Androgyne's Toys and Games of 2025

2025 turned out to be a pretty expensive year with the amount of good shit to buy. Most of this wrapup was written while the things were still fresh in my mind so it's a bit longer than normal. Let's get into it then!

Games

Ninja Gaiden 2 Black PS5

First purchase of the year was unexpectedly announced and released immediately, which for someone prone to making lists years in advance, was a very pleasant surprise! I'd played through NG Sigma 2 on PS Vita years ago, and though I later got the PS3 version for cheap, I haven't really touched it. So my only experience was the Vita port, which I did somehow finish and enjoy, but it was rough even back then, struggling to hold even 30fps. The part where you fight a tonne of skeletons in a bone pit turned it into an absolute slideshow! 

This version has no such problems. The graphics are for the most part insanely good. There's some weaker bits with low amounts of geometry but I think they only stood out since there's so much that looks great in comparison. The gameplay is better than ever as well, gore is in full effect and there are more enemies in places. The shop system was changed from Sigma so you can buy weapons whenever you want rather than at prescribed points, which is much better. 

It plays like a dream as it always did. I think there may be a tiny bit more lag in the control but it's honestly hard to tell and if it's there I got used to it pretty quickly. I ripped through a playthrough in a couple days and it was so satisfying I immediately started again on a higher difficulty. I know some people prefer the original game on Xbox 360 for even higher enemy count and lower enemy health, as well as having projectile attacks, but i've only played the demo of that. I will say the 3 girl's chapters added in Sigma and still here are kind of a drag compared to the Ryu levels - they kind of interrupt the game's pacing, but I don't think it's that detrimental overall. There's honestly plenty of enemies to slaughter and with the right weapon they go down quick enough for me. With the exceptional graphics this is easily my definitive version.

Death Stranding PS4

When this first came out I can't say I was all that interested. Even though i like the Metal Gear games, the whole premise of doing deliveries seemed like, frankly, a cheap way for a small team to deliver a bigger looking game. So i skipped it then but found it for 300y or something and thought i'd give it a go. While the production is exceptional and certainly doesn't look cheap or like they had a small budget, the gameplay was much as I imagined - lots of boring traversal that isn't really spiced up by the need to balance the guy's walking. 

The story is... well, I lost track of what was happening pretty quickly, it didn't grab me and felt like nonsense. The one thing that stood out to me was how bad the menu interface is. I'm not normally one to complain about this stuff but the menus just actively fight you here and are not pleasant at all. I played for about 6 hours or something and was still pressing the wrong buttons and loading my guy with the wrong shit. I don't know if things get more varied later on but I feel like it probably doesn't, so I don't really see myself going back to play more.

Capcom Fighting Collection PS4

I wanted this from release but you know how it is, I have half these games already, can I really justify buying them again (or 3rd or 4th time...)? But last year's Marvel vs Capcom Collection was so good that I decided these releases can become my definitive go-to versions, so predictably the answer is "yes" and i tracked down a physical copy for the glorious box art. Main draw for me is the usuals - the main Darkstalkers games and Hyper Street Fighter 2, but I did get the whole family in on some Puzzle Fighter which was a lot of fun. I still need to give some of ther others like Warzard/Red Earth a crack. Like MvC Collection, the emulation is on point, the games look and play great, they have lots of options and music and galleries that are nice to have. There's still some odd things from the console releases that you miss out on since they're arcade versions - i'd really like to have Night Warriors backgrounds in Vampire Hunter like you can do on Saturn, but ah well. They have also patched up this version to have a true versus mode at least!

Capcom Arcade Stadium Street Fighter Alpha PS4
Capcom Arcade Stadium Street Fighter Alpha 2 PS4
Capcom Arcade Stadium Street Fighter Alpha 3 PS4
Capcom Arcade Stadium Hyper Street Fighter 2 PS4

What was I saying about buying the same game again and again? Well here we are again. My excuse this time is these versions were all like 100y, a price I will pay for not having to get off my ass and swap discs. These versions are also nicely emulated like the Collections. They don't have online play or training modes so i'll stil have to get off my ass occasionally, but for the price of 1 credit in the old days, i'm not too fussed! This is actually the first version of Hyper SF2 I have ... I think...

Ultra Street Fighter 4 PS4

There's definitely a trend developing here. Basically the same story as above. I have this on PS3 as well but that's even more of a trek to play! I remember when SF4 first came out and I had a tonne of fun with the original version, playing with friends for the first time in like 10 years. That had all dissipated by the time of Super/Arcade/Ultra. I've never really been able to get into the later versions as much. The changes to characters throw me off and inexplicably you can't choose edition in arcade mode of Ultra. Plus, i miss Indestructible. Yes i said it. Still, for the occasional bash it's nice to have this version within lazy reach.

Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 PS3

Another game I really only experienced on PS Vita before. I'd say that port is rather good, but certainly has some downsides. The main annoyance is long loading times, and graphically the stages are static which does take a lot of life out of them, so I thought i'd get this version for when the mood strikes.

Monster Hunter Portable 3rd HD PS3

I played a tiny bit of this once an English translation appeared for the PSP version. I really liked the setting for it and thought it'd be nice to see in HD even if i'd have to struggle through the Japanese. Turns out there's no struggle if you can't even be assed trying it out yet!

