Super Sobou Land: A 19 Week Journey

When the Summer of Beatsome was in its final days, I got the idea to mark my progress with another banner. The act itself is simple to update, easy to deal with, and is good for motivation. Plus, I’m a statistics-loving guy and being able to look at my progress since a certain time on a daily basis is motivating and inspiring for me. Plus, I don’t need to stress about either trying to change my theme because I’m sick of it for how long I’ve had it around or looking for more material to use for a banner.

That’s where Super Sobou Land was born. Looking through The Spriter’s Resource for maps and map tile sets brought me to the Game Boy Color version of Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. Deluxe. Essentially an upgraded port, they added a little map for each of the eight worlds contained within the game. The person who ripped the sprite sheet also added a tile set into it, and this tile set was so easy to work with that I built my banner out of it.

Super Sobou Land at the start (click for bigger image).

The plan was to have Luigi go through six worlds, each with a various number of stages within. Each stage was an Unfinished game, and at the time I had 98 of them. With a world designed to have 98 red stages – including the castles – I thought it’d be fun to watch Luigi make progress as he took out World 1′s Castle, or took down World 2-4 through 2-7 in a single day. Cheeky nonsensical fun, and it made progressing through unfinished games into a game. I’d mark what happened to every game, regardless of whether I’d nulled it, removed it, beaten, completed, mastered… you get the idea.

As for new games, that’s what I had that little red pipe next to the final castle represent. It was clear I wouldn’t only have 98 unfinished games to take down during all this, so I plotted to have another banner afterwards. It made the map less “THE” 98 Unfinished, and more “the first 98 Unfinished on the pile”.

33 updates later, we're at the end of the road.

If my plan was to get back to having no Unfinished games left, that plan kinda failed. Between sales, gifts, Christmas, personal purchases, the desire to ruin someone not being a minion and so on, I actually ended up with six more Unfinished games at the end of this journey than when I began. If nothing else, I kept myself from becoming a Double Minion (Minion being having at least 100 Unfinished titles in your collection)!

But, the biggest failing of this map is that it never showed just what I had changed. If a person was attentive to my update history, they’d know, but for everyone else they’d only see that I had beaten a game, not what game I had beaten. I kept a log written down of everything I had done, and this post is mainly to remedy this problem.

[Note: CCC stands for Capcom Classics Collection]

 Games Beaten (29/96) 

1. Portal 2 (Steam)
2. Jamestown (Steam)
3. Mega Man Powered Up (PSP)
4. Genma Onimusha (Xbox)
5. The Binding of Isaac (Steam)
6. Dynasty Warriors Advance (GBA)
7. The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary Edition (DSiWare)
8. River City Ransom (VC)
9. Final Fantasy IV: The After Years (PSP)
10. Monster Tale (NDS)
11. Dynasty Warriors 5 (PS2)
12. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Steam)
13. Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions (PSP)
14. Eufloria (Steam)
15. Dead Rising 2 (Steam)
16. Really Big Sky (Steam)
17. Minecraft (PC)
18. Limbo (Steam)
19. Ys I & II Chronicles: Ys II (PSP)
20. Guilty Gear Judgment (PSP)
21. Astro Tripper (Steam)
22. Zeit² (Steam)
23. Mega Man Maverick Hunter X (PSP)
24. Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (360)
25. Rock of Ages (Steam)
26. ActRaiser (VC)
27. Dungeon Defenders (Steam)
28. Ultimate Ghosts ‘n Goblins (PSP)
29. de Blob (Wii)

 Games Completed (37/96)

