This is going to be another entry just putting some of the other games I played throughout the year that didn't quite get a spot on the good or bad. As always, this is just my opinion and I hope you guys enjoy the retrospective!

This is my first ever Shantae game and I played it early this year. I will say it was pretty fun! I first heard about the Shantae series back in 2014, and it took almost 9 years to finally play one! I can see why people enjoy it. It's a charming little platformer with witty dialogue, simple exploration and upgrades, and great music. This is also one of the only games where the "get captured and temporarily lose your items" sequences leads to some good reward and isn't cumbersome, so props for that. I'll definitely be checking out other games in the series as I can. I own Half-Genie Hero and Risky's Revenge, so I'll probably pick those up next year on my Deck.

I'm a sucker for anything Kingdom Hearts, so when I got this I thought I'd like it. Well, a spinoff rhythm game that pays tribute to the series' excellent music really hooked me. I was impressed with the scope of music that was caught across all the titles (except Chi, and there wasn't so much of 3) and I'm glad they picked the OG versions of KH1/2 music. The rhythm aspect is pretty solid throughout, I'd say 3D and 3 were a bit off at times but everything else felt great. The RPG mechanics that do exist are alright. There's a lot of unlockables of artwork, the station of awakening, the keyblades etc. Reminds me of the good aspects of Re:CoM. Great recommendation, if you like rhythm games and don't mind it's mostly a recap of the main story points of the series.

I almost gave this an honorable mention, but too many other games took precedence. That said, I actually liked this one quite a bit. The melee combat was fluid and you get a variety of melee weapons to pick from. The music was solid and parrying was satisfying. Didn't make the cut though because I felt most non-parry weapons were worthless - you moved slower and parrying is much more fun/satisfying. That said you felt the impact from the heavy weapons. The enemies were alright. The biggest thing was the game only has like 2.5 chapters that you can beat in less than 3 hours. I got to the end and was like "that's all?" Shorter than Hellbound, but much more fun and polished. You can also do NG+ runs for achievements and such, which I may do.

Fun fact: I barely played Zool as a kid, but was engrossed enough by it that when I saw this on sale I had to grab it. Let me say: To any developer looking to re-release an old title, this game should serve as a stellar example of how to do it RIGHT. More (optional) accessibility, features and extras, a wider and beautiful perspective, and even the ability to play the OG Mega Drive version. You could chug through the main game in an hour but there is replayability and the high quality of this release make it a stand-out while being pretty affordable at $10, less than $5 on sale.

While the game is a bit short for its cost (I beat it in about 4.5 hours), Siberian Mayhem manages to deal with a lot of the issues in 4. Fun levels, nice progression, even some new weapons that were incredibly useful, and of course Sam's cheesy jokes were better. Helps with the price tag that replayability and NG+ is encouraged with this one. I wouldn't mind if SS5 took this game as a baseline and expanded on it. Still, 2 was my favorite and I'd love to see something like that again.

Similar to how Championship Edition DX+ brought Pac-Man to the 2010s, Luxor Evolved did something similar for Luxor. Great music and aesthetic, fun power-ups and challenging difficulty without being unforgiving. I'll definitely pick this one up again. I wish there was a stage select/practice mode instead of just playing from start to finish, but other than that, good fun.

Note this is reflective of Afterlife and not the original game. I finished this after Vigil & Lodoss War, having an itch for Metroidvania still. I will say, this game scratched that itch but only a little. It's more of a souls-like and always has been. I'm not sure how to describe my feelings on it. It does a lot of things I like, it does a bit I don't like, but it's not to any extrema except maybe the music, because the music is nice. I've had a few encounters be straight-up unfun and enemies being bullet-spongy, and I wish fast travel was unlocked earlier because exploration and revisiting can be a bit tedious. I did like the souls-like elements, the storytelling and voice acting, and having several abilities were cool. I would play this again unlike Ori and the Blind Forest, and given it has NG+ potential I may just have to when I'm in a mood to hunt some achievements down.

WARNING: HOT TAKE INCOMING. I found Infinite to be the worst of the Bioshock trilogy, at least in gameplay. No but seriously it felt like they went backwards on the gameplay side. More weapons are cool, but not when you can only carry 2 at a time and they have less ammo types and less interesting upgrades. The Plas-- sorry, Vigors are not bad, but upgrades are expensive and I wish I could carry salt packs. The gear system is a downgrade from the tonics which added a lot of flexibility and buffs. The skylines are disappointingly underutilized. Elizabeth is a kickass companion though. The setting and atmosphere are really cool, and the story kept me interested. It's a good game, but I'm surprised it blew up in popularity like it did considering how much better Bioshock 2 is. I also have not played the DLC yet, but I heard it was the worst in the series, so take that for what it's worth.

I've been eyeing this game since I first heard of it, and thanks to a Fanatical sale I finally grabbed it. It's a flawed gem that could've been trimmed a bit, but I had a lot of fun with it. The world is big (a bit too big, I've gotten lost and gatekept a few too many times). The combat styles are pretty fun, although magic is underwhelming. The level-up system is simple, but I think it works fine. The artstyle is gorgeous on Deck, even moreso on PC. Lots of endings with zero missables. The game got tedious towards the last third of the game with enemies destroying your health bar and bosses taking a souls-like approach. Your fast-travel options are very limited until you can make enough currency to buy consumable items easily. It's flawed fun, but I'd still say it's a great entry in the traditional Metroidvania genre.