Fatal Fury City of the Wolves PS5

I was keenly looking forward to this, generally having been a fan of all the old games and especially Mark of the Wolves, to see it come back after so long was great! At launch, things took a bit of a turn for the worse as they announced the odd inclusions of soccer guy and dj guy that noone wanted. It almost soured me too, but I'd enjoyed the sample I got from the beta test, and when it finally came out out, I put those dopey guest characters aside and bought the game. And a guide/artbook. And a leverless controller. Yes, I went rather nuts.

Glad I did though. Though the artbook will probably sit on my shelf for a decade before being sold, it was nice to flick through a couple of times. The controller (Hori Nolva) took a bit of getting used to for sure, but has made it easier for me to play without messing up my hands. And the game?

Well, if you recall my SF6 and Tekken 8 reviews, I thought both were good overall, but their single player components were kinda shit - over-sold and over-rated. Claimed to be substantial and worthwhile, but really only substantial in SF6's case and neither for Tekken 8. Maybe I had high expectations that weren't met, whereas Fatal Fury is an interesting one in that SNK didn't really promote their single player offering at all, so I had no expectation? 

It most closely resembles the World Tour from Street Fighter Alpha 3 - there's a map (3 actually) and you select fights all over it. There's a little bit of artwork and story, some nice background on stages from the series. Once you've done the 3 maps, a "Plus" version with harder opponents. You level up and unlock minor buffs etc.

The mode is not incredible or anything. It has very obvious issues like, pretty much the entire first map is fought against generic characters that hardly do any moves (and when they do, it's immediately countering your inputs). It's shit. It gets better in the second map as you fight more normal characters, and again in the third. But the AI can still be a shit with the input reading, some characters more than others.

The buffs you unlock don't really change up how you have to play much, and it's the same for the 'unique win conditions' on a few fights. Nothing like SFA3's cool ones. There's not enough variety and they have some really shitty ones like 'win with perfect' that are way harder than other conditions, and the worst are some secret fights where you can only with with a single hit that is a 1/66 dice roll whether it connects. I'm not joking and it's not fun at all!

The good thing about it and what kept me playing despite the jank? The simple fact that it's quick to get into. There's no running around a huge world for a shitty fight payoff. You just click a map pin and fight, over and over. To unlock something I forget, you have to 100% the mode with 1 character, but not all of them. So for the others, you don't have to go through everything to see their whole stories, which is nice, cause there's a lot of them. You can also beeline to fights that give more progress to do it quicker as well.

I think it just goes to show how you don't need a massive budget to do a decently sized single player mode. This one is pretty damn close and low budget as heck. Shit why can't developers just copy SFA3 wholesale? It's right there!

At the end of the day, i'd say the single player is really no better or worse than SF6 or Tekken 8, but I came out thinking it was better than I expected (or better than people give it credit for). Guess that's why they didn't promote it.

Ok so what about the entire package then?

Well, that is better than I expected and I actually had some expectations there.

There's some nice additions that match or exceed the competitors - extensive image/video galleries for one, but that's pretty standard. What's not is an insane amount of (great) music in the jukebox, and my favourite, the colour edit, all at no extra cost. The colour edit seems like such a trivial inclusion that you wonder why more fighting games don't have it - well, you don't really - you know they don't have it so they can fleece you on paid DLC. Here, you can make 10 colours for each character and there's a good variety of patterns. I spent what is probably an embarrassing amount of time making colours for my characters.

The tutorial, training mode and combo trials are competently done. With free updates they've been adding more combo trials which is appreciated as well.

So we're at the bottom and I haven't talked about the gameplay at all. Thankfully, that is where the game really shines. It's a shitload of fun. On the surface - through trailers - I thought the game was too closely aping SF6's Drive Guage, certainly naming it Rev Gauge wasn't helping! But in practice, it plays out quite differently. The main difference I'd say is due to the combo structure of the Rev arts - you can basically chain several into one another and most combinations just work, so you can come up with a big variety of them in what feels like a freeform manner. They're also pretty easy to do.

There are some stricter elements to the execution - for one, the speed you have to do some motions can be very fast. Another is the "feint cancels". Basically, after hitting a hard attack you can do a feint/fake move and follow up with another attack that wouldn't otherwise connect. It seems a little backwards (that doing something in-between attacks will make you faster than doing nothing at all), but it feels great to pull off. You don't really need to rely on it either (if it's too hard), as it only gives a little bit more damage. Some characters seem to have a little stricter (or just different) timing than others.

One thing i've always liked about SNK fighting games is that I tend to be able to play more characters well. I'm not a huge fan of slow moving grappler types, and SNK don't really have as many of those, and that's the case here as well - but actually, they grapplers are pretty fun here too. I'm not a big fan of charge characters either (i find their combos very difficult to perform), but there's only one in this game, and it's only one of his moves - he's otherwise pretty simple to play. Since the combo system works in a universal manner, a lot of the motions you have to do are shared between characters, so picking up one makes it easy to pick up another. The rest of the characters are all fun and feel different from each other too. Only a few of them are what i'd call "expert" characters with trickier moves, but they're still doable. Frankly, I'm glad there's no weird systems like building stock buffs (SF6 Manon, Jamie etc) to complicate things.

For what it's worth, I haven't tried the "Smart" (modern) style of controls other than in combo trials. For an old head like me, I can't undo years of muscle memory. Honestly though, all these supposedly simpler control schemes fighting games are adding just seem more convoluted to me. There's nothing really hard about the default control schemes if you ask me.

On the whole, the gameplay feels more like a classic fighting game than a more modern one to me. I know there are really long combos, which is a more modern trait, but things like having invincible dragon punches again is something I really miss from Street Fighter. Yes, actual Dragon Punches since they have Ken in this game too!

