2025 was…a lot.
As much as I’d love to just engross myself in video games and tune out, well, *gestures wildly at literally everything*, it’s been impossible to ignore the abject dumpster fire that the world became in 2025. We saw the US taking its long-threatened nosedive into fascism, the AI bubble growing impossibly large all the while screwing over creators and causing the price of technology to skyrocket, corporations squeezing every penny out of consumers to ensure record profits while also enacting mass layoffs throughout the year, political violence escalating worldwide, the climate crisis accelerating, wars being waged and genocides being committed – and that’s just a small taste. It’s hard to say anything remotely positive about 2025; it was an objectively awful year for the entire planet.
But this isn’t an article to talk about how the world is going to hell and how much this timeline sucks. We need to celebrate the small wins, and one personal win that I can celebrate is that 2025 was actually a pretty damn good year for making progress through my gaming backlog.
This past year, I finished 15 games. That may not seem like much, but when my average has sometimes gone as low as 10, it puts things into a more optimistic perspective. In addition, those 15 games included some really massive games, such as The Witcher 3 and Horizon Forbidden West.
2025 also really solidified a shift in mindset toward my backlog. In recent years, I’ve been trying to look at my backlog as less of a to-do list or, well, a “backlog,” and more so a library full of a myriad of games from which I could choose my next experience. In 2025, I just…played what I wanted to play. A novel concept, truly. But embracing that mindset has been liberating in a way – just deciding what I feel like playing as my next game without thought for how long it’s been on my backlog, or how long the game is, or what would be the best game to write about.
But that’s enough monologuing about this year in general. I’ve got 15 games to talk about, so let’s get down to business. Here’s every game I finished this year, ranked by how much I enjoyed them:
15. Mirror’s Edge
Played On: PC
Added to Backlog: July 2, 2018
Beaten: July 12, 2025
Starting off with a spicy take: Mirror’s Edge is legitimately one of my least favorite games I’ve ever played. I know that it has a diehard fanbase and was generally well-received when it came out, but I can’t remember a single time I sat down to play the game that didn’t wind up being torturous. I think the only reasons I powered through finishing the game were because A) I was holding out hope that something would click and I’d finally see why everyone loves this game, and B) I knew that it’s mercifully short.
From clunky platforming, truly awful combat, a mediocre story with grating and/or wooden characters, and overall frustrating gameplay, I don’t have much positive to say about Mirror’s Edge. It’s a pretty game, I guess, despite being blown-out by bloom, and I can applaud it for daring to be something different during the brown, gritty 360/PS3 gen, but it just didn’t land for me.
14. Mario Kart World
Played On: Switch 2
Added to Backlog: December 2, 2025
Beaten: December 10, 2025
I count this as beaten since I got gold on all 150cc Grand Prix, and it makes me sad that it’s so low. Mario Kart 8 was my 2014 Game of the Year, for crying out loud, and I spent countless hours racing against friends online and in person.
But Mario Kart World…exists, I guess? Its biggest selling points are the 24-player races and the open world, but the races become way too chaotic as a result of the increased player count, and the open world is largely useless and seems shoehorned in. There just aren’t that many standout courses either, and that’s made even worse by Nintendo’s baffling decision to force “intermission” segments during Grand Prix and online races – meaning you drive wide, mostly straight and empty roadways to get from course to course and usually only get one lap on the actual track once you get there.
It’s still fun by virtue of being Mario Kart, and I still pick it up and play a few races occasionally, but I don’t see it having the staying power of 8 on the Wii U for me.
13. Super Mario Bros. (All-Stars)
Played On: Emulator (originally own on Wii)
Added to Backlog: December 25, 2010
Beaten: February 21, 2025
All hail the Steam Deck! My original version of All-Stars is the anniversary collection on Wii, but I decided to play through it emulated on the Deck. And honestly? This might be the way I play all my retro games now. Being able to play on a portable with a gorgeous OLED screen is so convenient, and I’ll be honest and say that I’d probably never make it through some of these older games without save states.