I played one of these games already, but this is the first one. Skautfold is a series that's interested me since I learned about it, each game taking on a different genre. This is apparently a Bloodborne-inspired game. It's alright. You can beat it in 2 hours, and there's a free version of the full base game story if you want to check it out for yourself. It just feels really rough around the edges at some points. The tutorial is pretty bad. It's easy to get lost because there's no map, which I get Souls games don't have maps either but still. The sanity mechanic is interesting, but if you're struggling with the game and dying a lot why should the game get harder?

I feel bad for ranking this lower since Will of the Wisps came out after this and is just a superior game in every regard, but this is one of those games that I liked and respected, but will unfortunately never play again. The artstyle? Outstanding. The story-telling? Endearing. The exploration aspects? Fun. The gameplay itself? Fun, when you're not putting up with the story parts. When you're trying to progress the main story, there's so many segments where you're just throwing your corpse in a frustrating and unsatisfying way. I get you can create checkpoints anywhere as long as you have MP, but I'd much rather the post-game where I was running around, revisiting old areas and exploring more relaxed trying to 100% it (which I did). The sequel is exactly what I had hoped this game would've been, but it is what it is. It's good, but I'll probably never pick it up again.

I picked this up when I needed a break from Tears of the Kingdom but wanted something more Zelda-y. It's a fine 5.5-6/10 game. The difficulty curve is wild. Being a souls-like early on and then just steamrolling everything after a couple hours. Lots of sidequests and silly (in a good way) dialogue. The gear you found was alright. I liked the system of leveling up of your sword/armor/bow/bombs. It was really easy to get lost without a good map or direction though. Your character is a Navy volunteer but can't touch water like, at all? You get magic spells but they destroy your magic bar (which gets no upgrades) and just aren't that useful. When you max out your health it looks awkward (OCD incoming!). The boss fights were just stronger enemies you can wail on. Bombs and arrows are a pain in the ass to find? The puzzles were good though, I liked the sidequests, and the way the artstyle was done was done well in my opinion. It's just pretty flawed and I'd rather play Blossom Tales.

This was my first ever VR experience back in college. I eventually traded for a copy and had a good time playing through all the different scenarios, finding easter eggs etc. After playing all the levels once, I think this is better suited as a game for social gatherings and I think its price is just a little too high for what it is. It's not bad by any means, and being one of the first VR experiences it does a great job. I may play Vacation Sim next year.

This is basically an exercise in artistry. Definitely captures the feeling of 90s collect-a-thon platformers, but at such a light level that I think this should've been freeware or $1 at most. Still, I paid $2 for it and found it entertaining for 40 minutes.

I think this was one of the reasons my retro-FPS drive was a bit lacking. It's not bad. It's... okay (apologies to the person who challenged me to play this!). I think this is also an exercise in artistry because it does a great job at capturing its feel and the doom and gloom of the Czech/Russian locations back in the day both in atmosphere and weaponry. Combat was fun, the weird difficulty at times wasn't. There was this really old gambling game side-featured that I thought was awesomely included. It's gloomy but has just the right amount of silliness that you don't lose the immersion. I had enough fun and it pays great respect to history.

I LOVED Doom 2016 and thought it did an amazing job at bringing back retro-FPS to the modern era. Doom Eternal does kind of the same, but ramps up the difficulty big time. Not just by making harder enemies or more enemies, but by limiting your ammo reserves and really making you scout for those secrets. It works pretty well I think, I genuinely didn't mind the platforming sections, the unlockables were top-notch, and there was a sense of satisfaction after a tough battle. So why don't I like it more than 2016? Because at a certain point in the game it starts getting "too much" and a certain enemy gets introduced that completely breaks the flow of the game in an unfun way, and it keeps showing up throughout the rest of the campaign. The DLCs are very frustrating too. That said I'd still say it's ALMOST as good as 2016.

This game is cool. Take the VS-like genre that's sweeping the nation, put a Diablo 1 skin over it, and bam. Halls of Torment. Progression is pretty good, it is a bit too grindy in my opinion. It will take you some hours to win a run, but the path to getting there includes finding new classes, the equipment system which I really like, new skills and enhancements, and every achievement you get gives you an XP bonus. I don't like it more than Rogue Genesia, but I can see it coming close as it finishes.

Another game that took me almost a decade to play (and was challenged to play!). Man, I can see why people raved about it. The beginning is very cinematic and I was a bit worried about it just being a QTE fest, but wow did the game pick up. The sense of exploration in past games came back full force. The modern-day systems like finding collectibles for "XP" worked well. Upgrades work nicely. I love the weapon selection and everything feels impactful. The history lessons from Lara were really neat. The story was interesting enough. Great game.

Thanks for reading. I do have a "worst of" list as well, but I'm apprehensive about putting it up. :)