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[BusierDonkey]

Game 50

Ghostbuster: The Video Game Remastered - Finished playthrough, all upgrades and PKE scans.

This was a very good game, or for a licensed game it was great. Written by Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd and starring all the actors from the films, the game carried the same sarcastic and often absurd humor the first movie did. In this game you play a rookie member who just joined the team just after the events of Ghostbusters II and work your way through set pieces and location from the movies scattered around New York city like the hotel, library, sewers, etc. The music is also pulled straight from the films. Gameplay is 3rd person and honestly feels really good. There is almost no HUD, everything is displayed on your proton pack, similar to Dead Space, something I wish more games did. Progressing further into the game, as dimensions merge, you find yourself in increasingly bizarre locations and unlocking more functions of your proton pack. There are several fun boss fights and plenty of exploration to do while looking for secrets with your PKE meter. The game is pretty short by modern standards at around 8-10 hours, but I feel that is about as long as the game needed to be without getting repetitive,

Game 51

Resident Evil Remaster - Finished Jill run, 100% items

This is the first Resident Evil game I've ever finished. I absolutely suck at this style of game. The deliberately clunky controls coupled with the fact that I can back myself into a corner with item overuse and the fact I hate not killing the zombies every time I see them means I tend to get frustrated way too fast playing these. I am a huge fan of the games though; I used to watch my siblings play them. The setting and story are fascinating, uncovering the messed-up things that happened in the mansion are the kind of thing I've always gravitated toward. I finally did myself a favor and forced myself to play the game properly and push past my grievances with the controls. As one would expect, it took an hour or so before I stopped noticing the controls and started enjoying exploring the mansion. This version of the game has a ton of new content over the original PS1 title, and the animated backdrops hold up quite well despite how much time has passed. The voice acting is still trash, but not nearly as awful as in the original game. This was a massive hole in my gaming history, I'm looking forward to trying more games in the series.

Game 52.

Resident Evil 2 (Gamecube) - Finished Leon Scenario A and B, Jill Scenario A and B

I went into this game expecting it to be more than a little rough but came away surprised at how well it holds up. While I never played this game back in the day, I did watch my siblings play it a lot, I remembered a lot of it, but in pieces. While I still tend to struggle with tank controls at times they never get in the way of the game. In this game the mansion is replaced with the Raccoon City Police station and all the strange structures tied to it. The PD is similar in size compared to the mansion, but the layout feels easier to navigate. The separate areas are also more contained, meaning keys and secret items tend to be used mostly in the area you find them in. This game takes itself a bit more lightly than the first, with goofy characters and scenarios popping up throughout the game. The game is chock full of jump scares, most expected but back in the day the licker jumping through the interrogation room mirror was pants-shitting stuff, not because I was scared but because I just felt like doing it, I do what I want when I want, it's my hot body! Splitting the game up into multiple scenarios makes replaying the game worthwhile, I only played scenario A for both characters, but I'll eventually run through scenario B for both which brings in new things and events, like the Mr. X encounters. I've since completed both scenarios for both Jill and Chris. The scenario B adds a lot of new areas and content. I would like to play as Hunk and Tofu but they require perfect runs to unlock and perfect isn't something I'm capable of with these games.

Game 53.

Resident Evil 3 - Completed playthrough, killed off Nikolai

This game is better than 2 in many ways, new control features mean you can quick-turn and dodge attacks, you can make your own ammo, and the visuals got a huge bump up from RE2 (sometimes). Unfortunately, Raccoon City's map is nowhere near as well-planned and fun to traverse as RE2 and when you need to backtrack it's down a spaghetti mess of narrow, samey alleys. Puzzles are of a similar vein as previous entries, nothing is too hard to figure out as long as you look around for the answer. The atmosphere in this game goes further down the goofy path from the original, Umbrella becomes more and more cartoon villain-tier evil as the series continues, but I actually like that. Nemesis was fun, he shows up all the time at the worst possible times and unless you take care of him, he won't let up. The choose your own adventure sections are an interesting addition to the game but honestly, I doubt I would replay this one just for a slightly different section here and there, it's a far cry from the various scenarios in RE2 that completely change how the game is played. In the end I found this game felt way longer than it needed to be but then I discovered that I had only played it for 7 hours. Where I still want to go back to RE2 after a dozen hours, I think I'm good moving on from this one.

Game 54.

Resident Evil: Code Veronica X - Completed playthrough

I had a lot of fun with this one. Umbrella continues to become more and more cartoonishly evil with a literal Bond villain-tier military complex run by an insane lunatic. It's got everything a good villain island fortress could ever need. There are a bunch of great characters like the prison guard who regifts you your own lighter, Steve "Not John Connor" who doesn't know how to hold a gun, Wesker who has become a supervillain and of course there's Alfred Ashford who is actually schizophrenic. This game changes the series forever with a switch from pre-rendered 2D to fully polygonal backdrops. On one hand the game lost the gritty (but low resolution) details off previous entries but in place of that came dynamic camera angles that had a degree of movement making it easier to see and required a lot less camera swapping. Despite still using tank controls, the game feels a lot tighter to control and thanks to the polygonal environments you can tell where the collision boxes are, so you get hung up a lot less than in previous entries. The map in this game was really well done, compared to previous games it's much bigger but at the same time easier to navigate. Backtracking is frequent like before, but it never feels like I'm going out of my way or that a safe room is annoyingly out of reach. This was by far the most enjoyable map to explore so far. There's not too much new in terms of weapons, but the combat feels quicker with the quick turn returning and more responsive movement. Jump scares are constantly popping up but I found the game was lighter on the horror aspect this time. Overall, this is my favorite of the Resident Evil games I've played so far, but I expect RE4 will probably top it.

Game 55.

Resident Evil 0 - Completed playthrough

I actually started playing the Gamecube version using Dolphin and got past the train section where the emulation had issues getting past a bunch of FMV sequences. Apparently I own it on Steam as well so I restarted the game there. The game itself doesn't follow Code Veronica in its presentation. While Code Veronica moved to polygonal environments this went back to the FMV backdrops first used on the Gamecube REmake. The Gamecube game was a really good looking game in its day but the PC HD remaster is really pretty. The FMV backgrounds were all redone in higher resolutions and in many cases they were completely changed including slight camera angle changes. I would honestly love to see this done with modern storage. The gameplay also goes back to REmake, but with a new co-op mechanic where you control Rebecca, Billy or both at the same time. Solving puzzles over multiple floors of the training facility was a new twist for the series and for the most part was a fun addition. Another new feature was the removal of item boxes, instead each part of the map could contain a set number of items, allowing you to just dump items you either don't need, or want to save for later. The AI controlled character was, unfortunately, an idiot. Even in the middle of a boss fight they would often just stand there waiting to get hit before retaliating. The origin story in this was absolutely goffball-tier stuff, once again Umbrella is pushed further into cartoon villain territory which I 'm loving. I didn't expect to enjoy this one as much as the others but overall came away pretty impressed with it.

Game 56

Resident Evil 4 - All Treasures/Bottlecap figures

This game was so different from all the REs so far. It kind of picks up where Code Veronica leaves the series, going more towards action than before. The game is constantly throwing enemies in your path and unlike previous games just running by them isn't always a great option. You're given plenty of ammo, health and support items thanks to an almost magical merchant who is always around to sell you weapons, upgrades and health if you're in desperate need. There are also save locations all over the place, so you don't need to go back and forth to one location constantly to save. The puzzles are toned down in this, and the map is much less maze-like than before. For the most part your goal is always dead ahead, with only minor backtracking or exploration. Despite that, the game environments are fantastic, taking you from the woods, through a ruined village, the surrounding farms, a church, a massive castle, then finally to a military island. The gameplay in this goes from laid-back to absolutely frantic and often back and forth, nothing ever feels unfair, while enemies will rush up to you, they slow down giving you a chance to get a shot off. The bosses are all great, often including the environment in the fight. The story fits well with the series, though the game is a lot grittier than Code Veronica, it's full of goofy shit like a giant robot, fire-breathing dragon statues, and things that were clearly added just to make the game fun. The supporting characters are all good, Ashley isn't annoying and can be stuffed in a box if you think she'll get killed. Ada pops in and out to torment Leon, Luis seems like a fun guy at parties. The visuals in this game (especially back in 2005) hold up remarkably well. It goes back to polygonal environments, but they are much more detailed and fleshed out than Code Veronica. While they aren't quite as detailed as RE0, the new over the shoulder camera angle would be impossible with FMV environments. My gripe with this game is the overabundance of QTEs, which I absolutely detest. I was playing the Steam release in which the QTEs are broken unless you play at 30fps which made them even more annoying. Once I lowered the framerate they give you plenty of time to press the buttons, but I still hate them.

 

[Barakov]

Game 12. Robocop Rogue City

 

[Kacho]

27.	Earthion	PC	1 hour	9/10	An incredible shmup from Yuzo Koshiro. The music took me back to 1992.
28.	Patapon	PC	16 hours	9/10	More cryptic than I remember. Very fun though and immersive. Has soul like a Katamari game.

 

[SpiceRacz]

Took a break for a bit, but I'm back at it. Not sure I'm going to hit 52 by the end of the year. Going to do my best. The following games are newer and not backlog. Still adding them to the list though.

#22 Chronicles of The Wolf - Apparently the team behind this have been doing Castlevania style games for a bit and it shows. This is a combination of Simon's Quest and Symphony of the Night style gameplay. If you have even a passing interest in metroidvanias, I'd urge you to play this. It's way better than it has any right to be. Will probably make it's way into my top 10 at the end of year.

#23 Earthion -This is a love letter to Sega Genesis shmups from my childhood. Except rather than some random indie studio, it's from Yuzo Koshiro and Ancient Corp. People that actually worked on games back in the 90s. There's a lot of imitators out there - modern games made for retro consoles. Earthion is authentic to the Genesis and the genre in a way that truly feels like it could have came out in 30 years ago. Gameplay is smooth. It introduces a shield mechanic that I can't recall seeing before in this type of game. Graphically, it's as impressive of a Genesis game I can remember.. Most importantly, it's not brutally hard and there's adjustable difficulty settings. Anyone that's a fan of the Genesis or retro games in general needs to play it.

#24 Ninja Gaiden Ragebound - I just finished this one tonight, but will maybe write something up later.

 

[Wolzard]

#6 - Final Fantasy Type-0 HD (2015)

It's a fantastic game, despite its original limitations, as it's a PSP game. One of the best games in the franchise I've ever played.

The story is interesting, it shares mythologies and concepts from the FFXIII saga, especially because it was initially going to be a canonical game, but then Square changed their minds.
The story centers on a war between nations, in which a group of cadets acts as an elite force, carrying out special infiltration missions into nations and destroying them from within. It's very interesting that the game has 12 protagonists, which greatly varies the gameplay. The game is quite violent for Final Fantasy standards. The ending is sensational.

Despite being repetitive, the missions are very enjoyable. However, one thing I hated were some missions where you planned an invasion and had to guide troops through an open-world, similar to an RTS. The controls there weren't very user-friendly.

The graphics are mixed. Sometimes they look like a PSP, sometimes they look modern, making them quite inconsistent. Square improved the character textures and polygon count, but left some scenarios with poor geometry and low-resolution textures.
The game has a lot of bugs, at least in the PC port. After playing for a while and experiencing random freezes, crashes, or even missions that wouldn't progress, I discovered it was because the framerate was unlocked. I locked it at 30 fps, and the game never crashed again. It was difficult to adapt to 30 fps, but I soon got used to it.
The soundtrack is wonderful, imposing, and gives the game a warlike tone.
This game deserves a remake or a new version, as it has a lot of potential.





#7 - Guitar Hero III (2007) - RPCS3

While I was struggling with FF-Type-0, I decided to play Guitar Hero 3 on RPCS3 to de-stress. My hands ended up hurting because playing with an Xbox controller (8bitdo) isn't very ergonomic. GHIII campaign mode is pretty cool, and the game is still very good. I think I'll get a guitar.

 

[Shaggidy]

21: Dino Crisis (ps5) 5 hours
It's taken me years to beat this game, as I previously attempted on the PSP/Vita. A normal controller, and some save states, made it a breeze. Really wish we could get a good dinosaur survival horror game. Not sure why Capcom hasn't remade this but let's hope it's soon.

22: Star Wars Bounty Hunter (ps4)
This game would've been a helluva lot more fun if I didn't get all the trophies. How this game got a ps4 port AND a ps5 remaster and nobody bothered to fix how the secondary bounties worked is ludicrous. Otherwise, a pretty enjoyable time.

