In January of 2010, I decided to change my outlook on how I manage my gaming time, how I collect games, and how I contend with the nemesis that so many gamers share: the dreaded backlog.
I got involved in a forum thread in an online gaming community called "Games Beaten 2010." It encouraged members to begin listing the games they finished over the course of the year.
I believe that my success in moving through a big chunk of my own collection in the past four and a half years (something I'd never dreamed would be possible beforehand) is something anyone can replicate, and I want to pass on nine tips I came to learn in the process to help others do so.
Find a friendly online community interested in beating games together.
The role of public discussion around the list of games you beat can be vital to your motivation for moving through to the credits.
Gamers who share an interest in tackling their backlog love to tell each other what they think of one another's accumulating lists. Once I'd finish one of the games on my list, the idea of then getting to talk about it afterwards with a community of interested participants was exciting. That conversation was far more of an incentive to get to the credits than any ending cinematic, trophies, or achievements were.
Many online gaming communities have threads like the one I participated in. Sites such as The Backloggery or Playfire are dedicated to enabling this kind of discussion, and are places where you may find a home. There are even some communities that form discussions around specific games that they play together, too, like Kotaku's own current Summer of Old JRPGs.
In my experience, the positive reinforcement from a community when you finish a game does much more to encourage you to check a game off your list than the act of simply moving it to another category in a database, another section of your shelf, or another column on a spreadsheet.
Most importantly, I recommend that other gamers find a community that sees beating games as a basis for having friendly discussion about each game's merits, not as a competition to see who can rack up the biggest list. Though that might be a counterproductive atmosphere to some who seek motivation through competition, it was a great context for me to actually feel like I was making progress.
Get in the habit of tracking your games.
At the very least, you should begin by listing the games you've beaten this year. Past that, it may also be helpful to make a list of all the games you own (perhaps on a site like RF Generation) so that you can plan ahead.
Which games do you want to prioritize? Which systems have you been ignoring? Which series do you have a lot games for?
Eventually you can use game-tracking to keep a count of the number of games that you acquire, the number of games you beat year to year or month to month, the number of older vs. newer games you are playing, the number of games you are actively playing at once, etc. The idea here is to get data over time so that you can more strategically plan your game choices and your game time.
If you find that, like me, you typically don't have a lot of free time in March, you may not want to start that 40-hour RPG at the end of February. If you notice that you rarely play any N64 games, you may temporarily stop picking up games for that system until it actually piques your interest again. Alternatively, if you have eight Dragon Warrior games and have never played any of them, maybe you want to finally give them a crack.
Lists and stats are your friend. Don't fear them!
Learn to use HowLongToBeat.com and plan your time carefully.
This site didn't exist the first few years I was making my annual list, but it has since become a godsend. Part of planning to beat X number of games a year involves staggering your list with long games and short games in a way that fits your schedule. It can be immensely frustrating trying to play 2-3 games at once that each last 30 hours or more.
If you want to play multiple games at a time, try to balance them out and play at least one short one and one long one simultaneously. If you know, for example, that you have two hours free on two nights this upcoming week, try to pick a game to beat that sits at around the 4-5 hour mark so you can get through it in your planned available time. Do this over the course of the month, and you might find that you easily beat 1-2 of the longer games while also polishing off a half dozen shorter titles from your backlog. Figure out how to use this resource in an effective way for you.
Most importantly, don't dramatically change your current habits for allocating gaming time; one of the quickest ways to burn out of a serious attempt at tackling the backlog is to start piling a lot more hours of game time into your week than you currently afford. Game smarter and more carefully, not harder and longer.
Allow yourself to occasionally play games without the intent of finishing them.
Not every game in your backlog can or has to be beaten. Some genres might prove tough to focus on as part of your regular efforts to clear a backlog.
Take time here and there to get in some time with a shmup that you have no realistic hope of beating, to play a few rounds of that obscure Genesis football title, etc. Part of tackling your backlog involves having first-hand familiarity with the games you own — and that doesn't always have to mean beating them. For example, I haven't "beaten" Truxton on Sega Genesis, but I have spent enough time with it to consider it one of my favorite shmups and I wouldn't consider it as being part of my backlog any longer.
Embrace the accessibility of digital, mobile and portable games.
