The 2022 Backlog Challenge

[Brickman | 3,990]

1 hour ago, DoctorEncore said:

As for my actual list, I'm on Metroid Dread right now and it's okay. I'm genuinely surprised it's on so many GOTY lists. It's perfectly adequate, but I wouldn't say it's much more than that. Hopefully the back half picks up.

I had the exact same feeling at the start but after around the second or third boss it really picks up and has honestly become one of my favourite Metroid games.

[killerkobra | 268]

Late to the party here and now in the CORRECT THREAD. A number of these I have partially completed or completed but want to give them another go. 

 

Nes

• -Castlevania III Draculas Curse- 13/06/2022
• Journey to Silius 
• Kid Icarus 

 

Snes

  -  Lord of the Rings

  -  Violinist of Hamelin

 

Steam PC

• The Messenger
• Celeste 

 

PlayStation

• Mega Man X4 - 04/12/2022
• Mega Man X5
• Mega Man X6
• -Castlevania SOTN- 14/06/2022

 

Sega CD

   - Snatcher 

 

Genesis

   -  Castlevania Bloodlines

Edited December 4, 2022 by killerkobra

[Reed Rothchild | 9,544]

1 hour ago, killerkobra said:

Lord of the Rings

Good luck...

[killerkobra | 268]

2 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Good luck...

Guides will be used!!!! There is a whole website for it ha ha 

 

http://mikesrpgcenter.com/lordoftherings/walkthrough.html

[Renmauzo | 1,201]

Finally, at long last: it had taken me around 27 years to finally get Mega Man V and I just beat it for the first time a few moments ago! The fight against Sunstar was white-knuckle, but Mega Man prevailed once again. This game is all kinds of awesome!!!

 

[Jicsan | 589]

First game is down! I just finished Pitfall II:  The Lost Caverns for the 2600. Played the rom with the NT Mini. I ran that crazy gauntlet of bats and birds at the end and got the girlfriend, mouse and monkey, on the way, but didn’t realize about the ring. So I did it a second time and got all of them, not all the gold bars though.  I think what stumped me as a youngster was the bit with the ballon, that must have been in the manual and we didn’t have that. 

[monkeybut625 | 39]

First of the year down, Star Fox 2 on switch online. I’m just sad now and I understand why it was cancelled. The controls are maddening.

[Foochie776 | 1,052]

I’m chugging away nicely with Pokémon Red, I just cleared Saffron city and I can say I am hooked! 
 

For the purpose of this thread, I’m going to finish the game and then eventually I’ll finish my Pokédex 

[T-Pac | 7,560]

Update: Somehow I just 1CC'd Star Parodier [PC Engine] on my first ever playthrough!

I fired it up on a whim, and ended up bulldozing through the whole thing. I think I had it set to "Easy" mode (although I can't be sure because the options menu was in Japanese haha) and I used the built-in turbo on my TurboGrafx-16 mini.
The game was fantastic and adorable - I played exclusively as the sentient PC Engine, and the Evil Bomberman boss was the biggest highlight for me. Konami might've done the whole "self-parody cute-em-up" thing first, but I think Hudson might've done it better.

-CasualCart

[Philosoraptor | 468]

I wasn't expecting to get lost in gaming this month, but I've felt like a kid again playing games for the NES and Game Boy beat every game threads. Big-time thanks to @Splain and @scaryice for hosting and updating those threads, and to @Reed Rothchild for this one. 

My initial goal this year was to beat 20 games total, but I ended up beating 36 this month. I don't think I've ever beaten 30 in a year...or if I have, it was before high school. Certainly not since I've been keeping track as an adult. I think this might have been the best month of the last two years for me.

Admittedly, some of the clear conditions for the NES games were relatively easy, like play a game of Golf, Double Dribble, Bandai Golf, or Soccer, but the rest were more than that. I'm going to be using the clear conditions outlined in those threads for most of my "beats" this year.

I still have 5 more SHMUPS to beat to knock out the "genres" portion of my backlog list, and I want to beat games for a bunch of other consoles and threads this year, too.

