by mento
"Because everyone else was doing it." - Mento's epitaph.
Speaking of everyone else, check out Marino's (the first), Buzz_Clik's and Ozone's S-Ranks lists too. I'll add more when I see 'em.
To keep things interesting, I've added a few stats for each entry on this list (which, honestly, is something else I'm stealing from Marino). They include:
Showing 1-10 of 100 items
DoA: 03/14/2008 Challenge: 2 Embarrassment: 4 My first S-rank, or at least my first recorded one. The game's not terrible, but it was one of those with a reputation for handing out a lot of achievement points very quickly. Hard to claim that you were more interested in playing a so-so movie license FPS than you were in earning an easy 1000.
DoA: 04/12/2008 Challenge: 3 Embarrassment: 2 My first S-rank, according to my memoirs whenever I write them. Far better than King Kong, I will admit to playing this 360 remaster - my second run, after the PlayStation 2 version - for the achievements. Hence the mild embarrassment. It's been ten years and we've not seen a sequel yet?
DoA: 05/03/2008 (approx.) Challenge: 4 Embarrassment: 2 Lost Odyssey wasn't the first JRPG I played on the 360 - that would be Blue Dragon, which has some of the worst achievements ever - but it was the first where my usual prerogative to 100% an RPG happily coincided with earning all the achievements. There were still a handful that involved pointless grinding, as well as a game-wide scavenger hunt for secret treasures that I needed a guide for.
DoA: 06/14/2008 Challenge: 2 Embarrassment: 4 A meh Diablo clone that was pretty much the only game of its type on 360 for a while, if you don't count Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom (which I rented twice for some reason). Anyway, the game had some basic achievements and I believe it was the first XBLA game I S-ranked for its 200 points.
DoA: 06/25/2008 (approx.) Challenge: 2 Embarrassment: 2 Phantasy Star Universe wasn't the single-player successor to PSO anyone was hoping for, but it was competent enough if a bit dull and repetitive. Same could be said for its achievements, which amounted to a handful of big 100-pointers earned for every major story boss.
DoA: 07/19/2008 Challenge: 3 Embarrassment: 4 Let me be clear here: I was a fan of the show (at the time, at least) and a fan of adventure games, so this wasn't a decision spurred entirely by achievement hunting. In fact, there's one sequence where I almost quit the game completely. It involves dynamite, which I'm sure rings a bell (and the ears) of anyone who also played this.
DoA: 07/31/2008 Challenge: 1 Embarrassment: 5 Yeah... no such excuses for this one. Five achievements, two hundred points each, around three hours total, and about four showers afterwards.
DoA: 08/03/2008 Challenge: 4 Embarrassment: 5 Let's just say I was in the midst of my darkest period here, though hardly alone. Alone in the Dark is a really not great game, from its horrible driving sequences - one of the achievements requires that you complete one in the cockpit view! That's stupid! - to its various nonsensical crafting recipes. Adding gasoline to bullets does not equal "fire bullets". It equals to a trip to the A&E for major hand explosion injuries.
DoA: 08/11/2008 Challenge: 2 Embarrassment: 2 The LEGO games all have easy enough achievements, but they do require that you play the game twice over (once in story mode, and the other in free mode) and hunt a bunch of collectibles. I'm generally down for the latter, but I wish there wasn't so much replaying involved.
DoA: 08/28/2008 Challenge: 2 Embarrassment: 5 A bad game and a bad idea to S-rank it. Just a lot of bad decisions all round. The movie's good though?
