Just like in 2016, I kept a log of all the games I played during the calendar year of 2017. Unless otherwise noted, I played these games via the Steam platform. My Steam stats are here. I make it a goal to keep the number of unplayed games on those stats to a minimum. In order to do that, SteamDB requires that a game be played for at least 5 minutes. Even that can be a chore sometimes.

This is the year I finally started playing some games for MobyGames screenshot recon, something I have been negligent to do for many years.

Last year, I was extremely enthusiastic about tower defense games. This year, I was a bit more interested in retro-themed platformers. By the end of the year, I started to drift back into TD.

1. RAM BOE: Block-moving puzzle game which should be right in my wheelhouse. However, I found it very tough to control with a controller.
2. Life of Pixel: Platformer that presents a very interesting graphical experiment that simulates the graphics of various retro system.
3. Ball of Wonder: I can’t stop wasting time with this Breakout/Arkanoid clone. The levels are tough, but I suppose that’s hardly the point.
4. Titan Attacks: This was the first game I got to play after taking a long break. I earned most of the rest of the reasonable achievements on this Space Invaders clone.
5. Papers, Please: I bought this paperwork simulator during some Steam sale, but I held off on playing it for awhile. I had a weird feeling it would grab me, and I was right. This is every bit as fun and addictive as they say!
6. Defense Grid: The Awakening: This tower defense game is, far and away, my most played game according to Steam. It’s what I drift to when I don’t feel like doing or playing anything else.
7. Dungeon Warfare: Another of my very favorite TD games. I eventually finished all the main missions and scored most of of the achievements.
8. Refunct: Sort of a simple 1st person puzzle platformer; I got 33% of the way through on my first playthrough, then I got stuck.
9. Saints Row: Gat Out Of Hell: This was on sale for pretty cheap. But that’s also because it was sort of an expansion based on an existing engine. Played 2 hours of this when I first started it up. I think I could grow to really enjoy this open world game.
10. Airscape: The Fall Of Gravity: Played for 2 minutes. I didn’t really understand the gameplay and it started to make me ill with its incessant spinning. I later revisited out of a commitment to minimize my “unplayed” games on SteamDB (which apparently requires that you play at least 5 minutes). I started to get into it and even got to the point in the tutorial where it teaches you to adjust the spinning speed. I still got dizzy. I’m starting to come around on the concept, though.
11. Tropico: I think I have most of these games but I haven’t tried any of them. When I tried the start of the series, it didn’t work right with my widescreen monitor. Instead, I hauled out my 4:3 monitor that I keep for older games. This fixed the problem. Alas, I got bored by the tutorial. I may revisit this by just jumping into the main game and seeing what happens, then looking for a manual to fill in the gaps. That has traditionally been a useful approach when trying simulation games.
12. 7 Wonders of the Ancient World: Whenever I boot into WinXP and fail to play other games, it’s common for me to drift into playing this for hours on end. After Golem failed to run, this was my consolation prize.
13. StarCraft: I procured a copy of this awhile ago and wanted to try the roots of StarCraft II for myself. When I got to play this, rumors were swirling that Blizzard would release a remastered version. I had this weird feeling that I should get the original experience before the remastered version comes out. As soon as I played it, I read that in addition to releasing the remastered version, Blizzard would also make the original SC v1.18 free for download. That’s when I realized I was only on v1.05. I wonder if 1.18 fixes assorted UI issues that I experienced with this version?
14. 8-Bit Bayonetta: An impossibly trivial game that still somehow clocks in at a few hundred megabytes. I guess it was a promotional game released on Steam when Bayonetta came to the platform. It no longer seems to be available
15. Goblins & Coins: A simple platformer with primitive graphics that kept me entertained for a little while.
16. You Have To Win The Game: Love the CGA aesthetic of this retro-style platformer. I made it 28% through the game on my first playthrough before it got too brutally difficult for me.
17. Dungelot: Shattered Lands: I loved the Dungelot rogue-like on the Android platform. When this title came up for cheap on the Steam platform, it was a no-brainer. I’m a bit ashamed to admit that I couldn’t figure out how to get past the introductory level. Another item off the “play every game in my Steam library” effort.
18. Chip’s Challenge 2: It was a big deal to old-school Windows 3.1 gamers when the original Chip’s Challenge showed up on Steam, along with its sequel that was in contract limbo forever. Though I haven’t made it through the first game, I put in some time on this game in order to clear it from my unplayed list.
19. Bloodrayne: Betrayal: I’ve been holding onto this side-scrolling action game for awhile. I had logged 2 minutes on it at one point and had always meant to give it another try. The “Steam Clear” effort seems like a good reason to do that. I quite like this little game even though it doesn’t seem well reviewed on Steam.