I have to touch on the "Season Pass" for this game. There's only one "edition" you can buy, and it "includes" the Season Pass of 5 characters to be released after launch. By the time you read this they'll all be out. It's a perplexing case of price psychology - are you getting something for free?! No, you're getting something that they didn't include in the base game yet because they wanted to release earlier. In practice though, I found myself enjoying the way they handled this. Knowing I had a year's worth of character updates to look forward to was fun and kept me engaged and returning to the game, and frankly, the game without them had enough characters for a base game as is. Not only that but all 5 characters turned out to be great fun to play as.

Fatal Fury SFC

The last (maybe...) bit of Fatal Fury madness was this cart I was missing to complete my SNES FF collection. The port is pretty ass - I think i've said before that these ports probably did more damage than good to the reputation of Neo Geo games. It'd be a much better idea to get the original on Arcade Archives, but I live in hope that they'll do a dedicated collection at some point.

Capcom Fighting Collection 2 PS4

Completing the set (for now), I was mostly in on this version for the CvS games and yet another version of Alpha 3. Like the others it's a great compilation, and the 3D games are something I wouldn't have bothered to track down otherwise, so their inclusion here is appreciated. I still need to give the Power Stone games a go (played them both years ago though), but I had a lot of fun just messing around with Project Justice and Star Gladiator 2.

Kid Clown in Crazy Chase SFC

A very random cart find this one. I think I must have been feeling a little sad at not finding stuff outside for a while. It's an autorunning platformer with a unique isometric perspective where you walk towards the bottom of the screen. You're chasing after a bomb fuse and have to reach the end before it blows, so the path is full of obstacles. Judging your position on both horizontal and vertical axes isn't easy. To actually finish a stage you need to collect some stuff that you'll probably miss the first go because of that, so rather than progressing, you have to do the stage a few times. That's really a drag right from the beginning of the game and I got fed up quickly.

Horizon Forbidden West PS5

I don't think I wrote about the first Horizon before on this blog, but basically, I hadn't paid much attention to it pre-release - I knew it had robo dinosaurs to fight which were cool and all, but didn't really know what you did in the game. But at launch it reviewed so strong and I had nothing to play at the time, so I bought it and ended up enjoying it quite a bit. For once i actually thought a game's story was pretty enjoyable, and i loved taking down the robos by shooting their cannisters. Very satisfying!

When the sequel appeared, I was surprisingly not all that interested though. It didn't seem that different, and by the time I got a PS5, there was other stuff to play. I found it this year for very cheap though, so let's give it a go.

It was kind of bizarre starting it up, as if i was exhausted within an hour. I hadn't played the original for 8 years but it seems i picked up right where I left off and it all just seemed 'been there done that'. Except this time, the story is ... i don't know, I didn't give a shit? The characters are all talking nonsense and i ended up just skipping all the conversations pretty quickly. I think i actually read all of them in the first game so I guess something changed, but I can't really tell you what!

Gameplay wise, it's again much the same. The main difference seems to be a need to use specific weapons for specific enemies. Right from the beginning of the game, having to find enough of the right resources to even get by small monsters efficiently really screwed with the game's pacing. I got sick of the resource management pretty quick as it all seemed like it was taking me too long with not enough pay off. 

The visuals are great but then so was the original, which still looks good today - so there's not as much wow factor when you reach a new area. It can also be harder to see where to go because the fidelity is so high and also because one of the things they didn't improve was the waypoint/navigation system. I was constantly getting lost due to it being a flat representation of a world with elevation! It seems like a sequel where they just added more stuff, and more complexity, without improving any of the original games faults. Instead it feels like they amplified them! I don't think I can be bothered playing it again.

Sonic Origins Plus PS5

I did want to nab this at launch, mostly for widescreen Sonic 3, but I think initial impressions were saying it had some problems? It kind of fell off my radar until I stumbled across it in a shop and the price was right!

Since I started getting the Capcom Collections, I've been feeling like I should part with Saturn versions of various games, considering my Saturn hasn't worked for a couple years and the modern versions are more easily played and have nice amenities. 

So for me this was like a trade of Sonic Jam for Origins. I've only played a bit of Sonic 1 at the moment but like the other collections, I really just want them around for when I have the urge to play some classics. It might be a bit off from the originals, but convenience is winning out for me here. I mean it even has all the Game Gear games, it's a pretty solid package overall. 

Ace Combat 7 Skies Unknown PS4

This caught my eye mostly when the Switch port came out last year. That was very well done by all accounts and I was reminded of an old game I had on Atari Lynx called Blue Lightning. Basically an Afterburner-ish game that was slower paced and a bit more sim-like I guess. Switch port at full price versus PS4 at a fraction of a cost is a hard sell though, so here we are.

Honestly I didn't know what to expect. From reading positive impressions about the game, I still didn't understand what exactly made it so good. I mean, all you're doing is moving a target over stuff and firing, right? Well yes, but it turns out they did a really good job with mission variety. 

There's about 20 missions I think, and only a couple repeat similar ideas. Your enemies are pretty similar throughout the whole game, but basically everything you could imagine is there - planes, bombers, faster planes, tanks, radars, anti-air guns, sea platforms, boats, but the the main variety comes from the stage geometry and conditions.

Some particularly memorable ones include a sandstorm that hinders your visibility and a mountain range in a lightning storm that screws with your radar, a canyon run. Again, it seems like pretty much everything you could imagine is here. The visuals really look great to sell these ideas and make the gameplay unique - one has you ducking in and out of cloud cover to avoid radar.

