Julius

We've somehow made it a whole week into 2025 without this thread turning up – but no more! With CES kicking things off with a lot of gaming-adjacent news, I figured it was about time to make the annual threads for any of the typical gaming events, streams, or whatever else might fall under the 'Events' umbrella which wouldn't necessarily otherwise get a dedicated thread or slot into an existing one (like a gaming deep dive), such as Summer Game Fest, The Game Awards, or any one of the crazy number of 'Directs' we get which doesn't follow 'Nintendo'. Wonder if Capcom will have another stream of hit-or-miss quality this year...

Feel like full context is needed regardless of whether it's fake or not. The image was shared by Laura Kate Dale (don't feel like we've heard her name attached to big purported Nintendo leaks for a loooooooooong time), who also said: This is going to be a long month, isn't it? Now, can someone hurry up and "leak" the Pro Controller or cartridge already please? I want to know if we're getting a legit D-pad and if the cartridges are going to taste weird again

Midnight Black collection versions of the DualSense Edge, Pulse Explore and Elite, and Portal will be available to pre-order from 16th January: Launching 20th February.

Pre-dev concept video from Nvidia's CES keynote earlier today:

Announced at CES, Columbia Pictures is developing a film adaptation of Horizon: Zero Dawn, meaning that Netflix show is finally dead... ...and a Helldivers film has also been announced (no further info yet on this one). Huh.

An anime based on Ghost of Tsushima: Legends is in the works with Sucker Punch partnering up with Aniplex to produce: releasing on Crunchyroll in 2027: Hell yeah, this is gonna be huge

Season 2 arrives in April: ...as expected given the PC port of Part II Remastered releases on April 3rd. Looking forward to it!

Limited Run will be handling the physical release...

I think this could be an interesting idea given how a lot of games moving from PC to console need to come up with unique controller layouts which never quite capture the same level of control the original PC release was going for. While there'd still be the power of the console itself to account for, I could see some games - more traditionally point-and-click style games, certain indie games, and things like CRPGs in particular - maybe having a better time transitioning from PC to Switch 2. It would definitely give developers more options. I wonder if there's also a way it could be used as a stylus/cursor akin to a touchscreen a la the DS/3DS. You'd still be without that second screen, mind you, so some reworking would still be needed for port efforts, but I feel like it might be a worthy alternative to people wanting those games adapted to have motion controls. I like it, but it does make me a little nervous that we're just going to get a grey/black console with the colour accents on the rails not being evident until the Joy-Cons are removed, as I think it's the only colour we've seen in these purported leaks. I feel like the colour of the console itself would be such an easy easy to differentiate from the original Switch model, but hey, hopefully there's another colour and these supposed leakers just haven't got to them yet (or...they're colour blind and didn't notice there was another colour?)

Episode 7 of Dan Da Dan. Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude

I mean, either there's a gimmick which is impossible to convey with just the hardware that they've managed to get away with not having leak, or it's just a more powerful and capable Switch like everyone was expecting anyway. If it's the latter, while I don't think they'll be happy, I think that unhappiness will be more directed at their manufacturing partners not being able to keep a lid on things rather than the fact that the more hardcore of the gaming community have started to see the hardware. It doesn't really tell us anything about their plans. Because if it is "just" more powerful hardware, their marketing plan was always going to need to be a case of them needing to communicate that it's a new console and not a Wii U sort of situation, and then having the software ready to go to back that up – the lineup of which hasn't leaked (at least not in any meaningful way that I can recall) and I'm sure would be much more interesting/potentially damning than what we've seen so far in terms of the supposed leaked hardware. Them not reacting to the leaks is either them saving face or not really caring about the hardware leaking, because it likely has zero impact on their plans. For instance, a leak of a 'Breath of the Wild DX' or 'Mario Kart 8 DX²' without the context that there's a digital upgrade programme to go along with them (something which might show up in a marketing campaign but not necessarily on the back of a box or a leak where someone's seen an Excel spreadsheet or seen a laptop on a train)? I feel like that would gain much more traction and result in much more potent reactions than these hardware leaks seem to be getting.