20. Shadowgate: MacVenture Series: I got this as a bonus for supporting the new Shadowgate game on Kickstarter. It contains the original Shadowgate games for the Apple Mac (high resolution, black and white) and Apple IIgs (lower resolution, but in color). I like the original Shadowgate, but I’m most sentimental for the 8-bit NES version. I can’t seem to get into either of these versions which notably lack the soundtrack featured in the NES version.
21. Moustache Mountain: This was on sale for a dollar and I’m really enjoying picking up these pixel art platformers. It gave me a few minutes of entertainment, which I guess is enough for the dollar I put into it.
22. Fiery Disaster: Simple tower defense game on sale for a dollar. I put a few minutes into it but it didn’t grab me.
23. WarCraft: Orcs and Humans: I wanted to go back to the roots of the series. It’s… primitive. I painstakingly got through the first few campaign missions. But I still want to give it another try. I picked up the audiobook version of the novelization of the big-budget WarCraft movie. This motivated me to watch the movie. This, in turn, motivated me to track down the original game to see how well the story actually matched up, since I heard that the movie is supposed to tell the origin to the series. To be clear, the WarCraft movie greatly expanded on the lore presented in the opening of the first game.
24. Fuzion Frenzy (Xbox): This marked the point when I made an effort to play games to capture screenshots for MobyGames, mostly of the Xbox and Dreamcast varieties. This casual party game was quite a slog– 45 minigames to screen cap and catalog.
25. World Soccer: Winning Eleven 8 International (Xbox): I couldn’t wrap my head around this one. I just got enough footage for a few screenshots.
26. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2x (Xbox): I’m not great with stunt games. Just did the basic screenshots recon for this one.
27. NHL 2K6 (Xbox): Did my best to collect MobyGames screenshots by cycling through the party games.
28. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (Xbox): Here we go! This one grabbed me pretty quickly. I like the God of War games and this strikes me as a PG-13-rated game of the same genre. Plus, I collected some screenshots.
29. Deep Fighter (Dreamcast): Underwater adventure. I couldn’t figure out much about it, except for the fact that putting your 1st person perspective game underwater is a great excuse to have a poor draw distance. Screenshots successfully collected, though.
30. Monaco Grand Prix (Dreamcast): Racing game that probably has realistic car elements to it, but I just treated it as an arcade racer. The intro cinematic seems to be setting up some kind of horror or psychological thriller, depicting a driver at the starting line flashing back to growing up while playing with toy cars.
31. Sturmwind (Dreamcast): Awesome homebrew/indie game for the Dreamcast. I played it a little when I first got it years ago and I’m happy to get another chance to enjoy it in order to capture screenshots.
32. Namco Museum (Dreamcast): This was a pretty rote slog to collect representative screenshots for all the vintage arcade games on offer (Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Dig Dug, Pole Position, Galaga, and Galaxian). The most novel thing I found on this playthrough was the settings screens which simulated DIP switch settings in the original arcade cabinets.
33. Star Wars Demolition (Dreamcast): I didn’t quite get the hang of this during my screenshot recon, but it was still enjoyable playing through all the possible settings and checking out all the set pieces on offer (like the super laser on the Death Star arena).
34. NFL 2K2 (Dreamcast): No idea, just a bit of screenshot recon.
35. NHL 2K (Dreamcast): Really no idea. I don’t seem to have any control over the action. But I got a few screenshots anyway.
36. Party Hard: Right about the time I played this, the new Friday the 13th game was getting all the press. This serial killer puzzler grabbed me immediately, though, quickly rising to my Steam top 10 by hours played. I completed the game and earned most of the achievements.
37. Bleed: Promising pixel art action game, but it proved too tough for me on normal difficulty. I just can’t get used to the control scheme.
38. Terraria: This is a game I keep trying to get into but it still hasn’t clicked for me. I wonder if I’ll ever understand the appeal?
39. Dungelot (Android): Got caught up in this on my phone when I didn’t feel like doing anything else. I can’t believe how I can waste 3 hours on one round of this dungeon crawler.
40. Dungelot 2 (Android): I got a severe case of “They changed it, now it sucks.” I really got sucked into the original mobile Dungelot but this sequel doesn’t do anything for me. The goofy art style and general light-hearted attitude of the game is gone, replaced by something with a much harder edge.
41. Defense Grid 2: Even though I’ve 100%’d this TD game I still waste a bit of time with it.
42. Ultra Street Fighter IV: I built myself a new Windows 10 PC and this is the first game I tried. I wasn’t disappointed.
43. Shantae: Half-Genie Hero: I backed the Kickstarter on this one, on the strength of Wayforward’s previous outings. This is a very enjoyable modern platformer.
44. StarCraft II: At last, I once again have a PC capable of playing this.