23: Nightmare Reaper (ps5) 36 hours
I liked this game a lot. I think the RNG can be a little much at times, and the samey environments in the middle started to drag. Overall pretty fun if your into more acradey shooters.

24: Forgive Me Father (ps4) 27 hours
I wanted to like this game more than I do because I love the premise and the art style. I think its a bit overtuned honestly, and I actively had to lower the difficulty down at the third boss and then again in the last episode. The respawning enemies and the difficulty curve just made it very frustrating and I wanted to get it over with.

25: Devil May Cry (ps4)
I had previously only played the third game and it was nice to go back and check this one out. It's a pretty solid foundation, though the stiff jumping was aggravating. No dedicated dodge button was a pain as well.

26: Powerslave Exhumed (ps4) 22 hours
I freaking love Powerslave. What a strange little fps from the 90s. Has one of the best endings in any game ever made. I do wish this remaster had fixed the hitbox on the lasers. Those made me want to tear my hair out.

27: Chasm: The Rift (ps5)
How on God's green Earth this game got a modern port over Blood or OG Shadow Warrior is a mystery for the games. Great little piece of Slav jank that can be a little grating at times. Still need to finish the expansion.

28: Devil May Cry 2 (ps4) Dante+Lucia
This one... was boring. I'm still glad I got through it but it was just kinda nothing? I can see why outside of the reboot, this is the worst of the bunch. At least it was short

29: Doom 64 (ps5) 13 hours
A helluva lot more fun than Doom 2, and didn't become a slog either. Reminded me of a more fair Sigil. I highly recommend checking this one out

30: Devil May Cry 3 (Ps4) 26 hours for DMC HD
I played this as a kid but never finished it. Best of the series that I've played so far. SO much fun. Though, I personally don't really like the other styles besides Trickster.

 

[Barakov]

13. Earthion

 

[applesaucejaxon]

August Update!

Here's my July Post...

So it's starting to look likely that I'm going to finish 52 games this year. Honestly didn't think I had this in me again this year.

42: Strider - PS4 - Beat 8/7
This game was awesome. The controls and everything were so tight, and the art design was pretty decent. You can definitely tell it was a lower budget game, but it was a great experience. I will say, I would have liked to have been able to play using the D-pad. And the final boss was a little on the easy side. But the good far outweighed the bad.
I'm thinking next up is probably Gunman Clive 2. That or the original Silent Hill. I dug my PSP out of my basement and installed a new battery, so I immediately downloaded Silent Hill and a few other games from back in the day that I've never beat. Fun fact: I've never played Silent Hill. Or any Silent Hill, for that matter. Unless you count P.T.
I want to jump back in to God of War, but that will probably wait until next Tuesday when the kids go back to school. Hopefully it's not crazy long and I can zip through it next week. I was going to get Madden on launch this year, but decided against it when I saw impressions about it today. It's a lot of the same old same old. And it looks like the Switch 2 version is a bit rough, so I'll wait for a sale. Also doesn't help that one of my cars broke down, so I'm sure I'll have a nice little bill for that tomorrow.

43: Gunman Clive 2 - Switch - Beat 8/8
While this was definitely a better game than part 1, it was also more frustrating at times. The Starfox-esque levels were bad. The major issue with those was that enemy projectiles have the same colors as Clive's. It took 2 attempts on the first level to even realize I was being shot at, because I just assumed all the green was from my gun. Then the final boss. I beat the damn boss as it was finishing and blowing up, Clive falls. When I hit the ground, it had me hit an enemy which ended up killing me. That was bogus in a whole new level. Thankfully the next life went off without a hitch. There were a few other annoyances, but those were the big ones. I wish I played it on the 3DS as you can tell it was really tailored to the 3D screen in a lot of places.

44: What Remains of Edith Finch - PS4 - Beat 8/8
This was pretty interesting. Definitely held my attention better than Everyone's Gone to the Rapture. I kind of want to know more about the history after playing through this. Like a book of Fitch family lore. I don't know why I loaded this up today. I saw it sitting on the bottom of my installed game list on my PS5 and just decided to give it a whirl. It's a game day today since it's too damn hot to do anything else. Might finish Overcooked with my kids after we water our garden today.

45: WWE2k24 - PS5 - Beat 8/9
I beat the Showcase mode, and it was pretty decent. I haven't played a WWE game since 19, and this one plays a lot better than I remember the Yukes games playing. Good on them, because I remember the hubub about how bad it was when 2K initially took over completely. Some of the matches were iffy. Doing the challenges with 3 way matches was a pain. I'm actually interested in playing 2K25 now. I had basically given up on them, so I'm kind of surprised. In a good way.

46: Journey to the Savage Planet - Switch via Switch 2 - Beat 8/13
Another fun one! On one hand, I wish I beat it on another system so that it didn't look crummy. On the other, I don't think I would have beat this without being able to be played handheld. That all aside, this was a fun game with lots to explore. Scanning everything gave me good Metroid Prime vibes, and the world and drip fed story kept me invested. Would like to play the sequel. I see it's on Gamepass...

47: Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins - Game Boy - Beat 8/14
Definitely better than the original Super Mario Land, but I just didn't really like it. The downgrades and changes from NES Mario games were just too much. It's interesting to me how far portables have come. I remember playing my friends' Game Boys back when they first came out and being amazed. It's crazy how minimal the compromises have become with modern portables.

48: God of War: Ragnarök - PS5 - Beat 8/19
I started this game not really liking it mostly because I couldn't stand Atreus. I really disliked him in the last game, and that carried over here. By the end, I didn't hate him so much. Very good game, but it seems to finish of Kratos' story. After the ending, I'm not really sure where you would go. And even though I ended up not despising Atreus, I won't buy a game where he's the main. So I hope that's not where they're going with this. I will say, the last 3 bosses were way too easy. Some people might not think so or even have an issue with that. I was a little disappointed.

AS AN ASIDE... I just finally upgraded my TV and have an OLED. I broke it in with God of War, and it was absolutely beautiful. Glad I was playing this when I made the upgrade.

49: The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe - PS5 - Beat 8/21
I spent a stupid amount of time playing this. It was so strange and funny. I still have no clue if I've seen everything in the game yet, but I got to to a point where it didn't seem like I could trigger anything new to happen. Regardless, it was very creative and I recommend anybody that hasn't played it to check it out.

50: Lunistice - PC - Beat 8/21
This was a satisfying little game. They really nailed the mid/late 90s Sega feel, even down to the music. The platforming at times felt imprecise, but us typically solid. I don't know if it was the stray wonky camera view or what that messed me up, but there were a few times I really struggled in some stupid parts.
The game needed a proper ending, though.
So I've been trying to beat Overcooked with my son, but we've hit an impasse. We don't have enough stars to continue, but I can't pull him through any levels with more stars. And the game is starting to get heated at times. Not just on my side, either. I've also been chipping away at Silent Hill, but I really don't like it. I might try play it on my PS3 on a big screen, but this one is very close to just being abandoned. No pun intended. Playing it is just a chore at this point. I might switch gears and play some Panzer Dragoon. Another game I've never played outside of a demo way back in the day. Unfortunately all I have is the remake on the Switch.

51: Panzer Dragoon Remake - Switch via Switch 2 - beat 8/22
Ran great on the Switch 2, but supposedly is pretty ropey on OG Switch. So I guess I'm glad I never played it on my old system. Pretty solid game. I saw some complaints about the controls online, and I honestly don't get it. Was just fine to me. I think younger gamers are just too soft. The ending left a lot to be desired. That's 2 games in a row with garbage endings. Game 52 is going to be a little different and more of a treat for my daughter than anything.

52: Bluey: The Videogame - XBOX - Beat 8/22
I played this one for my daughter and she loved it. For her, I'm sure this just felt like watching a big episode of Bluey. She's only 2, so she couldn't "play" the game. She like making Bluey run around and just seemed really happy for the 3 hours we played. The story felt like an episode and I looked the part. Looking at stuff like this and the South Park games, it's cool that licensed games based on cartoons can finally FEEL like they're in the world. Not like the Simpsons games and stuff from the NES days.

And that's officially 52 games for me this year! I finished about a month earlier this year than last. Like I've felt the previous 2 times I've done this: I'm glad I did it, but I'm glad it's done. I feel like I need to finish as quick as possible and playing games consumes all my time. But in the end, the last 2 years have really cut down my backlog. I'll keep this thread updated if I finish anything else this year. I'm sure I'll get through a handful more this year.

Highlights this year were Fire Emblem: 3 Houses, Verlet Swing, and God of War: Ragnarök. Stanley Parable and Avowed were also big highlights.

This years stinkers were led by Altered Beast. AER was pretty meh, and the first Game Boy Castlevania was especially stinky. And Biomutant was an absolute drag.
But this was a really solid year on the whole. I played a lot of stuff that I didn't even realize I owned, and some of those were fantastic. That's always a pleasant surprise.

 

[BusierDonkey]

Game 57

Andro Dunos - I think I finished it, but I honestly barely remember playing it.

This was a side-scrolling shoot 'em up that was so exceptionally unexceptional. It has powerups, it looks fine, the music is actually pretty good, but none of it stuck with me at all.

Game 58

BYE-BYE BOXBOY! - 100% Complete

I played the majority of this game last year but when the summer ended my 3DS went in the case for the cold months. I finished all the bonus stages and completed the game 100%. This is a great puzzle platformer, it doesn't leave a lot of room for error but at the same it time it isn't so tight that you have to be pixel precise. The visuals are basic as can be but that's the direction the series has always taken. The music is really good too.

-

I dove back into my Resident Evil project after this, I've already finished RE5 and Revelations (out of order, I forgot about the Revelation games). After that I'll play Revelations 2, RE6, Biohazard, Village, then revisit the remakes of 2, 3 and 4.

 

[Kacho]

29.	Gradius 3	PC	4 hours	8/10	Fun but the difficulty is too much. I prefer the SNES version.
30.	Gradius	Gameboy	30 minutes	4/10	A very stripped down experience for the Gameboy. Fun but absurdly short.
31.	Earth Defense Force	SNES	1 hour	9/10	Super fun 16-bit shooter.
32.	MUSHA	Genesis	1 hour	9/10	A bit on the easy side in the beginning, but the difficulty ramps up. Very fun.

 

[Kacho]

Gradius (EU Arcade version)

First game in the series so it's a bit basic. Barely any boss variety. Easy until the final stage where you get spammed to death for more quarters.

Switch via Contra Collection

Beat this four times technically. 2xEasy 1xNormal 1xHard. Holds up so well. A breezy 20-30 minute run unless I play on Hard where it takes me a couple hours to succeed.

Switch via Contra Collection

The EU version of Contra 3. Same game except it has a dumb name and the main guys are replaced by robots. Giving Germany/EU the side eye on this one.

PC

Got this on sale for $2. And that's about what it's worth. Did a few play throughs on the various difficulty options. Fun with a mouse. Awful with a controller.

 

[March Climber]

37) Blue Fire (Xbox Series X)

I had to put this separate than the recent games for gold games I have been playing lately because it's that good. Looks can be deceiving, and by that I mean the cover of this amazing game. It is 1 part 3D Zelda, 1 part 3D Mario, with a slight sprinkle of soulslike (You lose a currency upon death that needs to be collected).

This game is basically the best aspect of 3D Zelda games, which are it's dungeons (with puzzles), but designed as back to back connecting areas (so no overworld). It has the Zelda-style lock-on system with combat, a block, a dodge, but with added air combos for certain airborne enemies. Each dungeon has their own set of puzzles, but the difference here is that they require verticality. This is where the other half comes into play, the platforming mechanics.

Jumping, dashing, wall running, wall bouncing, air dashing, etc. that all feels very 3D Mario (Mario 64 inspired) in terms of gameplay feel and looseness all fun and fair. Also, to earn a new heart container you have to do a platforming challenge that is the equivalent to a special level or bowser level in a 3d Mario game. Some of them will test the limits of your skill when it comes to good platforming.

The only 2 drawbacks that make it an A- is the fact that I had a few game crashes in the fire dungeon (not sure what caused them) and the fact that there is no map in the game, so you will have to try your best to remember some key areas to come back to later, however that aspect isn't too bad since there aren't that many areas in the game itself due to being under 15 hours.

