Play one new game for every year you've been alive

video games
82

1997, ‘98, and ’99. In which I stumble perilously close to the Earthworm Jim zone.

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1997: Colony Wars (PlayStation)

>! Played to completion: No.


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This seems cool but it’s not really my sort of thing. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it; I just don’t want to play it. The end.


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1998: Skullmonkeys (PlayStation)

>! Played to completion: Yes.


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Aw man, I didn’t know Doug T. was involved in this. That sucks. I should have done more research into whether I was putting bigots or sex pests on the list.


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Anyway, this game offers an interesting platforming challenge, which is enough for me to have an okay time with a game, but it feels very joyless. It doesn’t do any of the especially cool things platformers can do, like the feeling of moving through a space or expressing joy through movement.


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Everything besides the mechanics grates on me. The stop motion sequences are technically sound, but I didn’t ever find them interesting. And when they translate that style to the game part, it just looks muddy to me. I find the tone insufferable, and the soundtrack is annoying. It’s also about ten or fifteen stages too long.


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1999: Guardian's Crusade (PlayStation)

>! Played to completion: No.


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This is pretty clearly a game for children, so the tone is light, the story is simple, and the mechanics are basic. That being said, this still seems like it would be a pretty fun adventure. Definitely not the best rpg on the system (that’s probably Saga Frontier 2), but it doesn’t seem bad.


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You can feed your little friend and it will transform into things. It reminded me a bit of Bahamut Lagoon, but I didn’t get very deep into it.


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But yeah, this is a pretty breezy game. I gave it about three hours to see if anything grabbed me and nothing did, but it seems fine if you are down for a simple, almost frictionless jrpg experience.


83

I fired up Bosconian (1981) via Namco Museum Vol 1 last night. I played about 15 credits over about an hour plus. This game is great, but challenging. I made it to the 6th stage using continues. On one credit I could generally make it to the 3rd stage. It looks similar to Galaga and runs on the same hardware. There are some voice samples and a map like Rally-X. There are also different colored warning levels that are announced based on your situation, and your situation goes to code red right quick. There are space mines that explode from shots or impacts, ships chasing you down, formations of ships that also make a bee-line for you and the bases that you need to destroy fire from six different points and launch missiles after stage 3. Suffice it to say - there is a lot going on. This does lead to some action packed moments. It really feels like a large scale space battle rendered with '80s arcade tech. I will be playing more of this throughout the year. Recommended to classic arcade shooter and old-school Namco fans.

84

I played about an hour of Owlboy (my 2016 game) this evening for an hour and it‘s a deeply pleasant, beautiful game. My only gripe is that it’s a little too “go to A, do B” where the “going to A” part isn‘t always clear where you need to go. I’d quite like a Crazy Taxi arrow to literally point me in the right direction.

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@“Toph”#p105101 Love these notes.

86

1990 - Dragon Quest/Warrior 4

Originally as you can see from my list I planned to play Railroad Tycoon as my 1990 pick. As a kid who was obsessed with Civilization I thought this would be a fun one. But then I saw that the manual for the game was 185 very long pages and I was like “Oh man, little kid me would've eaten this up! But old man me has got no patience for a 185 page manual.” I could‘ve looked up a YouTube guide on how to play but that seemed sort of antithetical to experiencing the game for the first time if I’m just copying what I saw someone tell me to do on YouTube.

But I'm very happy with my decision even if it meant fudging my rule about NA release dates. Dragon Warrior 1 & 3 were two of my favorite NES as a kid! I got DW1 for free with a subscription to Nintendo Power. So for a while it was the only game I owned besides SMB/Duck Hunt. Lots of good nostalgic memories attached to this NES series (and also the time I tried to throw my copy of DW3 in the trash after I lost to the final of the four or however many bosses in a row it is for the end of the game and my mom grounded me.).

Not sure why I never bought this one. I guess games were expensive! So I only got one or two a year besides random shovelware my mom would find on clearance.

But anyway, compared to everything else so far this rules. Still too heavy on the grinding for my taste but in a much more pleasing way than Phantasy Star was.

Would I Keep Playing? Yes. I think I'm going to get a ROM of the DS version and keep it going. I remember the DS port of DQ5 being a lot of fun and looking very nice. I'm curious where this one is going.

87

2000, 01, 02! Video games are getting good, and also longer.