Anyway…it’s Super Mario Bros. There isn’t much more to say about it. Some aspects haven’t aged super well. but it’s still an essential part of gaming history. I’m a bit ashamed that I never beat it until now, and I know some people will scoff at the fact that I played the All-Stars version instead of the original. I hope to continue playing through some of the early Mario games this year – except maybe Lost Levels because that game terrifies me.
12. Stories Untold
Played On: PC
Added to Backlog: July 8, 2017
Beaten: October 30, 2025
Stories Untold is a nice little experience I played in two short sittings during the Halloween season. I’m not one for horror at all, so the slight creepy vibes and mildly unsettling atmosphere made it a perfect spooky season game for my level of tolerance. Trying to piece together the mystery tying each of the game’s four individual episodes together was a fun exercise, even if the resolution to that mystery isn’t quite as satisfying as it should be.
I actually enjoyed the gameplay of doing random increasingly-technical-and-fiddly busywork, but I could see how some people would find it not particularly engaging. I also ran into a few frustrating technical hiccups that made me have to restart an episode. Still, Stories Untold is an enjoyable experience and a worthwhile experiment in storytelling.
11. Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds
Played On: PS4 (played on PS5)
Added to Backlog: June 21, 2018
Beaten: January 23, 2025
I feel bad about this one because I feel like I didn’t give this DLC a fair chance. I bought it on sale and never got around to playing it until I wanted to start Forbidden West, and realized that playing through The Frozen Wilds was necessary if I wanted the setup for the sequel.
Horizon Zero Dawn was one of my favorite games of last gen, but I played it not long after release in 2017. Frozen Wilds is endgame-level content for that game, and coming into it 8 years after release was an exercise in how to bang my head against a wall trying to re-learn everything about that game’s combat and systems. It doesn’t help that Frozen Wilds is a substantial step up in difficulty from even the endgame of Zero Dawn.
The Frozen Wilds is a very beefy DLC full of content set in a beautiful snowy environment, with a strong story that ties directly into Forbidden West. I probably would have enjoyed it more if I’d played it closer to Zero Dawn rather than eight years later, but despite stumbling my way through it to get to Forbidden West I still found enjoyment during my time in The Cut, and I fully recognize and applaud the fact that it’s DLC done right.
10. Disney Illusion Island
Played On: Switch
Added to Backlog: February 10, 2025
Beaten: May 11, 2025
Disney Illusion Island is…fine.
It’s absolutely gorgeous – looking like it was pulled straight out of a Disney cartoon, complete with the Disney charm and sense of humor. It’s a decently-sized world with plenty of nooks and crannies to explore, and it’s a good length to feel complete without overstaying its welcome. It’s very rarely ever challenging, but for a game clearly meant as baby’s first Metroidvania it serves as a really good introduction to the genre. All in all, it’s a fantastically well-made game that’s polished to a T.
The problem is that it’s just kind of boring to actually play. The gameplay mechanics work, there’s no clunkiness or lack of fluidity, but there’s not much in the way of substance. There’s no combat, the special abilities you unlock (in classic Metroid style) are fairly basic, and the platforming rarely ever gets interesting or creative.
It’s a perfectly good game, and if you’re into Disney, want a breezy Metroidvania to play through, or are on the younger side, it’s definitely one I’d recommend. Just don’t expect it to be the most exhilarating game you’ve ever played.
9. Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee!
Played On: Switch
Added to Backlog: May 25, 2025
Beaten: June 28, 2025
If Disney Illusion Island was baby’s first Metroidvania, then the Let’s Go games are baby’s first Pokémon games.
I’d played Let’s Go, Pikachu! not long after it released, but a recent return to playing Pokémon Go had made me want to do a replay. My partner had never played it, so when I saw Eevee on sale I had the idea that we could play through the games together. So he played my old copy of Pikachu, I played Eevee, and off we went back to Kanto once again.
I think I appreciated the Let’s Go games more this time than I did at release. They have a simple and clean art style (unironically maybe the best-looking Pokémon games on the Switch), and the back to basics approach saddled with Go mechanics such as catching and candies was actually a welcome change from the usual series.