There's an aircraft tree to unlock new planes that have different armaments and enhancements to ammo, maneuverability as well. Normally with this kind of thing I'll stick to a couple things for the whole game, but I found myself wanting to try out everything.

I did have a few problems with the game though. One was that the difficulty can seem a bit random. I'd have an easy time on one mission then a nightmare on the next, only for an easier one to follow again. The harder missions were also some of the simpler ones, like just racking up a certain amount of points, so it was kind of odd. Also, when I finished the game and wanted to unlock the remainder of planes etc, I found the earnings came too slow. I believe you get more funds from playing online, but I'm not doing that so I just lost interest. 

Finally, the story is absolute nonsense and incredibly hard to follow. I don't know who I was, which side I was on (changes a few times!), where I was, who that guy was, who that girl is, what they're doing. The cutscenes look incredible but I've got no idea what they were trying to do with the story other than poorly trying to justify me shooting down hundreds of enemies.

Overall though I had a great time. I find myself at somewhat of a loss when thinking about how they could expand on this game for a sequel, but i'll be paying attention to see what they do for sure!

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed PS3

Third instance of a game I mostly played on Vita? Yes it is. I loved this game even at a slower framerate, it looked great on Vita back then. I've been hoping to find the PS3 version for a decent price for a while, and finally did. It's great because I can barely see my Vita screen these days!

It didn't look as good as i remembered though, blown up on a 4k screen, but good enough I guess. It plays way better on a proper controller than the Vita's dinky sticks. My favourite part about this game was the track design - how they come up with alternate routes on the 2nd and 3rd laps. Plus there's just so much Sega love in their visuals and audio. I'm hopeful the new Sonic Racing Crossworlds will reach these heights again but we'll have to see!

Samurai Spirits PS4

My enthusiasm for Fatal Fury led to me to finally picking up this game. I was interested when it released, but just didn't really want to pay full price, then enough time passed that it kinda dropped off my radar. I only recently gave it a go but haven't played it all that much. I feel like the aesthetics of the game are better than expected - the characters and backgrounds look good (although a bit low detail). Playing it, I'm reminded that this series is quite different to most other fighting games. You have to be more deliberate and patient to land big damage hits. That tense type of gameplay can be fun, but can at times leave it feeling a bit plain or unexciting too.

World Soccer 2002 GCN
Winning Eleven 10 PSP
Winning Eleven Play Maker 2008 Wii
Winning Eleven Play Maker 2012 Wii
Winning Eleven Play Maker 2013 Wii

It wouldn't be a year-end wrap up post from me without a few Winning Eleven versions! Some of these were just 50y, you can't give them away until I show up!

Ace Combat 3 Electrosphere PS1

Predictably, exhausting AC7 made me want to play a whole load of similar games, and first among those was of course, older Ace Combats! I got the original years ago but didn't give it much time, and somehow hadn't purchased the others on PS1, so I went out to rectify that and found AC3 soon after.

I didn't know, but apparently this game fell victim to a very poor localisation that cut out huge amounts of content (branching paths) and story. I can't appreciate the story in Japanese, and haven't got far enough to appreciate the missing content yet. But I can say this is a very impressive PS1 game! The presentation is really cool, and the visuals are so far beyond what they did in the first game, it's kind of shocking. It's very similar to the jump from Ridge Racer to Ridge Racer Type 4. Namco were beasts by the end of the PS1 generation!

What also struck me was how similar the game is to 7. It feels very similar - analog control is a bit less refined, but so much of the gameplay was in place way back then. Actually, i revisited the first game before playing this, and that's even true of the original. I guess there really isn't all that much you can do with the concept? But it's impressive nonetheless. It must have been mind blowing back in the day, I wish i'd have played it then. I intend to keep playing and see more of what they accomplished.

Ace Combat 2 PS1

I had to break my "no greatest hits version" rule when buying this, but for now and a mere 220y, it'll do nicely. Or it would, had I bothered to play it. I think i'll hit it up in the new year now that Ace Combat 8 is announced!

Gradius Origin Collection PS5

Another Saturn replacement checks in. Gradius 1 + 2 traded for Gradius 1 + 2 + 3 + Salamander 1 + 2 + a brand new Salamander 3! Multiple versions of each to try out as well. A really comprehensive package - if I ignore that I'd have of course liked Gradius 4, Gaiden and V as well but hey. I'll expect that in a Gradius Collection 2. 

I thought the main draw for me would be Salamander 3, so I played that one first. First impressions were that it was very fast. I died quickly and efficiently! Then I realised they added a "burst" mechanic where you can fire an enhanced weapon for a short time, before having a cooldown with a low power weapon for a bit, before returning to normal. That made things easier for sure, but it still wasn't so easy for me. It didn't seem like the burst is all that much more powerful than your standard weapon. One bummer is there's no easy difficulty like they added for the other games. There's a level select but no dedicated training mode either.

The graphics are nice but look a bit too "modern 2d pixels" than they should I think. The impression the game gives me is that it's more of a homage in places than i'd like as well. It doesn't seem to stand on its own much. That's made clearer when trying Salamander 2, that just feels 100% fresh with original ideas. I think 2 actually looks nicer as well. It's kind of weird that they say Salamander 3 is a "what if we made it in 1998" but then, the graphics don't look like a continuation of Salamander 2's pre-rendered style. 

