Colossal Game Adventure Schedule: April - September 2026
Schedule
| Month | Game | Host |
|---|---|---|
| April 2026 | Space Rogue | Space u/vili |
| May 2026 | Sid Meier's Pirates! | Pirate u/vili |
| June 2026 | Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow | u/Lapbunny |
| July 2026 | Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals | u/zod000 |
| August 2026 | The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past | u/Boojum |
| September 2026 | Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 | u/J-Chiptunator |
Discussion Topics
Each month will have two discussion topics:
- "Insert Cartridge" - 1st of the month
- "Remove Cartridge" - 28th of the month (25th for February)
Insert Cartridge topics are primarily for getting the game set up and running. Remove Cartridge topics are primarily for reflecting on the game once you've played it. However, the game itself and anything else related to it can be discussed in either one.
Hosting
Each month, the discussion topics will be posted by a different "host" who will act as the emcee for that month.
Hosting is not required, but it is encouraged that people host months for games that they are either already very familiar with or that they are strongly interested in playing.
People who nominated a game will be given preference for hosting, otherwise it will be given to whomever claims it first.
Check out old months to get a feel for what it's like.
Required Hosting Responsibilities
- Editing the templates for the month's "Insert Cartridge" and "Remove Cartridge" topics.
- Posting the month's "Insert Cartridge" and "Remove cartridge topics.
Optional Hosting Responsibilities
- Talking up the game.
- Giving tips/tricks/guides/cheats.
- Sharing your own thoughts/memories/reflections.
- Asking questions.
- Anything else you feel like doing (e.g. setting up a multiplayer tournament, making game-related memes, sharing fun trivia, etc.)
If you would like to host a month, let me know which one and I will add you to the schedule.
Before your month begins, I will send you a "Hosting Package" featuring templates that you can edit to your liking.
If no one claims a month, I will host it as a fallback.
Voting Results
The top 6 games from the voting round were chosen to be played.
Of the remaining games:
- The top 50% will advance to the next round. They will start the next round with a base score of 30% of their vote totals.
- The bottom 50% will be removed from the list.
Removed games will be able to be re-nominated in future rounds if someone chooses to do so.
| Game | Votes | Status | Rollover Votes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow | 31 | Won | |
| The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past | 29 | Won | |
| Sid Meier’s Pirates! | 26 | Won | |
| Tony Hawk’s Pro-Skater 2 | 26 | Won | |
| Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals | 25 | Won | |
| Space Rogue | 23 | Won | |
| The Grue That Binds | 22 | Advances | 7 |
| Another World | 19 | Advances | 6 |
| Back in a Flash | 18 | Advances | 5 |
| Tetris | 18 | Advances | 5 |
| Mother 3 | 17 | Advances | 5 |
| The Genesis of Treasure | 17 | Advances | 5 |
| Descent | 16 | Advances | 5 |
| Resident Evil (REmake) | 16 | Advances | 5 |
| Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist | 15 | Advances | 5 |
| Beneath a Steel Sky | 13 | Advances | 4 |
| Crystalis | 13 | Advances | 4 |
| Maniac Mansion | 13 | Advances | 4 |
| Red Dead Redemption | 12 | Eliminated | |
| Scroll Lock-on | 10 | Eliminated | |
| The Colonel’s Bequest | 10 | Eliminated | |
| Threads of Fate | 10 | Eliminated | |
| Behind the Wheel | 9 | Eliminated | |
| Metroid | 9 | Eliminated | |
| StarTropics | 9 | Eliminated | |
| Metroid Prime | 8 | Eliminated | |
| JSRF: Jet Set Radio Future | 7 | Eliminated | |
| Lode Runner | 7 | Eliminated |
CGA Announcement: Voting has concluded and we now have the new schedule for April - September 2026!
Action Items
1. Selecting New Hosts
People who nominated winning games have first dibs on hosting those months.
Let me know whether you want to host. If you do NOT, I will open up hosting to anyone who would like for your month.
2. Praising Old Hosts
Can we give it up for the AMAZING hosts we had in the first round of games? They have given this club so much personality, and I've loved seeing the variety of different styles we've had.
