What was your favorite game(s) you played this year that was not released in 2025? Differentiate between a game you played for the first time and a game you revisited.

Remasters/remakes released this year count as “not released in 2025” unless it strays significantly from the source material.

Me personally? I would have to say…

Favorite first play-through: Donkey Kong Country Returns (NS1). Favorite revisit: Super Mario Galaxy 2 (NS2). Favorite overall: Donkey Kong Country Returns (NS1). [Very Honorable Mention: Astro’s Rescue Mission (PSVR1).]

Other games I played not from 2025: DKCReturns (NS1), DKC:Tropical Freeze (NS1), DKCountry (SNES on NSO), Super Paper Mario (Wii on Wii U Virtual Console), Deltarune chpt.1+2 (NS2), Super Mario Galaxy 2 (NS2), Astro’s Rescue Mission (PSVR1), Sonic 1/2/CD/3+Knuckles (Genesis on NS1, Sonic Origins). I played a very small bit of Pizza Tower and Xenoblade Chronicles X, but quickly abandoned them.

All-in-all, very solid line-up for old games. Astro’s Rescue Mission, DKCReturns, and DKC:TF are new additions to my list of favorite games of all time. 

My revisited game would have to be Super Mario Galaxy 2, my last playthrough was so long ago I was discovering it again in a way, such a great great game.
First-time playing : Astro Bot, a very solid 3D platformer, a bit of the easy side but makes up for it with the last optional levels which are some of the best designed I've seen.

Astro is incredible! Same goes for Mario Galaxy 2. You should really consider giving Rescue Mission a shot if you have the VR set. I find that to be far superior to Astro Bot— easily one of my favorite games ever made.

My favourite first time playthrough, probably RDR but it's close with Dead Rising 2.

Repeat playthrough would be Persona 5 Royal, technically I've not played Royal before, but it's similar enough to Persona 5 I count it as a repeat.

Replaying Breath of Wild on the Switch2 with the upgrades was a highlight. I'll save replaying Tears of the Kingdom for next year.

Also playing Wind Waker on Nintendo NSO took me back a long time. It was 21 years ago on the GameCube I last played it. Still much to love with some warts and all.

Talking of 2025 to be a trip back in memory year for me, I also replayed Final Fantasy 9. I was waiting for a remake for years (rumors to be believed), but decided to stop waiting and just play the upscaled original.

Also I'm still a Balattro addict in 2025

First time playing is Ender Lilies: Quietus Of The Knights. A great Metroidvania and the sequel released this year.

Revisited game would be Donkey Kong Country Returns HD. Just such a great platformer.

I played a ton of action-adventure, hack and slash games this but Stellar Blades combat was easily the most satisfying. Loved the world, the combat, the OST, the fan service (oh no sue me) and had a genuinely great time on my road to 100% so it’s Stellar Blade that gets my vote.

Ghost of Tsushima, grabbed it on PC via Steam sale. Great combat and superb port. Runs obscenely well on the PC.

For me it's gonna be Metaphor ReFantazio. I started it on release but only finished in February this year.