One way to ensure that you can plow through games in your backlog is to make the games you are playing accessible to you across multiple formats. It might be hard to find an hour every night to hook up your PlayStation 2 to tackle the original Sly Cooper trilogy, but you might have an hour break at work every day where you could play the remade Sly Cooper Collection found on the Vita. Or maybe you want to play the original Mega Man games on the eShop. Maybe you're having a hard time screwing around with your PC to get an old DOS game going, but can opt for the ported iOS option instead.
If the "most authentic original experience possible" is really important to you, it will likely end up hampering your efforts at beating your backlog.
Determine for yourself what counts as "beating" a game.
The most traditional definition for completing a game is probably reaching some kind of ending after which credits will roll. Some people argue that a game isn't "beaten" unless you finish it at 100% without dying while playing on the hardest difficulty. These opinions for "beating" a game vary by game, by genre, and by person, and that debate can certainly be part of the fun of playing through your backlog.
But you're not in competition with others. Tackling your backlog is about challenging yourself. It is ultimately up to you whether or not to decide if you've "legitimately" beaten a game. Make judgments that you feel you can defend to yourself and feel satisfied with. That said, sites like The Backloggery list various categories of game completion, some of which may be helpful for you if you are on the fence on deciding if you can put a game on your big board.
I typically count a game as beaten once the credits roll, but I almost always require myself to play on default or harder settings for games that have adjustable difficulty. In arcade games like fighters and shmups, I generally shoot for a 1cc or 4cc, depending on how fair I perceive the game to be. To count a sports game as beaten, I aim to complete a season and/or a playoff run as a league champion. I strictly avoid any kinds of cheats or hacks. Again, those rules are specific to me based on what I found to provide the right balance of challenge versus accomplishment, but everyone's own criteria will likely be different.
Move on.
Don't spend much gaming time playing things you've already beaten. Don't spend your time trying to 100% everything if you've already completed the main questline. Don't worry about reading every last line of dialogue and uncovering every last secret by working on multiple playthroughs. These activities are fine and fun if you aren't on a quest to get through a hefty backlog, but they can be kryptonite to any serious attempt.
Certainly you can enjoy games to their fullest and try to get the most out of them. I personally prefer to start up a new game when I've hit the campaign credits and will only dip back into games like Borderlands 2 or Dragon Age with 20 hours or more of post-game content in little bits and pieces as I find time (including when a significant new piece of DLC comes along).
Think about short-term goals.
A big problem for me early on was splitting my play time across five or six games at once, picking games to play randomly, or otherwise playing with no real goals in mind.
Over time, as I decided to get serious about beating my backlog, I found ways to provide interesting challenges to myself in each yearly thread. One year, I wanted to beat at least one game for every system I owned. Another year, I decided to play through a few series in their entirety. I've made it a point to occasionally focus on runs of certain genres or systems. I've occasionally made it a goal to hit a certain number of games by a certain date (e.g. fifty by mid-July).
These extra motivators also helped to give me a sense of my own gaming habits, providing an idea of which times of the year worked best to play certain kinds of games based on my schedule, which kinds of games I was neglecting, and which kinds of games I might want to pick up for future play.
Remember that beating your backlog is a long-term goal.
Beating a huge backlog is, in most cases, more of a mental block than a physical limitation.
No, most of you will not get through your backlog in 1-2 years. But in 10-20 years? You could make some very serious dents in it. It would be easier still if you only wanted to reasonably experience but not necessarily beat every game. The size and scope of backlogs vary. Some gamers only want to include "current gen" games in their backlogs. Some who haven't adopted the latest generation of systems will only include games for systems they already own.
Many gamers have a backlog that encompasses selected titles across 30-40 years of gaming's history. But no matter how far back your backlog goes or what it entails — and even though games come out at an increasingly faster rate today — it certainly isn't unreasonable to think that you could focus much of your attention on the present while also playing a respectable number of older games every year.
In the end you likely won't ever finish every game in your backlog, but you should get to a point where you've made a substantive dent in it and have the satisfaction of knocking out a lot of classic games, too.
I've included with this post a list of the 400 games I've beaten over the past four and a half years (as of mid-June 2014). The number of games isn't ultimately very important – people will have differing amounts of free time or playing skills that will make this list an unhelpful comparison, and it isn't intended to be used that way. Instead, I've pasted the list primarily to give a sense of how I have personally approached attacking my backlog. You'll notice plenty of shorter arcade style games (shmups and fighters, for example), but I also think that there's a fair number of RPGs or longer action/adventure games in the final balance. There are more games for newer systems than older systems, but there's clearly a lot of retro stuff on the list as well. There are a few repeats of games I couldn't resist revisiting in a different year (and a couple that are meatier add-ons for games), but these are minimal.
