As I have grown older, I have experienced what many of my ilk have also experienced – I listen to more podcasts and read more posts about my hobbies than I actually partake in them. Nowhere is this more the case than with video games, where the siren’s call of yet another Madden or NHL franchise save eats up the majority of the time I actually have to sit down with a controller in my hands, and Pokémon eats most of the rest. I have tried to catalog and organize my backlog, but this does not solve the issue, and the backlog grows year-over-year.
If you should be misfortunate enough to find yourself in conversation with me that touches on the topic of video games, it’s only a matter of time before I start discussing a YouTube essay about one. It could be an HBomberGuy classic, or a Jacob Gellar or Any Austin special, but it’ll probably be one of Tim Rogers’ Action Button reviews. If you’ve not had this misfortune – Surprise! You are having it right now.
The one I recommend people start with is his review of DOOM, which features both heart-wrenching anecdotes (shout out Bob and Korg), hilarious writing, and perception-altering, incredibly insightful observations. In this particular review, there is a section (part 1, actually) where he talks about being a DOOM poser. Not wanting to appear to those around him as not being qualified, dedicated, interested, or attentive enough in his chosen hobby to have played all of DOOM (one of the best games of all time), he discusses vaguely referring to the game’s quality in such a way that remained technically true, but gave the impression that he had played the game much, much more than he actually had. Needless to say, I find this section to be incredibly relatable.
Tangentially relatedly, I was recently watching a video by a new-to-me YouTube essayist, HPRshredder’s Zelda II: It’s Not the Black Sheep(would recommend!), and he touches on how revisiting a classic game can surprise you when you actually play it. The expectations built from decades osmosing discussions and rankings and off-handed mentions can turn these pieces of media into totems in your mind, which are often quite detached from the thing they are supposed to be representing.
It was watching this video that I had an idea. My video game console journey started with the N64 – I played exclusively PC before that. From N64, I got a Game Boy, then it was time to grow up and get an Xbox (and a GBA), then an Xbox 360 (thanks Ralph!) and a PSP, then a Playstation 4. I’ve never owned a SEGA console, I’ve never owned a NES or a SNES, and my exposure to the PlayStation came from my PSP.
TThere are a lot of the “Greatest Games of All Time” that I’ve already played, but a number of them that I have not. So, to give my video game playing time some structure and a goal, and to actually partake in some of the games I’ve heard so many discussions about but either haven’t tried or have barely tried, I’m building myself a syllabus.
One game per month for 2025. I’m starting January 27th, so I’m giving myself until March 31 to complete my first three. Except not “complete”. I know I’m not going to hit credits on all of these – that’s fine! I just want to say I’ve played them.
Why is this called “Foundation Year”? For those of you who don’t know, I attended the University of King’s College for my undergraduate degree. First year students of King’s, regardless of what degree you’re taking, all take the “Foundation Year Program“, which takes up 4 of your 5 class spots. It consists of reading, lectures, tutorials and an essay. You need to write one essay every two weeks on one of the works studied over that time span. The works you study run the gamut, from Gilgamesh through Augustine through Kant and up to T.S. Eliot. It was a great way to spend a year, and it’s also basically what I’m setting out to do here.
So, once I “finish” one of these game, I’m doing a little write-up on it here. Gotta be at least 1,500 words, but I won’t go to secondary sources unless I feel like it.
Okay, mission statement stated, public commitment made – What games am I going with? I don’t want more than one game from any given franchise, though I am happy to take games from franchises I have played other games in. As mentioned, I’ll list games that I have played, but have never really “played”. Well, there’s really only one way to start:
Also, I won’t be approaching this in any sort of purist sense. I’ll be playing DOOM on my Switch, Zero Mission instead of the original Metroid, the DS version of Chrono Trigger, and Sonic the Hedgehog 3D for the 3DS instead of the Genesis version.