Time once again for the annual review of my game-buying. It still remains one of my biggest hobbies, and probably as a result of so much time spent at home I spent more time gaming in 2021 than in previous years. It was an interesting year though, since more than ever before my gaming was concentrated on only one system…
In total I purchased 41 games in 2021, for a measly 4 systems. This continues the trend of recent years, and is a tie with 2017 for lowest purchases since 1994! However when you look at the data you’ll see something interesting:
Yes, 38 of the 41 purchases were for Switch! The reason is that our PS4 broke several months into the year and we’ve been unable to replace it, hence the Switch has become the only current system we own. The other three (Intellivision, NES and PS4) saw only one game purchased each this past year. An interesting tidbit from my records show that I didn’t buy any games in January or February, which I believe is the longest break without a game purchase (December 10 until March 3) since I started keeping records in 1993!
Here’s the cost breakdown:
97% of spending this year was on Switch games, since the Intellivision game was only $4 and the PS4/NES games under $20 each. The most I spent on any single game was $59.99, and the average price of about $37 is the largest since 1999! In fact the total I spent on Switch games in 2021 – about $1460 – is the most I’ve ever spent on games for any one system in a single year (by a decent margin; the second highest was $1158 spend on Nintendo DS games in 2009)!
So the year’s playing was a bit of PS4 and lots of Switch. This was not by choice: we wanted to replace the PS4, possibly with a PS5, but as you may know they’re basically unavailable. PS4’s are discontinued and in over 7 months of looking I have yet to see a PS5 for sale. Maybe we’ll get one in 2022?
I also made another sale in 2021, selling about 250 more games (mostly PS1 and PS2), thus reducing my collection to about 1300 remaining games, from a maximum just shy of 2000 a few years ago. I don’t regret either of the two big sales I’ve made, and it’s likely I’ll do more in the future.
As with previous years I’ll focus on my three favourites of 2021, although I’ll preface by saying this was quite a challenge due to me playing a lot of truly wonderful games this past year…
Nioh 2 (PS4)
I bought this sequel late in 2020, and was playing it avidly around the time I wrote the 2020 in review post. It’s more of the same of my best game of 2019, only bigger, better and more difficult. This is a sublime evolution of the soulslike genre, with dashes of Diablo 2 (itemization) and Monster Hunter (quest based) thrown in for good reason. Detractors said it was too difficult, but for me this was a nearly perfect game, and between the original content and the three DLC packages I played it well into March until my savegame exceeded 350 hours. If you like an extremely rewarding challenge, give this one a go!
Monster Hunter Rise (Switch)
Speaking of Monster Hunter, another year saw another installment. We were all wondering how they would follow up MH World but I don’t think any of us expected an open-world Switch installment, and we absolutely didn’t expect one in which they actually iterated upon (and improved) the systems introduced in World. Rise was a success on so many levels, but foremost was that it’s just amazingly fun to play. The graphics are lovely, the game loop satisfying and the controls spot on, but the real reason I played this like a man possessed was simply because it was loads of fun beating up the monsters! I can’t wait for the expansion next year…
Hades (Switch)
This is an isometric story-based roguelike with perfect controls, beautiful graphics and an incredible amount of depth. I predict we’ll see this one on many game-of-the-year lists and rightly so: it’s a wonderful game that offers something to players of every level but gets really, really good as you learn to master it’s many systems. I became lunatically addicted to this when it came out and had to put it aside since I was playing too much, and just yesterday I started it up once again and found the lure is still there…
As I said it was a year of great games, and honorable mentions go to Metroid Dread, Monster Hunter Stories 2 and Bravely Default 2. In addition I replayed quite a few games this year – Diablo 2 Resurrected alone saw me spend >200 hours on it! – and Slay The Spire (from 2020) remains dangerously addictive. I also bought a lot of rereleases (on Switch) of older games that I’ve yet to sink much time into but intend to.
And I can’t end without mentioning I passed 3000 consecutive days of Puzzle And Dragons logins. Not only is it the game I have played longest in my life, but it’s almost certain no other game will ever challenge it for that title…
What will 2022 bring? Flashy new graphics on a PS5, or another year of (for me) Switch dominance? Come back in a year to find out 🙂
