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Wozzer · Jan 1, 2025

A thread for people that are trying to play 52 games in a year. Tell us how you're doing and what you are going to play next - claim a post and update us on your progress!

How do I take part?
Claim a ‘main post’ where you will list all your completions for the year. You can use fancy images or special formatting to make it extra cool. In addition to this post your updates, completions and thoughts as singular posts throughout the year.

Does my main post need to adhere to a format?
Nope! We previously did, but now you can have it formatted however you like. Take some inspiration from previous year posts. Here’s a beautiful example!

Do I need to post reviews, scores, dates and stuff?
Also nope! It is highly recommended to spruce up your completions with mini reviews, a score (for example 2/5), your playtime duration, date completed, platform or any such fun statistical information but it's not required. You do you.

What's that Hall of Fame thing?
Those who beat the challenge get placed in the shrine that is the ‘Hall of Fame’™. Furthermore you’ll get a pretty little medal that denotes how many years you’ve overcome the challenge. Cool kids have been doing this for over five years.

How do I know when I've completed a game?
That can be tricky to determine, but it's ultimately up to you. If its a straightforward single player game then it's typically when the credits roll, but if it's say a multiplayer session based game maybe its when you’ve unlocked a certain feature or completed a battle pass.

Do the completions need to be games released this year?
Nope; any video game will suffice. It can be first plays or replays, classics or recent releases. It can be a game you started last year but are finishing this year.

Do board games count?
They do not. Vidya games only here.

I want to record durations, do I have to manually count?
No, most platforms (Steam, Xbox, Nintendo, etc) will do the duration tracking for you! If in doubt you can also use sites like HLTB to fill in the blanks.

Do episodic games count as a single game or X amount of games?
That's up to you. It's alright to count something like Life is Strange as one or five games. Your choice, for whatever makes sense with how you’ve been playing. Ask other users if in doubt.

What should I do once I've completed the challenge?
Send me a DM on this platform, with a link to your post that shows all the games you've completed, and I’ll make you thread famous by adding you to the Hall of FameTM. If I take a while to respond don’t panic, I tend to go into periods of hibernation throughout the year.

Is there a deadline?
Until Dec 31st 2025 @ 11.59pm!

Archive: 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 (shout out to jshackles as the prior host)

Starting in 2020 our Discord (http://discord.backlogbeat.com/) has since grown to over 150 members. Among discussing the 52 Challenge (posting updates, picking games, etc) we also coordinate a slew of other totally cool game activities (see below)…

A play on a traditional book club that sees us choosing and collectively playing a nominated game per month, sharing our thoughts and opinions through to beating it. Those who beat the current nomination get entered into the raffle to pick the next months; share your favourite games or recent releases you’re excited for with us!

Jan: -	Jul: -
Feb: -	Aug: -
Mar: -	Sep: -
Apr: -	Oct: -
May: -	Nov: -
Jun: -	Dec: -

It’s the same thing as above, but only for movies! Similar approach in that all you need to do is watch the nominated film to acquire a raffle ticket with an even lower bar to enter as most choices can be completed with a leisurely sub 3 hour investment.

Jan: -	Jul: -
Feb: -	Aug: -
Mar: -	Sep: -
Apr: -	Oct: -
May: -	Nov: -
Jun: -	Dec: -

Sometimes it's tricky to get a thing nominated but there’s enough folk playing it that it makes sense to carve a dedicated place and play together. Elden Ring is a great example of a game that reaches new heights when played alongside others.

Come say hey, everyone is welcome and folks from these threads are our favourite kind of people! You’ll likely see a lot of familiar faces

The brave individuals that overcome the challenge this year;
<... nobody yet, soon!>

The additional survivors who overcame the challenge of the previous years thread;

And below are the legacy participants from years prior who we hope to see return to us this year;

And so there lists all those that have risen to the challenge during this or prior years! If you see yourself beating the challenge, please remember to send me a DM with your post once you’re done!

EerieArcade · Jan 1, 2025

I'm in. Reserving my post.

bender · Jan 1, 2025

1. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (Switch) - 50 Hours - 1/3/25 - 5/5
2. DoDonPachi Saidaioujou (Switch) - 3 Hours - 1/21/25 - 5/5
3. Death Smiles (PS5) - 1 Hours - 5/5
4. Death Smiles 2 (PS5) - 1 Hours - 5/5
5. Battle Garegga (PS5) - 1 Hours - 5/5
6. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - 16 Hours - 5/5
7. Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia - 16 Hours - 3/5
8. Street Fighter VI (PS5) - 15 Hours - 3/5
February Fighting Pass.
9. Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin: (PS5) - ~20 Hours - 3/5
10. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (PS5 - ~20 Hours - 3/5

Dacvak · Jan 1, 2025

Reserved! Thanks for doing this,

Wozzer

I got 40 of 52 last year (still need to update the last 7 or 8 in the other thread), but I’ll get 52 this year for sure. Maybe.

The best part about the Jan 1 reset is that I can now replay all of my favorite games and have them count towards the goal.

Mario 64 and Cuphead, here I come!

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Current progress with links to posts:

Super Mario Bros [via Mario All-Stars] - 1/1 -
Super Mario Bros 2 (J) [via Mario All-Stars] 1/1 -

TuFaN · Jan 1, 2025

Backloggd
2023: 52 games
2024: 72 games

#	Title	Platform	Date	Playtime	Rating
01.	Super Mario Land	Game Boy	1-Jan-25	01 hour	10
02.	Anno 1800	PC	9-Jan-25	30 hours	7
03.	Balatro	Switch	9-Jan-25	05 hours	7
04.	Super Mario RPG (2023)	Switch	17-Jan-25	11 hours	9
05.	Paper Mario	N64	27-Jan-25	24 hours	8
06.	Resident Evil 2 (2019)	PC	02-Feb-25	18 hours	10
07.	Resident Evil: Revelations	PC	09-Feb-25	21 hours	5
08.	Resident Evil: Revelations 2	PC	12-Feb-25	19 hours	6
09.	Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles	Wii	14-Feb-25	06 hours	4
10.	Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles	Wii	14-Feb-25	07 hours	5
11.	Resident Evil: Deadly Silence	NDS	15-Feb-25	04 hours	10
12.	Resident Evil: Director's Cut	PS1	17-Feb-25	03 hours	10
13.	Factorio	PC	04-Mar-25	50 hours	8
14.
15.
	Capcom	PC	February	199 hours	7.62

SpiceRacz · Jan 1, 2025

I’m in, again. I only finished 35/52 last year, but that thread motivated me to finish more games than I probably have in a long time.

I’m a few hours into my first Dark Souls 2 replay. So, that’ll be my first game of 2025.

Wolzard · Jan 1, 2025

Last year's challenge made me want to play more, so I'm excited to reach the milestone again.

ReyBrujo · Jan 1, 2025

Geez, I was at about 1 per month but my Switch backlog is over 200 games by now and I can add NES and SNES games as well from the emulation section or the mini consoles. Reserved.

