Games Beaten 2017

[ElkinFencer10]

My "goal" is to beat about 52 games this year. So one per week. I'm a bit ahead of schedule, but I've been drifting towards shorter stuff. I'll be much busier this summer, and that's also the time I tend to play longer games.

My goal is always 100 for a year. I smashed that last year, exceeding it by 34%. I'd like to get through 100 this year, too. I'm almost at 20, so I figure I'm going at a pretty good pace.

[MrPopo]

I got inspired by Dave's article to shoot for 100 and made it past that with a month to go back in 2015. Then last year I nailed 91. A fair amount of it comes down to what kinds of games you're playing; if you load down on RPGs then you'll beat less than someone who's spending a year on NES platformers.

[BoneSnapDeez]

1. Chrono Trigger (SNES)
2. Gyromite (NES)
3. Lucy -The Eternity She Wished For- (Steam)
4. Ys III: Wanderers from Ys (Famicom)
5. Radical Dreamers (SNES)
6. Video Games 1 (TI-99/4A)
7. Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken (Famicom)
8. Exile (TurboGrafx CD)
9. Exile: Wicked Phenomenon (TurboGrafx CD)
10. Xak (PC Engine CD, Xak I・II)
11. Xak II (PC Engine CD, Xak I・II)
12. Neutopia (TurboGrafx-16)
13. Captain Silver (Sega Master System)
14. Märchen Veil (Famicom Disk System)
15. Vanguard (Atari 2600)
16. Kangaroo (Atari 2600)

Kangaroo was a 1982 arcade game that ended up with ports on the three major Atari systems of the era (2600, 5200, 8-bit). It was originally developed by Sun Electronics, which I believe more-or-less became Sunsoft.

The game is a single-screen platformer in the vein of Donkey Kong, where the goal is to work a kangaroo from the bottom of the screen to the top. To be more specific, you play as a mother kangaroo attempting to save her captive joey. One could argue that this is an early example of a video game featuring a female protagonist, but of course there's no way to discern kangaroo gender through ancient Atari graphics. Miss K. is sporting some fine lipstick on the box art though.

Kangaroo eschews scientific accuracy, as the joey has been kidnapped by... monkeys? Why not dingoes, koalas, or wombats? Who knows, maybe the primates are a nod to Donkey Kong. As the mother kangaroo makes her ascension the monkeys assault from all angles. They will change mercilessly and also throw apples (or as they appear on an Atari, squares). Thankfully, our protagonist is armed. She can punch monkeys in the face (yeah!) or knock apples out of the way. There's other fruit to be collected in every stage, but these grant points. So, apples bad, non-apple fruits good. Ringing a bell in each stage will summon more happy fruit.

As the punch attack is mapped to the Atari joystick's sole button, this is one of those up-to-jump games. The jumps are a bit janky. Some distances are tricky and expect to fall through a platform now and again. It's not as bad as, say, Ice Climber, but things can get frustrating.

The graphics are just okay. Very monochromatic and every character looks like a silhouette. There's also a ton of screen flickering, which can be a tad distracting. Sound effects are decent and some sweet "public domain" type music plays when levels are completed or a bell is rung.

Overall, not a bad game, but nothing incredible. I play it from time to time, but I also enjoy this single-screen genre immensely. It's pretty cheap (you can get a sealed copy for about $12 on eBay) and worth checking out of you're an Atari fan. Just don't expect something on par with Donkey Kong.

[noiseredux]

I've personally toyed with not even keeping a running list anymore. I really don't care if I beat a game or not. I only care about getting enjoyment out of games. Maybe that means spending 6 hrs in an RPG and pushing it aside because I'm in the mood to play something else or maybe that means spending 100 hrs in a PvP game that you can't really "beat" anyway.

[alienjesus]

My goal is always just to beat more games than I buy so my backlog stops building.

It's been about 5 years since the last time that actually happened.

[Exhuminator]

I get a pleasant sense of accomplishment when I beat a game*, and reviewing it afterwards is a great way to reflect on the experience, before moving on to the next one.

I used to have a feeling of personal failure if I started a game, but did not finish it. It took me way too long to realize the truth; if I don't feel a desire to finish the game, the game has failed me.

*Especially if it's a significantly challenging one, or if I have some sort of personal history with it. Like the Yoshi's Island DS scenario for example.

[ElkinFencer10]

I used to have a feeling of personal failure if I started a game, but did not finish it. It took me way too long to realize the truth; if I don't feel a desire to finish the game, the game has failed me.

I still feel like that, and I try to keep the latter part of that in mind, but it's not often I manage it.

[MrPopo]

I used to have a feeling of personal failure if I started a game, but did not finish it. It took me way too long to realize the truth; if I don't feel a desire to finish the game, the game has failed me.

I still feel like that, and I try to keep the latter part of that in mind, but it's not often I manage it.

I see it as both myself and the game failing each other.

[Exhuminator]

I see it as both myself and the game failing each other.

What part of the equation is your own personal failing?

[MrPopo]

The part where I don't sack up and beat it anyway.