It took 26 weeks, 59 games, and two “Super Smash Bros. Brawl” delays, but I am finally done with my 25,000 point achievement quest.

It’s over.

“Brawl” is coming out in less than a week, and I can have a little time to relax - detox if you will.

What started as a seemingly good idea at meager 10,000 points in 10 weeks ballooned to 25,000, and 26 weeks, and forced me to explore the seedy depths of achievement whoredom. I’ve played some of the best games of my life, and some of the worst, all in the name of Achievement points… and this is my story.

I originally planned this last week of whoring to be dedicated to cleaning up some of the mess that I started over the course of the last six months, and to scrape together points from titles that I had already started. Unfortunately, after about two hours of giving “skate.” another chance I knew that wasn’t the way to go. Maybe someday I’ll go back and finish collecting everything in “The Simpsons,” but it wouldn’t be this week.

This is what I did instead:

After my time with “skate.” I hoped that for some reason the last 705 points that I needed would just magically appear on my Gamertag, and I would just all of a sudden be all done with this quest. However, they didn’t.

I wasn’t on pace to even come near what I needed (read: I was playing too much “N+“) until I reached out for some assistance from the MTV Multiplayer stack-o-games, and put all my faith into “Jumper: Griffin’s Story.” I knew that yet another licensed title would save the day when I noticed an off-handed comment on Major Nelson’s twitter about how he was able to procure 200 points in less than a minute playing this game. While the quality of the game wasn’t exactly what I would have hoped for (it’s a button masher’s dream), it did provide me with 600 points that I desperately needed. By Sunday night, with those points added to 30 from “skate.,” 35 from “Madden ‘08,” and 35 from “N+,” I had 700 of the 705 points that I needed.

I only needed five more points

My desire to get this achievement monkey off my back got me out of bed early on Monday morning to complete my quest before heading into work (breaking one of my cardinal rules: no gaming before work). After reviewing all the games that I still had access to it turned out that I had overlooked a fairly easy 20 points in “The Club” for the “Save Our Souls” achievement - in which you needed to shoot out the letters “SOS” in a sign in the game. I thought it was a bit apropos that, after six months of an Achievement quest (which was really just an extension of a two-year Achievement addiction) that this was the achievement that put me over the edge.

I was done. It was over. I could finally relax.

Over the last 26 weeks I’ve played 59 games strictly for Achievements. I’ve “completed” 15 different titles (13 retail, and 2 XBLA). I’ve logged countless hours on both the best and worst the Xbox 360 has to offer. I’ve learned a lot; about video games, and myself as a gamer. The biggest lesson learned is that Achievements don’t mean anything; they are just an arbitrary number set forth by the developers of the game as an added incentive to play. There’s nothing wrong with them. They just don’t mean anything.

Now, I feel like I can finally go back to playing games that I’m legitimately interested in, instead of just playing the games that have really easy points. At the same time, this quest forced me to play a lot of games that I wouldn’t normally play, and it turns out that I actually enjoyed some of them. I’ve learned that in the future I won’t be so quick to write off certain titles just because they may not be targetted at me. I’ve also learned to hate game delays, more than ever.

That’s it - six months, 25,015 achievement points, and “Super Smash Bros. Brawl” coming out in five days, everything worked out rather well. Thanks for following along, and keep an eye out for me on Live (jaded cynic), just not this Sunday.

One added bonus: After months of “research” I was able compile this list:

My Achievement Awards For Outstanding Achievements

Best Arcade Game (for Achievements)
Galaga

Game So Bad I Couldn’t Even Finish It (Even For “Easy” Achievements)
Beowulf

Best (Easiest) Achievements
Avatar: The Last Airbender — The Burning Earth

Game That Wasn’t Worth The Effort
Asteroids & Asteroids Deluxe (0 points)

Most Pleasant Surprise
The Cabela’s Games (Trophy Bucks, Big Game Hunter)

Game Most Avoided Because Achievement Points Were Too Hard
Tie: Mass Effect. Assassin’s Creed

Best Game Actually Worth Playing (Achievements Were Just A Bonus)
Tie: Call of Duty 4, BioShock, Puzzle Quest, Portal