This year, I somehow found renewed interest in streaming after a period of wanting to stop. I honestly feel like it was being in a position to commit to an ongoing schedule and having more time available to just play games. A big reason for this ambition was revisiting retro games through emulation and new emulation hardware I've been playing around with, especially for games I missed out on growing up that I've always been interested in playing.
For that reason, I took on the task of finally trying to tackle my backlog while streaming and played through several games to check off my list. Here's a recap of most of the games that have been archived on YouTube this past year in case you missed it and want to watch my complete playthrough.
January
Pokemon Scarlet
While I had a good time playing Pokemon Scarlet with friends in a somewhat multiplayer game that is a first for the series, I felt there was a lot to be desired from the game including the multiplayer, which you can tell from how quickly I fell off from the game and never returned. Either that, or there were just too many other games to play at the time to dedicate to what I felt was a lackluster and disappointing Pokemon release, especially after I really enjoyed the previous games, Sword & Shield. As of writing this, I have finally picked the game back up and just beat the Elite Four. I intend to play both DLC at some point so I might return to this in the new year.
Donkey Kong 64 / Land / Land 2
Some of these aren't a first-time playthrough. In 2022, I decided to play every Donkey Kong game in the franchise (except the arcade games) since I've only played a handful (including the arcade games). I had started off playing and completing Donkey Kong Country 1,2, and 3, the Donkey Kong game for the Game Boy, and even Diddy Kong Racing (which had no right being that difficult for a kid's kart-racing game). DK64 and Donkey Kong Land 2 are games that I have already played before. Yes, I skipped over the Land games at first but I'm playing through them now. Each of these retro games streams are part of larger playlists I have respectively for SNES, Game Boy, and Nintendo 64.
Game Night: Pummel Party
I probably won't be sharing every stream we've done for our almost monthly Game Night streams, but Pummel Party (a PC party game inspired by Mario Party) is one that we have a lot of fun playing.
Playing 5 Pokemon games at once with one controller (seriously)
Okay. This is a weird one. I was sick one day and just laying in bed with my thoughts. Somehow those went to... "I wonder if I can play two Pokemon games at once with the same controls." That somehow leads to realizing Pokemon Red, Blue, Yellow, FireRed, and LeafGreen are all essentially the same games and should theoretically use relatively the same controls. So I decided to up the challenge to all five games at once. I was wrong and this was a huge mistake... or was it?
Yes, it has been slow and extremely challenging, but this has honestly been the most fun way I've played the original games. It provides a unique challenge where you have to think about not only every move you make in battle, but the movement in the game, using items, or even just navigating the menus. Some of the battle menus in each game are different, the world and the walking speed and distance are slightly different between the old and newer games, animations and cutscenes are different, and Pikachu constantly gets in the way in Pokemon Yellow. This is a huge detriment to gameplay for the challenge, but you can also use it to your advantage if you can time things right.
As of writing this, I last left off making my way to Cinnabar Island. I plan to at least make it to the Elite Four. After that, I would like to try the challenge again with a much more (relatively speaking) sane challenge of playing Gold, Silver, and Crystal in the same way. If you're also looking to do this challenge across different generational versions of the games, just remember that corners are your friend!
Pokemon Revolution Online
By this point, we have moved on from Pokemon Scarlet & Violet but wanted to return to a more traditional Pokemon game with multiplayer capabilities. We have played the fan-made MMO Pokemon Revolution Online before but decided to return back to it.
Trying to finish Tomb Raider before Stadia servers close
RIP Google Stadia. While I had my criticisms of the platform, I honestly thought that it was a solid service that worked well and offered an alternative method to play games for those who otherwise do not have the same traditional access to play these games. Unfortunately, it seemed that nobody was aware of this when I brought up Stadia in conversation or they had the wrong assumption about the service when I provided a solution to a problem like "I don't have a powerful enough gaming PC." This is ultimately why I feel like Stadia's biggest downfall (aside from a rocky and rushed launch) was the poor marketing.
Nevertheless, before the announced closures I was in the middle of replaying the Tomb Raider reboot for about the third time. I decided to attempt to complete the game before the servers shut down for good.
February
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
This game took a very long time to go through completely. And, after I thought I "completed" the game in October of this year, I was made aware that there is more to the game. At this point, I'm ready to move on from Castlevania and don't intend to continue with what is a third additional part of the game with yet another ending.
20 Questions (about video games)
Sometimes you want to take a break from video games... and instead talk video game trivia! This is an idea we had that we've played a few times after a community member and mod created the actual game for it. I'm hoping we can play even more 20 Questions game nights in the new year and get viewers more involved because it is a fun trivia game.
