Shitty Casual

This year I logged 42 games played, 29 of which were new and 13 of which were replays. I logged 534 hours of gameplay, even more than last year, which probably goes a ways towards explaining why I read less and watched less TV this year. (I also didn’t do anything new for Talking Time, though I added a bunch of update reviews of emulator handhelds.)

Everafter Falls, at 55 hours, was my most-played game; and the combined six games in the Cozy Farming Sim genre also won for most logged hours. Roots of Pacha, Fields of Mistria, and Littlewood also met or beat the 30-hour mark. Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake was the only other game to crack 30 hours, but I had 9 games total break the 20-hour mark.

I did have a pretty decent balance genre-wise, though, with classic rpgs, metroidvanias, 2D zeldalikes, action rpgs, gimmick rpgs, a few puzzle adventure games, some puzzle/casual games, a 4X game, and a dating sim. Of the new games, 25 were on Steam, 1 was on GOG Galaxy, and 3 were on the Switch. Of the replays, there were 6 SNES, 3 GBA, 1 GBC, 1 Android, and 2 Steam games.

In terms of handhelds, the logged playthroughs rotated through the Powkiddy V10, R36S, and Trimui Smart Pro; and by the end of the year I was trying to focus more on the Odin Pro and the Ampown MagicX. I also used the GB300 and Miyoo A30 for casual “ten minutes at a time” puzzle games and the like, mostly on the subway or before bed. My Android tablet, as usual, was mostly used for Gems of War but also a full replay of Gemcrafter: Puzzle Journey.

I’m changing the way I manage my backlog, because I’ve started to lose the distinction between games I “officially” added versus ones that I’m not expecting to fully play. There are 210 games listed on my backlog as of this writing, though only 43 of them are ones I expect to give the full time towards unless I really like them. As it stands, on paper I removed 9 games from my backlog but really I basically broke even on the year.

ARR played a lot of Geometry Dash on his tablet this year; also more Bloons TD6. He played lots of Detrarune on Steam (and also some Celeste and Element TD 2) and did a bunch of Pokemon and Zelda replays on the Switch. He noodled around with GameCube Zelda games on my Retroid Pocket 5 but didn’t go crazy with them. (He and I are collectively applying the 5-game rule to the Switch 2; we may more may not get one in 2026 depending on what comes out.)

Tentative plans for 2026 include: Finally clearing the last few GameCube games on my backlog using the Odin Pro; and replaying some DS games on the Ampown MagicX. I may try to do a grander backlog cull of console games or I may try and cull bundles of Steam games, depending on my mood.

I did a big wave of puzzles in the spring, then had a big gap in the summer, but then blasted through basically a puzzle a week in October and November. Not coincidentally, my TV-watching was much more concentrated to those times, also.

We did a whopping sixteen 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzles: Toy Shop, 7 Evil Exes from Scott Pilgrim, The Best Places in America, I Love Gum, Breakfast Table, I Love Baking, Blue Ribbon County Fair, Toy Stamps, CTY 2024, I Love Music, Saturday Morning Cartoons, Make Mine Marvel, Blow Pops, Love Is Everywhere, Welcome Fall, NYC Street. We also did one 1,500-piece jigsaw puzzle: Home in the Ocean; and we did two 500-piece jigsaw puzzles: Inside the Museum: The Met, and Sewing Box. And I did the two 240-piece Pizza puzzles. (I also helped do one at in a convention games room, but I didn’t record the title.)

Call that 20 “real” jigsaw puzzles, which is a pretty high count. I’ve got five on the shelf and three more my dad is bringing over, so I suspect it’ll once again come in waves along with how big my TV backlog gets.

I only did 3 Paint-By-Stickers, one from Kaleidoscope Sticker Mosaics and 2 from Paint-by-Sticker Flowers. I kinda wish I could have brought those to choir rehearsals; they’re a great thing to occupy my hands and I still have plenty left to do.