The New Year Release Timeline Challenge

[Vardalis]

Welcome to 2026. Or, for the sake of the challenge; welcome to whatever year you like.

I've wanted to write something up that I've had rattling around in my head for a while. And hey, what better time than the present while the year ticks over for everyone? My reason for thinking this up and pushing myself to try it this year is to not only play more games, but also to experience the closest I'd ever get to being back in those days for releases and feeling excited. Sure, I might not be playing on original hardware and may already know some titles, but it's close enough.

The general premise is this:

1. Pick a year.
2. You're limited to ONE home system and ONE handheld system active during that year.
3. You have three game slots per system.
4. Pick a game to play released up until that point of the chosen year (So on February 15th 2026, if I'd chosen 2003, I could pick anything released on or before February 15th 2003 until the first day of the chosen year). Once picked, that game occupies a slot.
5. To release a game from a slot, delete it (or hide it, move it, put it in a storage box, whatever works for you) and replace it with a new chosen game.

Optional Modifiers:

• Avoid any games from outside of the challenge.
• Pick two home systems if you don't care for handheld games or vice versa.
• Handheld games only on a handheld system for immersion. Picking up an emulation device (you've probably got a hundred choices these days) is valid.
• To avoid waiting for a game to play this year, pick something from late (November to December) of the previous year for one game slot each as a faux holidays gift.
• Read gaming magazines from around the time to give yourself extra immersive flavor.
• Picking a game for a slot "locks" it into the slot until completed.
• Picking a game for a slot "locks" it into the slot until a new game is "released".
• Ignore the game slot rule. It was added to mitigate choice paralysis and simulate the smaller libraries we all likely had once upon a time.

I'll avoid adding any clutter about my own attempt in the OP, so more info coming below for what I'm doing for this.

Post automatically merged: Today at 3:35 AM

Congratulations, you survived the crash down here.

Jokes aside, hey, if you're planning on doing this challenge either with me or using your own years and choices of systems, great to have you here. Here's hoping I stick with this interesting game plan I've wanted to do for a while as long as you.

For me? I'm just plucking 2003 as my year out of the ether. No real significance or anything deep, I just knew two systems I wanted to pick were out then and getting games; the PS2 and GBA.

I'm going to use Metacritic's release timeline on my end. It might not be 100% accurate in every case, but it'll be close enough to not really shake things in any negative direction, and it's easier than Mobygames or anything else I found for easily sorting stuff by release dates.

I'm going to take full advantage of the faux holiday gift modifier and gift myself two late 2002 games to kick myself off and tide me over until January releases start:

• PS2: Star Wars: The Clone Wars. I know nothing about it, have never seen it before looking at Metacritic, and it's probably a gift I would've got just because it had Star Wars on it.
• GBA: Sword of Mana. Again, I know nothing about it.

I'm also going to do the handheld modifier on my end and keep Sword of Mana (and other GBA games) secluded to one of my handhelds (the RG34XX for immersion).