K Sawyer Paul

Previously: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020

See: My Personal Interpretation of Star Ratings ⭐

Based on finally figuring out my star ratings, I’m switching things up a bit this year and organizing my played games into 3 different star lists. These lists contain most games I played this year. I played very few games that actually released this year.

Emotionally great ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ games

• Metal Gear Solid (1998, GOG) I wrote an essay on this back in March. I’m going to miss those proverbs of yours.
• Hades II (2025, Switch 2) I felt at home most with the Umbral Flames. They felt like they belonged in my real hands.
• Yakuza: Like a Dragon (2020, Steam) People talk about the amount of violence in video games and how that can negatively impact society. But not enough people talk about the amount of goodness in games and how that can inspire you to see life like a Dragon Quest hero.

Technically great ⭐⭐⭐⭐ games

• Ikaruga (2001, Steam) One of my favourite games I am absolutely awful at.
• Mario Kart World (2025, Switch 2) All the animation work makes the game feel so alive and expressive. The driving feels a little nicer than 8, but maybe that’s just me. It feels both more forgiving if you’re playing to have fun, but more demanding if you’re trying to win. Maybe that just means they made rubberbanding tighter, but that’s a very Nintendo decision to make. It’s more fun trying to win than winning.
• Gunstar Heroes (1993, Genesis) One of the few Genesis games I replay every few years; a gem of great game feel, visuals, and speed. Hasn’t aged a day.
• Street Fighter 6 (2023, Switch 2) The game I put the most hours into out of any game on this list (just over 60 hours). It’s my sport, now. The Switch 2’s version has one major advantage over the others: it takes way less time to go from off to playing.
• Parasite Eve (1998, Playstation) I can’t think of a game more begging of an HD remake with a couple of tweaks than this one.
• The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (2024, Switch) Somewhere along the way, they added a “favourite” button and that went a long way to fixing the annoying menu system, bumping it up considerably.

Acceptable ⭐⭐⭐ games

• Glyphica: Typing Survival (2024, Steam) I enjoy blinking too much to really enjoy this but I get the appeal.
• Arkanoid: Eternal Battle (2022, GOG) One of my childhood Amiga all-timers but it’s not the kind of game that’s super fun today.
• Blazing Lazers (1989, TurboGrafx-16) A nice crunchy schmup with a handful of evil attack patterns. This is one of my childhood comfort games.
• Celeste Classic (2015, Playdate) What a toughie.
• Dariusburst: Chronicle Saviours (2015, Steam) Darius isn’t my favourite type of schmup, but I can’t argue the amount of love in this “cabinet”. The DLC seems to be the real value here, unlocking extremely niche characters from schmup’s long past (like Sidearms from the TurboGrafx) and allowing you to play through the levels with not only their ship but also their abilities. Wild stuff.
• The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match (2002, Steam) If I get the itch for KOF, this is where I’ll head.
• Ridge Racer 2 (2006, PSP) The psp aspect ratio feels so wide, right? It’s great for racers.
• Power Stone 2 (2000, Dreamcast) Its time as a lost classic is about to come to an end. A rerelease on popular consoles might just give it a second life. There should be more party fighters. We used to have it pretty good.
• Bravely Default (2013, 3DS) Read my full review at Backloggd. This game inspired an essay I wrote back in June about gamifying the fun out of an experience.
• Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour (2025, Switch 2) As a video game, not very fun and extremely oddly priced for what is absolutely a tech demo showcase. As a piece of educational software, however, I’m extremely impressed. Every online dashboard is so bad, and should absolutely rip Welcome Tour off from here on.
• Hollow Knight (2017, Switch) Metroidvania’s are not my genre. This one is cool, pretty, haunting, difficult, and probably worth the frustration. I’m not in a space where I want to bang my head against the wall. Maybe someday.
• Namco Museum (2017, Switch) The good version of Pac Man Championship Edition is in this one.
• Box Boy! + Box Girl! (2019, Switch) The Metal Gear VR Missions for Nintendo platformers.
• Virtual Boy Wario Land (1995, Virtual Boy) Playing virtual boy games on the 3DS with the 3D slider cranked up gives you about as comfortable an experience as possible. I can’t help but guess that it’s more comfortable than Nintendo’s upcoming re-release of the Virtual Boy tabletop headset. It’s still a good idea to take a break between levels. Put some eyedrops in.
• Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia (2017, 3DS) Good cast, good fantasy plot beats, only okay tactics.

Notes & thoughts

I began 2025 by releasing Ambidex, a family of custom controllers that allow people to play retro games in the Delta app in new orientations. I’ve heard many positive reviews of them, and I’m thrilled so many people have downloaded and tried my designs. At the time of Ambidex’s release, 8,500 people had downloaded my previous controllers. Going by the number on Delta Styles, the download count is now 22,653! I’m so absolutely stunned by that. Thank you to everyone who gave it a shot.

I consider the Delta Skins project over for now. I’m looking forward to making the next thing.

Now, how about that gaming backlog?

At the end of 2024, my backlog was 222 games. As of this post, it’s now…166. Damn, that’s progress! It lines up pretty well with the 46 games in my “played in 2025” list. A little bit of backlog clean-up accounts for the rest. This was a good year for getting through it!

In June, I picked up a Nintendo Switch 2 at launch. I’ve been a gamer my whole life, but it took until 2025 for me to pre-order a new console and buy it on day one. My six month review of the Switch 2: It’s good! I’ve played it nearly every day. I hope it lasts as long as the first one. It still rarely leaves my living room.

Last year, I wrote about my 3DS dying on me. I was honestly excited to move on from it, and try some new things. I was looking forward to the Switch 2, and perhaps even consolidating all of my gaming to one device. Two months after getting the Switch 2, I found a cheap original 3DS on eBay and impulsively purchased it. Luckily, it was in great condition. And with that, I’ve got a portable Nintendo again.