Hello everyone, and welcome to the final part in my series of my favorite games I played in 2025. There are six games I have to talk about here and conclude what was a wonderful year of video games. So, without further ado, here are my favorite games I played in 2025.
Hello, and welcome to part 2 of my favorite games of 2025 ranking. Here, I will go over the games I actually managed to finish, and had a great time with. Let's get into it:
Hello and welcome, it's that time of year again, and I am here to look back and reflect on every video game I played this year. It has been quite the year, I ended up playing more games than I initially thought, so I have much to talk about. In fact, I have so much to say that I decided to separate this list into not two, but three parts. So, without further ado, please enjoy my ranking of the 14 games I played this year, in order of least favorite to favorite:
2025 has been a special year for Toby Fox fans like myself. It was the 10th anniversary for Undertale, and the for the occasion Mr. Fox and fangamer ran one of the best celebratory streams I've ever seen, complete with amazing merch, sets that changed, and new content and insight into this magical game. Everyone that loves the game to death like me came together to remember how special this game is.
As if that wasn't enough, 2025 also saw the release of not one but two chapters of the Undertale sequel Deltarune. There's a high chance this is the only time that happens, and with so much content to consume and discuss, the deltarune fandom has gone absolutely crazy since then, with tons of theories and speculation abound.
With these two events coalescing, it has been a magical time. Tons of younger newer gamers have played Undertale for the first time, allowing us to relive our first experiences. Additionally, many have decided to finally play all of Deltarune for the first time, providing further enjoyment in seeing how newcomers find not just the third and fourth chapters, but the first and second as well. It has been wonderful.
With all this going on, I cannot help but reflect on these games that mean so much to me. Undertale is one of my favorite games of all time, and I can see Deltarune being similar by the time it finishes. There's just something magical about the way Toby Fox makes games.
This got me thinking, what is it about these games that makes them so special? Why are they so beloved, what is at the core of this magic? In this analysis, I aim to propose my own theory, based off of a common piece of praise I have heard for these games, something I don't often hear when praising a game: that they make you want to create a game.
After 9 years of the series' absence, the Mario & Luigi series is back on the Switch with its sixth installment: Mario & Luigi: Brothership. It marks a thrilling conclusion to what could be called the revival of the Mario RPGs. Remakes of the beloved Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door showed a renewed interest in the series, and now, with a brand new Mario & Luigi title, it feels as if the Mario RPGs are back.
But this isn't about the Mario RPGs, this is about one game, and one game alone. After spending months playing through it, with a final playtime over 45 hours, I have completed Mario & Luigi Brothership. It has been wonderful to play a new Mario & Luigi, and I have had so many thoughts swirling through my mind since I first started it. So, let's get into it, how did this long awaited installment fare, how does it compare to previous titles, and what do I think of it overall? Head on below for my spoiler free review of the game:
Hello, and welcome to the second part in my ranking of the 15 video games I played in 2024. If you've gone through the first part (which can be found here if you haven't) then you know how this is going, so let's just continue on.
In September of 2020, Genshin Impact was released to the world. It would go down as one of the most important games that year. It was huge all around the world, much more than any Chinese or gacha game had ever been. If you were into video games around its release, you knew its impact. Everyone was talking about it, it was a phenomenon I hadn't seen since the Pokemon Go spectacle of 2016. For many, myself included, it was their first gacha game.
Now, nearly 4 years after its release, Genshin Impact is still one of the highest grossing mobile games in the world. Its parent company Mihoyo is now known worldwide, where before it was unknown outside of China. Mihoyo's next games: Honkai Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero, have also made splashes thanks to the market Genshin created, and it's likely we will continue hearing about these big budget gacha games for a long time. We also finally have the first non Mihoyo gacha to find success within the Genshin audience: Wuthering Waves. The gacha game space created by Genshin has changed a lot in these four years, as has its players.
I got into Genshin Impact around its launch, and since then, gacha games have been a consistent part of my life. I played Genshin for approximately two and a half years. Afterwards I jumped into Honkai: Star Rail, which I played consistently for a little over a year. Finally, I've spent the past month or two playing Wuthering Waves and Zenless Zone Zero.
Yet, as I prepare to move into the next chapter of my life, I've decided I am going to end my time with these games, at least for the forseeable future. They are simply too time consuming for the life I will be living.
