Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

7 hours to go year 2026.
Time flies so fast.
I will play ACNH to celebrate New Year's Eve with my villagers.

@Anti-Matter I know, not asking to play games with you. I just want you on my PSN friends list, since we both enjoy kid friendly games.

Thank you for sharing your PSN name there, I'm sending a friend request now.

Hey y'all, in a few hours my family is going to watch the Times Square ball drop live on YouTube to celebrate 2026. I will also participate in the New Year's countdown in Animal Crossing New Horizons at the same time, just like the past two years.

Also, two of my younger siblings agreed to do a stay up as long as possible contest with me, which will end on January 2nd if we are still awake by then. I will be reading some books and watching some TV in an attempt to stay awake as long as possible and win. I'll post the results in this thread. After everything is finished. Wish me luck 😅.

Update: contest is over, and I got second place. The oldest of the two younger siblings decided to go without sleep for a second night 😅. I decided I couldn't beat that, so I opted out with my second place.

I don't like to advertise my own threads, that's very silly, but I would like to make an exception for this one, because I put way too much thought into it and I think a thread about the best games YOU played in 2025 is better than the best games that happened to come out in 2025, especially as someone who barely plays brand new releases.

https://www.nintendolife.com/forums/general_discussion/favori...

I just think it is neat and I would be a little bummed out if it didn't even get 2 pages worth of responses.

There is also a similar thread here: https://www.nintendolife.com/forums/nintendo-switch-2/non-202...

Well yeah, but that's in the Switch 2 thread, which I don't have.

@kkslider5552000 Since it's about non-2025 games... I think it's by definition about non Switch 2 games 😆 Looks like they accidentally put it in the wrong place

I rarely look to see where a thread is sitting so I hadn't noticed.

@FishyS,

Oh... oops... 😅

I'll see if I can change up some of the tags for it since I was the one who created said thread.

Edit: I just figured out how to move the thread over to general discussion so I did that.

Happy New Year!

Also, I'm feeling kind of worried. Seeing game prices go up, console prices sky rocket, and now the RAM crisis being a thing. I feel like I'm being priced out of my favorite hobby, and there's nothing I can do about it.

For the past year, outside Sonic Rumble and Sonic Racing CrossWorlds (I got the Switch version as a gift), I've been mostly been buying PC games because of how affordable the prices are. I've bought classics for a few bucks, and even a modern game under $20. Seeing everything going up in price, genuinely has me worried.

I'm at the point of "ok do I save my money for a Switch 2, a machine that plays only games, or just keep my money and buy a PC that can play games and do other things I need," even that might sky rocket because of this RAM crisis to a point where I might not be able to get a PC (FWIW, I have an older gaming laptop).

Sorry if I brought the mood down, it's been on my mind. I still like playing games, will continue enjoying what I have on PC and my Nintendo consoles, will buy games on discount when possible.

@D-Star92 Awesome, physical versions of the movie is the way to go. Mom and I watched It's A Wonderful Life recently too, we have the DVD of it. Thanks, one of the books, The Art of Trolls Band Together, is good stuff though, all the sweet concept art and stories from the crew that went into making Trolls Band Together. I also got some other books related to stuff I like, like other Trolls books and an Alice's Wonderland Bakery storybook with really nice artwork, and a few other books. I'm happy with it.

@Sunsy
The thing I can do right now is going retro by hunting old games I have never played before to get some new experiences.
Btw, I don't play PC games but only The Sims games that really I have interest about.
Have you tried The Sims 1 & 2 Steam version and how about its performance if you have played the games?

@Anti-Matter That's one thing that I love doing, playing some retro game I never heard of or played. Done this a lot with the classics GOG sells.

Surprisingly, I haven't tried The Sims, and I have The Sims 2 sitting on my EA account ever since it was given away for a short time on EA's Origin, or EA app, whatever they're calling it nowadays.

@Mariotag Yeah, I played a few tracks in Air Ride (except it was with CPUs only) and some online rounds of City Trial. Kind of surprised that the Air Ride mode in the demo couldn't be played online.

@Pastellioli I guess I can start off by making something simple. Maybe I can draw a Super Mushroom with my watercolor set, once I get the time to do it. On the playlist ideas, no problem. I'm also thinking of making a playlist for when I go on flights since I'll be going on one in a few months. I could put in music from Super Mario Galaxy as an example.

