To kick off my Year of the Backlog I played approximately 45 hours across 8 games, 2 of which were from my backlog. Although I played a number of games that weren't on my backlog, when it came time to start a new game I actively considered games in my backlog rather then defaulting to the newest game. That is a change in my behaviour and I very much consider that a win.

Below are my thoughts on each of the games I played in the order that I finished them.

Game Reviews

Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap (2017) - Switch - 6/10 (Mixed) - Abandoned
Original Release: 1989 (Master System); Time in Backlog: 7 years

This game was pure nostalgia. As a kid I would borrow Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap from my uncle on the Sega Master System and I absolutely loved it. When I saw there was a remake available 7 years ago it was an instant buy for me. Despite having picked it up many times over the years I've never quite gotten it. Until this time.

You start as the titular hero, Wonder Boy, and are at the end of an adventure and fight the evil Dragon when suddenly you transform into a Dragon yourself. You've been cursed and must now find a way to uncurse yourself. The game is a sprawling platformer littered with teleporting doors and bosses. Until this playthrough I'd never realised that as you progress you also change your form into other animals which open up new areas of the map.

Wonder Boy III was the closest I had to an RPG as a kid and knowing my tastes now I can instantly see what drew me to it. The game has been faithfully recreated with QOL features such as swapping out the old passcode system for a save file and allowing you to toggle between the original pixel art graphics and updated cartoon graphics. The original graphics are absolutely on point for the original release while the animations in the new graphics are really beautiful. Although the updated graphics are where the cracks in the original game start to show.

Typically in platformers of this era you would go left to right. Wonder Boy III changed things up by hiding things when you go left. The updated graphics offer sign posts pointing to those areas in the background and while as a veteran of the game I didn't need them, they're a really nice quality of life update to ease the difficulty. There are some mandatory areas that are completely hidden behind invisible blocks and even if you suspect where they are, you have to find the perfect pixel that lets you get to them. The updated graphics offer visual cues which is how I was able to make any progress in this game.

The movements of the monsters are also quite idiosyncratic and often require pixel perfect placement to hit them. This makes the game feel quite unfair and unfortunately the remake can't do anything about these as it is faithful to the original. It was hitting my head against the wall on these enemies, learning the exact pixel to step on that I realised I wasn't enjoying myself and so I decided to stop playing. I don't enjoy this sort of pixel perfect platforming and I think the genre has mostly moved past it these days.

As a remake Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap is amazing and I have no complaints about it in the slightest. Unfortunately the underlying game it has remade is just not very fun from a modern gamer perspective. That said, I cannot ignore the many hours of fun (and frustration) this game has brought me over the years so I'm glad I revisited it.

Donkey Kong (1986) - NES - 7/10 (solid)
Original Release: 1981 (Arcade); Time in Backlog: N/A

So I played this on a whim. Everyone knows the game. You're playing as Jumpman (a.k.a Mario) and trying to avoid barrels as you face off against Donkey Kong and rescue Pauline (who definitely doesn't look like Princess Peach).

I was surprised to see this game has a fair bit of depth to it. There's a hammer you can grab to destroy barrels (although it stops you from being able to jump or climb ladders). There's also multiple levels. Unfortunately on level 2 half of the platforms seem to be instant death. I'm not sure if this is intended or a bug in the NSO version (I don't see it in YouTube videos) but I couldn't work out how to proceed past it so I eventually just gave up.

That said the gameplay was surprisingly fun in a quick to grasp but hard to master kind of way. I can totally see why this was such a popular arcade game back in the day. Obviously by modern day standards it's a very simple game, but notwithstanding the potential game breaking bug on level 2, I enjoyed myself.

Tetris (1989) - NES - 9/10 (Excellent)
Original Release: 1989 (NES); Time in Backlog: N/A

The very first game I ever played on the Gameboy was Tetris. I've put hours into this game over the years, although I've never played the NES version.

This version plays very similarly to the Gameboy version. It's in colour, there are statistics on the left to show how many of each piece you've gotten and otherwise it just plays like you would expect Tetris to play for the most part.

One major difference is the difficulty doesn't gently ramp up but instead jumps at certain levels. I probably prefer the more gentle increase, but otherwise this is a good version. Another big difference is the music. It sounds fuller and has more depth than the Gameboy version, but it was quite jarring at the start. That said, it grew on me by the end of the game.