1. Half-Life: Opposing Force (Steam)
2. Lunar: Dragon Song (NDS)
3. Capcom Classics Mini Mix: Bionic Commando (GBA)
4. Castlevania Chronicles (PS1 Classics)
5. Your Doodles Are Bugged! (Steam)
6. Zombie Shooter (Steam)
7. Super Mario Kart (VC)
8. Sequence (Steam)
9. Ben There, Dan That! (Steam)
10. Granny in Paradise (Steam)
11. Trino (Steam)
12. CCC Remixed: Bionic Commando (PSP)
13. CCC Remixed: Black Tiger (PSP)
14. CCC Remixed: Last Duel (PSP)
15. CCC Reloaded: 1943 (PSP)
16. CCC Reloaded: Eco Fighters (PSP)
17. CCC Reloaded: SonSon (PSP)
18. CCC Reloaded: Pirate Ship Higemaru (PSP)
19. Rampart (GBC)
20. CCC Reloaded: Exed Exes (PSP)
21. CCC Reloaded: Commando (PSP)
22. CCC Reloaded: Knights of the Round (PSP)
23. CCC Reloaded: 1943 Kai (PSP)
24. CCC Reloaded: Mercs
25. CCC Reloaded: The King of Dragons (PSP)
26. CCC Remixed: 1941: Counter Attack (PSP)
27. CCC Remixed: Three Wonders (PSP)
28. CCC Remixed: Quiz & Dragons (PSP)
29. CCC Remixed: Avengers (PSP)
30. CCC Remixed: Block Block (PSP)
31. CCC Remixed: Captain Commando (PSP)
32. CCC Remixed: Final Fight (PSP)
33. CCC Remixed: Forgotten Worlds (PSP)
34. CCC Remixed: Magic Sword: Heroic Fantasy (PSP)
35. CCC Remixed: Mega Twins (PSP)
36. CCC Remixed: Section Z (PSP)
37. CCC Remixed: Side Arms: Hyper Dyne (PSP)

 Games Beaten & Completed (2/96) 

1. Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls: Final Fantasy II (GBA)
2. Contra III: The Alien Wars (VC)

 Games Nulled (6/96)

1. Game & Watch Gallery 2 (GB)
2. Game & Watch Gallery 3 (GBC)
3. StarCraft 64 (N64)
4. Age of Empires (PC)
5. Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome (PC)
6. Inside a Starry-Filled Sky (Steam)

 Games Removed (22/96)

1. X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse (PS2)
2. Trauma Center: Under the Knife (NDS)
3. Freedom Force (Steam)
4. Freedom Force vs The Third Reich (Steam)
5. Maximo: Ghosts to Glory (PS2)
6. AaAaAA!!! – A Reckless Disregard for Gravity (Steam)
7. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Steam)
8. Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (NDS)
9. Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones (GBA)
10. Fire Emblem (GBA)
11. Bit.Trip Beat (Steam)
12. Stacking (XBLA)
13. Capcom Classics Mini Mix: Strider (GBA)
14. Crash Bandicoot (PS1 Classics)
15. Alien vs. Predator Classic 2000 (Steam)
16. Delve Deeper (Steam)
17. Toki Tori (Steam)
18. Knights in the Nightmare (PSP)
19. Bit.Trip Runner (Steam)
20. Fate of the World (Steam)
21. Gratuitous Space Battles (Steam)
22. Night Sky (Steam)

The reason it is 96 and not 98 is due to a few errors. Contra III: The Alien Wars was mistakenly recorded twice on the map, and Fire Emblem was never an Unfinished game for this map. It works out well in the end though, as that makes the big final castle not a world at all. Fuse this with my new banner, and it is as if Luigi has entered Castlevania where he now must assemble a 104-piece password to save the day from the Evil Lord Bak’Laag. Onward, to more progress!

Summer of Beatsome 2011

Back in 2009, my friend and fellow Backloggery Kariohki did a “Summer of Beatmore” to motivate her to get to a handful of games she had sitting around that hadn’t really been beaten or played much prior. She succeeded in the list she wanted to tackle, too! Fast forward to this June, where she tells me she wants to attempt a “Summer of Beatsome”, a less-intense version of Beatmore. Make it a goal to get a few games down, motivate oneself to get to that which hadn’t been accomplished yet. I decided that this was a great idea myself, since having a plan makes me get a good 80% of whatever is on that plan done within the time frame allotted. Of the five games on Kari’s list this Summer of Beatsome, she took down three.

Myself, on the other hand? With more free time and a ton more games around to faff off with, I managed to Beat three listed games, Completed 10 listed games, and went above and beyond by Beating an additional 8 and Completing an additional 19. I also removed 88 games. All the stats will be in a list below, as I want to explain why I removed that many games.

