Inside the Guide: End-of-Year Cleanup

Welcome to “Inside the Guide”, the column that gives you a behind-the-scenes look at writing videogame walkthroughs for GameFAQs. 2014 was a somewhat productive year for me, because I wrote 15 different walkthroughs. However, there are 18 walkthroughs that I completely ignored this year. They’ve been rotting in my FAQs folder for months, and it’s high time I did some cleanup.

Walkthroughs to Delete

• Doctor Lautrec and the Forgotten Knights. More like The Forgotten Videogame, am I right? I started this walkthrough when I got the game in 2011. I played the game for a week, then I put it down and haven’t pick it up since.
• Spirit Walkers. This is a 2012 game, from the makers of Royal Trouble. I don’t remember much about it, except that there are time-traveling girls and an Indian warrior who never wears a shirt. I might replay it someday, but after two years, it’s silly to pretend a second playthrough is just around the corner.
• The Last Express. This game was made by the same person who made Prince of Persia, and it comes highly recommended by adventure game websites. I played for a minute, and I had absolutely no idea what was going on. Apparently, the original game came with a huge index of train times in the manual, and the game is unplayable without it.
• Phoenix Wright 2 and 3 for WiiWare. Does…does WiiWare still work? I’m not sure it does. Better toss it in the trash can, just to be safe.

Walkthroughs to Keep 

• Duck Tales Remastered. I am sad and ashamed that I spent years rooting for this game to be released, and I still haven’t played it. Not to mention the fact that writing a walkthrough for this game should be super-easy, since I can copy and paste my walkthrough for the original game.
• 3D Escape. The 3D Escape series is a bunch of short games that can be beaten in under five minutes. I want to do walkthroughs for them all, so I can get away with bragging that I wrote 20 different guides. I will, of course, fail to mention that it only took me two hours.
• Botanica. After a year, this game has finally made it onto my “games to play” list! I can’t delete the walkthrough, now that I’m so close to seeing what it’s like.

Walkthroughs Which Get a Pass

• Dream Penguin Adventure. I have not touched this guide since February of 2008. I don’t want to delete it because I went through all the trouble of drawing penguins and hearts for the guide. Surely, it can wait a little while longer!
• Gemini Rue. I made a point of getting this game, ever since Nathaniel gave it a positive review three years ago. I think it came out on iOS this year, so it’s still vaguely topical? Maybe? Anyway, I still want to play it.
• Ulysses and the Golden Fleece. Remember how I played this game on a podcast last year? I am definitely going to replay the game, once I figure out how to get it to work on my new computer…

Now that I’m done cleaning up my FAQs folder, I think I’ve finally finished my New Year’s Resolution for 2014: “Write a GameCola column which is mainly just a list of games.” Hooray!