I actually ended up playing the Lifeforce the most. The difficulty is manageable (mostly through memorization) so I actually managed to finish it on a single credit! I'm most pleased about the inclusion of Salamander 2, although that is far harder than the internet would lead you to believe! It doesn't help that save state/rewind practice without death raises the rank to max so quickly! The graphics and music combine to make an awesome atmosphere though and it's just a pleasure to take in. I feel like maybe I could finish it on 1 credit one day, so i'll try and stick at it here and there.

I didn't sink much time into the Gradius games as i've mostly played them before. But I did try out several of the variants which are a nice inclusion, particularly the JP Am Show Ver. of Gradius 3, since it was previously unreleased. Hard as balls, but its fun seeing the various changes from the released version.

Overall it was a good package that I think I played more than I really expected to.

Final Fantasy Tactics The Ivalice Chronicles PS5

Conversely... i played a lot less of this than I really expected to. With Tactics Ogre taking my game of the year 2022, I'd been hoping this rumoured game would come to fruition. They sure took their time! Playing it, I found a lot of the same qualities I liked in Tactics Ogre, but overall it plays quite a bit differently. While I enjoyed the 10 or so hours i've put into it, it hasn't grabbed me as much. I hope to get back to into it over the christmas break.

Sonic Racing Crossworlds PS5

This is partly to blame for not playing FFTactics as well. I'd played the beta/demos and wasn't 100% sold, so i passed it up at launch, but as time went on I started to get in the mood for it. It's a solid effort for sure, can be a lot of fun to play, heaps of customization (maybe too much), pretty good courses. The AI can be a right PITA, but with the game's "rival" difficulty slider you can make that less of an issue - once I realised it affected the whole field rather than just the rival. And that also kinda ruined it for me in a way - i felt no need whatsoever to endure the torture of harder difficulties, and so then it kinda becomes "so what's the point?". I beat it to a small degree of satisfaction I guess.

The Time Trial mode is rather good though, with difficult to achieve rankings. Maybe too difficult lol. I did a few on the fastest speed but it took me a while and started to hit 'cbf' territory. I had my fill of this in a week or two and haven't really gone back yet.

Jikkyou World Soccer: World Cup France '98 N64

It's not Winning Eleven, but it may as well be Winning Eleven! I've wanted this for a while as the western equivalent (International Superstar Soccer '98) is generally said to be the best one. One day when I play it, maybe i'll find out!

MRC N64

I already have this but bought it again for the box, as I do. It's a fairly average Sega Rally-ish game, fun for a bit.

Metroid Prime 4 Beyond

What follows are some very complicated feelings that you can take as absolute gospel for the definitive opinion on this diversely reviewed game! 

Prime 1 is one of my favourite games of all time. When Prime 2 hit, I wasn't really playing games much, but when I did get around to it, that shot up there as well. I've replayed both of those frequently. When Prime 3 came out, I played but overlooked a battery somewhere and gave up, only to revisit it maybe 5 or 6 years ago, and finally finish it. I liked that one too but not as much as 1 or 2.

Anyway, Prime 4. Do you remember when reviews rated things like Graphics, Sound, Gameplay etc separately? Of course you do. So Prime 4, Graphics are a 10. Sound is a 10. Gameplay is a 10. So why does it range from 60s to 100s on Metacritic?

Partly it's expectations, partly it's the prior experience of the person reviewing it I think. Some of these people didn't like Prime 1 but do like Prime 4. Some are the opposite. Given that I effectively waited near half my life for this game (really, I only wanted something since Nintendo made the jump to HD in 2012), I think I had some expectations going in. Not least of which because when Nintendo handed the game back to Retro Studios to restart from scratch, they put out a video that seemed as though it was speaking directly to me, promising a masterpiece on the level of Prime 1. I don't think that's what we got.

Prime 4 has shades of all the previous games but most closely resembles Prime 3. The areas you visit are for the most part, straightforward paths where it's difficult to get lost or be confused where you're going. It doesn't scratch the same itch that Prime 1 or 2 does, where you're routinely given the choice of 3 or 4 exits and pathways, and it's not always clear where you should be going. So you can see how someone who doesn't like getting lost would appreciate this change, but someone who wants to get lost would not.

It's a little more nuanced I guess - I'm the type who wants to get lost, but I surprisingly found myself not being all that bothered by the change. A part of it is that, despite the path forward being pretty obvious, items are still hidden around the place and so you do get a good amount of exploration and discovery from that aspect. And another part is that the sheer sensory overload of the visuals, sound, and game feel does a lot of heavy lifting in making you enjoy your time spent in the world.

Another aspect of contention has been the desert area and the ability to ride a bike. I can see why this is divisive because I think for some players, it's hard to discern exactly why this was included, and because every player is bound to approach it differently, and depending on that, it can manifest feelings in certain ways later on.

By that I mean, someone hits the desert, what do they do first? I rode around for a bit but didn't really look everywhere the first time I played. The second time, I looked around everywhere. I've seen other players who didn't look around at all. It's funny that people seem to think they want 'isolation' and 'exploration' in their Metroid games, but when presented with an isolated desert to explore, they... don't.

The desert serves the purpose of a connecting room for the 5 major areas. Scattered across it are a number of areas you can't access immediately. When you explore the desert and find these, you can come back to them once you have the required item - that's actually very Metroid-like and I enjoyed that. In past games, this backtracking to get items often meant you'd have to wade through enemies and complicated environments (which I also like, don't get me wrong!), whereas here, you can beeline with the bike to exactly where you need to go quickly. The bike is fun to drive and it's quick. 

