Tag: Dynamite Headdy

#MaybeInMarch – Fighting Back(log)

Last month, Kim from Later Levels and Solarayo from Ace Asunder challenged us to embrace your backlog of games and share your love for all things video games. One of the questions posed within was asking which game has spent the longest in your backlog with encouragement to dust off that old copy of <insert game> sitting on your shelf or in your Steam library and give it a go during the month for the #MaybeInMarch tag. For the month of March I intend to focus on some of the games that, despite having played anything from a few minutes to multiple hours, I have never been able to complete. Most of the oldest games in my backlog aren’t necessarily lengthy, so I’ve picked three games that I’ve never beat, but plan on devoting some time to playing.

My three #MaybeInMarch selections…

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!

Love Your Backlog Week – 2020

Today’s post is my meager contribution to the 2020 edition of Love Your Backlog Week. Kim at Later Levels has done a great job in promoting a week of sharing your love of gaming and showing that having a backlog full of video games isn’t something that one should be ashamed of. Far too often, the thought of buying a game we are interested in is rationalized away by self-shaming as we tell ourselves, similarly to our parents growing up, “You don’t need a new game, you haven’t even finished the last one you bought!”. As with lovers of music and film, it’s easy to become overwhelmed with the astounding range of choices and financial considerations aside, there’s nothing wrong with having a backlog full of games. In the past, I struggled with a sort of anxiety in knowing that I have all these games that I have hanging over my head that I need to finish, if nothing else, to justify purchasing them in the first place. As I’ve gotten older leveled up, I realize that there will ALWAYS be games that I haven’t played and realistically won’t be able to relentlessly devour games, as much as I’d like to anyways. I shouldn’t feel some sort of disappointment in not finishing a game, as if I’d get some sort of existential crisis in thinking I’ve accomplished nothing in life.

My backlog of games wasn’t actually as massive as I was initially thinking. I took a quick(well, kinda) inventory of games that I have never finished or have yet to begin. A decent amount of my backlog are RPGs, which typically range upwards of 40+ hours. It was about this point last year that I had just finished up Assassin’s Creed: Origins and was deciding between three different games: Final Fantasy XV, The Witcher 3, and Personal 5. So, not surprisingly, I started playing Persona 5 and after about 14 hours in felt like playing The Witcher 3. I then played The Witcher 3 for about 4 hours and haven’t gotten much farther on any of them since. I thoroughly enjoy playing RPGs, but due to a hamster-like attention span get intimidated by something like Persona 5, which takes an average of 90+ hours to complete. I’m currently chipping away at Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, which due to its epic scale and enormous list of things to do and places to explore, may take me a considerable amount of time.

Where was I ? that’s right…my final backlog count shows 274 games either unfinished or not started.

A game you’re eager to play, but have yet to start

There’s a few of them, I’ve been wrapping up some of my PS4 games I bought back on Black Friday. I’m interested to try out Days Gone; I always enjoy zombie games, as well as open-world games so I’m reasonably confident I’ll enjoy the game. I’ve heard others describe it as essentially “an Ubisoft open-world game, but with zombies”.

Speaking of open-world Ubisoft games, I also intend to set sail in Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag after I complete my journey through Ancient Greece in AC: Odyssey.

A game you’ve started several times, but haven’t finished

The first game that comes to mind is Final Fantasy VII. I think my first attempt at beating the game was 2000-01 and I got past the beginning level with Cloud and Barrett but got stuck shortly after meeting Aerith. This combined with the annoyance of random enemy encounters made it difficult to progress further at a younger age. I remember some of the hype around its release in 1997, but was never able to complete it. In my New Year’s Resolutions post a month ago, I shared how I had downloaded FFVII on my Switch and had begun yet another attempt to FINALLY see this through. As I stated above, my backlog of games isn’t as intimidating in number, but rather the number of hours required to complete all of the RPGs contained within.

The most recent addition to your library

I believe that would be the HD Remaster of Final Fantasy X/X-2, another game that I’ve started a couple times and never finished. Unless pre-orders count, then it would be DOOM: Eternal…my god, the game looks glorious!

The game that’s spent the longest time in your backlog

This would have to be Dynamite Headdy, an old Sega Genesis game I’ve had since I was a kid. I’ve played the game countless times, but could never beat it. Anyone familiar with any of Treasure’s other games knows exactly the level of challenge typically found in their games(Sin and Punishment, Gunstar Heroes, Ikaruga). Another would have to be X-Men, also for the Sega Genesis. I was somehow able to get to the final level as a kid, but was never able to beat this frustrating game.

The person most responsible for adding entries to your backlog

Ultimately, I can’t “blame” anyone other than myself for adding more games to the backlog pile. I learn of all sorts of new and interesting games between gaming publications online, as well as platforms like Youtube and Twitch for games that I may have heard of, but knew little about. Another place I’ll hold responsible for my game hoarding would be right here on WordPress, where I get to read some really wonderful reviews on upcoming games or simply read someone’s unique approach to a game. As with movies and music, my interests can be varied enough that it almost reaches the point of overwhelming when I have so many different things that I love, but a finite number of time to enjoy it.

#MaybeinMarch

My backlog challenge for #MaybeinMarch will be, along with making my way through Final Fantasy VII, I want to blast my way through DOOM 64 – which I picked up this past summer but have only played a couple levels. In addition to these games, I am going to finally play through Chrono Trigger. I wrote a list of some games that I regrettably had never played and Chrono Trigger was at the top of the list. I purchased a copy of the Nintendo DS version and plan to document my first time through the game to coincide with the 25th anniversary of its release on March 11, a perfect time to play through what is considered one of the greatest games of all-time. Complete Final Fantasy VII, DOOM 64, and begin Chrono Trigger for #MaybeinMarch – sounds simple enough right? Thanks for reading!