Last year, I was able to give a game of the year shout-out to a single game. The only game from that year that I played - Balatro! However, this year I didn’t play a single game that came out this year.

So I’m doing a round-up of everything I played in 2026, and I’m going to give out the Espresso Tonic Game of the (other) Year Award!

This is going to be pretty long, so let’s get into it!

I love everything about this game. The strange graphics, the voice acting, the music (obviously), the fact that they use scenes from the movie during cutscenes, and the beautiful, strange choice to reward players with interviews from the cast of the movie about making the game.

I just could not vibe with the combat after a certain point. It got so difficult and not in a good way. I was constantly getting stun locked on the Helm’s Deep level and could not get past that level.

This was, sadly, the only game I intentionally stopped trying to finish.

I would have never guessed I would have played this game in 2025, but I’m so glad I did.

A very close friend of mine, Chris, wanted to play this with my friend group. I played Modern Warfare with him in 2020, and that was a good time, but I wasn’t sure if it would be a good fit for me, especially with a baby.

The biggest reason I tried hard to make sure I could play this game with my friends was cause Chris was very sick, and all of the friends in this group are long-distance.

Chris passed away in November of this year, and I cherish the time I spent dying over and over again while my brain melted, and we talked together.

I guess this technically came out in 2025, but I primarily played the Beta build, so I don’t fully count it, I guess.

I signed up to join the Skate. playtest ages ago, so when I got an email that said I was invited in July, I immediately started playing, and I enjoyed it for a little bit, and then it slowly dawned on me what EA was really trying to do with this game.

It’s a microtransaction nightmare.

On top of this, the writing and vibe are so strange. A giant mega corporation moves to town and outlaws skating, but the skaters kicked them out and now the city is in LOVE with skaters. They’re pushing an initiative to bring more skaters to the city and there’s even a separate mega corp that developed a new drug that makes skaters immune to being hurt… not kidding.

The controls are tight, but the progression loop just doesn’t work for me.

This was the first game I played with my Retroid Pocket 5. I got it for the purpose of playing Gamecube games and somehow found myself playing this instead. It’s a good time, but if I didn’t have savestates, I would have never been able to beat this.

A game by the studio that makes Pokémon that isn’t Pokémon.

It’s kind of wild how good GameFreak is at making games that aren’t Pokémon games. I thought this was really charming and actually interesting.

This game is more like Top Gun than I could have imagined. I never finished a run, but I had a really good time with it. It’s surprising how much the game feels like a roguelike. Hoping into a run and trying to carve out a path.

This game didn’t work really well for the Retroid Pocket 5 due to the dual analog sticks. Instead of having c-buttons, I had to use the analog stick, and it was very challenging.

This game kind of ate me up. I thought it would be a good option for a lunch game, but when I learned that some levels can take hours to finish…

Advance Wars is a tactics game that is probably as complex as they can get. Rather than taking a straightforward approach to strengths and weaknesses like Fire Emblem, it feels like a spiderweb of different weaknesses and strengths. There are a ton of units in this bad boy.

The thing that made me really like this game is the boardgame aesthetic. While I didn’t enjoy the length of the rounds, they were quite engaging.

This is a critically acclaimed game where you play as an AI that is tasked with making paperclips. It follows the scenario to a rather interesting conclusion.

I liked this game and kind of helped me frame AI scare and the strategies it could take to you know, cause damage.

I did not think this game was an action-adventure game with quick and slick controls. However, once the game fully showed its hand, I really loved it.

I do have some issues with how it handles the post-game and the lack of narrative closure, but I get it.

I’m currently working on a full review of this.

I did not expect to play this game, maybe ever. It’s gross, it’s scary, btut it’s strangely very funny.

Most games from this era (1999), were often obtuse and hard to follow. However, I found this really straightforward and fun. It took a while to get used to the outdated controls, but once I did, the game really stood out to me.

This was my spring.

While I was still working in the office, I was taking my lunches outside and playing Mario Golf: Advance Tour. This game is the distillation of the golf game genre, and even though it says Mario on the tin, it doesn’t feature Mario… or really any Mario characters. Instead, it just features regular ol’ people.

It’s also a hub-world RPG.

Mario Golf: Advance Tour has an entire little world to explore with challenges and little secrets to find, and every time you finish a challenge or competition, you get experience points to put into various stats.

I can’t stress enough that if you haven’t played this before

While traveling to my friend’s memorial service, I wanted something cozy to play. There’s something about old Mario games that feels right for playing during stressful and emotional times.

