Another game I'd had sitting for ages and finally got around to finishing. The final stretch of this had me dancing about like a madman. Real highpoint of the series stuff.

DIdn't like it. Open world just felt dull and full of copy-pasted stuff. Wasn't fussed about the story. Saying "wretched dung-eater" is funny but that's all I've got.

Started this when I first got a Switch, got round to finishing it this year. Can't say I understand what everyone sees in it - world has nothing interesting in it and the story dungeons are just the same thing four times. Or was it five? I don't remember. Dull.

VERY COOL. This is one that I'm absolutely going to keep coming back to. Just relentless, I love how the proximity gimmick means that against bosses it feels like you're mashing up against each other and trying to force each other down. Great.

Another good Cave game. It's no Ketsui, though!

Replay. Decided to just go through a bunch of the Arkham games after Origins. Still solid! Had never played the DLC so I gave that a bash, it is definitely less good. Just remembered the reason I played these was because I was rewatching all of Batman TAS at the time. Still a great show, I recommend doing the same.

I liked ESP Ra.De. enough to buy this. Some tweaks, more content, fine by me!

Avoided this for ages because of the shift to JRPG combat, finally gave it a go since it was free on PS+ and confirmed my fears. Just don't enjoy it at all. The battle UI looks insanely cheap as well.

Didn't get anywhere near finishing it, but it did seem really cool. I need to play it more.

Replay. One of the best games ever made. If you've never played God Hand, please go play God Hand.

Replay. Perfect game.

Another good DoDonPachi. No really, I love that big laser!

Watching my cousin play this traumatised me as a kid, finally decided to face my demons and play it. Inventory management and backtracking are not very exciting - dropped it with no plans to return after getting out of the police station.

I don't think it's as great as the first game, but it's still very good! Though it's driving me mental that the first uses "and" but this uses "&" on here.

Replay technically, although last time round I only got as far as the first time you're actually able to move about and said fuck this. A lot of my friends hold this game in very high regard so I'm giving it another go, but went and did other stuff immediately after finishing the first chapter. I'll keep trying but Suda has yet to make a game I've enjoyed.

Kamen Rider Garren! Whoah! Oh this is a visual novel, not an FMV game. Well, maybe there'll be a lot of gameplay to make up for i- oh. Never mind.

I'm sure I would have had fun playing it but I honestly cannot remember anything about this game. Whoops!

Obviously a very cool game but I didn't know at all how to play it. Need to read the constructions (used to call instructions this as a kid haha) and go through it again.

Replay. Had been reading The Oral History of Street Fighter II and they talk a fair bit about Darkstalkers in it, so I gave this a quick run. Still not really into how it all shakes together but it's not a bad game. I would play Bishamon.

Cool game, very hard. This and the first one make me laugh a lot because you've got all these folk who have been facecapped so you can go oh wow that's Naoto Takenaka! And then you've got William who has proper Koei Face.

Replay. Originally played it on PS5, finally grabbed it on PC so I have all the levels from 1 and 2 as well. The whole trilogy is just really good - I'm glad they shifted towards a more spy thriller-like world. Also some of the funniest games released in the last few years; every time Tobias Rieper speaks at length I crack up.

Same story, sitting for ages, finally finished. I didn't like this nearly as much as the original but ate up all the first game fanservice like a champ, so it's all good by me.

Replay. Mate asked me to play it over Fightcade with him so I obliged. Never been a fan. Great character art though, bring back giant shoulderpads Jill Valentine.

Replay. Went through this again for Halloween. Cool game! Tim Curry's attempt at a New Orleans accent is very endearing.

Obviously took a ton of work to get it looking and sounding like it does, but I don't think the gameplay is very exciting. It never feels like I'm doing anything to bosses, either - even with damage modifiers it seemed like they would enter their next phase at a predetermined point. Gimme a healthbar at least!

I have no love whatsoever for FFVII. This was free on PS+, so I decided to see if things would be different after nearly 20 years and a different combat system. Nope! I think I might like this even less.

Don't like Guilty Gear at all but played this with some friends who were trying to get into it. If I played it I would main Venom.

I liked The Stanley Parable. This was more of that. I liked it!