Order	Title	Mini Review	Date	Score
1	Potato Flowers in Full Bloom (Switch)	Started back in December but finished it today after 36 hours. It's a cute first-person grid dungeon crawler (favorite genre) with teams of 3 with as 7 or 8 classes. The game has a simple story and is quite straightforward (4 areas with between 1 and 7 floors each) however got stuck a couple of times since you had to do like two locations at the same time. It's been ages since I had to rotate equipment and weapons to exploit weak points in enemies so it was a nice change of pace. Experience is based on size difference which means you cannot grind yourself to a big size, you ought to advance. Overall a cool game for anyone starting this genre. Encountered one crash (but game saves automatically often enough) and probably a dozen typos (like the one in the screenshot).	1/2	6/10
2	TMNT: Turtles in Time (arcade version, Cowabunga Collection)	Got the Cowabunga Collection for Switch some time ago and yesterday spent an hour and a half on the arcade version of TMNT Turtles in Time. Extremely hard but as amazing as it used to be, a game made to force you insert coins because it was impossible to finish it with a single quarter.	1/3	8/10
3	TMNT; Tournament Fighters (Cowabunga Collection)	Finished the story mode of the SNES game. Never liked it, felt like wasted money back in the day and feelings haven't changed. Tried starting the Genesis one from the collection but no way in hell I'm touching that ever again.	1/4	3/10
4	White Day: A Labyrinth Named School	Finished with a Dandelion ending (happy ending with Ji-Hyeon Seol I guess) and then replayed the last boss to check her Ebony ending. Not sure how Korean games check their runtime, the same happened with The Coma, it says it took me 136:29:11 but Switch places it just before Potato Flowers which took me 36 hours according to the game, I guess they add 100 hours for the sake of it? Game was cool, managed to reach the final without guides, not sure how the average of HowLongToBeat is just 8 hours. I'd play it again. Not really into ghost stories but it was a nice change of pace only being able to run and hide.	1/14	8/10
5	Mon-Yu	Started this after Potato Flowers and it took a good while, almost 52 hours (profile says 65 hours or more). Another first-person grid-based dungeon crawler with 9 different locations (each with 1-3 different floors). Played in "medium setting" with map available only after finding the map (options were always on or never available). The character creation screen lets you choose the developers themselves as game characters which was funny. There's a level cap for each stage which means some battles are harder since you cannot grind, but you can save anywhere. Had to repeat final boss 30 or so times playing with statistics and skills and RNG which felt dirty.	1/27	5/10
6	Inside	A beautiful work of art. I bought it last week, should have bought Limbo as well, the price jumped in the Argentine store for both games just yesterday so right now it's above what I'd pay for a 3 hours and a half game. The ending was cool, read that it was shocking and indeed it's quite novel. Platform/puzzles aren't my cup of tea and this game has little replayability but it is an enjoyable game (although in handheld sometimes it's hard to see)	1/27	7/10
7	Echo Blade	I had started this game halfway midyear or so but stopped after passing through 7 or 8 rooms. Interesting but confusing and extremely plain without textures. Combat is simple, three types of attack depending on analog direction when pressing the button, there are a few puzzles with boxes that I found more annoying than stressing, and there are several bosses which look like normal enemies but with different weapons. Game crashed when trying to load the ending, had to replay the last stage, then crashed during the credits. My profile says I played it for 10-15 hours.	1/28	3/10
8	Labyrinth of Zangetsu	A (mostly) black & white dungeon crawler with hand-drawn stages and enemies based on Japanese yokai. Follows Wizardry rules. Finished it in 46 hours and a half (Switch parental controls say 53 hours and a half, that includes resets, idle time, etc) in "hard" mode which prevents you from copying the save file and leaves corpses at the entrance of the level instead of the room where they died fortunately since I lost my team against the final boss. One optional boss left. No crashes. 5 main stages, each with 3-7 floors. Simple but I liked it.	2/6	7/10
9	Wizardry: The Five Ordeals	Finished "The Price of Deception" in about 53 hours, consisting of 9 floors and then a new location with 3 complex floors. It's Wizardry, it's hard and some stages (like the second floor of the second location) are really complex. There are 5 other stories, each of which I will count as a different game because they are all new stories running on the same engine (with the option to carry over the characters). Love Wizardry, however this conversion was choppy in compared to Proving Grounds done by Digital Eclipse. It's much more faithful to the 2006 game but they could have done a bit more, especially with the labyrinth movement.	2/12	9/10
10	The Bridge Curse 2: The Extrication	A first person 3D horror game. Took me less than Echo Blade to finish, so probably 8 hours without a guide (though Switch says +10 hours). Game got better models than "White Day" but it's far shorter, the story is straightforward, you play 5 scenarios (maybe an extra one for the "good" ending) with 4 characters all involving the same ghosts at the same school, it's an interesting one but too short, only two different endings according to the achievements list, and I discovered almost every hidden item by playing rather normally. For the price I got it (USD 2) it's a good game. Not that many scares, saw only one other than dying animations.	2/14	6/10
11	Wizardry: The Five Ordeals	Finished the "Traveler's Property" scenario in about 34 hours and a half. This one has the classic 10 floor structure, the story is much more straightforward than "The Price of Deception" (if that's possible at all) but the last stage is far, far harder. In fact my monster compendium is missing a dozen or more regular demons which I hadn't been able to defeat still at all. This stage doesn't give information about item curses or buffs so it's half guessing and half remembering. Carried over the characters from "The Price of Deception" (the procedure is kind of convoluted for sure), they start at level 1 but at least I keep their rolled statistics.	2/23	8/10
12	Endling	Side scrolling survival game where you have to protect and raise your cubs. In a way it's a touching story as Inside, however this one is far shorter and personally more interesting since you don't need just to escape. Spent maybe 6 hours, the shortest game I finished this year so far not counting the TMNT ones. Found a crashing bug that forced me to do things differently to skip it.	2/24	7/10
13	The Voice of Cards: The Beasts of Burden	A rather short, 16 hour game, kind of tabletop RPG with a narrator acting as dungeon master. Already finished The Isle Dragon Roars I skipped the second one by mistake, however the stories are unrelated. The game is extremely simple but the story itself is rather interesting sometimes even cruel. However, as interesting as it might be the game offers little replay value, 99% can be unlocked in the first play-through so the NG+ doesn't make much sense. Worth one round, though.	3/2	4/10

Dazraell · Jan 1, 2025

I'm in! Here we go again

52 Games 2025 Challenge Status: 21/52

#	Game Title	Platform	Month	Notes
1	Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales	Steam Deck	January
2	Diablo III - The Darkening of Tristram	PS5	January	Completed event as Witch Doctor
3	Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster and the Beanstalk	PS1	January
4	Assassin's Creed: Syndicate	PS5	January	Completed main game, The Last Maharaja and Dreadful Crimes DLCs
5	Assassin's Creed: Syndicate - Jack the Ripper	PS5	January
6	Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022)	PS5	January	Campaign only
7	Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir	Switch	January
8	Senua's Saga: Hellblade II	Xbox Cloud Gaming	January
9	Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters	PS5	January
10	Yakuza 3	PS5	February
11	Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III (2023)	Xbox Cloud Gaming	February	Campaign only
12	Star Wars: Episode I - Jedi Power Battles	Steam Deck	February	Completed main levels as Plo Koon and extra levels
13	Gears of War 2	Xbox Cloud Gaming	February
14	Gears of War 2 - Road to Ruin	Xbox Cloud Gaming	February	Deleted scene DLC
15	Silent Hill 2 (2024)	PS5	February
16	The Mildew Children	Steam Deck	February
17	Gothic Remake - Nyras Prologue	PC (Steam)	February	Steam Next Fest February 2025 Demo
18	Rise of the Tomb Raider	PC (Steam)	February	Completed main game and Baba Yaga: Temple of the Witch DLC
19	Rise of the Tomb Raider - Blood Ties	PC (Steam)	February
20	Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings	PS5	February
21	Gears of War: Ultimate Edition	PC (Microsoft Store)	March

Currently playing:
Yakuza 4 [PS5]
The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring [PS2]
Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition [PC]

Next to play:

Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition [PC]
Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse [Steam Deck]
L.A. Noire [PS5]
Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition [PS5]
Kingdom Come: Deliverance [PC]
Gears of War 3 [Xbox Cloud Gaming]
Yakuza 5 [PS5]
Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind [Switch]
The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition [Steam Deck]
Star Wars: Jedi - Survivor [PS5]
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers [PS2]
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City [Steam Deck]
Metaphor: ReFantazio [PS5]
Rise of the Ronin [PS5]
Assassin's Creed: Odyssey [PS5]
Return to Castle Wolfenstein (RealRTCW) [PC]
Gothic II Classic [Switch]
Paper Mario [N64]

Past challenges:
2020 - 50 / 52 games
2021 - 48 / 52 games
2023 - 61 / 52 games
2024 - 78 / 52 games

jshackles · Jan 1, 2025

Game 1 - Hero of the Kingdom: The Lost Tales 3 - PC / GOG - Completed Jan 1st, 2025
This game was really short, and honestly not quite as good as the previous two. However, it's still a fun mix of hidden object game, trading puzzle, and visual novel. I saw this on sale on GOG's winter sale, before that I honestly didn't realize this existed - despite liking and playing the previous two. Either way, it's a fun little game to start off 2025 with a bang.

Game 2 - A Park Full of Cats - PC / Steam - Completed Jan 2nd, 2025
I've really enjoyed these Devcats hidden cat picture games, this one I got on Steam because it wasn't on GOG. It was more or less similar to the other games in the series, in that your objective is to simply find all the cats. Some really cute levels, and some cute cats to find as well. Got 50/50 Steam achievements by finishing the free base game as well as the paid DLC.

Game 3 - Picross: Logiart Grimoire - Nintendo Switch - Completed Jan 3rd, 2025
I put about 80 hours into Logiart Grimoire, but just now finished it today. This was a pretty fun mix between picross puzzles and an Alchemy-like mixing gameplay puzzles. For example, meat + bread = hamburger, that sort of thing. I finished all 280 puzzles, as well as the bonus puzzles (another 100 or so that were included). Game has some insane value, and as always Juniper did a lovely job crafting fun puzzles.

Game 4 - Japanese Rail Sim 3D Monorail Trip to Okinawa - Nintendo 3DS - Completed Jan 4th, 2025
My wife and I visited Okinawa last year, and we rode on the Yui rail line many times during our trip, so I was surprised to see that they had a train simulation game that was just for driving that same line. A real trip down memory lane, as all the stops had their authentic music tune in the game, as well as video from the front of the monorail train that let us see all the fun places we had visited. The game itself was pretty basic, but had some punishing difficulty for being late or over the line, probably just like actually working for the Japanese rail line!

Game 5 - Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana - Nintendo Switch - Completed Jan 10th, 2025
I picked this up when I was visiting Japan last year, but just now got around to playing it. Game is great, though pretty similar to the PC re-release of the PSP game (and it showed here, a lot). The new artwork and voice acting as pretty fun though, and the game had a lot of good hidden secrets and areas to explore. Nice that it's a lot more tight focused experience than something like that later Ys games.

Game 6 - Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor - PC / Steam - Completed Jan 20th, 2025
I "finished" this game last year when it was in Early Access, but I've been revisiting it a bit over the last few weeks and finally finished it. The core gameplay is fun, and different enough from something like Vampire Survivors that it almost feels like it's an entirely different genre. I still maintain that mining for resources while also fighting enemies gives this game a unique spin on the genre. They've added a lot more game modes and locations since I last played, so it was fun to dig through everything and clear out all the new levels.

Game 7 - Club Nintendo Picross Plus - Nintendo 3DS - Completed Jan 23rd, 2025
Another great Picross game from Jupiter on the 3DS, though much shorter than the last one I finished (Logiart Grimoire). A lot of really great puzzles, and it was fun to do stuff from Animal Crossing, Mario, etc. Some of the puzzles were straight up bullshit, and I'm convinced that a few of them relied on guessing, which is kind of a no-no for these logic puzzles. Overall a lot of fun though!

Game 8 - Starship / Starfox 64 - PC - Completed Jan 24th, 2025
It's been a few years since I'd played through Star Fox 64 (I believe it was when it was re-released for the 3DS), so I thought I'd give the decomp PC project a go. Holy cow, this changes everything about the game! Being able to play in 32:9 ultrawide, at 240fps, wow! I was able to get through the entire game only dying once (on that stupid tank stage) so I felt like I did pretty good. Overall, a really fun way to play this classic game.

