52 Games in 52 Weeks - Entry #1 - Catch-up

A few weeks before 2016 began, I ran into this reddit thread about trying to beat 52 games in 52 weeks.  I thought, there's no way I'm doing that.  But! there was a comment that caught my eye.  This one described a much more reasonable goal: play 5 hours of a new video game every week for a year.

Now, the reason why this thread caught my eye in the first place is because I have a LOT of games in my backlog.  Recently I counted.  I checked how many games I own that I have both not completed, have not gotten my money's worth (subjective, but for me it's around $1 per hour of gameplay) and have not played at least 5 hours.  The total? 60. Yep, sixty.

So I decided to take on this great challenge!  One of the fun goals I have for 2016 is to play one new video game a week for at least 5 hours (I have like, actual goals too like school and jobs, but that's not as fun to blog about...).  This should help me slog through my huge backlog and help me finally experience all those Steam games I bought on sale.

Now, it's already 7 weeks into the year!  I want to do a weekly post where I talk a little bit about the game I played that week.  To start, here's a catch up entry where I'll rush through the first 7 weeks of games I played.

WEEK 1 - Splatoon (Wii U)

This was a Christmas present for me.  So far, I'm enjoying it a lot.  Beyond the five hours I played that first week, I've probably played close to another dozen hours.  While I like the frantic matches, I've found that I like the main Terf War mode the least.  The ranked modes are all a lot of fun, and I feel like I know more how I'm contributing.  Campaign is also fun!

WEEK 2 - Pokemon Black (Nintendo DS)

This game was a pleasant surprise for me.  I skipped this gen and got burnt out on Pokemon X, but I needed a good trip game.  And I fell in love!  I don't know, maybe I just don't like Pokemon jumping to 3D.  This game was a nostalgia trip while also adding a whole new world, all new Pokemon (literally, none of them are old until you beat the game), and a lot of interesting new twists on the formula. Fun fun fun!  I'm nearly 20 hours in and want to finish it sometime.

WEEK 3 - Leo's Fortune (Android)

So I didn't actually play this game for 5 hours, but I beat it, so I think that's fine.  While the game is pretty short, I spent exactly $1 on it, so it was definitely worth the cash.  The game is absolutely gorgeous, and has some fun and simple physics platforming.  It doesn't do anything new with the genre, but for a mobile game, it provided enough polish that I never minded.

WEEK 4 - none...

I'll have to catch up sometime.  Too busy traveling :(

WEEK 5 - Worms Reloaded (PC)

I absolutely loved the DS Worms (Open Warfare 2) back in the day, and played a ton of it.  So I bought this one to relive those glory days.  Or at least I think that's why I bought it; I bought this game in 2013 and never played it until this year.  Woops... But finally booting it up, I had some fun. Classic Worms action never goes out of fashion, although I didn't get into this one like the DS one.  It's not that the game is flawed in any huge way, but after 5 hours I was definitely done with the slow paced, sometimes hard to control game.

WEEK 6 - Sonic Colors (Wii)

Maybe my favorite week so far.  I bought this game used for about $6 for an Xmas gift to myself.  I've never been a huge Sonic fan, but I love platformers.  By the end of the week, I had beaten Colors.  It was a fun ride, with this game being one of the most critically acclaimed modern Sonic games,  It only took my around 6 hours, but that made the levels never get old or overstay their welcome.  While it sometimes got frustrating, I fought through any frustration to see the next cool world, the next silly cutscene, and the next rush of speed.  Really fun week!

WEEK 7 - Rock of Ages (PC)

And then this game.  It's not that this is a terrible game.  It's another one I bought many years ago and never installed until now.  The production values are really amazing, with a hilarious style and story.  Quirkiness can only go so far though, and I found the actual gameplay to be frustrating.  Both elements of it, the Marble Madness and the tower defense are fun in theory, but having to race against CPU players made me never sure if I was doing good and how to improve.  I bought the game for $2.50, so I don't feel bad about cutting short this playthrough at 2.5 hours.

And that's it! We're already caught up.  Hopefully they'll be weekly posts chronicling my grand journey, but if not I can always do catch-up posts every month or so :P