Tetris 99 (2019) - Switch - 7/10 (Solid)
Original Release: 2019 (Switch); Time in Backlog: N/A

I played this when it first came out and really didn't like it. I decided to replay it and see if it was as bad as I remembered.

In this version you play in a Battle Royale mode with 98 other people. As you complete your lines there's a chance other players will send you lines at the bottom of your screen and push up your own blocks. This can be quite jarring and makes the game easy for the first half and then dramatically difficult at the end.

In truth this is probably my least favourite way of playing Tetris. That said, it's not as bad as I remembered. At the heart of the game it is still Tetris and is still a lot of fun. Finding out I came 18/99 users is pretty cool (like an old timey high score function, although I question how many of these are bots vs players).

Hitman 2 (2023) - PS5 - 9/10 (Great)
Original Release: 2018 (PS4); Time in Backlog: N/A

I finished Hitman (2016) last month and decided to dive into Hitman 2. The new maps in this game were great to play on and the story that unfolded built upon what came in the first Hitman and really helped up the stakes. With new characters introduced, I found myself getting quite interested in the cutscenes that were occurring between missions. Unfortunately the cutscenes themselves saw a dramatic drop in quality.

For the previous Hitman game the developer IOI had been a subsidiary of Square-Enix and when that game didn't meet sales expectations Square-Enix sought to sell off IOI. The management of IOI ended up purchasing the company and IP themselves and went on to make Hitman 2 themselves (with Warner Brothers publishing the game). This obviously saw a dramatic drop in funds available to IOI and so the cutscenes unfortunately suffered as a result. However they are perfectly serviceable in telling the story and the missions themselves are just as good, if not better, than the previous Hitman game.

Some new mechanics were first introduced in Hitman 2 including getting to see a Picture in Picture view of when bodies are found, targets are killed (if they're off camera) and also when people are responding to distractions. This is really helpful information and a great addition to the game. We also saw briefcases introduced which allow you to carry sniper rifles (and other illegal items) without getting spotted which dramatically changes how certain problems are approached compared to the original release of Hitman (2016). My favourite new mechanic though has to be the banana which causes people to slip in a completely hilarious way.

Where I had no issues with the DLC for Hitman, the DLC on this game does feel somewhat mandatory as they include two main story missions. Fortunately the missions themselves are quite good and are worth the price, although I'd personally prefer not having mandatory story missions sectioned off into DLC.

Some drawbacks I encountered was the fact that the game requires you to be online at all times. For a single-player game this is a really unfortunate requirement. The NPC AI also felt like it was more temperamental compared to the original Hitman where standing in the wrong spot could cause the AI to get bugged and stop you from being able to proceed in a main story mission. These times were fortunately quite sparing and overall the experience was quite smooth.

My time in Hitman 2 was quite enjoyable and if it wasn't for the always online requirement I would consider this game to be a 10/10.

Final Fantasy II (2023) - PS4 - 4/10 (Mixed)
Original Release: 1988 (Famicon); Time in Backlog: 21 years

I'd played the original Final Fantasy back in 2019 using the PS1 port. I would have played PS1 port for Final Fantasy II except for the fact my PS3 died and I have no way of reading Playstation discs anymore. Instead I played the Pixel Remaster version of Final Fantasy II and thank god I did, because had I played a more faithful port of Final Fantasy II, I likely wouldn't have finished it.

You take control of 4 main characters. Unlike the original Final Fantasy, these characters have default names and distinct personalities. Your home is attacked by the evil empire of Palamecia and three of you are rescued while the fourth character is left behind. Your band of orphans join the Rebellion and start going on missions to try to thwart the empire and stop their efforts to conquer the whole world.

This was the first Final Fantasy game to have a story to it. While the story is quite barebones it does have a structure and elements to it that would be reused in future Final Fantasy games. Another difference to the original Final Fantasy game is that you have a base of operations where quest givers will send you out into the world. This was really helpful as it avoided me getting lost and confused as to what I was meant to do next. While some locations weren't clearly outlined as to how to get there, I was able to find them with minimal frustration.