Game 9 - Vampire Survivors - Android - Completed Jan 25th, 2025
I've been playing this off and on since I got my Retroid Pocket 5, as it runs almost perfectly on that device and the game is free. I finished the full collection (watched the credits roll) and finished all the tasks in the base game - as I haven't yet bought the expansions on Android. This is still one of my favorite games of all time, so I'll probably toss some bucks their way to get the DLC here as well. If you haven't played this game yet for some reason, I'd recommend you do!

Game 10 - Peglin - Android - Completed Feb 2nd, 2025
Another game that I've been playing on my Retroid Pocket, this is a fun little rogue-like peg-game (think Peggle) with interesting combat mechanics and crazy combos. My winning run I had a huge lineup of relics (three whole rows!) and I was doing so much damage it was literally insane. The second boss I was able to kill in a single round! The final boss was a little tougher since they had so many hit points, but it made for a fun and challenging game overall. Very much recommended!

Game 11 - Jackbox Party Pack 2 - PlayStation 5 - Completed Feb 5th, 2025
My daughter came over, and we all played through all the games on the Jackbox Party Pack 2 (as well as some Drawful 2 and a few games from the third and fourth packs). Earwax was my favorite, such a funny game. Since my kids are both excellent artists, and my wife has a degree in art and design, I felt like a caveman drawing with my finger on the wall. Still though, these games hold up well and I was glad to see that even 10 years later the webpage for these still works great.

Game 12 - Ys X: Nordics - PC / GOG - Completed Feb 7th, 2025
A wonderful entry in the legendary Ys series, I really enjoyed this one a lot - much more than IX (though not as much as VIII). Music was great, characters were all fantastic. Combat was fun and quick, very action-y. I liked not having to swap between various characters or stances, where in pretty much every situation you can just walk up and wreck house on monsters, it's a good time. I think the only game in the series now that I haven't played (Celceta) is the next one up chronologically after this one, so that's good timing, on to that one!

Game 13 - Balatro - Android - Completed Feb 8th, 2025
I never really stopped playing this game from last year (it's great) but I started playing on Android (Retroid Pocket 5 strikes again!) and completed all the challenges again. This is one of my favorite games from last year, and it's still something that hasn't really been topped yet in my opinion. The build variety is still amazing, and the game has perfected the "one more round" gameplay loop.

Game 14 - Ys Chronicle 1 - Android - Completed Feb 9th, 2025
I was browsing through Android games I own that support controllers, and this one popped up. I've been on a bit of a Ys kick lately, and it's been nearly 10 years since I last played through this one, so I thought I'd give it a go. Turns out, this game is straight up horseshit. My biggest gripe with the game is that you stop leveling up at level 10, about halfway through the game. If the game let you keep leveling up, to say 16, then I would have enjoyed this game MUCH more. Also, the final boss came down to luck, totally rage inducing.

Game 15 - Vampire Survivors: Legacy of the Moonspell - Android - Completed Feb 14th, 2025
My favorite VS DLC by far, I picked this up for $2 on Android, so I could play on my Retroid, and it was indeed again fantastic. Finished all the objectives and the adventure mode for the DLC. Not much to say about this that I haven't already said in my reviews years past when I played it on PC and Switch. Not sure if I'll pick up the other DLC on Android (since I already own them all on two other platforms) but I might...

Game 16 - The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC - PC / Steam - Completed Feb 21st, 2025
I started this game nearly three years ago (yikes!) but kept shelving it for other games in the series. I've finished Cold Steel 1 and Nayuta since then, and started in on Cold Steel 2. Well, it looks like these characters were going to start recurring, so I decided to head back to this game and finish it out before continuing on. Great thing too - this game holds up amazingly well, and by the end it's now climbed to my favorite game in the series so far! I really missed out on not playing through this 20 years ago when it first released.

Game 17 - Final Fantasy: 20th Anniversary Edition - Retro Achievements - Completed Mar 4th, 2025
Started playing this game to test out the PSP emulator on my Retroid Pocket 5, and because I'm playing through Stranger of Paradise on PC and wanted to re-play the FF1 story. I ended up playing through the whole game in three days. I've played through the first Final Fantasy game a many number of times, but I did enjoy this version quite a bit as it had really nice sprite artwork. The retro achievements were also fun to collect!

Game 18 - Picross e - Nintendo 3DS - Completed Mar 5th, 2025
Since I got my 3DS all set up with a bunch of Picross games, this seemed like the logical place to start. I didn't play any of Juniper's Picross games on the 3DS back in the day, so it was fun to revisit this series' modern roots. Some of the puzzles seemed like they required guessing though, which definitely took away from the appeal somewhat. Still, I completed all of the puzzles in all of the modes.

tav7623 · Jan 1, 2025

Time to get back to it (

) good luck every one!

1. Call of Duty Black Ops 6 Multiplayer - PS5, est playtime: 10+ hrs, hit Prestige 2 on 1/2/25
I have a long history (almost 20 years) with playing the Call of Duty games (my first CoD was CoD 2 for the Xbox 360) so one of the games I got for Christmas this past year was Black Ops 6 and so far (without even touching the campaign, which I will be doing cause I've played the campaign for every CoD I've played except for Black Ops 4 which doesn't have a campaign or Zombies) I'm really enjoying it as I've managed to go from level 1 to being halfway through Prestige 2 in about a week. I'm gonna try and not let this game take up all my time this year but at the very least I want to complete the Season 1 Battle Pass, the campaign, and if I'm lucky beat the story for CoD Zombies.

2. AstroBot - PS5, est. playtime: 13 hrs, 100% completed & earned the Platinum trophy on 1/10/25
I love a good platformer and I enjoyed my time with the prequel/launch game Astro's Playroom (which I also 100% completed & earned the platinum trophy for) enough that I knew I was in for a good time with this game. After it was all said and done I gotta say I wasn't disapointed as well as pleasantly surprised at the amount of cameo bots/costumes that I came across. The only thing I didn't like about the game is that there wasn't a whole lot in the way of speedrun/time trail levels outside of the ones that were (from what I can tell) post launch DLC as that (especially the ice skating/ice levels) was one of my favorite things about Astro's Playroom.

3. Yakuza 3 - PS4 (on PS5 via Backwards Compatibility), est. playtime: 20+ hrs, beat the main story w/15% total in game & 29% Trophy completion on 1/18/25
Several years back I was introduced to the Yakuza series and have slowly been working my way through the series. Of the 5 Yakuza games I've beaten (0, Kiwami 1, Kiwami 2, & 6) including this game I've got to say that the ending for this game was a bit more anti climatic and was imo a lot easier compared to the other games in the series I've beaten.

4. Tekken 4 - PS2, est. playtime:6+ hrs, beat Story Battle (aka Story) mode with every character on 1/20/25
I've been a long time fan of the Tekken series, but one of the few Tekken games I never owned (only ended up renting it) was Tekken 4. Well a few day ago I finally got the game as part of a PS2 game bundle and upon revisiting the game for the first time since it originally released it ended u[ reinforcing my feelings of the game I had way back then. Which to be honest aren't very good as it introduced one of my least favorite characters (Steve Fox), has imo one of the worst Tekken Force mode (only Tekken 6's Tekken Force mode is imo worse and it's mainly because it's longer than the one in this game), and has imo one of the easiest final bosses (unless you're playing as Steve then it's pretty challenging, but that's because Steve sucks) in franchise history as I was able to beat all 8 Story Battle fights with Lei Wulong (according to the in game clock) in about 5 mins 7 seconds without losing a single round.

5. TimeSplitters - PS5 (PS2 Classics), est. playtime: 2 hrs, beat all the story levels on Normal difficulty earning 11 of 21 Trophies on 1/23/25
It's been a while since I had played this game (late 2001) so I was kinda surprised at how quickly I was able to tear through all the levels in story mode though to be honest there wasn't much of a story. I also think a lot of it has to do with the improved loading times as well as the game's auto aim/lock on system which made run & gunning in a tight squeeze something of a breeze. One thing I do remember back from when I originally played this game (other than the challenge where you gotta break so many window panes in under a set time limit) was that the true challenge of the game was beating Challenge Mode as well as unlocking all the cheats and characters by beating levels within a certain time on every difficulty.

6. TimeSplitters 2 - PS5 (PS2 Classics), est. playtime: 5 hrs, beat all the story mode levels w/all objectives complete on Normal difficulty earning 16 of 21 Trophies on 1/30/25
With all three TimeSplitters games now available on PS4/PS5 I decided that since I had revisited the first game that I should also revisit the second game as it's been nearly 20 years (2005-2006 ish) since I last played this game (first on the PS2 then on the GameCube) though unlike with the first TimeSplitters I didn't breeze through story mode which imo was a lot more cohesive compared to the original game. Overall the game was bigger & better than the original game and I really enjoyed my time revisiting the game, it's got me looking foward to finally playing TimeSplitter 3: Future Perfect (the lone TimeSplitters game I haven't played) as well as eventually trying to earn the Platinum trophy for all 3 games.