It has wonderful music as well:



Three tips when playing:

1) Don't bother backtracking until you unlock fast travel. It's after the second dungeon (water dungeon). Nothing is time-based and you won't be locked out of anything so don't worry.

2) The small wallet that you need first will be a bit further in the game, even though the first merchant you meet has a larger one.

3) Don't do the harder heart challenges (4 star or 5 star) until you unlock enough traversal skills. You will come across them while exploring and may have to backtrack for some.

The two aspects of Mario+Zelda combined made for a very unique experience and felt like a dream in terms of gameplay design and controls and made for what I consider a really amazing experience, that took me slightly under 15 hours to complete, fully worthy of the A- rating I'm giving it. It is the very definition of a hidden gem. A hidden diamond.

Rating: A-

38) Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound (Steam Deck)

Here is my review for Ragebound:

Just finished it myself.

Unfortunately, this game has a split personality (no pun intended here) when it comes to it's gameplay loop. There are two ways to play this game. One way is a combination of these two games:

The other way is more careful and methodical, like this game:

Playing it either way will lead to the game attempting to punish you for it. For example, being more methodical will lead to enemies either respawning too fast or more enemies spawning from outside of the screen area, running towards you full-sprint. Nothing wrong with the idea, but it starts to feel like I'm grinding in an RPG with zero experience points. The first way, the faster way, has it's own shortcomings too. I think the game's over-reliance on the pogo stick-style mechanic of bouncing on enemies is part of what causes this problem.

Secondly, in the second half of the game, it starts to funnel you more and more into taking either path, because the checkpoints are fewer and far between and the enemies are more and more armored (with some having moves that give them super armor). Also, before anyone says anything, my issue has nothing to do with difficulty. Difficult games are fine and I usually prefer hard modes anyway. My issue with this game is with the gameplay loop and it's design, and I think I simply prefer the NES Ninja Gaiden games over this, as odd as that may sound.

However, aside from this glaring issue, the boss fights were really fun, the game looks gorgeous and the levels were varied enough to keep things interesting. I wasn't a fan of the enemy types in the last 3rd of the game, nor the story twist regarding why you're fighting these enemies, but I guess that enemy type is sort of a Ninja Gaiden staple at this point. I was nearing a point where I started to feel like I wanted to get the game over with and thankfully it ended right before I fully felt that way.

I was hovering at a C+ for my rating of this game but I think I'll push it over to a B-

I hope, if they are successful enough to greenlight a sequel, that they use a different 'hook' for it's gameplay.

Rating: B-

39) Anthem (Xbox Series X Backwards Compatibility)

I played this using the 60fps mode on Series X. My thoughts on this game are pretty much similar to my thoughts on First Descendant, except this game has two problems that make it worse.

1)

In this game, you do a mission, go back to home base, then do your rounds talking to people (they give you more missions). The problem isn't that they just talk a lot, but there's not a lot of substance behind the things that they say. It's a lot of back-patting, meandering, and what feels like stretched out 'small talk' to the point where the plot and villain felt like they were pushed into the background until they were randomly brought back up during a twist 2/3 into the game. Also due to this I never truly felt immersed into this world. Instead it felt more like looking at a theme park from a distance.

2) The loading and backtracking are too long. The First Descendant solved this with fast and snappy loading, in and out of missions. It also helped by loading you into specific parts of a map to not make you walk all the way back to an objective. Since Anthem came before TFD, Anthem had neither of these solutions. So it had the old school "walk all the way back" thing going on, but multiple times to the same area to complete a story thread.

One interesting but odd thing here is that once you complete the game, you essentially are in this "MGS V: Chapter 3" moment of being in an Epilogue with an unfinished plotline. So you're kind of doing side missions for people but there is no leadup or conclusion to some of them, and it eventually comes down to the game pretty much saying 'well, this is it, help others online with missions and build up credits for your base' as it's endgame. It's definitely odd and I guess this is the second time in my life I've ever seen something like this with the first time being MGS V.

Otherwise, I agree that this feels the closest to an Iron Man-like experience in a video game. Maybe one day I'll find a copy of that ultra-difficult Xbox 360 Sega game and see what that's about. Anthem's gunplay felt nice, environments look nice, and the lore is kind of interesting.

It's just a shame that I could kind of tell from playing the game that there were development issues, potential disagreements on the plot, and lastly it just felt like Bioware's heart not being in the right place on this one. The game will be shutting down at the beginning of next year.

Rating: C

 

[BusierDonkey]

Game 59

Resident Evil 5 - Completed Chris playthrough

I liked this much more than I thought I would. I'd barely call it a resident evil game though, it's not survival horror, it's just straight action. I'd compare it to Gears of War but that game isn't nearly as clunky as this. This game takes the series even further into the action genre than RE4 did. It does away completely with the save system, replacing it with checkpoints. The map is so linear the map is almost pointless save for the odd section once in a while. Gone is the item management and the cool attaché case from RE4, replaced with two 3x3 storage squares for both Chris and Sheva. Speaking of Sheva, she was a great addition to the series and though I don't like NPCs stealing my items and picking up stuff on the map, she wasn't always completely useless and on the odd occasion actually helped. Gameplay itself isn't as good as RE4, way too many QTEs, too many sections where the enemies never stop spawning and so much instant-death it got annoying. The visuals in this game not only hold up well, I genuinely think that how the shots were framed coupled with great art design make this game look as good or better than some of the newer games that my PC struggles to run, The flamethrower in particular still looks insanely good. Unfortunately this game is from the era where cutscenes are FMV resulting in several blurry, low framerate cinematics. If I wasn't comparing this to other games in the series I probably would have rated it higher because I did have fun with the game, but I can't ignore how much is missing here.

Game 60

Resident Evil Revelations - Completed playthrough

This game had a really cool setting, out at sea on a ship. There is a pretty cool twist leading to a lot of back and forth between Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield's teams. The game is back to survival/horror as you explore the massive cruise ship. Plenty of jump scares, lots of grotesque creatures and the boss fights were pretty impressive in scale. The jumping around in time and to different characters made the story fun to piece together and the characters supporting it all were pretty well-written. The issue I had with this game was the instant death. Fail a QTE, dead. Walk too close to a hunter, dead (There are so many Hunters in this game), wading in water? You're going to get ambushed a dozen times by aquatic enemies that you either have to destroy your analog stick to shake off, or death. QTEs are just the worst, and they really dragged this game down. I also wasn't too sold on the whole Terragrigia thing, the city doesn't seem like it fits in the same universe as prior RE games.

Game 61

Resident Evil Revelations 2 - Completed playthrough

This game is Barry Burton's redemption story. In RE2 he sold out the entire Stars team because the bad guys threatened his family but in the end he tried to stop the bad guys. In this game his daughter and Claire are kidnapped and taken to an island where experiments are being run on innocents (in a Resident Evil game? You don't say) in order to do something sinister. The game has you exploring as Claire Redfield and Moira Burton, but also as Barry Burton and Natalia Korda. Each team has a character who shoots and a second character that can discover secrets and access areas the other can't. The two teams' adventures on the island also take place six months apart and due to this, items collected in the past by Claire and Moira are no longer there when Barry and Natalia make their way around the map, that includes the map itself. If Claire picks up a map it's gone and Barry has to explore blind. Alternately, there are things you can do to affect the environment in the past that will change things in the future. It was a really fun mechanic. Gameplay in this game is back to maze-like structures and decently complex puzzles, but keeps a lot of the action and controls from newer games in the series. Less reliance on QTEs and instant death made the game way more enjoyable.

Game 62

Resident Evil 6 - Completed Leon playthrough

This game jumps from fun, to boring, to infuriating, to just plain stupid. The first section of the game wouldn't let me actually control my character, regardless of the direction I pressed on the stick, Leon just followed a path. This happens now and again throughout the game when they REALLY want you to look at something. QTEs in this game just never stop either. There is a boss fight I swear is twenty minutes long, and it's just peppered with these annoying QTEs. The game has steered the series so far into the action genre they didn't even bother putting a map in the game. The item inventory screen is a soulless PS3-style menu. The notes found lying around giving backstory and context are all gone too. The setting and visuals are great, bosses look amazing, and the body horror is on another level, but all that is overshadowed by the clumsy movement, poorly designed world, and very poor game design choices. I was hoping this one would surprise me like RE5 did, but in the end, I found myself way more annoyed with it than I expected.

Game 63

Resident Evil VII Biohazard - Completed playthrough

I was blown away by how much I enjoyed this game. I assumed from watching videos that the game had deliberately slow movement, but the gameplay was great. This game is pure horror and really never lets up. Jump scares are everywhere, body horror, and a constant feed of creepy vibes. The sound design is brilliant, you hear doors closing throughout the house, random footsteps, people muttering and the buildings settling all the time. The lighting throughout the game really helped set the tone and the ambient music helped ramp things up when things were about to take a turn. The Baker family were terrifying. Jack takes on the same role as Nemesis from RE3, only he's dialed up the fear factor to eleven. Marguerite isn't as much of a menace, but she kept my pants pooped with her sudden appearances. Lucas is mostly just a jackass, but his part of the game included an escape room that was a lot of fun to run through. The game's map isn't massive, especially when you compare it to basically any RE since RE2, but the way you make your way through the environments is a master class on how to optimize a map. Everything is distinct and making your way around the structures never gets tedious. Backtracking never feels like it because the house is being destroyed as you go, opening up new passages. Boss fights were also a lot of fun, notably the fight with Jack in the garage. After a little back-and-forth Jack tears the roof off your car and starts doing donuts in the garage, fun stuff!

Game 64

Resident Evil - Completed Jill Scenario, saved Barry and Chris

I started this whole Resident Evil project with the Gamecube remake of the original Playstation release, but since I plan on playing through the remakes of Resident Evil 2 and 3, I figured it would be an injustice not to run through the original game as it was first released. First off, I was surprised that it plays as well as it does, it's a bit more clunky than Resident Evil 2 and there are some minor annoyances like no dedicated map button, but it's not too bad. I was also surprised at how much of the stuff in the Gamecube version I thought was new for that release actually wasn't. Most of the changes were changes that merely augmented the original, all the areas are here, and all the bosses are here. There are actually some aspects of the original release I prefer over REmake, the mansion itself isn't a complete ruin, seeing as it was inhabited right up to the time you explore it, it makes more sense that it's clean and kept up. I also prefer the awful voice acting. It's a product of its time and some of the lines were hilariously poor. REmake has bad voice acting too, but it's just bad, not "funny" bad. The live action FMV is pure late-1990's.

Game 65

Resident Evil VIII Village - Completed playthrough

I expected I would like this game, but I wasn't expecting to like it this much. This game brought back all the best stuff from the series. The horror is front and center, the setting has notes of Resident Evil 4, the attaché case returns for item management after decades being absent. The game is full of silly things that make the series so memorable (Oh no a tractor is blocking a path, better get a jack to jack it up so I can crawl under it instead of literally getting into the seat and then just getting off the other side) The environments in the game are fantastic as are the creatures inhabiting it. The village and surrounding locations are full of detail and despite looking as good as it does, the game performs flawlessly. The cast of villains and their unique areas made the game hard to put down as I was always excited for what came next. I'm really looking forward to playing Resident Evil Requiem to see where they go from here.

Game 66

Resident Evil 2 (2019) - Completed Leon 1st run / Claire 2nd run - 100% pickup collection except this one area where the Leon and Ada were doing a walk-n-talk and I didn't think to look around, turns out it was also the only place in the game I couldn't return

I can't believe what a great job Capcom did with this remake. Having just played through the original four times in a short timeframe, I expected to be kind of coasting through it. I couldn't stop playing it. When I finished my Leon run I immediately started my 2nd run with Claire. They changed so much stuff without changing the actual tone and feel of the original game. Some areas are an order of magnitude larger than the original versions but it's easy to place every room and setting against the original game. Characters have been given more dialogue giving them more personality. While a lot of the goofy campy stuff from the original has been changed, nothing has been outright removed. The new areas like the orphanage brought with them fun new things to do. Mr. X (the Tyrant) deserves some mention here, he has been greatly improved, and he is a constant menace. He can always be heard stomping around and as he gets closer the music kicks in. You never feel safe in the police station because he never stops looking for you. Other creatures have seen similar upgrades like the alligator or the G-virus creature. The visuals in this game are exceptional; everything has an atmosphere about it and each area has a very distinct look to it that departs from the original game in some ways but still remains instantly recognizable. The added gore and dismemberment looks disgusting in the best way, chunks blow off as you blast zombies and limbs break away at multiple points. Gameplay is classic Resident Evil polished to such a degree that in my entire time with the game there were zero accidental item uses or missed shots that weren't my own fault. This might just be the best remake I've played so far.

