Don't worry about the late reply- life is busy!

I'm feeling so much better about gaming now. I've finally played God of War which had been on my to-play list for a long time and i'm delighted to say it is now one of my favourite games.

I'm not really a shooter fan but it's the RPG elements of Borderlands that caught my interest. I'm glad you're enjoying it

Well, 3 weeks later and i've wiped the entire backlog. I have tried so many different methods for beating my backlog and finding that in the end having such a ridiculous number of games hanging over me just took most of the enjoyment out of gaming for me. Even just referring to it as a 'backlog' made it seem like a chore rather than a hobby.

I'm thinking of it now as just a library of games and a nice way of recording what i'm playing and my thoughts on the games. Rules didn't appear to work out for me either so i've scrapped them too. I am keeping more of a guideline than a rule for myself though that if I buy a new game i'll add it straight away and play it as soon as i've finished whatever game (or couple of games, I think it is wise to stick to between 1-3 games, depending on the genres!) i'm currently playing. I used to try and figure out a play order and force myself to play my games that way because that was the order i'd set for completing them. I'd try and get through them as quickly as possible just to move on to the next rather than taking the time to enjoy each individual game. Now, i'm choosing games that i'm simply in the mood to play at this moment in time and I feel so much better for it already.

Hope you're enjoying Borderlands so far! Its not one i've ever played (maybe some day!) but i've heard good things about it.

Sounds like you went a mile further than I did, haha. I don't know if I maxed out on the items or not, but my play time was already past the 200 hour mark by that point. I had my fill.

Super Metroid is just one of those games that only gets better with age. I had more fun 100%ing it now than when I initially played it over ten years ago. Love that game. Yeah, that postgame in FFXII is insane. I've beaten the game twice; once on PS2, and once on the PS4 HD port. Both times, I only focused on the story. I feel like the game is more enjoyable that way. Getting into all of those ultra rare item drops is for masochists lol.

Definitely! I'm pretty excited to get into Wild Arms 4 and 5, as well. I know they change up the series formula quite a bit, but I'm cool with that as long as the gameplay is good. Wild Arms 4 is actually the series creator's personal favorite, because it was his first experience working with an anime studio if I remember right. He had a recent interview on YouTube.

Contra Hard Corps is quite intimidating. I imagine the difficulty is right up there with Castlevania Bloodlines and Alien Soldier.

I'm terrible at platformers, too, but somehow still manage to have fun with them. I may not ever beat SMB2 (US) NES, unless I memorize where all of the warps are.

Also, I'm a bit late, but glad to see you've enjoyed Shadow Hearts! It's not a perfect JRPG by any means, but it certainly has a unique atmosphere and setting for the genre. I love that judgement ring combat, too.

I beat Shovel Knight on the Nintendo WiiU this afternoon!

When I was creating my WiiU Wishlist, one of the games that jumped out at me was Shovel Knight. I remember when the came out and how excited everybody was to play it. I watched Drumble stream it and I remember it being one of the few modern games that I would not be able to play. Fast forward many years and I finally had a WiiU of my own. During one of my last ditch spending sprees after beating my Backlog, I found a copy and I instantly knew I had to have it. After looking for games to play recently, I remembered that I owned a copy and my excitement for the game made me want to play it rather quickly.

Shovel Knight is basically a love letter to all those classic NES Games. Zelda II, DuckTales, Mega Man and Castlevania are all boiled down into one fantastic game. Your main weapon is a shovel which you can use to attack enemies or bounce on their heads. It feels so good to bounce on their heads and the small reach of your shovel hardly ever feels constricting. You also have sub weapons a la Castlevania and they help to enemies from far away or reach different areas. The game is a bit like Mega Man with 8 Bosses to reach a final area, but the World Map is like SMB3 where you can only reach certain areas. Each boss is its own unique stage and each stage perfectly represents the boss you will fight. Also, each stage has its own unique mechanic that it was a thrill to see each stage. None of them were too annoying or too difficult, though some areas were a bit frustrating at times. You also have bonus areas, towns to visit and places to explore all throughout the world. All of this is wrapped in some of the best Chip Tunes I have heard and some of the most amazing pixel art you will ever find. It is utterly amazing how beautiful the game looks and how it takes advantage of the Pixel Bit limitations. It was so beautiful and nostalgic along with a breath of fresh air to see it all.