@Sunsy Yeah definitely, plus I like having physical copies of movies in general. Those all sound like nice books, that Trolls Band Together art book you mentioned sounds cool. I do like a good art book myself. And speaking of books, I got Rosalina's Storybook as a gift! ⭐ Do you like books? I do like them as well, particularly if they're based on stuff I like. I also have a big book that has storybook versions of various Disney movies, and it has really nice artwork. It's straight from my childhood, too.

@D-Star92 Indeed! Also, they never get removed unlike streaming movies. That's awesome you got the Rosalina book. I do, actually been working through a book series called Unicorn Academy. There's a cartoon on Netflix based on the series, but the original books are completely different. Two books in and I like it so far. I'm also eyeing a book series called Star Friends, I found it online by accident looking up Unicorn Academy, and it sounded like something I would like.

Wow, I don't think I have it anymore, probably got lost with moving years ago, but I think I had a big book of Disney Christmas stories. The stand out from it was a Pinocchio Christmas story, where Pinocchio was a real boy. I miss that book. Those Disney storybooks are great. Which stories does it have?

Edit: I just looked, I also have the Disney Storybook Collection, albeit a bit damaged, and the Disney/Pixar Storybook Collection, which was weirdly found in a crate with my SNES mouse pad that came with Mario Paint of all things, and an old "how to draw" Nintendo book.

@Pastellioli Hmm. But ig they wanted to not overdo it with dragons, and retain the animal theme?
The time travel is interesting as a design idea in general, but the best I got of it was ultimately the chapters out of order here.

Eh. Idk much about HTF, so just gonna say, gachas and p2w are kinda, you only want so many of them at once.

@Mariotag I wouldn’t have minded if they made her a dragon, but maybe they did want there to be more of an animal theme with Ratatoskr and the siblings. I think animals residing in Yggdrasil, a big tree, would make more sense than a dragon. I think it was how the time travel thing was executed in Book 7, but I haven’t played that Book in a while so I can’t recall everything there. I think FEH can have interesting ideas and concepts occasionally, but it sometimes isn’t executed well or forgotten. I remember in one of the Books, Ash had the ability to cancel out the power of Embla but every time she did it, she gradually lost feeling in her limbs…but then I don’t think they addressed it again?

Sorry, blabbering. I tend to ramble too much about shows/movies I watched and games I played. I also realized my response was a bit too long, and I did say I was going to keep them shorter…yeah, at this point there is only one game I play with gacha elements, I kind of can’t stand games that focus on gacha or pay 2 win elements after microtransactions got in the way of Deadeye Derby.

@Sunsy Yeah, that's what I really like about having movies on DVDs/blu-rays. They're not at the mercy of being delisted once you own them, and you don't need an internet connection. Agreed, I'm happy I have the Rosalina book, and I like reading it, too. Glad to hear you're enjoying Unicorn Academy, that and Star Friends both look like cute book series. Have you ever heard of Rainbow Magic? I came across a couple books in that series, I actually read one of them and it was so cute for sure. I think you would like reading them.

Oh nice, that Disney Christmas book you mentioned sounds lovely. The Disney book I have is called Disney's Treasury of Children's Classics, and it has a lot of stories... 22 of them in fact! They are Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Pinocchio, Robin Hood, Ichabod Crane, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, Bambi, Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, The Jungle Book, Dumbo, 101 Dalmatians, Lady and the Tramp, The Aristocats, The Rescuers, The Fox and the Hound, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, and Pocahontas. They all basically have the same plots as the movies themselves. I even took a picture of the book... here it is.

Nice, that's cool you have those. I think I had one of those "how to draw Nintendo" books a long time ago, I remember having one for Sonic as well.

@Pastellioli More like most ideas get a bit ruined in FEH? But I like the way book 8 has the animals.
Time travel is better suited to ye Chrono Trigger, Radiant Historia, and FFXIII-2.

Yeahhh. That's why I kept my reply simple and brief. You wouldn't have to type up an essay lol. There was one thing I saw I wanted to reply to, but I'd need to look back.

Oh, they save the "tragic" fates of the book's new characters for the tempest trials. They're doing the last one on Ash spending all her divine power rn.

