Dunkadillo

• Randomly read about this game one day last week and liked the look of it a lot. It was on sale for 5 bucks on eShop so I have it a shot and am glad I did, it's a cute lil game
• Only about 1.5 hours to beat which was fine with me to have a quick game that doesn't overstay its welcome 
• Going through a basketball hoop to end every level never got old. Super satisfying
• Most of the music was pretty cool 

Rhythm Heaven Groove

• Everything I wanted in a Rhythm Heaven game. So much god damn content and unlockables
• Great chunes. Doesn't necessarily hit the highs of the GBA and DS games but still very good. Favorite has gotta be Slice n Dice Kitchen
• Really fun co-op games with some good throwbacks to classic songs
• Seriously though, so many unlockables

Star Fox

• Not a big fan of how prevalent remakes are but I love Star Fox 64 and nostalgia is extremely powerful sometimes. Luckily this game is great too and feels like the definitive version of the game...until we get another remake of it
• Beaten it 3 times so far, unlocked all levels and gotten "true" ending. Working on the medals and challenges now
• Online battles are surprisingly fun
• 2 player mode is absolutely ruined in classic Nintendo fashion of being forced to use the joycons AND mouse mode
• Possibly the best looking Nintendo of all time
• The new character designs grew on me but Peppy still looks absolutely hilarious/terrifying
• Please God let us get an actual new Star Fox game now, preferably from this studio 

WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames!

• Game has an exclamation point in the title, always a plus. And a comma, abbreviated period AND a colon. That is an astounding variety of punctuation marks
• I beat and 100% this every few years and since it reminds me of summer (Summer '03 with my SP shout out) I decided to take it with me on vacation last week to the beach and beat it there
• One of my favorite games ever. I remember reading the review in EGM and got the game as soon as my money-less young teenage self could after it was released
• Love the ridiculous story lines. Great music too
• 9-Volt probably has my favorite games but I really do love them all
• Surprisingly fun 2 player games you only need one GBA to play

007: FIrst Light

• What a game, easily my favorite I've played this year
• The portrayal of Bond is spot on. Great acting all around too and a great story as well
• Perfect blend of the Hitman games with more action oriented games like Uncharted
• Great locales that were so fun to explore. Just everything you'd want from a Bond game/movie
• Driving sequences certainly leave a lot to be desired 
• Cannot wait for the next one! 

Mixtape

• Having not played a ton of games like this so I wasn't sure how I'd like it and I ended up loving it
• Great soundtrack, as one would hope for a game based entirely on music
• Subject matter hit me a lot harder emotionally than I expected. Probably because I'm old 
• Some really beautiful sequences and locations
• Cha' 

Ghost of Tshushima

• Really cool game I'm glad I gave another shot after previously dropping it after a few hours. Not as good as Yotei which is to be expected but still really good
• Main character Jin is also not as cool as main character Atsu in Yotei
• I don't really have the time to write or put much thought into these anymore, not that I ever put much thought into this before, but I don't have much else to say other than this game is tight and the ending was cool 

Spiderman: Miles Morales

• I love these games, damnit. Easily fits into the category of games I refer to as "video game goodness". And no, I'm not going to further explain what "video game goodness" means to me
• Super short but I didn't really care much since I bought this game for 10 bucks. Definitely feels more like a side story prequel before Spiderman 2 than a full game in its own right
• These games can be a little over the top with the positivity but sometimes that can be a nice thing
• Miles is such a nice boy/hijo

Ghost of Yotei

• Thoroughly enjoyed my entire experience with this game. Good story and acting
• Switching between all the weapons in the heat of the battle was a little clumsy
• Beautiful visuals 

God of War (PS2)

• I got this game back when it came out but only got about halfway through. I was 15 and the guy at EB Games explained to my mom the game had nudity. I looked over and told her it was ok (as if she could trust me) and she got me the game. That being said, there is a gratuitous amount of tits in this game. Pretty tight
• Holds up extremely well for a 21 year old game. Game looks great too
• Combat is really fun but I never really found myself using many of the advance combos/weapon power ups you get. I beat the game in less than 7 hours too so I would venture to say you don't really need to use anything aside from the basic combos

Dispatch

• First time playing a Telltale-type game. I really enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to season 2
• Genuinely funny. Great writing. Truly looked like a tv show
• Ended up really enjoying the gameplay portion of the game. I really liked figuring out with my wife which heroes to send to what jobs. UI portion of this section could be frustrating though at times

Crash Bandicoot 2

• I've beaten this game a few times over the years since my childhood but never 100%'d it...until now. Playing the PS1 version. A great evolution from the first Crash. 
• Collecting all the gems and finding all the secrets was thoroughly enjoyable. Just the right amount of challenge
• Never cared for the sewer levels
• Incredibly lame final boss fight, the rest of them were all pretty fun though

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

• What a great game. Thoroughly enjoyed my entire time with it and am still playing side quest stuff now
• The battle system is so damn good.Basically every single fight was fun and I'd go searching out random encounters as much as possible which is as high of praise as I can give an RPG
• The parrying system is great and I'm sure this will be incorporated in so many RPGs now
• Genuinely good acting, characters and story. Some really funny moments as well (Francois!)
• Esquie is my best friend

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