Video Game Blog 010: The 2021 Video Game Year in Review

And here’s the end of my 2021 video game wrap up! The rest of this week’s posts have been leading up to this… a time when I sit back and reflect on the gaming that I accomplished in 2021. I went into this year with a concrete goal. 26 games that I planned to finish by year end. How did I do? Spoiler warning: Not well. I had fun though, and that’s what matters. I got much closer this year to completing my goal, but I set the bar far, far too high and didn’t realize it until now, when I sit back and look over my list. I do plan to do a new list for 2022, and I intend to make it much more realistic. But first, let’s talk about what this year in gaming looked like for me.

Just a hot dog boy out to do some gardening. (Credit: Nintendo)

I started out fairly focused, finishing off a couple of games I was close on, Pokémon White 2 and Assassin’s Creed. Then I jumped into Super Mario Galaxy, a game that I’ve wanted to play for years but never got around to playing. Once I got through that one, I still felt like more Mario, so I played Super Luigi U. Around this time the announcement came that Union X would be shutting down, so I panicked and played a bunch of that game before it ended. This worried me about other games I’d been neglecting, so I also finished Plants Vs Zombies 2 and got back into Criminal Case. (This year I finished both Pacific Bay and Save the World. Three down, five to go!) I tried to play through Sonic and Knuckles and Lego Batman 2 but couldn’t get into them. I guess the mood just wasn’t there.

I got through the latest three Just Dance games and caught up on the series (well, until JD 2022 came out recently) and have started replaying the old games as part of my daily workout routine. (Although I’ve slipped a bit in that over the holidays. Ugh, so lazy.)

As always, I played a ton of Animal Crossing. I played New Horizons daily without fail. I wrapped up paying off my house on City Folk. (And then when Bob moved out despite my best efforts I quit playing, heartbroken.) I took a break from New Leaf but have gotten back into it bigtime in the past month. I reached a 5 star rating on my village and am now in the process of remodeling the town hall. I still don’t know how to take good screenshots of 3DS, so I can’t share any of that properly.

Shiiiiiny. (Credit: Nintendo, Gamefreak)

Also as previously mentioned, I played a lot of Pokémon this year. A lot. I got a real momentum going. I finished the two Pokémon games on my list and blared through Pokémon Y. I’m currently about 3/4 of the way through Omega Ruby. I actually found two shiny Pokémon this year too! (Sentret and Gurdurr, both in Pokémon Y.) For those who don’t know, those are super rare variant colors of Pokémon. The odds of finding them are very low. To give you an idea, I found a Ledyba way back in Pokémon Silver, but in Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, I found nothing. Same with Diamond and Pearl. But I did, near the end of my playing, find a Golbat in Pokémon Platinum. I logged a lot of hours in all of those games (especially Ruby and Emerald) but no shiny. If I find a couple more, maybe I can do a shiny playthrough of one of the games!

Anyway, I’ve been behind on Pokémon for years, so it feels good to be on the road to catching up. I was tired of seeing and hearing about Pokémon I knew nothing about because they were from games collecting dust in my drawer. Also, I really really want to play Pokémon Sword, so I need to get current to do that. (Remember, I play games in order usually.) At the rate I’m going, I should be to Sword either by the end of 2022 or early 2023.

And I planned to only play two of the games a year. Ha!

I am the Maigkarp master! (Credit: Nintendo)

I didn’t just play Pokémon on 3DS. I also continue to play Pokémon Go, and I rediscovered an iOS game that I’d taken a hiatus from, Magikarp Jump. It’s a cute, casual game where you fish up Magikarp, train them, feed them, and force them to jump in competitions to prove your Magikarp the best fishy in the world. Or something. It’s fun, and I won it. I also played a bit of Pokémon Café, but got bored with it quickly. I still play Pokémon Shuffle now and then, but it’s gotten frustratingly difficult at the higher levels.

Puzzles! (Credit: Nintendo)

Another game I had a lot of fun with this year was Mario Picross, on Nintendo Switch Online. I love Picross, and the Pokémon and Zelda Picross games on 3DS were favorites of mine. Mario Picross is a fun little diversion. I put it on, play a couple of puzzles, and then move on. I also started playing Donkey Kong Country 2 on there, which is one I never got around to back in my Super NES days, but I couldn’t continue with it. To advance you have to find a lot of secrets, and I just didn’t have the patience for it. Maybe some day.