Played through two excellent short games Thursday night to kick-start my gaming in 2025. Sayonara Wild Hearts | 2019 First up on the docket for me in 2025 was Sayonara Wild Hearts, which has been waiting to be played on my HDD full of PS4 games for some time now. And holy hot damn, what a game to open up 2025 with. I adored my time with it. Stylish and flashy with its bold colours, incredible variety of gameplay genres it chooses to smartly put to work (first- and third-person on-rails shooter/dodger, bullet hell, drifting, and QTE battles ranging from dance-offs to sword fights), and impressive use of constant seamless transitions, there is much to praise here. The folks at Simogo describe it as being a "pop album video game", which it undoubtedly is, incorporating some great-sounding music which blends with the numerous landscapes you'll be racing, dodging and fighting through, and it is even incorporated into how the game is presented through its use of rhythm and levels being delineated as "tracks" on an album. Story is light - without looking into it all I really gathered was that you play as a girl who has experienced heartbreak and are quite literally tasked with picking up the pieces, which contribute to your score - but that doesn't matter here, because it means that the combination of high-octane gameplay and wonderful, and oftentimes emotive, music really get the chance to take centre stage. And speaking of the music, I've had the album on a loop all day today: it's genuinely great stuff, and can be enjoyed even without the context of the game. Some of my favourite tracks are Begin Again, Dead of Night, Wild Hearts Never Die, Fighting Hearts, Night Drift, and I feel like I need to specifically shoutout this game's rendition of Clair de lune, which is obviously a classic that virtually everyone will be familiar with...and it makes it feel entirely fresh once again just by experiencing it in a new medium and with a new sound. The only real downside to the game's soundtrack is that the game's titular and title screen track, Sayonara Wild Heart - my favourite in the album/game - does not get utilised in any of the levels - which hurt even more after I'd been anticipating it for the full length of the game! This is only an hour or two long, and while I know quite a few here have already played it, if you haven't, I have to scream at you that it's well worth the price of admission to experience. There's also a sense of a lot of replayability being available here, partially because of the game's short playtime, but also as levels are tiered into Gold/Silver/Bronze ranks depending on how many points you finish with, and so there's a sense that you could absolutely spend a good deal of time mastering the game. Additionally, there are some riddles which challenge you to solve them via gameplay, which I thought was such a fun and unique way to push this game's replayability. While I only solved the first riddle myself and replayed some of my favourite levels after credits rolled, I think I'll be more surprised if I don't end up loading this up again by the time 2025 ends, and I can't remember the last time I finished a game this short and instantly thought, while I'm putting it down for now, I don't think it'll be too long before I'm back. That was a feeling I'd quickly become a bit familiar with, mind you... So, for now, I suppose this is less "Sayonara" and more "See ya later", Wild Hearts Star Fox 64 | 1997 After a couple of levels spent adjusting to using the N64 controller for the first time, it is incredibly clear just how well Star Fox 64 holds up nearly 30 years after its initial release. I think this is the first dedicated on-rails shooter I've played through from start to credits (don't quote me on that), and there's definitely a charming and easy to pick-up nature to the game with the focus being on your positioning and, well, shooting. Learning to barrel roll, somersault, and make the most out of the munitions at your disposal (combined with your probably accidentally launching a Bomb by pressing B instead of Left on the C-Pad multiple times if you're anything like me...sorry to the rest of the team for that ) and the way the game's difficulty curve really nicely and naturally increased as I got deeper into the game was excellent the first go-around, where I found myself following the route to the right of the world map from start to finish. Corneria, the two times I took on Team Star Wolf (the first time losing but managing to survive, and the second time being more accustomed to the controls, prescribing some deadly doses of revenge in emphatic fashion) and the final level/confrontation with Andross were probably my favourite levels, but you can bet I was grinning any and every time there was an obvious nod to Star Wars, be it the ship designs, Andross himself, one of the levels being eerily similar to the Death Star II escape in Return of the Jedi... Anyways, speaking of the world map, the first time you see the line going from Corneria to another location, it becomes clear: there are secrets and hidden exits to a lot of these levels, and, naturally, I found myself playing through the game a second time. After a couple of attempts I remembered how to go through the waterfall on Corneria - you read that right, remembered! More on that in a bit - and so managed to start going down a different route, but inevitably ended up back on my initial route the second go-around, and not wanting to look things up or reset anything, just followed it through to the end a second time. Additional opportunities to spice things up like saving members of your team - the experienced Peppy, the sarcastic and cocky Falco, or the long-tongued Slippy with a hilarious axe to grind violently with just about anyone - which has consequences such as having them stick around or need to go in for repairs for the remainder of that mission and the next were excellent, and combined with the various routes you could take through the game as well as the leaderboard, it's abundantly clear just how much replayability this game offers. So, back to me "remembering" how to access the secret exit off of Corneria after a few bouts the second go-around, what's that about? Well, remember how I grew up on and adored Smash Bros. Brawl? Not only did the game have a ridiculous number of trophies to amass which did a great job of introducing me to so many of these characters and their wider franchises, but it also had a mode available called 'Masterpieces', which had short trials available for a number of titles (most of which were available on Wii Virtual Console, which is kind of a genius way to advertise it when you think about it!), some of which were available from the outset and others which could only be unlocked after meeting certain criteria. Me and my siblings unlocked all of these naturally - I mean, we spent hundreds of hours with the game, so that shouldn't be a surprise considering that, looking up a list of the unlock criteria for these, they all seem fairly simple - and would replay the longer trials a bunch, including the opening of Star Fox 64 with a 3-minute timer to boot, Corneria, and we must have figured out back then how to unlock the path through the waterfall given how it came back to me! Also, yes, this does mean I actually played Ocarina of Time as a kid in retrospect - the opening 5 minutes of the Adult and Young Link sections got played by me and my brother a good number of times. Me now having memories of a bunch of Nintendo's older offerings has finally clicked - not really sure how I forgot about it given how many times we played a number of those trials, but thank Star Fox 64 for reminding me of those times! Anyways, with that trip down memory lane behind us and credits rolled twice on Star Fox 64 after having a great time with it - and me not at all being against the idea of coming back throughout the year to try to figure out how to unlock other hidden exits, with its brevity certainly being part of the appeal to do so, similar to Wild Hearts! - the first game from my Pledge Games of 2025 has been completed. Games completed in 2025

