I was already planning on playing this soon so excited it won and looking forward to discussing! I’ll probably start it after I get back my upcoming trip! Sounds like it’s pretty short though so not sure if I’ll beat it in one or two sessions.

None for me to start off the year 😅. Had a couple I thought I’d be able to get in this month but I ended up taking a little gaming break to focus on some life things. Hopefully I’ll have one or two next month!

My 2024 Ranking is finally out! I definitely enjoyed making a year in review video like this again and its definitely a fun way for me to play around with my editing a bit. Most of the games on here I haven't gotten around to making a video on yet so it was fun to talk about them all! Hope you all enjoy and would love to hear your thoughts! :)



This list includes some of the few completions I had this year (that weren't a game that I carried over from last year) as well as a few I played a decent amount of but didn't get around to completing. And unlike last year I also included an honorable and dishonorable section for games I played and wanted to talk about, but either didn't play enough of or had them on my list last year. I definitely hope in this new year I'll be able to play more and have a bigger list, as there's a lot of shorter games I've been hoping to play!

Even though I played less this year this video somehow ended up longer, although the Honorable and Dishonorable segment is the main culprit there. Even though I started this earlier than last year too it still took me longer than I wanted to finish 😅. I have decided for next year's I'm going to try a new tactic where whenever I finish a game, I'll make its segment for the video then and there to save myself from having to cram this all in during the busy holiday season. I think it'll help me feel better about not trying to review every game I play too as I still get to show and talk about them a little bit in these videos at least!

Even though I was having fun piecing it together I'm glad its finally finished! This new year at least at the start I'm going to take a more relaxed approach on working on my videos as I try and manage some life things. I hope to work on them here and there, but I'm not going to try and set deadlines for myself. Echoes of Wisdom is the main video I plan to work on first! Astro Bot and Path of Radiance are other big ones I'll want to review too once they're finished. Obra Dinn's and Octodad's are lower priority for me, but I'll probably try and work on them between the others if I can and I don't think they'd take long since they're shorter. I'm hoping once I'm settled with things I can focus more on these again, but for now I'm hoping the more limited selection of reviews and working on the year ranking as the year goes on will allow me to balance my desire to work on these videos while also focusing on my life goals.

I'll probably start trying to have a lot more in between entries on this blog as I play more games since I'm slowing down on the videos, so hope to see you all more soon! :)

Video Reviews Backlog:
Return of the Obra Dinn (Script Recorded and thumbnail made) - Lower Priority
Octodad: Dadliest Catch (Started Recording Script) - Lower Priority
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Script almost finished) - Higher Priority

Games Currently Ongoing:
Astro Bot
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
Pokémon White 2
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Sackboy: A Big Adventure (with my girlfriend)

Time again for my yearly revival of this thread! Only update I have is for 2024, definitely was a close one between Zelda and Astro Bot!

1996: Super Mario 64
1997: Final Fantasy VII
1998: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
1999: Pokémon Silver
2000: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
2001: Civilization III
2002: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
2003: Jurassic Park Operation Genesis
2004: Spider-Man 2
2005: Civilization IV
2006: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
2007: Pokémon Diamond
2008: Super Smash Bros Brawl
2009: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves or Pokémon Soul Silver
2010: Civilization V
2011: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
2012: Call of Duty: Black Ops II
2013: Fire Emblem Awakening
2014: Super Smash Bros for Wii U
2015: Life is Strange
2016: Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
2017: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
2018: Super Smash Bros Ultimate
2019: Fire Emblem: Three Houses
2020: The Last of Us: Part II
2021: It Takes Two
2022: Pokémon Legends: Arceus
2023: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
2024: The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

For the second year in a row it was the slowest gaming year I've had since joining, as I got 6 completions this year 😅. Definitely had a lot going on this year so the lower number makes sense! Definitely had a fun time though with the games I did play even though I didn't get to game as much as I wanted! Had a couple more too that I have made some decent progress too that I couldn't get finished in time for the end of the year. I'm hoping between those and some shorter games I'll quickly get more completions next year! My goal is to complete at least 12 games! Might be too ambitious though since it'll probably be a busy year for me at least at the start.

Stats:






Definitely love the new Year in review addition on the site! Switch technically wins with the completions, but seeing I played the PS4 games on my PS5 in a way its a tie between the PS5 and Switch! Hope to have a larger variety of consoles next year for sure! Been neglecting my other consoles a bit 😅. Although I was playing a GameCube and a DS game this year, just didn't finish them.

Completions:

1/18/24 - Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (PS5) - 23h 55m

2/29/24 - Fire Emblem Engage (Switch) - 94h 21m

3/24/24 - Return of the Obra Dinn (PS4) - 9h 20m

6/25/24 - Jurassic Park (NES Version) (Switch) - 1h 59m

8/10/24 - Octodad: Dadliest Catch (PS4) - 2h 6m

11/23/24 - The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Switch) - 33h 3m

Definitely started the year strong but April onward I definitely gave up the completion a month goal I had, and it slowed down real hard. I'm excited for the New Year though and i'm excited to think about what games I'll play and excited to see what you all end up playing too!