January completions:

NES

• Akumajō Special: Boku Dracula-kun
• Bandai Golf: Challenge Pebble Beach
• Baseball Stars
• Blades of Steel
• Bomberman
• Contra
• Donkey Kong
• Donkey Kong Jr.
• Double Dribble
• Golf
• Kirby's Adventure
• Kyatto Ninden Teyandee
• Metal Storm
• Pin Bot
• Pinball
• Pinball Quest
• River City Ransom
• Soccer
• Super Dodge Ball
• Super Mario Bros.
• Super Mario Bros. 3
• Tecmo Bowl
• Tetris

GB

• Blades of Steel
• Bubble Bobble Part 2
• Daedalian Opus
• Fortified Zone
• Goal
• Mario's Picross
• Mole Mania
• Nekketsu Koukou Dodge Ball-Bu: Kyōteki! Dodge Senshi no Maki
• Nemesis
• Pac-Man
• Pokemon Blue
• Revenge of the Gator

GBA

• Super Dodge Ball Advance

[Kguillemette | 1,544]

Crash Nitro Kart is done. Solid little Kart racer. I won't give it the honor of being a true rival to the great Mario Kart, but it controls nicely and I like the way boosts can be chained to carry over the entire track. It emphasizes practice on each course to find the optimal route, though chaining boosts is the only way to win against the AI on some of the later tracks. And while graphics aren't everything, it looks barely better than a PS1 game, so some courses are hard to read just due to the heavy polygon graphics that don't really mesh with a cartoony style. That being said, I had a lot of fun with it and it had a nice little adventure mode. I'll probably keep an eye out for switch version if I find it for cheap enough. If you are a fan of Kart racers, (and honestly, who here isn't?) there is a lot to like here. I recommend this one, especially being one of the few big IP gamecube titles remaining for less than $10.

[Renmauzo | 1,201]

I just beat my first Legend of Zelda game, The Minish Cap a few moments ago! I've been absolutely riveted by this game; with its gorgeous music and sprite animation, fun puzzles, and smooth mechanics (interesting tools too), the game is a masterpiece.

I'm happy to knock another game off the list, but sad to see this one done.

[Floating Platforms | 720]

I finished my first non-Game Boy game of the year a little over a week ago and forgot to post it.

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair is done and the platinum trophy for the 1 & 2 dual disc is also mine. 

Looks like that is my 35th platinum overall. If I beat the ones on my list as planned, I should get close to 40 this year.

[Kguillemette | 1,544]

7 hours ago, Renmauzo said:

I just beat my first Legend of Zelda game, The Minish Cap a few moments ago! I've been absolutely riveted by this game; with its gorgeous music and sprite animation, fun puzzles, and smooth mechanics (interesting tools too), the game is a masterpiece.

I'm happy to knock another game off the list, but sad to see this one done.

Congrats on your first Zelda game! I personally love Minish Cap, it's one of my favorites. Hopefully you get around to Link from the Past at some point. 

[Renmauzo | 1,201]

2 hours ago, Kguillemette said:

Congrats on your first Zelda game! I personally love Minish Cap, it's one of my favorites. Hopefully you get around to Link from the Past at some point. 

Thanks! I've played a lot of LttP, but never beat it personally. When I was a kid, my friend got the game and we played together, taking turns playing and 'advising'. I watched him beat Ganon, but I've never personally beaten the game...yet

[Reed Rothchild | 9,544]

Nearing the 80 hour mark in Xenoblade 2 (45 of those were from the last couple years).  I feel like some of the late-game buffs given to Rex and Pyra really make you feel like a bad ass, and I kind of want to go back and spend 20-30 hours scouring the world of the mini bosses that got the best of me.

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

2 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Nearing the 80 hour mark in Xenoblade 2 (45 of those were from the last couple years).  I feel like some of the late-game buffs given to Rex and Pyra really make you feel like a bad ass, and I kind of want to go back and spend 20-30 hours scouring the world of the mini bosses that got the best of me.

