The 2022 Backlog Challenge

[Reed Rothchild | 9,508]

 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,508]

Aligned with that video, I had been recently separating my backlog into tiers.  The top tier maybe being the 100 games that I truly need to get to.  None of the passable stuff.  I can die happy never playing my copy of NG Spirit Hunter.

[Gloves | 11,759]

1 hour ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Aligned with that video, I had been recently separating my backlog into tiers.  The top tier maybe being the 100 games that I truly need to get to.  None of the passable stuff.  I can die happy never playing my copy of NG Spirit Hunter.

His mention of aggregating Metatcritic score and HLTB times got me thinking I could do so via code on my collection tracker, so I'm thinking I'll set up a function on AWS that runs once a week or so to update the games I add automatically with a score for Metaritic Score / Time to Beat. Should be interesting to make happen, whether it helps me clear stuff or not.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,508]

I feel like that formula would need more work.  Elden Ring would give a crappy value, and Gris would give an amazing one.  Maybe that's the point 

[Floating Platforms | 713]

Been a while since I've added a new completion, but I have two to add.

Ghost of Tsushima is done.  No picture, but I got the platinum and did 100% of the Iki Island trophies. I thought about going through Legends mode, but I usually don't like online multiplayer stuff. I tried the first mission solo and it was annoying because it strips all your abilities and tutorial-izes the game to a degree where my muscle memory of combat wasn't working anymore.  I honestly didn't find the combat all that engaging in this game and that's what most of the activities are.  It's cool at first. You have 4 different stances that can be used against the 4 enemy types, but once you realize that's all there is....  Where I really enjoyed my time was simply going through the environments. I feel like this was a mix between Assassin's Creed's better elements (in the action and missions) and Breath of the Wild. You're free to explore the world and use visual clues in the distance to go where you want and discover new things. The terrain is varied enough that it's interesting to keep walking or riding to see what's over the hill or down the cliff even if there aren't a lot of things to do in that space.  The story wasn't all that amazing, but the world told the story of a war-torn country well. Some of your exploratory discoveries will be a burned body or someone mourning or other various wreckage.  Some of the brutality is front and center, but most is scattered throughout, looming in the background (literally).  I thought the story of the DLC was much better as it dealt with the themes of reconciling the love of your father against being confronted with the atrocities that he committed (and your repression of those events). Using the hallucinogenic poison to further the main target's objectives while also forcing surprise flashbacks and introspection was fascinating to experience.

Overall, I liked the game, but in the main story it felt way too same-y too quickly. If there is a sequel somehow, I hope that there is more variety.

Murder by Numbers is also done

I'm a sucker for picross games and I kept hoping someone would take that into a narrative direction.  This comes close to what I would want, but I'm still hoping for something that goes a bit further.  This is essentially a visual novel with a good amount of puzzles (although none go beyond the 15x15 size unfortunately).  There's a lot of unnecessary back and forth menu navigation that gets in the way.  The characters and situations are charming enough and the story length across the 4 missions was meaty (I also did all of the bonus puzzles you get for ranking up to S in all 4 chapters).  I think what I'm really looking for is something that's more interactive. I want to use picross puzzles to find objects that can then be used more interactively and with a more open-ended structure. It's hard to complain about what this is, since I don't know of another game that has come close to this style, but it didn't fully scratch the itch.

I'm also working on a few other things here and there:
Link to the Past (3 or 4 dungeons in on the dark world)
Metroid (I was going to do it fully blind, but it's getting a bit frustrating since everything in the biomes look exactly the same, making it tough to know where I've been, so I'm going to break down and use a map)
Layton Vs Phoenix Wright (probably 25-30% done based on the other save files on the cart)
Bioshock (just booted it up today - trying for all trophies in one playthrough and I suck at this so far. Got the first level done)
Voxelgram (I think 30 more puzzles remain)

[Reed Rothchild | 9,508]

4 hours ago, Floating Platforms said:

I'm a sucker for picross games and I kept hoping someone would take that into a narrative direction

Return of the Obra Dinn?

