The Khushrenada Contrivance – The 2019 Game Plan

I’m ticked off, dear reader. Once again, an idea I’d come up with in my mind has been implemented in life before I got the chance to execute it first. In this case, I was shocked to see this article by Roland on his 2019 goals. You see, with the new year, I was looking over the Backloggery account I use to keep track of my games. I was able to wrap up a few games in December and cross them off my list. As I thought about doing an article on what I played in 2018, I also thought about looking ahead and what I’d like to do in 2019. It seemed like a perfect follow-up to look forward after reflecting. I didn’t mention this plan to anyone yet during the 12 days it took me to write that article about 2018, Roland has beaten me to the punch making me look like a copycat. So, I’ve altered my plan a bit and my first goal in 2019 will now be to kill Roland to keep him from telepathically stealing any more ideas from me. It seems like the only solution to this problem.

Going back at least five years and probably more, I remember reading some articles about how much making lists or using a set checklist on a task can help prevent mistakes and allow a person to accomplish more tasks and goals in life. It’s something I’ve tried to do more of in my life whether it be at my job or in my personal life. If you haven’t heard yet, it’s also psychologically satisfying. I suppose in some way it’s like making a game out of playing games. How many can you cross off a list in a certain amount of time?

 

I also recall this article by Roland on Gaming Paralysis and it is a feeling I’ve had from time to time. (Perhaps I won’t kill him after all since then it would prevent articles like that one from appearing in the future. Lucky for him, his death is no longer my first goal of 2019.) Personally, I think of it like going to a restaurant you like but haven’t been to in awhile. As you look at the menu, you are reminded of all the different meals they have that you enjoy and now you want them all even though that would be crazy expensive nor could you finish them during that time. Instead you have to somehow whittle it down to one and it can be a tough choice. When I’ve polished off a couple games and I’m ready for a new adventure, it can be tough to select something because I have a lot of good choices I haven’t got to yet. On top of that, I’ll see some games I really enjoyed but haven’t played in a few years and part of me is torn to replay those again. Should I do something new or old? That’s why I’m trying to use lists more or focus on certain groups of games. It reduces the amount of options I have to choose from which makes it easier to decide on what I’d like to start on next.

 

A couple years ago, I made a list of games I wanted to finally play or complete before Breath of the Wild came out. Well, I made a little bit of progress and then Breath of the Wild released and stopped that progress. However, I’ve continued to chip away at the list and have it about half done even as I strayed and played other titles not on it. I would like to complete that list this year.

At the same time, around the end of GameCube and start of the Wii era, I’ve got into a habit of trying to play through games on a previous system while I buy games for the new system and create a backlog on that current system thus repeating the cycle with every new console. With my Breath of the Wild journey over, I’m looking at all these other Wii U games I haven’t got to yet and wanting to play catch up some more with it while I also keep playing through 3DS games but this means my Switch will go untouched. So, no more! I’m going to try and break that cycle and focus on the new hotness instead and make Switch games a big focus for the year.

 

When I bought my Switch, it came with seven games. Before that, I’d actually bought two Switch games despite not owning the system since I knew I’d get it eventually and they were collector’s editions that I wanted. After getting the system, I started paying attention to game sales for it and checking out the used game scene and that has now currently brought my total to sixteen Switch games in all. Now, I’m not going to get through them all this year. I know this. Still, I do want to tackle a good chunk of it. First, though, I’m going to eliminate a couple games from these Switch titles of possibly getting played this year. One of the games is Breath of the Wild. I just finished that on Wii U. I’m not doing it again on Switch right now. Plus, a family member played the Switch copy and beat it so in a way it is already done. Another game I’ve got is Xenoblade Chronicles 2. That is off the list because after finishing Breath of the Wild, I want some shorter adventures. Plus, one of the games from the game list I made before Breath of the Wild came out was to finish Xenoblade Chronicles X so if I’m getting into a 100 hour epic then I’m only doing one in a year and it would be that one. What’s that? It’s one of Roland’s game goals as well? The man has some sort of death wish. So be it! Killing him is back at the top of my list.

Decision Time

Of the fourteen games left, what do I want to schedule to play? Definitely the first one I’m crossing of my list is Super Mario Odyssey. After that, I want to get into ARMS, Kirby Star Allies and, surprisingly, Rime. Next up would be 1-2-Switch, Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle, Super Bomberman R and Mario Tennis Aces. Now, it gets a bit fuzzy. Of the 6 remaining titles, I’d probably go with L.A. Noire, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Sonic Mania Plus and Pokken Tournament DX. That leaves Splatoon 2 and Fire Emblem Warriors as the last two Switch games remaining to be possibly played in 2020. I’m fine with that for a couple reasons that mainly deal with their sort of Wii U predecessors of the original Splatoon and Hyrule Warriors and my lack of time playing them. However, I also say it’s fuzzy because I could end up getting some other Switch games this year that I’d want to play ahead of those last four listed like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Yoshi’s Crafted World, Grim Fandango or Animal Crossing to name a few. The main thing is that I want to finish twelve Switch games this year, at minumum, which is a game a month. If I do more then I’ve overachieved which is great but at playing at least twelve titles is my main goal with the Switch.