The hilarious part is I can't tell if you meant to type '2049' or if you're watching the 5-minute prequel, 2048 (which I guess would be over by the time of my reply)

Hate to burst your bubble of optimism here Jonnas, I really do, and of course it might not come to pass (here's hoping), but the timing of these being taken down and SEGA recently saying they're considering a subscription service lines up too well to make me think that this isn't the route they're trying to take. Hell, their president discussed it with the BBC, so they seem pretty serious about it. Seems an unwise move to me. In this day and age, I feel like SEGA faces a weird relevancy problem when it comes to its older games reaching a newer audience - having that be locked behind yet another, separate subscription service when we're already swimming in them isn't exactly going to get new eyes on the games, is it?

Beastars: Final Season – Part 1 was excellent, very happy with how they're currently approaching a certain topic given how relatable it is for me. That was my last show I watched of 2024 and I'm happy I made the time for it. For my first show of 2025, I'm 4 episodes into Dan Da Dan and @Ike was right to recommend it. It's chaotic, stylish, and incredibly visceral. Plus, the OP and ED are bangers. Finally, started reading the first volume of 20th Century Boys at stupid o'clock last night after being gifted the first 4 volumes across my birthday and Christmas. Monster and Pluto are two of the best anime I've watched, so honestly I knew that I'd be up for any story penned by Naoki Urasawa at this point, and yet I went in thinking I'd just read a chapter or two to get the ball rolling – ended up blasting through the first half of the volume before my eyes and brain did the sensible thing and finally caught up

Connecting my NSO N64 Controller to my Switch for the first time and finding myself Googling "how to hold an N64 controller?" and feeling a thousand years old doing so... ...which is a bit ironic really because the reason is that this is the first time I'm holding one of these things, for reasons I probably don't need to remind you lot EDIT: wait, this looks and sounds different to when I was flicking through it last night. Does the NSO N64 controller being connected add in Mario 64 sound effects?