Yeah, they’re a bit too simplified, and the difficulty has no teeth at all (even by Pokémon standards), but the Let’s Go games are meant as a bridge for casual Go players to dip their toe into the main games, and they do an admirable job.
8. Snake Pass
Played On: Steam
Added to Backlog: July 5, 2017
Beaten: March 26, 2025
Snake Pass is another game that I finished because I bought a Steam Deck. Being able to just chill in bed and play through a stage without being tethered to my PC was a godsend for a game like this.
As I said in my review, Snake Pass is charming, quirky, and sometimes infuriating. Everything oozes charm, from the David Wise soundtrack that plays during the game’s 15 levels to the colorful graphical style to the adorably expressive Noodle and Doodle, the titular snake and his hummingbird companion.
But the thing that makes Snake Pass is the control scheme. Sumo Digital sought to create a game where you really felt like you were controlling a snake, and they succeeded in that regard. While it’s not always intuitive and definitely has a learning curve, once it clicks it’s fairly fluid, and, for better or for worse, there’s nothing else like it in gaming. I remember struggling with the game for a bit back when I tried playing it in 2017, before giving up and moving on to other things; but this time it didn’t seem to take long for the controls to click and for me to be noodling throughout the stages like…well, a snake.
I’m always thrilled when developers flex their creative muscle to try new things and make something truly unique like Snake Pass, and I’m glad I decided to give it another chance.
7. Horizon Forbidden West
Played On: PS5
Added to Backlog: December 25, 2022
Beaten: March 21, 2025
I already mentioned that Horizon Zero Dawn was one of my favorite games of the PS4 generation. I was given Forbidden West for Christmas a few years ago but was always intimidated by how overwhelmingly big I’d heard it was. But at the beginning of this year, I decided to knock down that mental block in the way of me starting it and to actually begin my journey through the Forbidden West.
And yes, it’s bigger in every way than Zero Dawn – too big, in fact, as I wrote about earlier this year. But despite its bloat, I still felt compelled to explore the entirety of its huge world, taking over bandit camps, getting full stripes in the hunting grounds, fighting my way through the melee pits, and determining the best way to take out the game’s expanded crop of (bigger! tougher!) machines.
Zero Dawn pulled me in hook, line, and sinker with its plot that I still consider one of the most enthralling of any game I’ve ever played. Forbidden West doesn’t hold a candle to the first game in that regard, with a much weaker plot that jumps the shark a bit in its quest to make the scale and stakes even bigger, but, despite that, I was still invested in the lore, world, and characters.
In the end, Horizon Forbidden West didn’t stick with me nearly as much as Zero Dawn did, but I still greatly enjoyed the dozens of hours I spent trekking through its world.
6. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (Trilogy)
Played On: Wii U (Virtual Console)
Added to Backlog: January 31, 2015
Beaten: December 31, 2025
Technically this was a replay, since I beat Echoes on GameCube over 15 years ago, but I’d never played the Trilogy version with the Wii controls. I replayed Prime way back in 2016 (the Trilogy) and again after Prime Remastered came out, but with Metroid Prime 4: Beyond coming out I wanted to finish my replays of the trilogy before picking it up.
Like Prime, Echoes is a fantastic game with an incredible atmosphere, nailing the sense of isolation as Samus explores a hostile alien world. This time, the world is especially hostile, as Aether is a much darker, more oppressive environment than Tallon IV. The Sanctuary Fortress is a standout area, with its sharp metallic angles, futuristic aesthetic, and robotic enemies offering a distinct break from the natural environments Samus had explored in the Prime series up to that point.
Echoes is also a noticeable step up in difficulty from the original Prime, and it reaches levels of being downright punishing at times – mostly in the boss fights. Those are very hit or miss: Quadraxis is one of the best bosses in the entire series, while the Boost and Spider Guardians infamously had to be nerfed in the Trilogy re-release. The precise Wii pointer controls help to mitigate some of the difficulty as well, and the Prime series remains one of the best use of motion controls on the system.