These nine tips are the general strategy that I plan to continue to use and that I hope will get me close to clearing around half of my backlog — which sits at around a couple of thousand games — in the next decade or so.
If you've got other ideas and strategies you've used, be sure to sound off with your own tips or questions in the comments below!
Games Beaten in 2010
1. Raiden IV 360
2. Shatter PS3
3. After Burner 32X
4. Dragon Age: Origins PS3
5. Red Faction: Guerrilla PS3
6. RayStorm PS1
7. RayCrisis: Series Termination PS1
8. Call of Duty: World at War 360
9. Contra NES
10. In the Hunt PS1
11. Philosoma PS1
12. F.E.A.R.: Extraction Point 360
13. God of War III PS3
14. Electronic Table Soccer! Odyssey2
15. Gigawing DC
16. Gigawing 2 DC
17. Shoot 1UP 360
18. Dragon Age Origins: Awakening PS3
19. 1942: Joint Strike- PS3
20. Little Big Planet - PSP
21. Strikers 1945 Plus Portable- PSP
22. Madden NFL 10 - PS3
23. Gunstar Heroes -PS3 (GEN)
24. Astro Boy: Omega Factor - GBA
25. Final Fight - PS2 (Arcade)
26. The Conduit - Wii
27. Dark Sector- PS3
28. Super Street Fighter IV - PS3
29. The Great Ragtime Show (aka Boogie Wings)- MAME
30. Metal Slug XX - PSP
31. House of the Dead: Overkill - Wii
32. F.E.A.R. - The Perseus Mandate- 360
33. Radio Allergy - Wii
34. Karous-Wii
35. Half-Minute Hero - PSP
36. Metro 2033 - 360
37. Bioshock 2 - 360
38. Outrun - SMS
39. Outrun (Sega AGES 3D) - PS2
40. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - PS1
41. Outrun 2019 - Genesis
42. Ico - PS2
43. Panzer Dragoon II: Zwei - Saturn
44. Soldner-X 2: Final Prototype - PS3
45. Gears of War - 360
46. Bad Dudes - Wii (Arcade)
47. Caveman Ninja - - Wii (Arcade)
48. Zombie Wasteland - iPhone
49. Espgaluda II - iPhone
50. Bayonetta - 360
51. Angry Birds -iPhone
52. Deathsmiles - 360
53. Bonk's Adventure - PCE
54. Halo: ODST - 360
55. Need For Speed: Undercover -iPhone
56. Dante's Inferno -PS3
57. BlazBlu: Calamaity Trigger -PS3
58. Space Invaders: Infinity Gene -iPhone
59. Ridge Racer - PS1
60. Tiki Totems - iPhone
61. Fallout 3 - PS3
62. Cyvern - The Dragon Weapons - MAME
63. DoDonPachi Resurrection - iPhone
64. Battlefield Bad Company 2 - PS3
65. Cameltry - PSP/Arcade (Taito Collection)
66. Psyvariar - PS2
67. Alien vs. Predator - Arcade (MAME)
68. Halo: Reach - 360
69. Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee - XBOX
70. King of the Monsters - PS2/Arcade (SNK Arcade Classics)
71. Haunted House - Atari 2600
72. Soul Calibur IV -PS3
73. Mutant League Football - Genesis
74. Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ - DS
75. Peggle - iPhone
76. Resistance Retribution - PSP
77. God of War: Ghost of Sparta -PSP
78. Quiz & Dragons: Capcom Quiz Game -PSP/Arcade (Capcom Classics Remixed)
79. Portal - PC
80. Uniracers - SNES
81. Half Life 2: Episode 1 - PC
82. Assassin's Creed - 360
83. Rage HD - iPhone
84. Sonic CD - Sega CD
85. Dark Nebula: Episode 1 - iPhone
86. Tempest 2000 (Traditional Tempest mode) - - Atari Jaguar
87. Ikaruga - Gamecube
88. Tetris (Rev A and Rev B) - Game Boy
89. Halo 2600 - Atari 2600
90. Super Mario Bros. - NES
91. Aliens vs Predator - PS3
92. X-Men Arcade - PS3 (Arcade)
93. Donkey Kong Jr. - Atari 7800
94. Iridion II - GBA
95. Killer Instinct Gold - N64
96. Super Mario Galaxy 2 - Wii
97. Dragon Age: The Darkspawn Chronicles - PS3
98. Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner - PS2
99. Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo - PSP
