Over the past (almost) two years on this blog, I’ve been captivated by how organized all you folks are.  You keep track of which games you’ve played as well as when you start and finish them.  You make goals on what you’re going to accomplish, and formulate a plausible timeline to complete things in.  These, along with other little pieces of data got me thinking: I’m unorganized!  Sure, with the blog I have a running list of games I’ve bought and an inventory to match in various places, but I’ve often felt a little sheepish when looking at people’s yearly “completed games” lists.  I’m a slow gamer.  I don’t often break 10 games per year at the rate I go, but I take my time playing games for several reasons.

1. I have a full time job, and it’s a job that often comes home with me at night and on weekends.  It’s simply hard to make time to play as much as I’d like.
2. I love the stories of games I play so much that I hate finishing them.  Once they’re finished, it means they’re over, usually forever.
3. I get overwhelmed with what to play next sometimes.  There are so many things I want to play and I get all bent out of shape trying to choose something.  I guess having too much choice is a good problem to have.

Number 3 was why I embarked on the Sega Master System RPG quest at the end of 2016, to help focus my gaming a bit.  I’ve made some progress through it but am nowhere near having completed it by now, which I’m totally fine with.  Hopefully 2018 will bring many more good times with my Master System, as well as a variety of other consoles and their wonderful games.

In the meantime, in my slight attempt to get organized at the beginning of 2017, I started keeping track of the games I’ve finished in my “Game Beatings” spreadsheet.  These are games I finished either for the first time or for the millionth time, but I threw them all in a list to share with you all.  Here they are, roughly grouped by console:

The Legend of Zelda
Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. 2
Super Mario Bros. 3
Master of Darkness
Miracle Warriors (1st time)
Phantasy Star (1st time)
Psychic World (1st time)
SpellCaster (1st time)
Ys: The Vanished Omens (1st time)
Stackhead Iario (my glitched version of SMB1)
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Kirby’s Dreamland
Super Mario Land
Pitfall II (1st time)
Harvest Moon 64 (1st time)
The Impossible Game

It may not seem particularly impressive, but it’s my little list of completed games, a grand total of 16 (I’ve counted SMB1 and Stackhead Iario as one since they are the same game).  I also played mostly through Wonderboy in Monster Land, Wonderboy in Shinobi World, and Dragon Crystal.  I might work on finishing them in the new year now that my rage towards them has dwindled substantially, but as of now, they remain incomplete.  There are others I could mention here as partially completed, but I’ve felt like my brain has been on fire for a number of days now.  Nothing else is coming to me for the moment.

I don’t really have big goals for 2018 except to continue playing through the games I’ve collected, and find some more time to make new Let’s Plays and do some video reviews for fun.  I’m definitely going to create a second column in my “Game Beatings” spreadsheet for 2018, so perhaps I’ll surprise myself with a more robust accomplished list in about 365 days from now.

What did you guys play in 2017?  What was your favourite new/old game you played?  My favourites by far were Harvest Moon, Miracle Warriors and Pitfall II.  I am going to have the Pitfall II music stuck in my head for a while after re-listening to it.

Thank you all very much for reading.  It has been a bunch of fun being on this wonderful adventure with you all.  All the best in the holiday season!

-GG