I really thought Echoes would be higher on my list, but it loses a lot of steam towards the end. A lengthy collectathon kills a lot of the momentum leading up to the final boss, and then there’s the final boss sequence itself. It’s incredibly lengthy and difficult, and much of the difficulty comes from mechanical clunkiness and resource limitations. That’s the biggest reason Echoes doesn’t quite reach the heights of the original Prime for me, but it’s still a must-play.
5. Final Fantasy IX
Played On: PC
Added to Backlog: July 3, 2009 (PS)
Beaten: July 1, 2025
Moguri Mod + Steam Deck = chef’s kiss. I think that if I had tried to play the PlayStation disc copy that I physically own, I might have dropped Final Fantasy IX from the long load times and battle animations and being tethered to a TV, but this is another game that really benefitted from playing on a handheld and being able to speed things up. The upscaled textures and backgrounds on the Moguri Mod are the icing on the cake, making it a truly beautiful game.
For a game meant to be a lighthearted throwback to classic Final Fantasy after the series diverged a bit with VII and VIII, Final Fantasy IX actually delves pretty deep into questions of life and existence, and it has some legitimately sad and dark moments. The cast of characters is a bit hit-or-miss, but Vivi remains one of the best characters in the entire series, and you can’t help but have your heartstrings tugged by his quest to figure out his purpose in life and reconcile the realities of his very existence and what the future holds.
Outside of that, we get the classic ATB combat (thankfully made faster with Moguri) and a traditional overworld full of memorable locales and secrets to find. It can be a bit of a slow burn at times, and there’s a bit of tedium – especially when the game splits the party – but Final Fantasy IX deserves to stand among the best the series has to offer.
4. Theatrhythm Final Bar Line
Played On: Switch
Added to Backlog: May 19, 2025
Beaten: September 2, 2025
I adored the original Theatrhythm on 3DS, and Final Bar Line cranks everything up to 11.
There’s soooo much content here, with nearly every song from every Final Fantasy represented, including spinoffs. While there are some baffling omissions that were held back for DLC (To Zanarkand is DLC-exclusive, really????) Final Bar Line is a musical love letter to a series known for incredible soundtracks.
I was skeptical about how Final Bar Line would translate the original game’s stylus-centric gameplay to analog stick and buttons, but it actually works really well once you get used to the change. The gameplay is engaging and challenging without feeling unfair, and there are a ton of difficulty options and tweaks that can be made to make things more accessible and comfortable.
Making your way through Final Bar Line‘s campaigns based around each Final Fantasy title unlocks literally hundreds of characters from throughout the series, all rendered in Theatrhythm‘s signature chibi art style. There are also an overwhelming number of party customizations and systems that can be tweaked to your liking, and optional quests and missions that encourage replaying songs on harder difficulties or to get higher scores.
Theatrhythm Final Bar Line is nothing less than a celebration of one of my favorite series in gaming, and even after technically “beating” it I’ve found myself coming back to it again and again throughout the year.
3. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
Played On: Switch
Added to Backlog: December 25, 2024
Beaten: January 21, 2025
I’ve already written at length about my distaste for what Breath of the Wild did to what used to be my favorite series in all of gaming, and how Echoes of Wisdom gave me a taste of what I’d missed so much from Zelda.
Echoes of Wisdom does a good job of combining elements of the classic Zelda that I love with the more open-air philosophy introduced in Breath of the Wild. It actually takes some elements from Skyward Sword – a game which I loved – with its dungeon-like traversal of the overworld outside of the actual dungeons (and yes, those make a triumphant return!). The game’s structure of granting you freedom to do things in any order while also gating things off into segments further helps to balance the old and new and allows for a sense of progression that’s sorely missing in recent Zelda games.
The echoes themselves, while sometimes making combat less than engaging, allow for some truly creative puzzle design, with room for expression in how you solve those puzzles. And speaking of combat, there’s a ton of enemy variety as well, including some really neat and memorable boss fights.
