Welcome to yet ANOTHER year of 12-in-12 fun. What is 12-in-12? It's the initiative to beat 12 games in 12 months. If this concept is new to you, check out my maiden post on the subject. Also check out last year's 12-in-12.

With that said, let's list the games I completed this year:

• Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA X [Vita]
• Crash Team Racing [PS1]
• Dead Cells [Switch]
• Dark Souls II [PS3]
• Banjo-Tooie [N64]
• Crashmo [3DS]
• Hypnogogia [PC]
• Torchlight [PC]
• Peglin [Steam]
• Marble it Up! Ultra [Switch]

Totaling 10/12 games. Not too shabby, since I did art and other stuff this year!

February

At the end of the month, I picked up my Vita for a couple songs of Miku, only to finish up the last challenges of Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA X [Vita]. The finale consisted of choosing one major song of each "vibe" and killing it with a great score. Considering I bought this so long ago, it's about time I get around to enjoying the main game!

March

At the end of the month, I was streaming some Crash Team Racing [PS1] for funsies via the PS1 classics on PS3, and ended up finishing the Adventure Mode! I played through as Crash, though I generally prefer Pura. It was fairly tough just to get through, and the extra challenges leave you with plenty of game to explore and savor. It reminded me of Diddy Kong Racing in its design.

April

In this month, I took apart my copy of Dragon Warrior 3 for GameBoy Color after it nuked my save AGAIN, only to notice that, uh.. the board didn't have "Nintendo" anywhere on it. And the cartridge was black, instead of the GBC-only clear cartridges. In other words, I had a bootleg cartridge! This takes it out of the backlog, despite it not being beaten. I'm going to count it as a backlog reduction if nothing else; the same as if it was destroyed or stolen. Some day I would like to play through this, but not on a cartridge that lost its saves 3 separate times since buying it.

To avoid confusion, we're NOT going to take any credit for this at the top of the post. I just wanted to share this story!

May

This month, I tackled Dead Cells [Switch]! It was nice to finish a game that's been in the backlog since 2018.

Dead Cells itself is a fantastic Metroidvania and roguelite fusion that gets better the more you play it. Permanent upgrades are unlocked via Cells, and dying resets the game and you lose your things. Each thing you put cells into makes the game that much better, that much easier, and attainable. You have to go through it multiple times in order to unlock all of the traversal abilities, so it's not a game for people with a short temper or lacking patience.

June

The tough games keep coming, with Dark Souls II [PS3] getting beaten early in the month! It was a great, if frustrating and odd sequel to the beloved Dark Souls. There's still DLC for me to get through, but I'm chomping at the bit to get through again.

This playthrough, I was a "battle mage", aiming for DEX-based weapons and high INT and ATN. Though, I must say speccing it out doesn't start to materialize until around level 100. I'm not sure how I would refine it, but I'm looking forward to exploring hexes in my next playthrough. After that, I should be ready to explore the top-level stuff like heavy armor + heavy gear builds.

Suffice to say, I actually kinda like the linearity, but it's somewhat open during a significant chunk of the game.

At the end of the month, my friend Elomeno_ and I played through Banjo-Tooie [N64]. It was a trip, full of collectibles. A ton of the game is locked behind the abilities; I'd love to play a version that has the abilities unlocked from the start.

September

This month, I finished up Crashmo [3DS]. It's a cute puzzle game where you grab various 3D shapes and can move them in the four cardinal directions. I beat the initial 100 levels, but the difficulty of them was becoming so grueling, that I didn't feel up to finishing the bonus content.

Still, you unlock a music player when you beat the game, and I believe it has a level editor, too. What else could you really ask for from a puzzle game? I might mix it up and have different play area themes instead of the same one for the whole game, but there's a story reason for that which I won't reveal.

October

My girlfriend and I played a bunch of games we found on Itch.io and other places. One that captivated me long enough to finish is Hypnogogia [PC], named after the state of consciousness between wakefulness and sleep. It's a game jam game that was developed in a single month. Pretty cool for what it attempts to do, it was a solid evening exploring the game.

November

A long-standing game in the backlog was finished early in the month. Runic Games' Torchlight [PC] came at a time when there were precious few Western ARPGs to choose from. It was okay for what it was, but playing it really made me want to go back to Diablo II: Resurrected or even just Diablo: The Hell. It's clear from the music direction and general design that it comes from the same minds that developed Diablo, but it's aimed at too casual of an audience for me to find much satisfaction in the game. I played through as a Vanquisher and focused on critical hits for much of the game. My build seemed decent for the most part. Still, it wasn't the worst 20-30 hours I've spent on a game. I'd be interested in hearing the thoughts of the original developers concerning this game, considering it was developed in only 11 months!

December

I spent most of this month working on creative stuff and playing games that were gifted to me. I beat two of them, on the same day!

Peglin [Steam] is a fun pachinko + roguelike combination that is accessible, but deep enough to warrant careful decision-making. I pulled off my first win after about 6-8 attempts and 10 hours of playing. However, there's a bunch more to unlock and see after that first win! This is a game that I see myself coming back to when I'm feeling something casual and don't want to think too hard.

Next, I finished up Marble it Up! Ultra [Switch], a modern marble obstacle game. It has multiplayer modes and a bunch of unlockables for all of your hard work finding hidden items and getting fast times! It'd be nice try out the online with people some time.

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That's it for the 12-in-12 this year! We did 10 out of 12. Not my worst!