Inspired by a thread at 360 Arcadians, I’ve decided that my Xbox 360 going in for repairs was the perfect time to begin attempting to clear out my game backlog (that is, the games I own that I have not yet finished). The entire backlog is listed below.

I began with Shadow of the Colossus, which actually took me about a week of real life to get through, mostly because there were several evenings I didn’t play anything at all. I’m determined to play through only one game at a time, to make sure that I actually finish a few this time around.

Colossus was pretty good in the end. There was a period with a few of the mid-game colossi where I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to like the game as a whole, and I believe I stated that I hated the game in those circumstances, but when the 12th colossus and later rolled around, I found I was actually having fun. I still think the controls are a bit iffy and the camera is detestable, but the overall experience was a good one. The game has atmosphere by the bucketful and pushes the PS2 pretty well.

It started strong and ended strong, so I’m willing to forgive some of the sloppiness and poor enemy design in the middle few encounters. 1 through about 5 or 6 (maybe even 7) were great and introduced everything well, and the last four colossi were simply amazing to play.

For the record, the final time to completion according to my savefile (which includes watching the credits) was 9:38:09.

The backlog:

Game Boy Advance

• Advance Wars
• Final Fantasy II
• Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
• Fire Emblem
• Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
• Golden Sun
• Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga

Nintendo DS

• Advance Wars: Dual Strike
• Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
• Final Fantasy III
• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (I’m on the last case, which is not nearly as interesting as the first four.)

Nintendo Gamecube

• Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean (Never played.)
• Battalion Wars (Never played.)
• Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem
• Zelda II (technically, I’ve never finished it)
• The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
• The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
• the last car unlock for Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
• A whole bunch of Mega Man Anniversary Collection (I’m not sure this should count)
• Metroid Prime
• Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (Never played.)
• Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Never played.)
• Resident Evil Remake
• Tales of Symphonia
• Viewtiful Joe 2

Original Xbox

• Crimson Skies
• Jade Empire (Never played.)
• Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance
• Panzer Dragoon Orta
• Phantom Dust (I only hold on to this one in the faint hope it will someday be BC’d on the 360.)
• Shenmue 2
• Large parts of Sonic Mega Collection Plus (like Mega Man, not sure this qualifies)
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
• Splinter Cell
• Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow
• Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (Never played.)

Xbox 360

• Dead Rising
• Kameo: Elements of Power (Never played.)
• Rainbow Six: Vegas
• Star Trek: Legacy

PlayStation/PlayStation 2

• Devil May Cry (Never played.)
• Dragon Quest VIII
• Final Fantasy II (probably play this on GBA instead)
• Chrono Trigger
• Final Fantasy V
• Final Fantasy VI
• Final Fantasy VII
• Final Fantasy VIII
• Final Fantasy IX (Never played.)
• Final Fantasy X
• Final Fantasy X-2 (Never played.)
• Final Fantasy XII (Never played.)
• Final Fantasy Tactics
• God of War
• Jak and Daxter (Never played.)
• Kingdom Hearts
• Metal Gear Solid 3 (Never played.)
• Onimusha 3 (Never played.)
• Ratchet and Clank
• Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando (Never played.)
• Shadow of the Colossus
• Xenosaga Episode I