3. Pastebin Alternative?
I've been keeping the hosting docs and some Backlog Burner stuff on Pastebin, but I've started getting spam comments on some of them. Is there a good Pastebin alternative I can use that isn't spam-ridden?
Notification List
@1338
@Akir
@ali
@arctanh
@AriMaeda
@atomicshoreline
@avirse
@balooga
@BeardyHat
@Boojum
@Bwerf
@CannibalisticApple
@chocobean
@clayh
@datavoid
@Debook
@DistractionRectangle
@dotsforeyes
@dozens
@Dr_Amazing
@endymiion
@granfdad
@Gummy
@hamstergeddon
@IsildursBane
@J-Chiptunator
@JCPhoenix
@joshbuddy
@kaiomai
@Kawa
@kej
@kfwyre
@kingofsnake
@Kirisame
@Lapbunny
@mayonuki
@Mendanbar
@mysterylevel
@PancakeCats
@Pavouk106
@PetitPrince
@Plattypus
@polle
@preposterous
@psi
@rosco
@rubix
@Rudism
@SloMoMonday
@Sodliddesu
@Soggy
@sotix
@Spore_Prince
@SpruceWillis
@squidwiz
@talklittle
@ThatMartinFellow
@tildes-user-101
@Timwi
@tomorrow-never-knows
@Trobador
@Venko
@vili
@Weldawadyathink
@xk3
@zod000
If you would like to be added or removed from the Notification List, please PM u/kfwyre.
CGA Announcement:
We still need hosts for the following months:
May 2026: Sid Meier's Pirates!June 2026: Castlevania: Aria of SorrowSeptember 2026: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2First-come, first-serve! If you love one of these games, you'd be the ideal host for it.
Let me know if you'd like to take a month.
Notification List
@1338
@Akir
@ali
@arctanh
@AriMaeda
@atomicshoreline
@avirse
@balooga
@BeardyHat
@Boojum
@Bwerf
@CannibalisticApple
@chocobean
@clayh
@datavoid
@Debook
@DistractionRectangle
@dotsforeyes
@dozens
@Dr_Amazing
@endymiion
@granfdad
@Gummy
@hamstergeddon
@IsildursBane
@J-Chiptunator
@JCPhoenix
@joshbuddy
@kaiomai
@Kawa
@kej
@kfwyre
@kingofsnake
@Kirisame
@Lapbunny
@mayonuki
@Mendanbar
@mysterylevel
@PancakeCats
@Pavouk106
@PetitPrince
@Plattypus
@polle
@preposterous
@psi
@rosco
@rubix
@Rudism
@SloMoMonday
@Sodliddesu
@Soggy
@sotix
@Spore_Prince
@SpruceWillis
@squidwiz
@talklittle
@ThatMartinFellow
@tildes-user-101
@Timwi
@tomorrow-never-knows
@Trobador
@Venko
@vili
@Weldawadyathink
@xk3
@zod000
I would like to host Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2.
I've got fairly good grasps on the series' gameplay loop, as I've finished both American Sk8land on DS and completed Underground 2 on PS2, my favorite.
Perfect! Thanks Chippy. :D
So excited for THPS2! Thanks for hosting @J-Chiptunator
Happy to host again for Aria! Or if someone else would like to, also happy to defer to them!
It’s yours! Thanks.
Pirates! is one of my favourite games of all time, so if no one else is willing to walk the plank, I can hoist the old skull and bones and captain us to Davy Jones's locker.
But as I’m already assigned aboard the interstellar Jolly Roger, I’d be happy for someone else to steer the saltier ship. Arrr.
We'd love to have you captain both ships!
Would you rather do them as is and host back-to-back, or would you rather I swap Lufia II and Pirates to break things up a bit?
I'm ok doing them back-to-back if you think people are ok playing them back-to-back. Looking at my calendar, I'm also not sure how available I could be in early July.
Sounds good! We’ll keep the schedule as is.
Thanks for doing double duty!
I'm more than happy to host Space Rogue. I hope I can do half as good a job as everyone who has worn the mantle so far.