7. Sonic CD - PS5 (via Sonic Origins Collection), est. playtime: 2 hrs, beat the game in Anniversary mode with the Good Ending which I earned by getting all the Time Travel stones on 1/31/25
I'm a long time fan of Classic Sonic and up until a few years ago had played just about every 2D Sonic game with the exceptions of Sonic CD, Knuckles Chaotix, Tails Adventure, and the GBA/DS Sonic games. When I did finally play Sonic CD for the very first time (which was around 2012) I remember enjoying the opening cinematic & theme song (which I still do like) and that's about it as I stopped playing after reaching Collision Chaos Zone as I found the zone to be a pain in the @$$ to play through. Plus shortly after starting that playthrough I found out the game had a Good & Bad ending which apparently required going back to the Past in each Act finding Robotnik's Machine & destroying it, but I found the time travel mechanic to be poorly implimented which made going to/from the Past/Future a hassle. I finally revisited the game with the release of the Sonic Origins Collection which included the original as well as an improved "Anniversary" edtion of the game and pretty much all my initial thoughts of the game were re-confirmed so once again I stopped playing at Collision Chaos Zone, but planned on eventually brute forcing my way through the game as I intended to 100% complete the Sonic Origins Collection. Well fast forward to yesterday (1/30/25) I find out from talking to someone on the Backlog Beat Discord server that you don't need to do the time travel thing to get the good ending, you can doing by getting the game's version of the 7 Chaos Emeralds aka the 7 Time Crystals via the Special Stages (which required making it to the end of the Act with 50 rings) so with that in mind I once again jumped back into Sonic CD. Now that I've finally beaten the game with the Good Ending I can say that going that route made for a lot more enjoyable experience especially considering that you can use the gold coins you get in the Sonic Origins Collection to retry the Special Stages. Once I got all 7 Time Crystals I found the game to be a lot more enjoyable as I was able to speed through the game without having to worry about the time travel mechanic. Overall the game is still not my favorite Sonic game as the early levels imo suck and the boss fights are a bit too easy imo, but I did really dig the music and the opening/good ending cinematics.

8. TimeSplitters 3: Future Perfect - PS5 (PS2 Classics), est. playtime: 4 hrs, beat story mode on Normal difficulty earning 18 of 26 trophies on 2/4/25
This was the lone TimeSplitters game I hadn't played back when it first came out so I kinda went into this game blind, but now that I've beaten it I gotta say it's imo the most cohesive & story driven game in the entire series and I really liked it. Now initially I didn't as I wasn't a big fan of the game especially it's default controller settings, thankfully the game allows for custom settings so I was able to tweak the controls more to my liking and made the rest of my playthrough a lot more enjoyable. One of my favorite things about this game (other than the nod to Perfect Dark in one of the later levels) was that it carried on the story from the previous game as well as gave the character of Cortex a lot more personality than he had in the previous games.

9. Syphon Filter - PS5 (PS1 Classics), est. playtime: 6 hrs, beat the game's story mode on normal/default difficulty & earned the Platinum Trophy on 2/13/25
Being a long time Playstation user I've over the years dabbled in the Syphon Filter series, but could never really get into it mainly due to the controls which I didn't find to be all that intuitive. On top of that there was imo a far better steath action game on the system, Metal Gear Solid (a game so awesome I still have my original copy from 1998) so when the series got added to PS Plus Classics for PS4/PS5 I figured I'd finally give it a second chance. Overall it was ok, I liked the premise even though it was imo done better as a side story/subplot in MGS and the voice acting while imo hammy as hell had a little bit of charm to it. My biggest gripe, other than the controls, has to do with how dark/limited draw distance the game had (which to be fair is not the game's fault since it was I believe a early PS1 game) making navigating levels a bit of a chore that led to a lot of back tracking on my part. While I wasn't blown away by the game I do intend on eventually tackling the other games in the series to see if/how it evolves in the later games.

10. Syphon Filter 2 - PS5 (PS1 Classics), est. playtime: 8 hrs, beat the game on normal/default difficulty & earned the Platinum Trophy (which was easier than SP as it they were unmissable) on 2/14/25
I originally wasn't gonna play this game so soon after the first one since I was not a big fan of the game, but my curioustity got the better of me so I decided to check it out. Now I came into this game with low expectations, but with a small glimmer of hope that the sequel would be better. Outside of a game breaking glitch (where Logan would only run in essentially 1 direction and would make boss fights un beatable if it occurred at the start of a boss battle), the rough 3rd person camera that sticks to the main character, and a few levels full of essentially unkillable armor enemies that can 1 shot kill you I actually really enjoyed this game. It was imo a vast improvement over it's predecessor as it had a more interesting, cohesive story & level design than the first game. I also like how the first half of the game it jumps back & forth between Logan & Xing, that there were more stealth sections (also you had the option to either be stealthy or go loud in a number of the levels), and that the controls had been improved over the previous game.

11. Tomb Raider II Remastered - PS5, est. playtime: 24 hrs, beat the game on normal difficulty and earned all but 6 of the game's Trophies on 2/21/25
I have a lot of fond memories & PTSD from this game (the Maria Doria levels, the last 2 levels, and being harrassed by the creepy old butler) as this was the 3rd PS1 game I ever owned (Crash Bandicoot & Lost World: Jurassic Park were the other 2), but the first one I bought with my own money just after Christmas the year it came out/got released (1997) as my sister & I had gotten a PS1 for Christmas. Since I got the TR 1-3 Remastered collection for my b-day this past year I figured it was fitting that I start with the first Tomb Raider game I ever played, Tomb Raider II, and even though it's been over 20 years since I did a full playthrough of the game I was surprised at how much I remembered from my original playthrough. Areas that I remember giving me trouble during my original playthrough on the PS1 seemed to go a lot better than I thought they would, some areas I remember breezing through gave me some (but not much) trouble, and there were still a few things (the shark & spiders) that still freaked me out/brought up some PTSD from my original playthrough. All in all it was a blast from the past revisiting Tomb Raider II after all these years and while I am tempted to 100% complete the game's new trophies I think I'm gonna hold off until I've played all the other games in the collection especially the TR II bonus game/expansion The Golden Mask that was originally included in the PC Gold Edition of the game as I've never played it before since I played pretty much all the classic TR games on the PS1 instead of PC so it should be an interesting experience checking them out for the very first time.

12.Gran Turismo 7 - PS5, est. playtime: 39 + hrs, completed all the base game menu books for Cafe Mode (aka Story mode) on 2/28/25

13. Jurassic Park NES - PS5 (via Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection), est. playtime: 3+ hrs, beat the game on 3/1/25
I'm a big fan of the Jurassic Park series (I saw the movie in theaters like 3 times as a kid), but when it came to Jurassic Park video games, especially the 8 bit, 16 bit, & 32 bit ones I'd only really played 3 of them (2 of the 3 Jurassic Park games, namely Jurassic Park & Jurassic Park: Rampage Edition for the Sega Genesis and the Lost World: Jurassic Park for the PS1) and of those 3 I'd only ever really beaten 2 of them (Jurassic Park for the Sega Genesis & Lost World: Jurassic Park for the PS1) so I was really interested in seeing how the non Sega Genesis games (which I, due to nostalgia & being a vet of "The Console Wars", viewed as the superior games over the NES/SNES/GB games) played. Well lets just say I was not impressed by Jurassic Park for the NES and that the only parts I really liked were the T-Rex battles & the mini levels that required you to dodge rampaging Triceratops. Based on the little previews of all the games in the collection it looks like the first GB and SNES games are gonna be very similar to the NES game, which I'm not too thrilled about but hopefully they'll turn out better than I expect them to be.

14. Sly Cooper and the Thievious Raccoonus - PS5 (via PS + Premium Classics), est playtime: 6hrs, beat the game with 83% in-game completion (did everything but the time trials) and 95% trophy completion on 3/6/25
I originally played this game when it first came out back in 2002 and really enjoyed it, but never really beat it (got as far as the Panda King levels) because my sister (who I had made the mistake of introducing to the game) took over my playthrough and finished the game before I could do it myself so it was kinda nice to finally beat the game after all these years. Now that I've finally beaten this game I'm thinking of tackling both Sly 2 & 3 as I've never really played either game (after Sly 1 my sister became obsessed with the series so she got every Sly game after Sly 1) outside of the rare instance of helping my sister get through a difficult section, but may make a couple of detours before I do tackle them.

Danny Dudekisser · Jan 1, 2025

This is the year. I'm going to fucking do it. I haven't attempted it since 2021, then life got complicated. Now, it's simple: I've got 52 weeks and I'm gonna fucking do this.

1. Front Mission (DS) - 1/2 - 22 Hours
Started this one about a week ago, but I finished it in the New Year, so it totally counts. I've wanted to play this game for a long time, and I enjoyed it. It's a solid SRPG, though one that doesn't have a ton of nuance to it. The game was pretty damn tough at the outset, but the difficulty is definitely frontloaded and became a breeze closer to the end. There were a few relatively minor drawbacks like the cumbersome menus and the fact that killing enemies can take forever (especially earlier in the game), but it was ultimately a really satisfying experience and one that I'm glad I finally got around to. I played the OCU campaign, which is original storyline from the SFC version - I'll play the UCS campaign at some point, but... I need a break. 7/10

2. Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword (DS) - 1/5 - 4 Hours
I revisited NG: DS for the first time since my initial playthrough back in... man, what was it? 2009? Maybe 2008? I remember being kind of dismissive of the game when it first got announced because it was going to be almost entirely controlled by touch. Gave it a shot anyway and ended up having a great time, and that's still the case today. This remains a really fun game that distills Ninja Gaiden into a game that's super easy to pick up and play and immediately have fun with. Combat is satisfying, the game looks and sound great, and it doesn't overstay its welcome... which is just as well, as there's really not a ton of depth to the proceedings. It's a game that still feels novel today, and it does prompt one to wonder what mobile gaming would've been like if it'd leaned more in this direction as opposed to what it ultimately became. 8/10

3. Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen (DS) - 1/19 - 27 Hours
I bought DQIV back when it first came out on the DS in 2008 and couldn't get into it. I was looking for something darker and angstier, and that ain't Dragon Quest. I'd been meaning to give this one another shot for a while, so I rebought it and ended up really enjoying it this time. What makes this game work is that it's charming and mechanically simple - it does the stuff I want an RPG to do, but doesn't get bogged down on a million different gameplay systems. There were aspects of the game that were a bit obtuse, and I wish it had been a little clearer where you need to go at times... and the game really needed some more music -- but those are pretty minor quibbles with what remains a damn solid RPG that's totally worth replaying today. I'll eventually get to the other DS games, hopefully later this year. 8/10