Game 67

Resident Evil 3 (2020) - Completed playthrough - Almost 100% pickups but once again was screwed by a cutscene

I heard nothing but complaints about this game, but I had fun the entire time I played it. A LOT got changed from the original, including characters but honestly every change I felt was an improvement. The Nemesis encounters were scaled up tremendously from the original and the Nemesis just kept getting bigger and faster with each fight, culminating in a massive creature the size of a house. The city was another major improvement, going from small alleys and streets to the version of the city that was first shown in the Resident Evil 2 Remake. New buildings and businesses populate the streets and with them came some pretty cool new set pieces. Being chased down the stairs by a giant mascot's head was not something I was expecting. The Saint Michaels clock tower has been removed entirely and replaced with a hospital sitting on top of another Umbrella laboratory. Once again this makes way more sense and provided a window into how the hospitals were dealing with the outbreak in the city. The downsides to this game are that it was unfortunately short compared to 2. While I went back to play another run in RE2, This one is a one-and-done. Although limited to a few, QTEs made a return to the series which I despise.

I do not currently own RE4 Remake, so for now this is the end of my Resident Evil project, unless it shows up on sale in the next few months.

 

[Kacho]

Ace Combat 6

I remember the game being challenging and having played it again — yep. The soundtrack is incredible. It's not as good as the PS2 games but still a fun time.

 

[marcincz]

Game 41 - Cygni: All Guns Blazing (PS5) - 03h 20m
Beat 05/08/2025 - my score: 6/10

Game 42 - Mafia: The Old Country (PS5) - 13h 41m
Beat 12/08/2025 - my score: 7/10

Game 43 - Lost Judgment (PS5) - 32h 04m
Beat 21/08/2025 - my score: 8/10

I like shmups, but Cygni isn't my favourite. Rather disappointed.
Mafia is good. Not as good as first and second part, but certainly better than third. Sicily is beautiful and voice acting fantastic.
Lost Judgment. I love Yakuza games. Played almost all of them and LJ is good installment. Not in my top, but all right.

 

[falling into hell]

31. l always wanted to play this game. It was on sale and I still had gold coins to spend, so I just got it. The game is hard but I still enjoyed. It's was fun I will certainly replay it. 4/5

 

[applesaucejaxon]

OK, so since I just finished my 52 here's the consolidated list. Hope everybody else finishes strong. Lots of year left.

My last detailed post...


1: Mission in Snowdriftland - Switch - Beat 1/2
2: Mega Man 2- NES - Beat 1/2
3: Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 - Switch - Beat 1/10
4: Spiderman: Miles Morales - PS5 - Beat 1/25
5: Red Dead Redemption 2 - PS4 - Beat 2/25
6: Avowed - PC and Xbox - Beat 3/24
7: Hitman - PS4 (Via PS5) - Beat 3/26
8: Mullet Madjack - PC - Beat 3/29
9: Dead Space (2008) - PC - Beat 4/6
10: Event[0] - PC - Beat 4/7
11: AER Memories of Old - PC - Beat 4/7
12: Travis Strikes Back Again: No More Heroes - Switch - Beat 4/23
13: Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse - NES via the Castlevania Anniversary Collection (Switch) - Beat 4/29
14: Aviary Attorney - PC - Beat 4/29
15: Donut County - PC (Gamepass) - Beat 4/30
16: Kid Dracula - NES via Castlevania Anniversary Collection (Switch) - Beat 4/30
17: Altered Beast - Genesis (via Genesis Classics Switch version) - Beat 5/2
18: Infamous: First Light - PS4 via PS5 - Beat 5/2
19: Castlevania: The Adventure - Game Boy via Castlevania Anniversary Collection - PS5 - Beat 5/2
20: Castlevania 2: Belmont's Revenge - Game Boy via Castlevania Anniversary Collection - PS5 - Beat 5/5
21: Castlevania Bloodlines - Genesis via Castlevania Anniversary Collection - PS5 and Switch - Beat 5/5
22: Super Castlevania 4 - SNES via Castlevania Anniversary Collection - PS5 - Beat 5/6
23: Good Job! -Switch - Beat 5/14
24: Streets of Rage - Genesis (via Genesis Classics Switch version) - Beat 5/21
25: Biomutant - PS5 - Beat 5/23
26: Mortal Kombat 11 - PS5 - Beat Story Mode 6/1
27: Huntdown - PS5 Beat 6/4
28: Mushroom Wars 2 - Switch via Switch 2 - Beat 6/17
29: Ape Out - Switch vis Switch 2 - Beat 6/24
30: Fort Defense - PC (Steam) - Beat 6/25
31: Super Mario World - SNES via Switch 2 - Beat 6/30
32: Verlet Swing - PC - Beat 7/2
33: Little Nightmares - PS4 via PS5 - Beat 7/5
34: It Takes Two - PS5 - Beat 7/15
35: Mario Kart World - Switch 2 - Beat 7/16
36: Bowser's Fury - Switch 2 - Beat 7/17
37: Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Switch - Beat 7/23
38: Gunman Clive - Switch - Beat 7/25
39: EA Sports College Football 25 - XBOX - Beat 7/26
40: Retro Bowl - Switch - Beat 7/28
41: Saints Row the 3rd - Switch via Switch 2 - Beat 7/31
42: Strider - PS4 - Beat 8/7
43: Gunman Clive 2 - Switch - Beat 8/8
44: What Remains of Edith Finch - PS4 - Beat 8/8
45: WWE2k24 - PS5 - Beat 8/9
46: Journey to the Savage Planet - Switch via Switch 2 - Beat 8/13
47: Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins - Game Boy - Beat 8/14
48: God of War: Ragnarök - PS5 - Beat 8/19
49: The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe - PS5 - Beat 8/21
50: Lunistice - PC - Beat 8/21
51: Panzer Dragoon Remake - Switch via Switch 2 - beat 8/22
52: Bluey: The Videogame - XBOX - Beat 8/22

 

[March Climber]

40) Styx: Master of Shadows (Xbox Series X)

A stealth game similar to thief/splinter cell starring a character in a fantasy world who oddly has an accent that's close to a new jersey/new york style. This game has moments where I would definitely rate it near a D or F, and it sometimes has moments where it could go as high as a B+, but all in all I think it settles at a C for me. The problem lies with it's jank and game design. It doesn't provide you the option to invest in skills until you beat 3 levels. Level 2 has a very high difficulty filter that made me feel like throwing my controller, but I just dealt with the insanely high death count and moved forward. Then after level 3, you finally get a chance to use skill points.

I have some advice for anyone who is like curious about this title. The difficulty levels are wrong, and no I'm not joking and no this is not a 'casual' moment.

Easy = Hard
Normal = Extreme
Hard = European Extreme

And yes, it is european extreme because if you get caught on the hardest mode it's a game over. On normal you get maybe 1-2 hits or falls before death, which makes it a very, very slight step below Hard. Easy mode technically starts out easy, but again level 2 instantly ramps up the difficulty, making the term 'easy' meaningless.

My second bit of advice is to put points into kill, stealth, and agility skills as fast as possible. There are literal things you cannot do without unlocking them first, such as corner kills, silent movement, silent lands, and hanging kills. Then later on put points in summons/clones so that you get the ability to kill from hiding inside of a closet or chest.

After doing this, the game goes from frustrating to fun, but then slowly they rip away the fun in the second half of the game by slowly introducing more, and more, and more enemies who are considered 'too strong' to be taken down. Suddenly you start to get maps filled with them, which means you're being pushed into Hard mode regardless which means that there literally is no point to picking difficulty aside from how much damage the 'smaller' enemies do to you. Then in the final few missions they introduce enemies who not only can't be killed, but they also can 'sense' you like a radar, except the game doesn't display their sensing range so at times it feels like literal RNG.

My last bit of advice: Manual Save. Often. The checkpointing in this game is absolutely atrocious, and levels can be upwards of 40 minutes or more each with multiple sections. You'll be doing good, then make one simple mistake which can lead to a death, and suddenly you have erased 30 minutes of progress. Sometimes in certain levels, unless you know to stand at specific spots to activate a checkpoint, you won't ever get a checkpoint the entire level which means the game will send you all the way back to the beginning of the level.

40-60 minutes of progress, gone. To me that huge chunk of time being lost is more devastating than any loss in a Souls game. So do yourself a favor. Manual save. Save often.

Would I recommend this game? Kind of. I don't know. There's not many stealth games like this anymore, but you have to stomach a massive amount of imbalance in the first half, jank, and checkpointing issues and if you can do that, there can be some fun to be had here. The story in this game is surprisingly good and that's what actually motivated me to finish it and one of the main reasons why I'm giving it a C.

I liked the twists it presented and the main character had a unique motivation that you don't normally see in other games, so much so that I think if this game had released on the PS2/Xbox or PS360 it would have been considered a hidden (but very difficult) gem.

Rating: C

41) Blasphemous (Steam Deck)

I decided to give this a shot because I played Ninja Gaiden Ragebound and the devs made this beforehand. This is a great video game and I can understand why people were hyped about the dev making Ragebound.

The art is very unique, the story is very unique, the metroidvania level design is fun and doesn't overstay it's welcome, and the combat is very satisfying and at times strategic (like picking which skills to go into a boss battle with, like a loadout). My only small gripes with it is that there are a few side-platforming sections which are oddly too difficult, and they are difficult because the controls are a bit finnicky, specifically on ladders and grabbing onto a ladder during a jump.

My other small gripe is that it has the same issue souls games have, where some of the wording and lore are so obtuse it simply led to me doing googles outside of the game in order to figure out things. For example one moment I had to give some random object to a guy I met hours ago, at a specific interval of time, or I miss out completely on something. It's only something you would know if you either already played the game (maybe more than once), or randomly found out, or learned from someone else.

Other than those two small issues, this is a great game and definitely worth playing, especially for the insane art alone.

Rating: A-

 

[Andyliini]

Game 16 - Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD Remaster - Nintendo Switch 2
This is the cause of me not being able to finish any games in July. It took me 100 hours to do. This time I went with the bad ending, while I originally went for good ending. It's still a masterpiece after all these years, and this is the best version available.

Game 17 - Donkey Kong Bananza - Nintendo Switch 2
Another gem here, this time a completely new game. I played it in course of maybe two of three weeks, and could barely put it down. This is my GOTY so far.

Game 18 - Drag X Drive - Nintendo Switch 2
I got this to review it. Good thing was, it didn't need much time to play. Not much else good to say, the controls can make sense if you give them time and practice, but there are barely any reasons to keep playing.

 

[Barakov]

14. Silent Residence

 

[applesaucejaxon]

53: Donkey Kong Bananaza - Switch 2 - Beat 9/3
Incredible game. Seriously, it's going to be hard for this one to be topped during the Switch 2 lifetime. And I thought it looked great. I've seen people crap all over this one, but I love the art style and I think it looks neat. Performance wise, I was expecting a slideshow the way some talk about it. While it's not silky smooth at all times, it holds steady at 60 the VAST MAJORITY of its playtime.

 

[Barakov]

15. Raidou Remastered

 

[Skeptical]

I've been neglecting my writeups. Hope I can catch up before the end of the year.

22.Doki Doki Literature Club (3h, ★★). I'm clearly not the right audience for this game. For starters, the Millennial obsession with depression annoys me. Also, I don't get immersed in games. So when it starts getting all meta and stuff, I'm just annoyed when it is taking forever rather than having my mind blown or whatever. I can see why it got popular, but my response was mostly disinterest.

23. Metroid Dread (8h, ★★★★★). If you would have asked me in Sept 2021 if a highly linear Metroid could be better than Super Metroid, I'd have laughed in your face. Now, I'm not so sure. The action, map layout, and theme all harmonize together perfectly, making a more linear experience appropriate for the game. And the difficulty is perfect too. The game demands you respect it, but not much more. And yet it still rewards you for mastering it in subtle ways, both in combat and exploration. Is it better than Super? I don't know, they're wildly different games. But both at the peak of their design.

24. Bioshock (10h, ★★★) I admit, I was rolling my eyes at the beginning at how blatant the Atlas Shrugged ripoff was and bracing myself for an annoying political screed (regardless of how one feels about it, stating Objectivism is bad because it will inevitably lead to magical genome editing powers that will doom us all isn't exactly a well designed argument). Thankfully that wasn't the case. I'm not big into FPS or narrative games, but I didn't mind this one. Probably because of the atmosphere. The Art Deco, old fashioned vibe was great. The ruined underwater city was great. Big hulking diver suits was great. Good enough for me.