The Xenoblade games are on my list from last year, but they're sounding more and more daunting every time you update. I'm glad I'm going after FF and LoZ games instead.

[Renmauzo | 1,201]

In 2003, I bought Mega Man & Bass on the GBA not realizing it had come out on the SFC originally. I was able to make it to King stage 2 back then, and after some wrecked hands, I put it down in frustration. Wanting to mitigate the screen cropping issues plaguing the GBA release and thinking this was why I was struggling (lol), I picked up an original copy on SFC about 2 years ago but was summarily defeated again.

Well, the journey that began almost 19 years ago finally came to a close tonight. I sat down after work, put the game into the Super NT, and ground it out for the last 6 hours. King stage 2 is borderline ridiculous until the muscle memory sets in, so I was glad to see Wily was a joke to beat in this game for at least somewhat of a break.

Ha, take that you old bastard!

[Reed Rothchild | 9,544]

7 hours ago, DoctorEncore said:

The Xenoblade games are on my list from last year, but they're sounding more and more daunting every time you update. I'm glad I'm going after FF and LoZ games instead.

I'm picturing you fighting a mob for 15 minutes, getting tail whipped over an edge and plummetting to your death, and retiring the game 

[twiztor | 851]

1 hour ago, Renmauzo said:

In 2003, I bought Mega Man & Bass on the GBA not realizing it had come out on the SFC originally.

nice work! i have this on my backlog for this year (GBA version) so good to see someone else already cross it off the list. 

how would you compare the 2 versions?

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

2 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

I'm picturing you fighting a mob for 15 minutes, getting tail whipped over an edge and plummetting to your death, and retiring the game 

In my defense, it is extraordinarily rare for me to give up on a game. We're talking maybe one out of a hundred or so. The last one I abandoned was Battle Chasers: Nightwar because the performance was abysmal on the Switch and the endgame got super boring. I even went back and finished Hollow Knight two years after I first bounced off it. Hopefully I can actually finish my Now Playing list soon so I'm truly focused on backlog stuff.

Edited February 5, 2022 by DoctorEncore

[Reed Rothchild | 9,544]

What I meant is, most people probably don't finish this game.  It requires a lot of patience and putting up with falling to your death 

[Gloves | 11,790]

52 minutes ago, DoctorEncore said:

In my defense, it is extraordinarily rare for me to give up on a game. We're talking maybe one out of a hundred or so. The last one I abandoned was Battle Chasers: Nightwar because the performance was abysmal on the Switch and the endgame got super boring. I even went back and finished Hollow Knight two years after I first bounced off it. Hopefully I can actually finish my Now Playing list soon so I'm truly focused on backlog stuff.

Same happened to me with Battle Chasers on the Switch. Still haven't found a new RPG that scratches the itch I was hoping it would. 

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

7 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

What I meant is, most people probably don't finish this game.  It requires a lot of patience and putting up with falling to your death 

Well now that you've laid down there gauntlet, I have to finish it to save face.

6 hours ago, Gloves said:

Same happened to me with Battle Chasers on the Switch. Still haven't found a new RPG that scratches the itch I was hoping it would. 

It's actually a pretty cool game, but it just kept getting less and less fun as it got towards the end. If I remember correctly, it was almost required that you stick with a few party members rather than experiment with different combos which bugged me.

[Renmauzo | 1,201]

9 hours ago, twiztor said:

nice work! i have this on my backlog for this year (GBA version) so good to see someone else already cross it off the list. 

how would you compare the 2 versions?

Nice! The only discernible difference that I can see has to do with cropping due to the transition to a handheld. There seem to be a lot more 'leap of faith' moments in the GBA version because of this, particularly in Pirate Man's stage. I can't speak to King's stage 2 or Wily Stage 3 though, as I'd never made it past the first section in Ks2.

Being able to use an SNES controller is also a huge advantage. Even with it, I still came away with cramped hands (still a little sore this morning), but I remember having to break frequently on the GBA/GBA SP, losing any momentum I'd built up in the process.

Just some thoughts from an old man, lol. Good luck on the conquest, @twiztor!