I think I’m going to nominate Astro Bot!

One completion for me this month!

11/23 - The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Switch) - 33h 3m

Definitely had fun with this one! And was nice to get it done pretty quickly in a couple of months, which is not something I've been able to do often with games of this size in recent years. I hope I can maybe get another completion or two before the year closes but this could potentially be the last completion of mine for the year.

My birthday was a few days ago and my girlfriend definitely spoiled me a bit:



As well as my parents:



Definitely excited to get around to all of these eventually! Started Astrobot last night, Conker’s Bad Fur Day will probably be next once I get the N64 set up again.

My review for Jurassic Park on the NES is out! I played this as part of the Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection on my Switch over the summer and made this video right after since I wanted a break from my giant Fire Emblem video. This one is definitely smaller in scale than that and more comparable to my other reviews! I hope you all enjoy! :)



Since I did make this one awhile ago, the process isn't fresh on my mind, but I did enjoy making this! I had a lot of fun making the skits for this one which was probably one of the big reasons I wanted to dive into this one right after completion since the ideas struck me even before finishing the game. It was also nice to be able to make a shorter video because at the time I was feeling a bit discouraged with how long the Fire Emblem one was taking me.

This is probably my most negative review so far, as to be honest I don't think its a super well made game gameplay wise, but I still did have fun pushing through it since my mood was just right for it at the moment. I'm happy I've finally made a Jurassic Park video too since the movie is my all time favorite and I've always enjoyed playing the games! I definitely want to play more in the collection and I hope I'll be able to get to other I have in my backlog and revisit some of my childhood ones too for the channel!

I've began working more on my Obra Dinn and Octodad videos too! I think for now I'm just going to record the audio since once December hits I'm going to want to start working on my 2024 Ranking video since last year I started after Christmas and it took me longer than I expected, so I want to get a head start on that. I also have some unrelated things I have to do too so I can't really dive hardcore into working on these next videos, but hopefully once the New Year hits I'll be able to get them out at a decent pace!

Which last night I also finished the Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom! Definitely really enjoyed that one and I'm already eager to start writing my script for that! Not sure if I'm going to prioritize that over the others yet since I'm doing them out of order now but I'll figure that out as I go. I think my gaming goal is to also get Path of Radiance done before Christmas so I can kind of have a nice fresh gaming start for the new year and not carry over too much from this year!

I think that's all I have for today, would love to hear your thoughts on the review if any of you have any! Until next time! :)

Video Reviews Backlog:
Return of the Obra Dinn (Script Recorded and thumbnail made)
Octodad: Dadliest Catch (Started Recording Script)
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Not Started)

Games Currently Ongoing:
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
Pokémon White 2
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Sackboy: A Big Adventure (with my girlfriend)

Yeah I think having DLC being a GOTY contender (with a big chance of winning too) is not the correct way to go about it. Even if it’s big enough to be its own game (I haven’t played it but that’s what I’ve heard from others), it’s still an expansion and not a new game.

After months of working on this I finally have released my review of Fire Emblem Engage! This is easily my longest video yet at almost 33 minutes long and I had a lot of thoughts on the game, but I hope all of you interested enjoy it! :)



Just like the game, the process of making this video was definitely a lengthy one I had mixed feelings on and probably put too much work into. Now that I'm done, I'm definitely going to avoid making a review this long again 😅. I know when I started my reviews I wanted them to be short littler projects and this was not that for sure. If this was something I did full time then it would be way more manageable to make a review of this magnitude, but between working and life stuff it was definitely hard to make this video at a decent pace. I'm glad I tried this though to know my own limits better. I still enjoyed a lot of the process of making this, but the length of it definitely made the tedious parts feel even more so. But now that its done I feel the weight of it being lifted off my shoulders a bit. Maybe way in the future I'll be willing to try a review this large again, but for now if I start writing a script I think will end up being like 20 pages again I will have to remind myself of my experience of this one and rework to make it short and sweet.

I think partly because of this video I have been rethinking my whole structure of how I approach my videos too and have been questioning if I actually am going to continue to review every single game I play. I've also decided I'm not going to make myself feel beholden to release my reviews in order of completion now either, so I'll be releasing my Jurassic Park one next in two weeks even though its not the next completion since the video is all done. I'm still planning on doing my Return of the Obra Dinn and Octodad ones, and I'll see how I feel on the subject after doing those since they'll be much shorter. I still want to review all of them, and I think at least I'll write a script for everything so I can go back to any if I skip them, but I know my process has scared me away from playing shorter games in general and is making my backlog situation worse. I also have a growing list of gaming videos I want to make but haven't since I've been trying to catch up on my reviews, so I'm thinking I need a change perhaps. Again I'm going to see how I feel as I work on the next two though over the next few weeks before really changing my approach.

