It's that time of year yet again! Now to copy over this post from ludist210...

Backlaugust: The Official Negative World Month for Decimating Backlogs!™ is back again for more action! So start looking through your backlog and get started!

Here are the "rules":

Games can be on any system, not just Nintendo systems. I know we're a Nintendo fan site, but most everyone here is a multi-console owner. So play a game on any system you want.

Let us know what you're playing. Mostly just so we can cheer each other on.

Play games you already own. A lot of people tend to buy a game then not play it, or play it for a significant amount of time and then put it down. This is what we're aiming for. Games that launch in August don't count.

Try to pick up games you aren't actively playing right now. Games you're currently playing can be allowed, but in the spirit of Backlaugust, let's try to make them games you aren't playing at the moment. Make it a game you haven't touched in a month or more if possible.

When is a game done? That's up to you! Mark a game off your backlog when you've seen the ending or end credits, or once you've seen enough of the game in a game without a "proper ending" (like an arcade-type game). You don't have to do or get everything unless you want to.

Finished games will be posted in the OP. Because everyone likes to see their accomplishments recognized. Just post when you're done and I'll try to update daily.

Last year, we finished a whopping 32 games. That might be a tough number to top, but if everyone pitches in, I think we can do it!

THE FINISHED PILE:
1. Anodyne - NSwitch - Mop it up
2. The Walking Dead Season Two - PC - Brick
3. Trine: Enchanted Edition - NSwitch - Mop it up
4. Child of Light - NSwitch - ludist210
5. Hue - NSwitch - ludist210
6. TumbleSeed - NSwitch - ludist 210
7. Tumblestone - NSwitch - Mop it up
8. Crysis Remastered - NSwitch - TheBigG753
9. Yoku's Island Express - NSwitch - Mop it up
10. Unravel Two - NSwitch - ludist210
11. Yooka-Laylee - Xbone - Mop it up
12. The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures - NSwitch - Guillaume
13. Banner Saga Part 2 - NSwitch - ludist210
14. The Way Remastered - NSwitch - Mop it up
15. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent - Xbox - TheBigG753
16. Okaeri! Chibi-Robo! Happy Richie Oosouji - DS - Pokepal148
17. Journey of the Broken Circle - NSwitch - Mop it up
18. Banner Saga Part 3 - NSwitch - ludist210
19. EQQO - NSwitch - Mop it up
20. Bouncy Bob - NSwitch - Mop it up
21. Quake (+expansions) - Xbone - Mop it up
22. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest - SNES (NSwitch) - TheBigG753
23. Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary - PC - Brick

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I'm in the middle of World 4 in Donkey Kong Country 2. So far it is definitely more challenging than the first game, but also a better game overall. They've hidden the K-O-N-G letters really well in the later stages, but I've been finding my fair share of DK Coins as well. Hopefully I'll be able to finish in the next couple nights.

Banner Saga Part 3 (Switch) is in the books. Such a fantastic trilogy of games. I finished it on Saturday night. The last gauntlet with Iver and company was tough, but I pulled it off.

I booted up La-Mulana with the intention of starting it (sure not gonna finish by tomorrow), but glad I did. As frustrating as it is, it's really fun.

Another completion rings true with EQQO

Ummmm this might be another freebie or maybe it was a few cents. It's a short little point-'n-click style adventure game about a blind boy and a god egg, as told by his mother who can (as the player's perspective) direct him and interact with the environment. The puzzles mainly involve hitting switches and figuring how to get the boy carrying the egg to the next area / room, but they remain pretty simple throughout and never get very challenging. There are sometimes shadow creatures that try to swipe the egg during the times when the boy needs to slip through gates by himself to open the path forward, providing a bit of tension to more quickly get the switches in order and throwing things at them to delay them. The story itself is decent and the voice acting of the narration is well done. Overall, not a bad little game, but not particularly satisfying as a point-'n-click goes.

@TheBigG753 Have you actually never played DKC2 before?!

Mop it up said:

@TheBigG753 Have you actually never played DKC2 before?!

Nope, first time! Original DKC was one of my Backlaugust games a few years ago, and now I've finally gotten around to DKC2.

@TheBigG753

I remember the Wii… bulletin board? tell me it took me about 12 hours to 100% that one.

Definitely agree that it's more challenging, but also better made, than the first one.