The part where this game really falls down is the dungeons. They take up the bulk of the game and are almost always at least 5 levels deep. Most individual fights don't represent a danger to your party, unless you accidentally wander into a high level area, but the effect of going through 5 levels of random encounters is that by the time you get to the end you're fairly low on resources and need to make a decision as to whether you teleport to the surface and heal up or push on and risk a TPK and lose all that experience you've gained thus far. By the end of the game this structure of dungeon became really punishing and just not fun in the slightest.

Fortunately the Pixel Remaster introduces quite a few quality of life improvements. The biggest one is autosaves as you enter a new room or level along with quick saves at any time. Throughout the game you'll encounter a number of doors, three of them will be empty rooms while the fourth will allow you to continue deeper into the dungeon. In the original release of Final Fantasy II the empty rooms would have dramatically increased encounter rates, effectively forcing you to take 4 or 5 back to back fights for every empty room you accidentally went into. There was also no way to determine which room was the correct one and so it was basically random chance. Fortunately the Pixel Remaster removes this increased encounter rate and so these rooms are more of an annoyance then a risk of you dying in the dungeon.

Overall I enjoyed my time in Final Fantasy II despite all it's flaws, but only because the flaws have been toned down by the Pixel Remaster. The dungeon design for this game really did detract from my experience by the end and ultimately I cannot recommend this game to anyone except the most die-hard fans of Final Fantasy.

Hitman 3 (2023) - PS5 - 9/10 (Great)
Original Release: 2021 (PS5); Time in Backlog: N/A

The conclusion to the trilogy of Hitman games, Hitman 3 is probably the best of the lot. The story picks up right away from the end of the Hitman 2 DLC and while I won't go into any details on it, it was easily the best thing in the game. During Hitman 1 I found myself mostly playing for the mission maps and working out new fun ways to kill the targets. For Hitman 3 I primarily played for the story because I had to find out what happened next!

The cutscenes were a dramatic improvement over Hitman 2 and were fully animated once more. I also think they were a substantial improvement over Hitman (2016). The cast of characters expands once more and IOI really got inventive with what directions they took the story and also how the missions in the main story played out. This game felt like they tried to innovate every step of the way and it made for a really enjoyable experience.

The only new mechanic that I found was the introduction of the camera. This was well integrated with the levels and gave Agent 47 more tools to interact with the environment without having to get too silly to justify how the tool worked. The other new mechanic was a new gameplay mode called the Elusive Target Arcade. This trilogy of Hitman games have all been live service with certain missions being available for a limited period of time. The Elusive Target Arcade lets you play those time limited missions as many times as you want, whenever you want. I really like this inclusion and while some of the missions were locked away behind DLC, many weren't. Overall I think this is a great way to combat FOMO and allow later players to the game to still get to experience the same content as those who played it from day 1.

The other major DLC was the 7 Deadly Sins side missions. These were bizarre and very different from the main story mission. I appreciated that they introduced a substantially different approach to the game but ultimately I don't think they were worth buying unless you can get them at a steep discount.

Overall I really enjoyed Hitman 3 and if it weren't for the always online requirement I would definitely consider this game a 10/10.

Tetris (1989) - Gameboy - 9/10 (Great)
Original Release: 1989 (Gameboy); Time in Backlog: N/A

While playing my 3DS I saw that I had a Virtual Console version of the Gameboy port of Tetris and so I decided to boot it and give it a play. This was the version of Tetris I played growing up and so I have a lot of nostalgia for the game.

Of all the Tetris games I played this month this is probably my favourite. Although it's monochrome and the smaller screeen means you can't build up Tetris blocks as high, the difficulty increases quite smoothly rather then having sudden difficulty spikes. I much prefer that gradual increase in difficulty as it doesn't jump up on me unexpectedly and can be taken into consideration much more easily.

The music also instantly sends me back to my childhood.

Final Thoughts

I'm really pleased that after 21 years I was finally able to finish Final Fantasy II. I'm also glad to come to a resolution with Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap. Finally I had a great time playing through the Hitman trilogy I bought last year and have stopped it from becoming a backlog game which is good.

Looking ahead at February, I've been playing Freelancer mode in Hitman: World of Assassination. I've also been playing Chrono Trigger and more.

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