The Coon! (Credit: South Park Studios, Ubisoft)

As the year comes to a close, I had to admit defeat on my gaming list. So instead of continuing to struggle through it, I gave up and focused on Pokémon Omega Ruby and the gambling portion of Dragon Quest V. I also started a final (?) playthrough of South Park: The Fractured But Whole. This one was on my list two years ago, to play through again (fourth time, I think? I’ve already gotten platinum on the trophies) and finally play the DLC for it. I’ve been having a blast, and honestly staying up too late playing it after work. The two later South Park games (this one and The Stick of Truth) were fantastic and I really wish they’d made it a trilogy. (I read that they’re working on a new game, but it’s supposed to be full 3D and will likely not be part of this series.)

Cocoa got us Mario Party Superstars for Christmas. So far we’ve only been able to play one board, but it’s a lot of fun revisiting the old boards and minigames in better graphics. We’re playing again this weekend, and I’m excited to check out another board.

CeCe wants to game too.

Here’s how my game list turned out at the end of the year:

Game List 2021

1. Kingdom Hearts III re:Mind (PS4)

2. Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory (PS5)

3. Lego Batman 2 (PS3)

4. Dragon Quest V (iOS)

5. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)

6. Super Luigi U (Wii U)

7. Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 2 (PS2)

8. Dragon Ball FighterZ (PS4)

9. Assassin's Creed (XBox 360)

10. Assassin's Creed: The Ezio Collection (PS5)

11. Luigi's Mansion (3DS)

12. Plants vs Zombies 2 Story Mode (iOS)

13. Pokemon White 2 (3DS)

14. Pokemon X (3DS)

15. Steven Universe: Save the Light (Switch)

16. Cyanide & Happiness - Freakpocalypse (Switch)

17. South Park: Let's Go Tower Defense! (XBox 360)

18. Just Dance 2019 (Switch)

19. Just Dance 2020 (Switch)

20. Just Dance 2021 (Switch)

21. Kingdom Hearts Union X Dark Road (iOS)

22. Final Fantasy VIII (PS3)

23. Final Fantasy XVI (PS5)

24. Sonic and Knuckles (XBox 360)

25. Homebound (SNES)

26. The World Ends With You (3DS)

So… yeah. I finished 12 out of 26 games. Just under half the list. My list does look a tad different from when I started the year. I swapped out Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga since it was delayed, and I swapped in Union X and PvZ2 because I felt I really needed to finish those.

Where did I go wrong? Overestimating the amount of gaming time I would have, for sure. (I seriously thought I could get through two Final Fantasy games and all three games in the Ezio Collection? Plus three other RPGs? Yeesh.) The other mistake was not factoring in time for games I felt like playing that were not on the list. There was a lot of that this year. I seriously binged on Pokémon this year. On a whim I also started a Nuzlocke challenge on Pokémon Soul Silver, which I didn’t complete. I played a lot of The Binding of Isaac and got on a tangent where I played some Yu-Gi-Oh games. (Also a weird spree of Mortal Kombat.) In the past week I started my playthrough of South Park, so that was unexpected too. I should also mention that I played through Silent Hill for my Halloween post.

So for my 2022 game list I will be sure to go a bit lighter so that I can casually play some games here and there. I also have a couple of games that I will need to play for my blog and YouTube, so I will leave space for them. My main focus will be in catching up on Pokémon. I have to get through all of Generation 7 so that I can play Pokémon Sword. I also need to wrap up a couple of games that have been on my list for a couple of years now: My replay of FF8, Sonic and Knuckles, and DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi 2 have all hung around for too long. I swear I will finally finish Dragon Quest V. (And will not stupidly jump into DQ6 immediately after. I will have willpower.) Also one of my brothers has volunteered to be second player on South Park Let’s Go Tower Defense, so I need to remind him about that. At the writing of this, I’m still finalizing my list, but once I get it done, it will be posted on my News page as always. Plus, of course, periodic updates in next year’s Video Game blog posts. I am determined to finish a list, and 2022 will be my year!

Hehe. (Credit: Square Enix)

Thank you for reading my video game 2021 year in review! I think these Video Game posts have been a nice addition to my blog and I will certainly continue doing them in the coming year. I hope you have all enjoyed them too. I’ll try to do them as originally intended next year, spaced out throughout the year rather than in short bursts. That was my bad, I got off focus. 2022 will be a year of sharp focus for me. Anyway, I wish you a Happy New Year and happy gaming!

Wheeee another year! (Credit: Nintendo)