[Philosoraptor | 468]

.

Edited November 25, 2022 by Philosoraptor

[Floating Platforms | 713]

11 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Return of the Obra Dinn?

I haven't played it, but that's not picross-centric, is it? All the trailers made it look like a really good first-person adventure/puzzle game.  My dream would be something like that where picross is still the star of the show. I do want to eventually play Obra Dinn at some point, though

[Reed Rothchild | 9,508]

15 minutes ago, Floating Platforms said:

I haven't played it, but that's not picross-centric, is it? All the trailers made it look like a really good first-person adventure/puzzle game.  My dream would be something like that where picross is still the star of the show. I do want to eventually play Obra Dinn at some point, though

The entire game is a logic puzzle.

[Floating Platforms | 713]

21 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

The entire game is a logic puzzle.

Sure, but not a picross puzzle specifically. If most of the puzzles you went around solving were picross, I'd have beaten it years ago, but none of the trailers or pictures I've seen show that type of puzzle.  I realize the type of game I'm talking about is one that would probably only appeal to me and maybe 5 other people

[PekoponTAS | 171]

I got my replacement Wii U, and I was able to finish Captain Falcon's Twister Race and Octopus Dance in Nintendo Land. (Which would both make the GamePad disconnect on my old Wii U)

Captain Falcon's Twister Race was intimidating, but there were only two sections where it was easy to die. (I know because I died to them a bunch of times) Outside of those moments, it wasn't too bad.

Octopus Dance was hands down the best mini game so far, but it was also the hardest. I failed it quite a few times before finally scraping by with one health left. The music is great, the gimmick is fun, the visual design is fantastic, and it was easily the highlight of the entire game so far.

It's worth pointing out that every mini-game in Nintendo Land so far could have been made on the 3DS with a Circle Pad Pro attached. The accessory had been out for ten months already, and it seems fishy to me in hindsight how eager Nintendo was to redesign the 3DS to be incompatible with it. The fact that they never supported the accessory after the Wii U came out is suspicious too, almost like they realized that dual analogue was the only thing the Wii U could do that the base 3DS couldn't.

I'm still having fun with the system though, and plan to do a lot more with it. I think I'll end up playing a bunch of Wii U games for next year's thread. I have two RPGs for the system, so it'd be nice to knock out at least one of them next year.

[twiztor | 847]

i was low key excited about Nintendo Land back when it came out. IMO Nintendo's strong suit has always been finding interesting ways to implement their sometimes questionable design/hardware choices, so i knew that if the Wii-U had a chance, this would be the game to highlight and make it shine.

overall, i felt it was above average but never really hit that next tier as far as fun and game design. I don't remember any of the minigames being outright bad, but ultimately came off more as a hardware demo than anything. that's not necessarily a bad thing, and maybe i was just hoping for more, but it left me a bit flat.

[PekoponTAS | 171]

I'd still say Nintendo Land is really impressive for something that came with the system for free. I expected basically nothing going into it, and have been extremely surprised at how high quality the game is. As a game that's likely to be locked to the Wii U forever, I think it's a good incentive for those curious about the system to pick one up and feel good about it right away. I think Nintendo Land as a pack-in game clobbers the daylights out of Wii Sports in terms of budget, quality, and variety.

The problem with Nintendo Land is that it's hard to shake off the realization that it didn't accomplish what it aimed to, which is demonstrate the benefits of the Wii U's features. While Nintendo Land is a much better game than Wii Sports, it didn't change the entire industry overnight like Wii Sports did. Wii Sports showcased that games could be made cheaply and turn a huge profit, and the key to that model succeeding was motion controls. If you wanted that sweet motion control money during the height of its popularity, you had to develop exclusively for Nintendo.

Nintendo Land on the other hand needed to show off the capabilities of a dual screen system, which had already been an aspect of the DS family that was under realized and discarded by developers. Not many DS games made clever use of the two screens, and suddenly the Wii U had to prove its value on a more awkward set up, and on a much more expensive to develop for HD system.