Echoes also has a ton of the classic Zelda charm that I’ve missed from recent entries in the series. The world is full of colorful characters, and Zelda herself (finally, she’s playable!) is quite expressive in her own right.
If Echoes of Wisdom is a sign of things to come for the series, Nintendo may have won me back as a Zelda fan.
2. Pokémon Legends: Z-A
Played On: Switch (later on Switch 2)
Added to Backlog: October 21, 2025
Beaten: November 6, 2025
Even if it’s wrapped in ugly packaging, Pokémon Legends: Z-A is some of the most fun I’ve had with a Pokémon game on Switch.
The fast-paced battle system is the closest we’ve come to anime-style battles in the games, and the fact that everything is so zippy means that you can rip through a ton of battles in a short time – a really good thing, because whereas Legends: Arceus was all about catching Pokémon and the battling was secondary, Z-A flips that on its head and is all about battling. The Rogue Mega battles throughout the story, built upon Arceus’ Noble Pokémon fights, are immensely fun and actually quite challenging. And the new Megas themselves are largely great, though there are a few mediocre ones here and there.
X andY really deserved a third version that they never received, so to have at least a bit of the world of Kalos fleshed out and expanded upon in a sequel was very welcome. Like X and Y, there’s a friend group that accompanies you on your adventure, but unlike those games, these friends are actually useful and have personalities. The plot is actually quite decent too, especially for a Pokémon game, and provides a lot more context and resolution for the events of the Kalos region’s history.
I can’t deny that Lumiose itself is a bit bland, and, yes, ugly. But the Pokémon models, interior environments, and character designs are all top-notch, and the game is just really fun to play. And the soundtrack is absolutely phenomenal, including tracks by the incomparable insaneintherain.
As much as I wish Game Freak would actually put some polish and care into their production values, Z-A nails pretty much everything else. The Legends games are proving to be a place where Game Freak can let down their hair and experiment a bit, and I’m excited to see what kind of creative muscle they flex in their next title.
1. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Played On: PC
Added to Backlog: April 15, 2015
Beaten: December 6, 2025
There was never any doubt in my mind that this was going to land here.
The Witcher 3 is the longest and biggest game I’ve ever finished, and it wound up being one of my favorite games of all time as well. Despite the fact I’ve never played the first two games in the series, Wild Hunt grabbed me from the beginning and engrossed me throughout the nearly-100 hours it took me to get to the credits. And even by then, I wasn’t tired of the game and could have kept going (and likely will pick up the DLC at some point).
I wrote a really long article about how The Witcher 3 handles morality and consequences, but it bears repeating: I’ve never played a game with such tough, morally gray decisions at every corner. It adds so much to the world building and the weight of your journey. There are so many memorable characters that, even if they aren’t “good” people, you care about and want to see through their stories.
And there’s so much care and attention to detail, even in the side content. The Witcher 3 has some of the most meaningful side quests I’ve ever played in a game. They’re not just “go here and kill five wolves” or “find materials and craft this item for me.” A majority of the side quests in TW3 have their own story progression and character moments, and you feel like you’ve made a difference in completing them. Several are quite lengthy too and have consequences that bleed over into the main quest.
I normally tire of open-world games pretty quickly, but I found myself actively wanting to explore the game’s absolutely gigantic world in order to not miss any quests, interact with the world and its inhabitants, and see its gorgeous environments.
I had played a couple dozen hours of TW3 back in 2015 when it came out, but hit a brick wall and couldn’t get past it, and then got sidetracked by other games. Now, in its tenth anniversary year, after spending the better part of the second half of the year playing it, I can say I’ve finally finished The Witcher 3, and it’s a gaming experience that will stick with me forever.
And with that, we’ve finally made it! If you’ve made it this far, I appreciate you taking the time to read my rambling about my gaming journeys throughout the year.
2025 may have been a not-so-great year for a number of reasons, but at the very least I’ve had a year full of memorable gaming experiences. Here’s hoping that 2026 has many more in store – and hopefully some better things outside of gaming as well!
