2025 In Review

1. Final Fantasy XVI
2. TMNT: Fall of the Foot Clan
3. Batman (Gameboy)
4. Kirby's Dream Land 2
5. Operation C
6. Magical Chase (GBC)
7. Split Fiction
8. Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
9. Spider-Man Remastered
10. Mario Kart World
11. THPS 3+4 Remaster
12. Donkey Kong Bananza
13. A Way Out
14. MGS3: Snake Eater (Subsistence version)
15. Ninja Gaiden Ragebound
16. Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage
17. Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles 
18. Lego Voyagers
19. Crash Team Racing 

19 total games with a lot of stat padding thanks to some quick Gameboy games early in the year while chilling with my newborn baby. I also read 30 books this year and tended to prefer that or playing games with my wife over single player games. 

Favorite game from 2025 I played would be a toss up between Donkey Kong, FF Tactics remaster or Split Fiction. Favorite overall game was probably FF XVI.

Crash Team Racing

• A game I beat as a boy when it came out but I did absolutely no additional content. Rectifying that wrong this time as I have gotten every relic and CTR token and am working through the final content of the game (93% currently)
• Staggering amount of single-player content. It's gotta be the king of kart racers in terms of that.
• Lot of depth to the racing, once you're triple boosting everywhere the game really opens up. Another thing I didn't do as a kid: learn to boost.
• Great tracks. Some of these were buried deep in my mind (Blizzard Bluff, Hot Air Skyway, Oxide Station to name a few) and playing them again was a fun experience

Lego Voyagers

• Cute lil game. One of those games with no dialogue that succeeds in making you feel emotions
• Only about 4 hours long which was a little disappointing. I don't mind short games one bit, especially since the price on this was 25 bucks, but I would have enjoyed a longer stay
• Puzzles were a lot of fun and felts like there were a lot of different ways to solve them
• Good ending 

Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronic(WHAT)cles

• I get the urge to play FFT every now and then and was pleasantly surprised to have another reason to with this remake. I'm far from a strategy rpg expert but this is one of my favorite games ever
• The QoL features are greatly appreciated in this. Fast forward, the movement system upgrades, auto-saving mid-battle per turn (really helpful for the times you accidentally get killed after 30 minutes of grinding a single battle), skipping random battles and the turn order display were all incredibly helpful upgrades
• No visual options whatsoever for either the remaster or original version of the game sucks. Really lame dithering effects on the remaster
• A little frustrating there are no QoL upgrades at all for the original version too. I appreciate them at least including it in the package though
• "Mature" stories in games really aren't a novelty anymore like they were in 1998 but the story here is still very enjoyable. Lots of great music too 
• The job system is as addictive as ever. Also this has my favorite job/class of any game ever: the Calculator/Arithmetician. It never, ever gets old to me using "math" to cast a spell that decimates every character, enemy or not, on the map. Plus, they look so cute and cozy in their outfits

 

Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage or Revenge or some shit

• I beat this in two chunks basically, half last year during Fall and half this year
• I wish I had played all 3 consecutively to have a more defined opinion on which one is my favorite. It's either 2 or 3 for my #1 spot and then 1
• Collecting orbs was a fun change of pace compared to finding dragons or eggs since they kind of are treated like missions
• I don't have anything negative to say really, Insomniac knew/knows how to make very good video games. I really enjoyed my time with all 3 Spyro games. And much like how Crash went to some other developer on the PS2, so did Spyro...so farewell Spyro, I will probably never play you in any other capacity ever again, just like the first 3 Crash games...Crash 4 is tight though

Ninja Gaiden Ragebound

• So nice to play a 2d action game that isn't a fucking Metroidvania
• Hypercharge and Guillotine Boost are really cool mechanics and gave the game an almost rhythmic feel at times
• Awesome boss bottles. Nothing ever felt cheap
• Gorgeous pixel art and animation

MGS3: Snake Eater (Subsistence version)

• I remember being so excited for this back in 2004 and then surprisingly bounced off it pretty soon after getting it. I replayed the game back in 2012 but only got a little less than half way through it. With the remake coming out I was inspired to play the game again and I'm glad I finally finished it. It was the only MGS out of 1-5 I had yet to beat.
• Really great game with so many cool little details and intricacies to discover. Awesome boss fights as you'd expect
• I liked the camo system a decent amount. It's fun to be laying right next to an enemy and they have no idea. Probably a little necessary as well with the game being designed around not having radar like the previous games.
• The health and curing systems got old fast though but I've never been into this shit in the first place 
• The overarching geopolitical story was enjoyable and what the game set up for the history of the series is awesome but so much of the writing and cut scenes were so awkward and cheesy. That's par for the course of any Kojima game to an extent but it's really evident here. I found a lot of funny moments that I'm not sure were really intentional. My favorite moments were when someone would go on a long ass monologue and then Snake's response being only a single grunt or groan
• Can definitely see myself replaying the game to try the tons of different ways to beat bosses, especially non-lethally 

A Way Out

• Great game with a few clunky sequences. Had a lot of fun beating this with my wife. It's easy to see the evolution from this game to It Takes Two to Split Fiction
• A fun story with some legitimate surprises
• Really cool ending/unique way to end a co-op game 
• You can see one of the character's dick at an early point in the game so that's tight

Donkey Kong Bananza

• Oh, banana, where to begin. What a game. Beat this with MY WIFE passing the controller back and forth
• Exactly what any 3d platformer fan dreams of. That patented Nintendo Polish™ has this bad boy gleaming. Really hope we don't have to wait another 8 years for another game from this team
• One of those rare games where it just gets better the more you play/further you get
• Ostrich transformation looks like a feathered Metal Gear Ray. Absolutely terrifying 
• Finished the game with 262 bananas. Time to collect the remaining 515

THPS 3+4

• Like basically all THPS fans, I'm conflicted about this game. Obviously always glad to have more "new" Tony Hawk but THPS4 is so watered down. Some levels were completely removed while reducing some levels, especially Kona, to just a competition level is criminal. I'm fortunate that I have the original on PS2 and can play it easily whenever I want but I would have rather replaced that with this game
• Looks amazing. It's always a little surreal at first to see these maps I know so well recreated in 4K
• Soundtrack is a little disappointing but they could only do so much with record labels wanting more and more compensation for "their" music
• The new levels in THPS4 are ok. Pinball is not very good. Waterpark is the best
• The extra Pro Mode challenges that unlock after you 100% the goals in both games are great and will keep me coming back for awhile to get my THPS fix