My Year in Video Games: 2025

EricMesa

March 23, 2026 - 10 minutes read - 2049 words

I am extremely late in posting this, but I’ve been incredibly busy in 2026. In 2025 I ended up playing 2 days (48 hours) less than in 2024. It would have been way less if I hadn’t been playing Slay the Spire while exercising. More on that below.

Games Played in 2025

Slay the Spire (4 days, 22:42:57): You may remember that, a few years ago, I played a lot of Slay the Spire but eventually decided Monster Train was better. Before going on a flight I saw that this game was on sale in the Google Play store. It joined Gwent as the second game on my phone. Having it available for random moments of play made its play time rise up throughout the year. In fact, on the all-time charts it rose from the 39th position to the #4 position. I’ve been working, without success, on beating the final area of the game (essentially new game +).
Pokemon Emerald Version (16:51:00): My younger brothers have always really been into the Pokemon games. I was a little too old when it came out and found it a little too simplistic compared with Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy. I also wasn’t really into the rock-paper-scissors aspect of the games. However, when Dan did a run through every single published Pokemon game, I figured I’d go ahead and give it a shot. I had guided Scarlett through the first couple gyms in Pokemon Red a few years ago, but I decided to go a little further into the series for my first run. I find it to be a good time-killer when I’m travelling. In a world where I had my Anbernic with me as often as I have my phone, I might have played a bit more as I dealt with the grind-y aspects of jRPGs, especially the older ones. I think it’s fine, but I don’t really care at all about the story. I’ll probably finish it in 2026.
Chrono Trigger (14:58:47): My previous attempt at introducing Scarlett to Chrono Trigger failed. I figured she was maybe too young last time. This time she seems to be engaging with the story much more. Things fell off near the end of the year as we mostly focused on playing TTRPGs on the weekend, but I’d love to be able to see Scarlett reach the end of the game this year.
Civ VII (13:01:13): Dan got me this game as a pre-order for my birthday. I’ve played the franchise since the first Civ game on DOS. There have been many evolutions of the game mechanics over the decades. This one, however, is the most revolutionary. The turns are split into 3 distinct eras with 3 victory conditions. Although this allows for game balance in each era, it changes gameplay in a way that doesn’t jive with me. I played 2 games and then left it alone. I’m not alone in this feeling and in 2026 they announced they’ll be reverting many of these changes. I might give it another shot mid-2026.
Monster Train (11:47:51): After I saw a trailer for Monster Train 2, I started up a game of the original. I was instantly re-addicted to the game. I was obsessed with trying to win with each clan pair option. It consumed nearly every free moment I had for weeks. Then, as quickly as it had begun, its hold over me was gone and I stopped playing. I forgot I had even played until compiling the stats for this blog post and video.
Against the Storm (9:28:06): I seem to have hit a wall in my ability to grok the systems undergirding Against the Storm in a way that will allow me to get to the final win condition. However, I loaded it up again when the Bat DLC came out. It’s pretty awesome that the development team keeps evolving the game.
Paper Mario (7:38:00): I mostly played Paper Mario while on the airplane since Sam likes watching me play. I made great progress in 2025 and I think I’m on track to finish in 2026. As I said last year, the humor is something I would have thoroughly enjoyed had I played it when it first came out.
Overcooked 2 (3:57:38): Out of nowhere Scarlett asked if we could play Overcooked 2 again. We started going through the levels we’d beaten before, trying to get more stars. On the one hand, the kids were older and better gamers. On the other hand, we hadn’t played in a couple years so it wasn’t easy to earn those extra stars. Eventually we started to get our groove back and even unlocked new Kevin levels. I also played on my birthday with a coworker who enjoyed the game enough to buy it herself.
Cities: Skylines II (3:00:10): I would check back in with Cities: Skylines II every time there was a new DLC, but I remain hampered by the game’s high hardware requirements. I prefer to develop my cities into megacities so starting over with small cities just doesn’t do it for me. We’ll see if Iceflake Studios (the new developer on the game) can fix things.
Balatro (2:52:00): Completion of the game continues to elude me. There have been horribly short runs and runs where I was sure I would get to the end, but so far the Joker keeps laughing at me.
Spelunky 2 (2:30:01): At this point I’ve mostly given up on trying to beat Spelunky 2 on my own, but the kids occasionally want to play (mostly battle mode) and so we do.
Into the Breach (1:59:10): I’d wanted the game for years and when it went on sale this year I grabbed it. Just like FTL the game is both a lot of fun and impossibly hard for me.
Disco Elysium (1:45:15): I finally started making some forward progress in the game. I wish there was just a little bit more of an ability to mark where things are on the map so that I’m not constantly trying to remember where things are. Let’s see if I finish the game in 2026.
Enter the Gungeon (1:26:15): This bullet-hell game was a lot of fun to play with Sam, but I wish I could play with all the kids at once.
Baldur’s Gate (1:08:10): A while ago I got all the D&D and Pathfinder games in a Humble Bundle. With everyone talking about how awesome Baldur’s Gate 3 was, I thought I would check out the original game. Boy did I hate the experience. I know partially it’s because it’s an old game and partially it’s because it’s based on D&D 3rd edition. But, more than anything, I just found myself constantly confused about what was happening. Compared to other games it does a terrible job telegraphing what is happening and why. I feel like I would at least have done better if it was turn-based like the old Final Fantasy games. I don’t know if I’m going to give the game another shot or abandon it.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (0:44:00): Playing a little Mario Kart with the family as I love to do.
Sonic 3 & Knuckles (0:25:00): I had a bit of nostalgia playing this game from my youth.
Castle Crashers (0:24:57): this was the first game I played in 2025 based on a request from Sam. The kids had been playing on their own and wanted us to all play together. Without a goal (since we already beat the game) we didn’t play very much.
Sonic Racing: Crossworlds (0:22:49): The kids have enjoyed the older Sonic Racing games so we played the demo of this one to see if they wanted it. The kids didn’t want to get it in 2025, but we’ll see if they change their minds in 2026.
Gwent (0:10:00): I played one game of Gwent because I wanted to see how things had changed now that it was more of a community run game. It was mostly the same. I didn’t end up reigniting my addition to the game.
Civ VI (0:03:50): I played one round of the multiplayer games I started years ago with my brothers.