Not really that into it. Not bad, but not very interesting either. Fast forward for cutscenes is good, but a skip button would be even better.

The amount of work that's gone into this is insane, and it wasn't for nothing: this game is very cool! I need to play more.

It's definitely cool, but these tiny bullets are killing me, man. My eyesight is bad.

Only played the first mission and then put it to the side because I felt like it would deserve some proper time dedicated to it. One for next year.

Completely badass game. I had to remap my controls a fair bit, I wonder what it's like on an N64 pad. Play this.

Sublime remake package. I've played this so much this year. THPS gameplay has aged like a fine wine.

Replay. I'd started this aaaages ago and gave it another bash this year. It's very impressive, but there really is only so much you can do with Skyrim. It's a great effort but it's just not built on a good base.

Very dope. I was halfway through it before I got "Hard Corps". I played as the wolf guy obviously, he has shades.

Extremely dope. I was only able to finish it with save states, but I want to try without because it really is just that cool. Play it!

Replay. Semi-regular runthrough - I didn't write anything about it at the time because I honestly wouldn't know where to start. It's just one of my favourite games ever and hit me like a truck when I was younger. The ending of the words is ALMSIVI.

All I remember is that it was a mech game. I finished it, so it must have been decent!

Replay. Solid management game, had no idea there was a sequel until recently but I'll need to play it.

If I had a list of games I desperately wish would get translated, this is on it. An endearingly silly love letter to tokusatsu hero shows. When you create your hero you enter their name and it comes up as a big logo! Anything you put in! Wow!

Another one that I think I need to go through again to really click with.

Did the Golden Deer route. Tooooo long for what it is. Not bothered about most of the characters either. I liked Awakening well enough but I don't think I have it in me to play Fire Emblem regularly.

Peak of the series here, I think. Copen is a great addition and is super fun to play.

Also very cool! Good name to say as well. GUNSTAR

Pretty good from what I remember!

Started it but barely got any way in before I got distracted by other things. I've enjoyed every Ys I've played and can't imagine this one will buck the trend.

It was good, but it's possible that Gaiden has ruined me for the rest of this series.

Oh, so the bug princess does nothing but kill bugs? Typical royals. These Cave shmups with tiny hurtboxes are very fun!

Replay. Had to do Tekken Force as part of the book. I don't like Tekken.

Replay. Still really impressive even now! I like how much of it feels like an actual investigation rather than you solving a series of video game puzzles. I did not get a good ending.

Really cool just how many combinations of your team are possible. This kicked my ass and then I read the review on here about difficulty scaling with credits. Absolutely fiendish.

A triumph. It was super hard and reading up on how the difficulty works made me do a big laugh with zero humour in it, but that's completely secondary to the music and the visuals here for me. A game I really, really wish I had played at the time because I would never have seen or heard anything like it. Maybe I'd be a completely different person now. That's the power I think Darius Gaiden might hold!

Can't really remember any of the tunes from this. Wanted to like it more than I did.

They do the Lightning Strikes Again bit in this one too, and it still rules.

Super cool, Metal Squad goes extremely hard.

Just a fun arcade game. Some parts of this are absolute nails.

This is how you do an FMV game! I wanna see those digitised folks walking around, picking up stuff and looking at it - maybe even reacting to it!
Really cool, all the hokey charm of FMV combined with a pretty cool story that involves some real-world history, which I like. Education!

Replay. It's Streets of Rage 2, you know the score. Easily one of the Mega Drive's best.

Replay. Started this but then decided to take a break from the Mega Man Marathon to avoid burning out on the Blue Bomber. Got a decent chunk into it though and this is still primo PS1 fare!

Replay. Thought this was pretty weak when it came out, opinion remains unchanged, but the Batgirl DLC was good.

The good shit. Easy pick for my GOTY. Have went back to it all throughout the year, some of these new goal and costume unlock requirements are total murder.

Very cool game. Remake this please.

Replay. This close to being a perfect videogame. It really is just stupidly good. Play it now if you haven't already!

I'm even worse at horizontal shooters, but this is still cool. Tons of personality.

Much better than the original. Weird, kind of grotesque designs and Winkysoft doing a Winkysoft as hell soundtrack. Final boss music just sounds like a Masou Kishin track, which is a-OK by me.

