Even though there's still three days left in 2025 (has it REALLY been that long since 2025 started? ), but I'm gonna go ahead and throw my 2025 tally up:
01 - Borderlands 3 for PS5 as Moze on Normal
02 - Heart and Slash for PS4
03 - Ray Mohawk's Manic Monday, a six-level Doom map pack that I paired with the Final Raider weapon mod, the Isle of the Dead monster pack and my usual suite of mods (Gearbox weapon wheel, minimap, level info and a gore mod)
04 - Spyro the Dragon via the Spyro: Reignited Trilogy remaster for PS4, getting 120%
05 - Iron Meat for PC, on Easy
06 - Wolfenstein: The New Order for PS4
07 - The Rocky Horror Show Video Game for PC (beaten before the update that added New Game+)
08 - Strange Flesh for PC (granted it's really short)
09 - Dead Island 2: Sola for PS5 as Ryan
10 - Dead Island 2 for PS5 as Jacob
11 - Resident Evil: Village for PS5
12 - RE: Village: Shadow of Rose for PS5 (short bonus mode that serves as a brief epilogue to the main story)
13 - Wario Land 3 for GBC via GameBoy app for Switch
14 - Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore for Switch
15 - Resident Evil 2 Remake for PS5 as Jill, ended up toggling Assist Mode
16 - Resident Evil 2 Remake for PS5 as Leon, no Assist Mode
17 - Resident Evil 3 Remake for PS5
18 - The Birdcage for Android
19 - The Birdcage 2 for Android
20 - Far Cry 6 for PS5
21 - Robocop: Rogue City for PS5
Not counting the three or four times I beat the Petit Hedgehog demo or the two or three World of Horror runs I beat.
I might try to beat another game between now and the next...
I beat Reverie and Minoria and although they're good, I also found them surprisingly forgettable.
A game I was surprised that wasn't part of the series is Ender Lillies.
1. Streets of Rage 3 (GEN)*
2. Iridion II (GBA)*
3. Final Fantasy III (SNES)
4. Tenchu: Stealth Assassins (PS1)
5. Shockman Zero (SNES)
6. Suikoden (PS1)
7. Chiki Chiki Boys (GEN)
8. Altered Beast (GEN)
9. Jewel Master (GEN)
10. Fight'N Rage (NSW)
11. Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete (PS1)
12. Phantasy Star (SMS)
13. Super Metroid (SNES)
14. Double Dragon (Arcade)
15. Final Fight (Arcade)
16. Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting (SNES)
17. Virtua Fighter 2 (SAT)
18. Yoshi's Story (N64)
19. Crusader of Centy (GEN)
20. Koudelka (PS1)
21. Castlevania: Bloodlines (GEN)
22. Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (GB)
23. Brawl Brothers (SNES)
24. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist (GEN)
25. Silent Hill (PS1)
26. Arc the Lad (PS1)
27. Raiden Trad (GEN)
28. Bio-Hazard Battle (GEN)
29. Batman: The Video Game (GEN)
30. Ranger X (GEN)
31. Castle of Illusion: Starring Mickey Mouse (GEN)
As I received my Genesis late in the system’s lifespan, I missed out on some of the earlier games on the console, including Castle of Illusion, which was released on the system in the US in 1990. I wasn’t aware of the game until much later, but as a fan of platformers, and curious about what the Genesis had to offer outside of the platformers I was already familiar with, I wanted to give it a shot. While I have put a good amount of time into the game in the past, I’m glad I was able to finally beat it this go around. For this playthrough, I played on the normal difficulty.
Castle of Illusion is a single player platformer, with a few interesting mechanics. You have the ability to jump on enemies to get rid of them, but you must push the jump button or down to make sure Mickey is using his attack. If you don’t press that second button, Mickey will take damage when coming in contact with an enemy. You also have a life bar, which starts with three points, but can reach up to five points in total. This is a nice touch, as I think one hit kills would be pretty frustrating here. You also have the opportunity to collect projectiles throughout the game, which is usually either apples or marbles. The projectiles can be used to get rid of enemies or damage bosses, and are very handy in sections where your jump attack might not do the trick. The game consists of five levels, with most of them being on the longer side. The third level (The Storm) is quite short, once you figure out where you need to go.
