Alright so, while Minecraft took up a lot of the rest of July, August’s first and only game was Ghost of Tsushima. This game was just breathtaking. I expected nothing but great things from Sucker Punch, but they outdid themselves. This game was beautiful and the gameplay is just simply perfect. If you’re looking for a good open-world game, look no further.
The next few games I have already written about. I’ll link them here so you guys can check them out if you’d like. I started September with Octopath Traveler. As mentioned in my post about this game, it became one of my favorite RPGs of all time. Easily one of the best on the Switch.
I also played Mulaka, Donut County and River City Girls in September. These were all indie games and certainly wonderful. I clearly took a bit of an indie plunge in September with absolutely zero regrets. There’s just a sort of magic in indie games that can’t be expressed in other games. There’s so much passion and love poured into these projects and it shows.
I finished up September with the Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection on Switch. This was an exciting thing to experience for me because I had only played Super Mario Sunshine before and only because my cousins had it. It was a blast to play through these classics on my own and fall in love with Mario. I wrote about Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy.
After enjoying all three of those titles, it compelled me to replay Super Mario Odyssey. It felt like a completely new game with the knowledge I took from the first three. I am happy to say that I completed the main game, the dark side of the moon and the darker side of the moon. It was challenging but so rewarding.
Now, there was quite a big gap here from Super Mario Odyssey to the next title I completed. During that gap though, I enjoyed Animal Crossing’s Halloween event. This event was the first holiday event for me on my island since I started after the Easter event. It was such a fun experience decorating my island for Halloween and participating in the event itself. I fall more in love with this game each time I play it, which is still almost every day.
During this gap I also played the second expansion for Pokémon Sword and Shield, the Crown Tundra. Now, this was by far my favorite of the two expansions, but we still don’t have a national dex. However, it’s been fun and nostalgic to hunt down all of the legendaries again and it has been great to have them all here in one game.
After this gap, my first game I beat in November was Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered. I was lucky enough to snag a PS5 so I was eager to replay this game on the better system and boy it did not disappoint. Not to mention, the PlayStation 5 plays like a dream. I absolutely love the new DualSense controller and everything it has to offer.
After replaying that, I jumped right into Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales. I fell in love with Miles. He makes such a good main character and his powers being different from Peter’s really made this game feel like its own. I posted about this game as well here.
That brings me to that last game I beat this year so far. Now, I’m in the middle of a few right now but the last completed game for me was Astro’s Playground. Another PS5 title, this one comes free on each and every PlayStation 5. It is the perfect display of what both the system and the Dualsense are capable of. Not to mention, it’s a cute and wonderful little 3D platformer.
As for the games I am currently playing, there are two that I am in the middle of right now. The first is Assassin’s Creed Valhalla on my PS5, and I just recently started Trials of Mana on my Switch. Assassin’s Creed has obviously been taking a while and Trials of Mana probably will too, so this very well could be the complete list of games I’ve beaten this year.
Of course, I am also still shiny hunting and I have acquired 103 shinies in Shield, which is just amazing to me. I am so proud to have put in all that time. I am also still playing Animal Crossing and have been enjoying the snow on my island. I’ve been preparing my island for Christmas.
What a whirlwind of a year. It certainly wasn’t my best year but it wasn’t my worst either. No matter what I was going through or dealing with, I always had video games to fall into and help me through it.
Video games weren’t my only escape though. I’ve been reading, enjoying time with my dogs and recently took up meditation. I plan to end this year on the most positive note possible, despite what may still happen. Thank you so much for reading! I’m looking forward to another year of amazing games.