45. Alien Breed: Impact: The first of 3 Alien Breed games that I bought in a bundle recently from Steam. This one is built on Unreal Engine 3 and created by Team 17, the folks responsible for the Worms franchise. Alas, this didn’t make much impact on me.
46. Mushroom Wars: Tower defense continues to be the genre that always grabs me and won’t let go. I appreciate this slightly nuanced take on the genre. Come to think of it, it’s more of a simplified RTS vs. a raw tower defense game since the goal is to both defend and attack.
47. Fist Puncher: Retro-style beat-em-up Adult Swim game. I gave it a few minutes but it didn’t really do anything for me. I might be tiring of the retro pixel art style games.
48. Zenge (Android): From the Humble Bundle Android Puzzle Pack; appropriate trivial.
49. Hook (Android): From the Humble Bundle Android Puzzle Pack; really enjoying this logic puzzler.
50. Klocki (Android): From the Humble Bundle Android Puzzle Pack; also a fun puzzler.
51. Mighty No. 9: I watched a lot of controversy swirl around this high-profile Kickstarter title. I realized at the time of its release that the controversies surrounding Kickstarted games had shifted from games that were never finished, to games that were finished but didn’t quite live up to the lofty expectations of the fans. When I would watch gameplay videos of this title, I didn’t see why people objected so much. When it went on sale for cheap enough, I snatched it up… and I like it just fine.
52. Deus Ex GO (Android): From the Humble Bundle Android Puzzle Pack. I like Lara Croft GO but I can’t figure out how to get very far in this game.
53. Lara Croft GO: Fun game to take in while doing something else since it’s just a puzzle game that doesn’t require a lot of concentration. It was nice to return to it after I couldn’t figure out Deus Ex Go.
54. Deja Vu: MacVenture Series: Clearing this off of my “Not Played Yet” Steam list. I gave it 5 minutes. I’m still sentimental for the NES version of these games, rather than the mouse-driven early PC versions. Plus, Deja Vu was least interesting to me out of the MacVenture trilogy.
55. War For The Overworld: I finally got around to trying this but I can’t figure out how to do anything in the game. I just can’t figure out the interface or how to control the most basic workers. At least I cleared it from my “Not Played Yet” list.
56. Contrast: A PS4 launch title that is now on Steam (and for sale, which is why I picked it up). Fun puzzler with a unique visual style and setting that I could get used to.
57. Infectonator: Survivors: A very interesting title. I’ve never played anything quite like it before and it hooked me pretty quickly. It’s hard to describe– roguelike real-time tactics team-based zombie survival game done in a 16-bit graphical style. While it grabbed me right away, I wriggled out of its grasp almost as quickly as the frustrating gameplay got to be too much for me.
58. Girls Like Robots: Gave this one another spin. I couldn’t remember all the specific mechanics and trying to refresh my memory by running through the original levels bored me too much.
59. Hard Reset: I decided to give this one another chance since I have a fresh, up to date Windows 10 machine. I was able to get farther this time, probably because I started a campaign in easy mode, something I normally eschew.
60. Crowntakers: A unique-looking fantasy RPG game that was on sale, so I picked it up. Unfortunately, it totally bored me in the first 5 minutes and I couldn’t see any reason to invest more time.
61. Crookz: The Big Heist: I loved XCOM so I like to try other turn-based strategy games. I haven’t been able to find one that grabs me the same way that XCOM does. This is similar to how StarCraft II is the only RTS I have been able to get into.
62. Batman: The Telltale Series: Telltale games are reliably my cup of tea. Not a lot of mental overhead of trying to learn new gameplay. This game sets the tone immediately by opening with a bullet to the head of a security guard. And being a Telltale game, it starts off a bit heavy on the action quicktime sequences. But it’s still a good time.
63. Mega Man Legacy Collection: Played Mega Man 1 so far. Back in the day, I completed #1-4. Maybe I’ll eventually do all 6 thanks to this collection.
64. Alan Wake: Bought this when it went on clearance before disappearing from Steam (music licensing issues, apparently). I held off playing it until Halloween rolled around. I didn’t really get into it.
65. Cally’s Caves 3: This simple, retro-style platformer RPG grabbed me pretty quickly.
66. Ms. Pac-Man: Quest for the Golden Maze: Finally started doing screenshot recon for Windows games and this was my test case. Turned out to be harder than I expected– screenshot recon, not this upgraded Ms. Pac-Man variant. This game used some weird video modes which thwarted my capture software.
67. 8-Bit Invaders!: This could best be described as Lego/Minecraft rendition of StarCraft. And I guess that’s okay. It is actually starting to draw me in, something no other RTS has been able to do since I played StarCraft II.
68. Last Hope – Tower Defense: A disposable TD game that I picked up during the Halloween Steam sale. It’s reasonably enjoyable, even if the English dialog is a bit wonky. There’s something weird about it– there are upgrade trees that require “researching” and when I select a research option (and I have enough in-game currency), I see a brief glimpse of “1s” and then the research is complete. This leads me to believe that this was a mobile free-to-play game with IAP to advance the skill tree faster. This turns out to be precisely the correct assumption. Between this and Zombo Buster Rising, I’m going to need to ensure that any future Steam purchases did not begin life as IAP-enabled F2P mobile games.
