It’s almost unbelievable that we are in April now. It’s almost even more unbelievable how many games we’ve had release over the past few months. We aren’t here to talk about that though. No, the team is here to discuss our Quarter 1 2026 gaming goals updates. If you missed the original post from the beginning of the year, you can find it here.
So, let’s get started.
Andrew
Rebuild my Vita Collection
At the start of the year, I had five Vita games. I mentioned how I really missed the system and a lot of the games I used to have. Well…here’s a picture to show you how far I’ve come:
As you can see, I’ve collected a lot lately. I’m definitely not done by any means, but it’s a great start to something I really wanted to do. I have already finished (paid link) Gravity Rush and did a review for it. I’m not sure how many Vita titles I’ll end up getting but we will all see in a future update.
Play 1 Game From These 5 Series
Pokemon
Klonoa
Resident Evil
Spyro the Dragon
Cat Quest
This is one goal I am off to a good start with. I’ve already beaten Resident Evil Requiem on the (paid link) Switch 2, did my review, wrote some speedrun tips and some generalized first playthrough tips and I’m going through (paid link) Resident Evil 2 Remake on the Steam Deck as well. I just finished Resident Evil 7, also on the Switch 2 thanks to the (paid link) Generation Pack. You can find the review for that here..
I also am currently playing (paid link) Pokemon LeafGreen on and off on the Switch, plus (paid link) Pokopia on the (paid link) Switch 2 as well. So I think overall, I’ll get this goal clear by the end of the year. Not sure when I’ll hop into the other games but I have time.
Soft Limit Game Purchases
At the start of the year, I had planned to put a limit on my game purchases per month, not to overwhelm myself with buying so many at one time. It was supposed to be 10 games. I feel like I have failed this pretty badly as of late. Below I’ll list how many games I had in each month:
January: 30
February: 25
March: 20
As you can see, the number has decreased by 5 each time but that’s certainly a good difference from 10. Maybe I’ll get it down over the next couple of months but we’ll just have to wait and see in the next update.
Downs
Q2 Gaming Goals Updates
I won’t lie, progress has been slow in regards to my goals this year. That being said let’s review.
Dissolve & Digitize Majority of Collection
My main goal this year is to reduce my collection from roughly 1,200 games down to 1,000. Right now I’ve shaved about 100 games so far with another 30 under review. So progress has been good so far. Haven’t digitize much since I buy games when the quarterly sales happen.
As for the secondary in regard to Everdrives and optical disc emulators, I haven’t bought one yet. My guess will be in August is when I will purchase one since the first half of the year is my most expensive time of the year.
Finish 12 Games
I’m not even close to finishing one game this year. The last 3 months have been extremely busy and alot of what I’ve been playing requires a bit too much for me to play in short sessions. Below are the games I’m working on and a few I plan on playing in due time:
Currently Playing:
Astral Chain
Zanki Zero
Plan to Play
Pokopia
Mega Man Starforce 1
Danganronpa 2×2
I’ll likely have to adjust my game lineup in order to make this goal more reasonable aka play games that I can get the most out of in 20-30 min sessions. Right now both games I have been playing require about an 1-2 hours to really make progress in them.
As for the secondary goal, I plan on replaying Mega Man Starforce since it’s been about 10 years since I’ve last played it.
Complete PS VITA Collection
Of the 3 goals I feel I am closest to finishing. I am 2 away from a Region 1 set. The last 2 aren’t cheap so I doubt by the next quarter I will be finished with this goal. If I somehow do, then I’m surely to make a post about it.
As for the last secondary goal, I’m still trying to narrow down a final number. I know as someone who still collects it’s hard to really narrow down how many total games to have, but I feel like my end goal will get me to an ideal number. (I’m hoping for 1K, but realistically I’ll probably have to come down to 300 games in total. Just hard to justify having so many when there’s so many options to play games)
Charle
March 2026 Q1 Goals.
Intro:
This is a check in to see how I’m doing for Q1 goals. Let’s see how I fair vs. when I started this year.
1. Play 5 New Games, Any Platform, Not a Sequel.
How did I fair so far in 2026? Not great. I picked up Pokemon Black and I’m playing Dead Island 2. Both are from established IPs and are not new and original games. The goal was to play five unheard or independent of big name games to embrace that new experience of trying different games, instead of drowning myself in my backlog.
2. Try 1-3 New Genres of Games
Again, not great on this goal. I’ve stuck to what I like, action/RPG games, turn based, or shooters like Fortnite. The goal of this statement was to try more games I was not comfortable playing to cleanse my bias against them. Yes, sports games are my least favorite genre, but if you find the right game to play, for example, like Dodgeball, I can find the right experience to go back to and put in my rotation of games. I need to do better, and find new games that I’m not familiar with. Puzzles, sports, and management simulator games are what I’m going to go for next.
3. Play 1-3 Games I Missed Out On When They First Came Out
Okay, I’ve made some progress on this goal. As of this writing, I can proudly say I’ve mostly played a blind playthrough of Pokemon Black, and traded over the 3 starters from Pokemon Black 2, and I have eighty hours in this game. I absolutely love this game. I regret not playing this game when it was first released, but I was too distracted in my college days to give it the proper attention it deserves.
I do need to play more games than Pokemon, but the only one I have in my rotation is Dead Island 2. It’s a fun game and it needs to solidify crossplay with PC eventually so I can play on my Series X with others. This was one of my favorite shadow drops on Gamepass when it first dropped, and I am on the hunt to actively buy the full game to get the full experience. At this point, it’s been so long since it came out (as well as it took more than five years in development hell to get it finished) that the sequel should be in development and I’ll see it one day.
4. Clear Some of My Backlog of Video Games
This one I will give half a point, for going through my backlog and playing them more. Example is Vampire Survivors and trying to beat Pokemon Black 2, but beating Pokemon Black first to understand the story. The goal was never to go for speed running, but to slow down and fully immerse myself in the story. One game I did go back to was Division 2 because of this free update they added for realism mode. It honestly isn’t the same without playing with friends.
The bottom line is I need to add more in my rotation for playing games, and I need to make the effort to do this.
5. Establish a Regular Gaming Schedule
This goal is a little better than expected. The only free time I get is after work. And I usually just power level through Pokemon Black while having background noise as I try to finish the main story.
It isn’t a surprise I’m a night owl, so this might have to be modified to play throughout the day during weekends. If I put in the effort to play a little every day, I’ll get back into that flow state to play more games.
Bonus Goal: Buy More Accessories for My Gaming Setup
This has some progress in it. I stopped by a bargain store called Ollie’s and got myself a cheap LED light set I plugged in to accompany my TV at home. This was under 10.00 and I think I’ll get more to see if I can make it a more complete lighting experience.
Outro
And that’s my progress for quarter 1 2026 goals. I aim to keep going and see what I can accomplish naturally, while building that momentum to throw myself into these amazing gaming experiences I missed out on, or trying for the very first time.
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