25. Machinika Museum (4h, ★★) Nothing really special about this one. A simple little puzzle game with a simple light story behind it. There usually wasn't much trial and error, although occasionally it got rather obtuse. Not much to say about it really; it was a pleasant enough diversion but not much else.

26. Hyrule Warriors [Definitive Edition] (135h, ★★★★★) Send help. It's repetitive, it becomes samey after a while, and it has so so much content that does not offer anything new to make it worth playing through it all. And yet I got addicted, again. It may not be deeply strategic, but it is still valuable watching the map and planning three steps ahead. The combat may be incredibly repetitive, but it still feels fun to hack and slash. And the sheer amount of fanservice helped keep me coming back; of COURSE I had to complete the maps of my favorite games! Hopefully I will never be tempted to spend another 100+ hours here again...

 

[March Climber]

42) Styx 2: Shards of Darkness (Xbox Series X Backwards Compatibility)

A much improved sequel to the first game, with much better level design, gameplay feel, and player mechanics, allowing for more creativity with stealth, better control when navigating, better checkpointing, better skills, much more freedom with how to proceed, and also you can gain XP in multiple different ways without having to resort simply do second objectives to get XP.

It feels like a game on par with PS4/Xbox One video game experiences, with added cutscenes, decent color grading, and better presentation.

There are a few negatives. Much like the first one, after the halfway point, they start introducing enemies who can't be killed or interacted with aside from the killing you in one hit when they spot you. Since the difficulty is balanced much better this time, since you can escape better, and since their 'vision cones' are designed well this time, it just becomes more of an inconvenience rather than hair-pullingly aggravating like the first game.

Second negative, the story took a hit from the first game. This one was unfortunate because the story arguably held up the first one. While the presentation is miles better, what is happening in the story feels a bit...disconnected and not interesting enough. I can't quite put my finger on why. However, Styx himself is still a fun and unique protagonist who isn't motivated by good but instead motivated by greed, which is one of my favorite aspects about him. He has no stake in the conflict that is happening around him, he just wants to be the one to make the most money out of it and leave before it gets worse. I'd like to say that this is the problem, but it wasn't the problem in the first game, that game's conflict, and his motivations not really being a part of it.

Third small negative, the two boss fights in the game are oddly designed and a bit jank. Stealth games don't really need boss fights and this game proves that.

On a side note, this game has co-op and I've heard it's pretty good.

Last game received a C, this one gets a B. Hoping when the next one comes out, they can improve upon the formula again and it can reach an A.

Rating: B

43) Crimson Dragon (Xbox Series X Backwards Compatibility)

A Spiritual successor to Panzer Dragoon built as an Xbox 360 XBLA-style experience (but that version was cancelled) put into the body of an Xbox One game. It's kind of neat when you think about it, but it has problems that hinder it.

One, I don't know what this game used to be, but I can tell that it had a system that used to be in it where players would purchase in game currency with real money. It's also what I read about it online. In addition it also has daily log in bonuses. This style of currency almost messes up the flow of the game, and it for sure messes up the game's balancing, because you have to buy very expensive revives with said currency.

Two, You will start this game feeling very sluggish and low damage. It's on purpose. Once you level up and get a better dragon, things will feel better, but it causes you to have to go back and play older missions if you want to achieve good rankings for them. Also, when playing older levels no cutscenes can be skipped. You might have to play older missions a few times anyway because there's a point in the game where it will ask you to grind for a certain material. Again, something that feels like a former money trap that was maybe patched out.

Three, the camera is atrocious. This game constantly moves and sways the camera around but the enemies are shooting in one of 4 areas of the screen: Upper right, upper left, lower right, lower left. The camera will sway and suddenly an attack that looks like it is doing upper right is actually registering to the player as upper left. You could also be moving upper right but thanks to the camera swaying, suddenly your dragon appears to be moving upper left. That feels broken.

Aside from this, the game was still decently fun after some hours in (once I was a high enough level for the game to feel right), and the story was an interesting take on the concept of dragon riders. If anyone wants a much superior experience of this though, find a copy of Panzer Dragon Orta for the Original Xbox.

Rating: C

44) Lamentum (Xbox Series X)

A surprisingly good top-down survival horror game set in mid-19th century New England, with a gameplay mixture of Resident Evil and Silent Hill. You'll understand why I brought up Silent Hill once you play the game and delve into it's story. The game is about 8-10s in length for a first time playthrough but it does contain multiple endings depending on some key moments with key NPCs.

The gameplay itself however is more like old school resident evil. Find an item, find out what it goes to, backtrack, etc. along with some good puzzles for the player to solve, including six inventory slots and save rooms with an inventory box that is accessible from any save room around.

That save room even has pretty good Resident Evil-esque save music:



There are a couple of negatives. One negative comes from a bit of jank from fighting certain big enemies due to their hitboxes, but not enough jank to make it bad or anything. The other negative comes from the fact that the game suddenly ramps up very high in difficulty in the final area. If you're not prepared for it, prepare to have a very tough time.

Otherwise, this was a great quality surprise game for me. I'm always up for a Resident Evil style experience and this fulfilled that.

A bit of important advice: When you get the infinity key in the room with the mirror, go back and open the doors with that key symbol. The mirror cutscene is a point of no return and you will miss out on stronger weapons for the final area if you don't do this, which leads to a tougher time. I went and loaded an older save to do so. Save yourself the time.

Second advice: The gun should be used for emergency moments, either to save yourself from a sudden death or kill a boss, etc. They will give you the gun to start, but it is a trick to make you waste bullets early on. Use the knife, and then use the next melee weapon you will get, and the next one, etc.

Rating: B
Quick Edit:

45) Knight Squad (Xbox Series X)

A 30 minute arcade game that essentially has you fighting LttP Zelda-esque bosses in a boss rush. Aim for the highest score (which essentially means how fast can you beat the boss). It's a fun bit sized experience that ends way too soon, and because of that I can't go higher than a C.

Rating: C

 

[marcincz]

Game 44 - Sea of Stars (PS5) - 33h 31m
Beat 04/09/2025 - my score: 7/10

Game 45 - Sea of Stars - dlc Throes of the Watchmaker (PS5) - 08h 33m
Beat 07/09/2025 - my score: 6/10

Beat SoS with free dlc. Free dlc for almost 9 hours of good gameplay! Very nice gift from developers.
SoS is good rpg title, which reminded old jrpgs from 90s. If you like older rpg/jrpg, you should try SoS.

 

[BusierDonkey]

Game 68

Donkey Kong Bananza - 100% Complete

This was a lot of fun pretty much from start to end. While not nearly as precise in its gameplay or as meticulously crafted in its level design as the best 3D Mario games, I can't just go into one of those and blow up the entire world. Donkey Kong's new look is great; he's super animated and new life is brought into the character through his interaction with Pauline. I thought I's get sick of Pauline really quick, but she doesn't talk non-stop, she doesn't solve puzzles for you and her voice actor wasn't speaking in a squeaky shrill voice like many VAs use when voicing children. In the end the pair are a great team, and I enjoyed every minute of their adventure. The powerups were mostly fun to use, though I found the Zebra to be useful only when you had no other choice and his charge was kind of annoying to use. I sucked using the snake, but that was a me thing. The elephant was awesome, totally wrecking everything at lightning speeds. The boss fights were brilliant, there are four final bosses in this game, every time you think you've finished the game, another boss fight happens. It really was fun. On the negative, I found as I went on the stages got worse, that's not to say they got bad, but going from the first lagoon stage to the landfill stage or the dreary tempest stage things were much less interesting to look at. The resort stage, full of giant cubed fruit, was about half the size it should have been. My main gripe with the game was DK taking action on his own, like doing hops at the top of a climb without me hitting the jump button or letting go of a wall instead of going around a corner because the camera was not facing it. Minor annoyance but again, when you look at a 3D Mario game these things don't happen. That all being said I dumped 60 hours into this thing. I really hope they make a sequel to this but use physics for the materials so you can have things like loose sand or liquids, or even parts of the stage collapsing as you dig out the foundations.

 

[Barakov]

16. Gears Of War Reloaded - PS5

 

[March Climber]

46) Maid of Sker (Xbox Series X)

This is an odd one, and my feelings on this game mirror how I felt about Resident Evil Revelations 1 and 2.

The game's main campaign/story mode is a first person survival horror game where you avoid enemies by holding your breath and being quiet as you navigate a mansion/caves, solve puzzles, and reveal the secrets of what is happening within. Sometimes the sound detection of the enemies can feel a bit jank and the 'final boss' just hears you at all times regardless of what you do, forcing you to run through a section that has multiple documents to read and other things to discover. The campaign is fun for what it is. A very odd decision, but there's something more odd here.

The reason I said 'main campaign/story mode' is because much like Resident Evil Revelations 1 and 2 there is another mode here that raises it a full rating for me, much like Raid Mode did for those games. You unlock it after finishing the campaign and it's called 'Challenge Mode'. In this mode, they put you into the same mansion, have you explore through it and escape, but this time you are given weapons and it is an actual survival horror with different unique weapons and ammo. It also completely changes enemy designs and introduces completely new enemies that are exclusive to it's mode (which is another negative for the main campaign because that lacked enemy variety). It changes the entire nature of the game itself and makes it much more fun to navigate.

It almost feels a bit insulting, to the point where I could feel the devs would say "These are the mechanics we could have done on the main campaign, but we decided to put this into a fun little side mode instead." My question would be: Why?? What's here in this mode is much more fun than the just decent Alien Isolation type of game that the main campaign is.

This side mode is literally a better experience and I recommend any player who plays this game to give it a shot. If you can find a way to unlock and play it first, even better. For this one mode, it raised my rating from a C to a B-.

Rating: B-

47) Inertial Drift (Xbox Series X)

Inertial drift is a bite-sized racing game experience with a cool 'drift-stick' mechanic where you have to use both the left and right stick to carefully angle turns and drifts. Once you get the hang of it, the game ends up pretty fun. It also has a nice soundtrack going for it. Unfortunately, the game's story mode is skippable due to the dialogue feeling way too bland. Also, it is simply way too short. There are only 5 areas with maybe 8-ish race tracks and they are reused multiple times throughout the short campaign.

This was one of my 'games with gold' games so I wasn't too torn up about this, but the game ending where it did definitely felt abrupt and almost like I completed a trial instead of a full game. It does also have arcade mode and challenge modes, but again these are on the same few race tracks, so you'd really have to like the game to complete all of it and unlock other racers (who don't have their own story modes).

Rating: C+

48) Lost for Swords (Mobile)

*As a disclaimer, this game was initially made for Steam/PC, but was ported to mobile. I chose and purchased the mobile version on purpose because I felt the experience matched a phone much better, like Balatro.*

This is an incredible 5 by 5 grid strategic roguelike that ends up feeling like it's own version of chess. There are specific skills, sets, and move that all work in their own really balanced way. Your job is to climb 5 towers, reach the top, and beat the boss, all while selecting skills to collect or remove between floors. Your enemy is constantly making smart moves to corner you, and the game will sometimes throw you a curveball by having an item on the board you have to take out before doing something like healing or maintaining damage.

What makes it all work is how extremely fair and beatable everything felt. There was no moment where I felt that the game was 'cheating' me, and for that and for the amount of fun this provided me over the past few months (including it's new game plus) having me glued to the screen whenever I started playing, it deserves the very, very high rating it is getting.

I think what kept this from being an "S" for me (which does exist in my rating system but I rarely give it out due to an S belonging to All-time lists) is that rare moment where I had no choice but to re-roll when I went too far in one direction, and also the fact that the game sadly felt a bit too short. I think 10 or 12 towers would have been the sweet spot.

Otherwise I highly recommend checking this game out for good strategic fun that also moves at a modern pace and doesn't waste time with long-moving turns.

Rating: A+

 

[marcincz]

Game 46 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (360) - 07h 39m
Beat 10/09/2025 - my score: 8/10

Game 47 - Anno 1800 Console Edition (PS5) - 28h 20m
Beat 18/09/2025 - my score: 9/10

Beat two, very different titles.
Metal Gear was ok. Not my favourite slasher game, but quite good, especially one boss fight was very impressive.