The player who didn't explore the desert though? They probably end up spending more time in there than they want to, thinking it's too big, too empty, too tedious to collect crystals they should have been collecting before. Or they went in with expectations of it being an "open world" with a tonne of activities to do, which it isn't. It's a large room with several locked doors to facilitate easy backtracking and well paced distribution of new items to the player throughout the game.

Is it too large? I don't think so - the bike is fast enough. Particularly if you're a sucker buying Amiibo like I am, where you can get faster boost refills. Is it too small? I don't think so either - I think it's just about right. Is there not enough to do there? Maybe... some bigger jump areas would have been fun to mess around with, some weather effects could have livened it up a bit. 

I definitely really liked using the bike. I want a bike racing game now. It made me feel like playing Extreme G (and trust me that almost never fucking happens lol).

One complaint I've seen that I don't agree with is the music that plays in the desert being bad. It's an ambient track that for me, captures the feeling of being alone out there nicely, and I like hearing the hum of the bike. The Amiibo lets you get some additional tunes you can play in the desert and although those tunes are great, when I tried them, they seem out of place to me.

In terms of the 5 main areas, I think they're all exceptional from an atmosphere standpoint. The only one I didn't enjoy that much was the final area. This one throws too many of the same enemy types at you and becomes a bit of a slog, and the boss of the area is a trigger finger killer. I definitely would have preferred more involved level layouts, but like i said before, it didn't bother me as much as thought it would. I think they could have done with some more perplexing puzzles to obtain items though. There are some good ones in there, just not enough. Particularly the slingshot morphball thing is pretty underutilised, which is a shame because it's fun and more of it would have helped differentiate the game from the previous ones.

There was a lot of worry pre-launch about the federation troopers interfering with you during the game or ruining the immersion. There's a bit of that, but i don't mind their presence for the most part (they're most overbearing in that final area). I don't think they added a whole lot either though, so their inclusion seems kind of half-baked and unnecessary.

I find it much more egregious that there is no option to disable the hint system. Past games had this and it seems trivial to implement, so i'm not sure why it's not available here. The hints can completely rob you of any satisfaction figuring out where to go and what to do, and that sucks for me. Still, I see people grateful for the hints as well. It's hard to please everyone, but options surely help!

Overall I really enjoyed my time with the game, enough to start it again on a harder difficulty right after finishing it the first time. It's not really what I wanted it to be, but when I play it, I feel like it's giving me something else that I liked a whole lot too. I think this was designed as an entry point for new players and I feel it succeeded at that while still being enjoyable enough for longtime fans too. 

Mario Kart World

Although I've played a fair bit, I don't feel like I have enough playtime to give a proper opinion yet. Maybe i'll do up a mega Mario Kart World vs Sonic Crossworlds post in the new year, but for now i haven't factored it into my game of the year choice.

Virtua Fighter 5 Revo World Stage

I'm keen to try out the single player stuff they added but I haven't done it yet. I love this game but i'm kind of sick of buying it over and over, at least it was cheap to upgrade lol.

Fighting EX Layer

An old game that had a permanent price reduction to 110y, can't say no to that. I played the demo years ago but haven't tried the full version just yet.

Games of the Year

I enjoyed a lot of games this year, but as good as several were, there wasn't a real stand-out release. I was expecting that to be Metroid Prime 4 Beyond, and although I very much enjoyed (still enjoying actually) my time with it... there's no shaking a sense of disappointment that it doesn't live up to the quality of Prime 1 when it comes to masterful level design.

Ninja Gaiden 2 Black is a game i've pretty much played before, but the improved graphics made it feel all new again and I loved it every minute of it. Gradius Origins surprised me by holding my attention much longer than I thought it would, and Ace Combat 7 was a very nice surprise - a new experience in a genre I haven't really played much in. 

Fatal Fury City of the Wolves got the most playtime from me this year, and I feel like that was also the game I enjoyed the most. The Capcom Fighting Collections are exceptional packages... but they are mostly games i've played before.

Damn, deciding this order and cutting any of the games above feels like a disservice - I really had a great time with all of them. But I think Fatal Fury deserves this top spot for pulling me back in all year long. I've enjoyed many fighting games in recent years but usually burn out after a month or so, but I kept coming back to Fatal Fury. I'm dying a little inside now that Metroid Prime 4 has missed the top 3... ah well.

1. Fatal Fury City of the Wolves
2. Ace Combat 7
3. Ninja Gaiden 2 Black

Transformers

SS-142 Optimus Prime

Oh boy, another definitive Optimus Prime for the collection! Ok but this one really is. I think. We'll see.

I only really have nitpicks, like the matrix chamber flap is unpainted grey and looks bad, and the trailer has the less appealing toon stripe and not the blue one from the toy. That's basically it though, the rest is very well done. The transformation is so simple, but both modes look great, it almost makes a mockery of the Masterpiece MP-44. The accessory for posing the truck in its jumping pose from the movie was not necessary at all but is really awesome regardless. Very happy, let's really hope THIS IS IT for definitive Optimus Primes!

MPG-14 God Bomber

Super Ginrai was already an expensive purchase so i was in two minds about whether to get this. Although I feel God Ginrai is better looking and proportioned than Super Ginrai, normally i'm not that big a fan of the break apart and reassemble type of transformer, but I figured I could probably make my money back easily enough if I didn't like it, so I bit the bullet. It turned out to be something I definitely wanted to keep - combined into God Ginrai mode the toy becomes a real collection centerpiece. Separately he's a great looking and articulating bot as well, with solid, chunky joints. It makes for one enormous combined truck too! 

