What I’ve Been Playing (Q3) 2025
Thoughts & impressions on the games I played/finished during Q3 of 2025, including Donkey Kong Bananza, Öoo, Earthion, NINJA GAIDEN: Ragebound, Mario Kart World, and more…
UnexpectedGames
Just a friendly bear who works in financial reporting that would rather be playing, writing or talking about video games. https://twitch.tv/unexpectedenemy
Thoughts & impressions on the games I played/finished during Q3 of 2025, including Donkey Kong Bananza, Öoo, Earthion, NINJA GAIDEN: Ragebound, Mario Kart World, and more…
Thoughts and impressions on the games I played/finished during Q2 of 2025, including Donkey Kong Country Returns HD, South of Midnight, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom in the Mist, Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo, and more…
The Big Catch is my most anticipated game of 2025. In this post, I discuss the game’s more nuanced controls and general move-set, how the game compares to the 3D platformers that came before and how it holds-up to some of its contemporaries today. I also share my hopes/expectations for the final release.
My Top 10 Games of 2024, including my “Honorable Mentions”, “Favorite Remaster”, and more…
My thoughts & impressions on the games I’ve played/finished during Q1 of 2025, including Mouthwashing, Symphonia, Electric Fairyland, ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights, The Tale of Bistun and more…
Thoughts & impressions on the games I played/finished during Q4 of 2024, including Bakeru, Another Crab’s Treasure, Granblue Fantasy: Relink, Dragon’s Dogma II, Silent Hill 2, Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, and more…
Gaming in 2024: In-Review, including my “Lost Levels”, “Coulda, Woulda, Shouldas”, “Favorite Game Soundtrack” and more…
Thoughts & impressions on the games I played/finished during Q3 of 2024, including Stellar Blade, Nine Sols, Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure, FFVII Rebirth, Flock, Astro Bot, Alan Wake II and more…
Nine Sols, SquareSoft’s Summer of Adventure & The “Souls-ification” of the Metroidvania Sub-Genre; an observation on the state of the scene.
Thoughts and impressions on the games I played/finished during Q2 of 2024.
Thoughts and impressions on the games I played/finished during Q1 of 2024.
Thoughts and impressions on the games I played/finished during Q4 of 2023.
My Top 10 Games of 2023, including honorable mentions, my favorite remaster, DLCs and more…
Gaming in 2023: In-Review including my “Lost Levels”, “Coulda, Woulda, Shouldas”, Favorite Ongoing Game, Shoutouts and more…
Thoughts & impressions on the games I played/finished during Q3 of 2023.
Thoughts & impressions on the games I finished during Q2 of 2023 including Tchia, Resident Evil 4 (Remake), Metroid Prime: Remastered, Decarnation, Bayonetta Origins and more.
We’re now more than halfway through the year, so lets pause, reflect and make an attempt at creating a Top 10 list for 2023.
Pondering the existence of a game like Wanted: Dead in 2023.
A caffeine-induced 3D Platformer Hallucination, inspired by the one-liners from mascot platformers of yesterday.
Revisiting The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword before Tears of the Kingdom and Talking Dungeons
Revisiting the “Scorch ‘N’ Torch” track from the Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze OST.
Before Athia, there was Secret of Evermore, SquareSoft’s “Isekai” before the term was more commonly used.
Thoughts & impressions on the games I played/finished during the first quarter of 2023 (January through March).
Prior to sharing my 2022 GOTY list, I wanted to share a few more thoughts on the games that didn’t quite make my top 10 list including my “Lost Levels”, my favorite DLCs, ongoing game and other categories that didn’t quite have a place to call home.
The Big Catch is one of my most anticipated releases of 2023 and here’s why.
My Top 10 Games of 2022 (including Honorable Mentions and other shoutouts).
Platinum Games has had their hits and misses over the years and despite their troubles as of late, their games continue to speak to me for a variety of reasons. […]
What’s next for Splatoon’s single-player experience?
Thoughts and impressions on the games I played/finished during Q4 of 2022.
Thoughts and impressions on the games I played/finished during Q3 of 2022; including Hell Pie, Ys IX: Monstrum Nox, Elden Ring, Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series, Wave Race 64 and more…
Reflecting on the past 5 years of Nintendo Switch and what it’s missing compared to Nintendo’s hardware from the past.
Thoughts & impressions on the games I played/finished during Q2 2022 (April through June).
Thoughts & impressions on the games I finished during the first quarter of 2022, including Clockwork Aquario, The Gunk, Solar Ash, UNSIGHTED, SOL CRESTA and more…
My Top 10 Games of 2021 (including honorable mentions).
Thoughts & impressions on the games I played/finished during Q4 of 2021 (October through December).
Thoughts & impressions on the games I finished during the months of July through September (Q3 2021).
Thoughts and impressions on the games I completed/rolled the credits on during the months of April thru June (Q2 2021).
Thoughts and impressions on the games I finished during Q1 of 2021 (January through March).
My Top 10 Games of 2020 (including honorable mentions). Twenty games total that resonated with me the most in 2020; from FF7R and The Last of Us: Part II to Creaks and Bugsnax.
Thoughts/impressions on the games I played/finished during Q4 of 2020.
Thoughts and impressions on the games I played during Q3 of 2020, including Raji: An Ancient Epic, Huntdown, Xeno Crisis, The Last of Us: Part II and more.
A tribute piece to Onion Games and a story about how the cult-classic Nintendo Wii title, Little King’s Story, helped me cope with the aftermath of a house fire and my parents’ divorce.
Thoughts and impressions on the games I played during the months of April thru June.
The Rest of 2019 in Gaming. My final thoughts on everything else I played during 2019, shout-outs, honorable mentions and more.
Despite a crazy first quarter work schedule and a transition to a work-from-home/quarantine lifestyle, here’s some thoughts & impressions on the games I managed to play during the months from January through March.
(Disclaimer: I’m re-posting some of my writing from previous blog entries in order to save time. My thoughts on certain games hasn’t changed much since writing about them last year). […]
My Backlog… the horror! When October rolls around, I always try to do my best to keep horror-themed games in-rotation. On the first day of the month, I select a […]
Unpacking my thoughts on modern-day online gaming and its accompanying seasons, dailies, weeklies and bounties.
What I’ve Been Playing (Q2) 2019 Wrap-Up
DQ Diaries Vol. 2: My Quest to Become the Dragon Warrior