I’m going into my 2nd calendar year of writing about games, and planning out my year.

Last year’s queue included 10 games I wanted to play through, front to back. Out of those 10 games, I started and finished 7 games and started 1. That means I only missed 2 games.

Something I noticed is I didn’t schedule enough around limitations. 6 of the games I chose are TV games that are each over 20 hours long. That means if I wanted to play them, I’d have to kick my family out of the living room.

This year, I’ve chosen 19 games… I know, ambitious. However, I did play 27 games in 2025; it’s just that I got distracted by… other games.

These are the games that will require a bit more for me to sit on the couch to play them.

I’ve actually already started this game, and I’m really enjoying it. After playing Control and watching someone play Alan Wake 1, I got really excited and invested in what Remedy is doing with their games!

I find this game to be way scarier than I expected. The silence is enough to make me move really slowly through certain areas.

I am very excited to finally get to this game. It was tough to watch everyone get excited about Death Stranding 2 and not be able to partake in the enjoyment. I’m a huge Kojima fan, so this feels right to me.

I wanted to include shorter games to fit in between longer, bigger, more intensive games. This is a 6-hour game about climbing. It’ll be a nice change of pace after going through Death Stranding, and it might be interesting to see how the movement-intensive controls compare to one another.

This was a huge dream to try and get to this in 2025. I think I can only handle 1 over 90-hour game a year, and Persona 3 was enough for me.

My favorite thing about playing games like this is that I can easily stream them to my Retroid Pocket 5 and play them in different settings. I even played Persona 3 in the office during my lunch break.

Another shorter game for a quick breath between large games. This one has been on my list for a while. It’s a cool mix between a third-person shooter and a sports game. Sadly, the studio that made it doesn’t exist due to layoffs. However, I’m excited to check it out!

I finished The Witcher 3 during the Christmas holiday of 2020. I had come down with COVID and spent my days playing this and watching just a ton of movies. I had the DLCs at that time, but I got a little fatigued by the game. It’s been on the back of my mind to get back to this for a long time, but I think this will pair well with fall/winter vibes this year.

I don’t know when this will come out, but I plan on being there day 1!

I love playing games that aren’t that good. I find them so much more interesting than games that are solid 10/10s. When this game came out, the discussions I heard about it were all over the place, and that’s exciting to me.

During December 2024, I really enjoyed playing Tunic in the early morning. Animal Well seems like the perfect early morning puzzle game for me. I love how the art pairs well with early morning vibes.

Some of these games are originally console games, but thanks to technology, I’m able to play them on the go with the Retroid Pocket 5. These are games that I can play anywhere.

Turn-based games are great for lunch breaks, and I’m a big fan of tactics games. I’ve already played some of this here and there, and it looks incredible. Not just the gameplay, but the sprite work.

I’m thinking this will be a big lunchbreak game for me.

There are quite a few games on this list that are in the how have you not played this category. EarthBound is one of those.

This game is a huge inspiration point for many games. I’m excited to get to this and see what the hub-ub is all about.

Between the turn-based combat and RPGs, I wanted games that are a bit more… actiony? real time? ICO is a very important game for a lot of people, and I’m excited to get to this (I’m saying this a lot, huh?).

Yeah, the first one. I don’t plan on trudging through this if it’s too esoteric or difficult. I just want to see what the first game is like!

I played this a lot as a kid, and I never finished it. Again, another game that a lot of people would be surprised that I haven’t played through. This will be nice to play around late July and early August. The perfect spooky season transition game.

A fully original Pokémon game built on Pokémon Emerald, but in the style of Gen 2? yes please!

I grew up loving Pokémon, but didn’t enjoy the games to completion until last year. I’m ready to dip back into that world and take my time with it.

I decided that I want to play every Zelda game. Taking one 3D game and 1 2D game ayear. Links Awakening is next on the 2D list, so here we go!

Chrono Trigger is considered one of the best games, period. I’ve been enjoying going through old JRPGs. The plan is to play this in the fall, as that’s the cadence I’ve been getting into with old JRPGs. Stoked to finally get to this.

This is getting pretty long, and I don’t really have anything to say about this other than, yeah, I want to play this lol. I’ll likely be getting to this in the winter.

This game has such a unique style and seems to be well-liked by the people who play it. I’ll be playing it on a 3ds and am excited to see how the tough controls work.

It doesn’t matter if I get to play all of these games. The only reason I do this is to get myself excited and keep my attention on what I’ve been wanting to do. If not, I just play whatever I want and never actually see anything through.

If you’re interested in seeing if I get through this list, subscribe, and see what happens!