I have a massive backlog that consists of over 200 games, which accounts for almost half of my collection. Depression and frustration overcome me when I open my closet doors. I’ve only added to this pile over the last two years. However, I have recently completed three games! Well, kind of.
Technically, I simply re-categorized a couple. While some games have clear endings where you’ve “beaten” them, others titles don’t have clear cut completion statuses. I actually have this whole set of rules in my mind about what counts as beating certain games. For example, paying off my debt in an Animal Crossing game creates a win in my book. However, sometimes I end up changing my mind or bending the rules a bit depending on the game. Is that cheating? Maybe a little bit. I have my reasons though. Below are three examples of games I recently re-categorized and my reasoning behind each change.
Brain Age: Training Your Brain in Minutes a Day
Unfinished to Beaten
I haven’t thought about Brain Age for a long time and I don’t really remember why I had it marked as incomplete. Upon further inspection of the game, I found that completing 20 days of training unlocks all of the training programs. I scrolled my game’s calendar all the way back to 2006 to find that I finished 28 days of training in my teenage youth. That sounds like a win to me. The Sudoku puzzles included in the game could be used as a benchmark as well, but the mode remains a side attraction to the brain training mini-games.
Completing all the Sudoku puzzles would only add to an attempt to 100 percent the game.
Final Fantasy XI Expansions (PS2)
Unfinished to Null
I used to play Final Fantasy XI on a PlayStation 2. For those of you who don’t know, FFXI is an MMORPG and came with a hard drive that had to be installed into the old fat PS2s. After an incident where my PS2 was left on for almost two years straight (it’s a long story), my PS2’s hard drive finally fried.
Despite continuing to play FFXI for another two to three years on PC, I never actually beat any of the expansion packs. The PC version of FFXI leaves a huge black mark on my record with 10 expansions and add-ons packs remaining unfinished in my collection. I removed the PS2 versions because I can no longer play them on my current still living PS2, which is a slim model. R.I.P. PS2 Fat.
Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution
Unbeaten to Beaten
I didn’t plan to reclassify Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution. Initially I positioned the game’s Quest mode as the main campaign. Quest mode essentially has the player touring in-game arcades while completing challenges and competing in tournaments with AI players. However, a fundamental problem arose: I am awful at Virtua Fighter, more so than any other fighting game I have played.
In hopes to retain my sanity, I lowered the bar for completion to beating the arcade mode on normal difficulty, which didn’t really work out either. Like a true controller slapping casual, I lowered the difficulty to easy and claimed my trophy there. Dirty? Yes. Realistically, I would never have had the time and drive to see more. Completing the mode on easy still rolls the credits, so I’ll settle for that.
These seemingly spontaneous changes to rules can backfire. Occasionally a game gets reclassified as unfinished if I feel my past reasoning was flawed. I’m also always finding errors in my game listings. For example, I recently found that I had a single listing for Dead or Alive Ultimate on the Xbox. However, the game is actually a compilation featuring a port of the original Dead or Alive and a remake of Dead or Alive 2. Mistakes like these sadden me as it sets me back on an already impossible task of significantly reducing my backlog.
With my limited free time, impulsive purchasing habits and slight addiction to Final Fantasy XIV, I’m struggling to tear down my list. Occasionally, it can feel like I’m cheating. But if it’s justified, I can’t really worry too much.
I think and write about my backlog way too much.
Why are you reading this? Go back to playing video games.
