Gaming Backlog – My Shame

Backlog. A curse word in some circles. It is the bane of many gamers’ existence. Like entropy, it continually grows, never lessening. Some don’t give up hope, holding onto the ever fleeting “one day,” when time stands still, and all the tasks and goals that have fallen by the wayside over the years can finally be put to rest, completed. For others, the crushing sense of reality sets in as they realize it will never come to pass.

Super Metroid
Super Metroid

I am somewhere in the middle. Over the years my responsibilities exponentially grew proportionate to my age.  Someday, content with my millions of dollars to support me, I’d like to return to my backlog, playing through all these great games I missed. In the mean time, I’ll entertain you with a sampling. While my list is wide and varied, I narrowed it down to a six consoles (though you are missed Sega Saturn), with only five games per system. Please save your chiding until the end.

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

Let’s start at the beginning, shall we? Gaming in your childhood can be severally limiting. While things are different now with free games falling out of the sky, you were limited in the past. Birthdays and Christmas were typically the only time a new game was received, leaving you stuck with what you had. As such, on the SNES I’ve missed ActRaiserEarthboundOgre BattleMega Man X,  and most egregious of all, Super Metroid. While almost half of these can be forgiven, Super Metroid stands out worst of all.

Dragon's Crown
Dragon’s Crown

While there were a handful of games that passed me by on NES, and all the Sega systems, I mostly kept up with everything until I graduated high school. Then the world happened to me. I purchased a Playstation 2 within the first year it released. As the PS2 rolled on, I managed to keep up with most of it’s offerings. While the first Playstation had seemingly endless quality RPG’s, the PS2 had more. As a RPG fanatic, I felt the compulsion to play them. Alas, as my adulthood began, my backlog grew. Final Fantasy XII (which I purchased the collectors edition at midnight even), Shadow Hearts: CovenantOkamiDark Cloud, and Killer 7 were just a few of the titles I desperately wanted to play.

Final Fantasy XII
Final Fantasy XII

I fared worse on the next round of consoles, missing even more great games. On the Xbox 360, Lost OdysseyRed Dead RedemptionState of DecayDishonored, and Bioshock Infinite are the games I want to play the most. For the PS3, Dragon’s CrownDragon’s DogmaDark SoulsTales of Xillia, and Playstation All-Stars vie for my attention. The original Nintendo DS had the best RPG offerings of any console in the last 10 years, with Suikoden Tierkries, all three Dragon Quest re-releases (IV – VI), Final Fantasy Tactics A2, all three Castlevania games, and both Zelda games (Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks) being some of the best the system has to offer, and I missed them all.

Baldur's Gate II
Baldur’s Gate II

With my recent switch to PC gaming, I know have about two decades worth of awesome titles instantly added to my queue. Starcraft 2Planescape: TormentBaldur’s Gate II, all three original Fallout’s, and Civilization IV are a small sample that springs to mind.

Do you know the worst part of this list? I own every game I named here. Everyone. Whether digitally, or in a physical copy, I own them. It’s only the time I lack. Something I hope I’ll have more in the future. Again, this was only a small part of my back catalog. There’s plenty of games and consoles I left out.

What is the most egregious title you missed? Anything stand out as a sore thumb here? Comment below!

Tony writes for his own site, thecredhulk.com, about comics, video games, movies, TV and more, six days a week. You can follow his updates on Facebook or Twitter. Drop by and tell’em hi.

Don’t even look at my Steam collection.

17 Comments

  1. Welcome to my life 😀

    I’ve over 400 games on steam, only played about 50 of them, and i’ve got about another 200 in boxes off of steam or on Origin, Uplay and stuff. Around around 100 for my consoles.

    There’s just not enough time in the day for me to play them all sadly, and this has led to something i really hate. None completion. The amount of games i’ve started, gotten part way through and then gotten side tracked and never completed are growing.

    1. My Steam collection is sitting pretty at 410 games. While about 50 of those are just for collection, with no intent to replay (Legacy of Kain, KOTOR), that’s still entirely too many games. Plus, I have a list for every major console and handheld since the NES of games I want to play. Sigh… one day (might find a unicorn first).

  2. You aren’t alone. I’m a type of gamer that collects games. Which means that I have this huge pile of games that look interesting to me but I haven’t played them yet. -Sigh- If only we had more hours in a day.

    1. I used to be like that, but I’ve stopped collecting and playing games I want to. Still, backlog built up. So then I moved to only the AAA games, or ones I really wanted to play. I can’t even get through those. It may never come to be.

      1. I am a sort of guy that plays what looks like a fun game. Not the latest of the latest games 😛

        Well, each person his/her playstyle. I’m trying to finish each game I own now. Although, new games catch my eye and such.

      1. I’ve been gaming since NES days. Never been able to afford having multiple consoles, so that takes the entire Playstation/Xbox library out. Also gave up on PC gaming years ago. 🙂

    1. Stay ignorant. I’ve been woefully aware of the many games that have passed me by over the years. Now that I’ve delved into PC gaming, it’s worse.

      1. Despite eliminating games from those consoles, I still have quite a backlog. I still have a few unfinished/untouched Gamecube, Wii, and DS games. Ugh.

  3. I am adding Grandia II on the Dreamcast and Dragonforce on the Saturn to the new Sega list I just started you! you may want to give Dragonforce a miss though if the NTSC version is as expensive as a pal copy (sorry I presume you are NTSC as you mentioned high school)

    1. They are both on my list. I have a spreadsheet. I own Grandia II but my Dreamcast is busted. I’m hoping for a digital release. I’ll even take the PS2 Xtreme edition.

      I am a huge Saturn fan, and there’s quite a few games I want to play for it. But, tracking them down isn’t feasible. Way too costly. Yes, I’m in North America. I’ve looked into the NSTC version, way to expensive.

      Also, Albert Odyssey.

  4. Averaging around 400 games? Dang. I don’t have much of a Steam library, maybe around a dozen or so games. Still, there’s plenty I’d like to get on Steam once I can manage a better computer for games. Though, I’d have to admit there’s still plenty of PC games, new, old, and in between, that I’ve yet to play or beat.

    As far as consoles go, there were quite a few consoles I didn’t play a large number of games for, but my biggest issue would be what I like to call my old “Sony Curse”. Growing up, I never played the PS1 and I hardly touched the PS2 outside of a small handfull of games.

    When I started getting into emulation due to a low budget for stuff like building up collections of physical copies of old games, I built up large libraries of missed games, and my PS1 library is pretty large right now.

    I’m sort of in the middle myself lately. Part of me worries I’ll never get caught up, but at the same time I hold onto the belief that if I try hard enough I can play and enjoy all of the things I missed when I was a kid.

    1. My Steam library sounds like your PS1 library. It’s a mix of games I’ve missed and newer releases I haven’t gotten too yet.

      For me, there were plenty of games for Saturn, N64, PS2, and other I couldn’t afford but new I wanted. Now, it’s all about playing the waiting game for them to be released digitally. My digital library on PS3 and Wii is almost as staggering.

      One day…

      1. The funny thing is, even though my Steam library is small, there are still games I haven’t gotten to like the Gothic series.

        As for the rest, I mostly grab old stuff for emulators. Kinda helps, especially for old console exclusives or starting out with a series I never got into. The sad factor in all of it is, it wouldn’t be a lie to say that I spent more time downloading highly recommended games for old platforms than playing them. Lately though, I’ve been working on doing it the other way around.