Battle of The Backlog

If anyone had actually taken time to read some of the entries on this blog then they will have realised a large part of it is devoted to my video game collection. As one would expect the regular acquisition of new titles (and old) will naturally lead to the creation of a video game backlog. A terrible first-world affliction that haunts so many collectors. Of course I am not immune to this and my own backlog has now become quite substantial.


There are titles spanning the PS2, GameCube, Wii, 3DS, PS3 and Xbox 360. Across home console and handhelds. The backlog list does not discriminate.


For my own purposes I have split my list into two categories; games unfinished and those still unopened. Unfinished games are ones that I feel still have more enjoyment to offer. Such as the two Call Of Duty titles on the list. I've put hours into multiplayer but have not scratched the single player campaign. The other half of the list are those games that for some reason or another I have yet to even start. Many still remain in their shrink wrappings.


Unfinished


Battlefield 3 (Xbox 360)
Braid (PS3)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PS3)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Xbox 360)
Crysis 2 (Xbox 360)
Dark Souls (PS3)
Dead Space (PS3)
Fable II (Xbox 360)
Ghostbusters: The Video Game (PS3)
Mario Kart 7 (3DS)
Mario Kart: Double Dash (GameCube)
ModNation Racers (PS3)
Prince of Persia (PS3)
Pullblox (3DS)
Saints Row: The Third (PS3)
Shift 2: Unleashed (PS3)
Skyrim (Xbox 360)
Stacking (PS3)
Star Wars: Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron II (GameCube)
Super Mario 3D Land (3DS)
Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)
Super Mario Sunshine (GameCube)
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (3DS)
Toy Story 3: The Video Game (PS3)


Not Started


Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (Xbox 360)
Bioshock 2 (PS3)
Borderlands (Xbox 360)
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (PS3)
Fallout: New Vegas (PS3)
Luigi's Mansion (GameCube)
Lost Planet 2 (PS3)
Metroid Prime (GameCube)
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (GameCube)
MotorStorm: Pacific Rift (PS3)
Muramasa: The Demon Blade (Wii)
Punch-Out!! (Wii)
Resident Evil (GameCube)
Shank 2 (PS3)
Star Wars: Battlefront II (PS2)
Super Smahs Bros. Melee (GameCube)
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (GameCube)
Trine 2 (PS3)
Viva Pinata (Xbox 360)
XIII (GameCube)
Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure (Wii)


The plan as always is that I will return to them at some undetermined time in the future. If all goes to plan that will be when I have turn my attic into a fully equipped entertainment hub. Someday...

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

The Wind Waker is one of those top rated GameCube games that I have added to my collection. I managed to get an excellent copy of the collectors edition that included a compilation disc containing versions of The Legend of Zelda, The Adventure of Link, Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. There was also a guide booklet included too, which is also in excellent condition.

The Zelda series is a strange one for me. I have only ever played one through to completion, A Link to the Past on the SNES. Myself and my friend poured hours into that game and loved every minute of it. Since then I haven't played much Zelda but did get a fair portion of the way though The Phantom Hourglass on the DS. I think I like the idea of playing through a Zelda game more than I actually enjoy doing it.

I put The Wind Waker into the Wii a few weeks ago and played through the opening section of the game. One thing stands out above all others and that is the graphics. For a game released in 2003 on an underpowered system, the game looks phenomenal. It is the cell shaded graphical style that gives it the wow factor. In another ten years this game will still look amazing because of the art direction, whereas games like Gears of War that look great now will look terrible in the future. I can't believe there was such a commotion when the game was released over the look of it. The game played exactly like I expected, the same as Phantom Hourglass the direct sequel to this game. I know I finish too many posts saying that I will return one day to play this game. In the case of The Wind Waker I hope that is true.

Mario Kart Double Dash

I picked this game up on eBay to add to my list of must play GameCube (GC) games. I'd read mixed opinions of Double Dash online but the consensus seems to be that it is one of the top rated GC games. It must have been back in May, perhaps June when it arrived but I only got around to playing it a week ago. One of the reasons is that I had to get another GC controller first.

Myself and my wife (a huge Mario Kart fan) sat down and played it for a while and were less than impressed. It is probably a bit unfair on the game to judge it after playing Mario Kart Wii so much. Even though there is little difference in the graphical quality, we missed some of the Wii gameplay mechanics. Another problem is that we had played nearly all of the tracks in Double Dash either in Mario Kart Wii or the DS version. I think Nintendo is just being lazy now with having the same tracks in so many Mario Kart games. That isn't a direct criticism of Double Dash but of Nintendo themselves. I'm hoping that when it arrives on the 3DS it will be full of new tracks. I doubt it though.

I haven't played enough of Double Dash to get to know the ins and outs of the main new addition to the game, two characters to a vehicle. It appears to add a little element of strategy to the gameplay and it is nice to see something new in Mario Kart after all these years. With so many games in my growing collection that I've yet to play or games like Zelda: The Wind Waker that I want to return to I won't be promising to play Double Dash much more. 

CG controller arrives. Looks weird.

This is the first of two quick notes on new hardware additions to the collection.

The GameCube (GC) is a system that I missed out on totally. According to people who had one there are plenty of sensational games for it. Thankfully, Nintendo know how to do backwards compatibility correctly and I can play GC games on my Wii. The first one I bought was Super Mario Sunshine nearly 18 months ago. I never did find the time to turn it on though. That is until I started rebuilding my collection.

I decided to play Super Mario Sunshine a couple of months ago now and popped it into the Wii. It took a few minutes before I realised that the Wii Remote is not compatible with GC games. I had just assumed it would be but having now seen a GC controller I can see the vast difference. I found a GC controller on eBay and it arrived shortly after. It certainly is a weird looking controller, building on the N64's legacy of strange controller configuration. I find it comfortable to hold and the button configuration is nicely laid out. The trigger button has a pretty cool double mechanic of being squishy or pressing it harder allows for it to click in. It is something I've yet to see on another controller.

With the new controller I thought I was ready to tackle Super Mario Sunshine. After putting in an hour or so I then realised I needed a GC memory card to save. That will be another post for another day though.

Backlog a new and growing concern

An unintended consequence of trying to increase my video game library has been the creation of a backlog. This idea of a backlog is new to me as I've never really had more than one game I've wanted to play at a time. When I say play, I don't mean to completion in most cases. Generally I'll finish with a game once I've stopped having fun and feel that I've had value for money from my purchase. I have found that in this generation especially the ratio of games completed to played has fallen substantially. Take for instance Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and it's sequel. I barely scratched the surface of either game's single player campaign, yet feel that I got excellent value from all the time spent in online multi-player. So I think it is fair to say I'm not a completionist. So my backlog is games I've yet to even play, rather than fully complete.

At the moment I'm really enjoying Assassin's Creed 2, while the following games languish in the backlog.

• Darksiders
• Dead Space
• Ghostbusters
• Luigi's Mansion
• Mario Kart Double Dash
• ModNation Racers
• Motorstorm: Pacific Rift
• Muramasa: The Demon Blade
• Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time
• Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Bounty
• Red Dead Redemption
• Saints Row 2
• Split / Second
• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
• Super Mario Galaxy 2
• Super Mario Sunshine
• Super Street Fighter IV
• The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker Limited Edition
• Transformers War for Cybertron

Of those games Super Mario Galaxy 2 is the one that I want to tackle next, while Dead Space is most likely to remain unplayed I'd say.