Mega Man 8

• Had an urge to play this for some reason, I've always loved the look of this game and it's always had a certain allure to me with it being the PlayStation/Saturn entry of the mainline series
• Loved a lot of the music. Frost Man and Aqua Man stages being some of my favorites
• The collecting of bolts and the power up store was fun. The internet said to use energy saver and I bought it and really have no idea what it did. Faster charge shot was sweet though
• Was flying through the game until the first Wily stage with the surf board Jump! Jump! Slide! part. Replayed that level probably 15 times until I figured out a better way to do it
• Overall just had a ton of fun playing this game, could definitely see myself replaying it one day 

Halo Reach (Co-op)

• After playing this game again I think I have to say that 3 is my favorite with Reach in 2nd
• Disappointing that after Halo 3 co-op letting each person be their own character you have to both be the same guy again
• The mission variety was nice as long as you don't think about how many times you have to clear a landing zone. Nice variety of environments too
• So thankful I sacrificed my life for an AI chatbot

Halo 3 (Co-op)

 You were the Arbiter and I was Chief...

• Kept telling my wife how I kinda wanted to just skip Halo 2 and play Halo 3. Was actually proven right by how fantastic Halo 3 is. What a game. 
• My wife mentioned how every mission feels like the final mission and that's a good description. All the missions are pretty diverse, along with the environments, and they have you traversing to different locations instead of being stuck in the same structures.
• Having the 2nd player be their own character instead of us both Master Chief was a fun addition
• Beyond honored to have served alongside Chips Dubbo
• Get this bullshit SD card of Cortana out of my helmet NOW! Why the fuck does an AI even have a body? Why does she act like she's in physical pain during these cut scenes? 

Halo 2 (Co-op)

• Beat this alone not too many years ago so I don't think my thoughts are too different now
• Certainly an improvement over Halo 1 but man, I thought Halo 1 was a slog (and maybe it was alleviated a bit with the new remaster we played) but god DAMN this is a slog. So many of the same environments over and over. One mission near the end was one big room, followed by a small hallway that was a 90 degree right angle turn into another big room. This repeated at least 3-4 times
• I fuck with the Arbiter, don't get me wrong, but I didn't want to do any of his missions and just wanted to get back to the Chief missions. I appreciate the desire to tell the story but I don't really give a fuck, I'm sick of shooting at aliens that look exactly like my ally aliens and sick of running through the same alien environments over and over.
• Can I get some more ammo?! Holy shit
• Punching the hell out of that prophet in his floating wheelchair was pretty funny
• The whole Gravemind thing...whatever, dude 

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004

• This one is retroactive and comes with a caveat: I beat the World Tour mode which is basically the point of the game, however you are suggested to play TEN years/seasons of PGA Tour events to beat Tiger's money record, which I am not going to do. I beat all 4 majors and have won about 11 out of the 30 events and that's enough for me. So I am counting this one, fuck you
• May be the best golf game ever. It is just so god damned fun to play
• My brother and I have played this over the phone where we both play the same course at the same time and see who scored the best. It's a really fun and quaint way to play "online" with someone 

Halo: Campaign Evolved

• Did not have much interest in this at all at first but then it hit me that it would be fun to play coop with my wife so we could see the beginning of the Halo story together. It being 50 bucks helped too.
• Looks great and the QoL additions were nice. Some slowdown during certain parts of the game due to the massive amount of dudes and weapons being fired
• Checkpoint system is still incredibly archaic and dumb. Kinda crazy it's still being used
• The bonus missions were pretty fun however after playing through the game and then doing them, I was kind of tired of running around Covenant ships and architecture by that point
• Seems that no amount if remastering can change the fact the last few missions of the game are a total SLOG at times 
• Onto Halo 2 together! 

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.