Community/Tags – Page 2 – Gaming Omnivore

Dynamite Headdy – Sega Genesis

My copy of the game I’ve had since getting it from a Kay-Bee Toys as a kid

One of the questions in last month’s #LoveYourBacklog prompt asked which game has spent the most time in your backlog. It would be either of two Sega Genesis games – X-Men or Dynamite Headdy. I have never managed to beat either game, X-Men is very unlikely to finish anytime soon, so I will be dusting off my copy of Dynamite Headdy and attempting to beat the game after roughly 25 years. I remember the game being a moderately difficult action-platformer, it’s made by Treasure after all, so I’m curious to see how it goes after all this time. The premise is interesting – a limbless, neck-less puppet named Headdy defeat King Dark Demon and save the world by attacking enemies and items by firing his disconnected head at them. I played the game quite a bit as a kid but could never get past the fifth(or so) level, right around a level titled Stair Wars. I’m determined to get to the end of the game this time around…

Crash Bandicoot – PlayStation

Had this copy for close to twenty years now without ever completing the game…

Platformers have always been my go-to video game genre ever since playing the Super Mario Bros. games on the NES as a young kid. Over the years there have been a number of company “mascots” starring in their own platforming adventures striving for some comparable level of success as Mario – Sonic the Hedgehog, Bubsy, Spyro the Dragon. One of the more successful characters of the early-3D platformers of the mid-90’s was Naughty Dog’s Crash Bandicoot who first appeared on the Sony PlayStation back in 1995. I never played the Crash Bandicoot games as much as say, Mario games due to opting for a Nintendo 64 over the PlayStation, but I really enjoyed the games when I finally came back to catch up on some of the PS1 games that I had missed. The Crash trilogy of games on the PS1 have a reputation of being challenging platformers and having just recently spent some more time playing the first game, it’s definitely warranted. Many of the levels require great precision as you often find yourself running to or away from the camera, along with traditional side-scrolling levels. I’ve never made it more than about halfway through the first Crash game, but I’m roughly 3/4 through it at this point and feel reasonably confident I can see the end credits on this one.

The Legend of Zelda – NES*

*Don’t currently have a NES, so I’ll be playing this on my NES Classic…

Despite having known of the Legend of Zelda games since I was a young kid – I can still remember playing the first two games on the NES at a cousin’s house when I was about 4 or so, I have finished relatively few of the games in the series. I had always enjoyed the games well enough, but it wasn’t until I got my own copy of Ocarina of Time on the N64 and played that I finally felt like I “got” what others loved so much about them. Zelda 1 and 2 had always been a little intimidating as most of my experience playing them had always been frustrating due to the difficulty and the fact they seemed very, very cryptic about what to do and where to go versus the linear, left-to-right on screen path playing Mario games. I’ve come back to play the first Zelda game a few different times over the years, but have never stuck with it long enough to make my way through Death Mountain and defeat Ganon. It’s time to change that, wish me luck…

In a blog post from a few weeks ago, I mentioned some Nintendo franchises celebrating milestone anniversaries this year and a game from each respective series that I’d like to complete before the year is out. Should I manage to finish the above mentioned games, there’s still plenty games like Metroid: Other M or Donkey Kong for the Game Boy that I could get started on – Nintendo doesn’t seem interested in acknowledging these series’ anniversaries, but I’m still gonna play them. I had also listed Skyward Sword as one of the games I aim to finally play through, but the upcoming HD port coming out in July means I just may wait until then so I can just play the game from the convenience of my Switch rather than the Wii. There’s also the hope that some elements of the game may be a little more streamlined with the new version of the game, similar to the HD remasters of Majora’s Mask or Wind Waker.

Is there a game you’ve had forever and haven’t gotten around to finishing? If so, what game? Let me know in the comments. Thanks for reading!

Quite often, gamers will reference their backlog of games as some sort of fantastical beast which must be vanquished and a source of shame if left unconquered. Blog/stream friends Kim from Later Levels and Solarayo from Ace Asunder, have created a monthly challenge dubbed #LoveYourBacklog in which you embrace your love of gaming rather than feel guilty about a backlog of unplayed games. Having a back catalogue of titles from which to pull a different game for every day of the week isn’t necessarily something to be embarrassed about, but rather evidence of the joy and enthusiasm video games can bring. I rarely ever hear others expressing any kind of guilt for having large film or music libraries, instead they are usually viewed as a reflection of their love for the medium. Your backlog of video games shouldn’t be any different.

In preparation for this year’s #LoveYourBacklog month, I managed to make a quick inventory of all the games in my collection, with a few exceptions(duplicates, mini-consoles, etc.). My final count was 792 different games – give or take a few, with that number being roughly split 50/50 between physical and digital versions of games. I have long wanted to attempt the task of compiling every game down on a spreadsheet or something similar, as I could then go into further detail regarding things like which games I’ve played, completed, or have yet to play. I may even work that into one of my #MaybeInMarch goals alongside completing a couple other games from the ‘ol backlog.