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2000: Sword of the Berserk - Guts' Rage (Dreamcast)

>! Played to completion: Yes.


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Unlike what I did with the Zeiram games, I did absolutely no research into Berserk before playing this, because I thought it would be fun for this Dreamcast game to be my first exposure to it.


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I don’t think I’ve gained much insight into Berserk, except this particular story arc seems cool. The mandragoras are appropriately gnarly.


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And you know, there’s really something to be said about a straightforward, competently made, action game. There’s really nothing very special about this game, but it’s fun to swing the big sword.


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If I had to estimate, I would say around half the game is animated scenes. They’re nicely directed, and the English voice acting isn’t bad for the era. The whole game is only a couple hours long.


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Cool game. Goes down smooth.


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2001: Aidyn Chronicles - The First Mage (Nintendo 64)

>! Played to completion: No.


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I didn’t mean to put a Nintendo 64 game on here. I don’t know how that happened. This one came out in 2001, which is probably a good time to be putting out N64 games.


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So, I figure if you’re releasing a Nintendo 64 game in 2001, it’s either shovelware or it’s a technical marvel: the product of experienced craftsmen.


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And actually, this game is pretty technically impressive. It’s really trying to do something. I like the cutscenes more than playing it.


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I played for an hour and I got lost in a forest and then wolves killed me and I hadn’t been given the opportunity to save yet.


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2002: Forever Kingdom (PlayStation 2)

>! Played to completion: Yes.


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This game is cool! You control three characters whose souls have been made into one soul. It’s a real problem for them.


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This game is messy. The combat is pretty simple (though comboing with your three party members is fun). The camera is awful; it has this annoying tendency to get in front of you. And there are some level design choices that I did not love.


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But it’s also got weird monsters that are just difficult enough. I enjoy some of the locations, like an underwater castle and a ‘shrine of mist’; it’s all got a great spooky feeling. Oh and the outfits! From the start you can get like cat ears or a metal pot to wear on your head. The game is very silly with equipment, and every piece shows on your character. You can end up looking pretty cool or very stupid.


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It’s not the most robust or clean game, but it’s got a real fun personality. I had a great time playing through it.


88

I've played a few more of mine.

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G-LOC


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I‘m playing this via the excellent Sega Ages release on Switch. I’m having a good time! I‘ve managed to beat the beginner arcade mode after a few attempts and I’m trying the medium difficulty for the time being. The sense of speed and flight is fantastic, barrel rolling is a first-person delight, and the lock-on system makes the chaos feel manageable.


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Contra: Hard Corps


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I‘m playing this by way of the M2 anniversary collection and I’ve sensibly stuck with the Japanese version because the game is hard as heck and I‘d be tearing my hair out with any other version. I had to save scum on a couple of bosses to reach the end but I think with some practice I could feasibly 1CC it.


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World of Goo


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I’m not one for physics puzzle games but I‘ve had it sitting unplayed in my Steam library for what must be at least a decade. God, I really want to like it - it’s charming! I‘ve liked the early puzzles a lot, and have just finished the first chapter, but the final puzzle of said chapter involves contending with buoyancy as well as gravity, and I hated it. I can see myself dumping it if there’s much of that later on, which since it was introduced in the first place, there probably will!


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Owlboy


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I picked this up again and gave it another shake after my initial impression of it and I am enjoying it more in general. However I've hit a section that involves traversing a near-pitch black tunnel littered with spikes, all the while having health constantly slowly drained from “meat eating bugs” that appear in dark areas. The tunnel then ends in an open area, not pointing you further along the critical path, whilst still being in the dark and having your health drained. I would loathe this section less had it not been perhaps the sixth or seventh section involving pitch black navigation through hazardous tunnels. Someone needs to go to heck for that design decision.

89

Whenever someone mentions G-LOC</s><e>

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@“Mnemogenic”#p107111 2001: Aidyn Chronicles - The First Mage (Nintendo 64)

Oh wow that game. 1 of 2 N64 RPGs! I played it a couple years ago out of curiosity and I had exact same reaction and gave up after about an hour of getting eaten by wolves. I agree that it seems like it has _something_ to it but the pacing was a little rough. If I was there in 2001 I'd be all over it, but I don't the juice is worth the squeeze in 2023.

