Category: Games

2025 In Games (Part 1)

December 11, 2025

The other day I told my students my ‘lifelong hobby’ was probably game-playing, and the numbers seem to confirm this. In other words, time again for the end-of-year post about my game buying (and playing).

In 2025 I purchased a total of 82 games, which is the 6th highest total in the 33 years I’ve kept data. 72 of the games were for the Switch, 7 for the Switch 2, and 1 each for Gameboy, DS and 3DS. The games were purchased in four countries, and a decent chunk of them (20%) were purchased on one of my Japan trips.

In total I spent $2342.51, not including the cost ($449.99) of the Switch 2. While this is also the 6th highest total for spending, it’s notable that the average game price remains low, at only $28 for a Switch game. The most I paid for a single game in 2025 was ¥16500 (about $107) for Elminage II: DS Remix, which I may even play one day!

This is the fifth year in a row where Switch games have dominated my buying, and indeed at 72 games, I bought more games for the Switch in 2025 than I have ever bought for a single console in any previous year. If you’re keeping track my Switch collection now numbers 358 games.

This year was noticeable for another reason, and to explain let’s move on to my favourites from 2025…

Wizardry: Proving Grounds Of The Mad Overlord (Switch)

To say I was looking forward to the remake of what I consider one of the best games ever made was an understatement, and it absolutely delivered! While it contained some quality of life improvements for a modern audience, this was still Wizardry through-and-through and I had a great time playing it again for the first time in decades. And yes I had a full-party kill which required a very tense rescue operation. I liked this game so much I bought three copies 😉

Wizardry: The Five Ordeals (Switch)

This is a Switch port of a Japanese PC game from several years ago, and is very much Wizardry in the ‘old style’ (ie. before Wizardry 6). The game has several scenarios and the basic one is well-designed and arguably even better than any of the main Wizardry games. But what made this package incredibly good is the ability to play user-created scenarios. I downloaded a high-rated one made by a Japanese creator that added an entire randomized loot (like Diablo) system and I was just lost in it for a week or more. This was as good as gaming got for me in 2025!

Wizardry Daphne (iOS)

This game was released just over a year ago, and I downloaded it when we landed in Japan last December. After a couple of weeks I wrote”too addictive” in my notes and deleted it. It’s an official Wizardry gacha game which sounds weird enough, but it’s also difficult to the point of being almost aggressively anti-player, and I didn’t want to get sucked in. I never stopped thinking about it, and when I got my new phone quickly downloaded it again. And now I’m sucked in, and I’ll stay until the end. This is an amazing game, extremely well designed, and so paradoxically unlike all other gacha games I’m amazed it even exists.

Unexpectedly, 2025 was a Wizardry renaissance! In addition to the games this past year saw a continuation of the light novel series, two new Wizardry manga series and the announcement of an anime! As a massive fan and collector (does anyone else on Earth own as many wizardry games as me?) this pleases me greatly and I hope it heralds even more new Wizardry games in the future 🙂

There were many other great games I played this year, and as usual I’ll follow up in a few days with a brief comment on every single one of them.

Game Time!

November 13, 2025

Nintendo recently added a ‘Nintendo Store’ app to the App Store. It can be used to make purchases (for your Switch or Switch 2) as well as preorder games and keep track of upcoming releases.

I don’t care about these features and will never use them. I downloaded the app for this:

Once you link your Nintendo account, the app contains detailed gameplay history. And not just for Switch, but also going back through 3DS and even WiiU! You can browse through your entire history of gameplay, which in my case is hundreds of games going back over 14 years. Using this app I learned the first game I played on my 3DS was back on November 29, 2011:

Even before playing this particular game, I had used some of the inbuilt 3DS apps, and they’re included in the data as well.

Switch games even include a record of every time you played a game and for how long, like this:

I was curious about two things, those being the games I had played the most and my longest game sessions. Since you can sort by playtime, these weren’t difficult to find.

As you can see exactly 20 games have been played for more than 100 hours. The list includes five Monster Hunter games, all four Xenoblade games and two games played by KLS (Kingdoms of Amalur and The Witcher 3). The four games on the top row all have over 300 hours of gameplay, and the next six all have over 200 hours. While I have played other Monster Hunter games than the ones listed above, these five games alone were played more than 1100 hours combined (that’s over 45 days). It’s also worth noting that the 3DS data is historical now: the last play date for Puzzle & Crossing Z is several years ago (before the 3DS shop closed) but I’ve played the game as recently as this year.

What about the longest play session?

I really loved Monster Hunter Rise, and played it like a demon when it came out – including a 14.5 hour marathon the day after release. But on June 29, 2022 – the release day of the Sunbreak expansion – I went on an absolute bender. This was during the summer so I was off work and still not traveling because Australia and Japan hadn’t reopened. I had a glorious 18+ session that filled my day, and I believe it was the last time I’ve done such a mad thing 🙂

I found many epic (12+ hour) game sessions, and they occurred for every game with over 300 hours except for Animal Crossing which doesn’t lend itself to marathon play sessions. There were even two consecutive days where I played Diablo II for 13+ hours each day!

This is a cool app, and I wish we could even take it one step further and download the data to analyze it further. If you’ve got a Switch and are curious about your play history I recommend this.

LEGO Game Boy

October 5, 2025

I haven’t bought much LEGO in recent years, but as soon as the above was announced I knew it would be mine. It was released on a workday so I couldn’t go to the LEGO store until after my lectures, and when I got there they only had one left so I left happy. But later on I saw a dozen or more at Walmart so I doubt this is difficult to get.

At 421 pieces it’s not a large set, and it only took me an hour or so to build. It only comes with two stickers (all other labeled bricks are printed) but this is the first LEGO set I’ve bought that includes lenticular pieces:

There’s three of them, and they are the screens. They do a wonderful job of reproducing the iconic colours and draw-in of the Game Boy, and look great in the finished model.

Assembly is easy and fun. There’s many techniques I’ve not seen before used to create a compact model with almost no visible studs. Given the constrictions – it had to reproduce a real product – it’s an extremely impressive design.

The controls all ‘work’. The d-pad can be tilted and the buttons pressed. The contrast and volume dials on the side can be turned, and even the power button can be toggled. Pieces of rubber inside cause the buttons to pop back, and they were very creative using tires placed into slots sideways to make the start and select buttons.

The model comes with two cartridges (Super Mario Land and Zelda: Link’s Awakening) which can be inserted and removed. For the full experience you can exchange the screen as well (which is easy) to match the cartridge.

This is a fantastic kit and it’s truly incredible how well it recreates the original in LEGO. To illustrate, here’s a photo of my original Game Boy next to the LEGO model:

And here’s a LEGO cartridge next to an original one:

An incredible creation by LEGO, and immediately one of my favourite kits of all time. This one will be going on permanent display.

Robot Claw