Graphics wise, the game looks really good for an early Genesis title. Some of the colors are a bit muted in a few stages, compared to what we would see from the system in later years, but the character sprites and backgrounds are all very well detailed, and the second level, the Toyland stage, is quite colorful. Also, the animation on Mickey and many of the enemies is well done. I can definitely see this game being a show piece for the Genesis in its early days, prior to Sonic’s release, as it looks very good in comparison to what was out on the 8-bit systems of the time. The soundtrack and sound design is also well done. There are a few tunes here that I really like, including the theme that plays while you’re in a boss battle and the songs “Spiders” and “Return to the Dark Forest.” For a game with a short amount of levels, there are a lot of songs in the OST, with a new tune playing for different sections of levels. The sound effects are also well done and memorable.
I don’t have much criticism of Castle of Illusion, but there were a few things I noticed that I wanted to bring up as nitpicks. In some areas of the game, I had a hard time deciphering what could actually cause damage. I think the best example I can give is in the second half of the Library level when you’re in a candy land type of area. Also, I’m curious about how others feel regarding the difficulty of the game. Other than the final showdown, I thought the toughest boss was the reptile creature at the end of The Storm level, which is the third level. Maybe it’s just me, but I had a tough time getting the pattern down for this boss.
Overall, Castle of Illusion is a fun and engaging platformer that presents a fair challenge. I think Sega’s development team did a great job of putting together a solid licensed game that has stood the test of time. If you’ve already spent a lot of time with Sonic and Mario on the 16-bit consoles and are interested in something different, give Castle of Illusion a go! I’ve gone through World of Illusion already, so I’d like to try out QuackShot and some of the Mickey SMS games next.
1. Advance Wars ReBoot Camp - Advance Wars Campaign Switch
2. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Switch
3. Advance Wars ReBoot Camp - Advance Wars 2 Campaign Switch
4. Another Code Recollection - Another Code: Two Memories Switch
5. Another Code Recollection - Another Code R: A Journey Into Lost Memories Switch
6. Bomb Chicken Switch
7. Castlevania Advance Collection - Castlevania: Vampire’s Kiss Switch
8. Castlevania Advance Collection - Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow Switch
9. Disco Elysium Switch
10. Espgaluda II Switch
11. Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir Switch eShop
12. Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind Switch eShop
13. Emio: The Smiling Man - Famicom Detective Club Switch
14. Donkey Kong Country SNES
15. Super Mario World SNES
16. Kirby's Dream Land 3 SNES
17. Super Mario Kart SNES
18. Super Metroid SNES
19. Starwing SNES
20. Split Fiction PS5
21. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island SNES
22. Super Mario Party Jamboree Switch
23. Pikmin Switch
24. Pikmin 2 Switch
25. Persona 5 Royal PS4
26. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 PS1
27. Mario Kart World Switch 2
28. Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour Switch 2 eshop
29. Ghost of Tsushima PS5
30. Donkey Kong Bananza Switch 2
31. Yakuza 6: The Song of Life PS4
32. Kirby and the Forgotten Land Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Star-Crossed World Switch 2
33. Pokémon Colosseum Gamecube
34. Metal Slug Neo Geo MVS
35. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity Switch
36. Felix the Cat [NES] Switch
37. Felix the Cat [GB] Switch
38. Panzer Dragoon: Remake Switch
39. Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2 Switch
40. Sparkster Switch
41. Rocket Knight Adventures Switch 42. Batsugun: Saturn Tribute Boosted Switch *NEW*
43. The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe Switch *NEW*
44. Abzu Switch eShop *NEW*
45. WarioWare: Get It Together! Switch *NEW*
46. Pokémon Legends: Z-A - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition Switch 2 *NEW*
47. There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension Switch *NEW*
48. We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie Switch *NEW*
49. Gris Switch *NEW*
50. To The Moon Switch *NEW*
51. Cruis’n Blast Switch *NEW*
52. Toem Switch eShop *NEW*
53. Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble Switch *NEW*
54. Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World Switch *NEW*
55. Blue Prince PS5 *NEW*
56. Kirby Air Riders Switch 2 *NEW*
57. The American Dream PSVR *NEW*
58. Frog Detective: The Entire Mystery Switch *NEW*
Batsugun: Saturn Tribute Boosted
Batsugun has a reputation for being one of the earliest games in the genre that eventually became bullet hell. I’ve always thought I quite liked the genre, but the more I play of it, the more I realise that my tastes actually lean more towards a older style of shmups. Batsugun starts off quite fun with a moderate challenge and well telegraphed obstacles, but by the time you reach stage 3 it becomes a mess of enemies, bullets and obstacles that will chew lives away from you in no time flat. The short length of the game means the difficulty curve feels particularly sharp in this game with the turnaround from relaxing, to a fun level of challenge, to utter bullshit taking about 10 minutes of play in real time. I can see that there’s something to enjoy here for people who like the genre and have the time to invest into learning and memorising it, but I honestly was glad to move on.