91

1992 - Night Trap 25th Anniversay Edition


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In a highly intoxicated state I skipped over 1991 thinking a goofy FMV game would be perfect for my level of inebriation. WRONG! I found this game very very frustrating (the code switching aspect baffled me until I looked up a walkthrough after I was done playing). And while I think the conceit of jumping around in a bunch of hidden cameras is a fun gimmick idea, I felt like I was too busy with clicking around to trigger the titular traps to enjoy any of the corny dialogue and acting which was the whole appeal of playing it in the first place. Fun theme song though that was definitely my favorite part!

Gonna kinda pretend I didn't even play this and swap it out for Romancing SaGa instead once I go back to Another World for 1991.

92

Putting a list together got dicey from '07-'17.

It was so bad that I have _NCAA Football '14_ as my game in 2013 due solely to the fact that it was the last ever NCAA Football game.

93

@“KingTubb”#p107205 I am curious to see the list!

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‘92- Dragon Quest V

’93- Master of Orion

‘94- System Shock

’95- Front Mission

‘96- Enemy Zero

’97- Silhouette Mirage

‘98- Panzer Dragoon Saga

’99- Shenmue

‘00- Mega Man Legends 2

’01- King's Field 4

‘02- Armored Core 3

’03- Zone of the Enders: 2nd Runner

‘04- Tales of Symphonia

’05- Killer7

‘06- Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure

’07- Def Jam: Icon

‘08- Korg's DS 10

’09- Little King's Story

‘10- Castlevania: Lords of Shadows

’11- Okamiden

‘12- Tekken Tag 2

’13- NCAA Football '14

‘14- Dark Souls 2

’15- Axiom Verge

‘16- Darkest Dungeon

’17- Observer

‘18- Red Dead Redemption 2

’19- Devil May Cry 5

‘20- Yakuza: Like a Dragon

’21- F.I.S.T.

‘22- Splatoon 3

’23- Resident Evil 4 remake if that counts


95

@“KingTubb”#p107222 Dang you got some Big C Classics on that list. Interested to see your thoughts as you go through them.

96

Tonight I was in the mood to play some Everquest (1999) so I created a Drakken Bard and started smoking on that quest pack

https://imgur.com/WiCYpRb.jpg

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After running through the tutorial, I realized almost immediately why I don‘t play MMOs…. I wasn’t going to follow the introductory quests, they were all about just running up to different people and pressing the ‘hail’ button. So I just ran around the forest, killed some bunnies, ran up to some other human players and /kiss them, and found a dragon to dance with. I ended up just quitting the game without really knowing why I was there or what to do. Maybe some relics of the past are best left alone.


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@“Tradegood”#p107319 the game is coy about this being how you do it admittedly but you actually simply just beat Everquest. Congratulations!

98

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@“KingTubb”#p107222 ’23- Resident Evil 4 remake if that counts

New merchant VO = totally different game IMO.

99

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@“Tradegood”#p107175 2001: Aidyn Chronicles - The First Mage (Nintendo 64)

@Mnemogenic

https://forums.insertcredit.com/d/1564-games-which-are-funfunny-to-remember-occasionally-for-whatever-reason/14

I wish it was possible to have a sound effect play and a bot link to this thread any time someone mentions a "game which are fun/funny to remember occasionally for whatever reason" outside of that thread.

100

1991 - Another World
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My first complete failure! I only made it about 45 minutes into my playthrough. For those who‘ve played it before there’s a fairly early part involving water and it took me a bunch of tries to finally get the jumps right and then I finally did it and my moment of elation got absolutely wrecked when I died 15 seconds later and the checkpoint put me back before the water part. I tried it 3 or 4 more times but I was just too deflated to keep going. Time to admit that I really don‘t like puzzles in video games and I only tried this game based on years of hearing about it. I had a very strong feeling it was going to be Not For Me and this proved true very quickly. Game looks really cool though! For the sake of sticking to my guns I might go back and try it again when I’m less annoyed, but I can't see myself playing longer than the 15 minutes required to alleviate my shame.

101

@“Coffinwarehouses”#p108019 This is one I tried to play a while back based on its legacy and importance and being #1 on the Action Button list and…I‘m with you, I just don’t like playing it. Too much trial and error dying all over the place. Cool aesthetic, cool ideas, and the gameplay I‘m sure is cool for the right kind of person, but I preferred watching a let’s play to playing the actual game.