I’m always conscious that this isn’t the most exciting thing I ever share on here, but I’m also very aware that we’ve all probably got better things to be doing on Christmas Eve, so here we are! Anyway, as I’ve been doing around this time for a good few years now, I just like to share my record of the games I’ve finished over the course of the past year, with a sentence or two micro-review on each, for no greater purpose than simply doing so, so here they are…

January

2nd. Adventure II (Atari 2600)

8th. Alcatraz Harry (ZX Spectrum)

20th. Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (PSP)

25th. Sonic Superstars (Xbox Series X)

It’s missing a lot of the magic of the first game but my own first (and second!) ever completion of Adventure II was a great start to the year, and like its predecessor, I’m sure there’s many more times to come! The very first game I ever finished on the Spectrum has lost a bit of its magic too but great memories and a wonderful budget gaming time capsule all the same, and there’s a deep-dive on that here. Another MGS done, love the concept, the authenticity and the bitesize execution of a big, 15-hour game, clunky as it sometimes was, but all the squad stuff really never grew on me. A hankering for some Sonic then took me to his last game again, and it’s still so slick and so Sonic, and that Fantasy Zone level gets me every time! 

February

4th. Daze Before Christmas (SNES on Evercade)

5th. Monument Valley III (iOS)

20th. WWF Superstars (Game Boy)

28th. Dune (Amiga)

Note to self – Christmas games are better when you don’t let them drag on into February! The new Monument Valley was more of the same stylishly laid-back optical puzzling seven years on but that was no bad thing. Turned out I had one more title run left in me on the best wrestler for the Game Boy (deep-dive here), but best of all this month was finally having a go at Dune on the Amiga… What an absolute joy, and I’m sure this won’t have been for the last time – think I’ve discovered a new all-time favourite! 

March

6th. Another World (Amiga)

9th. Dragon Spirit: The New Legend (NES on Evercade)

20th. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (PlayStation 3)

30th. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Xbox 360)

I had no intention of playing Another World again when I noticed it on The A500 Mini’s carousel but a few hours later all done and an absolute joy as always… Mostly! Did inspire me to give it the deep-dive treatment too. The NES sequel to one of my top ten favourite vertically scrolling shoot ‘em ups is way less challenging but I always have a good time remembering how to beat it! MGS Peace Walker, on the other hand, was always a more refined experience than its portable predecessor, and is even more so as its HD remaster, that can still be clunky but is wildly ambitious and a lot of fun throughout what is a ton of game. Alternatively, if some Devil May Cry is what’s been missing from your Metal Gear, then give Rising a go – spectacular, ridiculous and just a total blast to end the month!

April

4th. Atomfall (Xbox Series X)

17th. Dead Flesh Boy. (ZX Spectrum)

23rd. South of Midnight (Xbox Series X)

27th. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PlayStation 3)

Some real game of the year fodder to start the month – rough at first because it doesn’t hold your hand but that soon becomes the best of Atomfall. Yes, it’s Fallout: Lake District, but plenty more besides too! I really disliked Dead Flesh Boy – the Spectrum spin on Meat Boy – when it started, then an hour later I’d finished it! Occasionally fiendish but mostly fair, you’ll be tearing your hair out all the same, and it’s a very good homebrew! Another game of the year contender with modern Southern Gothic folk adventure South of Midnight, as well as one of the best soundtracks I’ve heard in years. One of the best Metal Gears I’ve played on my journey through them so far too – proper blockbuster stuff and proper preposterous as always too! 

May

1st. Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (PlayStation 4)

2nd. Silent Hill (PlayStation)

18th. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (Xbox Series X)

20th. Until Dawn (PlayStation 4)

Straight from one Metal Gear oddity into another – well, more of a preview this time, and a fun one at that, which turned out to be far more than I first thought!! My dear old Silent Hill, on the other hand, took way longer than I remembered the last time I played it but no complaints there; it’s still wonderful! Not sure The Phantom Pain was then the MGS conclusion I wanted but I loved what I got all the same. And similarly, Until Dawn wasn’t quite what I remembered either, but still a clever bit of interactive b-move. 

June

1st. Metal Gear (MSX2 on PS3)

5th. Doom: The Dark Ages (Xbox Series X)

14th. Metal Gear 2:  Solid Snake (MSX2 on PS3)

20th. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine – Master Crafted Edition (Xbox Series X)

27th. Streets of Rage II (Mega Drive on Switch)

After finishing the last of the series, I went back to the first, and although it’s of its time, Metal Gear is way ahead of it too, and still pretty enjoyable. Doom was total carnage in every sense from start to finish, and is so much utterly mindless, big, big dumb blockbuster fun! The next Metal Gear took a while to grab me but ended up being one of the most impressive 8-bit games I’ve ever played, and a real pioneer too! Space Marine was hardly a pioneer, even the first time around, but it was always fun, and the new remaster even more so! Hard to beat Streets of Rage II for fun though, but always good to know I can still beat it! 