100. Renny Blaster - PCE-CD
Games Beaten in 2011
101. Metal Torrent- DSiWare
102. Kirby Super Star Ultra - NDS
103. DoDonPachi - PS1
104. Cruis'n USA - N64
105. Cruis'n World - N64
106. DonPachi - PS1
107. Cut the Rope - iPhone
108. Cut the Rope: Holiday Gift - iPhone
109. Mass Effect - 360
110. Galaga Remix - Wii
111. Tatsunoko vs. Capcom - Wii
112. Mushihimesama Futari 1.5 - 360
113. DoDonPachi Dai Ou Jou - PS2
114. DoDonPachi Resurrection - iPhone
115. Triggerheart Exelcia - Dreamcast
116. Heavy Barrel - Wii/Arcade
117. Tetris (Rev A and Rev B) - Game Boy
118. Street Fighter IV - iPhone
119. Killzone - PS2
120. Dead Space 2 - PS3
121. Marvel vs Capcom 3- PS3
122. Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess - PSP
123. Killzone 3- PS3
124. Lost Planet 2 - PS3
125. Star Wars: Dark Forces - PC
126. Nemesis - Game Boy
127. Space Invaders Extreme 2 -NDS
128. Kirby's Dream Land - Game Boy
129. Mass Effect 2 - 360
130. Mass Effect 2: Shadow Broker - 360
131. Mass Effect 2: Kasumi - Stolen Memory - 360
132. Kirby's Dream Land 2- Game Boy
133. Ginga Fukei Densetsu: Sapphire- PCE-CD
134. Soul Calibur - Dreamcast
135. Dragon Age II - PS3
136. Espgaluda II - iPhone
137. Portal 2 -PC
138. Metroid: Zero Mission - GBA
139. Vanquish - PS3
140. Terraforming -PCE-CD
141. Dark Nebula 2 - iPhone
142. Gunblade NY - Wii
143. LA Machine Guns - Wii
144. F.E.A.R. 2 - PS3
145. F.E.A.R. 2: Reborn PS3
146. Chrono Trigger - SNES
147. Guardian Heroes - SAT
148. F.E.A.R. 3 - PS3
149. Prehistoric Isle in 1930 - PSP
150. Gears of War 2 - 360
151. Adventure - Atari 2600
152. Gunhed - PCE
153. Limbo - 360
154. Crimzon Clover - PC
155. Army of Darkness Defense- iPhone
156. Psycho Soldier - PSP
157. Shank - PS3
158. Jamestown - PC
159. MUSHA - Genesis
160. Dragon Age II: Legacy - PS3
161. Kingdom Grand Prix - Arcade (MAME)
162. Blade Buster - NES
163. Alien vs. Predator - Arcade (MAME)
164. Metamorphic Force - Arcade (MAME)
165. Jetpack Joyride- iPhone
166. Medal of Honor - PS3
167. Dimahoo - Arcade (MAME)
168. Michael Jackson's Moonwalker - Arcade (MAME)
169. Gears of War 3 - 360
170. Dementium: The Ward - NDS
171. Brutal Sports Football - - Atari Jaguar
172. Splatterhouse - PCE
173. Resistance 3 - PS3
174. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception - PS3
175. Battlefield 3 - PS3
176. Espgaluda II: Black Label (BL mode) - 360
177. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 - PS3
178. Knights of the Round - Arcade (MAME)
179. Sonic the Hedgehog - Genesis
180. Shining Force - Genesis
181. Muchi Muchi Pork - 360
182. Dragon Age II: Mark of the Assassin - PS3
183. Shienryu Explosion - PS2
184. Little Big Planet 2 - PS3
185. Pink Sweets - 360
186. Sonic Generations - PC
187. Homefront - PS3
188. Groove Coaster - iPad
189. No More Heroes - Wii
190. Double Dragon - SMS
Games Beaten in 2012
191. Golden Axe Warrior - SMS
192. Current - iOS
193. Golden Axe: The Duel - Saturn
194. Golden Axe - Genesis
195. Capcom Fighting Evolution - PS2
196. Metal Slug XX - PSP
197. Ketsui: Death Label - NDS
198. DoDonPachi: Blissful Death - iOS
199. Shock Troopers: 2nd Squad - Arcade (MAME)
200. Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary -360
201. The Simpsons Arcade Game - PS3
202. Soul Edge - PS1
203. HamsterBall - PS3
204. BlazBlu: Continuum Shift Extend - Vita
205. Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3- Vita
206. Uncharted: Golden Abyss - Vita
207. Ys 1 - PSP
208. Journey - PS3
