The mark of an incredibly well made game? I even love the things I hate about it. Rayman Origins is one of those games.

Being excited for Rayman Legends I recently went back to Rayman Origins with the aim of taking on the final level.

I recorded my efforts in this task counting up the number times I died. The following video contains edited footage of my run through the final level which in actuality took nearly an hour and a half. You'll also hear live commentary as I spout off thoughts about Rayman, Nintendo, Western film themes and those pesky game designers.

Should there be a Miss Destructoid?
 
I don’t know. I was just larking about. I thought it would be cool to draw a Miss Destructoid then post it on the cblogs to see what people thought.
 
My first idea was Mr Destructoid with a bow on his head. Just like Ms. Pacman. Then I gave her earrings. Then I realised that I was defining Miss Destructoid’s identity by the accessories she wore. I didn’t want to do that, it seemed pretty lame.


 
I started over. This time I changed only the arrangement of Mr Destructoid’s features. Adding and removing nothing. I ended up with something like Mr Destructoid trying to pass himself off as a member of Daft Punk.


 
Then I thought this is bad too. It is not an interesting design. It’s just Mr Destructoid with a round head.
 
Is it better to have Miss Destructoid look like Mr Destructoid? Does that promote equality? It probably only highlights that biggest flaw in a concept like Miss Destructoid. Which is, why create a female character only to be an analogue to an existing male character?
 

In this case the answer to that question is, just for fun. So I guess it doesn’t really matter. Here is my Miss Destructoid.

About six months ago I decided to clear my backlog. To that end I created a rule for myself. I have to play two games that I already own before I can buy a new one.
 
To give you an idea, I have games going back to the Game Boy Colour that I’ve been telling myself “I’ll get around to someday”. Before the rule, I would buy every single game that I thought I wanted to play. I didn’t want to miss out on anything.
 
This was a ludicrous notion. My backlog only ever got bigger. I was still ‘missing out’. How did owning the game make things any different?
 
I suppose in my mind the rationale was something like this. The difference between not buying a game and buying a game but not playing it, is the option to play the game in the future.
 
But what future? When exactly was I going to play these games? The answer is never. I realised that when I realised the following.
 
People will always be making new games! Forever!
 
Hence the rule. So far I have been sticking to it. Eventually I will have played every game that I ever bought. Frankly that should not be some kind of tremendous feat, but for me it is.
 
The last game I finished was Luigi’s Mansion 2. I think that had I been keeping up my old game buying habits, I would have been distracted by two or three other games and not finished any of them.
 
Now I’m playing games more like I did back when I was a kid. It feels good to be giving each game it’s due and it’s been surprisingly easy to let go of the compulsion to pick up every major release. The strangest part about the whole thing is, now that I know I’m actually going to play my backlog, I’m looking forward to playing games that I have already owned for years.
 
I’d be interested to see if I’m not alone on this. Do you buy more games than you can play? What does your backlog look like? Do you have any games that you keep saying you will get around to someday? Like me, have you stared into the abyss and realised it’s time to change your ways?
 
I’m going to finish this entry by showing you just how bad I let things get. This is my backlog.
 
Wii U: 3 unfinished games
3DS: 3 unfinished games
PS3: 30 unfinished games
X360: 15 unfinished games
PC: 12 unfinished games
Wii: 10 unfinished games
PSP: 19 unfinished games
DS: 18 unfinished games
Gamecube: 6 unfinished games
PS2: 28 unfinished games
Game Boy Advance: 12 unfinished games
N64: 3 unfinished games
Game Boy Colour: 2 unfinished games
PSX: 7 unfinished games
 
[font=Times New Roman]Total: 168 unfinished games[/font]

It took over a month but  I finally got around to playing Deus Ex. The first level. Whatever, that's worth a half hour video. Probably.

See if you can put up with my voice for three quarters of an hour.

Y'know, because i'm so current.