Hello, Destructoid. And welcome to my new feature, and my new ambitious plan.

Yes, my plan is to complete a video game every week through all of 2008, and report my results here. In doing this, I have several unique resources at my disposal: a load of Wii Virtual Console games, a share of the ten free rentals a week that a relative of mine that works at Blockbuster gets, and a passion for fun, ambitious endeavors. A not too unique resource is my many gaming friends and their willingness to lend me games. Oh, and, I really, really love video games.

As 2008 ends on a Wednesday, the weeks will be Thursday to Wednesday, to make it round evenly to the end of the year. As there aren't exactly 52 weeks in a year, this means that the first two days are cut out. So my first "week" is from Thursday January 3rd to Wednesday the 9th (that's tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow for people who are up really late and for whom it feels like Monday like me). I could have cut the last two days of the year off instead, and based the weeks on the first seven days of the year, but seeing as I only thought of this whole plan half an hour ago and the first "week" by that format is already over, I choose this option.

The rules are:
- The game didn't have to be started that week, but it has to have been started in 2008, and finished by the end of 11:59pm Wednesday that week. (But I predict most of them will be primarily played through in that week alone as in past weeks I will have been usually worrying about frantically finishing that week's game on time.)
- This does not require 100% completion status (i.e. I have to beat Gary, not catch every Pokemon) but it must be a reasonable interpretation of "beating" it.
- In games that have multiple facets that should reasonably be called beating the game, I have to finish all of them. A good example of all this will be Brawl. I will have to beat both the regular fighting CPU enemies one at a time mode, as well as the Subspace Emissary Adventure mode, but I don't need to do anything crazy like get every trophy or beat both with every character.
- I can include games I've beaten before, but it has to be the first time in 2008 to count.
- Co-op counts, but it has to be the sort of co-op where I'm at least roughly as significant as the other person, and I have to have been involved in the entire thing. Example: if I play Halo 3, I don't have to have gotten the most points every level or to have played as the chief, but I have to have gone through every level, and I can't, say, watch someone beat Galaxy while being the little second player hand that pokes enemies and picks up star bits.
- Although I won't restrain myself from easy or older games, they can't be just silly flash games that by no rational interpretation should be taken seriously.
- Weeks where I beat multiple games can't be carried over.
- I promise to use my honest judgment in the interest of the fun and legitimacy of this plan if there's any gray areas.

So, I have to finish my first game by the end of tomorrow. Let's start with some short-term predictions. The current first-tier candidates are both old school fighters: Punch-Out!! and Street Fighter II, each of which I have been playing on the Wii VC with an SNES controller. If tomorrow it doesn't look like I'm going to be able to finish either of those, I'll rip out the original Super Mario or Kirby as a safety net, but as the year progresses I'm going to run out of those sorts of titles quick, which should make things interesting. I'm also pretty far in Phantom Hourglass, but that I'm going to either have to start over or not count this way through as I started it a couple days before January 3rd. The two other games listed in my "currently playing" section of the side-bar are also probably going to be included at some point: Metal of Honor Heroes 2 for Wii and Gunstar Heroes. I guess I am a hero-worshiper.

In my weekly reports, which I will try my best to keep a healthy length (i.e. shorter than this post but not a one-sentence burb) I will describe my experience with the game, what other games I've begun or continued to play, how good I thought the game was, etc. There are a lot of idiosyncrasies of mine that will interact in an entertaining way with this plan, as well as a lot of new ones I can imagine developing because of it, but instead of trying to predict and describe them all now I'll save that for my weekly updates.

Well, with one exception. I've already realized that this is going to cause me to start putting off finishing a game to save it for a later week, if I've already completed one that week. And I'll probably be starting over all the games I'm currently in the middle of from last year. There's so much to be said, but I guess I have 52 posts with which to do it, so it can wait.

There are several reasons I'm going to enjoy doing this. To start with the most superficial facet, it'll give me a bit of hardcore status. In the best game of 2008 debate, I can slyly mention "well, I did beat 52..."

Referring to deeper reasons, I sometimes find myself strangely overwhelmed by the many games I'm playing simultaneously, and am somehow dejected from truly enjoying the experience because I lack consistency or a way to decide which to go through. It's like the dog that starves because it can't pick which bowl to eat out of. This, however, will be an overwhelming fun project to game with, giving me a sort of basic drive and plan to surround all my games, that makes me feel like every little thing I do is culminating in a final product. I love that sort of integrated feeling when I accomplish something. It'll also give me more incentive to try new games and to borrow friend's games, and managing my time around different titles will be a game in itself.

I also love writing and recording my gaming experiences, and this is the perfect format to do it in. In the story of my quest I will be indirectly recording the story of many games and what may be a nail-biting endeavor. Finally, general neat projects like this are fun, and I've always wanted to do one this ambitious.

Now, time to get my game on.

The list.
Jan 3 - Jan 9: Street Fighter II (SNES)