However Anno. Yes that's an excellent strategy game. Still playing and actually have over 30 hours in. My first time with Anno and must admit, it's fantastic. Need more games like this.

Edit; added one more game. My 2nd playthrough:

Game 48 - Truberbrook (PS4) - 03h 42m
Beat 21/09/2025 - my score: 6/10

 

[Wolzard]

#8 - Just Cause 3 (2015) - PC

JC3 is a great sandbox where chaos reigns supreme. It's so much fun to watch things explode and trigger chain reactions. So much so that halfway through the game, I put aside the missions to do the territory invasions, which I found very entertaining.

The game's story is weak, just to give the game some depth, but I found it bizarre that the game doesn't even have a cutscene to end the game. You defeat the final boss and the credits roll.

 

[Kacho]

38. Salamander 2
Challenging but much more doable than other Konami shmups.

39. Baki Hanma: Blood Arena
It's Punch-Out without the charm or craftmanship, very basic. There's no depth to it like in Punch-Out, so it's just a matter of learning the patterns and executing. Rinse repeat. Fun but wait for a sale if interested.

40. Metal Gear Solid Delta
Kojima's last good game. Yeah, I said it. Fight me.

 

[Kacho]

I have a bunch of works in progress.

Borderlands 3 - sunk about 20ish hours. I'm near the end but lost interest. I think I will abandon this completely.

Terminator Resistance - started this. Maybe 5 hours in. It's a cool cereal box version of Fallout. Without the awesome Terminator license the game would be baka. Not a priority for me to finish this year, but eventually.

Khazan - game is baller, it's just soooo fucking long. I tapped out after downing Trokka because it was starting to wear out its welcome. 59 hours played... I do plan to finish it this year. 10 bosses down, 6 bosses left.

Silent Hill f - I will go balls deep on Friday and never let up.

Cronos - I started this but keep getting side tracked with the onslaught of games. Hard to stay focused. I plan to finish it in October.

Donkey Kong Bananza - forgot about this one. Didn't drop it for any reason, I just did. Still need to get back to it. Maybe in December.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

I'm petty, so here's my Part 2 post for the challenge (which I'm absolutely not going to complete at this point):

22. Hollow Knight: Silksong - 9/25 - 51 Hours
I really wasn't much of a fan of Hollow Knight. It was a solid Metroidvania game, but the game lacked atmosphere and that sense of discovery that made Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night great. So, I went into Silksong expecting an improvement, but nothing mind-blowing. Yeah, scratch that - Silksong is a masterpiece. Unlike the original, this game is absolutely dripping with atmosphere. Environments feel distinct, areas are well-designed and offer plenty of opportunity for discovery, and the music this time around is fantastic and really does a great job setting the mood. The issue I have with more modern takes on the Metroidvania genre is that developers focus on the obvious gameplay conceits of games like Super Metroid - go here, get this power up, access new areas, rinse and repeat. But for me, what makes SM and SOTN so special is that feeling of discovery - like you're trudging through a foreign world with no idea what's creeping around the corner, but you're always excited to dig a little deeper and just explore for the sake of it. That is exactly the feeling that Silksong channels. The combat's good and has the right amount of nuance, but it's a pretty brutal game in terms of difficulty. Lots of profane language and mild bouts of controller throwing. Which I actually don't count as a bad thing, necessarily, because conquering bosses was always super satisfying as a result. Having to run from a save point back to a boss battle, in Dark Souls fashion, was definitely the low point of the game, but hardly a dealbreaker. The game is also insanely long - I spent 50+ hours on the game and, while I was thorough and went for the (even more punishing) extra stuff, that is a huge time commitment. But it's saying something that during that time, I never got bored or wished I was playing something else instead. So yeah, however I might've felt about the first game being overrated, Silksong most definitely is not. It's a masterpiece and will very probably be my GOTY for 2025. 10/10

 

[Barakov]

17. Metroid Prime Remastered

 

[March Climber]

49) Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing (Steam Deck)

This is a great, well balanced kart racing game that focuses mostly on racing skill rather than heavily RNG/items like some other games tend to do. The side content is pretty incredible and varied, the maps are all well paced and fun except for a couple of them(both from Super Monkey Ball), the drifting is simple but effective and each racer has their own unique strengths and weaknesses. One issue I had was the fact that the amount of racing maps is simply too small. However, they managed to do a lot with a little which ended up in a really fun experience.

Rating: A-

50) High on Knife (Xbox Series X)

I almost forgot to play this, and I just wanted to complete it for that moment in the future where I play High on Life 2. This content just adds another bounty but the area you go to is a bit larger than the main campaign areas and is full of optional content. It was fun, but a bit short with only 1 big boss fight.

Rating: B-

51) ScourgeBringer

This is a level based, room-to-room, metroidvania roguelike that relies on combos and upgrades in order to deal more damage and deal that damage faster. It feels like newer Doom in a way with how you have to keep things going to hopefully get items when you finish a fight. When you die, you can upgrade at the physical upgrade tree. Then you go on another run. It's only 6-levels in length but your health amount is small and if you aren't careful you can quickly go from 8hp to 0hp very fast. It's fun, a bit too difficult (probably because of how short it is), but fun.

Rating: B

52) Aaero (Xbox Series X)

This is a Starfox-esque rhythm game where you are going through levels flying to match a rhythm line while also shooting at enemy ships and bosses. Shooting on the beat is like a charge shot in Star Fox. It's a pretty cool idea and I enjoyed the various songs they used for it. The slight negative would be the speed at which the game moves. Since the songs are more techno-based, the game moves a bit fast and it can be easy to take a hit or two in later levels simply due to minor visiblity issues with enemy bullets. Otherwise, I'd recommend it for a small, fast, and fun rhythm game experience.

Rating: B+

53) Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed (Xbox Series X Backwards Compatibility)

Do you see everything I praised about the racing game above? Take that, and now add the heavy RNG/item reliance, extend the maps 2-3x in length, take away unique stats, and then make it so that there is a meta that needs to be utilized or else other racers will easily pass you up while you are racing your ass off. The main campaign has a fun unlock tree full of different challenges and races, but that's not enough to save this game from it's core frustrations.

This is yet another game I see people online praise, and I just can't see eye to eye with them about it because I simply dislike how the core of this game was built.

Also, side hot take: I simply don't like boats in kart racing games that have transforming vehicles. The boats always feel terrible to use in comparison to the flying and driving machines.

Rating: C

 

[Wozzer]

First slew of 2025 completionists into the hall of fame for the year;




Don't forget to send a DM linking to your post when you're done to get added

 

[Wozzer]

#54: Spooky Express (Android | ★★★★☆)

#53: Tower Wizard (PC | ★★☆☆☆)

#52: INMOST (PC | ★★☆☆☆)

#51: Upload Labs (PC | ★★★☆☆)

#50: Dark Souls (PC | ★★★★★)

#49: Heartworm (PC | ★★☆☆☆)

#48: Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader (PC | ★★★★★)

#47: Destiny 2: The Witch Queen (PC | ★★★☆☆)

#46: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 (2025) (PC | ★★★★★)

#45: Nodebuster (PC | ★★☆☆☆)

#44: Dune: Awakening (PC | ★★★☆☆)

#43: Orcs Must Die! 2 (PC | ★★★☆☆)

#42: Monster Hunter Now (Android | ★★☆☆☆)

#41: Warcraft Rumble (Android | ★★★☆☆)

#40: Northern Journey (PC | ★★★☆☆)

#39: Jusant (PC | ★★★☆☆)

#38: Ravenswatch (PC | ★★★☆☆)

#37: PEAK (PC | ★★★★★)

#36: GW2: Long Live the Lich (PC | ★★☆☆☆)

#35: GW2: A Bug in the System (PC | ★★★☆☆)

#34: Civilization VII (PC | ★★☆☆☆)

#33: GW2: Daybreak (PC | ★★☆☆☆)

#32: Clash Royale (Android | ★★★★☆)

#31: Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire (PC | ★★★★☆)

#30: F.E.A.R (PC | ★★★★★)

#29: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (2020) (PC | ★★★★★)

#28: Hollow Knight (PC | ★★★★★)

#27: XIII (PC | ★★☆☆☆)

#26: Split Fiction (XSX | ★★★★★)

#25: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 (PS2 | ★★★★☆)

#24: Crow Country (PC | ★★☆☆☆)

#23: The Last of Us Part II (PS5 | ★★★★★)

#22: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 (PS1 | ★★★★☆)

#21: WoW: Undermine(d) (PC | ★★★★☆)

#20: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 (PS1 | ★★★☆☆)

#19: Rounds (PC | ★★★★☆)

#18: A Game About Digging A Hole (PC | ★★★☆☆)

#17: Fall Guys February '25 (PC | ★★★★☆)

#16: Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (PC | ★★★★★)

#15: Beat Saber (Quest | ★★★★★)

#14: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (PS1 | ★★★★★)

#13: Lunacid (PC | ★★★★☆)

#12: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (PS1 | ★★★★★)

#11: The Outlast Trials (PC | ★★★★☆)

#10: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (PC | ★★★★★)

#9: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 (2020) (PC | ★★★★★)

#8: JellyCar Worlds (PC | ★★★☆☆)

#7: Civilization VI: Rise and Fall (PC | ★★★★★)

#6: Hextech Mayhem (PC | ★★☆☆☆)

#5: Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (PC | ★★★★☆)

#4: Super Mario Party Jamboree (PC | ★★★★☆)

#3: Mouthwashing (PC | ★★★★★)

#2: Digseum (PC | ★★★☆☆)

#1: Civilization VI (PC | ★★★★★)

 

[Skeptical]

27. Klonoa 2 (4h, ★). OK, time to admit it. As cute as Klonoa may be and as supportive of platformers as I may be, I don't like this series. I don't like how slow Klonoa moves, I don't like the awkwardness of the grabbing mechanics, I don't like the level designs. As much as people may lament the death of Namco's cute little mascot, I don't want to lift another finger to help them. They just aren't fun enough.

28. Toem (3h, ★★). It's a cute little game. You're on a little trip through an isometric playground stopping every once in a while to go to first person view to take pictures. You need to do that to complete missions. That's it. Not exactly a complicated system, with "skill" being just paying attention and guessing what the NPCs want. But as a change of pace, it does its job.

29. Ittle Dew (3h, ★★★). I think I liked it better than the sequel. The sequel was more action focused, but didn't have the chops to back up that focus. This one focuses more on puzzles, and cleverly designs the game with a reasonably challenging basic game, but makes it clear that you can solve them in multiple ways with fewer resources if you want to really stretch your brain. And it's short enough that one may be willing to try .

30. Beyond Good and Evil (9h, ★★★). It may have taken 20+ years, but I finally got around to playing a game I always wanted to try. And I have to say... is Nintendo the only company that tries to make basic movement and gameplay feel good?? Seriously, how hard can it be? Or am I just misremembering and all games from that era were clunky? But I remember Prince of Persia being good, so why couldn't Ubisoft get it right here? OK, so besides the fact that Jade felt awkward to control, the game itself was good enough. A nice (if small) world to explore, solid dungeon design, some fun side quests. Really, I'm glad I got to experience it. It was worth the wait. But I don't think I'll be coming back to it again.

31. God Eater 3 (19h, ★★). That wasn't as frightening as I thought. And that's a bad thing. Look, I am not skilled in 3D action games, and was worried about the Monster Hunter genre because of that. The entire genre was intimidating to me. But I never lost here, not once. And ended up with an S or better rank most of the time. Without even engaging with most of the systems, just randomly upgrading weapons when I could and making sure I was stocked on healing items. Just start mission, hack away semi-randomly for 5 minutes, win. Not a fulfilling experience, leaving me wondering what I'm missing. Guess I have to try the real thing and not the knock off clone.

32. Toree 3D (1h, ★★★). I've got mixed feelings about this series. On the one hand, it's a tiny 3D platformer... with good movement. Given that this is 1) the most important part of a platformer and 2) one that a typical small dev is NOT going to get right, that's a huge plus in its favor. It's a tiny bite sized game, just $1 and really just 30 minutes. And that's perfectly fine too. But that's all this guy does. I want to see a full game, or at least a $10 one from him. It just feels like a demo. He's proven he can make a good concept and make a game feel good. Now I

33. Tomb Raider Legend (7h, ★★). Hey, remember what I said about wondering if Nintendo is the only one making basic movement feel good in this timeframe? Yeah, here's example #2. I can't tell you how many times I died or failed a platforming challenge because Lara refused to grab a rope that was right in front of her. But aside from annoying stuff like that, I thought it was pretty decent. The exploration puzzles were reasonably intuitive but not obvious, the levels weren't too long, and combat was an annoying change of pace rather than a complete pain as I feared they might be.