With the help of some friends this summer, I reevaluated my priorities and the very reason why I was backlogging. I’ve been known to be stubborn, rage-infused, and almost violently-motivated to finish games no matter how bad they are. Then, through the conversations with and by others, did I realize that one should play games to enjoy them. They’re not an obligation, they’re a hobby. Something to enjoy, to use in your leisure time, and to have fun with. With my impulse buying giving me a ton of stuff I didn’t want to play but owning for the sake of buying cheap games, I had a paradigm shift and began removing anything I didn’t want to play.

I also finally changed my stance on duplicate games. Prior, if I had multiple copies of the same game, I’d list them and mark them beaten or completed so long as they were on different systems. Yet I was also against copies of games, duplicates, and the like. I changed my paradigm on this as well, making it so that if I had multiple copies of a game that were exactly the same I would null all but one favored copy. Games that were changed, ported and updated, or remade, I would keep all of them with the UBCM statuses. Exact copies became a one-medal-per deal, but to change the game in some structural way caused a difference in an experience and thus was worth giving it its own Beaten, Completed, or Mastered medal.

Overall, I’d say that The Summer of Beatsome 2011 was a great success, and I’m looking forward to doing something like this again! Thanks to Kari for the idea and the motivational support. And now, the complete list of games I beat, completed, and removed in the past 3 months.

Offical Summer of Beatsome Games Beaten (3):
Brutal Legend (360)
Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)
Ys I&II Chronicles: Ys I (PSP)

Official Summer of Beatsome Games Completed (10):
Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs (PC)
Pikmin (GCN)
Banjo-Kazooie (XBLA)
Fallout (PC)
Phantasy Star IV (360 collection)
Gauntlet Legends (N64)
Harvest Moon (VC)
Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge (GBA)
Golden Axe Warrior (360 collection)
Phantasy Star II (360 collection)

Official Summer of Beatsome Games Left Unfinished (3):
Final Fantasy Tactics: TWoTL (PSP)
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (GBA)

Official Summer of Beatsome Games Removed (3)
Heroes of Might & Magic III + 2 expansions (GOG)

Additional Games Beaten (8):
=======
Qix (GB)
Doc Clock: The Toasted Sandwich of Time (Steam)
Breath of Death IV (Steam)
Cthulhu Saves the World (Steam)
NodNation Racers (PSP)
Fallout 3 (Steam)
Bastion (Steam)
HOARD (Steam)

Additional Games Completed (19):
==========
Mega Man Xtreme (GBC)
Classic NES Series: Super Mario Bros. (GBA)
Back to the Future: The Game (Steam, all five episodes)
Swords & Soldiers HD (Steam)
Dwarfs!? (Steam)
Ecco Jr. (Steam collection)
Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi (Steam collection)
Space Harrier II (Steam collection)
Galaxy Force II (Steam collection)
Alien Soldier (Steam collection)
Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties (PC)
Half-Life: Blue Shift (Steam)
On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Episode 1 (Steam)
RUSH (Steam)
Half-Life: Opposing Force (Steam)

