By Nelson Schneider - 01/05/25 at 02:01 PM CT
The results of the last year’s New Year’s Backlog Ablutions are in! Sadly, we couldn’t keep our Perfect Streak going into a third year, as Erstwhile Matt – this initial instigator of this entire sorry display – failed utterly, completing only one of his three chosen games and, furthermore, failing to submit a review for that game. Even though Nick was still in a quantum state with his third (and worst) game, he managed to submit a review on the last possible day, in spite of dealing with his 4th official bout with COVID-19.
Since Matt was a Loser this year, he was obligated to buy each of the rest of us a game from our wishlists. To mix up the formula a bit – since we seem to do that every year – Nick proposed that Matt’s Penalty Games should automatically become picks for the rest of us.
To reiterate the rules: We all have one year to play three specific backlogged games that we’ve chosen for ourselves in advance. Included within those three games must be whatever we received from Failing competitors from the previous year. We must be ‘done’ with these games – as in, not planning to play them anymore, as neither finishing a game that turns out to be terrible nor getting 100% completion or achievements are part of the bargain – and submit reviews to MeltedJoystick for each by midnight on December 31, 2025. DLC Expansions are not qualifying picks, and competitors can’t “continue” a game from the preceding year.
The penalty for failure: Any losers will buy a wishlisted game for each winner. If everyone wins, no Penalty Games will change hands. If everyone fails, no Penalty Games will change hands.
Let’s see what we’re playing!
Chris: Community Manager
“Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey”
“Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture”
“Elden Ring” - Obligatory
Matt: Erstwhile Photo/Video-grapher and Pumpkin-Poop Emoji
“Apotheon”
“Iron Harvest” - Cooperatively with Nelson
“Cyberpunk 2077”
Nelson: Editor
“TinyKin”
“Iron Harvest” - Cooperatively with Matt
“Pentiment” - Obligatory
Nick: Chief Technical Officer
“DiRT Rally 2.0”
“Final Fantasy 1 (NES)”
“Baba is You” - Obligatory
