I had such a silly amount of fun doing my 100 post reTROspective a few months ago that I thought I'd update it for an end of year recap. So what follows will be a review of all of the games I've completed and reviewed for 2017!
Here are all of the games which I completed properly, for the first time, without abusing emulation or save states in 2017, and the number (65!) surprises even me. I can thank this blog for keeping me focused on my goal of narrowing the backlog. I think I added more games to my collection than I beat this year, but most of that was just digital humble bundle/free game sales for PC than I'll likely ever touch. So I'll consider the backlog to be smaller, for sure.
Advance Wars: Dual Strike
Banjo-Kazooie
Castlevania
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance
Crash Bandicoot
Crash Bandicoot 2
Crash Bandicoot: Warped
Donkey Kong Country
Donkey Kong Country 2
Donkey Kong Country 3
Donkey Konga
DuckTales
Earthbound
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance A2: Grimoire of the Rift
Final Fantasy XIII
Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light
Fire Emblem: Awakening
Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon
F-Zero
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn
Kirby's Dream Land 2
Mario Golf: Advance Tour
Mario Kart 8
Mario Tennis: Power Tour
Mega Man
Mega Man 2
Mega Man 3
Mega Man 4
Mega Man 5
Mega Man 6
Mega Man 7
Mega Man 8
Mega Man 9
Mega Man X
Mega Man X2
Mega Man X3
Mega Man Zero 3
Mortal Kombat XL
Pokemon Sun
Pokemon Trading Card Game 2
Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords
Shantae and the Pirate's Curse
Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment
Sky Force Anniversary
Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Sonic 3 & Knuckles
Star Fox
Super Mario Bros. 2
Super Mario Bros. 3
Super Mario Kart
Super Mario Land
Super Mario Maker
Super Mario World 2
Super Metroid
Tales of PhantasiaThe Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons
The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose
Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3
If I average out those 65 games over the 365 day calendar, that means I finished one game every 5.6 days, which is true but a bit misleading. I basically cleared out Mega Man 1-6 in a weekend, Super Mario Land in one sitting, and then other games took me a month to finish (I'm looking at you, Tales of Phantasia).
Below are some visualizations of the games I've been playing this year:
Figure 1: Games by Genre
2017 was certainly the year of the platformer, although I probably spent more time as a whole playing the 6 RPGs than I did with the 32 platformers, so this is a bit misleading. The number of hours is definitely tipped in favor of RPGs as I've spent the last few weeks slogging it out in a few lengthy JRPGs, but I didn't finish them in time for the new year.
Figure 2: Rating by Genre
The best genre of the year was for action games, buoyed up by several excellent Zelda titles. Racing games, rail shooters, and strategy games come up just behind in second, with the worst genre being the card game.
Figure 3: Games by System*
*This
refers to the system the game was originally on, not necessarily the one on
which I played it. If it was originally released on more than one, then I coded
it based on the system on which I played it.
Figure 4: Game Rating by System
My shining star for the year was the Wii U, which had two titles which I absolutely adored. Other consoles to rank on average above 9 were my beloved 3DS, the Genesis, with a strong trilogy of Sonic titles, and the NES, for which I hit the big time highlights this year to overcome my poor education on the console.
Figure 5: Games by Developer
My most played developer of the year was Capcom by a country mile, thanks to a ton of Mega Man games, and three Capcom developed Zelda games. Following up was Nintendo, with a bunch of companies pulling up the rear with 1 game a piece. Capcom stock will be nosing up after the publication of this, so buy early ;)
Figure 6: Game Rating by Developer
And Hal Laboratory is the reTROview developer of the year, thanks to the strong retroactive performance of classics Kirby's Dream Land 2 and Earthbound. Honorable mentions go to Yacht Club Games, Sega, and Nintendo, all of whom finished with an average rating above 9. Nintendo is probably the real developer of the year, because they accomplished their rating of 9.1 with 12 games, compared to Hal's 9.5 over 2 games. But the rules are ironclad and mercilessly unfair. Matrix Software takes home the prize of worst developer of the year, and no one else even approached their level of dreadfulness.
Figure 7: Handheld or Home?
Home gaming again surpassed handheld for me in terms of completion, but this is just due to the fact that I play more RPGs on my handhelds, where I can easily save at a moment's notice/put in sleep mode, making home RPG playing less attractive. I'd say I almost certainly game more on my handhelds than at home on net.
Figure 8: Ratings for Handheld and Home
Home games were rated slightly better than handhelds this year, purely due to a handful of handheld stinkers in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn and Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light.
Figure 9: Games by Company
Nintendo again retains the crowd, and that will likely be the case until the day I die. Sony was in second place, with triple the games played of Sega in third.
Figure 10: Game Rating by Company
Sega retains the crown based on Sonic's superb Genesis trilogy as the best game company of 2017!
Awards:
Game of the (reTROview) year: Super Mario Bros 3
After all of these years, games have only become more visually polished, but I don't know if anything will ever beat the loving design of SMB 3.
Best New Game (to me) of the (reTROview) year: Super Mario Maker
What a joy this game was to play. Great work, as usual, by Nintendo.
Stinker of the (reTROview) year: Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light
Gross. I can essentially guarantee that I will never pick this one up again.
Median Game of the (reTROview) year: Shantae and the Pirate's Curse
Somehow, even after adding in 30 more games, Shantae and the Pirate's Curse is still the median game. How bizarre. If this keeps up after another year, we need an investigation into the peculiar mathematical properties of this game.
Newest Game reTROviewed: Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment
This is the only 2017 game I played this year!
Oldest Game reTROviewed: Castlevania
The winner after 100 posts was 1988's Super Mario Bros. 2, so I successfully moved it back two years to 1986 with Castlevania. Go me.
The ReTROview Top 10
10. Fire Emblem: Awakening (9.5)
9. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (9.5)
8. Mega Man X (9.5)
7. Mega Man 3 (9.6)
6. Mario Kart 8 (9.7)
5. The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (9.8)
4. Mario Golf: Advance Tour (9.8)
3. Earthbound (9.8)
2. Super Mario Maker (9.9)
1. Super Mario Bros. 3 (10)
The reTROview Bottom 10
10. Final Fantasy XIII (7.6)
9. Super Mario World 2 (7.5)
8. Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings (7.5)
7. Mortal Kombat XL (7.5)
6. Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (7)
5. Mega Man X3 (6.5)
4. Pokemon Trading Card Game 2 (6.5)
3. Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose (6)
2. Golden Sun: Dark Dawn (5)
1. Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light (4)
Anyway, that's been my year in review! Play the top 10, avoid the bottom 10 unless you're big fans of the genre or series, although 10-6 were hardly "bad games". I just tend to only play things that I really want to play or are considered to be classics, which means the games I play are better than your average game, usually. But there are certainly better options out there for each of the genres and series listed in the bottom 10.
I'm again grateful for this blog, which has encouraged me to clear out the backlog, and hope 2018 sees similar progress. I think another 65 is unrealistic, so I'll shoot for clearing out 50 games this year, which seems reasonable. Stay tuned for more reTROview!
-TRO
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