34. Super Castlevania IV (3h, ★★). Yes, it's easier. But frankly, the original games were absurdly hard anyway so it's rather nice to not be completely frustrated. And honestly, it still has the slowness factor and committed jump factor that makes Classicvania so frustrating. Well, that and the game design feature where you need to never die so that you can keep your triple shot cross forever. I get that it's meant to be punishing. But honestly, I like the atmosphere and the enemy design much more than I like the game design. So yes, I cheated with save states. Maybe I cheated myself. But I wouldn't care about it otherwise. Isn't that the joy of these modern collections?

 

[Wolzard]

#9 - Final Fantasy X-2 HD Remaster (2016) - PC

I finally finished FFX-2. It was a long torture, judging by my saves; I've been trying since at least 2018. The game isn't that bad, the gameplay is very good, I got used to the ATB again and started to enjoy it. What kills me is that the game is very playful. It tries to be the opposite of FFX, which had a somewhat melancholic atmosphere. Here, everything is a joke, but it's the kind that makes me cringe more than laugh. The story in general isn't that great either, as it lacks a sense of "urgency" to resolve anything. So much so that the game allows you to go anywhere on the original map. This means the game has multiple endings, as you complete side quests. If the main ones are weak, imagine the secondary ones. I finished the game 55% of the way through the story, which gave me the Normal Ending, which is actually quite satisfactory.

Out of curiosity, I downloaded a 100% savegame to see the True Ending. It's pure fanfic, but it aligns with what Yuna said before facing the final boss: that she wanted a happy ending.
Then I saw the Sad Ending on YouTube and it is incredibly the most in line with the FFX story.

I didn't play Last Mission much because it's just a roguelike with 80 levels and a completely different gameplay, which didn't really appeal to me, especially since there's nothing special there in terms of story content.

 

[falling into hell]

32. Succubus Sexy Devil

The Switch version was censored crap. The games was not that great but it was short no filler and didn't have a story. No time was wasted watching dumb cutscenes. Today pretty much every game bothers you with lengthy cutscenes. Lesson learnt only buy games from Lord Gaben. 2/5

33. Knowledge or Know Lady

Loved the game it was pure nonsense. They didn't even try to seriously write a story. Whatever nonsense they came up with, they put into the game to make it as crazy and funny as possible. Great meme material. 5/5

34. Super Mario Kart 64

It seems I never finished it on Nintendo 64. After all this time I finally finished it on Switch 2. No idea why but I am in the mood to finish all Mario Kart games this year. Lol all games are harder than Mario Kart World. 5/5

35. Dead or Alive Extreme Venus Vacation Prism

Finally had time to play and finish it. Got the PS5 version from Play Asia. While playing I even got the best ending for Fiona. I only played it to deepen my understanding of science. It should also be mentioned that I played this game with my eyes closed. 5/5

36. World Heroes Neo Geo

For a long time I had this game in my backlog. I loved that pretty much all characters in this game are weird. Somehow I have a weakness for old weird games. Other people complain about graphics I don't care. 4/5

37. Five Hearts Under One Roof

It was funny but unfortunately you need to make the right decisions to reach the next chapter. Games are no fun if you need to use a walkthrough to finish them. 4/5

38. Mario Kart Super Circuit

The graphics don't look that great on a TV. Sometimes it was hard to see what's going on but it was still fun to play. 4/5

39. Deathsmiles 2

While I suck at all Shmups I still love to play them. Unfortunately it was not as fun as the first game but still worth playing. The graphics look kind of worse that in the first game. It would have been better if I played it around Christmas. 3/5

40. The Legend of Heroes Trails from Zero

I am working hard to catch up with the series but I will probably never manage to do that. The game was super fun I love Crossbell it would be fun to live in a town like that. I wish we could get a The Legend of Heroes mmmorpg with the whole continent of Zemuria being available something like Final Fantasy XI. 5/5

 

[applesaucejaxon]

54: Hogwarts Legacy - Switch 2 - Beat 10/2

I bought this on launch day for Xbox. I never really played it past the intro. I figured I'd give it another try on the Switch 2 because I was able to get it pretty cheap on launch day. It was good. Not great. I probably would have never beat this if I couldn't play it handheld. I just have too much stuff going on, and it is a lot easier when I can just pick it up and play it when I had the time regardless of who is watching TV. I was really in to the game for the first 25 hours or so, but my interest just fell off a cliff. I had to force myself to play the last bit because I couldn't bring myself to abandon the game after I got so far. It just became too repetitive and the story just wasn't interesting me anymore. I MIGHT play it a bit on my PC and really explore the world, but I highly doubt it. I see it was added to the play anywhere library, so who knows.

 

[BusierDonkey]

Game 69

Pilotwings Resort - Finished all challenges, collected items in free roam until I lost interest

This game was a huge let down. There is just one map in the game, the resort island taken from Wii Sports Resort. It's a scaled-down version of the resort that's not especially interesting to explore. The camera is set up directly behind your aircraft so essentially, you're blocking our own view ahead and 1st person perspective has such a narrow FOV you have zero peripheral vision requiring you to drop your thumb from the analog slider down to the D-pad to look around with the same camera system used in Pilotwings 64, easily the worst thing about that game. The framerate is terrible, made worse if you want to use 3D. The aircraft are mostly similar to Pilotwings 64, only you get two versions of each, and the new versions are garbage. The cycle glider is incredibly awful, requiring you to mash a button to pedal to gain altitude, the jet plane can't turn, only the rocket pack is an improvement over the jetpack, but it just makes the jetpack pointless. The missions are your typical Pilotwings fare, go through rings, land precisely and pop balloons. There are a few fun new ones like chasing vehicles that are releasing balloons which you have to shoot but those are the minority of the missions. Missing from Pilotwings 64 are the more suimulation-like aspects of the vehicles. Everything feels more like an arcade game. Takeoffs and landings are mostly automatic, landing mostly require you to just be precise and not slam into the ground but lacks the finesse of Pilotwings 64. Also missing is the wind, it's just not there, nor are the buffeting wind sound effects you would hear as you gain speed. The free roam mode seemed promising, but even that was hampered by a 2-minute timer. Considering reaching the island from the takeoff point takes almost 30 seconds you're left with 1:30 to explore before being kicked back to a menu. While you can extend the time by popping white balloons, I hated constantly being ejected from a free roam mode. If they ever revisit this franchise, I hope they partner with an actual flight sim dev like Asobo and go back to the feel of Pilotwings 64 which was made with the help of Paradigm Simulation.

 

[Wolzard]

#10 - Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (2010/2013) - PC

It's a very interesting game, but with a somewhat confusing story, and some things are a bit disjointed. Andy Serkis did the Monkey mocap, but he also appears in photos throughout the game. It's a bit odd when he appears in random images. Despite using the Monkey character, the story has nothing to do with the Chinese legend; it's a post-apocalyptic sci-fi with machines. You can clearly see that Guerrilla was inspired by this game; it bears a strong resemblance to Horizon.

The gameplay is very good, with an Uncharted feel, several scripted cutscenes and vertical gameplay. The only thing I didn't like was the combat. It's not bad, but it lacks variety, so it ends up feeling very repetitive early on. Luckily, that's not exactly the focus, which is more on exploring the environment and solving some simple puzzles.

Visually, the game is stunning. For a 2010 Unreal Engine 3 game, it's still surprising, especially on the OLED, because the game has such vibrant colors. It doesn't even feel like an Unreal Engine game. Ninja Theory already knew the engine very well. This probably explains the game's commercial failure, since besides being graphically well-finished, the game features mocap with famous people (well-done, by the way), which is why the game didn't pay off.

 

[marcincz]

Game 49 - Test Drive Unlimited 2 (360) - 40h 11m
Beat 06/10/2025 - my score: 7/10

Obtained all licences. Won every normal cup and finished/won every high cup. I am really exhausted. Over 40h in one racing title? Too much for me.

 

[Barakov]

18. Andro Dunos 2

Good luck to anyone who is trying 1CC that one.

 

[ReyBrujo]

Continuing in a new message since I ran out of characters after the first 32 games.