4. Dino Crisis (PC) - 2/3 - ~10 Hours
GOG randomly re-released Dino Crisis, all fixed up so that it actually runs on modern machines. They did a good job - it works out of the box, just the way you'd hope, and is definitely the best version of the game since it has high-res visuals, but without the smeared textures or weird lighting from the DC version. Neat! Anyway, this is my first time really playing the game - I'd played maybe 15 minutes of it on a couple occasions in the past, but never stuck with it. To get the bad out of the way, this is the game where Capcom took all the excesses of Resident Evil and just went completely nuts - there are puzzles and passwords and keycards -- my God are there a lot of keycards. It's a really disjointed game where combat is kinda useless and it's really all about solving asinine logic puzzles that make no sense in the game's context (this is the most convoluted research lab ever concocted, seriously.) At times, it feels like a point-and-click adventure where you're wandering aimlessly trying to figure out what to do next to get the game to advance, and the way using items works is frequently inconsistent. When I got to the credits and saw that Shu Takumi - the guy that later went on to do Phoenix Wright - played a major role, it made a lot more sense how this game turned out the way it did (and I love PW, for the record). But while the puzzles were ridiculous, I still felt compelled to blow through the game in a scant few days. I definitely liked it. But man, it is a mess at times. 6.5/10

5. Dino Crisis 2 (PC) - 2/5 - 4 Hours
Now this is more like it. I've played through DC2 a few times at this point, and I always have a great time going back to it. It's a complete departure from the original and is now a pure action game where you'll kill more dinos in one room than you did in the entirety of Dino Crisis 1. I'd liken the feel to Onimusha with guns, and one of my favorite aspects of the game is how it can feel like a beat-em-up at times, with the way the game encourages you to group enemies together and lay waste to them with a super-powered single shot to rack up a big combo. The game still feels exceptionally snappy and - at 4 hours - doesn't overstay its welcome and instead just delivers consistent fun. The PC port of this game is kind of hit-or-miss in terms of how it stacks up against the original. The 3D assets obviously look better due to the resolution bump, but the backgrounds feel a bit blurred compared to the PS1 originals and there are a few visual effects (like motion blur) that aren't as pronounced on PC. It's been a while since I've played the original, but the music quality might be a bit better on PC... but then, the songs don't loop properly. Solid port overall that does bring some improvements to the table, though my vote would still be for the original game overall. Either way, though? It's great. 9/10

6. Trauma Center: Under the Knife (DS) - 2/8 - 7 Hours
I bought Trauma Center right when it first came out back in 2005. I thought it was a great game, but hit a wall at one of the levels with a huge difficulty spike, and dropped it. Then the Wii remake came out a scant year later, and I figured I didn't need the DS version anymore. Of course, over time I realized that the two versions are totally different experiences, and finally rebought the DS game this year. So yeah - it took me almost 20 years, but I finally finished the game. And man, did I earn it. Trauma Center is brutal. Especially towards the end, the difficulty is absolutely soul-crushing and demands every ounce of precision you can muster. Fortunately, it's also still really fun. The game's whole in-game gimmick is that you're a doctor that has the "Healing Touch" ability that lets him operate at superhuman speeds, and it sure feels like it as you're whipping that stylus all over the screen. Playing doctor really did end up being one of the best uses of the touch screen the DS ever saw, and while the controls are occasionally a bit finnicky, it's still a fresh, engaging experience today. But hard as hell. My hand really hurts now. 8/10

7. SPRAWL (PC) - 2/13 - 5 Hours
This one seemed like it'd absolutely be my jam - a fast-paced FPS with an emphasis on high-mobility, replete with a gloomy dystopian aesthetic. It was a decent enough game, but pretty far from any sort of greatness. There are a lot of minor issues that add up - it's basically death by a thousand paper cuts. The game's central gimmick is that you can wall-run and slide and use slo-mo to dispatch your foes. And those all work as advertised, except that the wallrunning and sliding quickly devolve into a throwaway gimmicks that don't have much impact on the proceedings. For those to be useful in combat, you need to use slo-mo, and you have way too little of that at your disposal, plus it can be a pain to recharge at times. So for the most part, you're just running around like a spaz trying to avoid enemy fire and occasionally shoot back. Where the wheels really fall off, though, is the gunplay. Pretty much all of the weapons in the game have major shortcomings. The pistols and SMGs are far too weak as you get farther into the game, making them kind of useless - enemies get super spongy and often require 4 headshots to take down. That takes all the satisfaction out of accurate shooting. The shotgun only has one shot that's super slow to reload, so if you go into slow-mo, it'll run out before you can get a second shot off. That's annoying. The gauss rifle-sorta thing takes too long to charge before firing off a shot. The chaingun makes you walk slower for some reason, but other seemingly heavier weapons don't. The rocket launcher is inaccurate to the point of uselessness. And these problems compound, because the enemies will frequently swarm you and you'll often feel like you have no good way to defend or fight back. The game also doesn't give you nearly enough feedback for when you take damage or for when you're damaging enemies, so it can feel like you're dying at random and it's hard to tell if you actually hit an enemy from their reactions to being shot. So, yeah - there are a lot of issues. Even so, it's a pretty fun game and I did like it enough to finish it, but this one could've used some more time in the oven. 6/10

8. OlliOlli (PC) - 2/15 - 1.5 Hours
Another middling indie game - I'm not having a lot of luck, apparently. I'd played a bit of OlliOlli years back (we're talking like 15 minutes or so) and thought it was pretty fun, but I never got around to really playing the thing. I randomly decided to sit down and blow through the whole thing in an evening on the normal difficulty and... it's fine? The core mechanics are fun. Doing tricks feels good, and getting a good flow through a given level is really satisfying... but the game can feel a bit fiddly at times, particularly when you find yourself missing jumps you totally should have made, because your character is still spinning in the air. There are niggling issues like that preventing the game's controls from feeling truly reliable. The bigger issue, which pops up later on in the game, is that levels are really designed with a "correct" line in mind, and there's not a lot of opportunity for experimentation. A score-attack focused game like this needs to be a bit more freeform in how its levels are designed. The game also throws a bunch of objectives outside of scoring at you, like collecting items throughout the stage in a single run. These aren't fun. Unlike a game like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, you need to just be on the perfect line to collect them, otherwise you'll have to restart - it's all the worst traits of modern indie platformers and their insistence on "die and retry" design. The other issue is that there's no real feeling of progression in the game - it's just a series of levels, with a few different background themes. There's no real satisfaction to clearing a level as a result - it basically has the scope of a flash game on Newgrounds. The art is also amateur hour - the backgrounds look like crap and the foregrounds can be visually confusing at times and are often hard to read when you're playing later stages for the first time. Ultimately, while the game's pretty fun, it has a superficial understanding of what makes platformers or THPS great. 6.5/10

9. Super Battle Princess Madelyn (exA Arcadia) - 2/18 - N/A Hours
It's been a couple of months since I've played this one, but I've kept it in the arcade rotation for a while because it's just a super fun and relaxing game to go back to. SBPM is essentially a full-on remake of Battle Princess Madelyn that actually delivers the arcade game that the devs promised back when they ran the Kickstarter years ago. It's immensely more polished and more fun than the other versions of the game out there, and it's a really satisfying game overall. The level designs are tight, the controls feel great (and any action-platformer that lets you fire super fast by mashing the attack button gets bonus points), and the artwork is really well-done. There are some minor letdowns here and there, like some bosses that are overly simplistic, throwaway battles; but it's nothing that holds the game back too significantly. My playthrough this time around was on the more difficult Exa Mode, and I managed to not just 1CC it, but No Miss it. Which... I pretty much always do at this point because I find the game pretty easy. But dammit, it's fun. 8/10

10. Gimmick Exact Mix (exA Arcadia) - 2/18 - N/A Hours
Well, I'm on a bit of an arcade kick, so I figured it couldn't hurt to play through one of my other favorites. Gimmick Exact Mix is a remake of the Famicom original that basically just takes everything up to the next level. The visuals are basically how you remember the game looking (though they've been substantially enhanced, and the original graphics are available as an option), and the arranged soundtrack is phenomenal. The gameplay is absolutely rock solid. It's a tough game to learn, but an incredibly satisfying game to go back to and breeze through whenever you're bored. And I did - this game remains an easy 1CC for me, and something that's actually pretty relaxing after getting so good at it. I don't think this game will ever stop being fun. 9/10

11. Super Meat Boy (PC) - 3/2 - N/A Hours
Stuck on a plane and bored, I randomly decided to fire up an old favorite. I used to speedrun Super Meat Boy and was close to the record at some point long, long ago... but it's been a few years since I've played any of it. I had no trouble immediately coming to grips with the game again and - despite playing on a keyboard (which is NOT ideal), I was able to rip through the game about as easily as I ever could. Even if I was a bit rusty. The game's aged incredibly well. I still love that SMB focuses purely on movement tech instead of gimmicks - it's mind-boggling how much control you have over the character. While I enjoy Celeste and some of the other, later games that have gotten a lot of plaudits, I don't think any other indie platformer has demonstrated the same mastery of core mechanics and focused level design. For this playthrough, I played the updated version of SMB that came out in 2018, which fixes some of the glitches (mostly bugs where hitting a platform at the wrong angle would accidentally kill you) and adds in the arranged soundtrack as an option. I still use the OST, but the new music has some really good tracks, too... outside of the first world's weird banjo music. Anyway, the game's still a classic after all this time, and anyone who hasn't played the game yet really should. 10/10