The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe
The Stanley Parable is a video game based on choices and decisions that also serves to be a commentary on the illusion of choice in video games. The core story tells a very simple narrative story where your actions are guided by a narrator, but at multiple intervals you can choose to take an action that contradicts the story, with the narrator having to adjust on the fly. Eventually you go from quite simple deviations on the story to a range of bizarre meta narratives, non-sequiturs and comedic consequences as you try ever more ludicrous ways of breaking the story. It's pretty fun, although it can eventually get repetitive especially when you have to keep repeating earlier choices. This version of the game adds some new content which also serves as a meta commentary on additional content and DLC in video games. It’s fun, but weaker than the core game and premise I think – although maybe that too is on purpose? It’s a decent way to spend a few hours either way.
Abzu
Abzu is a very atmospheric and visually striking game where you explore an underwater environment and help reinvigorate the environment from the impact of technology. It’s perhaps a little predictable and on the nose as a concept, but maybe it is actually an allegory for something else and I’m missing the wood for the trees. Gameplay is simple, with your swimming around the environment looking for ways to open the path forward, and checking out all of the oceanlife around the place. There are some big setpieces that make it clear that Abzu would really like to be Journey, but whilst I enjoyed my time with the game, it doesn’t quite hit those heights. Still, it’s pretty decent.
WarioWare: Get It Together!
WarioWare has long been a series where Nintendo like to show off a consoles gimmicks, but Get It Together seems to struggle for an idea to latch onto. Instead, it makes each character playable with different mechanics, and has to design every microgame to work with all of these mechanics. Characters are not created equal – whereas orbulon can freely fly around and interact, 9-volt is stuck automatically moving with no control over his direction, and 16-Volt can’t even move – just aim and shoot projectiles. Unfortunately, this means the minigames can vary from an absolute breeze to barely playable depending on the characters mechanics, and it ultimately takes away from the series core premise of easy to understand and quick microgames. It’s not awful or anything, but ultimately it’s probably the weakest mainline entry in the series. If you want WarioWare on Switch, play Move It Instead.
Pokémon Legends Z-A
The Pokémon Legends games are interesting spinoffs of the mainline series where the Pokémon team seem to be trying to explore and innovate on the series’ core mechanics. Whereas Legends Arceus focused in on the core Pokemon catching concept and reinvented it, Legends Z-A focuses in on reinventing the battle system of the games, with real-time combat. The combat is fun and faster paced, although I feel it’s lacking the depth of strategy and options the mainline entries boast. It does however change what Pokémon and moves work best, as the speed stats are de-emphasised in favour of bulk, and often weaker quicker moves can be worth keeping compared to slower stronger ones. The core story is bit weak unfortunately – the main danger of the game isn’t clearly spelled out the the story of the late game falls apart a bit with too deep an inspection. That said, I really enjoyed playing through the game – like all of the post-DS pokemon games, I feel like it is flawed – but it’s still a fun playthrough and I had a good time with it. This Switch 2 version also runs great.
