Every Game I’ve Ever Beaten: Part 1

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.)