With all that said, I thought it would be fun to look back on my time with these gacha games. Remember the good times, the bad, and how everything changed when these games hit the market. Head on down below for a fun story on the four years I spent playing gacha games.
It's been a long time coming, but at long last, after much pushing from friends, I have played to completion Persona 5: Royal. It was a big deal. I had never played a Persona game before, and was always curious to give one a try. All my work friends love the game, and when one offered to lend me his copy, I jumped at the chance. I love JRPGs, it's my favorite genre, and I've played more then I can count. I constantly think about them. When many think of JRPGs, they think of Persona 5. After all, P5R (Persona 5 Royal) is the highest rated JRPG on metacritic. It really kicked the Pesona series into mainstream appeal around the world. So it must be special, right? This is going to be amazing, and I'm going to love it to death, right? Everything's going to go great!........right?
.......
Head on down for my full review. Don't worry, I don't dislike the game or anything. I had a great time with it. However, to say I didn't have big problems with it would be lying. This ended up being a complicated game for me. Head on below to see my thoughts on everything I loved to death about Persona 5, and everything about it that drove me crazy.
With the release of the remakes of Super Mario RPG: Legend of the 7 Stars and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, in addition to the announcement of the return of the Mario & Luigi series, I've been in a Mario RPG mood. It wouldn't be the first time. If you go back through this blog, I once wrote many short analyses of various Mario RPGs when I played through them all from 2012 to 2013 (link here). The Mario RPGs mean a lot to me, it's probably my favorite video game series from a personal standpoint. I grew up playing and loving these games, and despite how old I've gotten, they can still touch me in a way few games can. Paper Mario: The Origami King was a reminder of this, as seen in my recent review of it.
With this in mind, I'd like to talk about why I still think about these games, and how I would categorize them under a particular perspective. Head on below for a general analysis of this special series.
Hello and welcome to the list of my favorite video games I completed in 2023. I played a lot of games this year, and now is the fun time to look back and rank all of them. 2023 was overall a good year for games. For most it was an incredible year, but for me it was.....fine. I must admit, I wouldn't put any game I played this year above my 3 favorite games I played last year (Outer Wilds, Triangle Strategy, and Origami King), so I can't help but feel a little disappointed overall. Nonetheless, it was a fun year with lots of great games to talk about, so without further ado, here are my 11 favorite games of 2023.
Hello and welcome to part 2 of my Pikmin retrospective! In this segment I will dive into the second game in the series: Pikmin 2. While the first game wasn't a massive sales hit like Mario or Pokemon, it was still an overall success, such that development on a sequel was quick and welcome. Three years after the first game captivated many players, Pikmin 2 was released on the Nintendo Gamecube in 2004. It established the series as one of Nintendo's main franchises, and the two games would go on to be some of the most beloved on the system.
So how was Pikmin 2? How did it improve on the mechanics of the first game, if at all? How did it change what the first game was known for? Well, let's dive in.
Pikmin has been one of my favorite video game series since I first played the games around 20 years ago. They hold a special place in my heart. So, to celebrate the long awaited release of the fourth game in the series: Pikmin 4, I thought it would be fun to go back and analyze the first three games. After all, Pikmin 4 will be releasing around 10 years after Pikmin 3, which released around 9 years after Pikmin 2. It is rare for us Pikmin fans to get a sequel, so I'd like to make it as special as possible. I went ahead and replayed the first 3 games, and have just finished Pikmin 4. So what better time to look back and reflect then now, here is Part 1 of my retrospective of the Pikmin series.
Ah Kirby, a franchise that was a favorite of mine growing up. When I was young, I completed every Kirby game I could get my hands on, and considered myself a big Kirby fan.
But then, something happened: I changed. My enjoyment of the Kirby games shrunk over time, and before I knew it I was uninterested in new Kirby games, considering myself done with the series.
Yet, this past month I decided to play Kirby's Return to Dreamland Deluxe, and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. So much was it that I've begun to reconsider my stance on the Kirby series, wondering if in fact I may still be able to enjoy these games, and return to being the Kirby fan I once was.
So, how did this happen? In this post I'll be detailing my experiences with the Kirby series, and why Return to Dreamland was so special in bringing me back to Dreamland.