I don't think I really got this one. Might need to replay.

Knocked me for six. What a cool game! Boss health is excessive but that's my only issue. This one really got me itching to go on a run of shmups.

Wasn't too keen on where this one ended up but it's an interesting take on FMV games nonetheless. I would watch all of the movies in it.

First half is a fun Ninja Gaiden clone, although nowhere near as hard. Second half is a really boring Metroidvania. Fun game that turned into a horrendous slog.

Level design is more straightforward (blander) than the Gunvolt games but it's still really fun because Copen. Designs of the girls are still prison sentence bait.

The current era of KOF just isn't for me. XIV and XV feel like they're trying to carry on the Big Combo Game style of XIII, but combos in these games are just not nearly as cool or interesting. Feels like they want you to go down very specific predefined combo routes. I could watch, say, Marvel 3 footage now and there's a solid chance I'll see something I've never seen before; it doesn't feel like this can happen with current KoF. Also this game is ugly as hell. At least there's always 98!

Replay. I think this game is cool although it's often an absolute chore to play. If it was half as long it'd be great.

Not quite as punishing as Revenge, but also more simplistic in level design. That's my only complaint, though - this game rules otherwise. You can tell they're really pushing the Mega Drive as far as it'll go. Looks awesome, sounds awesome, bunch of new movement options, good game.

Another cool Cave (kool Kave) game. Not into the look as much as I am ESP Ra.De. but it's fine!

A good remake of the good remake. Japanese title is better.

Another shmup I am never, ever going to 1CC.

Again, didn't like it as much as ESP Ra.De., but it's still good!

DIdn't really care for the style and the forced walking segments are a totally nonsensical addition, but there are some good boss fights here even if they run out of steam towards the end (final boss is really shitty). Don't know if it was just my control setup or what but I felt like I was fighting against an auto-aim a lot of the time in the ranged parts.

Not sure what's going on here. Gunvolt is a furry character now? And you don't actually play as him outside of a super mode? And Copen is gone? Hmm. Think I'll go back to 2.

Good game. "Mood" stuff is usually thin gruel to me but taking photos of stuff is fun and this gives you a lot of options for taking photos, so I like it. Good soundtrack, good look. The first level of the DLC openly lifts from Johnny Mnemonic, so is very cool.

Replay. Linn Kurosawa is so cool, man. What a good game.

Replay. Old reliable. I love how the big blue laser looks.

Another PS+ game. I guess I don't mind Minecraft, but I haven't put much time into this because it keeps trying to get me to do story stuff that I don't care about.

Kinda-sorta wearing a management game skin, but really this is a choose your own adventure book. I got the best ending though, so hooray!

I'd probably be interested in checking out some of the later Gradius games, but this one didn't do much for me.

Chills when they hit "of the HIGHEST POWERS"

By this point I'd played a lot of shmups and I think this is the first one where I really wondered how anyone could 1CC it. Wild!

Easily the best Turtles beatemup, just brimming with personality. Went through singleplayer and with four players and had an absolute blast. Best OST of the year easily as well.

This is Video Games.

Replay. It's some more Tower of Doom. It's good!

Replay. I've been dipping in and out all year, only at this point that I decided to actually log it. This game is always going to hold a very special place in my heart, even if I've done pretty much all I want to do in it.

Not really a great shmup but the biggest love letter to super robot shows there ever was. This is a 2D horizontal shmup that comes on four discs because of the amount of video and music shoved in to make this as much a super robot anime as is possible. Nice!

Replay. Initially played the PSP release of this but never finished it, so grabbed the Steam release when it hit and went through it. It's funny!

Genuinely astounding effort for one guy. Awesome combo system, this was walking the Streets of Rage 4 walk before that game existed. Only problems I have with it are the lighting is a bit much at times and the main girl leans way too hard into anime fanservice for my taste. Genuinely really good game.

Replay. Now this is a Castlevania. Great game and the story - WW1 as an impetus for Draculaic resurrection - is a hoot.

Replay. There can be no justice in the world as long as this is stuck on the Wii of all things. No idea why it was exclusive in the first place.

Fuckin hell

Can't really remember it, just know I didn't finish it.

Replay. Now THIS is charm!