Total Time for 2025: 8 days, 21:17:09

2025 Game of the Year

Surprisingly it was Paper Mario. I didn’t play many new games this year; the ones I did were disappointments. I was torn between Slay the Spire and Paper Mario, but I got so much fun out of Paper Mario - it has such a sweet, fun tone that was perfect for 2025.

Top 20 Games Overall (Since 2011)

Civ V (13 days, 14:43:00)(no change in position): Just as was the case with my music logged to last.fm - where it took a long time to topple Fantastic Plastic Machine - it will be a while before I play anything as much as I ever played Civ V. Last year I predicted that Cities: Skylines II might overtake it. However, the issues with the game running on my hardware kept me from playing as much as I might have otherwise.
Civ VI (7 days, 22:44:17.262000) (no change): Not much to say here, but I might try and finish the multiplayer games we started what must be a decade ago at this point.
Team Fortress 2 (5 days, 17:04:47) (no change): This was the second year in a row that I didn’t play TF2. We’ll see what happens going forward.
Slay the Spire (5 days, 12:27:47)(rose from #39): As I said above, playing this game while my bike was on the trainer in the garage or on leg day in the gym made it jump all the way up from #39. I’ve already played it a ton in 2026, so I could easily see it jumping to the #2 spot.
Gwent (5 days, 4:20:22)(fell from #4): As I mentioned, I didn’t get re-addicted. Also, unlike Slay the Spire I have to give it my full attention for at least 15 minutes, so it’s not going to have the jump that Slay the Spire did.
Against the Storm (4 days, 22:24:25) (no change): I could easily see it going up past Gwent. Beyond that, I’m not sure.
Cities: Skylines II (4 days, 18:01:18)(fell from #5): As I mentioned above, if Iceflake studios can make it run better on lower spec hardware I will probably get sucked back in.
Stardew Valley (4 days, 0:42:48)(fell from #7): I could end up eating my words, but I don’t see myself playing any Stardew Valley going forward. I did get my money’s worth, though.
Spelunky 2 (3 days, 2:44:13)(fell from #8)
Balatro (2 days, 12:16:13) (no change)
Final Fantasy X (fell from #9) (2 days, 9:00:00)
Saint’s Row: The Third (fell from #11)(2 days, 2:00:00)
The Witcher (fell from #12)(1 day, 23:00:00)
Darkest Dungeon (fell from #13)(1 day, 21:47:48): I keep thinking about going back to this game. If I do, it could easily jump up a few positions.
Cities: Skylines (fell from #14)(1 day, 19:35:45)
Plants vs Zombies (fell #15) (1 day, 11:23:00)
Monster Train (rose from #24) (1 day, 11:15:01): Last year I predicted Monster Train would make the list and it did! Just like Darkest Dungeon, it could easily jump up a bunch of positions if I play it again this year.
Overcooked 2 (no change) (1 day, 6:27:38)
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (fell from #16) (1 day, 4:30:00)
Assassin’s Creed II (fell from #17) (1 day, 3:30:00)

Off the list since last year:

The Baconing
XCOM: Enemy Unknown

Potentially on the list next year:

Chrono Trigger (#34) - if Scareltt remembers and asks to play, it should be a no-brainer to get it up into the top 20
Paper Mario (#35) - MAYBE. I’m almost done with the game so I don’t know how many more hours I’m going to put into it
Pokemon Emerald (#38) - since this is a game I play while traveling, it could definitely go higher up in the ranks
Civ VII (#44) - a long shot given what I said above about not enjoying the game, but the dev team has made a tremendous amount of changes to bring it back into compliance with what folks expect of a Civilization game, so I might it check out in 2026.