Psychotic_Mantis · Jan 1, 2025

2025 - 25/52

1. Daymare: 1998 (PS4) - 6/10
2. Dr. Mario: Miracle Cure (3DS) - 8/10
3. Where's Waldo (NES) - 3/10
4. Princess Peach: Showtime! (Switch) - 7/10
5. Donkey Kong/DK Jr./ DK 3 (NES) - 8/10
6. Blue Fire (PS4) - 6/10
7. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles NES (Switch) - 8/10
8. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters - NES (Switch) - 6/10
9. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade (Switch) - 8/10
10. WarioWare Gold (3DS) - 8/10
11. Medal of Honor: Airborne (Xbox 360) - 6/10
12. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist (Switch) - 7/10
13. The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants (NES) - 5/10
14. The Flintstones: The Rescue of Dino & Hoppy (NES) - 7/10
15. The Last of Us: Part II (PS5) - 9/10
16. Star Fox 64 (Wii U) - 9/10
17. Home Alone 2 (NES) - 6/10
18. Hidden Expedition: Titanic (3DS) - 7/10
19. Sorcery (PS3) - 6/10
20. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Footclan (Switch) - 7/10
21. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Back from the Sewers (Switch) - 8/10
22. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters Genesis (Switch) - 4/10
23. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Arcade (Switch) - 8/10
24. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters SNES (Switch) - 6/10
25. Space Quest V: The Next Mutation (PC) - 7/10

Currently Playing:
Mystery Scrolls (Playdate)
What the Bat? (Meta Quest 3)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Cowabunga Collection (Switch)
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Remastered (PS4)

2018 List - 68 Games
2019 List - 69 Games
2020 List - 95 Games
2021 List - 68 Games
2022 List - 80 Games
2023 List - 76 Games
2024 List - 107 Games

yamaci17 · Jan 1, 2025

I'm in!

1. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle - 85/100

ShadyAcshuns · Jan 1, 2025

Reserved, maybe.

PendekarRajawali · Jan 1, 2025

After being silent reader for years, let’s do this.

Jooxed · Jan 1, 2025

Completions 23/52

Game 1 - While We Wait Here - PC - 1/2/25 - Personal Rating 7/10, Fun little cozy game, has multiple endings but I don't see myself going back for more. You are working in a diner at the end of the world getting the patrons thoughts on the impending apocalypse, cool graphic choice and interesting concept. thought it could be a little bit longer, beat it in a couple hours.

Game 2 - This Bed We Made - PC - 1/3/25 - Personal Rating 8/10, Interesting, game kept me engaged until the end only took me about three hours to complete, apparently there is multiple endings based on decisions that you make throughout the game but no real desire to play through again.

Game 3 - Stasis - Macbook - 1/5/25 - Personal Rating 7/10 - Fun isometric sci fi horror game. Needed to use a guide on some of the puzzles, a couple of them were pretty hard, interesting ending left open to interpretation. Looking forward to the sequels to see more about Cayne lore.

Game 4 - Cayne - PC - 1/5/25 - Personal Rating 8/10 - Okay the sequel was much shorter than the first game only about 3 hours. Definitely a step up graphically, story wasn't as intriguing but the puzzles were more manageable IMO. Will probably take a break before starting game 3 in the series.

Game 5 - Silent Hill 2 Remake - PC - 1/9/25 - Personal Rating 9/10 - Fantastic game and my first entry into the silent hill series, I was apprehensive because I haven't been the biggest fan from bloober but the game was awesome. great environment design, look forward if they are redoing any more after this one.

Game 6 - RimWorld - PC - 1/12/25 - 6/10- Fun game i spent a few hours on. The score is only low because I am not a big strategy game person. My brother convinced me to give it a shot. Some aspects were super enjoyable, but strategy games remain not my cup of tea

Game 7 - Devotion - PC - 1/13/25 - 6/10 - Waited a while to play this game since they pulled it from steam, had a couple of great atmospheric set pieces but it fell a little short for me. Detention was a superior game in my opinion. Still enjoyed it enough to get through it in 3 hours.

Game 8 - Mouthwashing - PC - 1/14/25 - 7/10 - Wow, I have no idea what i just played. Some great subject matter and interesting art design, another short one (trying to clear my horror PC backlog before I move on to these long RPGS), I need to go think about this one for a little while

Game 9 - Two Point Campus - PC - 1/17/25 - 8/10 - I have never played a two point game before.. SUPER FUN. Sat there for hours constructing my campus. Looking very much forward to Museum and I purchased Hospital also to give it a go. Great game.

Game 10 - Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen - PC - Ongoing (72 hours so far) - 9/10 - Awesome MMO, I will be playing this off and on as its still in early access but if your a fan of old school MMO's like everquest, do yourself a favor and support the early access. I think the final product is going to be something special

Game 11 - Amnesia: The Dark Descent - PC - 1/20/25 - 7/10 - After hearing about this game for a long time I finally started it yesterday and finished it today. The puzzles were fun but I didn't think it was super scary or anything. Interesting story also purchased SOMA Rebirth and Bunker so they might be next.

Game 12 - SOMA - PC - 1/25/25 - 8/10 - I need to go question my existence

Game 13 - The Cabin Factory - PC - 2/2/25 - 7/10 - Creepy little fun horror game. You inspect cabins for hauntings. Not much to it but it had some fun jump scares.

Game 14 - Amnesia: Rebirth - PC - 2/3/25 - 6/10 - Enjoyed the game. Not as good as SOMA or Dark descent but pretty good. Looking forward to the bunker.

Game 15 - The Convenience Store - PC 2/9/25 - 6/10 - Fun little horror game, not a great ending, also not as scary as someone hyped it up to be to me.

Game 16 - While Sleeping - PC - 2/9/25 - 8/10 - Another short indie horror, Korean study, game scared the shit out of me in multiple parts. Definitely recommend if you like horror games you can play in one sitting.

Game 17 - The Closing Shift - PC - 2/14/25 - 7/10 - Creepy game about a barista being stalked, enjoyed it. Kept mixing up drink orders.

Game 18 - Check Out - PC - 2/14/25 - 6/10 - Another spooky game about trying to check out of a hotel room. Few more scares than i expected but the ending fell a little flat for me.

Game 19 - The Mortuary Assistant - PC -2/15/25 - 7/10 - Enjoyed this one quite a bit, definitely very creepy.

Game 20 - Pillars of Eternity - PC - 2/20/25 - 7/10 - Super fun RPG, was really into it through most of the game. Started the series because I wanted to get some backstory before avowed.

Game 21 - From the Darkness - PC -2/21/25 - 7/10 - Another spooky game crossed off from the backlog, a few good jump scares and creepy design. Fairly decent. back to Pillars 2

Game 22 - Is Simon There? - PC - 3/1/25 - 7/10 - Had a few jump scare moments, game about coming to terms with death, not bad overall.

Game 23 - What Remains of Edith Finch? - PC - 3/3/25 - 7/10 - Decent walking simulator, good story, just not the biggest fan of walking simulators.

Dacvak · Jan 1, 2025

Don't mind if I kick this off with the first entry of the year!

So, every few years, I do what I like to call "The Mario Gauntlet", which consists of playing every single mainline Mario game in order of release (with a bit of wiggle room).

THE LIST:

Super Mario Bros

Super Mario Bros 2 (J)

Super Mario Bros 2 (USA)

Super Mario Bros 3

Super Mario Land

Super Mario World

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island

Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3

Super Mario 64

Super Mario Sunshine

New Super Mario Bros
Super Mario Galaxy
New Super Mario Bros Wii
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Super Mario 3D Land (And I'll toss in Bowser's Fury as well)
New Super Mario Bros 2
New Super Mario Bros U
Super Mario 3D World
Super Mario Odyssey
Super Mario Wonder

Usually I'll start with the classic SMB on the NES, but this year I decided to play the 4 NES games on the Super Nintendo via Mario All-Stars. I just finished the OG and Lost Levels, so...

Super Mario Bros [via Super Mario All-Stars] (SNES) - 1/1

What can I say, it's a classic. But surprisingly, I think the All-Stars version is actually worse than the NES version. At least to me. The physics aren't identical, and there's some weird hitbox stuff with piranha plants, and jumping through brick blocks.

Still, it's a really good game, and a fun quick romp.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Super Mario Bros 2 (J) [via Super Mario All-Stars] (SNES) - 1/1

And following up arguably the greatest game of all time released at that point is this stinky, stupid turd. This is Miyamoto's emo phase, clearly. The level design in this game is just bad and designed to piss off the player. There are random kaizo blocks everywhere, there are a few instances of pick-a-path, and it's just a terrible experience compared to the original game. If I got these levels in Super Mario Maker, I'd boo them for sure.