Time to wrap this thing up with Bouncy Bob

I'm pretty sure I got this for 1 cent, and it shows. It's like a terrible version of Joust, and Joust is already not very good. I'm guessing it's a port of a mobile game, as the control is simply using the A button to jump. Holding it not only jumps farther, but brings up an arrow that tilts back and fourth as its means of moving left or right, making for an annoyingly little amount of control. It's a high-score game where the goal is to defeat as many enemies as possible in one life, and achieving a certain score will unlock the next awful arena, each one likely inspired by someone's vision of purgatory. Unfortunately, it appears I'm rounding out Backlaugust with a real stinker that's easily the worst of the bunch, but c'est la vie.

I was thinking about it, and perhaps I'll also count Quake as a completed game as well. Technically I've played a version of this game on the Nintendo 64, but I've never played the PC version, which is the newest release. We not only played the main game in co-op, but also the included expansions as well, though I won't be counting those as separate games. What a wild 'n crazy game, these classic shooters are certainly something else!

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (Nintendo Switch Online) has been beaten. Finished at 75% completion. K.Rool was a much stiffer challenge this time around, and despite being a really tough final boss, it was a really good boss fight where you had to really use all of your abilities learned throughout the game.

Overall, I definitely liked it more than the first DKC (although I still place the Retro Studios games on a much higher tier). DKC2 has more variety, tighter gameplay and better level design than the first game. This was fun. Surely at some point I'll get around to DKC3...

Thanks for running Backlaugust again, @Mop it up!

I picked up Halo: The Master Chief Collection on a Steam sale a while back. Got distracted with other games in the meantime, but I just finished Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. I do not think this game has aged all that well. I found the difficulty more frustrating and cheap than anything. Maybe it's just because of its older design. It is almost 20 years old now.

Sorry, I failed. I think if I put more effort into it, it wouldn't have been that hard, but I just found it tough to reconnect to a game that I've already mentally moved on from. Probably didn't help that Ace Attorney released right before this, when I had time for 1 player stuff I just jumped on that instead.

@Brick

Same. I played Anniversary back in 2014/2015 and I found it to be a real slog, having never played the campaign (although tbh I was never that enamored by the multiplayer either back when it was new). The first few missions are pretty good, but I think everything from the midpoint of "Assault on the Control Room" through the remainder of the game is just straight up bad.

That's the biggest reason I haven't played any of the others since (I also got MCC as part of a bundle). Though I've heard from folks who also didn't like Halo 1 that Halo 3 is when the campaigns started to get good. Someday, maybe. These games are relatively short.

I have no real nostalgia for Halo, and close to the start of last year I began playing the Halo series in order with my SO. I would also agree the original Halo is not very good, even for its time. Halo 2 was somewhat of an improvement (no more copy/paste levels at least), but still wasn't anything very worthwhile. Halo 3 though, I thought was pretty fun and had a good time with that one, and then Halo Reach is my fave of the bunch. Halo 4 was a big downturn but still better than 1 and 2, and 5 was more fun but still didn't match up to 3 and Reach.

Therefore for those who only tried Halo 1, I would suggest 2 is skippable, try 3 and / or Reach. If you don't like those, you probably don't like Halo as a whole. Of course the real draw of these games is the multiplayer, and the campaigns definitely seem like they're better in co-op as I played them than in single.

@TheBigG753 I looked back and saw that I was similarly surprised that you hadn't played DKC1. I find it interesting that both you and Guillaume found DKC2 more challenging, as I personally feel DKC1 is more difficult. That may just be because the challenges in DKC2 feel a little less cheap / more fair, though. As for DKC3: just don't go into it expecting it to top or even match DKC2, but I did still enjoy the game and felt it was better than DKC1.

Thanks for participating, unlike most of these slackers!

I'm still going to go finish Castlevania though. I didn't realize how long Lords of Shadow was. Also I do plan on playing through the rest of the Halo campaigns. Reason I picked up the MCC is because Infinite is coming out this year. Too bad Halo 5 isn't included on it though, even if I hear it's probably the worst campaign.

Big flopperoo here on my backlog aspirations, but life really got in the way. At the end of the day, I didn't have enough time, and everything I wound up playing, I just didn't really care. It was like the game equivalent of hitting "next" on your music playlist, and listening to each song for 10 seconds.

I just wanted to play Fire Emblem. Which, technically, was also in my backlog. I really like it so far. Still not 100% sure how some of its mechanics work...and oh boy, there are a lot. I remember on Fire Emblem on GBA, the first like, several hours of the game was just a tutorial. I had no idea the rest of the game was the ACTUAL game. So they really, REALLY ease you into it in that game. Here, it's like, a THOUSAND different systems going on at once. Thankfully, the repetitive nature of the calendar kind of helps you understand what's going on. It's just one of those games with so many choices, that I kind of just give up and do whatever the game recommends.