Right then, after a lot of back and forth over the last few weeks and what feels like dozens of permutations, I have my 2025 Gaming Pledge ready to share. Donkey Kong Country - long overdue, while I have played a few random levels from the game before, I've never played it all the way through or rolled credits on it. Grand Theft Auto IV - in anticipation of GTA VI, whether it launches this year or next, I wanted to get some GTAs under my belt. I had thought about starting with the earlier PS2 games, as I do own the PS2 Classics released for PS4 prior to them being taken down for the Definitive Editions, but IV just screamed out to me more tonally from watching a few trailers while researching for my Pledge. It also gives me at least one less game to get through before VI, and I think getting through both IV and V (which I have hundreds of hours sunk into through Online but only a couple in the story mode) is pretty realistic. Halo: Combat Evolved - no Xbox, but I do have my Steam Deck, and it didn't get much love last year outside of replaying Chrono Trigger. I've played a Halo before at a friend's house (couldn't tell you which) but this feels like a gargantuan hole in my own gaming experiences representing Xbox that I'm going to need to see for myself. Hollow Knight - it was a toss-up between HK and another indie game for this spot, both of which I picked up digitally as soon as I got my Switch back in 2019, but ultimately HK won out because it feels like it's more of a game from my backlog that I feel I need to get to, because so much of what I hear people love about this game is what I love about video games. Would like to get to the other indie, too, but more on that if and when I get to it. NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139... - this has been sitting on my shelf for a good while now, and I've been really getting in the mood to revisit NieR in some way over the last few months, with the soundtrack constantly popping up in my Spotify recommendations. I know very little about this other than the whole need for multiple replays for the true ending and experience, so I'm curious to see how I feel about it. Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch - it's a JRPG with Ghibli charm and a Joe Hisaishi score to boot, I'm more surprised that I haven't got to this yet given my affinity for all of those things. I'm pretty sure this was on my bucket list from way back when I joined this place. Portal 2 - loved the first game even if I did feel a got a bit long in the tooth towards the end, and all I hear is that 2 is bigger, better, funnier and has even better puzzles than the first. And yet another excuse to commit to booting up my Steam Deck. Star Fox 64 - I don't think I've really played many on-rails or N64 games, and for a reason I'll get into below meaning that perhaps some more obvious choices weren't my go-tos, Star Fox 64 has ended up on this list. This franchise was in the middle of dying around the time I got into games and wasn't that big of a name for my generation growing up outside of Brawl, so I'm really curious to see how I feel about it. It's also a great excuse to commit to picking up the NSO + Expansion Pack at long last, and digging out my NSO N64 controller for the first time - which will be my first time using the controller in any way! Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 - I've got great memories tied to THPS from when I was a kid playing them with my cousins, and picked this up at launch back in 2020, booted it up once and didn't really give it the chance to click. I can't wait to spend a quieter weekend with this one. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - and last but not least, the biggest commitment in this Pledge by far. I really enjoyed Baldur's Gate 3 with my friends, and while that's still pending a complete solo playthrough, after my time with KOTOR last year, it was time to commit to another big Western RPG. I went back and forth between this, Cyberpunk, Fallout: New Vegas, Skyrim, Divinity Original Sin II, but ultimately this got the nod because I've got friends who also want to play it after all of us have bounced off the game a few times before, and it's the game I see mentioned most in All-Time Top 10s that I haven't seen credits roll on myself. It's been 7 or 8 years since I last tried to get into it, and I started playing it just last night with a fresh save and a fresh start. Not so much a "goal" but just something I'll be doing, and tangential to The Witcher 3, myself and a friend are doing this thing where we aim to each complete the same game fresh to both of us (TW3); each play a game we recommend to the other (I recommended Shadow of the Colossus last year, while he recommended Days Gone...safe to say I get to recommend a longer game this time around ) with the person recommending having the option to replay the game if they want to; and we also want to play a