To be honest, I feel a bit bad now for (over)selling the game to you guys, as it means that we miss on something like Zork, or Another World, or Tetris, or Mother 3. Also a bit gutted for The Colonel’s Bequest getting killed entirely! I was very much looking forward to that one as it's one of the few major Sierra titles that I haven't played, and it's also one of the last to use a text parser, and I love me a good graphical text parser game.
On the other hand, what a roster of games we have for the next six months! Wow.
Just a thought about the schedule: Space Rogue and Pirates! are fairly similar games featuring quite similar underlying game loops. As such, they can create a great pair for comparison, so I'm personally all for having them back-to-back if that was the plan, but I just wanted to flag this in case two months of raiding and trading might be too much for some to players, in which case it might be good to have a palette cleanser or two between them.
I honestly just randomized the list and slotted them in, so it’s entirely flexible.
Looking at game lengths, our two longest are Lufia II and A Link to the Past, and those are back to back, so maybe we swap Pirates and Lufia to mix things up a bit more?
(Pinging @zod000 to get their thoughts on this as well.)
I wouldn't worry too much about having them back to back based on the length of any of these games. I've played them all except for Space Rogue (great timing on that GOG sale!), and Lufia II is indeed the longest, but I'd say as long as you don't get too obsessed with a certain optional mid to late game dungeon (that I happen to love), the game isn't too long, maybe 25-30 hours.
I think we may want to split up Lufia II and LTTP just because the genres and source platform are a little too close. We could move one of the truly different games in between then such as Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2.
I'll be fine with any or no change, but I don't think the length is too bad.
Yep, many thanks to all the hosts for the last round.
Also, let me know if I've been getting annoyingly nitpicky and I'll back off (what can I say, attention to detail, particularly in edge conditions is a big part of my day job; and if you prefer a more flattering spin it means you're keeping me engaged), but shouldn't Maniac Mansion have advanced? It tied with Beneath a Steel Sky and Crystalis in votes.
Regarding the pastebin alternatives, I just let Tildes host some of the CSV files I was using to tally by PMing them to you :-).
But an interesting hybrid alternative might be the simple paste system that Eric Wastl, creator of Advent of Code concocted: https://topaz.github.io/paste/. It doesn't actually store or host any pastes itself. Instead, it compresses and then base64 encodes the content straight into the giant URL link it generates for you. Copy that link into a forum post, and now the forum host is storing the paste with the post. Simple. And no possibility of spam.
You’re absolutely right about Maniac Mansion. Fixed!
Also, no annoyance here. In fact, I appreciate you saving me from some pretty sloppy mistakes of mine. Thanks for your eye for detail and putting in the time and effort to vet everything.
I'm like Maniac Mansion made it, I'd love an excuse to force myself to replay it.
Just chiming in for the pastebin: https://paste.tildeverse.org/
This looks very promising -- thanks!
Right now I keep getting an error when trying to post:
Could not create paste: server error or not respondingBut I'll try again later.
I think it says a lot about how good our game list is that looking at the eliminated games kind of hurts because there are a LOT of great titles in there.
I do think that we're ripe for re-nominations in the future though, so I don't want people to think of an eliminated game as "gone forever" but more as "not in this round."
Also, I think it's safe to say that the Lobbying Topic was a success: three of the five games endorsed ended up winning, and the other two advanced. Of course, this could be mixing up cause and effect and maybe people were just supporting popular games in the first place, but I have a hard time believing that Space Rogue would have made it to the top without @vili's outstanding writeup
and the $100 they Venmoed me.CGA has been one of my favorite things over the past months, and I look forward to it continuing. It's fun to dive into these old games together, and it's great to read everyone's different perspectives on them.
I agree about the eliminated games, since I'd happily play a number of them. But I'm liking the fact that with the stronger decay now, all of those eliminated games still have an excellent chance if renominated next time. Any single ballot could now compensate for what they lose in rollover points, so it hurts much less. And the ones that advance feel more like mere suggestions or a primer to get us started for next time rather than dead certs.
The lobbying topic was fun! It definitely swung some of my votes to same games I wouldn't have otherwise considered. (And as a bit of enlightened self-interest, I was thinking the lobbying posts could also make for a good rough draft for hosting topics if they won.) I'd definitely lobby to keep the lobbying round. I suppose it could be folded into the nomination topic, but I think it's more fun separate.