Still, it's a Mario game, so it's got some merit, and the gameplay is still super fun. I'll be generous since I love my man Mario and give this a

Blindy · Jan 2, 2025

PS5:
2) Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist(PLATNIUM) 1/25-1/30
3) A Space for the Unbound(PLATNIUM) 1/2, 1/5, 1/13, 1/31, 2/3
Tails of Iron 2 1/29,
Marvel Rivals 1/1-
NCAA Football 25(SEASON 2)- 1/1-

XBX

Nintendo Switch:
1) Donkey Kong Country Returns HD 1/16-1/22, 1/24-1/25
Another Code: Recollection 1/7, 1/12

PS4

PS3

PC/Mobile

BusierDonkey · Jan 2, 2025

15 games completed
418 hours so far

3 - NES
2 - SNES
1 - Nintendo 64
1 - Gamecube
3 - Wii
3 - Playstation
2 - Steam

Killer8 · Jan 2, 2025

Lost track last year with life so I only finished about 12 games. This year i'm going to give it a proper go. I already have half a dozen games on the go that are close to the end.

wyvern_bloodfist · Jan 2, 2025

reserved. Hoping for the best. Cheers Lads

marcincz · Jan 2, 2025

Game 1 - Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars (NDS) - 20h 01m
Beat 05/01/2025 - my score: 9/10

Game 2 - Final Fantasy III (NDS) - 34h 10m
Beat 06/01/2025 - my score: 7/10

Game 3 - The Thaumaturge (PS5) - 22h 23m
Beat 19/01/2025 - my score: 8/10

Game 4 - My First Gran Turismo (PS5) - 01h 12m
Beat 19/01/2025 - my score: 8/10

Game 5 - The Bunker (PS4) - 02h 02m
Beat 19/01/2025 - my score: 4/10

Game 6 - Astro Bot - dlc Winter Wonder (PS5) - 00h 53m
Beat 21/01/2025 - my score: 8/10

Game 7 - Space Ace (PS4) - 00h 28m
Beat 08/02/2025 - my score: 6/10

Game 8 - Dragon's Lair 2: Time Warp (PS4) - 00h 50m
Beat 08/02/2025 - my score: 6/10

Game 9 - Dragon's Lair (PS4) - 00h 31m
Beat 09/02/2025 - my score: 7/10

Game 10 - Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (PS5) - 06h 28m
Beat 11/02/2025 - my score: 8/10

Game 11 - Alan Wake Remastered (PS5) - 12h 31m
Beat 16/02/2025 - my score: 8/10

Game 12 - Alan Wake Remastered - dlc the Signal (PS5) - 01h 47m
Beat 18/02/2025 - my score: 5/10

Game 13 - Alan Wake Remastered - dlc the Writer (PS5) - 01h 44m
Beat 19/02/2025 - my score: 6/10

Perrott · Jan 2, 2025

No.	Game Title	Platform	Date Completed	Score
01	Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair	PlayStation Vita	January 3rd, 2025	★★★★★

Jooxed · Jan 2, 2025

We are on the board already didn't expect the first one to be so short!

Game 1 - While We Wait Here - PC - 1/2/25 - Personal Rating 7/10, Fun little cozy game, has multiple endings but I don't see myself going back for more. You are working in a diner at the end of the world getting the patrons thoughts on the impending apocalypse, cool graphic choice and interesting concept. thought it could be a little bit longer, beat it in a couple hours.

Dontkidyourselfjimmy · Jan 2, 2025

Another poor year for me 2024 results. Got a portal for Christmas so hopefully that will help clear some of the backlog currently playing fallout 4.

Me 2024

1) GTA V PS5 06/01 (7/10) would have been around an 8-8.5 but the glitch I had forcing me to replay 10ish hours soured it for me. Shorter than I was expecting.
2)The Calisto protocol PS5 15/01 (6.5/10)
3)Sea of stars Series X 21/02 (8/10)
4)2112td Android 17/03 (7/10)
5)Kingdom Rush Origins android 23/03 (7/10)
6)Final Fantasy 7 Remake PS5 14/05 (10/10)
7)Final fantasy 7 Remake intermission 04/06 (9.5/10)
8)A short hike series X 24/04 (6/10)
9)Call of duty MW3 series X 24/04 (3/10)
10)Shadow of the Erdtree series X 05/08 (9/10)
11)Doom legacy of rust series X 20/10 (8.5/10)
12)Call of duty Blops6 Series X 03/11 (8/10)

The Mrs 2024

1)Witcher 3 Hearts of stone 07/01 (9/10)
2)Dave the diver switch 14/01 (10/10)
3)Sakuna of rice and Ruin PS5 05/04 (9/10)
4)Botany Manor series X 12/04 (7/10)
5)Tomb Raider (2013) PS5 15/05 (7/10)
6)Rise of the Tomb Raider PS5 20/05 (8/10)
7)Shadow of the Tomb Raider PS5 28/05 (9/10)
8)God of war (2018) PS5 10/06 (10/10)
9)Kena PS5 06/07 (8/10)
10)Detroit become human PS5 08/07 (9.5/10)
11)Heavy Rain PS5 23/07 (4/10)
12)Beyond two souls PS5 07/08 (7/10)
13)Horizon Zero Dawn PS5 03/11 (10/10)
14)Horizon The Frozen wilds PS5 10/11 (9/10)
15)The last of us remake PS5 15/12 (10/10)

The Mrs 2025

1)Harold Halibut Series X 02/03 (6.5/10)

Me 2025

1)Fallout 4 PS5 06/02 (7/10)
2)Resident Evil 3 Remake Series X 15/02 (7.5/10)
3)Doom Deathless Series X 16/02 (8/10)
4)Still Wakes The Deep Series X 17/02 (6/10)

Dthomp · Jan 2, 2025

1. Yakuza: Like a Dragon (PS5)
2. Like a Dragon Gaiden: The man who erased his name (PS5)
3. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (PS5)
4. Stories Untold (PS4)
5. Strange Investigations Becoming (Steam)
6. High on Life (Ps4) Platinum Trophy
7. Tunic (PS5) Platinum Trophy
8. It Takes Two (PS5) Platinum Trophy
9. Minecraft Dungeons (PS4) Platinum Trophy
10. Brown Dust 2 - All Main Story Packs (PC/Mobile)
11. Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii (PS5) Platinum Trophy
12. Still Wakes the Deep (PS5) Platinum Trophy

Pantz · Jan 3, 2025

01 - Open Roads (XSX) [01/24/25]

March Climber · Jan 3, 2025

Dacvak said:
Super Mario Bros
Super Mario Bros 2 (J)
Super Mario Bros 2 (USA)
Super Mario Bros 3
Super Mario Land
Super Mario World
Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

In 2 days?

Dacvak · Jan 3, 2025

March Climber said:
In 2 days?

To be fair, I was using warps for the NES games. It also helps that I used to speedrun a lot of Mario’s. I cranked out all seven of those games in about 4-5 hours.

I’m already on Yoshi’s Island, which I’m gonna try to finish tonight, but it’s much longer. Most of the games are gonna be a lot longer from here on out.

LectureMaster · Jan 3, 2025

Dthomp said:
Reserving a spot, gonna try to be better on my tracking and actually getting through games this year then last

Nah, you just gonna put another 2000+ hours in destiny and Isaac, lol.

LectureMaster · Jan 3, 2025

Huge respect to you guys, and kinda envious. The only year I finished 50+ games was 2020 during COVID.

Bridges · Jan 3, 2025

Only finished 19 games last year but let's see how close I can get this time

EDIT: and so the list begins:

1. Slitterhead (Xbox)
2. Frogun (Xbox)

Up next: Dishonored Definitive Edition

Jooxed · Jan 3, 2025

Game 2 - This Bed We Made - PC - 1/3/25 - Personal Rating 8/10, Interesting, game kept me engaged until the end only took me about three hours to complete, apparently there is multiple endings based on decisions that you make throughout the game but no real desire to play through again.

jshackles · Jan 3, 2025

I've finished three games in the last three days. I'm on track to finish 365 games this year! (ha, if only!)

BusierDonkey · Jan 4, 2025

Game 1

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - Playstation - 200.6% Completion

I had planned on hitting 200.6% but forgot to grab an item hidden in a ceiling I might go back for (Done). This game sits in my top ten favorite games ever made. The music, atmosphere, and exploration really made this a fun game to return to. I haven't played this game in decades, the last time being on my PS1 during some time off work. It really holds up well with almost nothing to complain about outside a couple "for the time" nitpicks (like the polygonal objects in the game that look terrible next to the fantastic pixel art). It controls snappy, fights are fun, all the items you find have a use and there are a ton of secrets to discover. The soundtrack in this game is amazing and includes everything from your standard Castlevania fare to jazzy beats, the voice acting is a special kind of awful befitting the era. The only game of this type I rate higher than this is Super Metroid, mainly due to how that game's very well-designed map doesn't need warp rooms or loading hallways.

marcincz · Jan 5, 2025

Game 1 - Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars (NDS) - 20h 01m
Beat 05/01/2025 - my score: 9/10

Beat first title in 2025.
Played for first time and it is a fantastic point and click game. From The Longest Journey I haven't played better adventure game.

BusierDonkey · Jan 5, 2025

Game 2

CTR: Crash Team Racing - Completed Adventure mode 100%

This a game I never even touched on the Playstation back in the day. I love Mario Kart and have played every one of them so it's a bit odd I never played this on my Playstation. The game is fantastic. From a visual standpoint, it's closer to Diddy Kong Racing than Mario Kart 64. While I still might place both Diddy Kong Racing and Mario Kart 64 (battle mode never got old in Mario Kart 64) higher on my list of favorite kart racers than this, I'm really glad I finally played this. I know there is a remastered Nitro-Fueled version of the game, but I wanted to play the original. The game is a lot bouncier than most Mario Kart games and feels looser, power sliding isn't as simple to pull off and serves more to prolong your speed boosts from hopping off jumps/peaks, but you get used to it quickly, at least enough to keep at the front of the pack. Powerups aren't as precise as in Mario Kart either, you know a red shell is going to hit the second you release it, homing missiles in this game tend to stray into walls way too often. The adventure mode is where I spent most of my time in this game, and it falls a bit short of Diddy Kong Racing. The overworld is nothing memorable. There isn't really any exploration to be done there. The regular races are pretty straightforward with heavy rubber banding and what feels at times like outright cheating by the CPU characters, so standard kart racing game fare. The relic races, CTR Challenges and crystal collecting rounds I had more fun with, trying to win races while collecting hidden coins, complete time trials while struggling to hit crates to freeze the clock and collecting crystals while doing platforming in the karts was a lot of fun. The boss races were a little more annoying with them spamming attacks. Oxide in particular just constantly dumps potion bottles that spin you out, slow you down and produce a cloud that obstructs the center of the screen which means you'll probably hit another potion bottle immediately. If you can't get ahead of him right away, you might as well restart. Despite that, I had a lot of fun with this one. It sits at the high end of the kart racing genre, definitely above par.

Jooxed · Jan 5, 2025

Game 3 - Stasis - Macbook - 1/5/25 - Personal Rating 7/10 - Fun isometric sci fi horror game. Needed to use a guide on some of the puzzles, a couple of them were pretty hard, interesting ending left open to interpretation. Looking forward to the sequels to see more about Cayne lore.