July

3rd. Another World (Amiga on Evercade)

5th. Heart of the Alien: Out of This World Part II (Sega-CD)

20th. Future Wars – Time Travellers (Amiga on Evercade) 

I recently picked up Delphine Software Collection 1 on Evercade for a couple of games I’d never played, but true to form, here I am on Another World again before I’d even thought about touching them! And it’s still a masterpiece wherever you play… Unlike its sequel! All the magic is gone, and no wonder it never got beyond the Sega-CD! Okay, time for one of those new ones, Future Wars, but I really didn’t enjoy this one either – clunky, finicky, over-obtuse, and everything the likes of Monkey Island wasn’t when it did something similar far better. Good old Delphine though – just realised they kept me busy all month! 

August

2nd. Wheel World (Xbox Series X)

6th. Death Stranding (PlayStation 4)

22nd. Resident Evil Revelations (PlayStation 4)

Wheel World was exactly the mostly leisurely cycle racing adventure I’d hoped it would be (janky collision physics aside), and straight to Game Pass too! Conversely though, Death Stranding was a wonderful game that I enjoyed far more than I’d have ever believed before I was a few hours in, but ended up being more demanding on my time than I needed it to be. In retrospect, not a moment wasted though. Which is hardly true of Resident Evil Revelations, although it was fun enough in the main, even if my biggest gaming bugbear, where computer partners’ bullets do absolutely nothing to any enemies, did regularly drive me mad!

September 

8th. Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater (Xbox Series X)

15th. Voodoo Castle (Atari 8-Bit)

16th. Lollipop Chainsaw (PlayStation 3)

22nd. Snatcher (Sega Mega-CD)

24th. Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound (PC)

27th. Ico (PlayStation 3)

Loads done this month, and I had so much fun with MGS Delta! Admittedly, it had plenty going for it before it even started, but those modern visuals and modern controls built on a perfect rendition of the iconic original make this a remake done just right! And while Voodoo Castle is less likely to get the remake treatment (although a Scott Adams text adventure collection would be awesome), it’s still a surprisingly exhilarating experience, which you don’t say often about one of these! Like me, Lollipop Chainsaw hasn’t necessarily aged well, so I was thrilled to be reunited with it at last. Still fun too, even if I had to pay a lot more than I sold it for all those years ago… And Snatcher was just superb – Kojima at his cinematic and storytelling best (and worst, unless you haven’t aged well like me)! Then there was the new Ninja Gaiden – a couple of bosses nearly beat me but if Hollow Knight: Silksong this month was good for one thing, it was making every other brutal 2D platformer seem easy! Not sure Ico counts much anymore but I still love it, and it’s actually my first time properly playing the remaster. Does lose some of the magic in all that polish though! 

October

6th. Silent Hill f (Xbox Series X)

15th. Policenauts (Sega Saturn)

18th. Keeper (Xbox Series X) 

I was away on holiday for a fair bit of this month so not that much finished but something I’d waited a very long time for more than made up for it… I love Silent Hill f! It’s beautiful, terrifying and everything I wanted it to be… Including my game of the year! Policenauts probably would have been in with a shout back in 1996 too, even if it did end up getting a bit too “Kojima” and dragging a bit, and honestly wasn’t a patch on its predecessor from last month, Snatcher. Likewise, Keeper wasn’t exactly Ico or Journey either, but was a very enjoyable, very surreal walking-sim type puzzler-thing that frequently managed to not outstay its welcome in some very inventive ways. And finishing it also marked the end of my suddenly-too-expensive Game Pass subscription! 

November 

18th. Rambo: First Blood Part II (ZX Spectrum)

22nd. Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater (Xbox Series X)

Once again, more holidays followed by two weeks of building work limited what I got up to this month, but having just got back from wandering around where they filmed the first Rambo movie, near Vancouver, and in the absence of a (decent) tie-in for that one, I thought I’d have a quick run through of the Spectrum game of the second; it’s still no Commando on there though! However, the new (old) MGS is still great, even if it has only been two months since the last time! 

December

7th. Silent Hill 2 Remake (Xbox Series X)

12th. Condemned (Xbox 360)

After a year of pesky PS5 exclusivity, I finally returned to Silent Hill proper, and although it was never going to be the same second time around, especially when the original is a top five favourite game of all time for me, it couldn’t have been better! Condemned, on the other hand, could have been but really didn’t need to be – sometimes the classic seven out of ten is just right! 

And that was my year in gaming! Well, the ones I finished at least… In case you’ve read this far and don’t know already, all of these and everything else I’ve played are covered in a bit more detail than here every Sunday in the Retro Arcadia Weekly Spotlight, where we’re now well into the two-hundreds of editions! And I’ll hopefully see you again for the next one in a few days from whenever you’re reading this, and if that happens to also be when it was first published on Christmas Eve or thereabouts, I wish you a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year! !

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