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This will be the last entry in our 2025 gaming goals update, as obviously 2026 is already here! We also have a new article in the works for some 2026 goals so be on lookout. Anyway, it’s been quite the year. Let’s get started.

Andrew

Play More Digimon Games

If you haven’t seen, I’m pretty sure I smashed this goal. This originally was “Play Digimon World 4” but that wasn’t really possible with my setup. Thankfully it is now, but I won’t do another goal that is so specific. You’ll see what I mean when we discuss our 2026 goals.

Anyway, I did play Digimon Story Time Stranger and Digimon Survive. I did reviews for both, which I linked already above so check those out. I’m excited to see what the new year will bring.

Play More Horror Games

This is something I did poorly at all year round. I did play games like Dead Space, Dead Space 2, Dead Space 3 and Gone Home, but that’s the extent of it. Gone Home may or may not even classify as a horror game depending on who you talk to. I do want to try thid again next year, but I have a different method of doing it. You’ll have to wait and see what I mean.

Downs

2025 Goal Wrap-Up

This year somehow flew by in a blur. It’s hard to believe that January 1, 2025 felt like it was just last week, and now here we are already staring down 2026. Oof.

When it comes to my goals, I’d say I landed somewhere around a .333 average. And honestly, that’s not bad at all in baseball terms.

My Goals for the Year

Reorganize the collection

Beat unfinished games

Complete a new game series

1. Reorganize the Collection

Starting with the first goal, I made significant progress. I reduced my physical game collection from roughly 3,000 titles down to about 1,200. I still collect games, but when it comes to physical copies, I’ve cut the number to less than half of what I started with.

It was a lot of work, but I’m genuinely happy with how far I’ve come. There’s still room for improvement, but this was a solid step in the right direction.

2. Beat Unfinished Games

This goal is still very much a work in progress. I have far less free time than I used to, so I tend to prioritize new experiences over revisiting older games I never finished. As far as I know, I’ve left around 30 games unfinished in total.

This year, I only completed one game I had never beaten before: Ape Escape. I played it as a kid, but it wasn’t until much later that I realized I never actually finished the original PS1 version. (I did beat the PSP port, just not the original.) To fix that, I replayed the game via the emulated PS5 version.

If you’re interested in a deeper dive, here’s my review of Ape Escape.

I did attempt a few other unfinished games, but I lost motivation pretty quick on them. Hopefully, 2026 will be a better year on that front.

3. Complete a New Game Series

This goal ended up being far more difficult than I expected. So many new releases caught my attention that I kept kicking the can on new series entries further and further down the backlog. On top of that, whenever I did try to start something from a new series, I often realized I just wasn’t in the mood for it. “Too much of a time investment” or some other lame excuse I came up with to not play them lol.

As a result, this goal was mostly a miss. The silver lining is that I did manage to start and finish several one-off games, even if I didn’t fully commit to a brand-new series.

Final Notes

I like to document what I played each year and how much I enjoyed it. Below is a breakdown of my 2025 game time and completions.

Games Played Breakdown

Game

Status

Notes

Final Fantasy II Pixel Perfect

📚 Backlogged

Set aside to return to at a better time

Ape Escape (PS5)

🏆 Platinum

Fully completed

MLB The Show 25

🐷 Slop filler

Short-burst play, no long-term commitment

Frogun

☕️ Casual · 📚 Backlogged

Easy to return to between releases

CTR Nitro-Fueled

☕️ Casual · 📚 Backlogged

Comfort racing game

Higurashi Part 1

📚 Backlogged

Narrative-heavy, paused due to computer issues.

Dead Space Remake

🏆 Platinum

All content cleared

Mario Kart World Tour

☕️ Casual · 📚 Backlogged

Rotational multiplayer title

Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma

🏆 Platinum

Platinumed. One of the main time sinks

Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion

🏆 Platinum

Short experience, fully cleared

Firewatch

🏆 Platinum

Narrative fully experienced

Icey

🏆 Platinum

Completed all challenges

Stray

🏆 Platinum

Main and side content cleared

Glover

💤 Retired

Dropped due to severe bugs

Vampire Survivors

🐷 Slop filler · 📚 Backlogged

Easy to pick up and drop

Balatro

🐷 Slop filler · 📚 Backlogged

Addictive loop, low commitment

DK Bonanza

🏆 Platinum

DLC beaten as well

Recettear

📚 Backlogged

Planned return

Pokémon Legends ZA

🏆 Platinum

🔜 DLC currently being played

Silent Hill

🔜 Current

May move to backlog due to time constraints

The Order: 1886

☑️ Beat

Main story completed

Astral Chain

🔜 Current

Actively in rotation

Looking at the table above, it paints a pretty clear picture of how my year played out. A lot of my time went into a small handful of games that I fully committed to, while everything else fell into a rotation of casual play, backlog juggling, or quick “slop filler” sessions. Between platinums, backlogged titles, and a few retirees, this breakdown reflects both my limited time and how I chose to spend it—focusing on games that truly clicked while letting the rest wait for another day. It may not have been a perfect year for clearing the backlog, but it was an honest snapshot of what I played, what I finished, and what actually held my attention in 2025.