Jooxed · Jan 6, 2025

Game 4 - Cayne - PC - 1/5/25 - Personal Rating 8/10 - Okay the sequel was much shorter than the first game only about 3 hours. Definitely a step up graphically, story wasn't as intriguing but the puzzles were more manageable IMO. Will probably take a break before starting game 3 in the series.

marcincz · Jan 6, 2025

Game 2 - Final Fantasy III (NDS) - 34h 10m
Beat 06/01/2025 - my score: 7/10

Finally, beat it.
Started on July '24. It was long journey for me. Not my favourite FF, but finished.

Midn1ght · Jan 6, 2025

52 games challenge 2025
Completed: 11/52
Completionist Profile

No.	Game Title	Platform	Month	Score
01.	Emily is Away	PC \| Steam	January	7/10
02.	Emily is Away Too	PC \| Steam	January	8/10
03.	The Disney Afternoon Collection: Chip 'n Dale	PC \| Steam	January	7/10
04.	The Disney Afternoon Collection: Chip 'n Dale 2	PC \| Steam	January	6/10
05.	The Disney Afternoon Collection: TaleSpin	PC \| Steam	January	5/10
06.	The Disney Afternoon Collection: Darkwing Duck	PC \| Steam	February	6/10
07.	The Disney Afternoon Collection: DuckTales	PC \| Steam	February	7/10
08.	The Disney Afternoon Collection: DuckTales 2	PC \| Steam	February	7/10
09.	Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town	Switch	February	7.5/10
10.	Yoshi's Crafted World	Switch	February	8.5/10
11.	Animal Crossing: New Horizons	Switch	February	9/10

solecon64 · Jan 6, 2025

I took somewhat of a break from gaming between 2020 to 2023, only beating about 2 - 4 games each year. But last year I really came back to the hobby and managed to beat 24 games after Shadow of the Erdtree launched. Hope I can manage to do the 52 games challenge this year, so here it is:

1. Final Fantasy
( Nintendo Switch - 19 h - Jan 05 )
2. Astebreed
( Nintendo Switch - 2 h - Jan 07 )
3. Final Fantasy III
( Nintendo Switch - 24 h - Jan 17 )

SpiceRacz · Jan 7, 2025

Finished Dark Souls 2 SOTFS. Was around 30 hours all said and done. This is my 2nd time playing it, the last time being maybe 7 or 8 years ago. So, I wasn't compelled to complete everything. It's flawed, but still great and totally worth playing if you have any interest in the series.

NahaNago · Jan 7, 2025

I'd like to finish more than a handful of games this year so let's try this again. I think I only beat astrobot, stellar blade, and wukong last year even though I bought dozens of games .

1. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade Wrath of the Mutants about 1 hour on Jan 8th 2.5/10
The turtles looked fine at least.

2. Final Vendetta I've played about 30 minutes. 6/10
I cheated and lowered the difficulty to easy, but why does it go from hard mode to easy mode. The game is short and sweet and has a good amount of characters and bosses for the size of the game. It's good but I'm left wanting more altogether.

TuFaN · Jan 9, 2025

#1⠀|⠀Super Mario Land⠀|⠀Game Boy⠀|⠀1-Jan-2025⠀|⠀1 hour⠀|⠀10/10

SML remains to be the perfect handheld title for me. This is pure perfection.

#2⠀|⠀Anno 1800⠀|⠀PC⠀|⠀9-Jan-2025⠀|⠀30 hours⠀|⠀07/10

After spending 30 hours with Anno 1800 and completing the campaign on normal difficulty, I’d rate the game a solid 7/10. The variety of building options is impressive, offering deep and rewarding gameplay as you manage cities during the Industrial Revolution.

However, while Anno 1800 excels in its complexity and visuals, it doesn’t surpass Anno 1404 as my favorite in the series. The medieval-inspired setting and art style of Anno 1404 felt more timeless and charming to me.

Anno 1800 is still a great experience, but its industrial theme may not appeal to everyone as much as earlier entries.

#3⠀|⠀Balatro⠀|⠀Switch⠀|⠀9-Jan-2025⠀|⠀5 hours⠀|⠀07/10

I haven't had the leisure to play this game in 2024, managed to tackle it in January of 2025. It took me five hours to finish the game, which I started and finished the same day.

Balatro is a card-based strategy game that combines poker mechanics with deck-building, where players craft hands, upgrade cards, and face challenging modifiers to progress through increasingly difficult stages.

However, while I can see why Balatro is praised by many and even considered a contender for the best game of 2024, it didn’t captivate me as much as I hoped. After completing a playthrough in about 5 hours, the gameplay felt repetitive, and I lacked the motivation to start fresh. It’s definitely a good game, and for those that love card games, it's a must-play. Solidly a 7/10 for me.

#4⠀|⠀Super Mario RPG (2023)⠀|⠀Switch⠀|⠀17-Jan-2025⠀|⠀11 hours⠀|⠀09/10

Super Mario RPG is a timeless classic, and the 2023 Switch remake faithfully captures the charm of the 1996 original. It's an excellent choice for RPG beginners, offering accessible gameplay with easy-to-navigate zones, a wide variety of enemies, straightforward attacks and skills, and enjoyable combined ultimate moves to experiment with. The chemistry between Mario and his team feels perfectly balanced, enhancing the game's overall harmony.

That said, a bit more difficulty and deeper system complexity could have made the experience even better. Nevertheless, it remains a delightful journey for both newcomers and longtime fans, and this remake is undoubtedly a must-play for every RPG enjoyer.

Jooxed · Jan 9, 2025

Game 5 - Silent Hill 2 Remake - PC - 1/9/25 - Personal Rating 9/10 - Fantastic game and my first entry into the silent hill series, I was apprehensive because I haven't been the biggest fan from bloober but the game was awesome. great environment design, look forward if they are redoing any more after this one.

March Climber · Jan 9, 2025

1) Uncharted: Golden Abyss (PS Vita)

i-adore-the-cover-art-of-golden-abyss-might-be-my-favourite-v0-ceidsjlldv5a1.jpg

Rating: B-

+This is an Uncharted game for the most part and it was a fun ride.
+It's nice seeing a prequel to the first game and seeing Drake a bit younger, a bit more naive, and a bit more innocent in nature
+It deserves a remake or remaster on PS4/PS5 with certain gimmicks either being removed entirely or updated for console controller. It would bring the rating to an A- for me.

-The story is a bit cheesy, like a B movie. Personally, I'm fine with this but if you're the type who doesn't like when a bad guy captures the hero multiple times but doesn't kill him, it might annoy you.
-The mandatory touch gimmicks that do three things: Make every melee fight a Fruit Ninja QTE, make every reload and grenade toss a touch prompt (bad when in high stress situations against enemies), and slow the gameplay to an absolute crawl when picking up a story object (because you have to do silly things like clean it off using the touch screen or touch the back of the Vita to rotate it).

These touch gimmicks are what made the game a B- to me. It is cumbersome and at times it makes the game's pacing feel very off when you're suddenly experiencing a high octane moment and then the game suddenly says 'Wait, let's stop a minute and rub the screen' while everything pauses. They should have fixed it up and added it to the Uncharted collection on PS4. Not sure why they didn't. They probably never will anytime soon as this game is just about forgotten. Oh well.

applesaucejaxon · Jan 11, 2025

Alright, didn't think I was going to do this again this year, but what the heck. I have 0 expectations of actually hitting 52 this time around. Thant being said, I'm rolling already.

1: Mission in Snowdriftland - Switch - Beat 1/2
A video game Advent calendar is a really cool idea, and this game pulled it off well. And it was a decent platformer, to boot. I got to the boss on Christmas Eve, but family obligations made me unable to finish it and I forgot about it until after New Year.

2: Mega Man 2- NES - Beat 1/2
Had the Mega Man itch and decided to start a marathon. I beat 1 and it kind of petered out. 1 was great in that it laid the foundation for the franchise, but it was kind of rough at times. That was back before Christmas. Mega Man 2 is probably my favorite NES game of all time. I remember beating this so many times when I was a kid, and the core memories were still there for me to even breeze through the invisible brick sections on my first try. My youngest son was impressed.

3: Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 - Switch - Beat 1/10
I've been playing this while riding my exercise bike, and it was great to kill the time. Finished up the story mode last night. I'll say this, the story is dumb. Also, I suck at Puyo Puyo and every level where you play Puyo Puyo was not as fun to me. Especially later in the game where the battles got really unfair. That being said, I did like it and it's a solid game. Just need to get better at Puyo Puyo.

4: Spiderman: Miles Morales - PS5 - Beat 1/25
Pretty cool game. I actually really enjoyed the story. Kudos to them for making a decent villain with good motivation and and great conclusion. I prefer shorter games, so this was really exactly what I was looking for. My PS+ Extra expires in a week and I'm dropping back town to essential, so I wanted to play this one before I expired. Glad I got around to it.

5: Red Dead Redemption 2 - PS4 - Beat 2/25
Another game I bought at launch and just never played. This game was too long. I'm too old, and I don't have time for this crap anymore. It was a great game. Better than the first, but I'll probably never play it again. That being said, I'll likely return to the original. It's just easier to jump in and out of. And the epilogue was excruciating. I knew where it was going, and it took FOREVER to get there. I know it sounds like I'm dunking on the game, but it truly was fantastic. But I just don't have the time to put in to this stuff.

Jooxed · Jan 13, 2025

Game 6 - RimWorld - PC - 1/12/25 - Personal Rating 6/10 - Fun game i spent a few hours on. The score is only low because I am not a big strategy game person. My brother convinced me to give it a shot. Some aspects were super enjoyable, but strategy games remain not my cup of tea

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