Because I like the base Ginrai figure so much, I still have him out by himself - so technically, my combined mode is missing his chest. Thankfully, from up on the shelf you can't see that at all - the head still sits in the right position. It would have been really nice if they included a cover for the gap but they want you to buy multiple Ginrai... but yeah sorry, i'm not that rich. 

Missing Link C-05 Sunstreaker

As hoped, this release turned out exceptional. Sunstreaker is one of the hardest/most expensive original G1 toys to find these days, and so he was a holy grail i'd resigned myself to never getting. This release satisfies that desire and far more. Just like Prime it's basically a perfected version of the G1 toy with added articulation. He looks gloriously stumpy in robot mode, is quick and fun to transform, and looks so cool in car mode it might even be better than the Masterpiece. It even includes a driver which is just icing on the cake for someone like me, who always wondered what those opening compartments were for on my Dinobots!

MPG-15 Rattrap

An exciting release on the one hand - completing the main Maximal cast! But on the other, it's Rattrap. You know he's going to be a shellformer and have a bigass backpack, and he does. But it still looks excellent, as good as I could imagine it ever being to be honest. Poseability is high, I love that he can stand up in rat mode, rub his hands together. Transformation is relatively smooth all things considered. Most importantly he fits in perfectly with the others which gives me a great deal of satisfaction indeed!

Missing Link C-08 Arcee

They're not holding back with this line. Not only did we get a never before reprinted character in Sunstreaker, we get one that was never released at all, and it's every bit as 1980's as you could hope for. It's such a nice feeling to transform this compared to the Masterpiece! 20 seconds and you're done, both modes look fantastic. I opted for the pink version although it was a tough choice - I might think the head on the prototype colours version would better suit this one too, but the head she got looks great too.

TS-12 Megatron

While i've collected Transformers, G1 Megatron's design has been sorely missing from my mainline shelves. Nothing really looked right until this one - it perfectly matches the Prime we got last year... in robot mode. Yeah, the tank mode is kind of ass. The transformation is really good (especially the legs), they just kind of gave up when it came to the turret? It's more surprising in hand because it seems like they could have designed it better without much effort at all. As someone who tries (and failed) to adhere to a rule of liking both modes... surprisingly I don't really care. Robot mode is just that good!

Transformers of the Year

This was a tough one to decide, as I was pleased overall with every TF I bought this year. The Missing Link figures still felt like the clear top two, but deciding the order was tough. In the end, I think my love of the Countach played a big part. Third place goes to God Bomber, as I'm just so pleased with how God Ginrai turned out - I think I would have been really bummed to not complete that set.

1. Missing Link C-05 Sunstreaker
2. Missing Link C-08 Arcee
3. MPG-14 God Bomber

Cars

Tomica Premium Racing Pennzoil Nismo GT-R

We're off to a good start with this one. It's not like I'm short of GT-R Tomica, but from the moment I saw this, I knew I had to have it! The primary reason? This sucker reminds me of the cars in Daytona USA! It's not an exact match to any of the made-up designs from the game, but it looks like it could fit in no problem. In hand the yellow, black and red colour scheme is simple but looks really sharp! I would kill for them to do the Hornet exactly as it appeared in game, but this is close enough for my imagination to run (rolling start?) with it. Hell, slap some green on there and we'd have a Days of Thunder Cole Trickle version. Tom Cruise mini-figure not included.

Tomica Premium Racing ARTA Zexel Skyline

I thought this one looked cool too and they compliment each other nicely. I wish I could sort out a track diorama of some sort! Can anyone make me a Sonic cliffside? In hand, the colour is fluorescent orange, which was a bit unexpected compared to the promo photos that had it a bit more subdued. It still works, maybe even better, so I was very pleased! 

Tomica Premium Unlimited Avante Junior Blue

Last year I opted to just get the Black Special version of this, and now some time has passed, I saw the blue one had gotten little cheaper and decided they'd make a nice pair too. I think I still prefer the black one with its hot pink wheels, but this one probably looks more like what I think of when picturing RC cars. The "Being nuts is NEAT!" on the spoiler looks great. That actually reminds me of the Pocket Power Top Fueler which had HEAT across its spoiler. They both hail from around 1988 originally, so I'm sure this was the inspiration for Top Fueler!

Tomica Premium Unlimited Dash 1 Emperor

This baby reminds me of the F-Type car from Stunt Race FX on Super Nintendo! The headlamps look just like the eyes they added to the cars in that game, so I'm sure this or a similar Tamiya was the inspiration (Stunt Race FX even has an unlockable RC mode). There's even some similarity with the Pocket Power Indy Racer - though there's another (Dash 1 Horizon) that may be closer. Here we've got DASH! across the spoiler and sharp colouring. I think this might be my favourite of the Mini 4WD Tomica just because it looks so cute and compact, like it's super deformed.

Tomica Premium Racing Castrol Nismo GT-R

So impressed I was with the Pennzoil and Arta, I wanted one from the next batch too. The other one was a Zexel Loctite livery, but I felt it was a little too similar to the Arta, so I just got the silver Castrol and wasn't disappointed. This one looks a little less like it'd fit into Daytona, but that's not to say it doesn't look totally awesome still. Castrol livery is of course famous in Sega Rally, and though it's obviously not the same, it does remind me of it!

