There's a game coming out this year where you fight your Steam backlog, and it's more dangerous the more you've spent

A man with a cube for a head stands in a field surrounded by labeled floppy disks. — (Image credit: Nic Taylor)

I'd wager most PC gamers are grappling with a backlog—the only thing that truly divides us is whether it's a source of pride or filthy shame. Steam, GOG, and other digital storefronts just make it too easy. I'm a busy guy, am I really going to make time to play through all of Tex Murphy: The Pandora Directive? It's going for $2 out here, who cares!

But those are the fun backlog stories. The less fun ones are when you pick up a game like Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous for full price and, you know, you'll finish it one of these days, but everyone's hopping on Overwatch 2 and you can't just abandon your premade. And so it sits there, rotting, hoping one day you remember it long enough to get past the first act. Those are the stories Game Quest: The Backlog Battler hopes to rub in your face.

It's a goofy horde battler by developer Nic Taylor where you literally fight your backlog. They're represented by sliding floppy disks and various stats affect their behavior and abilities—Steam games you've barely played (up to 2 hours) are your enemies, and the more you paid for them, the more damage they do. If they have a high Metacritic score, they can fly, and you'll need to swat them all to death with a keyboard.

Article continues below

The game looks cute and clever, and it seems the most fun awaits in fighting the backlogs of your friends and shaming them for their life decisions. 'You played Planescape: Torment for all of 36 minutes but have 400 hours in Spore? What are you even doing in there?' If I can make a suggestion, I think the game should cook up a unique punishment for my own worst gaming habit: getting past the halfway point of a game, putting it down for a few weeks, and then returning with so little memory of what came before that I feel compelled to start over.

Justin first became enamored with PC gaming when World of Warcraft and Neverwinter Nights 2 rewired his brain as a wide-eyed kid. As time has passed, he's amassed a hefty backlog of retro shooters, CRPGs, and janky '90s esoterica. Whether he's extolling the virtues of Shenmue or troubleshooting some fiddly old MMO, it's hard to get his mind off games with more ambition than scruples. When he's not at his keyboard, he's probably birdwatching or daydreaming about a glorious comeback for real-time with pause combat. Any day now...