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I’ve played a lot of games. I’m no savant, but I would say I’ve indulged in more video games than even the average gamer, and don’t regret a minute of it. But how many games have I beaten? I asked myself this, and then set out to find the answer. With the help of my shoddy-at-best memory, Wikipedia and a few phone calls to friends and family, things are starting to become a little clearer. I present to you one man’s journey through a video game career.
A few notes before we begin: Some games are hard to identify as beaten. How do you beat Minecraft? Or NCAA Football 2004? Or Dark Souls? (Seriously, I’m stuck in Blighttown. How the f**k do you beat it?) So I just left it up to the ultimate judge: Myself. If I feel satisfied that I had beaten a game as well as it could be beaten, I put it in there. Any game with a clear last boss was obvious material, but I had to really do some soul-searching. And here we are.
Part 1: Early Days
NES: I was just getting started when the NES dropped back in 1985, but have managed to come back to it and finish some of the games I never could have beaten back in the day. The first thing you may notice is not the games on the list, but the games not on it. I never beat Metroid of The Legend of Zelda, to my undying shame, but I have totally beaten the Mega Man series. That is, without a doubt, one of my crowning achievements in gaming. Of all these games though, the one I remember most fondly is Arkista’s Ring, a kind of Zelda/Gauntlet hybrid that was so damn hard. Other than that, Battletoads and Marble Madness stand out as some of the more difficult games I’ve beaten.
The Adventures of Bayou Billy
Alien Syndrome
Arkista’s Ring
Battle Chess
Battletoads
Caesars Palace
Casino Kid
Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers
Crystalis
Déjà Vu
Final Fantasy
Jackal
Marble Madness
Mega Man
Mega Man 2
Mega Man 3
Mega Man 4
Mega Man 5
Mega Man 6
Pinball Quest
Power Blade
R.C. Pro AM
Rampart
StarTropics
StarTropics II: Zoda’s Revenge
Super Mario Bros
Super Mario Bros 2
Super Mario Bros 3
Tecmo Super Bowl
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game
3DO: Yeah, I owned a 3DO. I’m the only one I know that had one. I remember finally beating Space Ace, a very strange game and totally different from the SNES version, and literally celebrating with my family. I’m not sure if Life Stage could technically be beaten, as it was just a house-building simulation, but I had a freaking sweet mansion, so I’m saying it counts. Gex and Total Eclipse were both excellent games, and I clearly remember hitting a hole-in-one in Pebble Beach, a very advanced golf game for its time.
Gex
Life Stage: Virtual House
Pebble Beach Golf Links
Space Ace
Total Eclipse
Game Boy: I actually borrowed a Game Boy with Pokémon Blue after playing it at a friend’s house, beat it and then promptly never returned it. I think I played Tetris on one, but I’ve certainly never beaten it.
Pokémon Blue
Stay tuned for the next installment, where we’ll see how many hours I spent on the SNES & Genesis. (Spoiler: It’s a lot.)