Picross was the unexpected MVP this year — 2025 Rewind
2025 will not be remembered as the year I finished many new (unplayed) games. Actually, I never was one to finish many of her games, but if you take Picross and Metroids out of the equation… damn, it was quite poor. Still, I wanted to share my thoughts on some of the most remarkable ones. Here we go.
Picross series (NS1)
Played on: Retroid Pocket 5, Nintendo Switch 2
Elapsed time: 450+ hours
This year, if anything, can be described as the motherfucking Picross year. I’m a huge Rocket League player with over 3500 hours on my shoulder, playing daily and on a streak since January, yet Picross might be right there competing with those air dribblings for my most played game this year.
Mostly on a Retroid Pocket 5 that I got last year, it has been my go-to on bed time— helping me fall asleep with astonishing ease. Practically every single Switch Picross title has fallen this year with the exceptions of that Uroboros (can’t remember its name) collab and the desguised Vtuber propaganda.
I can’t but recommend them to death, because even without being a puzzle gal (as my Rocket League playtime might suggest you, I prefer fast and technical games) it has something that makes me unable to put it apart. It’s digital drug, and a hardcore one.
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii)
Played on: PC (PrimeHack)
Elapsed time: 18h 45m
This has been on my backlog since almost its release for two reasons: I can’t stand motion controls and in my opinion it’s a disgrace of a Metroid.
You can tell it’s an earlier Wii title —it was even planned to be a launch title— because it’s full of those goddamn Wiimote gimmicks and it’s designed for the dumbest of players. Incidentally, none of those things fit with Metroid core players, so… well.
I was unemployeed the first half of the year, so why not take advantage and finish it in preparation to the eventual Prime 4 release? Thankfully, there’s a Dolphin fork called PrimeHack which is meant to help players to play the whole trilogy with either KBM or a regular gamepad, so that’s what I used.
And I really thought it was awful… but then Metroid Prime 4 released and showed me how worse it can get.
Super Metroid: X-Fusion (SNES)
Played on: PC
Elapsed time: 12h 20m
A Super Metroid romhack that I’ve been waiting for more than I can remember, something in between 10 and 15 years, which is impressive because not many people can endure working that much time on a passion project. I was amazed at every preview the creator uploaded on Youtube for a short time before unlisting it to cover his ass from Nintendo.
Yet, all the hype quickly dried up after a horrendous difficulty balancing and subpar level design, with many enemies, situations and ways to proceed requiring an absurd amount of trial and error, requiring to brute force your way through via savestates to complete it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nonetheless a technical marvel and enjoyed it enough to reach the ending, but it’s still a real shame how it all turned to be.
Honorable mention to the creator getting all proud in the worst way after many people complained how the difficulty curve on v1.0 was bullshit.
Pokémon Legends: Z-A (NS2)
Played on: Nintendo Switch 2
Elapsed time: 12h 20m
I already wrote about this game in more detail, but I’ll just say that it was my GOTY and I’m honestly surprised— I can’t remember when was the last time I could say that for a Pokémon game.
Moonlighter (NS1)
Played on: Nintendo Switch 2
Elapsed time: 15h 42m
Not the first time I try this game, but I could finally finish it this time. I bought it back when I got my Steam Deck and didn’t click with me, but after trying the sequels’ recently launched Early Access I decided to give it another try on Switch 2— plus it was only 3€ and I was craving for more stuff to play on said platform.
It’s… fine, I wouldn’t go as far to say it’s an outstanding game. The game loop is good enough (I’m a nerd for light management and the store part provides that) but it lacks a good combat and it can feel stupidly unfair sometimes. In the end it was that: a good enough game to go through in the weeks before the launch of Metroid Prime 4.
Rocket League (PC)
Played on: Retroid Pocket 5, Nintendo Switch 2
Elapsed time: 520h 10m (as of 26/12)
Rocket League has been my go-to multiplayer game for almost a decade at this point, and it really shows on my played time. 3.5k hours total, which thanks to keeping track of all with my sessions with Backloggd I can say 520 have been this year (so far). I never thought I could play anything for so long or getting this good, but this game has more depth and layers and almost anything else you can play out there, it’s just that amazing. 9 years later and I’m still learning new mechs and getting better overall.