It's gonna look like I didn't learn from my lesson as my latest list of games recently played is enormous again; but, I'm trying to do the financially responsible thing, and shop at home. Apparently, some 40% of Steam purchases go unplayed. That's right: we're all addicted to shopping for cheap games that we'll never play. So of my 260 some odd games, I add a handful to my favourites each week and give them a shot, before de-listing them and grabbing another group. (In addition, I played around with my Sega Fusion emulator a little.)

Here's how it all turned out:

Ninja Gaiden (SMS) - This game was bad. Looked decent, but had boring sequences, iffy controls and lots of insta-death spike traps -- in the first level! Also missing were the amazing tunes we've come to expect from NG games.

Sagaia (SMS) - I don't know why I bothered: perhaps to say that I've played all the shmups on the system? It's a bland version of a bland shooter. Barebones, unremarkable Darius experience.

Land of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse (SMS) - I've heard it said that this game is better than Castle of Illusion. I don't see it. It's a decent entry in the SMS Mickey series, but Castle looks to be better in all categories.

Contra (NES) - The champ. Contra is still the near flawless run and gunner it always was. Even the behind-the-back levels have aged okay. And how good is this soundtrack?

Super C (NES) - More of the same, Super C was never memorable because it required more rote memorization and had more cheap enemy interactions and an uninspired soundtrack. Still, I kind of liked how the top down levels replaced the pseudo FPS ones.

Contra III: The Alien Wars (SNES) - Amazing sidescrolling shooting action with fantastic tunes, broken up some much slower, much easier, overhead stages that are a bit clunky but get much more flak then they perhaps should.

Contra: Hard Corps (GEN) - Speed and variety are the names of the game here. More weapons and characters, and everything just MOVES. It seems to rely on memorization more than the others in the series (which is saying something), and the colours and tunes are washed out in comparison to the SNES game, but this is still a classic.

Axelay - Still looks amazing, with tremendous tunes and excellent side scrolling levels. Still has dodgy, pointless vertical stages, which have aged poorly.

Alone in the Dark 2 - I used to love this game. I was actually puzzled at how its critics bashed the opening garden maze bit. But I get it now. You have to literally play perfectly, and save after each successful kill to eke out progression. Not fun. The score though, is wonderful, and the writing excellent.

Commander Keen: Secret of the Oracle - The Keen games are still fun kids fare; lots of collectibles hung about, light bouncy tunes, pojo stick jumping on the heads of some enemies, zapping others with your ray gun. You'll get bored fast though.

Mushroom Heroes - A low rent The Lost Vikings featuring three mushroom-headed friends with unique abilities. Not a bad time waster.

Dragonia - Pervy fly-in-any-direction dragon shoot-em-up. Not worth your time.

Dragon Knight - Pervy Double Dragon time brawler with lots of bad translations of the various pointless character interactions.

Shantae: Risky's Revenge - Another good Shantae game. This one has very dated visuals, but the canon's signature flair and humour is intact and makes for a reliably good time.

Blossom Tales - Zelda III clone that looks great, but it's slow, boring and it's easy to lose track of what your mission is. Link was single-minded in his goal.

Cally's Trials - A rogue-lite version of the Cally games. The quality seems lower than usual, and the die and start over angle, but with some stuff earned as 'legacy items' is awfully weak sauce.

The Waste Land - Very rough Metroidvania that tries to be funny. This one is tough to play for more than a few minutes.

Duke Nukem - I have this as part of my Apogee collection of 'classics.' It's decent old school shareware shooting. One level will likely be your limit.

Cursed Castilla EX - Fantastic Ghouls 'n Ghosts homage. I finally beat it and had a blast the whole way through. Highly recommended title from the makers of Super Hydorah, another gem.

Super Cyborg - Just like Contra, only with an ugly colour palette, and levels that are about two to three times too long making for an authentic feel but generally miserable time.

Ikaruga - The game that popularized the polarity shmup sub-genre. I hate it. It should be noted that I am terrible at it. Which is odd, because there are other polarity shooters to come down the pike which I am great at. I blame this game. Classic, my ass!

Anodyne - Haunting, spare little Zelda clone that is worth your time. I'm going to go back and try to finish it after I finish having my way with Shantae.

So all of that just to unearth Castilla. That's a pretty bad success rate.