game we both want to revisit, which this year we've already decided will be Ghost of Tsushima in anticipation of Yōtei releasing later this year. I've already got the Plat and so I don't think I'll be doing 100% of what is available, which means I'm kind of interested to see how the game plays when crit-pathed, similar to how my experiences with Fallen Order and Spider-Man were much different when crit pathing those over the last few years during replays. When making my Pledge for 2025, I decided to have a fresh start, and so haven't included games left over from my 2024 Pledge - though I do still plan to get to those games if and when time allows for it. I also decided that I couldn't have any IP overlap with last year's Pledge, otherwise this list would probably just end up being Mario and Zelda titles, and while I'd like to get to more of those, I see the Pledge more as pushing me to play things which have either languished in my backlog or on a shelf for too long, or to have new experiences - and hopefully any new genres or IP I have got to from last year stick enough for me to want to experience more. Similarly, for some franchises I've been plugging away at anyways, adding them to the Pledge knowing that I already had every intent to play them anyways seemed like it went against my goals with the Pledge. And, speaking of which, that's exactly why a certain game isn't on the list which would otherwise have been a shoe-in - but don't worry, @Hero-of-Time, I have every intention of playing Resident Evil 2 Remake this year after loving the first so much. It's just a goal outside of my Pledge for the reasons above. Picking up NSO + Expansion Pack for the first time, while I don't want to commit to a hard number of games that I want to try get to, there are glaring holes in my gaming experiences when it comes to some of the biggest titles available on the service where I either haven't played them before or have but haven't rolled credits on them, and so while Donkey Kong Country and Star Fox 64 are the only representatives of my intent to get to more games from Nintendo's history - and we're talking some of the BIG name games on there that I haven't rolled credits on, N-E - I will also be aiming to experience some of NSO + Expansion Pack's big-hitters. Similar to H-o-T, last year I aimed to spend less on games, and while I did end up picking some games which ended up shelved or not played at launch, it was much better than it was in years prior. My intent this year will be to only pick up/pre-order games if I have the intent to play them next/at launch. Those games aren't going anywhere, and if they are - such as with limited physical releases - then I'll grant myself an exception where I deem fit. This also applies to games I own digitally and not physically in a way – I love my physical collection, but digital games are only going to be having me pick up physical copies if I find that I love them and want them on my shelves. Having games pile up the way they have - especially with how much I know a mess can impact my mental health and how clean I try to keep the rest of my apartment to combat that - ended up with my shelf looking like this and it causing an insane amount of stress even when just trying to pick a game: So, the morning after the TGAs finished, I'd had enough and boxed up any and every game I knew I wasn't planning to get to or replay anytime soon, as well as anything I had already completed (outside of games I knew I might be planning to revisit or get in a random mood for): I can't even begin to tell you how mentally freeing it was, but hopefully the photos get that across Lastly, similar to last year, I'm still on the look out for more games to round out my personal Top 10, meaning potentially revisiting some games I've already loved in the past, and, ultimately, my main goal for gaming in 2025 is similar to what it was last year: and that's simply playing and experiencing more games than I managed to complete last year (21). Oh, and just to have fun doing so, and not being scared about jumping around a franchise's games if I feel like it, and dropping games like I did with Persona 3 Reload last year if it just feels like the right thing for me to do. That was a lot of yapping, but anyways -- thanks once again for sharing your Pledges @Jonnas and @Hero-of-Time, it was great following your efforts to get through your Pledge games last year and I'm looking forward to seeing how you get on with your choices this year; curious to see if anyone else dives in with us! I'm also very curious to hear how The Surge ended up on that list Jonnas! And H-o-T, Secret of Mana very nearly ended up taking the JRPG slot on my own list, so it's nice to see it still be part of someone's commitments and yeah, I really enjoyed Judgment, but man do the trailing missions suck... Anyways, time for some food and then it's back to playing games (oh, and welcome back @Dufniall!)

