Terrible Twos

Good grief, two years!? Really didn't think I'd still be churning out curt opinions regarding various games. Surprisingly, thanks to Beat All Games, my affinity for gaming has grown tenfold and I've gotten myself back on track in regards to collecting video games and consoles - something I haven't touched since the early 2000s.

Unfortunately, while my collection has grown, my wealth of games beaten has not. If anything, the rate of games being knocked out of the park has diminished radically. For this reason, looking back over the past year, I think to repeat 2011's anniversary post would be silly. Sure, there's been some great games played since last year: Sonic the Hedgehog, Katamari Damacy, and Ocarina of Time to name a few, but with only twenty new games posted within that span of time, I can imagine my top/bottom 5 differing only slightly. Then again, maybe not as those three games alone could easily place within my top 5. However, looking through said twenty games, my bottom 5 would likely remain the same.

For this reason, I decided to create a different list as this year's anniversary bonus. Numerous times, I've mentioned being in the middle of several games - well, actually, I'm in the midst of playing quite a few and have been for some time. Thing is, some games become far too tedious and boring for me to find the will to continue or some games suffer from such massive flaws that the aggravation gets the better of me. Other times, I just sort of forget about some games and sadly they fall to the wayside out of no fault of their own. Well, I'd thought I'd go ahead and list some of those games and say a quick few words about each. While I'm not going to list every game I'm fighting my way through, I thought I'd just list some of the more notable ones - notable in that there's specific reasons why I'm moving forward with them or not. My plan is to give a quick thought in 25 words or less - we'll see how that goes though. And somehow, I imagine that I'm going to raise quite a fuss with a few particular titles and why they've managed to land themselves on the back-burner.

And since this isn't meant to be any sort of best of the best type list, I'll be listing these in alphabetical order. Additionally, for the sake of 2012, I'm going to round the list off to a nice even twelve. I planned on listing only ten games at first, but there were a couple additional games that I really felt should be addressed as well. Honestly, I think I have a few more I'd like to talk about, but twelve will do me nicely.

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Game: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

Platform: Mattel Intellivision
Notes: While surprisingly fun, this is one of the few Intellivision games where the controller is really getting the better of me.

Game: Al-Qadim: The Genie's Curse

Platform: PC
Notes: Confusing and completely lacking of true TSR merit, I am appalled that this dares carry the AD&D branding.

Game: Disney Epic Mickey

Platform: Nintendo Wii
Notes: While enjoyable for the most part, I'm completely bewildered over what type of gaming experience I should be getting out of this.

Game: Ecco the Dolphin

Platform: Sega Genesis
Notes: An old, old favorite; unfortunately the puzzling difficulty and length has gotten the best of me every occasion I've attempted it.

Game: Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind - Game of the Year Edition

Platform: PC
Notes: Sadly, this game bores the fuck out of me and I just can't drive myself to continue on despite all it's report and grandeur.

Game: Fable: The Lost Chapters
Platform: Microsoft XBox
Notes: Going in, I had high expectations, but never have I had a game make me so angry over design and simple mechanic flaws.

Game: Forza Motorsport 4*

Platform: Microsoft XBox360
Notes: Very likely the best console driving "sim" game ever conceived - to date - and eats up far too much of my time, though I'm not complaining.

Game: Formula 1 2011*

Platform: Microsoft XBox360
Notes: After Forza, any other driving game seems second rate, but then again, this is Formula 1 and I just can't pass it up.

Game: Heroquest

Platform: Nintendo Entertainment System
Notes: Interestingly, the very first game I started playing for Beat All Games but since it's nothing more than a broken prototype - yea.

Game: Pokémon Yellow Version: Special Pikachu Edition

Platform: Nintendo Game Boy
Notes: Came close to finishing it until I realized I skipped over some stuff that's a bit irreversible now - a fault in strategy guide reliant games.

Game: Shadow of the Colossus

Platform: Sony PlayStation 2
Notes: Honestly, I am dumbfounded that this game is so highly respected - sure the colossi fights are amazing, but as a whole the game is lackluster.

Game: Shenmue

Platform: Sega Dreamcast
Notes: What is this I don't even...

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*Before detailed-oriented demons knock my backwards usage of M before Z, please note that I listed the two racing games out of order purposefully.