Charle

Intro

I blinked and 2025 was over. This year was filled with numerous adventures, growth, and building everything again. In the world of video games, I set 5 standard goals to aim for. Let’s see how I stacked up by the time the new year hit.

Goal 1: Play as Much as I Can of My Backlog I Built Up During COVID

I accumulated a lot of games (mainly Switch games) during the COVID era of 2020-2021. Because of this, I used most of my time trying new games and staying home after work. I did find some new favorites, but I needed to stay consistent.

One goal I set was going through my backlog of games and sewing what I could play or finish up.

How did I fair by the end of the year 2025?

Not great. I still have quite a bit of games that are not touched, but I did rotate in some regulars, like Fortnite, Dead by Daylight, Vampire Survivors, Dead Island 2 (this was a fun shadow drop!) and eventually Helldivers 2! Multiplayer games took priority over immersive and rich single player experiences. It’s not a bad thing, but I valued more connection with friends this year than others. This upcoming year (2026), I’ll go for more of my single player games and mix it up with some consistent multiplayer games.

Goal 2: Record a List of All Xbox/Switch/PC games

This goal was to catalog all the games I had on some organized system. The options were to type it all out, or find an app to catalog all of this.

How did I fair by the end of 2025

I did above average on this. I have used the app, Gameseye, to start organizing by platform, year, genre, and it even gives value of what I own. There are a couple of older Xbox 360 games I want as well, but I am trying to limit those pick ups to less than 5 must have ones. The bonus goal within this is to do maintenance on all older systems and make sure they still work, like my Xbox 360 and Xbox one.

Goal 3: Completing as Many Games as I Could for the Rest of the Year.

The goal was straightforward. All the regular games I actively played across all platforms, I needed to march towards completion.

My personal problem is partially due to decision paralysis. There are so many games that release, or I hear about through word of mouth. Where do I even start? Playing the classics always helps, but I should focus on playing the good ones and going through completing them.

How did I fair by end of 2025?

Not great. I don’t think I completed any games I have in my usual rotation. I expanded more to my multiplayer games, but I need to go back and play older games and finish them. This one I would rank poorly and I need to lock in and get some games finished so I can add more!

Goal 4: Add 5 New Games to My Recommendation List.

This goal was always straightforward. Find 5 games to add to my regular list of games I want to recommend to others. Whether or not they had to be brand new games or indie games was not specified.

How did I fair by end of 2025?

This one I will need to reevaluate this year(2026). I am confident I found more new games when I was searching around, but I didn’t record them as soon as I should have. I will give this one a low rating because I don’t have the list of games I wanted to recommend to others. This year, I’ll record the recommendations and go for indie gems to tell others about.

Goal 5: The Classics. Acquire Older Games and Beat Them

The goal was to find more games to collect for older systems, and beat them, then find ways to preserve them , with cases to protect them from dust. And verify they are legit copies.

How did I fair by end of 2025?

I would rank this goal as higher than average. Not the best, but I did add a good number of games to GBA and DS library, mainly through my local game shop. I was able to collect some semi rare games, and I still need to play through them and then hunt for the sequel or find games in that same genre.

Some highlights of the expansion are Golden Sun 1&2, Mega Man Battle Network White, Pokemon X, Y, Moon, and Alpha Sapphire. I plan on adding more and getting an upgraded case to preserve all the ones without cases. Bonus objective within this goal is to get as many Pokemon games as I can with their boxes for a reasonable price.

Bonus Goal: Build Online Network of Gaming Friends Again

This one was a challenging goal to do overall. How do I balance the idea of meeting new people with like interests, but also add them to my usual teams of multiplayer games? Discord helped, as well as online gaming network groups on Facebook.

How did I fair by end of 2025?

This one I did okay in. I didn’t make any new gaming friends on communities, but I did build more consistency with spending time with established friends online. This round, I’ll be more open to meeting others in Discord or online Facebook Groups to see what we can play together. With the invention of crossplay being more common, I should have more opportunities to connect with PC players while I play on Xbox or vice versa. A great example was Helldivers 2. I played this past year online with random players, and though I was brand new, they helped me in where to go and what objectives to get. I was thankful the community was generally friendly.

Goodbye 2025

That’s it for my goals for 2025. I could have done a lot better, but I have this current new year, 2026, to start brand new and log in more time for gaming.

Overall grade: C

I can improve on all aspects for each goal. I might update some of them for 2026, but I think the general ideas should stay as they are so I can focus more on experiencing each aspect of gaming and embracing how wonderful this hobby is for me and for others.

Conclusion

Alright, that’s a wrap up for 2025 everyone! I think we overall did pretty well but I am looking forward to 2026’s goals and have mine 1/3 of the way written out. It will be another week for those or so but be on lookout. Until next time, happy gaming everyone!