March
Game Night: Mario Party Superstars
Spider-Man: Miles Morales
This is a game that has been on my backlog for too long. I had such a good time with Spider-Man: Miles Morales that I had to play and stream the entire game twice!
April
Game Night: Mario Party Superstars (again)
May
Birthday stream
Modifying a Game Boy Advance
I found some old Game Boy games, particularly an e-Reader attachment with some cards that I wanted to play. Unfortunately, I lost my original Game Boy Advance (I still don't know where it went). So I bought another one. The issue was some of the buttons weren't very responsive. Eventually, I discovered some interesting mods online that seemed simple enough to apply; a backlit screen, USB-C rechargeable battery, and some nice-looking clear shells. I was particularly drawn to the clear orange color and wanted an orange-and-white theme. I decided to stream the process of putting the Game Boy together.
Returning to Temtem co-op
Feeling let down by the multiplayer features of Pokemon Scarlet & Violet, Court and I decided to get back into Temtem which has a proper Pokemon-like co-op campaign.
The Last of Us: Part II
This was a long time coming. I had streamed full gameplay of The Last of Us way back but decided it was finally time to jump into The Last of Us: Part II after watching the amazing first season of the HBO series adaptation of the game. I wanted to make sure I played the game before watching the second season.
June
Game Night: Courtftw's birthday
July
Exoprimal
While I don't have faith that this game will last, I had fun playing Exoprimal and like its cheesy story. If I wasn't playing a bunch of other games at the moment, I would continue playing this. Maybe I'll find time in the new year to play some more if the game's servers are still online by that time.
August
Game Night: Pummel Party (again)
Baldur's Gate 3
This is the big one. This is the newest recurring game you can expect me to play almost every week and my current obsession. Baldur's Gate 3 was such a surprise and a great co-op experience. As of writing this, we are playing the game almost every Sunday night and plan to continue doing so.
Assassin's Creed Origins
It's been a long time since I played through Assassin's Creed Syndicate live. Since then, there have been a lot more Assassin's Creed games released and announced. Now I want to try and catch up with the series starting with Assassin's Creed Origins. As of writing this, I am almost complete with the final DLC of the game and plan to move on soon.
Immortality (18+ account required to view)
Immortality has been in my backlog for a while and was soon to leave Game Pass at the time I decided to play it. It has such an interesting concept for a game. However, I was not expecting the litany of problematic content in regards to streaming on both Twitch and YouTube, including violence, blood, nudity, sexual content, drug and alcohol use, etc. This is especially an issue because these are not computer-generated video game models that are displaying this content. These are live actors presenting this as if these are behind-the-scenes videos of actors working on a movie set. The content also happens suddenly and without warning, sometimes quite disturbingly graphic and lengthy. For this reason, I have to set the videos for mature audiences whenever I choose to stream it, which means they will not be discovered or seen. Because of this, I have decided not to record finishing the game.
September
Starfield
I was originally not interested in Starfield until I watched the presentation for the game at the Xbox showcase in the summer. While this game did not live up to the expectations of that showcase, I was enjoying the game. I have ultimately decided to shelve it for now because of the amount of other games I am playing through.
Party Animals
Okay, I'm obviously not sharing every multiplayer game I've played this year, but Party Animals is special. This game is so much fun and I don't think I've laughed this hard playing a multiplayer game on stream before.
October
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
This was a spur-of-the-moment decision. I bought a copy of A Series of Unfortunate Events from eBay earlier in the year for some reason and I was looking for games to play for October. I figured this was a good time to try the game out. I played through the entire game in one sitting.
Batman: Arkham Asylum
I held off playing Batham: Arkham Asylum for a long time after trying to play it several times around the time when it was first released before my save files on PC kept getting erased or corrupted. With a return of higher-production Batman games recently, I decided to finally return to this game.
Halloween Game Night: Pummel Party
Limbo
Inside
PokeMMO
I have been playing PokeMMO on-and-off ever since I started live streaming on YouTube, even before Twitch. This time around, I have some friends joining me starting a new playthrough with a new account in the newly added Johto region. We've been having so much fun playing this together that this has now become a new regular game for now.
The Room Two
I played through The Room a long time ago and needed a quick game to play to wrap up my streams for October so I decided to play The Room Two. I enjoy these puzzle games and don't know why I don't play them more often. I might play more of them in the new year.
November
Multiplayer games for Courtftw and IcyArrow's charity streams
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time PC Port (Ship of Harkinian)
My new favorite way to play The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
December
Christmas Eve stream
Christmas Day stream
BONUS: Spawn Trap live reactions
All 2023 live reactions
From Nintendo Indie World Directs, to Summer Game Fest, to The Game Awards, Spawn Trap has reacted to a total of 26 live gaming events this past year.
コメント