I finished more than 50 video games in 2010. I did not plan to. But here’s the list.
As I’ve done for each of the past four years, I’ve assembled the list of games I started playing for fun during the preceding year — some 193 of them — and then bolded the ones I finished.
The Necessary Preamble
My tallies went up since 2009, though I had expected them to fall. I’ve been busier with work and home life. I may not have kids, but I am married. I figured all that would translate into fewer games played. Nope.
As always, the list of games I started playing is imprecise. I try to only include games I’ve played for fun, which means I exclude games I only played at press events (finished ones like Gran Turismo 5 and unfinished ones like The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword). I do include any game I played at home, though some of them, to be clear, I only played because I had to for work (Fighters Uncaged, I’m talking about you!). I include games I’ve played for only an hour (or as long as it takes to get one’s fill of Extreme Baby Maker) and games I’ve played for weeks.
The main point of the list is to look at what I’ve finished, since that list is more definite. These “finished” games are games in which I reached some sort of narrative end or final level in a linear sequence. I did not 100% complete these games. And, with games like Photo Dojo where completion is a debatable status, I erred on the side of considering the game not finished.
Two things to note: 1) As a games reporter, I get most of the games I play mailed to me, which makes trying this many games economically easy. 2) I wind up playing the most games on platforms that have good download systems and lots of free games and free demos — iPad, iPhone and Xbox 360.
My 2010 Games Played/Finished List
DS
(played 15, completed 5)
1. Dragon Quest IX
2. Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light
3. Flametail DS
4. Glow Artisan
5. Link ‘N Launch
6. Mario Vs. Donkey Kong: Miniland Mayhem
7. Photo Dojo
8. Picross 3D
9. Pokemon Soul Silver
10. Snapdots
11. Sonic Colors
12. Starship Defense
13. Super Scribblenauts
14. Trajecticle
15. X-Scape
iPad
(played 23, completed 1)
1. Angry Business Man
2. Ash
3. Babylonian Twins
4. Chaos Rings
5. Chu Chu Rocket
6. defence of The Oasis
7. Galaxy on Fire 2 Lite
8. Godfinger All-Stars
9. The Incident
10. Labyrinth 2
11. Mirror’s Edge
12. Rage HD
13. Reckless Racing HD
14. Infinity Blade
15. The Iron Horse
16. Osmos HD
17. Plunderland
18. Quickhook
19. Sword and Poker Lite
20. UFO on Tape
21. Warpgate
22. We Rule
23. Words with Friends HD
iPhone
(played 25, completed 1)
1. Assassin’s Creed II: Discovery
2. Colorbind
3. Colorblind (this is the only game I bought this year because of a typo)
4. Cut The Rope
5. Denki Blocks
6. DoodleJump
7. Drop7
8. Dropship
9. eBoy FixPix
10. Edge
11. Espgaluda II
12. Eternal Legacy
13. Flight Control
14. Galcon Labs
15. Game Dev Story
16. Hoggy
17. Karmastar
18. Kometen
19. Monster Dash
20. Shibuya
21. Space Miner
22. Star Wars Arcade Falcon Gunner
23. Tilt To Live
24. Topple 2
25. WordFu+
PC
(played 20, completed 0)
NOTE: Many of these were games I played as a judge for the Independent Games Festival’s 2010 awards. I’ve excluded the dozen or so games I played for the 2011 awards, as that judging is ongoing.
1. AaaaaaaAAaaaaaAAAaaAAAAAAAAAA!! – A Reckless Disregard for Gravity
2. Bejeweled 3
3. Civilization V
4. Closure
5. Cogs
6. Doom (Here’s a good place to point out that any game, from any year, that I first played in 2010, goes on this list. So, yes, 2010 was the first year during which I played Doom.)
7. Faultline
8. Farmville
9. Heroes of Newerth
10. Killjet
11. Nidhogg
12. Miegakure
13. Monaco
14. Owlboy
15. Rocketbirds Revolution
16. A Slow Year
17. Starguard
18. Trauma
19. Vessel
20. Zuma Blitz
PSP
(played 3, completed 2)
1. Alien Zombie Death
2. Invizimals
3. God of War: Ghost of Sparta
PS3
(played 23, completed 9)
1. 3D Dot Game Heroes
2. Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
3. Beat Sketcher
4. Dante’s Inferno
5. Dead Nation
6. DeathSpank
7. Def Jam Rapstar
8. Echochrome II
9. The Fight Lights Out
10. Heavy Rain
11. Joe Danger
12. Kung Fu Rider
13. Lost Planet 2
14. MAG
15. Mega Man 10
16. ModNation Racers
17. Racquet Sports
18. Resonance of Fate
19. The Shoot
20. Start The Party
21. TerRover
22. Top Gun
23. Yakuza 3
Xbox 360
(played 62, completed 21)
1. Afterburner Climax
2. Alan Wake
3. Army of Two: The 40th Day
4. Baby Maker Extreme (Yes, this is a real Xbox Live Indie game.)
5. Bayonetta
6. BioShock 2
7. Breath of Death VII
8. Call of Duty Black Ops
9. Castlevania HD
10. Castleviania: Lords of Shadow
11. CheneyStar
12. Chime
13. Costume Quest
14. Crackdown 2
15. Crisis in the Gulf
16. Dance Central
17. Dark Void
18. Darksiders
19. Death By Cube
20. DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue
21. Decimation X
22. Dorito’s Crash Course
23. Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
24. Explosionade
25. Fable III
26. Fighters Uncaged
27. Gyromancer
28. Halo: Reach
29. Harm’s Way
30. Hypership Out of Control
31. Kinect Adventures
32. Kinect Joy Ride
33. Kinect Sports
34. Kinectimals
35. Lego Harry Potter
36. Limbo
37. Mass Effect 2
38. Medal of Honor
39. Monday Night Combat
40. Need for Speed Hot Pursuit
41. Nier
42. Pac-Man Championship Edition DX
43. Platformance: Castle Pain
44. PowerGig Rise of the Six String
45. Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
46. Radiangames Crossfire
47. Radiangames Inferno
48. Radiangames JoyJoy
49. Red Dead Redemption
50. Shoot 1Up
51. Singularity
52. Snoopy Flying Ace
53. So Many Girls So Little Time
54. Sonic Free Riders
55. Soulcaster
56. Splinter Cell Conviction
57. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II
58. Super Meat Boy
59. Toy Soldiers
60. Transformers: War for Cybertron
61. Vanquish
62. YourShape Fitness Evolved
Wii
(played 22, completed 12)
1. Art Style Light Trax
2. Art Style Rotohoex
3. Art Style Rotozoa
4. Bit.Trip Runner
5. Donkey Kong Country Returns
6. Endless Ocean: Blue World
7. Epic Mickey
8. Flingsmash
9. Fluidity (Only game in 2010 where I reached the final level but couldn’t beat it.)
10. GoldenEye 007
11. Kirby’s Epic Yarn
12. Lord of the Rings Aragorn’s Quest
13. Max and the Magic Marker
14. Metroid Other M
15. No More Heroes 2
16. Red Steel 2
17. Silent Hill Shattered Origins (Only 2009 game I finished in 2010.)
18. Sin & Punishment Star Successor (Game whose completion in 2010 made me cheer the loudest, and jump up and down in my living room.)
19. Sonic Colors
20. Super Mario Galaxy 2
21. Thruspace
22. Trauma Team
The final 2010 tally is: 193 games played; 51 finished
That compares to:
2009… 165 played; 48 finished
2008… 135 played; 37 finished
2007… 118 played; 35 finished
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