It's Time to Play 500 Games

I, as I'm sure a lot of people have, have built up quite a backlog of games over the last decade or so. New games are releasing all the time, going on sale all the time, being given away all the time, and put on new subscription services all the time. I myself have racked up over 500 games in my backlog according to my own cataloging of games I've accumulated over the years. I figured it's about time to get serious about playing some of these games, so as an extra incentive to actually do that, I made myself a spreadsheet of every game in my backlog with rough playtime estimates from How Long To Beat.

My intention with this blog is to report on some of the progress I've made from time to time. How many games I have left, what I've finished, and maybe a quick little thought on the game with an "out-of-5" rating. There's some weirdness to the list, as about 70 or so of these games are PS+ giveaways that I no longer have access to because I don't have PS+ right now. Maybe I'll resubscribe at some point, so I've decided to just leave them on the list for now. I've already made some progress, knocking the total down to 491, so I'll go over some of the games I finished to get there.

Games Left

500+ 491

What I Played

Tiny Echo - 3/5 - A cute little adventure game. Somewhat abstract in what exactly is going on, but you're helping a cute little mail carry deliver messages in order to help restore a world above an underground civilization. I'm always down for a mail delivery video game.

140 - 3/5 - A rhythm-based platformer that gets pretty tough near the end. Or I just have no sense of rhythm. Hard to tell.

Thoth - 4/5 - A pretty minimalist twin stick shooter. Level based. You're a circle shooting other shapes that chase you. Maybe my favorite on this list. I'm also always down for a twin stick shooter.

Sonic CD - 2/5 - I consider myself a "Sonic guy". The Genesis was my first console. I have nostalgia for the 2D Sonic games, but I also realize those games have their problems. I think those games are at their best when you're just holding right and getting into a flow of just going fast, killing an enemy every now and then, and avoiding pits and obstacles in the way. I think they're at their worst when you have to stop for any reason. I constantly found myself stopping trying to figure out what way I had to go or was being bounced the wrong. Worst of all, I think the music is boring.

Hard Drivin' - 3/5 - And as a Genesis kid who is approaching 30 years old, naturally I have recently acquired a Genesis in an attempt to rebuild my childhood gaming library. Hard Drivin' being of them that I never finished as a kid, never really knowing what the point of the game was other than trying to crash into the cow or fall off the loopty loop. Turns out there's not much to it as far as racing games go. There's only one track, but once you beat it, you do get to race against your ghost if you decide to play again, which I found pretty interesting to be in a game that old.

Rez Infinite - 4/5 - I don't know that I have much to say for Rez that hasn't already been said. It's cool weird cyber psychedelic nonsense at its finest.

Wheels of Aurelia - 3/5 - I think this one is an interesting game but doesn't necessarily come together in the end. It a narrative driving game focused on making dialogue choices as you drive. And to be fair I think this is a problem with all narrative choice games. Then endings don't always stick or just seem off or the pacing of it is weird as opposed to a game that only has to worry about getting to a singular point. It's got cool theme though. People all trying to get out of 70s fascist Italy for one reason or another.

Twinkle Star Sprites - 3/5 - This one's a pretty cool vertical shmup. It's a competitive shmup where you throw junk at the opponent à la Puyo Puyo, which is the first time I've seen that. Pretty horribly translated story mode dialogue too if you're into that.

Subsurface Circular - 4/5 - Cool sci-fi adventure game about a robot detective. It's hard to get into without too much spoiler-y stuff, but it's a cool take on issues facing a society of humans that now have to coexist with robots,

Manuel Samuel - 2/5 - Probably my least favorite game on the list. It's designed to be annoying as you are tasked with QWOPing your way through everyday life, but the final boss really soured me on the whole concept, frustrating me beyond anything in the rest of the game, which I thought was mostly fine until that point. Also, their idea for the character of Death is basically Uncle Death from Let It Die, but if he was a Jamie Kennedy character, which is... a choice. And the whole game says the word "feces" way too much. It's weird.

The Stanley Parable - I don't know how to rate this one. Soooo... I don't like this game. I don't like the whole "cheeky", 4th-wall breaking, "the video game is screwing with you" genre. It's just not my thing, and this one is no different. I got a handful of endings, but not all of them, which is why I hesitate to give it a score. But I've played all that I want to play of it, so I'll be marking it off the list all the same.

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Next on Logging the Backlog...

The "Fuser is Being Pulled From Sale" Special

Ranking the Log

Ranking the Log