I think going into Nintendo Land with the knowledge that the Wii U was a failure actually makes Nintendo Land age really well. This is a system that had ideas that didn't pan out, and this was one of Nintendo's bigger efforts to demonstrate what it could do. While failing at that goal in the long run, it's still an extremely fun game.

[Webhead123 | 675]

Finally finished Super Mario 3D Land. It was an enjoyable romp overall and I thought the 3D element was well-implemented in some of the stage designs. The game was incredibly easy and generous with 1-Ups and I have to admit that I was kinda ready for it to be over by the time I got to World-7 or so, but I'm still glad I finally knocked it out. Not in the running for my top Mario games or anything but I certainly enjoyed it more than I thought I would for a 3D Mario title.

7/10

Edited November 28, 2022 by Webhead123

[Sumez | 2,930]

On 11/24/2022 at 6:29 PM, Reed Rothchild said:

The entire game is a logic puzzle.

Earlier this year I described Obra Dinn as sudoku but with humans instead of numbers, and I stand by that description.

I agree completely with Reed's recommendation - it's not Picross, but anyone who likes those sorts of logic puzzles will probably really enjoy Obra Dinn - it's a type of game I really wish there were a lot more of. Instead of, apparently, just the one.

[Sumez | 2,930]

Due to recent developments in my personal life I've had very little time for video games the past month, and even less time for writing about them as I also enjoy doing, so my backlog has been moving forward slowly. I've gone through a few games I haven't updated about yet, but I'll get on that, and I'm currently fighting my way forward through Nightmare of Druaga which I have a feeling HLTB was lying to me about, and should probably have been above my cutoff point :S

I also had to scratch Secret Mission from the list, since it turns out my copy was in Dutch. I'm pretty sure the listing I bought from specifically said it was the English version, but it's too late to complain about that now

So with those gone, and every other game over 30 hours cancelled, that just leaves three other games for me. I'll make at least two of them.

[ThePhleo | 2,184]

OKAY! So here's my records for the year. I only intend to play and beat one more game this year so I'm pretty confident this is it.

I set out this year with the goal of playing more NON-NINTENDO systems and I totally failed that goal, hah. A good chunk of this list is memory, so I may be missing some things I played and even beaten this year. These are all the things I significantly remember playing this year though.

Here is my own arbitrary goals and points I setup for myself.

Play-A-Game

• 1 Game (1 Pts.)
• 5 Games (5 Pts.)
• 10 Games (10 Pts.)
• 25 Games (25 Pts.)
• 50 Games (50 Pts.)
• 100 Games (100 Pts.)

Play-A-Game on a New Platform

• 1 Game (5 Pts.)
• 5 Games (10 Pts.)
• 10 Games (25 Pts.)
• 25 Games (50 Pts.)
• 50 Games (100 Pts.)
• 100 Games (250 Pts.)

Beat-A-Game

• 1 Game (10 Pts.)
• 5 Games (25 Pts.)
• 10 Games (50 Pts.)
• 25 Games (100 Pts.)
• 50 Games (250 Pts.)

 

Play-A-Game - 63 Games Played (50 Points)

Play-A-Game on a New Platform - 63 Games, 14 Unique platforms (25 Points)

Beat-A-Game - 14 Games Beaten....possibly 15 if I beat God of War by years end (50 Points)

FINAL SCORE: 125 POINTS

 

GAME LIST

NES

1. Super Mario Bros. 3 (Played)
2. Super Mario Bros (Beaten)
3. Legend of Zelda (Played)
4. Mega Man 3 (Beaten)
5. Mega Man 4 (Played)
6. Contra (Beaten)
7. Duck Hunt (Played)
8. DuckTales (Beaten)
9. Battletoads Double Draong (Played)
10. Chubby Cherub (Played)
11. Tetris (Played)
12. Balloon Fight (Played)

SNES

1. Chrono Trigger (Played, briefly)
2. Super Mario World (Played)
3. Super Mario World: Yoshi's Island (Beaten)
4. Super Punch-Out!! (Beaten)
5. Contra III: The Alien Wars (Played)
6. Donkey Kong Country 2 (Beaten)
7. Batman Forever (Played...ugh)
8. Battlecars (Played)