I didn’t expect to play this more than just on our trip, but while sitting in labor and delivery to check on the health of our 9th percentile-sized baby, I felt like I wanted something cozy again.

While this game is cozy and is a welcome stress reliever for difficult times, it’s pretty tough! I really like this game.

I first heard about Golden Sun from Into The Aether: A Low-Key Video Game Podcast. They did an extra long episode about the Game Boy Advance library, and while these games didn’t make the top ten, the conversation around them made me interested in trying them out.

I played the first Golden Sun toward the tail end of my wife’s first pregnancy. I now have a strong connection to the series.

Golden Sun: The Dark Age is considered the better of the two games, but it' didn’t hit for me the same way the first game did. That being said, this game is more concerned with exploration and discovery than the first game.

I really love this game.

We’re getting to the really good stuff.

Ribbit King might be THE game I think most about when I consider the past year. It’s weird, it isn’t like anything else, and it hasn’t been replicated.

If you want to know my full thoughts, here it is.

This is one of the many GBA games that took me over and forced me to play through in a short period of time.

The only Kirby game I had played before this was Kirby Airride, which is nothing like any of the Kirby games.

The thing that really stands out to me is how smooth the game is. It’s incredibly fun to run around as Kirby. I don’t have much else to say about this; it’s just really darn good.

I really enjoyed what they did with the story here. It's very personal and really cute. I could have done without the old game esoteric stuff. Definitely had to look some stuff up, but it was such an enjoyable world to be in!

I also took a huge break from this game right before the final boss and grinded here and there for a long time. I first attempted the final boss on October 8th. I think that the break dampened my enjoyment in the end.

My biggest complaint is the fact that the screen that has the most important information is on the bottom screen of the DS. It made it hard to play while eating lunch (lol).

I wrote a lot about a game that doesn’t seem to have anything but fun gameplay and wild visuals.

I didn’t expect this to be on the list.

I have been chipping away at this since 2020. It’s what I played when I wasn’t feeling well and just wanted to lay down. During my hernia issues, I would wake up before my wife and play Mario with my daughter on the couch. I played it so much during this time that I ended up finishing the game.

It’s a very pleasant time, even if the camera would make me a little nauseous from time to time.

I really hate the classic RPG saying, "It gets good after hour 40.” When I hear that, I run as far as I can from whatever it is they're talking about. There's no way I'd spend 40 hours on something that's supposed to get better.

I want to say this isn't true for Persona 3 Reload. I want to say this game is a banger front to back, but it's hard for me to say otherwise. However, it actually works here.

This game is about the mundanity of life. It's boring. We figure out ways to spend our days and try to find excitement in the day-to-day. The style of this game makes it feel less boring than real life, but once you hit a certain point in the game, it really starts to slow down.

All that being said, P3R takes some WILD turns that I did not expect, and by the end of it, I couldn't help but care deeply for the characters. The final hours of this game are incredible, and the final kickers are effective because of the 90 hours I spent in this world with these characters.

This game is more.

Sometimes a game doesn’t let you do what you want. Even if it would make sense within the world and rules of the game.

Tears of the Kingdom lets you do what you want. Even if it doesn’t make sense.

I love a good sandbox experience, but with a child, it’s almost impossible to find the time to play games this big. Maybe it’s because I could play this on the go, but I found this game to be a perfect game for me.

Many of my notes on this game are just me getting sidetracked by random things to look at.

The finale of this game is incredible, and that’s all I’ll say about that.

Yet another amazing GBA game.

This is a shorter experience than most Mario games. However, that’s perfect when you need to entertain a toddler while suffering from a hernia.

This might be a cop out, but this game is so good I don’t have much to talk about.

Challenge in games is a hot topic that comes up every few years or so. This year it was a HUGE discussion point because the sequel to Hollow Knight came out.

I’m no stranger to difficult games. I’ve played through Dark Souls 3, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring. I’ve also played some older games that are considered difficult for more esoteric/janky reasons.

Hollow Knight may be the second most difficult game I’ve ever played, and it ate up my thoughts and time. Everything from the environments to the brutal bosses screams at the player, “You should not be here!” However, if you take the time to learn how the game works, you’ll likely discover something interesting or a new upgrade.

Something this game does well is discovery. I had multiple moments where I thought I could not go anywhere new, but then I’d stumble upon something new and incredible.

This is easily the best game I’ve played this year, and is easily in my top 10 of all time.

Now I just need to beat The Radiance.

clapping

Yes, thank you, thank you! A lot of great games this year, but only 1 can receive this prestigious award.

Congratulations to Hollow Knight for getting the Espresso Tonic Game of the (other) Year!