There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension
There Is No Game is a puzzle/adventure game where you try to find the game whilst a narrator/the game itself does it’s utmost to keep you from accessing it. You solve a bunch of 4th wall breaking puzzles by messing with the interface and screen elements, before the story properly kicks in and you are sent through a variety of other ‘games’ which feature equally 4th wall breaking puzzles – such as the point and click lucasarts style title where you can look behind the scenery by opening the back of the TV, or the freemium mobile game where you can grab items from pop-up ads and use them to solve puzzles. It’s held together by a story which is unfortunately a bit contrived and overly sappy, but which is easily forgiven by virtue of the game feeling like a big passion project for a small development team. It’s sometimes a little tedious, but mostly it’s a fun romp through some clever puzzles and a fun way to spend the 5 or so hours it takes to finish.
We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie
I’ve played through We Love Katamari on PS2 before, a few years back now, and had a great time with it. It’s often regarded as the best in the series, and whilst I haven’t played enough games in the franchise to confirm either way, I do think it’s a nice improvement on what came before with Katamari Damacy, and playing through the game with cleaner visuals and portably on Switch is nice. There’s some new content here with Royal Reverie, and handful of missions where you play as the King of the Cosmos before he became King – but they’re fairly throwaway brief challenges using existing game content, so ultimately they’re a bit disappointing. Still, more Katamari isn’t a bad thing, and they don’t bring down what is a great fun little game otherwise.
Gris
Gris is a beautiful indie game where you play as a girl overcoming past trauma. You start in a monotone grey world (hence the game title) but as you progress you bring colours back into the world and gain new abilities to handle the obstacles you face – you can turn into a heavy block to resist winds in the red desert, learn to float through the air in the green forest and more. As you gain each ability, the colour paints itself back into the environment until you restore a world of colour. Throughout you are harassed by a black beast that seems to represent your trauma – it reforms itself to the environment and gives chase. Besides the emotional and aesthetic components of the game though, lies a pretty well designed action puzzle title with some fun puzzles and setpieces to play through. It’s not long, but it’s a stunning and relaxing game to play through.
To The Moon
To The Moon is a beautiful little narrative game created using RPG Maker. It follows the story of two scientists as they attempt to complete their mission to ‘grant the wish’ of an old man as he dies, by sending him to the moon. They do this by using a device that can reconfigure his memories in order to implant the memory of his lunar adventure. Throughout though, the one question that no one can answer is why Jonny wants to go to the moon – even Jonny himself isn’t sure. As you progress through the game and through his memories though, you start to piece together all the factors in his life that led to this desire. The story is the focus here, with a twisting tale of tragedy and romance framed through Jonny’s life. This is a game I’ve played before, and replaying it on Switch highlights some issues – there are a few narrative moments that are a bit weaker or dated in their writing, and you can clearly see the limitations of RPGMaker as an engine – especially with the switch controls where the control stick mapping is struggling to relate to the arrow key controls of the original. Ultimately, the quality of the story shines through though.
Cruis’n Blast
Cruis’n Blast is a home console port of a fun arcade game in the Cruisn series. You drive through a variety of levels at high speed in a variety of vehicles, drifting, boosting and tricking through levels. The emphasis here is on silly fun and speed, and tracks are full of jumps, crazy setpieces like dinosaurs, the London Eye rolling down the road and tornadoes sweeping you into the air. Neon is everywhere, and the tracks are super colourful. Other than the arcade versions of the tracks, the game features cups with different tracks and segments of tracks from the arcade game structured into tournaments around themes with added obstacles such as aggressive police cars and thunderstorms. Each of these tournament levels features key collectables to find, and clearing cups with gold medals and collecting keys will unlock a bunch of new vehicles to race as, including plenty of silly ones such as double decker busses, hovercrafts, unicorns, sharks and dinosaurs. It doesn’t take long to beat all the cups and unlock everything, but it’s great fun to play through and I had a blast with my time here.