In addition to challenging those of us to embrace their piles(hard drives?) of games, Kim has also prepared a few questions/prompts to go along with discussing one’s gaming backlog, starting with….

The effect that the 2020 apocalypse had on your backlog

I don’t think any of the calamitous world events of 2020 had all that much of an impact on my backlog of games, actually. If I were to put blame on anything, I would say it was getting an Xbox One X and subsequently signing up for Game Pass Ultimate; along with finally building a gaming pc, giving access to Steam in its entirety that resulted in an avalanche of games new and old(ish) getting added to my already sizable backlog. Deciding what to play next has typically been less of a deliberate decision and more of whatever I happen to feel like playing at any given time, which is not a bad problem to have by any means, but that doesn’t always make it easy to FINISH games…

The oldest game in terms of release date

The combination of vigorous scrubbing and rubbing alcohol was ultimately defeated by permanent marker on the cartridge…

Rad Racer – The oldest game in my collection would have to be a copy of Rad Racer for the NES I got last summer. The game was originally released on August 7, 1987 – three weeks before Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest was released(the next-oldest game I own). I remember playing Rad Racer as a young kid and thinking how cool it was when the upcoming horizon would get dark, only for the far-off lights of the city to eventually illuminate the view from the lonesome highway. There’s also the area later in the game where you were driving through(around?) the Grand Canyon and would see the rocky cliffs ahead of you. I’d love to play this, along with quite a few other old NES games, but I don’t currently have a NES in order to play them. This is typically where I make impulse purchases like this and attempt to justify it to myself as something I can write about or potentially play on Twitch…

A game you bought on day one, only to not play it

I honestly don’t think I have a game for this one as if I was awaiting a game release eagerly enough to buy it day one, it’s pretty much guaranteed I at least played it within the next few days. There’s a few games that I’ve bought right around the time they were released and played for an hour or two, only to start playing(or resume) something else and never quite made it back. The most recent example of this would likely be Cyberpunk 2077, which I’ve only played for a few hours – not even reaching the title screen before setting it aside to finish up other games I was currently working on. I will resume Cyberpunk in the near future….no pun intended?

The game which has spent the most time on your backlog

Dynamite Headdy – There’s a couple games that could possibly be the one that has spent the longest time in my backlog without ever being completed, I’m certain it would be a game I got for my Sega Genesis as a kid and still happen to have in my possession. I could also mention the X-Men game for the Genesis(one of several, actually) for this question, which…..I’m not likely to finish anytime soon as there’s some notoriously difficult(i.e. cheap) enemies and boss fights. So, like last year’s #LoveYourBacklog post I’ll once again name Dynamite Headdy – one of the Genesis games that I’ve owned for many, many years and was never able to beat as a kid. I remember renting this game once or twice before I believe I got it from a Kay-Bee Toys from the big table of assorted Genesis games they had out on the main floor near the registers. The game itself is pretty cool – a neck-less, armless puppet who attacks enemies by firing its disembodied head at them. I remember liking the game quite a bit, but never finished it, likely due to it being fairly challenging, the same as any other game made by Treasure. Perhaps I’ll take another shot at finishing the game and write about it for the upcoming #MaybeInMarch tag…

The most recent addition to your library

Army Men RTS – I was sitting working a couple weeks ago and had the utterly random thought – “remember the Army Men games?”. I looked at all the games currently available on Steam and added a couple to my wishlist. It was only a couple days ago(Friday, I think?) that I was sent an email that Army Men RTS was currently available for only $1.74….what the hell, it has to be worth at least two bucks, right? The fact the game was developed by Pandemic Studios before they went on to make the original Star Wars: Battlefront games has me intrigued and I plan on playing through the game and writing up my impressions of it afterwards. As you can see, I don’t usually put in much thought before throwing yet another game on top of the pile…

The person responsible for adding the most entries to your backlog, due to their good recommendations

Umm….I could just take the easy road and point to the internet in general as being responsible for exposing me to far, far more games than I would have known about otherwise. We’ve come a long way since getting any gaming-related news and announcements exclusively through gaming magazines(showing age here). AAA games are very easy to keep track of as the average gamer remotely interested in upcoming games is aware of game releases due to the enormous marketing budgets afforded by the publishers. One area of gaming in particular that I appreciate is the abundance of quality indie games that don’t usually get the attention or exposure they deserve; this includes bloggers in our community that have introduced me to a number of interesting indie games….whether I’ve gotten around to playing them at this time or not. Just a few fellow gaming bloggers here on WordPress I hold “responsible” for this are – MagiWasTaken from Indiecator, Frostilyte from Frostilyte Writes, Kim from Later Levels, and McKenna from McKenna Talks About Games.

Let’s talk about video games. What’s a game that has been in your backlog for years and would like to get around to playing? What platform/system do you have the most games for? Let me know in the comments…

Thanks for reading!

Category: Community/Tags

#MaybeInMarch – Fighting Back(log)