Overall, I would say Shovel Knight is probably one of the best games I have played all year. Now, it does maintain that NES difficulty. I died over 80 times, but it was never too frustrating. I know I am probably speaking to the choir when I say this, but Shovel Knight is just a fantastic game. If you love NES style games, then this is a match made in heaven. It really is amazing and such a beautiful tribute to one of my favorite styles of games.

I completed Shadow Hearts on the Sony Playstation 2 this evening!

Back in October of 2018, I beat Koudelka on the Playstation 1. The game was a bit hit and miss for my tastes, but the atmosphere and characters were all really interesting. The reason I played through that game was because I had been interested in the Shadow Hearts series for the PS2. I was finally able to play through the series and when I found the game at my local retro game store, it became the first game I purchased after I had beaten my Backlog. Needing a spooky game for October, I decided to final play through a game I had wanted to play for quite a while.

When I first started Shadow Hearts, I was instantly hooked. The game came out right around Final Fantasy X, so I felt instantly at home. It also has that Victorian Gothic feel to it with monsters that are unnerving and a bit of creepiness in everything, which I love for Halloween. Also, the game uses a Judgement Ring system for their turn based battles which reward button presses at the right time, so I also felt right at home. Over the course of the game, characters are introduced and evolve as the story goes. The characters are extremely unique and I like to see them change throughout the game. It also uses real world settings and historical aspects as it ends right before the start of WWI.

Unfortunately, as the game wore on, the battle systems began to show their limitations. You have Sanity Points that drain throughout the battle. Once it is gone, the characters go berserk and you can't control them. Also, you can only have three characters in battle with limited stats and attacks. All of this works well for like 90% of the game. Near the end, bosses take way too long and start spamming attack all spells. You constantly have to heal your SP or heal status effects with items, heal your entire party and then attack with just normal attacks. You then do this for about 30 turns and it becomes a bit too repetitive.

Much like Koudelka, there were good and bad points when it came to Shadow Hearts. Overall, I would say that I enjoyed almost all of the game. The final part began to grow on me as bosses expanded beyond the limitations. But, the game has a fantastic soundtrack, interesting characters and a unique setting and feel to the game. If you tired of regular JRPG cliches, this is a good one to try especially around October to feel a little unnerving.

I actually made the decision last night to completely wipe the backlog and start from scratch. I have literally hundreds of digital games in particular that i've picked up at some point for free or as part of a bundle, put them on the backlog and said 'i'll get to them some day'. If i'm being honest, there are games I own that I just have no desire to play so they're not really backlog worthy and the added number just makes it harder to tackle! I think one of my rules will be to steer clear of digital games unless its something I genuinely want to play and it doesn't have a physical release.

Now that i've made the decision to put the effort in to beating my backlog, i'd like a clean slate to work with. So my task when I get home from work later is to finish spring cleaning the rest of the games off my list, re-add the ones i'd like to actually play and decide what to get started with. I'm leaning towards Resident Evil or Silent Hill after the recent announcements or perhaps Fatal Frame (its actually Project Zero in UK but I still seem to call it Fatal Frame!) now that the fourth game is finally getting a release over here next year

Hi, I hope you don't mind the random multitap add! Found your backlog after you had left a comment on mrdot's. I've actually been thinking about making my own laws/rules to help me with my own backlog and reading about yours has inspired me to go ahead and finally make my own!

Wooooo thanks! I decided I didn't really want or need the SNES version of that game, so just got myself an NES copy. I'm gonna be on a Bo-Rampage!

Yeah, Beat'em Ups are one of my favorite genres and the SNES has soooo many good ones! I'm very excited to finally be able to X-Men, I rented it many times but could never finish it back in the day. I will say I did finish Brawl Brothers today, which I saw is on your Wish List and...the game is decent, but I wouldn't pay too much for it or go out of your way for a copy of it.

I didn't break the bank on any of my purchases, and have a few more I want to pick up at some point later on. However, I think for now I'm good to go for a while and will enjoy my new purchases.

Also, also...I FINALLY did something I was not looking forward to doing and had put off for so long: I went back through my backlog and changed games I marked , that I had actually to reflect that. When I first created my account back in 2010 I just called most games beaten, even if I had completed them. Now all my ducks are in a row, and to my surprise I'm almost a Master of Unlocking!