Removed (EIGHTY EIGHT games):
========
Braid (Steam)
Cogs (Steam)
Droplitz (Steam)
Europa Universalis III Complete (Steam)
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved (Steam)
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved (XBLA)
Psychonauts (Steam)
Super Laser Racer (Steam)
Cortex Command (Steam)
Auditorium (PSP)
Vertigo (PSP)
Super Mario 64 (N64)
Apple Jack (XBLIG)
The Impossible Game (XBLIG)
Ecco the Dolphin (360 collection)
Ecco: The Tides of Time (360 Collection)
Phantasy Star III (360 collection)
1943: Battle for Midway (NES)
Air Fortress (NES)
Double Dragon II: The Revenge (NES)
Ghostbusters (NES)
Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II (NES)
Legacy of the Wizard (NES)
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! (NES)
Tetris (NES)
Tiger-Heli (NES)
Sky Shark (NES)
Borderlands: Mad Mxxi's Underdome Riot (Steam)
Golden Sun (GBA)
Golden Sun: The Lost Age (GBA)
Wave Race 64 (N64)
Yggdra Union (PSP)
Prinny 2 (PSP)
Monster Rancher Explorer (GBC)
Xenosaga Episode 1 (PS2)
Riviera: The Promised Land (GBA)
The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom (Steam)
LittleBigPlanet (PSP)
Madballs in Babo: Invasion (Steam)
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Xbox)
Columns III (Steam collection)
Puzzle Dimension (Steam)
Alien Breed 2: Assault (Steam)
DOOM (GBA)
DOOM II: Hell on Earth (GBA)
Gish (Steam)
Heroes of Might and Magic III Complete (GOG)
Bejeweled 2 Deluxe (PC)
Breath of Death VII (XBLIG)
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (360)
Borderlands + 2 DLC (360)
Tidalis (Steam)
Jam City Rollergirls (Wiiware)
Final Fantasy 4: The After Years (Wiiware, 4 tales)
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (360, collector's ed)
Bullet Candy (Steam)
A Game with a Kitty (PC D/L)
1213: The Series (PC D/L)
The Chzo Mythos Quadrilogy (PC D/L)
Gamma Bros. (PC D/L)
Streets of Rage Remake (PC D/L)
Nezumiman (PC D/L)
Soul of Dracula (PC D/L)
Spiral Knights (Steam)
The Orange Box (360)
Ridge Racer 6 (360)
Jurassic: The Hunted (PS2)
Guitar Hero II (360)
Guitar Hero III (360)
God of War (PS2)
Jeopardy (N64)
GT 64: Championship Edition (N64)
South Park (N64)

A Week in Gaming 2nd Quest: Weeks 21, 22, and 23

You know you’ve been lax on writing in a blog when a bar graph shows high values for views with decimal points in those views. Not 30 and 40, but more 3.0 and 4.0. Truth be told, I’ve been incredibly lazy in posting on Impressions of a Lump. Albeit it doesn’t seem like I lost much in doing so; I can never tell if the 3o to 40 views a week I get are people or just spambots who sense activity and decide to attack me here.

I could go on an enormous stream of consciousness rant, but my memory is terrible and I’ve already forgotten half of what I’ve done over the past three weeks. The long and short of it? I’ve completed four games, beaten one, and sunk around 75 hours into Terraria on Steam. In detail? Read below.

A Week in Gaming 2nd Quest #19 & 20: 5/8 – 5/14 & 5/15 – 5/21

Oh hey look, the Rapture apparently passed and I’m still here! Either it didn’t happen or every last person on the planet was unworthy, go figure. That nonsense aside, I’ve been incredibly sparse and lacking in my updates lately. Week 19 was my final week of classes, things were wrapping up education-wise, and that Sunday my mind completely veg’d out. Week 20? More vegging, laziness, trying to get adjusted to not having classwork to do, and sudden apathy as a result of lack of structure to my daily routine.

Over Week 19, we had more of the same in Borderlands. I played that game obsessively, to the point where my Siren hit max level and farming Crawmerax became a dull task instead of the intense fight it had been the first time. Every quest was finished, and I completed the main game, the Knoxx DLC, and the Claptrap DLC. That left the matter of the Moxxi’s Underdome DLC…

A Week in Gaming 2nd Quest #18: 5/1 – 5/7

The penultimate week of the Spring 2011 semester was this past week, and I’m genuinely surprised at the ease at which I handled finishing three classes. I’ve still got two more class days to go, as my World History Since 1500 class actually has a final, but beyond that final exam and one last bit of homework for creative writing I am done! An entire glorious summer to spend time on losing weight, exercising, making bead sprites, and taking down that huge Unfinished count.

Surprisingly, I managed to take down three games this past week! Yet with the math laid it, I’ve practically made no progress. Traded Tales of the Abyss to my local friend Will in return for a new copy of Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection. -1 Unfinished, +3 Unfinished. I beat both Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy IV: -Interlude- this week, then later completed Mega Man Network Transmission. +3 Unfinished, +2 Beaten, +1 Completed, and we’re back to a starting point. Ah well, read on and hear me gush about these games.

