Backloggd Canon 2022 (Sight & Sound)
At the end of 2022, the users on Backloggd got together to vote on a canon for the site, inspired by the Sight & Sound top films list released concurrently. 129 separate site members submitted ballots containing 10 games each, with 527 unique games nominated, 113 of which were voted on by three or more people. These are the results, presented here with added commentary from many of the site's most fervent users. Thank you to everyone who participated, as well as those who were gracious enough to write blurbs for each!
You can find the ballots listed here.
You can find the ballots listed here.
113 Games
RANK 81 (3 votes)
RANK 81 (3 votes)
RANK 81 (3 votes)
RANK 81 (3 votes)
RANK 39 (6 votes)
A progenitor of the 'wiki always open' game, a staple of simulation-task allocation games, and a testament to freeware and the indie scene as a whole. Dwarf Fortress maintains a strong legacy of 15+ years with constant updates by two brother game designers, not needing a paid release until just recently. The result is a project in which the player manages and overlooks a fledgling expedition squad of seven dwarves as they dig into the earth and utilize their environment to establish a blossoming settlement.
The spartan ASCII ant farm-like visuals of your dwarves scattering about for tasks keenly betrays the intense meta-detail of each material buried within the generated world, as well as the complexities of keeping your dwarves not just busy, but alive. Keeping a consistent crop cycle going turns into managing a trade depot turns into keeping a hardened defense force standing. Its a notoriously difficult game to parse at first, one that demands constant experimentation, wiki-dives and creative thinking. But it's also the paramount example of the notion 'Losing is fun!'.
(PolaroidJack)
A progenitor of the 'wiki always open' game, a staple of simulation-task allocation games, and a testament to freeware and the indie scene as a whole. Dwarf Fortress maintains a strong legacy of 15+ years with constant updates by two brother game designers, not needing a paid release until just recently. The result is a project in which the player manages and overlooks a fledgling expedition squad of seven dwarves as they dig into the earth and utilize their environment to establish a blossoming settlement.
The spartan ASCII ant farm-like visuals of your dwarves scattering about for tasks keenly betrays the intense meta-detail of each material buried within the generated world, as well as the complexities of keeping your dwarves not just busy, but alive. Keeping a consistent crop cycle going turns into managing a trade depot turns into keeping a hardened defense force standing. Its a notoriously difficult game to parse at first, one that demands constant experimentation, wiki-dives and creative thinking. But it's also the paramount example of the notion 'Losing is fun!'.
(PolaroidJack)
RANK 64 (4 votes)
RANK 47 (5 votes)
Just feels like the perfect blend of everything: tightly structured on a macro level, but full of small pattern variations that require adaptability, experimentation, and effective use of your kit. For how visually creative and exciting its scenarios and enemy attacks are, the opacity of it all is never really lost, all the while only changing the core mechanics for one specifically special moment.
Even for how little you have to engage with it, its story has charm through the interactions of its protagonists, giving it a personal element that just makes things feel complete. That final segment of gameplay, tied to that piece of music, is made all the more impactful because of the context behind it… there's something there that feels so grand, but still so intimate.
Add in a desert highway motorbike section… the cherry on top.
Everything I wanted out of a game. Not sure if anything else can top this one.
(Reyn)
Just feels like the perfect blend of everything: tightly structured on a macro level, but full of small pattern variations that require adaptability, experimentation, and effective use of your kit. For how visually creative and exciting its scenarios and enemy attacks are, the opacity of it all is never really lost, all the while only changing the core mechanics for one specifically special moment.
Even for how little you have to engage with it, its story has charm through the interactions of its protagonists, giving it a personal element that just makes things feel complete. That final segment of gameplay, tied to that piece of music, is made all the more impactful because of the context behind it… there's something there that feels so grand, but still so intimate.
Add in a desert highway motorbike section… the cherry on top.
Everything I wanted out of a game. Not sure if anything else can top this one.
(Reyn)
RANK 22 (10 votes)
If there's a single aspect in Live A Live I could point to that signifies its draw and cult appeal, it'd be using the RPG structure and the melting pot of influences across medias and the world to weave together an incredibly powerful story of reconciliation and love. Whether its explicit about the woes of rejectment and isolation like with Sundown Kid's western legends, unfolding a cold, bitter tale of discord and disassociation that Cube witnesses in the far future, the respect of a fight and an opponent in Masaru's quest to become a champion in the present, or subtly using the dichotomous paths Oboromaru can follow when carrying out a stealth mission within Edo Japan, there's numerous beats that flow back to these two themes and expressions of the tragic villain in question. No matter if it's with the 1995 fan-translated original or the newly released and localized 2022 remake, I hope it aspires others to reapproach and better themselves for what they may face in the future, just as it has for me, my friends, a sliver of key figures like Toby Fox, and others.