N64

1. Hybrid Heavan (Played)
2. Super Mario 64 (Played)
3. Star Fox 64 (Beaten)

Gamecube

1. Star Fox Adventures (Played)

Switch

1. Super Mario Odyssey (Played)
2. Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Played)

Game Boy

1. Pokemon Yellow (Played)

Master System

1. Sonic the Hedgehog (Played)
2. Golden Axe Warrior (Played)

Genesis / CD / 32X

1. Ecco the Dolphin (Played)
2. Shining Force (Played)
3. Popful Mail (Played)
4. Sonic the Hedgehog (Played)
5. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Played)
6. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Played)
7. Sonic & Knuckles (Played)

Dreamcast

1. Crazy Taxi (Played)

Atari 2600

1. Pitfall (Played)
2. Mountain King (Played) thanks to @DefaultGen
3. Yar's Revenge (Played) .... is there a win scenario for this game?

Arcade

1. TMNT: Turtles in Time (Played)
2. Donkey Kong (Played)
3. Area 51 (Beaten)
4. Mario Bros. (Played)
5. Simpsons (Played)

PlayStation 4

1. Grand Theft Auto 5 (Played)
2. Mortal Kombat 11 (Played)

PlayStation 5

1. Elden Ring (Played)
2. Back 4 Blood (Played)
3. Spider-Man Miles Morales (Played)
4. God of War: Ragnarok (Played)

PC

1. Overwatch (BEATEN...TECHNICALLY....)
2. Overwatch 2 (Played)
3. Sims 4 (Played)
4. Minecraft (Played)
5. HD Poker (Played)
6. Halo Infinite (Beaten)
7. Team Fortress 2 (Played)
8. Clicker Heroes (Played)
9. Dying Light 2 (Beaten)
10. Cyberpunk 2077 (Beaten)
11. Hades (Beaten)
12. Fall Guys (Played)

[ScaryD | 236]

On 11/23/2022 at 2:17 PM, Reed Rothchild said:

Aligned with that video, I had been recently separating my backlog into tiers.  The top tier maybe being the 100 games that I truly need to get to.  None of the passable stuff.  I can die happy never playing my copy of NG Spirit Hunter.

I am going to take a look at the video because I will have to try a different approach to my backlog next year. I have beaten a total of 8 games on my backlog and several of those were not on my original list. I am assuming subconsciously that those games I consider "work" so I run off the beaten path.  Overall, 8 games beaten annually is right near my average since I started tracking in 2014.

[FireHazard51 | 2,043]

I know I still got this month left but after updating my backlog I've completed 13 of 22 games.  Yeah, I'm not going to get to 22 games but I've done a good chunk and I feel much better now than I did 4 months ago.  Also I missed a couple of games as well.  Either way I've done much better than last year's backlog.

[killerkobra | 268]

Mega Man X4 complete 

 

 

[FireHazard51 | 2,043]

On 11/23/2022 at 2:14 PM, Reed Rothchild said:

 

I watched this and it was great.  You should put this on the initial 2023 Backlog as I found it VERY helpful for planning out my 2023 backlog.  Still need to tweak and re-evaluate some things.  Like some games I need to check how long they are to play and try and balance out my monthly schedule of games.  IE not set my self up for 100+hours in February and 25 hours in October.  Figuring out WHEN I'll play my games helps me keep on track and set myself up for success.  Also will make me realize I just don't have the time/space for more games to play.

[FireHazard51 | 2,043]

On 11/23/2022 at 3:26 PM, Gloves said:

His mention of aggregating Metatcritic score and HLTB times got me thinking I could do so via code on my collection tracker, so I'm thinking I'll set up a function on AWS that runs once a week or so to update the games I add automatically with a score for Metaritic Score / Time to Beat. Should be interesting to make happen, whether it helps me clear stuff or not.