33​	BioShock Remastered	First time playing this series. Story was cool, dragged a bit personally but interesting nevertheless. Not my type of game so I played in Medium but dropped to Easy and went with it about halfway. Took me 21 hours. First full game I finished on Switch 2, by the way.		9/27​	6/10​
34​	BioShock 2 Remastered	Second part was interesting, easier after getting used to the game. Not much to say, not my style of game but it was an interesting one. A bit less than 16 hours to finish this one.		10/2​	6/10​
35​	BioShock Infinite	The final game felt odd personally, the graphics style was different, kind of Beyond Good & Evil. It was more cinematic for sure, but it felt off, as if they remembered they were doing a BioShock game at the end. I guess I liked it more than the others, but felt off. Took me a little over 13 hours.		10/8​	7/10​
36​	Resident Evil Revelations	Probably the best game I've played finished in a couple of months. Played on Switch 2, no crashes. Played in casual, the story was interesting and deaths mostly were fair. It has some variety with a couple of first person shooting. Maybe the last couple of episodes dragged it for a bit too long but the whole experience was nice. Liked the modifiers for the weapons, didn't like that many weapons shared bullets. Took me about 9 hours and a half.		10/14​	7/10​
37​	Puzzle Quest: Immortal Edition	So many memories! One of the games with which I scratched the hell out of my DS screen. Touch controls are spot on, the graphics are simple but they are secondary to the game itself. I played with a paladin (had used a wizard for DS) and took me some time to get used to her but once I got the Storm set of armours it was a breeze, beat all but two enemies in hard mode. There are so many variations, you can learn new skills from captured enemies, you can mount certain enemies to access their skills (Web from spider was a game changer). Spent 67 hours and a half back and forth with Resident Evil, Totally worth it.		10/17​	8/10​
38​	Limbo	Having played Inside I decided to try Limbo. Same vibe, a puzzle / platformer with only one button to jump and another to pick and drop objects. Some puzzles were pretty cheap (like making you think you could do something just to having to backtrack to find the correct way, and others were somewhat cheap where you are trained to do something and then lose your life by changing the pattern. Took me 3 hours and a half. Didn't even know my goal til I added this entry, went to find the link and read it's about rescuing your sister.		10/20​	3/10​
39​	Mario Kart 8 Deluxe	My last Mario Kart was the Wii one which I played with coworkers, however muscle memory is something amazing in these games. Racing games aren't my forte but the fact that within 15 minutes you can finish a cup is amazing. Played with Bowser, I always preferred a high maximum speed than acceleration, and somehow I don't like drifting that much as you would do even in straight sections with Peach or Toadstool because I somehow feel I'm going to break the stick. I might return to finish the other categories as well eventually, though I also have Mario Kart World to complete. Finished all the cups in 50cc in about 4 hours.		10/22​	7/10​
40	Resident Evil Revelations 2	I liked this second part more than the first one, it had more variety, and switching constantly between two different pairs of protagonists made it interesting. Some sections felt unfair, though, and the Natalia special stage somehow felt irritating since it was so easy to mess it up. Since it was my very first time playing I didn't do the correct actions and got the "non cannon finish", however I'm not retrying it. Also finished the two bonus stages. Took me almost 21 hours to finish.		10/22	7/10​
41​	Devil May Cry	I had bought the trilogy pack a couple of years ago but never actually played them, first time ever. It's tough compared to nowadays games, you need to earn every continue, you can only recover health once with items, there's literally one big boss every level. But it's a step ahead Resident Evil 1. Considering it's almost 25 years old the game impressed me, though I'm not that good with that genre, unfortunately they kept repeating the same bosses again and again which was tiresome. In-game clock says I played for 6 hours but spent 12 hours in total reloading saves because continuing is worth only if you can take down the boss immediately after dying.		10/25​	7/10​
42​	Little Nightmares 2	I had watched Matsui Rena's live stream playing this years ago, so I kind of knew where I had to go though I barely remembered the solution to the puzzles. Played it on Switch 2, there weren't noticeable bugs or visual problems. I already knew the twist at the end, though I still got the goosebumps. Again there were sections I had to redo a dozen times because I'm just bad at 3D platforming. Didn't collect most things so I didn't get the complete ending, but won't pursue it. Took me 8 hours.		10/28​	5/10​
43	Legends of Amberland II	Been over a month since I last finished a dungeon crawler so went with this one. Part 1 isn't available at the Argentine store so bought Part 2 directly. It's a very basic dungeon crawler with world map, no consumable items (like potions to restore health, only magic) and pixelated graphics but I enjoyed the ride. Finished all but one optional quest (missing the fourth pirate map piece so couldn't find their treasure). I like the fact that early in the game you can hire "griffons" to travel anywhere that you have already visited, sped up things, unfortunately the map doesn't have the names so I more often than not didn't know where the city I had to travel to was located. Took me 21 hours.		10/28​	5/10​
44​	Devil May Cry 2	Finished the Lucia story, 13 stages, in 4 hours 10 minutes according to the in-game clock, 5 hours according to the Parental application. Far easier than 1, now I understand the critics about being so "far" from action, enemies being dumbed, bosses being too easy, etc. Hardest boss was the fish, underwater fight is awful. Won't be playing the Dante story, just one is enough. Only used items once against one boss.		10/30​	3/10​
45​	Valiant Hearts: The Great War	Had bought this some time ago along Child of Light in a pack. Game is simple 2D game with several puzzles and a narrative about the WW1 covering from 1914 to 1918. I liked the concept, four scenarios, one per year, and giving some information about what happened to the protagonist and his relatives. Ending is sad. Very little replayability, only finding missing items. About 7 hours in total.		10/31​	2/10​
46​	Ikai	Wanted a horror game for Halloween and went with Ikai which was supposedly going to last 2 hours or so. It's a first person game where you need to exorcise a few spirits. There weren't as many scares as I thought it would have, most of the difficulty was that for the most part you don't have any kind of light so you need to remember where everything is located. The puzzles were solvable, though I spent about an hour and a half in a labyrinth which I had to brute force because I didn't see any clue. Story-wise is extremely simple, and all you can do is to play again to get missing items. Took me 6 hours to finish it.		11/3​	3/10​
47​	Remothered: Tormented Fathers	Game is a horror game with lots of stalking and minimal combat. The story is pretty good, I liked it, especially the couple of twists. However the execution isn't that good. The main issue is sound, you are supposed to listen footsteps and voices to locate your stalkers but they mostly sound the same, they sound loud when they are near you in any of the axis (floor above, room next to you, floor below, etc). And the respawn points are somewhat messed up, like near the end when they respawn and leave you with not enough items to beat the area, better to restart from a save point. Took me 9 hours to finish using a walk-through for the second half.		11/6​	5/10​
48​	God Eater 3	I had started this last year but just didn't click with me, the text was barely legible on Switch oled. Fortunately the text is much readable for far-sighted people on Switch 2, so I gave it a try. And the game was pretty good, even though you I got lost with so many skill and build options, in the end I just focused on a few ones instead of trying to find a better option. The story is nice, the combat is fun but repetitive, finished 69 story and optional stages with almost all of them with a boss with battles lasting from 2 minutes to 20 minutes long. Little less than 29 hours counting 3 hours I had done back in the day.		11/14​	7/10​
49​	Daemon x Machina	The story was a mess, the characters are all Concord-like (or Concord characters were Machina-like), you are like the wildcard where you join some mercenaries against others in one mission and in the next one you join the others to fight your ex mates. Never felt like it was a team-effort like in God Eater 3. Every weapon and armour has 50 qualities so it's hard to compare them, reached the final boss without a single healing item, had to google how to get a healing equipment (and could never use the outer's recovery property). A few glimpses of brilliance but pretty average otherwise. 28 hours and a half according to parental controls, little less than 26 according to game clock.		11/23​	6/10​
50​	Etrian Odyssey 2	Finished this one back in the day in DS, now on Switch. Haven't done the postgame (5 more floors) but beat the main story in about 67 hours and a half. Played it in basic (normal) mode, didn't optimize party, finished it without a guide. Compared to the first one it is overall easier though the early levels are tough and even later in the game you can get slain pretty easily. The story is as simple but without the little twist at the end of Etrian Odyssey 1. Mapping is exactly the same, I liked the gunner type (back in the day I didn't like it since I felt it didn't fit the fantasy setting). I made a beast but used it only for a few places where you need to use it for quests, felt it lacked something.		12/1​	8/10​
51​	Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions	I have had this one for a couple of years and decided to try it out. I loved 2 in Famicom, and liked 1 enough to finish it as well. And 3 on SFC as well though I couldn't finish it. This game is fine, but it wasn't what I expected: turn-based gameplay with time to calculate my actions. Instead it's a fast-paced Inazuma where you have to react almost as fast as in a normal soccer game. It's as if they made a new real time Advance Wars, it just hits different. It's pretty much a remake of the original Famicom one, with the final against Germany. A few matches were hard, and only beat Germany in penalties. Took me 20 hours to beat both Tsubasa and the New Champions episodes.		12/2​	6/10​
52​	Labyrinth of the Demon King	My 52th game is this gem released on 2025. It's a dungeon crawler with real time combat with graphics looking like Doom or early PS1 games. The story is simple, you want to avenge your master for which you need to cross four towers to unlock the final battle. The atmosphere is oppressive, you feel even the smallest enemies can kill you anytime, it's gritty and dark, the soundtrack is awesome (and the sounds are much better than the ones in Remothered). The game has plenty of puzzles, some of which could take days without a guide. Not sure how people can beat this in 7 hours, took me over 18 hours. I guess everyone plays with a guide. A gem. Not much into the stalker concept, though.		12/8​	9/10​
53​	Devil May Cry 3	The last DMC port for Switch. Camera still was kinda limited. I also guess teenagers loved it, Dante being so sarcastic, driving a bike, playing with a ball as a soccer player, playing the guitar as in a concert, flirting with Lady, etc. I guess I would have loved that had I been 15 when this was released. Other than that, gameplay was fine, first boss way too hard. Some bosses were easy, some were hard but in the end managed to beat the game minimizing my usage of combos and upgrading only the initial sword. However I felt it was a bit longer than required, having to rerun the stages and beat old bosses. Took me a little less than 20 hours to beat in Normal.		12/20​	7/10​

 

[BusierDonkey]

Game 70

Cyberpunk 2077 + Phantom Liberty (Finished Main game + DLC, Aldercados ending

I put most of my time in this game last year, 167 hours just on side gigs and missions, only completing a handful of main story missions. As such I went into the main story so incredibly overpowered the difficulty was non-existent. Perfect. Tossing around high-level enemies and bosses like rag dolls and making light work of what would otherwise be a brutal mission is why RPGs are so great, you choose your own difficulty. Getting into the story of the game and being able to focus on that instead of resource management and staying alive let me really focus on the environments and characters. For all the woke bullshit dragging this game down, there is more than enough good material to make up for it. That said it was still jarring to do a series of missions with a new friend and reach the end of their questlines only to get a completely unexpected option for getting the gay on. Yes, I can just ignore it, but it seems so shoehorned in there every time. Going into the game I thought Johnny Silverhand would be a much smaller role, but he shows up just about everywhere and has a lot to say. His character was the highlight of the game, a drug-fueled anti-corporate rockstar that went full terrorist. His interactions with V really make you pause to consider just what too far is. The changes to Silverhand's character over time were also really well done. The game offers you a ton of choices for how to end things, including several new options with the Liberty City expansion. I checked them all out, but my goal from the start was to reach an ending where V could survive and escaping the city with the Aldercados seemed the best choice. After quickly running through the optional endings, I think it was the right choice. The reality is in this game's world even the happiest ending is full of sadness, goodbyes and pain. Fun stuff! I will say I'm really glad I didn't play this at launch, as it stands the game is really good, it only crashed on me once, but I think it was from a mod. Outside the driving being a bit greasy, the gameplay is fun and quick. It's not a dedicated FPS and isn't as fast or precise as say, Doom Eternal, but it has a lot of options letting you choose how you want to play.

 

[Skeptical]

There may be a common thread in this batch of games...

35. Shantae Advance (6h, ★★★) The Mega Man 6 of Shantae games. It doesn't do anywhere near enough new to justify itself, it's highly derivative, and by all rights I should be annoyed by its like of innovation, but it's Shantae. The games are fun enough on their own. Sure, the background shifting got hard to follow, and there was way too much fetch questing that was extremely short, but the game itself is still fun. And the humor is as good as always.

36. Shantae Risky's Revenge (4h, ★★) Definitely a massive improvement over the first game (a game I had no desire to replay in this marathon). The moment to moment gameplay is solid, and the pseudo-3D nature was pretty cool. Some of the humor the series became known for started to appear here. So it's fairly decent. But it also feels short and somewhat stilted. It's not quite up to par yet, but getting there.

37. Shantae and the Pirate's Curse (6h, ★★★★★) Danceless Shantae is the best Shantae. Weird how that works. They finally let their inhibitions go and the over the top, self referential, completely irreverent humor while still telling a fairly earnest story is here. The Zelda-style progression is well done, with clever and varied setpieces between each of the dungeons. The story to open the first real dungeon sets the tone so well with its absurdity, and probably my favorite scenes of the whole series. And Shantae's danceless moveset is just so fun. The only problem is the best stuff doesn't come until the end. But still, this game is just a complete joy. Still my favorite.

38. Shantae Half Genie Hero (5h, ★★★) A game that suffers from Kickstarter-itis. There was too much focus on making rewards for backers (like the endless extra modes) and not enough on content. There were so many dances, again presumably to entice backers, but not enough space to use them. The game felt impossibly cramped. Still, it didn't annoy me that much this time because I was prepared for it. I was prepared not to do any backtracking, since I knew the smallness of the levels made backtracking somewhat useless. So that helped. Also, this game has the best "Item Get" gag in the series. And I like Dance Through the Danger. So I won't rag on it too much.

39. Shantae and the Seven Sirens (7h, ★★★★) After so many games, they finally made a traditional-ish Metroidvania. In many ways, its the culmination of series, with the fancier graphics of HGH and the lack of transformations in Pirate's Curse while maintaining the high level of gameplay and humor. When it first came out, I was disappointed due to it being way too easy. Thankfully that's been patched and is now more difficult (not hard, just reasonable), making for a more pleasant experience overall.


The question really is where does the series go from here. While I like Pirates Curse better, Seven Sirens seems to be a perfectly solid example of where the series has been slowly aiming for. It's hard to see how they could take the core elements of a Shantae game and make it into something that feels like a substantial leap beyond Seven Sirens. That leaves two options, continuing to be the Mega Man of the modern era, pushing out perpetual sequels of games that feel like level pack add-ons, feeling not really essential but hey, at least they play well and can make you smile. Or they can take a risk and go beyond the scope they set up. I don't foresee Shantae ever becoming a Hollow Knight or anything of that sort; there's a lightheartedness and comfort that extends to the gameplay itself. Can they switch genres? Add in co-op? Maybe a team-up with Risky or her friends that allows for expanded/alternate move sets? I don't know. It's a bigger risk, but healthier for the brand overall if they go bold. Honestly, if the next game is just Seven Sirens 2, I'll still probably play it, but perhaps not until a sale.

 

[Kacho]

Final Fantasy Tactics

70 hours with plenty of idle time. What a great game. 10/10 classic.

 

[March Climber]

The question really is where does the series go from here. While I like Pirates Curse better, Seven Sirens seems to be a perfectly solid example of where the series has been slowly aiming for. It's hard to see how they could take the core elements of a Shantae game and make it into something that feels like a substantial leap beyond Seven Sirens. That leaves two options, continuing to be the Mega Man of the modern era, pushing out perpetual sequels of games that feel like level pack add-ons, feeling not really essential but hey, at least they play well and can make you smile. Or they can take a risk and go beyond the scope they set up. I don't foresee Shantae ever becoming a Hollow Knight or anything of that sort; there's a lightheartedness and comfort that extends to the gameplay itself. Can they switch genres? Add in co-op? Maybe a team-up with Risky or her friends that allows for expanded/alternate move sets? I don't know. It's a bigger risk, but healthier for the brand overall if they go bold. Honestly, if the next game is just Seven Sirens 2, I'll still probably play it, but perhaps not until a sale.

As someone who also played those games recently, I'd assume the next step would be to mix the foreground/background switching of Risky's Revenge along with the Metroidvania nature of the recent game. It would make for very complex level design but I think it's possible.

I think since this series isn't like a huge seller, they just inch forward a bit in innovation as to not alienate their entire base, so combining elements of two past titles would be the best move.