Time to finish the fight: I rolled credits on one last game in 2024 with less than 15 minutes until the start of the New Year, and of course it's also time to take a look back at this year's gaming resolutions and pledge! Super Mario Galaxy 2 | 2010 If there was one game in particular on my list of pledge games for 2024 that I knew N-E wouldn't give me a break for not getting around to - and myself, given how much I loved the first game - it was Super Mario Galaxy 2. That's right, I broke out my Wii U just for this, which hadn't seen any action for quite a while! In short: total masterpiece. Now, before I get into it, let's be clear: I didn't get all 242 Stars, nor did I just get all 120 as Mario, I think I ended up with 93 at last count. This wasn't because I felt I ran out of time, or because I didn't feel compelled to, but because rolling credits on this game with a certain familiar face and a certain familiar place turning up just before credits rolled honestly left me on the verge of tearing up, and I'm convinced that with the year that was 2024 for me personally, there's nothing the rest of the game could have done to make me enjoy it any more than I did in that moment; I had been planning to carry this over into the new year, but with 14 minutes until midnight as I jumped up and grabbed that final Star, with credits about to kick in, the game peaked for me personally, and I can't remember the last time I ever had the chance to walk away from something with it in the best of places...and so I jumped at the chance. That it happened with the last game I played in 2024, with just a few minutes left until fireworks started to shoot up and jubilants yells and screams started to ring in 2025? I won't lie, it forced a smirk out of me. And, speaking of feelings, my goodness: I can't remember the last time I ever felt so damn much playing a platformer. The game controls so incredibly tightly, every level feels masterfully crafted - because they were - and every jump, every backflip, every mistimed run and every misguided attempt to control a ball through a speedy challenge - shout-out A Stroll Down Rolling Lane and Rolling Masterpiece, I loved to see the back of ya - just gave me this childlike sense of joy and wonder. It left me wishing I played this game as a kid, but getting to play it now as an adult, I feel like I've just done the Child Me a favour: he would've loved this game. Yoshi adds a whole new dimension to the levels he's in, there are the new Cloud Flower and Rock Mushroom power-ups - the former probably being my favourite power-up in the entire game? - and everything just feels so much tighter and focused than in the first Galaxy, such as with how the melancholy of Rosalina's Observatory and it being a hub you could explore, as well as the excellent but simple story it effectively conveyed, was traded out for the straight-up jolliness of the Starship Mario and Lubba (what a guy!) and a more traditional world map, allowing you to just jump straight into the next level without much faffing around. I don't think either approach is better or worse, which I think is so interesting to see in a sequel such as this which otherwise so obviously builds upon the incredibly strong foundation set by Galaxy, and I genuinely think that both are points in favour of each game is a serious testament to the efforts Nintendo went to with both games. In talking about a potential favourite level or galaxy...I'm honestly not even sure where I'd begin. I kept a running list as I went through the game, and I kid you not, it's 25+ galaxies long, never mind particular levels, but to focus on some absolute favourites of those and to try to narrow it down: Chompworks. Starshine Beach (the Piantas dude?!). Space Storm. Boo Moon. Okay, so I guess Slipsand might actually be my favourite galaxy looking through these notes...as I adored both Squizzard's Sandy Sinkhole and Sailing the Sandy Seas (the Sand Bird dude?!?!). Shiverburn. Melty Monster (that first level especially). Time for Adventure in Clockwork Ruins was S-tier, holy damn, I genuinely got the same feeling I did during some of Uncharted's excellent set-pieces throughout this one, just with the sheer variety and absurdity on show. Throwback - guys, I've played the game it was throwing back to ONCE, and I had the absolute biggest smile on my face (this alone also entirely justified my decision to play through the 3D Mario titles in order), and so I can only imagine how much some people on here must have been freaking out. Battle Belt - seriously, a "fighting" gauntlet level in a Mario has no right to be as damn good as this was! Sweet Mystery. Supermassive. Bowser's Galaxy Generator, damn what a fun gauntlet that proved to be! Also, shout-out Fluzzard and The Chimp, which added such a nice touch of variety to the Stars I was collecting as I went through. I haven't even been mentioning the boss fights! I mentioned Squizzard before and he was great, as was Gobblegut (finishing him off with ease and without getting a hit during the speedrun equivalent of his boss fight felt freaking fantastic!), but my absolute favourite in the game was Bowser Jr's Boomsday Machine, which I think genuinely goes toe-to-toe with any other boss fights out there, in any other genre, and is my favourite to date in the 3D Marios I've played, by far. It's just absurd how well it escalates and ramps up, and I found myself long-jumping from cloud to cloud, picking up a Cloud Mushroom, launching myself at the little fella and just hoping things had lined up just right. Oh, and shout-out to the progression you feel moving from world map to world map in this game, it's