209. X-Men vs. Street Fighter - Arcade (MAME)
210. Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter - Arcade (MAME)
211. Street Fighter X Tekken - PS3
212. Mass Effect 3 - 360
213. Mass Effect 3: From Ashes - 360
214. Mystic Warriors - Wrath of the Ninja - Arcade (MAME)
215. Dragon Blaze - Arcade (MAME)
216. Shadows of the Damned - 360
217. Arabian Nights (from Pinball Arcade) - Vita
218. Driver: San Francisco 360
219. Skull Girls - PS3
220. Wolfenstien 3D - iOS
221. Skull and Crossbones - Arcade (MAME)
222. Diablo III - PC
223. Resistance: Burning Skies - Vita
224. Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown -PS3
225. Final Fantasy IV - PSP
226. Capcom vs SNK 2 EO - Gamecube
227. Bride of Pin*Bot (from Pinball Arcade) - Vita
228. Pac-Man Championship Edition DX - PS3
229. Super Stardust Delta - Vita
230. DoDonPachi Resurrection - 360
231. Bit.Trip Beat - PC
232. Dear Esther - PC
233. Wizorb - PC
234. Sound Shapes - Vita
235. Infinity Blade - iOS
236. Infinity Blade II - iOS
237. Super Star Shooter - X68000
238. Mortal Kombat (2012) - Vita
239. Super Mario 3D Land - 3DS
240. Centipede: Infestation - 3DS
241. Commando - 7800
242. Shadow Gun - iOS
243. Borderlands 2 - PC
244. Unfinished Swan - PS3
245. Borderlands 2: Captain Scarlett and Her Captain's Booty - PC
246. House of the Dead 4 - PS3
247. Vampire Savior (Darkstalkers 3) - Arcade (MAME)
248. D - PS1
249. Vampire Hunter (Darkstalkers 2) - PSP
250. He-Man: The Most Powerful Game in the Universe - iOS
251. Halo 4 - 360
252. Little Big Planet - Vita
253. Super Crate Box - Vita
254. Street Fighter X Tekken - iOS
255. 007: Goldeneye Reloaded - PS3
256. 007: Blood Stone 360
257. Angry Birds: Star Wars - iOS
258. After Burner Climax - PS3
259. Sonic 4: Episode 1 - PS3
260. Borderlands 2: Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage - PC
261. Street Fighter Alpha: Warrior's Dreams - PS1
262. Killer Instinct - SNES
263. Sonic 4: Episode 2 - PS3
264. Hotline Miami - PC
265. NightSky - PC
266. Super Burnout - - Atari Jaguar
267. Dead or Alive 3 - Xbox
268. Mario vs. Donkey Kong - GBA
269. Tekken Tag Tournament 2 - PS3
270. Marvel Land - Genesis
Games Beaten in 2013
271. Twisted Metal - PS1
272. Twisted Metal 2 - PS1
273. Twisted Metal III - PS1
274. Twisted Metal 4 - PS1
275. Screaming Mad George's Paranoiascape - PS1
276. N.O.V.A. - PSP
277. Jetpack Joyride - Vita
278. Devil May Cry (2013) - 360
279. BlazBlu: Continuum Shift Extend - Vita
280. Fighting Masters - Genesis
281. Kirby's Epic Yarn - Wii
282. Cruis'n - Wii
283. Foosball 2012 - Vita
284. Electronic Table Soccer! - Odyssey2
285. Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown -PS3
286. Asura's Wrath - PS3
287. Showdown in 2100 A.D. - Odyssey2
288. CoD of Duty - PC
289. Little Big Planet Karting - PS3
290. Gattling Gears - PS3
291. Monster Maulers - Arcade (MAME)
292. Angry Birds Rio - iOS
293. The Last Story - Wii
294. Retro/Grade - PS3
295. Sonic Fighters - 360
296. Spec Ops: The Line - PS3
297. God of War: Ascension - PS3
298. Bioshock Infinite - PS3
299. Half-Life: Source - PC
300. Guacamelee - Vita
301. Tekken 6 - PSP
302. Half-Life: Blue Shift - PC
303. Power Stone - PSP
304. Power Stone 2 - PSP
305. Torchlight - PC
306. Torchlight II - PC
307. Gorgar (from Pinball Arcade) - Vita
308. Metro: Last Light - 360
309. The Last Blade - Arcade (MAME)
310. Fatal Fury Special - Arcade (PS2)
311. Halo 2600 - Atari 2600
312. Lollipop Chainsaw - PS3
313. Sonic Colors - Wii
314. Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow over Mystara -Arcade (360)
315. Final Fight - Arcade (360)
316. The Last of Us - PS3
317. Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom - Arcade (360)
318. Aliens: Colonial Marines - PC
319. Dodonpachi Resurrection - 360
320. Boxing - Atari 2600 (PS2)
321. Commander Keen Episode 1: Marooned on Mars - PC
322. DLC Quest - PC
323. Live Freemium or Die - PC
324. Borderlands 2: Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt - PC
325. Marvel vs Capcom 3 - PS3
326. Borderlands 2: Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep - PC
327. Call of Juarez: Gunslinger - PC
328. Street Fighter IV - iOS
329. Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R - Vita
330. The Elder Scrolls IV: Skyrim - 360/PC
331. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages - GBC
332. Killzone: Mercenary - Vita
333. Galaga Legions DX - PS3
334. Angry Birds Star Wars II - iOS
335. Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack - Vita
336. Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower - PSP
337. Little Inferno - iOS
338. The Stanley Parable - PC
339. Plants vs. Zombies - - Vita
340. Device 6 - iOS
341. Gone Home - PC
342. Touch My Katamari - Vita
343. Bulletstorm - 360
344. Call of Duty: Ghosts - PS4
345. Killzone Shadowfall - - PS4
346. Gun Commando - Vita
347. XMAS Doom '99 - PC
348. Hero of Sparta - PSP
349. Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition - PS3
350. Fez - PC
351. Resogun - PS4
352. Shelter - PC
353. To The Moon - PC
354. Tearaway - Vita
355. After Burner: Climax - PS3
Games Beaten in 2014 (so far)
356. Primal Rage - 32X
357. Golden Axe - Genesis
358. To the Moon: Holiday Special - PC
359. Need for Speed: Rivals - PS4
360. Halo: Spartan Assault - Xbox One
361. Kolibri - 32X
362. Motocross Championship - 32X
363. Shank 2 - PS3
364. Colassatron: Massive World Threat - iOS
365. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons - PS3
366. Snafu - Intellivision - Intellivision
367. Tatsunoko vs. Capcom - Wii
368. Street Fighter vs. Tekken - Vita
369. Wolf Fang - PS1/Vita
370. Mirror's Edge - iOS
371. Infamous: Festival of Blood - PS3
372. The Last of Us: Left Behind - PS3
373. Flappy Bird - iOS
374. Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag - PS4
375. Titanfall - Xbox One
376. Infamous: Second Son - PS4
377. Diablo III: Reaper of Souls - PC
378. Killzone: Mercenaries - Vita
379. Shock Troopers - Arcade (PS2)
380. Borderlands - PC/PS3
381. Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2012) - Vita
382. PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale - PS3
383. Muramasa Rebirth - Vita
384. Spyro The Dragon - PS1/Vita
385. Ys II: Ancient Ys Vanished - PC
386. Gears of War: Judgment - 360
387. Raiden III - Arcade (PS2)
388. Strider - Arcade (PS2)
389. Mario Kart Wii - Wii
390. Mario Kart 8 - Wii U
391. Eye of the Beholder - - Sega CD
392. Code of Princess - 3DS
393. Crimzon Clover World Ignition - PC
394. Bushido Blade - PS1
395. New Super Mario Bros. 2 - 3DS
396. Mario Kart DS - NDS
397. Ketsui: Death Label (Very Hard Mode) - NDS
398. Marvel vs Capcom - Dreamcast
399. Wario Land - Virtual Boy
400. The Typing of the Dead - Dreamcast
Number of games for "retro" systems: 162
Number of games for "current" systems: 238
David Heineman is a professor who writes and teaches about rhetoric and new media, including video games. He can be reached via Twitter @DrHeineman.