DISCLAIMER
For your savings and sanity, be aware of the joy and curse of the gaming backlog… please don’t try this at home.
When it comes to New Year’s resolutions, I have never been able to maintain a consistent commitment to them. About a week before the end of each year, I think about how to improve myself or expand my knowledge and skills in the coming year. Unfortunately, these resolutions often fade into nothingness within the first week because I struggle to keep my commitments. Only in the past few years have I paid more attention to New Year’s resolutions. They are a positive goal to set and can pay off in unexpected ways when seen through. Despite my recent interest in New Year as a holiday, I have never made a New Year’s resolution. That is all about to change.
I have a few New Year’s resolutions that I plan to see through for the following year, but for this article, I want to discuss my Gaming resolution. Initially, this resolution sounded like a good idea; it would benefit my gaming knowledge, allowing me to write better reviews. However, I did not realise the scale of what I was setting out to do. It made me realise that this resolution is a very dumb idea. But I am going to persist, for better or worse. My Gaming New Year’s Resolution is… to get through a significant chunk of my Gaming Backlog.
Every gamer has that one video game they bought but have yet to play. A gaming backlog is this idea multiplied by an ungodly amount. The gaming backlog is a beautiful creation and an open invitation to the tastes and preferences of every gamer. At the same time, it is a cursed creation that can manifest over the years if you do not pay attention to it. The latter is the case for my gaming backlog.
I was a late bloomer to video games. I had a PS2 when I was younger but only played the games my parents and brother owned. My childhood consisted mainly of Crash Bandicoot games, nothing more. It was not until I got my PS3 that I started getting into gaming. I played Batman: Arkham City, The Last of Us and numerous PS1 classics on the system. I still own my PS3 and play it now and again. Once again, I loved gaming, but I was not yet at a stage where I was in love with it. Then, I got my PS4 for Christmas in 2017. At that very Christmas, the gaming bug bit me, and I have been a gamer ever since.
Due to my late gaming start, I have always wanted to play dozens of classic games, like Ocarina of Time, Half-Life 2, Mass Effect and Super Metroid. I own a PS3, PS5, PlayStation Portal, Nintendo Switch and an ASUS ROG Ally. I have all the necessary equipment to start going through the intensity of my backlog. Sadly, my backlog has gained too much traction over the years. It has grown into a size I could not possibly fathom. If I am going to tackle my gaming backlog, I first needed to come to terms with just how significant the backlog was.
Over the past few days, I have been on all my consoles, logged every game I own but have not played, and decided to make a spreadsheet. Little did I realise that this spreadsheet took me nearly a week to make, and when I finished it, the results were staggering. I was shocked at the amount of games I own. I was so shocked that I decided to make an account on HowLongtoBeat.com to log every game I have played versus the games I have yet to play. Making my account was where the situation worsened because I realised I owned games I started but never finished, like Hotline Miami, Luigi’s Mansion 3, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Super Mario World. The backlog grew even bigger, preparing for the final blow.
I do not have a PS Plus subscription (although I plan to get it) nor an Xbox Game Pass subscription for my ROG Ally (I use Steam). However, I do have Nintendo Switch Online, and I love it. The problem with Nintendo Switch Online is that dozens of classic games are available on the service, including NES, SNES, N64, GBA, Game Boy, and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive games. Switch Online differs from other online gaming services because the classic games do not leave the service, meaning that I am permanently owning/renting dozens and dozens of classic Nintendo games waiting for me to experience. NSO is a fantastic concept, but for my backlog, it was the final nail in the coffin that sealed my fate. I went through every game on Switch Online, picked out the ones I wanted to experience and added them to the backlog. Adding these games was the final stage in taming the beast. The results of my efforts are fantastic but terrifying at the same time. Nothing prepared me for the definitive number of games I have in my backlog.
Here we go, my Gaming Backlog consists of… 327 games!
At first, I was embarrassed. I could not believe the amount of money I had spent on gaming over the years, and I could not believe the ratio difference between games I have played and games I have not played. But I was pleasantly pleased the more time I spent thinking about my backlog. I was quite proud of the sheer volume of gaming history I have in my backlog. From critically acclaimed masterpieces to underappreciated indie games, my backlog has just about every single genre and style of game you can think of.
With the New Year upon us, I was thinking about how to tackle my gaming backlog. After some thought, I had an idea for a monthly article for Gaming Australia. Over the next 12 months, as I attempt to cross games off my list, I will write a monthly review article describing how my New Year’s resolution is going. I will give a very short review of the games I played during the month and a check-in about games added to the backlog. It’s a fun idea, giving me more incentive to get through the backlog. I will update you all at the end of January about how my resolution is going.
In the meantime, check out the link for my full gaming backlog (as of December 31st, 2024).
Happy New Year!
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