Toem
Toem is a cute little indie game with a unique black and white aesthetic where you play as a kid on a journey to see ‘toem’ a life changing phenomenon his grandma once saw way back when. To do so he hops on a bus and journeys from area to area solving people’s problems through the power of photography. Clearing enough problems earns him a bus ticket to the next station, and by continuing onwards he can eventually reach Toem. The characters here are quirky, silly and whimsical and their problems are often solved in humourous ways. The game rewards exploration – there’s lots to see off the beaten path, and solving everyones puzzles requires looking around thoroughly. Overall, Toem is a super charming and upbeat little adventure that doesn’t take too long to beat – I’d recommend it.
Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble
The latest in the Monkey Ball franchise, Banana Rumble feels like a return to Monkey Ball 2 in several ways – it has a variety of levels to work through with varying challenge and no major punishment for failure, and it focuses on pure monkey ball action – difficult and careful rolling, with lots of ways to skip sections and improve times. This is aided by the one new mechanic, a charge dash which lets you charge up and zoom forward to jump gaps and obstacles. Unfortunately, like Super Monkey Ball 2, it also features an obnoxious story that shows up too often and makes you listen to it’s pointlessness. The whole franchise feels confused as to who it’s for – the plots feel aimed at preschoolers but the difficulty of the games make them far too unfriendly for that demographic. Either way, this is a decent entry into the series, with a bunch of stages and some tough post game challenges and optional missions for each stage to achieve.
Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World
This is a modern remake of Monster World IV. Upon release I remember a lot of people feeling disappointed in it, but as a remake I think it’s decent enough. It looks alright and plays well. It also adds some new life gems to collect to make it easier to max out your health compared to the original. Ultimately though, it’s biggest flaw is that it’s perhaps a bit too faithful – it plays just like the original, but doesn’t quite have the charm of the visuals and animation that the original did. If I were to recommend one version of the game to play, it would be the Mega Drive original title. However, this version is more accessible and easy to play, and does a fine enough job.
Blue Prince
Blue Prince is a very compelling mix of roguelite, deck builder and puzzle game. You travel through a house drafting rooms to build put the floorplan, with the initial mission to reach the antechamber at the end and find your way into Room 46. Hidden behind the simple objective is an absolute wealth of hidden puzzles requiring knowledge from across the game, inside and outside the house, and postgame which is easy 5 or more times bigger than initial game objective. The puzzles are clever and the fundamental mechanics of the game are super compelling, with a challenge of balances rooms which give resources, which open up further drafting potential, and which help contribute towards solving whatever conundrums you’re working on. Eventually though, a few of the late game puzzles get more tedious than fun, and that’s where I dropped out, with about 90% of mysteries solved. Thankfully, the initial objective is very reasonable to achieve, so you can play this one as long as you feel compelled. A really great game, if sometimes a little obtuse.
Kirby Air Riders
Kirby Air Riders is the latest game from Masahiro Sakurai. I loved Kid Icarus Uprising and the entire Smash Bros series, so I was really looking forward to this – but ultimately, I just couldn’t get into it. The game takes the classic Sakurai approach – a ton of customisation options, lots of fun challenges to achieve, and a ton to unlock. It also features a story mode similar to Smash Ultimate in the sense that it is one adventure made up by a bunch of smaller challenges back to back. Ultimately though, what worked for me in Smash Bros doesn’t really gel for me in a racing title – the simplified controls don’t ever feel quite right no matter what rider and car combo I go with, and the game feels a little bit of a mess with the obstacles, special moves and track designs taken into account. I also feel like I need something a bit bigger to latch onto for an objective, with cups or similar to play through in a longer form. City Trial is the highlight and is a lot of fun, but its too shallow on it’s own to create the kind of lasting depth something like Smash Bros offers. There’s fun to be had here, but in terms of the bigger picture, it’s not for me.
