Alongside my PS2 gaming is also me trying to play the handheld out at the time, GBA. I've had trouble getting to it, but this week I got super sidetracked on GBA games. I also touched on PS4 and XSS and bought a bunch of stuff both digitally and at my game stores. 

I'm going down the Metacritic list for PS2 and seeing what might be worth trying out. Journey along and see the sights. 

Next up in my trek through the consoles is the PS2. This will take a while because I have a lot more games for it than previous consoles and the games are a bit longer, reflecting the improvement in technology. But first, two games I forgot to play in the previous weeks. 

In mid-September of last year, I managed to get a decent deal on a used Samsung laptop that has Windows 11, runs decently, and didn't cost too much. So, coupled with the idea of a New Year's resolution and the ownership of a decent laptop, I want to blog here (and on other sites) more often and just get into the effort of writing/posting again. I've fallen out of the habit and i honestly miss it. 

It’s time for my “Best Video Games of 2025 Awards Show!”  Keep in mind that this is my list only and no other outside opinions contributed.  And if a game isn’t on this list, it either just didn’t appeal to me as much or I haven’t had a chance to play it yet.  Ok with that out of the way, let’s begin!

My first task in 2026 is the Atari years, 1977-1984. The system dominated the home console wars until the Famicom in '84. Arcades were king and PCs were just beginning to explore more complex experiences but for a high price. Here's a very personal breakdown of those years. I'm sure others have different ideas of what's most notable. 

I went over the Metacritic list of best DS games and made my own list with comments. There's certainly many more great games I didn't mention for various reasons. 

I won't get to NGC this month, but it's fun to peruse the Metacritic best-of list anyway. These are largely exclusives to the system I've played or have thoughts about. 

So in revisiting this 2000-2009 this month, I thought I'd go down page one of the list of Metacritic's best of for GBA in this time range and make some comments for the games I have something to say about. 

November is coming up, and so I'm looking forward to revisiting games from the first decade of the 2000s. However, I will not be doing Dreamcast because I don't have one anymore and have only a passing interest in getting another one. But, I had one back then, and it's fun to remember to good times I had on the system. 

Back in 2022, Pac-Man World: RePac was released.  It was a remake of the original Pac-Man World game on PlayStation.  I even wrote an article about it here.  I encourage you to read that article I wrote because the original Pac-Man World game was a very special game to me as a game reviewer, and the remake was even my Game of the Year in 2022!  I wondered if Pac-Man World 2 would get the RePac treatment someday, and this year it did!  I didn’t like Pac-Man World 2 as much as the original, but it was still a special game to me and I thought I’d explain why in this article, and go over my thoughts on the RePac version of this game as well. 

I forgot to mention the two digital buys earlier in the week, plus, I need to share what I picked up after Game Boy trade-ins at Game Junkies yesterday. C. O. M. P. U. L. S. I. O. N!

Yes, scouring through the store on Xbox (and other systems) has its rewards. I never know what stealth released title I'll come across. My eyes bugged wide when I saw the following collections. 

I got bored one day and started my 90s playlist for next month. I came up with a new solution to what always ends up being a gigantic list I can't possibly tackle. Here 'tis. 

My month to month theme is largely for reading, but I've tried to think of gaming as well. Oh course, before Pong in '72 or thereabouts, there was no video games available to the wider public. It seems to me the 50s were all about board games and the 60s . . .  maybe pinball? I know both have existed long before that and after but I need to center on something for those decades. In any case, I came up with a list of board games for the 60s I'm interested in and a few pinball tables I can actually play in digital recreations (I may actually go to an arcade too and play some real style). 

It's amazing to me the difference when you are totally absorbed by a game. Time just flies by and everything else around you just vanishes in importance. I'm not thinking about switching games, or taking a break or anything like that, it's just Farm Together 2 as much as possible. 

Game maker Capcom is known for lots of things, like Mega Man, Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, etc.  But probably what they are known best for is their large roster of fighting games, such as Street Fighter.  They did a collection of them a few years ago, plus one last year that had all their Marvel games on it.  And now they’ve got another one with even more fighters!  So let’s take a look at the games on this collection.

I got another day, maybe, but I got a weird work schedule again this week and so am here recalling the day and half I spent so far.

I bounced between Xbox Series S and Switch this week, sometimes within just a few minutes. I would've done so with PS4 as well, but I've misplaced my HDMI splitter to expande two slots to four. Here's the games I really liked followed by the ones I kind of didn't stick with for very long. 

I ripped through my Switch rentals this week and saved what I thought I'd like best for last and, sure enough, I'm still playing it. I've even played it on multiple systems now. Here's everything though. 

So, that Acer Aspire laptop I blogged about last time? Screen doesn't come on. I've got to get this repaired (and hope that it doesn't cost too much) so until then, I'm using my trusty, won't-die Samsung Chromebook that I got back in 2017. 

My car's in the shop and so there will be a delay -- hence the blog. Onward.

I can't resist. My April is going to be themed around Console Generation 4, which is Genesis, SNES and Game Boy (just to name the most popular systems). I want to explore platformers, but ones that have more than just straight 2D jumping/running challenges. I like exploration and a lot of action and so the "action-platformer" genre seems right for me. But, I'm also choosing platform games that I've always been interested in trying. Here's the list I have so far.