Not sure how many responses to expect, but I’ll post anyway. A lot of gamers talk about having a backlog of games they’re still working on finishing, but if you had to make a list of five unfinished games you could see yourself liking, what would they be? Here’s my list.
- The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (DX) (Gameboy/Color)
This goes back to a very long car ride when I was a child. I had read in a magazine that you can jump obstacles with a neat trick. If you press Start and Select at the exact moment you are changing to a different screen, you will be on the far side of the next screen. So if you came in from the right, you would appear on the far right instead of the left. I was exploiting the trick to go where I wasn’t supposed to. I got stuck inside the wall! I saved the game foolishly, and any time I loaded it, I was still in the wall. Would love to play again the right way.
- Final Fantasy IX (PlayStation)
What went wrong here is much more simple. I owned a PlayStation 2, which was backwards compatible with the original PlayStation, so I used it to play Final Fantasy IX. I made it from disc three of four, to disc four of four. But when the game prompted me to change discs, I put disc four in and nothing happened. It was a bum disc. It just plain didn’t work. The upside is GameFAQs hosts save files for these sort of things, so not all is lost (except for specific character leveling and similar things).
- Baldur’s Gate II (Windows)
This is pretty simple. I grew up a console gamer, but toward the end of high school, I discovered there’s another world of gaming: PC gaming. I remember the magazine PC Gamer (which may still be in print), and Computer Gaming World, but I never got into it, until I heard the opinions of magazine editors in podcasts. It’s one of those “The grass is always greener on the other side” type things. To my credit, I did play Icewind Dale to completion, but Balder’s Gate II is supposedly the cream of the crop.
- Any 2D Metroid game (various)
When Metroid Prime was released, I bought it and finished it in little time. I remember getting lost, and the exact part of the game where I realized where to go. Then I fought Ridley, then I fought the final boss, then the credits rolled after that. The game was incredible, graphically, sound-wise, in terms of game design, and on. Yet, I can’t beat Super Metroid, or the original Metroid, and Zero Mission had me constantly referencing a guide. The irony is, I love Metroidvania games. I just understand the Castlevania part better than the Metroid.
- Thief I + 2 (Windows)
Again, this is looking into the neighbor’s yard, but this was an early game / series for Ken Levine, and I really like BioShock and BioShock Infinite. I can see myself really enjoying this one if I just set aside the time to go from start to finish.
What do you think? Are there five games you would still like to complete from yesteryear? There is a time for resolutions coming soon.
Blimps Go 180 