Pong and Beyond

I’ve had some interesting moments in this fifty games. I’ve finished replaying all the games I’ve played before – which will make one of the below categories mostly redundant in the future (or will at least require some creative accounting), but it also means everything that’s come since is a bit more surprising. At the same time, I’m getting several genres falling by the wayside – saving the final game for a big final push. More of that in the next fifty, I’m sure, as I keep moving to the end.

Best Game I Had Not Previously Played

Part of the downside of this quest is that I’m playing parts of a game that I want to play more of.  Now I’ve gotten this far in, this just gets worse – I am looking forward to using these hours to dive deep into games (as well as playing more board games. And relaxing. And just doing what I want to do). I’ve summed up a bunch of favourites in here, but these are specifically worth calling out.

GrimGrimoire was a surprisingly fun strategy game and while there were moments where I did struggle with parts, I feel like the story that’s being told is engaging and needs to be explored further. Dissidia Final Fantasy was just as surprising, but it might just be the fighting game that’s perfect for me.

For my winner, though, I need to go to my favourite genre. I’ve fallen in love with what the Dragon Quest series does, and Dragon Quest: Journey of the Cursed King tops that list. There is so much here, and it feels like a modern RPG that also innovates in a way that the series as a whole keeps doing.

Worst Game

At this point, it does feel like a lot of the worst games are old ones – games where time passed them by and they’re not as good as they would have been at the time. Rolling Thunder, for example, looked nice for its time, but was difficult to play and didn’t seem worth it.

The biggest offender of this is Fairlight, which is an isometric action/adventure that has no hints, feels inaccessible and isn’t a lot of fun. Even the Youtube walkthroughs I saw didn’t go anywhere and didn’t tell me what was going on, beyond a bunch of trial and error that I can’t be bothered with.

Most Surprising Game

What’s mostly happening with this list is that having played a bunch of them, you start forming your opinions before then. While a bunch of them pay off, others exceed your expectations. Dragon Quest V is an older RPG, but the scope of its story, even ignoring the mechanics, is great, especially when you consider there are such long stretches that don’t involve any combat. Wetrix is a puzzler that works remarkably well – more than you’d think, and it becomes so much more addictive even if the progression didn’t work the way I thought it would.

A Mind Forever Voyaging, on the other hand, doesn’t just bring in the additional quality.Its structure and setup feels so far beyond other Infocom games that it manages to tell a story far more interesting, in part as a real exercise in world building. It grabbed me from the start and it feels like it took until more recent walking simulators that you saw an experience like this created on a larger scale.

Biggest Disappointment

On the other hand, plenty of games are disappointing too. Laser Squad really felt like it could bring a fun if simple strategy game, but it was just that obtuse and difficult to deal with.It felt like it didn’t work, and it was disappointing when I was ready for something I could sink my teeth into.

Best Blast From The Past

This set of fifty games is the last where I’m playing games I’ve played before – so the last set will all be new to me. Going back and playing through Curse of Monkey Island was really nice, showing me that part of the story again even if it fell flat at the end – again. It certainly reminded me of some good puzzles I thought were in other games.

But the real blast from the past was the Incredible Machine. The series charmed me early on and I still enjoy playing them, as the charm still exists. It beats games like Eets by its variety and focusing on creating puzzles, without other distractions. Yeah, it’s still a brilliant game to play.

Games We Kept Playing

As always, we haven’t been able to keep playing loads of games – and although it’s a focus on blog gaming, it’s also because the games on the list are getting older and there are new ones worth playing… But out of them, it’s Mr. Driller that we kept getting stuck into. It’s that much fun and I want to play more of it.