Probably won't help clear stuff.  But if you are playing amazing game after amazing game then maybe it'll keep you going.  What it should do is help you knock out the great quick games.  Sadly some of the most impactful games take longer to play to build up that emotion tie with the characters or storyline.  I'd 100% love to see what games were recommend to you and see what the bottom tier stuff was.

I'm kinda throwing in another measure to help pick what games I want to play and that is how much money I've invested to play said game.  Playing an expensive game early on and learning you don't like it so you can turn around and sell it while it's at a high value could be of use too.

[Sumez | 2,930]

Golden Sun (beaten 20/10)

Ok, so Golden Sun is actually just half of a game.

I mean, I knew about that. I've heard many times how the game ends on a cliffhanger instead of giving a satisfying conclusion. But I think that still left me entirely unprepared for just how abruptly the game ends - just completely unexpected, halfway through a usual "go visit the four mcguffins" quest.
No noticeable strides through the plot, no major encounters, no big plot twist to set the stage for the next chapter. You don't even get to face any kind of antagonists either - the closest thing (this part of) the game has to a villain is two mysterious people who show up every now and then, but very clearly aren't actually out to hurt anyone even though they like to act mildy mischeviously.

I think if you do view Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age as a single long game, which you should, that point of criticism becomes moot - because to be perfectly honest, I wouldn't recommend anyone even starting the first one unless they are also planning to go on playing the next one immediately after. As a business practice, that move is honestly completely detestable, since there is no excuse at all to split the games, given how few unique assets even exist in either one, but I also don't think that is something that should be held against the game itself, which is still a quality classic Dragon Quest'esque JRPG.

One thing that should be held against it, however, is how people just refuse to shut up in it! 

I mean, I know that heavy dialogue is a pretty common trope of RPGs in general, and it's not like I mind it if it serves a purpose. But the characters in Golden Sun don't have much to say in the first place, they just really like to state the obvious, and then repeat it into Teletubby'esque oblivion. Further enhanced by the delays between almost every single dialogue box to stall players trying to mash through the text, it often really feels like the cutscenes exist just to delay your progress and piss off players just wanting to get back into the action - some scenes even extend into such absurd levels of stalling that it feels almost like the game is playing a practical joke on you.

Honestly though, outside of the abrupt ending and the tedious cutscenes, Golden Sun holds up as a perfectly capable classic JRPG, modeled very closely after the Dragon Quest formula. Instead of focusing on the overarching story, the game cares more about sending your party across the world map from one town to the next, each with their own little sphere of culture, characters, and isolated events that need to be concluded for you to progress. Some times returning to older locations can be rewarding, and there's a handful of optional detours you can take for no purpose other than your own enjoyment, which is something I always like.

Navigation does become a little tedious since you never get any vehicles or skills that help move around the map more effeciently, but honestly if you start using the items that reduce encounters with monsters weaker than yourself, you can actually get quite far in very few minutes, with the biggest obstacle being a couple of large dungeon-like areas that need to be traversed every time you want to reach other sections of the map.

Not that backtracking is terribly prevalent, but it's kinda satisfying to a small extent - Golden Sun's biggest strength comes from two aspects: The Djinni collectibles, and Psynergy skills.
Djinni are little creatures that can be equipped to any character to increase their strength. The boost you get from equipping one is often equivalent to multiple levels, making getting them feel extra rewarding.
And finding them usually requires going slightly out of your way and some times solving unique puzzles, which is where Psynergy comes in.
It's really just the game's word for magic, but it also covers a set of interaction skills that can be used anywhere in dungeons, towns and such areas. They do things like moving objects at a distance, causing plants to grow, freezing pools of water, and so on. When they work the best, they work in tandem allowing you access to areas that otherwise seem blocked off. Most of the puzzles are very straight forward (move the pillars in place, so you can jump across to the opposite gap, etc.), but occasionally they manage to be quite satisfying, and generally make engaging with the game's various areas a lot more interesting compared to simply moving across a field while fighting off random encounters.