69. Space Pirates and Zombies: I don’t quite recall how I came to own this game. I think maybe I got the Steam code for free somewhere. I had 6 minutes on record from years back. I decided to give it another whirl in order to properly clear it from my “Not Played Yet” category. It does seem like an interesting resource management game in space, but it hasn’t grabbed me.
70. Rock ‘N’ Roll Defense: It’s time for the Thanksgiving Steam sale and of course I scavenged to find a bunch of sub-$5 tower defense games. This seemed like a fairly primitive and simple TD game based on the screenshots. At $1, what did I have to lose? It hits all the right notes, no pun intended. It also features an intimidating number of Steam achievements (240), which fits into my plan. The heavy metal soundtrack can get a smidge repetitious. I 100%’d the game (all levels and achievements) in 5 hours of playtime.
71. Iron Sea Defenders: Another TD game yielded by the Steam Thanksgiving sale. This is an interesting contrast to the easiness of Rock ‘N’ Roll Defense. Just the first 2 levels actually challenge me to get all 3 stars.
72. Defend Your Life: TD: Another cheap TD game from the Steam Thanksgiving sale. This is making me start to wonder if the Unity engine has a standard template for crafting TD games since there is a certain same-iness to many TD games I try these days. This one had a unique flair, though, as the setting is your body and your goal is to ward off various diseases and infections.
73. The Disney Afternoon Collection: Fascinating bonus artifacts that don’t require unlocking. I played Duck Tales and Rescue Rangers so far. I’m disappointed by how bad I am at playing it since it was one of the easiest games I played back when I was an NES ninja (rented and won it in about 4 hours, and that was with having to figure out the controls by trial and error).
74. Unstoppable Gorg: Just when I wonder what else TD games can do to appeal to me, and what a game’s aesthetic can do differently than what I have seen before, this comes along. I love the cheesy retro sci-fi feel of this TD title (live action, poorly costumed video segments). I also love that it adds a new twist to the TD genre in the form of movable towers. I also love that I managed to play all 5 of my Thanksgiving Steam sale purchases by the end of Thanksgiving weekend.
75. Azkend 2: The World Beneath: I got a fair amount of enjoyment out of the original mobile version of Azkend. Apparently, it was made by a Finnish developer because this sequel was available on Steam during their Finnish sale. It’s all right, I suppose. But I don’t care much for simple casual puzzle games that try to have too much story or deep tutorializing. Plus, there’s a game mode that I simply don’t understand. I think it’s a hidden object minigame, but I’m not sure. Based on Steam activity, I might be the only person who has played this.
76. Mega Coin Squad: Adult Swim Games can be counted on to produce some enjoyable retro art style games. This game distills the essence of coin collecting from Super Mario Bros.-type platform games. I gave it a spin and quickly thought, “Okay, I got it. I got the concept. I can move on now.”
77. Invert – Tile Flipping Puzzles (Android): Part of a Humble Bundle of Android indie games. Great simple casual tile-flipping game.
78. Snowball (Android): Part of a Humble Bundle of Android indie games. It’s a snowball-themed pinball game that reminds me of Adventure Pinball: Forgotten Island.
79. Jets’n’Guns Gold: I know that I tried to play this once before on Linux, and it booted, but I couldn’t figure out how to make it do anything else. I wanted to clear this off of my “Not Played Yet” list so I tried it again under Windows. I got it to play, but I couldn’t figure out anything about it. I figured out how to move but not how to shoot, even after studying the controls. I have tried a lot of retro-themed games in the past year or 2, but this one really does feel like it comes from a bygone era. Doing a bit of research, I found that the series is a bit old, but not nearly as old as I expect– only 2004. I would have expected late 1990s at best. It’s challenging, but not in a retro-ironic sense.
80. Defense Technica: This was one of the earlier tower defense games that I tried and it did not impress me at the time. However, I decided to give it another whirl since I have experienced such a wide variance of quality in TD games (i.e., I have seen a lot worse that the genre has to offer). I’m actually getting a bit more out of this title than I did the first time around. It does still feel like a pale imitation of Defense Grid, but it has its strong points, notably a better controller configuration than DG.
81. Alien Breed 2: Assault: I tried the first in this series earlier in the year. It didn’t leave much impression. However, the game came in a trilogy bundle. So I decided to clear the second one from my “Not Played Yet” list. For a moment, I wondered if I would be confused by the story if I didn’t finish the first game. Turned out now to be an issue. Honestly, I couldn’t really tell the difference between this game and the first. And I invested about as much time into it. Also, I couldn’t get the sound to work.