As for what I've been playing, its largely just been The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom which I got on release day! I made some quick progress on it early on since I took a week off from work for a staycation, but have slowed since. I believe I'm about half way through the game though so I'm hoping to have it completed this month! And if I'm feeling ambitious maybe I can get Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance done too! I know even if I change my approach to reviewing all the games I play I'll still want to review those two so don't worry there. There's a couple short games I'm hoping to getting around to as well, but those are entering the territory of not sure if I'll review those. I think no matter what though I'll always try to include everything in my end of the year ranking video so I can still talk about them at least :)

I believe that's all for this update, I'm glad to be back to posting and excited I finally am able to share this video with everyone and for my next that will be coming soon!

Video Reviews Backlog:
Jurassic Park NES ✅(Complete, releasing in two week)
Return of the Obra Dinn (Script Written and thumbnail made)
Octodad: Dadliest Catch (Script Written)

Games Currently Ongoing:
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
Pokémon White 2
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - On hold until EoW is finished
Sackboy: A Big Adventure (with my girlfriend)

Daily Challenge - 2024-11-01
Score: 401 / 500
🟪🟦🟪 🟦 = 88 | P | Amnesia: The Dark Descent
🟦🟦🟦 🟦 = 75 | S | Costume Quest
🟪🟪🟩 🟩 = 79 | R | Grabbed by the Ghoulies
🟪🟪🟦 🟦 = 90 | Resident Evil
🟦🟦🟩 🟩 = 69 | The Evil Within

Always enjoy these special ones!

Me on the Completion thread last month:

There is a small possibility I might have 4 completions for October though if things go right 👀

So yeah I didn't complete anything again this month 🙃

Want to apologize as I did not get around to playing Inside this month. I have barely gamed at all the past couple weeks so I sadly just never got around to it like I planned 😅. I’ll definitely try to share my thoughts on it when I do eventually get to it though!

Daily Challenge - 2024-10-31
Score: 220 / 300
🟩🟩🟩 🟩 = 61 | S | Binary Domain
🟦🟪🟦 🟦 = 82 | R | Tales of Hearts R
🟦🟦🟦 🟦 = 77 | P | Fire Emblem Engage

Play @ https://howlongtobeat.com/play

Site Update:

Submissions
- Start Date field is now available under Current Progress, not set by default.
- Has Omit/Today like Completion Date
- Changed design of Date entry on mobile.

Quick Add / Games List
- Start Date will now appear on details expansion.
- New Days Taken stat on details expansion.

Future update will include Game List filters for Start Date and using "Days Taken" on your stats page.

Definitely loving the addition so far and have been adding a bunch of my start dates already!

Are people still interested in an "Start Date" field to accompany the "Completion Date"?

Yes absolutely!

Daily Challenge - 2024-10-19
Score: 255 / 300
🟪🟩🟪 🟩 = 81 | P | Dino Crisis
🟪🟪🟪 🟪 = 100 | S | Journey
🟩🟩🟪 🟦 = 74 | R | Divinity: Original Sin II

First perfect guess I’ve gotten in a long time! Definitely one of my better scoring games!

The haul from a retro gaming convention I went to yesterday!

2 weeks since my last post and I’ve gained 5 games 😅.

Daily Challenge - 2024-10-02
Score: 256 / 300
🟪🟪🟪 🟩 = 86 | S | Kirby's Dream Land
🟦🟩🟪 🟦 = 79 | R | Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
🟩🟪🟪 🟪 = 91 | P | Metroid Dread

I probed the wrong way and if I went the correct way it would’ve been a perfect guess 😫. One below my best score too 😩

Inside is one I've wanted to play for awhile and since its pretty short it should be easy for me to fit it in and play this month! Will probably play it after beating the new Zelda, or if that takes too long then I'll take a break from that to play this!

Resident Evil 7 is one I'd try one day and I got it free from PS Plus at some point, but I don't think I'd have the time or desire to this month. I know my brother talks about it a bit and it definitely sounds like a pretty spooky and stressful one!

No completions by me this month. Was going to play a short game but then Zelda came out and that became my focus.

There is a small possibility I might have 4 completions for October though if things go right 👀

I assume Nightmare Kart would be one I could nominate? Haven’t played it but looks like it fits the theme and could be a fun one to try out, plus it’s free

Daily Challenge - 2024-09-18
Score: 197 / 300
🟧🟩🟧 🟦 = 54 | P | Fire Emblem
🟩🟩🟩 🟦 = 56 | S | Overlord
🟪🟪🟦 🟦 = 87 | R | Still Wakes The Deep

Always overestimate with Fire Emblems since they always take me longer than average 😅