The American Dream
The American Dream is a weird VR experience where you play through a virtual exhibit hosted by the ‘American Rifle Association’, a fairly on-the-nose NRA expy, which takes you through the life of an American citizen showing how guns can help them create the America of tomorrow – by playing catch with dad by shooting the ball with guns, cooking burgers by shooting them with guns, dancing at the prom by shooting guns, going fishing using guns…. You get the point. The game is an obvious critique of the gun culture and industry of America, but it’s not one which utilises subtlety. The gunplay here is OK – it’s a little awkward to control sometimes as you hold the Move wand as if it’s a gun handle – meaning you don’t point at what you want to shoot, but aim as if you were holding the gun up to shoot. The final few missions go a bit weird and crazy and the game really goes over the top with a 10 minute villain speech spelling out the themes of the game that gets tiresome, but it’s overall and interesting game with interesting ideas. As a gameplay experience though, it’s just OK. The segments get tiresome and repetitive despite attempts at variety, and it’s messaging and themes are too one note and on the nose to really appreciate in depth. Worth a try, but not a must play.
Frog Detective: The Entire Mystery
Frog Detective is a series of very simple, very cozy adventure games where you play as the Frog Detective, the second best detective around (he knows that Lobster Cop’s skills far surpass his own!). He solves a series of wacky mysteries by interacting with the quirky animal characters who live there, exchanging some whimsical and humourous dialogue, and solving the mystery, generally in one hour or less – these are short adventures. To say the mystery is ‘solved’ is also a stretch, as the fundamental gameplay loop involves talking to every character to figure out what item they want, then passing them item from character to character until all items have been given, at which point the adventure wraps up. This isn’t a challenging puzzle game. That said, it’s a charming and relaxing set of adventures to play through which require little brain power and makes you feel warm and happy inside. The complete mystery bundle includes all 3 games – finding a ghost on a desert island, figuring out who sobataged a parade in a wizard town, and returning the missing hats in a cowboy town. It also includes a simple but fun Tony Hawk’s knock off scooter game for good measure. Worth a play if you can get them cheap.
Last edited by alienjesus on Mon Dec 29, 2025 7:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
RobertAugustdeMeijer wrote: ↑Mon Dec 29, 2025 7:09 am
I beat Reverie and Minoria and although they're good, I also found them surprisingly forgettable.
A game I was surprised that wasn't part of the series is Ender Lillies.
Fair enough. Ender Lillies, and its sequel, are both on my list for 2026. I’ve read great things about them.
……
1. Mega Man (DOS)
2. Mega Man III: The Robots Are Revolting (DOS)
3. Teslagrad 2 (Switch)
4. Metal Slug 5 (Neo Geo)
5. Ufouria: The Saga 2 (Switch)
6. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Switch)
7. The Bounty Huntress (Switch)
8. Wide Ocean Big Jacket (Switch)
9. Haunted Castle Revisited (Switch)
10. UnderDungeon (Switch)
11. BurgerTime (Arcade)
12. BurgerTime (2600)
13. BurgerTime Deluxe (GameBoy)
14. The Flintstones - BurgerTime in Bedrock (GBC)
15. Dojoran (Switch)
16. Super BurgerTime (Arcade)
17. The Mr. Rabbit Magic Show (iOS)
18. Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution (GBA)
19. Dark Souls Remastered (Xbox)
20. Ys Book I & II (TG16CD)
21. F-Zero X (N64)
22. Metal Slug 6 (Arcade)
23. Resident Evil: Code Veronica X (PS2)
24. Jet Grind Radio (DC)
25. Art Club Challenge (iOS)
26. Windosill (Switch)
27. A Hole New World (Switch)
28. Perfect Dark (N64)
29. Hollow Knight Silksong (Switch)
30. Shadow Tower Abyss (PS2)
31. Shock Troopers: 2nd Squad
32. Momodora
33. Momodora 2
34. Momodora 3
35. Momodora: Moonlit Farewell
35. Minoria 36. Chili’s Big Smasher BurgerTime (PC)
I was so pumped to write my Momodora retrospective that I almost forgot to include one other game I beat recently… Chili’s Big Smasher BurgerTime!
Chili’s Big Smasher BurgerTime is the most recent game in the BurgerTime series, developed by the series’ new owner G-Mode (who, I think, bought the rights to most of Data East’s catalogue a few years ago). It is also completely free web-game created to advertise a new type of burger available at American fast-casual dining chain, Chili’s (and for only $10.99!).