What a great timing! There's already some sales for the first two future CGA titles. Be sure to grab these quickly!
Thanks for the sale notifications! I already had the 2004 Pirates! but I picked up the other two.
Castlevania Advance Collection, the Game Boy Advance focused compilation that includes Aria of Sorrow is on sale at Steam for half of its price, which is $12.49 CAD instead of $24.99.
I can recommend this. I played through Aria of Sorrow last year via the Advance Collection and it was great. Worked perfectly on Steam Deck, and it even has some emulation features like save states built right in.
There also exists Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2, which also includes skaters and parks from Tony's Hawk Pro Skater 2 alongside its predecessor. Having never played anything before 3 and after American Wasteland, I'm not sure how similar the gameplay experience would be in there compared to the original 2 beyond the content itself.
The Nintendo Switch version of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 is also currently on sale at Nintendo eShop for $23.99 CAD instead of its usual $59.99 price tag.
According to Pricecharting, you can also easily get a used physical version of the game at under $20 for PS4, Xbox One and Xbox Series. PS5, however, is a tad more expensive, especially with the Complete-In-Box variant being only slightly less than a new copy found in any major retailer.
I'm a little intimidated about hosting one of the CGA posts, but I am likely one of the most enthusiastic fans of Lufia II you'll ever find so I'll do it if none of the other nominators are interested. I do worry about people being able to get the game since as far as I know it isn't on any sort of "virtual console". I personally own the SNES cart and have had the rom since the 90s when emulation was still in its infancy. It's months away, but I hope people get a chance to play it. It is a true classic JRPG from that era that I put in the top three RPGs on the Super Nintendo, the others being Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI (III in the US).
A genuine love for the game makes for the best type of hosting!
I’ll pencil you in for now.
I'll do it as long as no one else fervently wants to do it.
I agree on Chrono Trigger and FF6 as some of the best JRPGs of the era (I'll also toss Earthbound and maybe even Super Mario RPG into the mix). Or even ever. So I am super excited to give Lufia II a try...again!
I think it's awesome we'll have a host who's very enthusiastic about the game. You can give us some pointers! I also wouldn't worry too much, given that we seem to have a lot of hardcore JRPG players around here. Last year's Chrono Trigger CGA discussions were some of the most engaging and interesting gaming discussions I've seen on Tildes.
It is hard to narrow it down to a true top three jRPGs as it was essentially a golden age of the genre. I personally like it more than Earthboard or SMB RPG, but I'm totally biased.
As I recall, Breath of Fire was pretty solid too.
Breath of Fire was, IMO, somewhat mediocre, but BoF 2 was quite good. BoF 3 on the PS1 is the pinnacle of the series though. None of the games have much to do with each other, so if we ever decide to pick one for the CGA, BoF 3 would get my vote as long as we don't deem it too long of a game.
I agree with your top three and will show up (assuming something reminds me) just for Lufia 2. Maybe I'll actually beat the game instead of getting "stuck" at the Ancient Cave... Again.
The Ancient Cave is a game in itself. I have fully beaten it many times and I will do it again when it comes up in the CGA.
Semi-spoiler
Very cool. I had the original Lufia for my SNES but have only ever played Lufia 2 on a ROM so I never knew this. Now I have even more reason to actually beat the game again instead of getting stuck, thank you!
Lufia is decent/OK, but Lufia 2 was such a massive improvement. I honestly don't know what made teenage me blow so much money ($75) on it when it came out. I saw the price and thought "the only SNES games that have ever been priced like that are FF III (actually 6) and Chrono Trigger, so it has to be good!". Flawless logic! Luckily, it turned out to be true.
Yeah, Lufia 2 is definitely the better game. I just had no idea it existed. I only discovered it much later when downloading ROMs for my SNES emulator. Oh, I didn't know they made a second Lufia. Must not have been good since I never heard of it. How wrong I was. Everyone knows about FF6 and Chronic Trigger but I feel like basically no one knows about Lufia 2 and I would easily put it on an almost as good of a level.