6th official update: January 25, 2025

That’s a wrap on my 10th Top 10. For a lark, I put them all into a list and ranked them (of course I did). Some years truly did stand out, with 2020 running away as the “best”. It was a fun exercise, but I felt myself getting sucked in far too deep for what was meant to take a few minutes. Even looking at the list now, I get an urge to re-arrange based on no particular criteria, just my gut feeling.

Well, I’ve got other things to do. So my Top 10 of the Top 10’s are below. Apologies to Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth, Persona 5, Final Fantasy 7: Remake, Slay the Spire and Neon White who just barely missed the cut.

	Game	Year
1	Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom	2023
2	Octopath Traveler 2	2023
3	Hades	2020
4	Ori and the Will of the Wisps	2020
5	StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void	2015
6	Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild	2017
7	FF6 Pixel Remaster	2022
8	Last of Us Part 2	2020
9	Unicorn Overlord	2024
10	Xenoblade Chronicles X	2015

Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void is sort of cheating because I just combined that with the other 2 StarCraft 2 games and now it’s just one big StarCraft bonanza. FF6 Pixel Remaster should probably be even higher. The only reason Breath of the Wild is at 6 is because Tears of the Kingdom came along.

See how stupid this is?

Won’t do another update until next year’s Top 10 or if I finally get around to just making one ever growing list. No more entries though, those are done.

Thanks for reading.

-Henry

5th official update: December 27th, 2023

It’s done!

I never thought I would get to this point. Originally, The 500 was meant to be just an exercise to keep practicing my writing skills, and a fun jaunt down memory lane. But it absolutely was one of those things where you intend to do it, say you’re going to do it, but it’s way too big and time consuming so you abandon it halfway through.

Trust me, that was my intention.

After 2022 it was starting to look that way. I’d only managed a combined 42 entries in the last two years and at that rate, I’d be here plugging away for another 11 years. Unacceptable.

I don’t know what sparked my productivity (Kasim’s contribution for Civilization 2 certainly helped), but I think there are two main factors.

The first being that the more entries I completed, the better the games got. Starting at 500 and working my way up was absolutely the right decision in the long term. It felt demoralizing at times, but the productivity spike in 2023 speaks for itself. It’s always better to finish strong.

The second factor was that I had to get over myself. So some entries are sub-par. So what? Is that a reason to take a five month break? No, so get the pictures, get your notes together and just write something. You can edit it later, but you can’t edit a blank space. Get to work.

I did surprise myself, however. I kept thinking “well, I’m getting closer, but I won’t get to 150 entries this year. Then 200. Then, well I won’t finish the blog before February of next year. Then January. Then…could I finish it before the New Year? Could I finish it tonight?”

I stopped reading books, playing video games and watching YouTube outright in the last few weeks. I had to put this to bed. There was no chance I was going to languish now. Momentum begets momentum and hitting the final “Publish” button on Chrono Trigger elicited the biggest smile on my face.

I did it!

I couldn’t have done it without amazing contributions from the following friends. Thank you all for being there, both in the past for playing with me, and in the now for helping me with the stupidest experiment I’ll ever do.

Aslam (Mega Man 4)

Chris L. (Shadow of the Colossus)

Dave O. (Dungeon Defenders)

Dave R. (Super Smash Bros. Melee)

Dave V. (Super Mario 64)

Eric (Perfect Dark)

Fuzzy (Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean)

Greg (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic)

Ian (Battlefield 1942)

Kasim (Civilization 2)

Mark (Unreal Tournament)

Matt (Super Mario Strikers Charged)

Mitch (Halo: Reach)

Randy (Tales of Symphonia)

Scott (Halo: Combat Evolved)

Here’s a quick rundown of entries, year by year.

	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
Entries	42	62	23	51	45	16	26	234
Days Between Entries	4.83	5.77	16.70	7.31	8.00	12.31	20.69	1.55

So, what now?

I’ll eventually get an ongoing list. Each time I beat a game, I’ll slot it in where I think it belongs. No more posts, though. I’ve had my fill of that self-imposed obligation. I don’t know when that will come, but I need to take a break from this for a while. Time to learn my lines for my upcoming show, read some books, touch some grass and play video games again instead of just writing about them.

Thanks for reading.

-Henry

4th official update: November 23rd, 2023

That’s more like it.

After a woeful few years of paltry progress, I have hit a surge of productivity unlike I’ve ever had with the 500. In 2023 I’ve had 168 entries. That’s 10x more than 2021, and seven more than the previous five years combined. I’ve done an entry a day, or more, for 52 straight days. By the end of the calendar year, I will be close to 200. Once Kasim showed me his masterful writeup for Civilization 2, I was inspired. It helped that the higher I went, the better the games were and that makes it easy to start rambling about them. In addition, once I started quantifying my entries by date and showed myself how productive/unproductive I was being, it really opened my eyes. But what really helped was the release of worrying. It doesn’t matter if my entries for Call of Duty and Viewtiful Joe were disappointing, it’s the fact that they got done. With a list this large, I can’t let a single entry bottleneck the rest. Just get started. Find some pictures. Admit that core memories for an experience are fleeting, or few. That’s fine. Just put the proverbial pen to paper and don’t let creative hang ups get in the way of progress. Writer’s block? Get out of here. This is for fun, treat it like fun.