 

Going back to that list I mentioned of games I wanted to play before Breath of the Wild, I’ve still got these games on it that I’d like to get done. For the Wii, Super Paper Mario, Metroid: Other M, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and Kirby’s 20th Anniversary Collection. I was also close to finishing Metroid Prime: Corruption on Hypermode. I was at the Omega Ridley boss battle and lost a few times. I knew I was close to the end but I wasn’t that excited about finishing it since the end is basically a bunch of boss fights in a row. You beat Ridley, you play a brief little bit in the strange planet of Phaaze to get to Dark Samus’s lair and then after fighting Dark Samus you get to fight the Aurora Unit. I had a tough time beating them on Veteran difficulty so I wasn’t sure how long these Hypermode versions may take to defeat. Yet knowing I’m close has made me want to finally wrap it up.

The rest of the games on the list are a mix of other systems. I had started playing Earthbound for the first time on the Wii U VC but only got to Twoson and didn’t keep with it because of mixed feelings on the game. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is the other Wii U choice I had to tackle for that system along with Xenoblade Chronicles X but I think I’m keeping XCX on the backburner for now. For the Nintendo DS, I had selected Chrono Trigger as a game to play and finish which I’ve never done before with that iconic title. For the GameCube, it was playing Star Fox Adventures for the first time as well as completing the second quest of Luigi’s Mansion to try and get A rank that time and to replay Metroid Prime 2: Echoes in order to replace the lost save file I used to have which got corrupted many years back. That’s eleven games. Let’s make it twelve so that it also comes out to one a month for the older systems and throw in Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask and catch up a bit more in that series.

Unlike Roland, I’m not assigning these set dates for completion aside from this year. It’s dealer’s choice for what order and when in the year I want to play them. Can I do it? Probably not. January’s almost over and I haven’t even touched any of these games yet while I’ve been writing up this article. Part of that is because I’m moving at the end of the month which will slow things down and I’m taking some schooling all year which will be my primary focus while also working. Then if I’m writing about my progress that could also take away time from actually gaming thereby further slowing me down. Yet, perhaps posting a list like this publicly will help keep me on top of it. It will be an interesting experiment to see if it has an effect. Also, I’m not going to be updating this post. If I finish a game then I’m just going to post a review of it on Pietriots itself and cross it off that way.

For those of you who just scroll through articles and want to quickly see what my 2019 should consist of then you’re in luck! Here it is in handy list form. 

 

Backlog

• Metroid Prime 2: Echoes

• Star Fox Adventures

• Luigi’s Mansion

• Chrono Trigger

• Earthbound

• Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker

• Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask

• Super Paper Mario

• Kirby’s 20th Anniversary Collection

• The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

• Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

• Metroid: Other M

Switch

• Super Mario Odyssey

• ARMS

• Kirby: Star Allies

• Rime

• 1-2-Switch

• Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle

• Super Bomberman R

• Mario Tennis Aces

• L.A. Noire (tentative)

• Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (tentative)

• Sonic Mania Plus (tentative)

• Pokken Tournament (tentative)

(Tentative titles will only be replaced with a different Switch game) 

 

What a list! What a variety of… Mario titles. All that’s left to do is actually play them now. As for the Roland Murder of 2019, I guess I’ll cross that off the list for now. Looking at a new blog I discovered recently from some comments here, it seems it is not just Pietriot members who have thought of posting a list of their 2019 gaming plans. Plus, Roland hasn’t actually given me full access to everything on Pietriots yet so I better wait first for that to happen. In the meantime, I guess I’ll just have to see if I can at least get through more games than him for the year. The race is on! May the best list win.

UPDATE: How can I update this article at the same time I’m posting it? Well, that’s because I basically had this article done and written up around Jan. 24. I was just getting some pictures for it and started talking to the other Pietriots about how we want to use categories and tags for articles. As this discussion occurred, I then ended up moving as planned resulting in not having an internet connection for awhile. Then I had to get my new place organized along with other life responsibilities. Now, I’m finally posting it about one month after it was written. As such, things have changed slightly from the previously written conclusion. I have begun playing Mario Odyssey and have also been playing some other 3DS titles like Mighty Switch Force 2 and Crosswords 3DS which weren’t on my list. Still, even though I hadn’t posted this yet, I was still feeling the effect of thinking I should start playing some of these games since that was my plan so this list thing might just work out after all. If reading this seemed strange with all the talk about January stuff, now you know why.