Not that the combat is terrible. Fights are generally over fast enough to never feel annoying, but they are also so easy that they never manage to be engaging either. Most of the game you'll just use your most powerful attacks and the enemies die in one or two rounds.
The Djinni are able to make combat a little more interesting, since they can also be employed as different tactical skills unique to each Djinn, but using one will temporarily remove the buff you get from it. And by using up more Djinni of the same element you will get access to increasingly more powerful, damaging summons. You can even mix and match Djinni between characters in order to change their classes and available skills, which is a really interesting idea.
In practice it has little to no purpose though, because as I said, just using your most powerful attacks is enough to end every encounter quickly, and even the bosses barely put up more of a fight.
By the tail end of the game where enemies do get a little stronger, you can actually just unequip four Djinni of each element in order to have the most powerful summon ready at the start of every battle, and use them right away with zero penalty, ending every fight before it starts. It's too bad it's so easy to break(?) the system, because there are some great ideas in there.

Ultimately, I really wouldn't recommend the first Golden Sun to anyone but the most hardcore fans of classic JRPGs. I think the game was really interesting when it came out in 2002 for representing a really old school approach to the genre which was presumed dead at that point, but that doesn't make it stand out much now that it itself has become a bit of an older game.

However, I would absolutely wholeheartedly recommend the sequel - that is, the second half of this game!
Yes, I had to pull another "The Last of Us" with this game, and felt pretty much forced to play the next game in order to get a better impression of what they even wanted to do with it. Golden Sun: The Lost Age is just a enormously better game than the first! It doesn't fix the easy battles, but the exploration is much improved. Right from the get-go you're given more choices of where to go, and a short while into it you also get a boat, allowing you to go around the world easier, and explore dungeons in almost any order you want, without anyone telling you where to go, or even why you are going there. It's a fantastic satisfying amount of freedom reminiscent of the first three Dragon Quest games, and something I really wish the genre had a lot more of!
The game also adds a ton more Psynergy interaction skills that you can learn as a reward for exploring new areas, helping you solve puzzles other places in the world. This makes the puzzles much more varied and organic in nature, and generally the dungeon design is just incredibly good in this game, easily among the best in the entire genre IMO.

So here's my recommendation - either play both Golden Sun and The Lost Age back to back, or just skip the first and play The Lost Age by itself (it manages to sum up the events of the first game in a single paragraph at the start). But don't ever consider playing just the first Golden Sun without having the next game on hand. You'll probably end up feeling cheated out of half a game. The best half, by far.

 

Golden Sun beaten 20/10 and Golden Sun: The Lost Age beaten 5/11

[PekoponTAS | 171]

I liked the first Golden Sun, but wasn't too big on the second one. I like the characters and bosses in the first one more, and the dungeons aren't so excessively long compared to the second one. I tend to set the dialogue to fast and skip all the text when I replay it, and I think the first Golden Sun is a much faster paced and fun game compared to the second when played that way. Though the prologue in the first game is slow no matter what you do. Both games are GBA classics though.

It might not be easy to understand playing them now, but when Golden Sun came out and I finished it for the first time, the fact that it ended with a mid-story "to be continued!" threw me completely off guard, and was something I had never experienced in a game before. The wait for Lost Age was one of the most exciting waits for any piece of media for me, and it was something I've never experienced with a game since. It was a pretty long wait too, which made the anticipation all that more intense. 

@Sumez, you should check out the GBA Mario Golf and Mario Tennis if you liked Golden Sun, as they both use the Golden Sun engine for the overworld segments. They're really fun novelties for being a borderline Golden Sun/Mario crossover. I was really hoping the Golden Sun cast were unlockable characters back when I played them.

[Floating Platforms | 713]

I forgot to post on here that Voxelgram is done.

Normal picross/nonogram games are all over the place, but I was surprised to see someone take on 3D picross. I'd like to see more of it as it's a good change of pace.  The control scheme in this was rock solid, but I wish I could have temporarily marked some spaces (like you can in the 3DS Picross games) to help me visualize certain things in the cross-section. That's a minor gripe, and there are tons of puzzles to chisel away at, so I'm satisfied. Hopefully they do another one sometime.