Ah Octopath Traveler, what a fascinating game. Of all the video games reviews I've written, I don't think there's one I've thought about as much. Say what you will about that game: its flaws were many, but it was one of the most unique and interesting games I've played.
So of course when its sequel released, I had such an interesting experience with it that, just like the first, I had to put the many thoughts I had down to paper, and I couldn't help but want to write a sequel review.
So let's talk about Octopath Traveler 2, and the highs and lows it took me on. Let's dive into this utterly fascinating JRPG and the unforgettable experience I had with it.
I decided to start doing a list of my favorite games each year for 2022, so why not do the same for anime? After all, looking back, I watched 12 anime series to completion, and 7 anime movies in 2022. So once again, I will reflect and give a brief blurb on each anime I watched in 2022.
Greetings! I thought this would be a fun thing to do, and I might get in the habit of doing it every year. With 2022 coming to a close it is a time to reflect, look back, and remember the experiences we've had this year. So what better way to do it then by ranking every video game I've played in 2022, from my least favorite to favorite!
Paper Mario: The Origami King was a game I expected to have a fun time with, but I wasn't sure how much I would enjoy it. After all, I loved Sticker Star, the fourth title in the Paper Mario series, but despised Color Splash, the fifth title. Those two games, along with Origam King, make up the "modern" Paper Mario trilogy, while the previous three titles: Paper Mario, The Thousand Year Door, and Super Paper Mario, make up the "traditional" Paper Mario trilogy. Much debate has gone on regarding which style is better. I sit as one of the few that enjoys both. Yet if I had to choose, I'd say that I prefer the formula of the traditional trilogy. As much as I loved Sticker Star, the modern Paper Mario formula simply could not compare.
Yet, after now completing The Origami King, I must retract that statement. My experience with the game was incredible, no doubt it will go down as one of my favorite Switch games. Every time I booted up the game, I felt......happy, like I was going to a magical world where nothing but fun awaited. So much did I enjoy it that I took long breaks throughout my playthrough, not wanting the magic to end. Looking back, I still can't believe how much I enjoyed it. It is one of the few games in which I can confidently say I wish I could wipe my memory of it to re-experience the magic all over again.
So for this review I want to talk about Paper Mario: The Origami King using a particular perspective. I want to explain not just why the game is special, but why it is in such a way the traditional Paper Marios could never be. For in many ways The Origami King is the modern Paper Mario formula done to perfection: think Sticker Star but better. Every area it succeeds in I long argued Sticker Star also succeeded. Every area I believed was a strength and not a weakness of Sticker Star, Origami King has and uses in even greater ways. Origami King is incredibly validating to myself as a Sticker Star fan, a game most Paper Mario fans loathe. The overwhelming positive reception received by Origami King has proved that I am not crazy, and in this review I plan to show why, and why Origami King finally lets the modern Paper Mario games stand outside the shadow of the traditional games.
If you've been keeping up with me, you'll know that I was one of many who fell in love with Genshin Impact. Like many, I first learned of the game during its release in late 2020, when the covid-19 pandemic was keeping many at home. I first played the game a few weeks after its release, and I was hooked like nothing else. It was my first gacha game, my first Chinese game, and so it gave me tons to think about, as evidenced by the previous write ups I've done on the game.
However, as I continued playing the game day after day, I began to experience a feeling many gacha players go through: burn out. I was losing interest in the game at an alarming rate, and before I knew it my motivation to play was at rock bottom. Around the middle of April, 2022, I decided to stop playing Genshin. And I did, for quite a while. I'd come back once a month just to do a few monthly things, but otherwise, I stayed away from Genshin and thought I might be done with it. For three and a half months I did not touch the game and had no motivation to.
However....I did come back. At the start of August I decided to give the game another chance and dove back in. It has now been a month since I've returned, and I've gotta say...I'm back.
So....what happened? Why did I fall out of love with Genshin Impact and potentially stop playing it for good? And why did I fall back in love? What brought me back, and why has this last month been so much better than the many months before it? If you keep up with gacha games, this experience of getting burnt out, taking a break, and coming back may be familiar to you. But it was a wholly new one for me, with this being my first gacha. So for any who are deep into the Genshin rabbit hole or are considering jumping in, let this be a cautionary tale for you. Here's my story of how I fell out of love with Genshin Impact......and fell back in love again
