2021 Gaming Roundup!

Since 2019 I’ve been keeping track of every game I’ve completed throughout the year, but mostly I haven’t done a lot with that information, except to decide for myself what my favourite new game that year had been. [2019’s was Outer Wilds and 2020’s was Animal Crossing: New Horizons — ed.] I post individual entries about each game on my tumblr, but this year I thought I’d post something like an end-of-year roundup. Haven’t thought this all the way through. Let’s see what happens.

The Complete List:

Spyro the Dragon (PSX)
Super Mario 64 (Switch)
Tomb Raider (PSX)
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (XSX)
Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary (XSX)
Donut County (XSX)
Katamari Damacy Re-rolled (Switch)
Bowser’s Fury (Switch)
Control: Ultimate Edition (XSX)
Halo 2: Anniversary (XSX)
Batman: Arkham Asylum (PC)
Rage 2 (XSX)
Halo 3 (XSX)
Super Mario 3D World (Switch)
New Super Lucky’s Tale (XSX)
Pikuniku (XSX)
Halo: ODST (XSX)
Rain On Your Parade (XSX)
PAW Patrol: Mighty Pups Save Adventure Bay! (Switch)
Halo: Reach (XSX)
Halo 4 (XSX)
Borderlands 2 (PC)
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch)
Borderlands 3 (XSX)
Super Metroid (SNES)
Metroid Zero Mission (GBA)
Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS)
Planet Alpha (XSX)
Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams (Xbox)
Streets of Rage 4 (XSX)
Recompile (XSX)
Rain On Your Parade (XSX)
Metroid Fusion (GBA)
Superliminal (XSX)
Bowser’s Fury (Switch)
Quake Mission Pack 2: Dissolution of Eternity (PC)
Metroid Dread (Switch)
Quake: Dimension of the Past / Machine (PC)
Lego Jurassic World (Switch)
Picross 2 (Switch)
Carrion (PC)
Unpacking (PC)
I Am Fish (XSX)
MO:Astray (Switch)

This was a big year! Obviously the Xbox Series X is pretty heavily represented on the list (thanks Game Pass!), followed by the Switch and PC in distant third. I set down my Switch for a lot of the year but in the past few months have really gotten back into it.

The Top 5 Games I Finished in 2021:

  1. Unpacking
  2. Metroid Dread
  3. Control: Ultimate Edition
  4. Bowser’s Fury
  5. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

The Top 5 Games I Finished That Actually Came Out in 2021

  1. Unpacking
  2. Metroid Dread
  3. Bowser’s Fury
  4. Quake: Dimension of the Machine
  5. Recompile

Honorable Mentions

A few games that I spent time on but for one reason or another didn’t finish. Maybe I’m still working on them, maybe I dropped them after feeling “done”. Who knows? Oh wait, I do.

  1. Forza Horizon 5 (XSX) – I played this pretty intensely for a couple of weeks, and got nowhere near crossing off all the race events. Probably I’ll pick it up again some time this year and make more progress. Same thing happened with FH4.
  2. Far Cry 5 (XSX) – My favourite thing about these games is picking apart the enemy compounds, from a distance, with an enormous sniper rifle. Unfortunately, the main bad guys in this one will not shut up and drone on endlessly about their apocalyptic vision for humanity. Near the end of my time with the game I started mercilessly skipping cutscenes, something I rarely do. I finished two out of three major areas in the game and won’t be going back.
  3. Metroid Prime (Wii) – I was putting in time on this one while working from home (teehee) and when I returned to the office fulltime I let it slide. However, I’m nearly done and recently I’ve gone back in to try and cross this off. I want to replay 2 and 3 as well.
  4. Outer Wilds – Echoes of the Eye (XSX) – Nearly done, but progress was very slow and as of this writing I’m stuck. Which reminds me, I’m going to go try and find out the answer to my question… [and he did find it. -ed]

What Am I Looking Forward To in 2022?

  1. Pupperazzi – A cute looking game about taking pictures of good dogs.
  2. Far: Changing Tides – I finished the first Far just after New Years so it didn’t make my 2021 list, but I really liked it!
  3. Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands – The Assault on Dragon Keep DLC was one of my favourite things about Borderlands 2, and this looks to be an extension of that.
  4. Starfield – It’s Skyrim in spaaaaaace (I assume)

ok thanks for reading, enjoy 2022