A Week in Gaming 2nd Quest #17: 4/24 – 4/30

This past week I’ve played some Borderlands, some Fallout, some Age of Empires III, and even a little Final Fantasy IV DS. With the exception of taking down the Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution DLC in Borderlands, I haven’t beat a single game this week. I could write about said DLC, but my thoughts are wrapped up in a single sentence: “Amusing plot and excellent final boss, but too short and filled with a lot of unnecessary items to collect.”

So, instead of the usual mini-review of games I beat or completed in the past week, I’m going to give my thoughts on a topic that inspired this post on Twitter. Said topic is the concept of “cheating” in video games, and everything that goes with it.

A Week in Gaming 2nd Quest #15+16: 4/10 – 4/16 & 4/17 – 4/23

Whoa, holy crap I have a blog. A blog I’ve been slacking on lately due to a combination of things. You can blame me for my Borderlands addiction, as I’ve put 64 hours into the game in the past 11 days, but when I’m not running through Pandora with my friends I’ve either been focusing on homework or streaming! My semester ends on March 6th for three of my four classes, the fourth the week after that, and as such they’re really packing the homework and projects in. I had to make a written schedule and checklist for all of my assignments just to make sure I wasn’t overwhelmed. This brought with it a question: Why the heck do so many classes throw in one gratuitous end-of-semester paper to write? It’d be fine to finish up a semester with doing one paper for a class, but when all of them do it? That becomes overwhelming.

Still, I managed to beat six games and complete three during the last two weeks. 14 days, 9 games, 3 of which are part of my Borderlands addiction? I’d call that good. Four on Week 15, five on Week 16, with at least something to say about all of them:

A Week in Gaming 2nd Quest #14: 4/3 – 4/9

Oh my, I’m actually writing on a Sunday. A Sunday morning no less, like I should be! Freak accident or a resurgence in dedication? I can’t decide. In either case I managed to take down four games this past week. I’m surprised at this, considering how little I’ve actually played games in the past week. I know that it still sounds like a lot but before I started making Perler bead sprites (which can be found over at my Flickr page!) I would game constantly. It was my de facto choice for something to do, interspersed with things like homework, daily tasks, and occasional friend visits. Now I come to a debate with myself every time I have a large amount of free time and the hobby that always takes precedence is creating those Perler bead sprites.

The past week had a lot of variety to it. At one point I played Super Smash Bros. Brawl with my trio of friends for a few hours and the days that I’ve streamed on I presented a medley of handheld titles. There were only two new games, both of which I’ll write about here, and all in all it was a good week. Now, for what I took down.

A Week in Gaming 2nd Quest #13: 3/27 – 4/2

Seems like I’ve developed a habit of missing the Sunday deadlines I impose upon myself. No matter, I’m still able to get these things in at some point. Really it just comes down to motivation. Between doing homework, housework, and investing time into other hobbies I don’t find myself motivated to write as much as I used to. No, I’m not addicted to making perler bead sprites (okay, so I am), but I still managed to hammer out a few achievements this past week… and gain a dozen new games in the process.

I’ve not the motivation to write a three-thousand word monologue much like a few weeks ago, so I’m going to write in that short and substantial way that I’ve done in the past. With five games and low motivation, a long monologue dissecting these games would become flat and unfocused. Today we’ve got a spread between a few ported Genesis titles, two Game Boy Color titles, and a brief stint with a Game Boy Advance game.

A Week in Gaming 2nd Quest #12: 3/20 – 3/26

As of writing this, it is still Sunday so I technically get in before the start of Monday! My Spring Break went by really quick even with the homework I had. Hung out with friends more than I have in the past couple of weeks and I gained a lot of games. Two review titles, Post Apocalyptic Mayhem for PC and Vertigo for PSP via PSN, and the 14 games within Steam’s Sega Genesis Classics Collection that aren’t in the Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection make for 16 new games. In contrast, I’ve got two completed games and one beaten game. One completed game is in fact the prior-mentioned Post Apocalyptic Mayhem, whose review will be up on Snackbar Games sometime this week. The other two are an RPG I promised to write about and something completely different.