(BlazingWaters)
If there's a single aspect in Live A Live I could point to that signifies its draw and cult appeal, it'd be using the RPG structure and the melting pot of influences across medias and the world to weave together an incredibly powerful story of reconciliation and love. Whether its explicit about the woes of rejectment and isolation like with Sundown Kid's western legends, unfolding a cold, bitter tale of discord and disassociation that Cube witnesses in the far future, the respect of a fight and an opponent in Masaru's quest to become a champion in the present, or subtly using the dichotomous paths Oboromaru can follow when carrying out a stealth mission within Edo Japan, there's numerous beats that flow back to these two themes and expressions of the tragic villain in question. No matter if it's with the 1995 fan-translated original or the newly released and localized 2022 remake, I hope it aspires others to reapproach and better themselves for what they may face in the future, just as it has for me, my friends, a sliver of key figures like Toby Fox, and others.
(BlazingWaters)
RANK 81 (3 votes)
RANK 81 (3 votes)
RANK 81 (3 votes)
RANK 39 (6 votes)
A good measuring stick for arcade racers derives from the drift mechanics: how versatile, how organic, how consistent, how well-integrated into the overall handling model? OutRun 2 veers so far into the fantasy side of those spectrums that the car damn near goes perpendicular to the asphalt when you lean into a powerslide. Never before had a car felt so effortless to control while simultaneously so twitchy as to spin out of control at the slightest unwanted bit of torque. Beyond maneuvering these corners and U-turns with grace lies little else in a perfect display of AM2's characteristic economy of design. 15 minute-long tracks weave together in a lattice of potential routes for the player to take, all of which the game extrapolates into a bevy of white-knuckle races and quirky minigames in the console version's mission mode. With all that the team inherited from the original two decades prior, they fused those familiar hallmarks of the series into that handling model, which took the pseudo-3D kludge of the original into something just as exaggerated as its predecessor while simultaneously laced with nuance accrued from years of experience building arcade racers. In this way OutRun 2 provides the perfect capstone for Yu Suzuki's tenure as head of AM2, unquestionably the most innovative arcade designers at the height of the coin-op era.
(Pangburn)
A good measuring stick for arcade racers derives from the drift mechanics: how versatile, how organic, how consistent, how well-integrated into the overall handling model? OutRun 2 veers so far into the fantasy side of those spectrums that the car damn near goes perpendicular to the asphalt when you lean into a powerslide. Never before had a car felt so effortless to control while simultaneously so twitchy as to spin out of control at the slightest unwanted bit of torque. Beyond maneuvering these corners and U-turns with grace lies little else in a perfect display of AM2's characteristic economy of design. 15 minute-long tracks weave together in a lattice of potential routes for the player to take, all of which the game extrapolates into a bevy of white-knuckle races and quirky minigames in the console version's mission mode. With all that the team inherited from the original two decades prior, they fused those familiar hallmarks of the series into that handling model, which took the pseudo-3D kludge of the original into something just as exaggerated as its predecessor while simultaneously laced with nuance accrued from years of experience building arcade racers. In this way OutRun 2 provides the perfect capstone for Yu Suzuki's tenure as head of AM2, unquestionably the most innovative arcade designers at the height of the coin-op era.
(Pangburn)
RANK 81 (3 votes)
48 Comments
This is awesome! Thank you Pangburn for letting me contribute in it and for making this happen :)
Thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of this!
Thank you, everyone! Btw, there sure are a lot of trans girls on backloggd
Incredible work Pangburn in putting this altogether, and I'm very happy to have been included. Cannot express how much I love every blurb written in this list, such a wonderful showcase of the talent and genius on this site, everyone did a great job. Also, damn this is a good list of games!
based
Oh shit, I didn't know this was happening! Would have loved to join. Is it Discord only?
It looks like a fairly fun list. Any chance this'll be yearly?
It looks like a fairly fun list. Any chance this'll be yearly?