Tomica Premium 38 LaFerrari

A replacement for my regular Tomica LaFerrari. While this is better, that regular was already pretty good as it is, so this was mostly a purchase just to satisfy my OCD. Can't have them regulars sitting next to Premium ones! Wish they did a better job on the rims, they're all silver and would have looked better with black in the gaps.

TOMICA Premium Racing Good Smile Hatsune Miku AMG 2024Ver

Hoo boy, what a stunner! How do they get these prints so precise at this size? Even after having a few of them now, I was still surprised just how much they packed onto this one. You seriously need a magnifying glass to appreciate them all, and when you do look close, the text and drawings still hold up! Not only that, but the eclectic colouring doesn't have any business looking as good as it does. I remember taking this car for a spin in Gran Turismo Sport and it was quite a beast. I love the design of the front grill and the long hood. There was an all black version too that may yet still be mine, but it just didn't hold a candle to this super detailed Miku!

Hot Wheels Brave and Bold Batmobile

I'll admit to not being all that familiar with this Batmobile, but I've got a little bit of a Bat-garage going on here, so when my man Tets advised that this recolour wasn't bad, I nabbed myself one. And it's pretty good! Hot Wheels loves to take their Batmobiles and colour them completely randomly - while this isn't a perfect match to the cartoon either, it still looks close enough and good at the same time. I quite like the design too, with the clever face and ears of a bat making the shape at the front. Still need me a Keatonmobile though dammit!

Tomica Premium Racing ZENT CERUMO GR Supra

This one feels like a "finally" moment for me. Years ago I bought a regular Tomica Supra and it was frankly kinda shit so I got rid of it. This Supra is stunning and finally does the car justice! It was a choice between this red ZENT livery, and a white and orange au Tom's one. As good as these things are, they are a bit pricy (and they're releasing too many I really want!), so i only nabbed the one again. I was a little hesitant which actually, as I'm sure there'll be a similar looking Nissan GT-R down the line (like the old Transformers Super GT) and I like to have as much variety on the shelf as possible (multiple GT-Rs not withstanding). There was no doubt in my mind which one I liked better though - guess i'm a sucker for red, black and silver! Although the paint job is spot on as usual, the soft spoiler is a fraction misaligned which always sucks.

Cars of the Year

Seems i've almost completely migrated to getting these racing Tomica this year, and for good reason. Every one of them is fantastic, which makes picking a top 3 very hard indeed! Although the Miku has a frankly absurd amount of detail, I just prefer the more traditional racing liveries.

1. Tomica Premium Racing Pennzoil Nismo GT-R
2. Tomica Premium Racing ZENT CERUMO GR Supra
3. TOMICA Premium Racing Good Smile Hatsune Miku AMG 2024Ver

Amiibo

Terry Bogard

I had a decent sized desire to get this when it came out - unfortunately near me, it may as well have not come out and I found my interest waned over time, even when he started getting restocked. Until I got the Fatal Fury Fever that is! It's alright, it looks pretty good next to the old Ryu I have. The Smash Bros Amiibo can be kinda ass for having their poses bigger than the base and having to resort to the old chunk'o transparent (or piss-shade) plastic for stability. His face looks a bit off for my tastes but overall I'm happy enough. Now when's Kazuya getting another run ffs!

Samus & Vi-o-la

This one is huge, with a price tag to match, unfortunately! It's really well done though. The glowy purple core of the bike, the tires, Samus herself in a new suit - pretty much everything looks awesome. A really nice touch is the desert base has the tread marks of the front tire too. For some reason I feel like it would have been better if the bike's front wheel was facing the same way as Samus but that's a really minor nitpick!

Samus

I was only going to get one Prime 4 Amiibo until I saw this beauty in the shops. I think this is the nicest straight Samus Amiibo we've had so far. Actually, I don't have any of the Smash Bros Samus (not for lack of trying - every one i inspect has dodgy paint), so I can't really say, but I've got the Samus Returns kneeling pose, and the Metroid Dread shoulder one as well. This one has better proportions, nicer colours (the champagne gold is beautiful) and this pose works the best as a display piece where you can take it all in.

Amiibo of the Year

I couldn't live without either of the Prime 4 Amiibos in the end, but if I had to choose one, i'd still pick Samus & Vi-o-la, as its uniqueness counts for a lot. It's definitely the representative Prime 4 Amiibo!

Looking ahead to 2026

Boy am I sick of filling in this section with "I hope Virtua Fighter 6 or Aleste Branch comes out!" but here I am again. Apart from those, there's not much announced yet that's of much interest. I should be more excited about Ace Combat 8 but I feel it'll struggle to improve significantly from Ace Combat 7. I hope Mario Wonder's DLC has some expanded single player as well as the multiplayer stuff they've shown already. Fingers crossed for some unexpected Switch 2 greatness as well.

For Transformers, i'm feeling a bit exhausted to be honest. I've skipped so many this year but don't really feel like i've missed much. Even just the few I bought were enough to make a dent in my wallet, which pisses me off more with every passing year. There's not much in the mainline that's interesting me really. I'm excited for Missing Link Ultra Magnus and pretty much whatever else they announce there, at least. I'm hopeful that the new Overgear line turns out good and isn't prohibitively expensive too. I also have Synergenex Shield D Prime preordered - he's a pricy meatball but hopefully that turns out to be worth it.

For Tomica, I can also feel my interest is waning - and my display space decreasing - but i'll probably still pick up a few next year. They can be nice little things to pick up in between other stuff, but if i'm being honest, when I have plenty to buy as it is, i'm less motivated.