My 2025 in review

2025 was another busy year for gaming. There were so many hits that came out, and I didn’t get to play much of them, because I was busy playing many older games. But even though the backlog always gets bigger, I managed to finish quite a few games.

2025 was the 40th anniversary of Super Mario Bros. When Super Mario Bros came out along with the NES in North America in 1985, it was revolutionary… Not only because the gameplay was iconic with it’s quirky characters/enemies (I didn’t make the connection to Jumpman from Donkey Kong at the time), and fun ability to jump to hit bricks and question blocks, etc. The most surprising aspect of seeing/playing Super Mario Bros for the first time was experiencing at the time how smooth the scrolling/frame-rate was. There was nothing like it at the time, especially after playing games on the sluggish computers at the time. It felt like bringing games from the arcades home, and it was amazing. This feeling has stuck with me, and when I found out that 2025 was SMB’s 40th anniversary, I had to give some proper homage to the series, so I played through a few Mario games, some which I have already beaten, but also others I haven’t played before.

I also got to play several games co-op with with son, which I now enjoy more than anything. He’s gotten so good, that a lot of times he’s better than me. For example, he pretty much carried me through V Rising’s Brutal difficulty. 😅

Mario games I finished in 2025

  • Super Mario Bros (NES - Switch)
  • Super Mario Bros 2 Japanese/The Lost Levels (SNES Super Mario All Stars - Switch)
  • Super Mario Land (Gameboy - Switch)
  • Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (Gameboy - Switch) - Beat both world 8 and then through world’s 9,A,B,C, and D.
  • Super Mario Galaxy (Switch 2)

Other games I finished in 2025

  • Citizen Sleeper (PC - Steam) - This was a really touching game. Great writing, esp the final episode of the (free) DLC.
  • Super Meat Boy (PC - Steam) - I have previously beat the Xbox version. Supershigi’s “newer” soundtrack is great, but I still love Danny Baranowsky’s original soundtrack more, and the Steam version allows you to select it.
  • Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake (PC - Steam)
  • V Rising (PC - Steam) - Beat Dracula (Coop with my son, Brutal difficulty)
  • Trails in the Sky SC - (PC - Steam) - Amazing story, characters and world-building. REALLY looking forward to GungHo’s remake in 2026!
  • Sega Ages: Phantasy Star (Switch) - Great QoL additions.
  • Star Ocean: First Departure R (Switch)
  • Kirby’s Adventure (NES - Switch)
  • Double Dragon (NES - Switch)
  • Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons (PC - Steam) - (Coop with my son)
  • Gradius Origins - (Gradius I/II/III, Life Force, Salamander I/II/III) (PC - Steam)
  • Gradius: The Interstellar Assault (Gameboy - Switch)
  • Necesse 1.0 (PC - Steam) - (Coop with my son, Casual (normal) difficulty. All achievments except collection)
  • Path of Exile (PC - Steam) - Finished campaign, but still have a ways to go with end-game and other classes.

A personal note about the original Japanese version of SMB 2: I think Howard Phillips was right to not recommend this game for American release back in the 80’s. The game was tailored more to “hardcore” Mario players and there just wasn’t enough innovation, especially during a time when there were so many other games coming out that offered something new. But it worked out anyway, since we got the fantastic Doki Doki Panic “SMB 2” instead.

Some of the other games I played:

  • Citizen Sleeper 2 (PC - Steam)
  • Astro Bot (PS5)
  • Etrian Odyssey 1 (PC - Steam) - I enjoyed this, but it eventually became far too grindy.
  • Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Switch 2)
  • Halls of Torment (PC - Steam)
  • Bloons Adventure Time TD (PC - Steam)
  • Goldeneye 007 (PC - 1964)
  • Core Keeper (PC - Steam) - Co-op with my son
  • Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (PC - Steam) - Looking forward to finishing this. It doesn’t have any new groundbreaking game systems, but the beauty is how it uses and brings these existing systems all together with a nice story and beautiful soundtrack.
  • Various Roblox games - Co-op with my son
  • and more.

I also learned soldering enough to replace some batteries in some Gameboy cartridges and as a result, I’ve been playing Dragon Warrior I & II for Gameboy Color on my original Gameboy Advance SP. Perhaps I’ll write a post about my experience and all that it entails to help others do the same.

All the gaming stuff aside… Most importantly, I’m also really proud of how much my wife and I have done for our son throughout the year. He has continued to improve on his swim team, he has also continued to improve at playing trombone for his school band, and he’s been doing great in his classes. I couldn’t be more proud.

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2026. -Gordon