In it, you play as the Chili’s mascot, which is some sort of anthropomorphic chili pepper. You assemble burger, just as in other BurgerTime games, while being pursued by both nameless, uniformed fast food employees and fast food chain mascots. (They’re jealous that they just can’t compete with the awesome deal that is the Chili’s Big Smasher burger!) The fast food characters all attack in different ways - a pirate captain bombards the level with cannonballs, a dinosaur skateboards across the play field, etc. - which adds some variety to the levels. The game is also interspersed with faux 8-bit cutscenes, like a Ninja Gaiden game. It’s only six levels long, and it is the easiest BurgerTime game by far. (It loops after the final level, but I have no idea how long you’d have to play before it became challenging.) Still, it’s fun and charming for a game developed as a marketing tie in, and since it’s completely free, I can’t complain about the price either!
REPO Man wrote: ↑Sun Dec 28, 2025 11:09 pm
Even though there's still three days left in 2025 (has it REALLY been that long since 2025 started? ), but I'm gonna go ahead and throw my 2025 tally up:
01 - Borderlands 3 for PS5 as Moze on Normal
02 - Heart and Slash for PS4
03 - Ray Mohawk's Manic Monday, a six-level Doom map pack that I paired with the Final Raider weapon mod, the Isle of the Dead monster pack and my usual suite of mods (Gearbox weapon wheel, minimap, level info and a gore mod)
04 - Spyro the Dragon via the Spyro: Reignited Trilogy remaster for PS4, getting 120%
05 - Iron Meat for PC, on Easy
06 - Wolfenstein: The New Order for PS4
07 - The Rocky Horror Show Video Game for PC (beaten before the update that added New Game+)
08 - Strange Flesh for PC (granted it's really short)
09 - Dead Island 2: Sola for PS5 as Ryan
10 - Dead Island 2 for PS5 as Jacob
11 - Resident Evil: Village for PS5
12 - RE: Village: Shadow of Rose for PS5 (short bonus mode that serves as a brief epilogue to the main story)
13 - Wario Land 3 for GBC via GameBoy app for Switch
14 - Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore for Switch
15 - Resident Evil 2 Remake for PS5 as Jill, ended up toggling Assist Mode
16 - Resident Evil 2 Remake for PS5 as Leon, no Assist Mode
17 - Resident Evil 3 Remake for PS5
18 - The Birdcage for Android
19 - The Birdcage 2 for Android
20 - Far Cry 6 for PS5
21 - Robocop: Rogue City for PS5
Not counting the three or four times I beat the Petit Hedgehog demo or the two or three World of Horror runs I beat.
I might try to beat another game between now and the next...
Cyber Knights is a strategy RPG that is heavily inspired by the Firaxis reboot of XCOM and sets it in a cyberpunk world. You lead a small mercenary company who gets contracted to do various jobs for a mixture of contacts, from street gangs to megacorps. There's a lot of systems and as a result it has some rough edges, but overall it's a good time.
You begin by creating your cyber knight character. Cyber knights are special cybernetically-enhanced operatives who are now illegal to create; the intro mission for the game is your team extracting you from your illegal operation to become a cyber knight. Once you get back to your safehouse you can start doing missions, a mixture of randomly generated ones and ones that are part of short storylines. Eventually it culminates with the option to retire offworld with the mission giver of the climax mission, ending your playthrough, though you can reject the retirement part and stick to doing random missions forever.
The safehouse utilizes the XCOM side view of a base you build, where first you prepare rooms, then build stuff in the rooms, and finally upgrade them for more capabilities. You can't fit every single type of room, so you will have to make choices (especially since you can't destroy a room you've built). You can buy and sell items, sell digital data you get during hacks, and manage your various underworld contacts. Most things you do take time, which progresses when you hit play, and as the timeline progresses, you'll get contacted by various mission givers to put jobs on your timeline; if you fail to do a job in time there is a minor consequence.
The missions have a wide variety of goals; you might need to steal some items, hack a server, or assassinate a target, among others. Some story missions are multi-stage, where your health and consumables carry over to the next stage once you finish the current stage. Almost every mission requires you to exfiltrate after accomplishing the goal, so you must plan both for how to get to your goal and how you'll escape.