What does the new year hold for me, gaming-wise? I still have hundreds of games that need MobyGames screenshot recon, so that’s a good place to start. As for the games in my Steam collection, I would like to try buying fewer games on Steam, clear the remainder from my “Not Played Yet” list, and try focusing more on one game at a time. There are numerous action games that I truly enjoyed during my initial playtime — including Mighty No. 9, Cally’s Caves 3, Life of Pixel, and Shantae — but I need to commit to playing through them. Coming back to them after months of inactivity does not fly since my muscle memory for the game has evaporated, as has my notion of what I am supposed to be achieving in the game.

I feel terribly embarrassed. I bought the wrong high-tech Christmas present for someone. Here’s how it happened:

2 years ago, I handed down my old Nintendo GameCube to some relatives and they have been enjoying it quite a lot. I got them Super Smash Bros. Melee as well as 4 GameCube controllers.

In the weeks before Christmas, these same relatives mentioned that they would enjoy having a Nintendo Wii along with Just Dance 3. Lo and behold, I happened to see exactly what they wanted in the store– a bundle that included the Wii and Just Dance 3, and it seemed fairly inexpensive (the whole bundle cost less than I had been seeing regular Wii consoles go for). Since they liked Melee, I also got them Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Since the Wii sports backward compatibility with the GameCube and has ports for 4 GC controllers, they’ll have all kinds of 4-player fun.

What Went Wrong?
All told, things went pretty well. They were surprised to see the Wii and associated games on Christmas morning and have been getting plenty of use out of them. However, when I visited a few days later to see how things were going, they reported that the Wii didn’t have ports for the old GameCube controllers.

Wait, what?

It turns out that what I purchased was not the original Wii but apparently a newer version called the Wii Family Edition. It looks like this:

It sacrifices GameCube backward compatibility, both in software as well as controller ports. It only has USB ports now.

Oh well, they can still enjoy the old GameCube and the new Wii separately. I was just disappointed that they won’t be able to play multiplayer Brawl until they get some more Wii controllers. Moreover, I felt terribly embarrassed that I am not up to date on current video game technology, particularly Nintendo’s offerings, after being a hardcore Nintendo nerd during my teenage years.

All in all, I can’t fault Nintendo for this move. This is a standard type of cost reduction method. The Wii is 5 years old now and has more than enough of its own software that it doesn’t need to draw from the pool of last generation games to expand on its offerings (it still has Virtual Console for the really old stuff, too). This also reminds me of the top-loading 8-bit NES (for which I paid US$99, used)– that had the interesting cost reduction measure of removing the composite A/V output meaning that you absolutely had to use RF to connect to a TV. Not great, but the console was rock-solid otherwise.

Curiously, the top Amazon search for Nintendo Wii (“Wii Black Console with New Super Mario Brothers Wii and Music CD”) is a new-style Wii yet the features still list GameCube compatibility. No, wait– on closer inspection, the “Product Features” bullet list states, “Nintendo GameCube software and accessories are not supported”, while further down, the same page has an outdated Amazon.com product description table comparing the current generation consoles. This table features the old Wii and the old capabilities.

Oops.

I just picked up this piece of light reading before the holiday break: 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die. It’s quite thick:

Close to the origin of this blog, I learned of various efforts by dedicated (or bored) individuals to slog through all chapters in assorted long-running game franchises. These efforts included Dragon Quest series (blog is gone); Zelda series (he didn’t seem to get too far); and Ultima (hats off! this person made it through the series). Now I’m waiting to see if a new blog crops up to chronicle an effort to play through all 1001 of these games. I promise it won’t be this blog.

The games are listed chronologically, though there is an alphabetical index. Through this index, I was able to determine that I have played a paltry 12% of the video games I need to play before I die. That doesn’t seem like much, but it’s still 120 games. It’s important when reading through this book — as it is with any random “Top X of something” list — to not assign too much cosmic significance to the data, and certainly not to construe the contents as an affront to your own personal tastes. That means you’ll stay sane if you can keep yourself from constantly wondering “How could they have not included [my all-time favorite game in some genre]!!”

The list was compiled based on the opinions of a bunch of game critics. A number of franchises are well-represented, among them: Every Halo game, most Final Fantasy games, most Zelda games, every Metal Gear Solid game; every Resident Evil game except for #3, and most every game that has ever begun with the words “Super Mario”.

It’s also curious to note that the preface of the book is written by famed game designer Peter Molyneux. I mention this because, cross referencing with his MobyGames rap sheet, it seems that most of his games made the list.

For my own reference, here are the 12% of these very important 1001 games I have had the privilege of experiencing:

I know that it’s old hat to see such ludicrous, catch-all advertisements. But every now and then, one grabs you. Like when I was refreshing my memory recently regarding the T-virus of the Resident Evil series. Amazon promises to hook me up with a good deal.

To be fair, there seems to be a song by that name by an act named Atyss.

As a big fan of the Resident Evil series of games, I was a tad befuddled when I encountered this out in the real world:

I pass by this gate on one of my regular workouts. Every time I pass the gate, I wonder… am I expected to take the jewel in the eye? Or am I supposed to look around and find a matching red jewel for the other eye? Shouldn’t there be a piece of paper somewhere nearby which explains this? What kind of hoops do I need to jump through in order to procure that piece of paper? And most importantly, what are the consequences of completing this puzzle? Can I expect zombies to spring up? From inside the gate or behind me outside the gate? I need to advance this story somehow.

As an aside, I have been meaning to bring my camera along to photograph this odd gate but keep forgetting. Then I recall that this exists in one of the most thoroughly photographed cities on the planet and a simple Google image search can reveal any square inch that you’re looking for.

See Also:

• Resident Evil
• Resident Evil 4: Assignment Ada

At MobyGames:

• Resident Evil series of games