The 2015 Play Through List

So with the dawn of 2015 I really want to set out to clock through some old school games that I largely didn't get a chance to play as a kid, and then just had "no interest" in playing during my competitive period of gaming which lasted from all the way back from '99/00 to pretty much last year. In reality '09 saw the end of my competitive tilt in gaming, but I still had this block in my mind that no game without a versus mode would peak my attention. Maybe I am just mellowing in my old age, or that sense of impending doom of I may never really get a chance to do it, playing through these games that I just know I will actually enjoy seems quite a good idea.

A large portion of the games that I never played comes from that our house was a SEGA house growing up. My brother dictated the consoles and games we got, being six years my elder. If you look back, games like Sonic and Double Dragon, awesome in their own time, just don't stand up to the Nintendo classics like Mario, Zelda and Final Fantasy.

Some of these games I've played through other parts of the franchises, or played games from their developers, others are just there based purely on merit of where they stand in peoples eyes, classics if you will.

I am still getting my fill of "competitive" play, or rather PVP, via Smash 4 online (Wii U), Counter Strike and I imagine I'll step out to Mario Kart Wii U very soon.

The 2015 List

Foreword:
I'd love to say that I'd play through all the Final Fantasies this year, but on the FF subreddit it took a calendar year for them to go through the entire series, and right now I am watching Cereth, one of my favorite FF streamers "race" through the entire FF series (including side games) and as of typing he is on FFX with 330 hours to his name - 15 games clocked to this point.

One thing I will mention is that on many of these playthroughs I will do some research and planning ahead of time, you can take the player out of the competitive games, but you cant take the competitive out of the gamer. Wandering aimlessly between quests or losing time on maps is not my idea of fun anymore (15 years ago it would have been). Any game I play I'll search out the best strats, mechanics and things I need to know, and single player games are no different. Ideally I'll look to speed runners, but in times of glitching runs or highly practiced mechanics to beat levels, I'll likely just use solid guides.

The following games are in some form of order of what I want to play - I may switch around if chronology is important.

The Games:

Final Fantasy VI - SNES
Zelda: Twilight Princess - Wii
Final Fantasy IX - PS2
Final Fantasy X - PS2
Final Fantasy VIII - PS
Zelda The Wind Waker HD - Wii U
Zelda Ocarina of time 3D - 3DS
Chrono Trigger - SNES
Zelda A Link to the Past - SNES
Secret of Mana - SNES
Mega Man - Zero - DS
Starfox 64 - 3DS

I'll be shocked if I can get through this all this year, I also dont want to ignore new releases - we recently picked up all the next gen consoles, and there is plenty there that I want to play. I am quite interested in Halo 5 and its online multiplayer, I might have to get practicing on Halo 4.

First Up:
I'll be likely restarting Final Fantasy VI on the SNES emulator on my PC or putting it up on an emulator on my mac on the big screen TV, currently I am playing it on my phone, and as amazing as the game is, the phone does get slightly in the way.

I love the idea of mobile gaming for old RPG's, but I might just limit it to shorter RPG's - ones that you can do in 4-6hrs opposed to 10+ as your' unlikely to sit down for more than a few minutes to play them on a phone.