I will say that my flurry of activity has chipped away at my gaming time and what a terrible year for that to happen, as 2023 is looking to be an all-time great year for games. While my Top 10 of 2023 is going to be incredibly strong, it will still be the least amount of games I’ve beaten since I started keeping track. My list of shame will be embarrassing, but it will be tempered by the fact that I will complete this project, and within a few months. While I still have 66 entries to go, I feel a surge of excitement with the mere prospect of viewing the finish line.

Usually I’ll say here what entries I was particularly happy with, but honestly at this point I can’t wade through 168 entries and pick a select few. I’m just overall happy, happy with nearing the end, happy that Matt, Kasim, Greg, Mark and Ian all contributed their thoughts and really launched each of their entries into a tier of quality I’m lucky to have. Happy in life.

My 5th official update will occur upon the completion of The 500 and it will be well before November 23, 2024. It will also chart the future of dollerz.com – while I’ll be mildly relieved when I’m done, it doesn’t mean I’ll stop tracking and ranking games.

Thanks for reading.

-Henry

3rd official update: November 23rd, 2022

Oh boy, it’s been a while.

While I was pleased to finally hit the halfway point, my pace for posting articles was glacial. I’d go on a run of doing 3 or 4 entries in a week, then have months of inactivity. Consistency is key, I just haven’t figured out a good method or schedule to ensure I don’t suffer from writer’s block.

I think I’m getting better, and it really helps to get sporadic feedback from friends. All of it is positive, some bewilderment. When I haven’t seen a buddy in a while and they ask me how my blog is going I just say “slow and steady.” Emphasis on the slow.

Honestly since it’s been 3 years since my last update, reviews aren’t super fresh in my mind. I think I danced a minefield respectably with my Dragon’s Crown entry. Super Bomberman brought a massive smile to my face. I’m a fan of having buddies write guest posts, and I think Mitch did a great job with Halo: Reach. 

Onward! It’s bizarre that my last update was before the pandemic. Here we are, in late 2022 and we’re just recently getting back to normal. You’d think being stuck inside for a year plus would have led to a record number of posts, but I suppose other things occupied my time. I’m pleased with my top 10 articles and 2022 should be an interesting one. I think a skill I want to try for future personal development is making gifs. Static pictures don’t exactly display games at their best and I think I could draw readers in more if they saw exactly what I saw.

As I get further up the list, the games get better and, theoretically, easier to write about. Here we go!

Thanks for reading.

-Henry

2nd official update: November 24th, 2019

I couldn’t have done this yesterday?

Another two years have passed since my last official update. It’s a bit disappointing that my progress has slowed on an already glacier-paced project. I managed 100 entries in my first two years, this time I’m down to 72. If I’m ever going to finish this, I’ll need to ensure I maintain my discipline in terms of doing an entry a week.

Typically though, that doesn’t happen. Some games, no matter how much I enjoyed them, leave me stuck. Either I go on vacation and lose momentum, or I just can’t think of anything to say. Complete writer’s block. I thought as I got higher on the list it would become more enjoyable to write entries, and that’s true for the most part. But some titles really stumped me; I couldn’t get going on Nintendo Land for the longest time. Hearthstone, Team Fortress 2 and a few others were infuriating to get done. They exist in a weird gray area – good enough to be highly rated, but still a long way from me claiming them as one of my favorites.

Still, not all is lost. I find I’m happier with the general writing quality as I take more time to edit and be mindful of intricacies of the game. I visited a lot of pleasant memories and even had my first bit of help with an article – Eric shared some of his thoughts on F-Zero X, and a sample of his guitar sampling from the soundtrack should be up shortly.

I wish I was more creative with some entries. I loved how Fallout 4‘s review turned out, and I think I went into appropriate depth with Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together. I mostly cobbled Folklore’s review from my Snackbar days and I’m glad I did. It’s such a fun game to write about.

I’m hoping slow and steady wins the race, but I also have to remember the goal was to not necessarily to finish – the goal is to improve my writing skills, keep up with the latest games in the Top 10 and, most importantly, have fun.

Thanks for reading.

-Henry

1st official update: November 23rd, 2017

Hard to believe I started the 500 nearly two years ago. It’s been the most challenging project I’ve worked on from a writing standpoint in every regard; it’s difficult to be original, it’s difficult to remain disciplined, it’s difficult not having a good editor (somebody other than myself, I mean), it’s difficult to look ahead knowing that I have 400 games to go.

But 100 are down. And that’s not bad.

It can be really fun, too. I haven’t promoted the site heavily so I shouldn’t be too surprised at my low views, but the feedback I have received has been largely positive and motivates me to keep going.

Look for my next Top 10 around the end of January. I like to give myself a little bit of extra time and let the dust settle, unlike most media outlets that have things like a staff, a budget and experience. Minor details.

Some entries I’m really happy with. Aladdin, Cool Spot, Nidhogg and Tales of Zestiria turned out great. But it’s not always the case – some posts I’m not proud of, no matter how much I edit. I try my hardest to stay away from being dull, bland and repetitive but some games on here don’t give me any choice. They may have made the list, but they didn’t leave enough of an impression on me to dive any deeper. C’est la vie.

I can’t thank you all enough for reading, even if it’s just one post. If I stir something in your little nook of gaming memories, get a chuckle out of you, or an outraged exclamation that your favorite game is nowhere near the top, then I’m pleased. If I haven’t succeeded in eliciting any of those out of you, then I have more work to do.

Thanks for reading.

-Henry

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This page is purely for entertainment purposes only and any and all opinions are just those – opinions. Please contact me with any questions or feedback at dollerz@gmail.com

Thanks for visiting!