really something else compared to how I've felt when moving and progressing through world maps in other Mario games. And then, obviously, I've got to mention the music, and this is where I'm going to say something which may be considered a little out of order: while I think there are individual tracks in Galaxy which surpass any individual track in Galaxy 2, I do think that as a collective, for me, Galaxy 2's soundtrack outshines Galaxy's; again, though, if someone said otherwise, I'd hear them out, because both are so great, and again, it's similar to the arguments I can imagine for Observatory vs Starship, with vs without a melancholic story, hub vs world (well, galaxy) map: there's no wrong answer, the second is clearly built on the foundation of the first with steps taken to make things even more refined, and we all won. I've got a long list here too, but again, to try to pick some absolute favourites: Bowser, Almighty Koopa King is far more epic than it could possibly ever need to be. I mentioned Starship Mario before. Melty Monster Galaxy (to accompany the nightmares I'll now have about bowling). The absolutely all-encompassing epic odysseys that are Sky Station and Fluffy Bluff/Cloudy Court. The wistful piano strokes of World 3, interrupted by the warped synths of comets flying on by. Space Storm. Cosmic Cove. Starshine Beach. Slipsand/Clockwork Ruins. Bowser's Galaxy Generator, aka the theme for the "final" level, which opens up with this wonderful big band build-up I don't think I'll ever get tired of hearing. And my personal favourite, the Staff Credits: There were times when playing through Super Mario Galaxy 2, with Mario launching himself through the air, and some excellent music blasting away, that time just stood still and I felt as though I understood humanity's undeniable fascination with flight, with space, and with experiencing the great unknown. While the truth is that I can't possibly begin to put words to how people felt flying for the first time, or going up into space for the first time, or landing on the moon, here's a game which plunges its hand into your heart, grabs it tight, and reminds you - with how it firmly instills a childlike earnestness, wonder, and awe - that it's simply because we desire to feel the way we did exploring the unknown as children once again. And with that, Super Mario Galaxy 2 joins my Tapestry of Tens, a running list I've been keeping of games that I would score a 10/10... So, to recap the games I completed in 2024, one final time: Games completed in 2024: It's now time to look back on my gaming resolutions and pledge for the year. Done: 21 games completed in 2024 compared to 15 in 2023. Feels good. Not quite done; while 1 more game has been committed to the Top 10 list, I'm on the fence a little about another, and even if I included it I would still be a game shy of rounding out my Top 10 list. The hunt continues... The new approach to how I play - dropping a need to Platinum a game or 100% it - went great, and was a good part of why I could complete as many games as I did this year despite some months-long gaps where I went without out picking up a controller to play a game solo. I also think there's a further lesson I'll be aiming to take into 2025 which came about from me dropping Persona 3 Reload back in October, after dumping some 35 hours into the game, as while I was playing it, and was having a damn good time - great music, snappy turn-based action, Shuffle Time is absolutely awesome - it didn't measure up to what I look for in a JRPG, taking far too long to do anything with its story, and I felt like so much about the story and characters were already done better in Persona 5. I will still be aiming to beat games I start, because I'm not above beating one out of spite just to roast it (sorry again, Outlaws), but at the same time, I'm glad that I was able to walk away from one when it wasn't tickling my fancy - the first time that's happened in years - and would like to continue doing so in the future. At the end of the day, playing games should be fun, and to quote Reggie from Nintendo's E3 2017 Spotlight: "if it's not fun, why bother?" Well, I got to and completed 5 of the 10: Am I a bit gutted that I didn't get through more of these? Sure...Final Fantasy X, The Last Guardian, and Metroid Prime (Remastered) in particular are the ones that sting the most. That being said? I ticked off 5 games from my own backlog, which feels pretty damn great. In 2024 I rolled credits on a 2D Zelda for the first time with Link's Awakening (okay, the remake is rendered in 3D, but you get what I mean ); finally beat KOTOR, one of the biggest stains on my Star Wars fandom and a game which was on my backlog before I even had one; played through my first Resident Evil, at long last, loved it, and cannot wait until I start the next; got to experienced the weird perfection that is Katamari Damacy; and got to Super Mario Galaxy 2, which has been sitting on my shelf pretty much since I beat the first Galaxy some 3 or so years ago. As for what will be happening with the 5 pledge games I didn't get to? They will follow me into 2025...but will be separate to my new list of pledge titles, allowing me to have a fresh start, and I'll be aiming to get to them as and when I have the time and desire to, with no real pressure to get them done by the end of the year, but absolutely giving myself positive marks if I do get to them - and I will surely be aiming to mark a few of these down as completed by the time December 31st 2025 rolls around. And speaking of 2025? Let's get to it. That's been my gaming in the year that was 2024 - here's to the next one!

