. Yoshi's New Island tends to get a harder time from fans, but is way better than Woolly World.

have you played Kirby's Epic Yarn? Yoshi's Woolly World always seemed more like a sequel to that game than any prior Yoshi game. i haven't played YWW, so i'm mainly thinking that based on the aesthetic. i guess i'm wondering if that's an accurate assumption or not.

[PekoponTAS | 171]

4 hours ago, twiztor said:

have you played Kirby's Epic Yarn? Yoshi's Woolly World always seemed more like a sequel to that game than any prior Yoshi game. i haven't played YWW, so i'm mainly thinking that based on the aesthetic. i guess i'm wondering if that's an accurate assumption or not.

I think Kirby's Epic Yarn is a lot better, partly because the yarn world and gameplay take over the game. Kirby's Epic Yarn goes out of its way to explain that Kirby can't inhale enemies and copy abilities due to the air passing through his yarn body. This allows the yarn aspect to take the center stage, and not have to tie itself too closely to Kirby's established gameplay.

In Woolly World there's no attempt at justifying why it's yarn, and it just plays like a regular Yoshi game with a fancy art style. It's one of many examples of the game not caring about itself to leave any sort of impact. I wouldn't call this a sequel to Epic Yarn in any way really.

I'm just some guy though, so don't let me stop you from playing Woolly World. You might love it.

Edited November 17, 2022 by PekoponTAS

[Foochie776 | 1,052]

5 hours ago, PekoponTAS said:

I think Kirby's Epic Yarn is a lot better, partly because the yarn world and gameplay take over the game. Kirby's Epic Yarn goes out of its way to explain that Kirby can't inhale enemies and copy abilities due to the air passing through his yarn body. This allows the yarn aspect to take the center stage, and not have to tie itself too closely to Kirby's established gameplay.

In Woolly World there's no attempt at justifying why it's yarn, and it just plays like a regular Yoshi game with a fancy art style. It's one of many examples of the game not caring about itself to leave any sort of impact. I wouldn't call this a sequel to Epic Yarn in any way really.

I'm just some guy though, so don't let me stop you from playing Woolly World. You might love it.

Wooly World is super good. I think it’s super underrated and one of my favorite Wii U titles for sure 

[Matchbook | 194]

Been a ghost lately, family stuff blah blah blah.  Haven't done much gaming and finally had some time here in October and November to work on my backlog list completing 2 games.

Assassin's Creed Unity - 11/11

This game got a lot of flack upon release because it was very buggy and a struggle to play through.  Well after such a long time away from it I finally managed to plow through it.  A large number of the bugs have been fixed and it was really pleasant to play.  I enjoyed the story quite a bit and to my surprise was still able to find people doing the online multiplayer missions.  It was sad to see Arno's love interest die at the end, completely ignoring his warning to wait for him for assistance.  The stealth still felt pretty good on some of the harder missions and I was able to just bull my way through the more open area missions.  Overall I give it a pretty good rating.  I have given about 2 hours to the next game Syndicate and like the aesthetic of steam punk England, but don't know how I feel about the combat (feels like the Batman games) knowing I'm still in the early stages.

 

Super Mario Odyssey - 11/16

I've always been a huge Mario fan since I first ventured in the early 90s.  I havent really given a mainline Mario game a solid shake since probably Super Mario 64; aside from the Mario Karts, Smash and typical offshoots.  It was fantastic!  I played about halfway through myself and then started a new game with my nephew and made it damn near all the way through.  He got his own Switch so we never finished his game on my console.  I picked up where I left off on my save and finally finished it.  I had such a blast going through all the zones trying to find the hidden moons.  There is plenty more for me to find and am looking forward to collecting more outfits.  It's high rating was well deserved and my wife and I will revisit on 2 player mode in the future.

 

Now to tackle a couple other games off the list that seem possible.  I definitely was a little too ambitious this year with the amount of games and the number of longer games I added.  I will absolutely make a more manageable list for myself next year.  ON TO THE NEXT!

Edited November 18, 2022 by Matchbook

[PekoponTAS | 171]

My GamePad keeps disconnecting from my Wii U, making some of the Nintendo Land mini-games completely unplayable. I kind of wanted to upgrade to the black Wii U anyway, so this gives me a good reason to do it rather than continue to put it off. I'll be picking up a replacement system on Wednesday.

For what it's worth though, I'm really enjoying Nintendo Land. If I had bought a Wii U when it came out, I probably would have played it a lot. The end credits roll when you become a star player for every attraction, which shouldn't be too hard to do.

There's no way I'm going for 100% though, as it doesn't look like it'd be fun. There's some Wii Sports Resort level nonsense involved in getting all of the stamps. I'm not a fan of achievements that make you play the whole game completely flawlessly. That kind of thing is way too stressful, and the bragging rights aren't worth anything to me these days.

[Philosoraptor | 468]

Took a bit of time with this one: Katamari Forever. 

I'm a big fan the Katamari series in general, but I have to say I was surprised by this one. I've heard that most people really love Katamari Damacy or We Love Katamari but consider the rest to be second-rate or worse. While this one didn't quite capture the charm of the first two, it made up for it with the better controls and the unique levels and modes. There's so much more content here. I'd honestly put it up there with the aforementioned games as the best three in the series. 

I need to beat ten more games this year to get to my final milestone for the year. I think next year, I'm going to mix things up a bit and throw in some new criteria for myself. I'm noticing that I'm avoiding some genres and games entirely because of the current criteria, and I'd like that to change. I'm excited to play more games in 2023!