Reading some of these comments, I have to agree: DVDs and Blu-Rays are the way for me. For the reasons listed above. Also, having something to watch when the internet inevitably goes out for a bit is lovely as well.

My collection of physical movies and TV shows is increasing. The amount of streaming services I watch on is declining. Currently, the only streaming services I watch are Crunchyroll (which my mom and dad pay for), YouTube (which is free), and Odysee (kind of similar to YouTube, but I don't watch it as much, also free).

In other words: PHYSICAL MEDIA FOREVER 📣

@D-Star92 Indeed. Cool you like the Rosalina book. Yeah, I got a set of the Unicorn Academy books as a Christmas gift, mostly because I enjoy the cartoon on Netflix. It's cool to read the original story, it's much different than the cartoon. I want to try to get the first book of Star Friends just to give it a chance. I've heard of that series, never read it. Glad to hear something good about Rainbow Magic.

Ooh neat, it even says special edition at the bottom of it. That's a really nice book.

Yeah, I remember getting one a long time ago, and apparently I still have it.

@Nep-Nep-Freak The way I treat streaming, is like cable TV. I can watch shows and movies, but like cable, I don't own it, and they can be removed. I always buy my favorites in physical media. I bought the Smurfs movie on Blu-Ray a few months back, and I have two anime Blu-Rays being delivered soon. Wanted to get two movies in series I like, Girls und Panzer and Kinmoza.

I do find it funny, the few times I wanted to watch something on Paramount+, I just avoid getting the service and buy the show or movie on DVD/Blu-Ray.

@Sunsy, that's exactly how I do things. I want to make sure that I eventually have access to all my favorites in the future. Just that makes physical media collecting worth it.

Heck, thanks to some Christmas money, I have a sealed Blu-Ray for Hyperdimension Neptunia the Animation (one of my favorite animes ever, which is based off the series that the characters in my avatar are from) on the way which should be arriving next week. I've watched the anime on Crunchyroll twice already (once by myself, and once with a younger sibling). I couldn't find it in stock anywhere online, since it came out years ago. Thankfully, I managed to find an unopened Blu-Ray on eBay for just $60, which honestly isn't much more expensive than the $40-50 that new anime Blu-Rays always cost these days 😀.

As for cable, I haven't really watched much of it for most of my life. My family had it in my earlier childhood years, but in the late 2010s we switched to streaming on Roku (though we did have a pretty massive DVD and Blu-Ray collection, which we still have now). Everything about streaming was (key word: was) amazing. Hardly any paid monthly subscription had commercials, and almost every monthly subscription was under $10 a month. We had Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, YouTube, PBS (the free version), and PBS Kids. We also got Disney Plus when it first came out, but eventually swapped that, Netflix, and Hulu out for Paramount Plus (which we also dropped almost a year ago). A few other services joined the ensemble in the early 2020s (R.I.P. Pokémon TV, I only got to use it for about a month before its discontinuation was announced). Now all we have in terms of streaming services are YouTube, Prime Video, Crunchyroll, World Watch (a kid-friendly news program with one 10 minute episode almost every day), Tubi (hardly ever used), PBS (still the free version), PBS Kids, Angel Studios and the Chosen app (though I also got Netflix for three different months in 2024 and one month in 2025 so I could watch the newest Pokémon anime, but now I just watch that one online through... not through the most legal means... 😅... though I love it a lot, so I'll make sure to buy legal DVDs of the series to make up for it when they come out). My three younger siblings pretty much only watch YouTube, and it's been that way for years. I prefer TV shows in the episode format and movies so I mostly watch Crunchyroll, but I do like some stuff on YouTube as well. My family started cutting out more streaming services over the past few years, but I am the one in the family who, frankly, despises them the most, because they started out so good, but many of them just became... mind my language... horsecrap. I don't even know how much longer I'll use YouTube because of the stupid AI age verification thing (I don't despise AI like some people do but I think using it for age verification is just a stupid and awful idea). I sometimes feel like I was one of the first people in the world to join the "cancel streaming services" club. Back to cable: I have watched some stuff on cable at hotels when we're on vacation, and at Grandma and Grandpa's house at Thanksgiving dinner, Grandpa is always watching football on cable so I watch a bit of that, because why the heck not (though I'm not really a sports guy).

And, I crafted a massive wall of text. I started with talking about cable but ended up ranting about my blatant disliking of streaming services, lol 😛.