Chipped away at the speedrun levels leading up to the 25th to leave myself with only Winter Wonder to complete on Christmas evening, after everyone had gone and home and I could finally kick my legs up and relax after a tiresome first few days off for my break from work. What a level. What a game. Jolliness personified - still can't think of many better ways I could have spent that evening also blown away by some of the Bots they managed to get in the level - I have to imagine that duo could have easily proven a licensing nightmare, even with their ties to PlayStation!

Bit late for a Christmas roast H-o-T, damn...

And another... Please never make it stop

I've got a friend who bought Suicide Squad at launch and has been waiting for this day for a long time, a chance to get our group to jump in... I guess it's time to go throw my PS5 in a river

In all seriousness, lovely write-up; it's been really nice to see Mouthwashed and so many other indie games recognised during end-of-year/GOTY discussions by a lot of outlets, channels and podcasts over the last month or two. Very curious to see how 2025 pans out and if that is capitalised on, and it definitely feels like the tide has started to shift in favour of more widespread indie recognition! MAKE IT A PLEDGE ahem. that's pretty much where I'm at with the Switch as well, which may or may not be reflected in another post of mine at some point maybe. I also think I'm just seriously lacking much excitement in terms of using the console, so yeah, I'm more than ready for whatever they've got ready to throw our way next

I think it came to light during COVID, I feel like there was a bit of a "Who are you?" thread. I'm fairly sure I already knew @Ashley was from around Birmingham (for some reason in my head it's filed next to him talking about the sailors in Shenmue... ), I was surprised to learn @Will was originally from around here too (as I think you were living outside of the UK at the time?). Small world (only made smaller being stuck in Stourbridge )

I've got a few goals for the year that I guess would come under being resolutions, buuuuuuuuuut I think I'll just share them one at a time as I get to confronting or completing each goal to save myself from feeling some sense of additional pressure First up, and one I'm happy to share because it's one I need to start getting the ball rolling on soon, is to get my full driver's license. I'm going to finally pulling the trigger on starting driving lessons – and along with that trying to get my practical test booked and passed by the end of the year; though, of course, scheduling, how the lessons themselves go, and all that means the latter may not be totally in my hands. But the aim is by all means to have my full licence and be driving my own car by the end of the year. I did my theory last year, which went great, and this is just one of those things I've kicked down the curb a few times - understandably I think at times, but I feel like I was clearly avoiding it at others - but to be honest, at this point, I'm just sick of being in Stourbridge all of the time. If figuring on it from that perspective is what it takes to finally get to doing this? Then so be it