@FrozenRoy Decade-ly
This comment was deleted
Proper good stuff man, and thanks to everyone involved!
This shit is straight up Legendary. Should be promoted anywhere on the site.
such a great way to be introduced to more of the wonderful writers on this site. bravo!
I'm glad to have been able to put this together for everyone on the site! thank you again to every single person who was generous enough to submit commentary for each game, as well as everyone who considered writing one, helped edit or prepare one, or pointed me in the direction of someone who would be perfect for the role!
to those wondering: I left the bottom half of the list without blurbs to make the coordination process easier, as those who were writing two blurbs already were under enough pressure as is to put theirs together, and handing out 60-odd blurbs was already very time-consuming. the five-vote cutoff was arbitrary... the bottom tiers of this list were so coarse that it was difficult to cut it cleanly in half LOL. I'm sure this will happen again in the future though! I don't know if I'll be the person running it, but I'm sure one of these could happen biyearly or so as the site continues to evolve -- the original s&s poll occurs once each decade but that seems a little long for a random internet community lol. regardless, if you didn't submit a ballot or write a blurb this go-round, perhaps you'll get a chance the next time this happens!
@letshugbro I didn't even think to tell people placements for games when I assigned blurbs LOL but I think the ambiguity definitely added some fun surprises even for those who had a sense of what was on the list and what wasn't
@FrozenRoy I definitely advertised it in the discord but the actual submissions were located at the list linked in the description above. I'm sorry to you and other "prominent" users for not getting a notif about it! I initially considered tracking down people just to ask them to submit ballots but didn't for a couple reasons... I knew some people already weren't interested and I didn't want to harass them about it, and I also didn't want to implicitly exclude people who may be well-known but not known to me... easy for me to overlook people on accident, esp since I spend less time on the site now than I used to. but hopefully now that this has been done once we'll get even more ballots for a potential redo a couple years down the line.
thanks again to everyone who participated! this is probably a good time for me to start tucking into some of the games listed here that I've never gotten around to playing...
to those wondering: I left the bottom half of the list without blurbs to make the coordination process easier, as those who were writing two blurbs already were under enough pressure as is to put theirs together, and handing out 60-odd blurbs was already very time-consuming. the five-vote cutoff was arbitrary... the bottom tiers of this list were so coarse that it was difficult to cut it cleanly in half LOL. I'm sure this will happen again in the future though! I don't know if I'll be the person running it, but I'm sure one of these could happen biyearly or so as the site continues to evolve -- the original s&s poll occurs once each decade but that seems a little long for a random internet community lol. regardless, if you didn't submit a ballot or write a blurb this go-round, perhaps you'll get a chance the next time this happens!
@letshugbro I didn't even think to tell people placements for games when I assigned blurbs LOL but I think the ambiguity definitely added some fun surprises even for those who had a sense of what was on the list and what wasn't
@FrozenRoy I definitely advertised it in the discord but the actual submissions were located at the list linked in the description above. I'm sorry to you and other "prominent" users for not getting a notif about it! I initially considered tracking down people just to ask them to submit ballots but didn't for a couple reasons... I knew some people already weren't interested and I didn't want to harass them about it, and I also didn't want to implicitly exclude people who may be well-known but not known to me... easy for me to overlook people on accident, esp since I spend less time on the site now than I used to. but hopefully now that this has been done once we'll get even more ballots for a potential redo a couple years down the line.
thanks again to everyone who participated! this is probably a good time for me to start tucking into some of the games listed here that I've never gotten around to playing...
I will be putting this on my CV. Wonderful job!
Im just astonished DOOM is the Top 1, seriously, im impressed
I'm sad I wasn't able to participate in this event. Goddamn, that's cool as hell. And such great games!
@Pangburn Hey, yo, no problem man! It's my own fault for not being on top of things, especially given I am Following you anyway. Really, I'm glad you even seem to consider me prominent at all, heh. I will say I would definitely recommend not doing a full decade like S&S, it'll be way too long for an internet community like this and Backloggd itself could be gone by then. IDK if people would want yearly but if not, something like 2-3 years seems good? 2025 would be an even number. 5 years instead is possible but I honestly think it might be too long, especially since unlike S&S there isn't a critic's base to rely on so who knows how much interest there will be.
Thanks again for organizing this to begin with!
Thanks again for organizing this to begin with!
When will the next edition be?
Cab
1 year ago