Like XCOM 2, stealth is a big component. Unlike XCOM 2, stealth is a MASSIVE component; depending on the mission objectives you can potentially do the whole mission undetected. The game has a fairly intricate system around the stealth. You start with cones of enemy sight and general awareness. Then there are a bunch of security devices, like cameras and motion detectors. Being seen will increment a meter representing the security AI tracking intruders. If the meter fills up the security AI gets more alarmed and triggers various effects, like turning on extra cameras or calling in reinforcements. If an enemy sees you, you can take them out the same turn to keep them from reporting you. Individual enemies have their own awareness of what's going on, so being detected by one guy won't mean everyone else knows where you are, even across turns. However, the security AI can intentionally send enemies at contacts. Knowing how to stealth and how to manage going loud is critical.
Overall, Cyber Knights scratches the itch if you liked XCOM. It doesn't have the same time pressures that XCOM did, as there aren't major consequences for taking breaks from doing missions, so you don't death spiral. While it doesn't have the same nice path of mission escalation that XCOM did, overall it'll appeal to people who liked XCOM.
Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.
Note wrote: ↑Thu Dec 25, 2025 12:29 am30. Ranger X (GEN)
Ranger X is so friggin' good! It's definitely one of my favorite games on the Genesis. GAU entertainment became Nextech (Crusader of Centy), so they're responsible for a couple of my favorite games on the Genesis. Unfortunately I didn't find Linkle Liver Story on the Saturn to be quite up to par, and after the Saturn they seemed to mostly work on established franchises as a mercenary outfit, but I think their technical abilities still potentially shine through in a lot of those, too.
I've been playing the PC (GOG) release of Batsugun by bitwave a little bit recently, and kind of getting used to it again. Years ago I remember trying for a 1cc on Batugun, and after getting into a groove, it's a pretty simple one to get to the stage 4 boss, which isn't far from the end at that point. It seems kind of difficult, but it is really one of the most straight forward games for the genre, I think. Maybe the only thing easier would be Blast Wind. Also, I don't know if that release has Special ver, but that can also be a bit easier to go farther in. One other thing that can help for getting farther easier is understanding where some of the bonuses and extra point farming spots are. Anyway, long story short, playing Batsugun in short spurts lately has reminded me how much I love it.
Gris is such an amazing experience. I haven't played it in a long time, and considered replaying it not too long ago, but decided against it because I thought it could be a little too triggering for me now. At some point I would like to play their latest game, Neva, though.
LInk's Crossbow Training is the pack-in title that shipped with the Wii Zapper and serves as an example of how you can make a game designed for the Zapper. It actually manages to go beyond the standard light gun fare, by having three different modes. It is quite short, though, which is what you expect from a pack-in.
The game consists of nine courses of three stages each. Getting enough points in a course will get you a medal, unlocking the next course. You only need the most basic medal to proceed, but higher scores get you better medals. There are three types of courses. The first is a fairly standard light gun target stage, where the camera pans on its own. The second is one where Link is in a fixed place and you can pan your view by moving the cursor to the edge of the screen; some of these have Link moving on a rail, while others have him in the middle of an area and you can pan 360, with a radar showing you where enemies are. The final one is one where the C-stick moves Link around and you can pan your view using the cursor; this also has a radar and you need to run around shooting enemies through an environment. All the environments and enemies are from Twilight Princess.
The key to the game is to never miss a shot. It's ok to not nail a target before it disappears, but you absolutely need to land every shot you take. The reason for this is that the game adds a multiplier based on how many targets you have hit. First target is x1, second is x2, third is x3, etc. As a result, it is far more important to nail as many targets as possible without missing, rather than getting bullseyes (as the scaling multiplier far outweighs the bullseye bonus). Also, on the stages where enemies can hit you, don't let that happen either, as it breaks your combo.
Overall, it's a cute little diversion. It doesn't take long to medal every stage, but getting the best medal will take much longer, as the game is extremely unforgiving of mistakes. You need to get those long chains to have any chance of getting the scores you need for the best medals.
Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.
), but I'm gonna go ahead and throw my 2025 tally up:
