Zaruboggan

Fuecoco the little apple gator is pretty great, but this is the first generation I went with a non-fire starter.
My team:
Quaquavel
Dachsbun
Kilowattrel
Revavroom
Baxcalibur
Gholdengo

Fantastic generation, so I gotta shout out Chi-Yu, Chien-Pao, Clodsire, Flamigo, Toedscool, Bramblin, Bellibolt, Maushold, etc.

"What is the point of an online multiplayer mode that you can only play with friends?"

I know the point of the question is why can't we play with strangers, but as someone whose entire friend group is now spread across the US, even restricted online play still has a point.

My team:
Cinderace
Drednaw
Appletun
Sandaconda
Centiskorch
Falinks

Absolutely have to give a shout-out to Cursola, Pincurchin, Ursaluna, Overqwil, Basculelgion, Grapploct, Applin, Cramorant, Wooloo.
Especially Applin. And Cramorant. God, what top-tier Pokemon.

I first played The Legend of Zelda on Wii's virtual console. I probably got a good 20 minutes into it. I was pretty whatever on it, if we're being honest.

I gave it another shot on 3DS, since Nintendo gave it to me for free (hooray for ambassadors!). Not sure what changed. Expectations, maybe? Portability? Nothing else to do? I played the whole thing between classes in college and quite enjoyed it.

Then offer them, ffs.

I'm not sure. I finished playing Naruto: Path of Ninja on DS and finished reading My Hero Academia.
People are getting sick in my house. I'm probably next, so I'm hesitant to start a new game. But maybe I'll get lucky and skip it. We'll probably play more Highguard. I don't know. I don't like getting sick lol.

My team from Moon was
Incineroar
Toucannon
Crabominable
Vikavolt
Golisopod
Tsareena

Special shout-out to Yungoos, Shiinotic, Dhelmise, Minior, Charjabug, etc.

I'll be honest, I really want Gold first. Which anniversary will I have to wait for for that?

I like that it's standalone, anyway. I'll pick it up eventually.

@Robot99 A leafy sea dragon? But of course!
Only the very best for connoisseurs like ourselves 😏

My team:
Delphox
Talonflame
Pangoro
Tyrantrum
Slurpuff
Dragalge

Shout-out to Barbaracle, Spewpa, Pumpkaboo, Quilladin and Bergmite!

@Robot99 I love Barbaracle! Except I don't really like the mega form lol

I'll give you two guesses!

Following your (probably) correct guess, I gotta go with my full team:
Emboar
Swanna
Krookodile
Cofagrigus
Galvantula
Ferrothorn

And special shoutout to Stunfish, Liepard, Beartic, Accelgor, Watchog, Maractus, Crustle, Trubbish and Garbodor, Foongus, Elgyem,Mienfoo, Durant, I mean I really love them all and I'm very sorry I'm not helping.

My team:
Infernape
Staraptor
Hippowdon
Toxicroak
Luxray
Floatzel

Lots of love for other Gen4 Pokemon I've used: Weavile, Rampardos, Bronzong, Leafeon, Honchcrow, etc.

Such a great generation. My team was:
Blaziken
Breloom
Swellow
Ludicolo
Aggron
Manectric

Absolutely grade-A legends. And this gen also had some grade-A legendaries, too. Latias, Kyogre, Rayquaza, Regirock, Regice... Love them all.
Also lots of love for Medicham, Zigzagoon, Wingull, Gardevoir, Dustox, Plusle and Minun, Sharpedo, Spinda, Trapinch, Seviper, Lunatone, Crawdaunt, etc.
I think this is the third straight generation where the middle evo of the fire starter is my favorite. Expect this trend to continue.

Such a great gen. The guys I used:
Typhlosion
Umbreon
Scizor
Xatu
Lanturn
Sneasel

Other faves include Houndoom, Murkrow, Noctowl, Lugia, Raikou, Ho-oh, Ursaring, etc.

Impossible! My Red team:

Charizard
Beedrill
Primeape
Jolteon
Golduck
Nidoking

But I've also used Sandslash, Marowak, Tauros, and more. Pick one? Forget it. Impossible. I won't even try!

Hooray for the weekend. I'll be catching more Olympic coverage (still thinking about that French dude landing all his shots in like 14 seconds!) and playing more Naruto: Path of Ninja on DS. Snappy little JRPG. When I first played it at release, I had never read or watched Naruto. Now I've got the whole set and have read it through several times, plus have played a dozen games in the series.

Anyway, we'll probably also do some more Highguard, even if I don't like any of the changes in this latest update. I'll be picking up Mario Tennis Fever physical, but we'll hold off playing it until my brother finishes his exam.

That'll be it for gaming. Reading, I'm about halfway through My Hero Academia and I'll be starting Sullivan's Age of Myth. Looking forward to it.

Sent one in.
I'm looking forward to reading about everyone's memories.

I remember (not my submission) when Black and White came out, and I took the train on a rainy launch day to go pick it up. When I got back to my college dorm, I was hours behind my brother. We kept in touch all day as we played. I'll never forget when my Tepig evolved, and I called my brother and told him how much Pignite was the best ever Pokemon, and he said "I knew you would love it!"

It's validating to know someone understands my design sensibilities.

@Zeeba It's mostly a case of paperwork. Publishers have to get lots of different things done before submitting. They can announce games before the submission process is complete, before they get first party approval or age ratings and other things required to put the store page up. Some studios like to have all those ducks in a row before announcement, some don't mind sending another press release out when preorders go live. Some want it to go one way, but things don't line up so this piece of the puzzle gets delayed.

As for time it goes live, I'm pretty sure that's up to the publisher. And whether it's featured prominently is a matter of communication with Nintendo.

Can't wait. Neva was one of my favorite games from whichever year it was that it came out. 2024?

Updates like these always make me...concerned. Did the game need adjustments? Need's a strong word, but some builds were definitely powerful.
Karl's bullet casings off of dragonbreath bullet were awesome, so nerfing that in two ways I guess makes sense, but...why? It's a fun build. Who'd it hurt?
Less mana from all sources? Sure, I guess. You could get so much mana that you never had to stop using skills. But wasn't that the build? Wasn't that the point?
I hope the positives outweigh the build nerfs. This is my favorite game from 2025, so I'm excited to dig into the update. Just...hoping I don't like it less.
I don't see anything about the glitch that makes conversations around the campfire get stuck.

I doubt I'd buy Eldin Ring again, even if it is in my personal Top10.
I'll definitely be getting Duskbloods, though. Hopefully it comes together beautifully.

Considering the BlazBlue roguelite. Mario Tennis. Might be wild and go for Tokyo Scramble.

I would like a physical collection of as many gens and games as humanly possible, please and thank you.
At a minimum, I'd like Pokemon Gold, because my OG cartridge battery is dead and I didn't get it on my 3DS. Big mistake. Lots of regret. Life goes on.

I finished Fire Emblem on the GBA app, and while I'm tempted to do another run immediately, I'd hate to lose steam in the middle of it. So I think I'll work through something else, first.

I think I am going to either return to the Etrian Odyssey remake or start up a playthrough of Naruto: Path of Ninja on DS while the Olympics play in the background. For the first time ever, I'll be rooting for Team Canada and Team Denmark. And that Team GB guy who peed in the snow.

Forgive me for what might be a dumb question, but are these games released in English? Or is it just JP?
I'm excited by the idea of older games coming back, but I'm not sure HOW excited I should be.

This game is fantastic. I've got 160 hours on it, mostly in co-op. It's annoying having to finish the whole campaign to play together, but the campaign is beautiful and has some great cinematography.
I am super excited that it's coming to Nintendo consoles, and even more excited that it will have cross play. But, of course, I'm most excited to fight Bubz and play with the new characters.

I'm up to chapter 25 on Fire Emblem, which I believe I mentioned before I haven't played in twenty years. Having a ball. The Four Fangs are everything Engage wanted its villains to be.
I just wish they made them like they used to!

I played through LEGO Island 2 for Gameboy Color on our GBA, partly to test the GBA (had some problems with a different cartridge; still unsure if it's the GBA or other cartridge). Enjoyed it multiple times as a kid, and while I had fun revisiting, I would not say it's good. Might test another GBC game.

May do a Shape of Dreams run and some more Highguard (fun game, despite being a combination of all the things I don't like).

I get that they're testing some ideas for Splat4, but I really don't like when games this old get changes like this. I like Splatoon 3 the way it is, and HP bars and a flow state risk making me like it less.

Curious to see how this evovles the title. I played the 3DS one for 15 hours, but kind of had my fill. Not that I didn't get my money's worth, just that I'm not sure I expect to get much out of the sequel. Guess we'll see!

I finished off Metroid Prime 4 during the week, and started the game I kept saying maybe about: Fire Emblem for GBA.
I haven't played it in 20 years, so it's been lots of fun remembering all the characters and stages as they come.
We started Shape of Dreams on Steam as well, so we'll probably do more of that. Might have time to climb the Peak again, but it doesn't seem too likely. Busy weekend.
On the reading front, I'm still working through Erikson's Midnight Tides, and now that we have every volume of My Hero Academia, I'm finally restarting it from the beginning. I never read past volume 30 since they were coming out too slowly.

I wonder if They Are Billions has mouse mode support. The listing on nintendo just mentions support for keyboard + mouse.

I just hate the naming scheme.

I really enjoyed Mario Bros Wonder, so I'm curious about the content on offer here. Most of the stuff seems made more for 4 players than 2, though, so I'll probably hold off until I can get a big enough group together.

Rest well, sweet prince.

I'm coming up to 10 hours in on Metroid Prime 4. I got the last beam and the spider ball upgrade, so I've been clearing out a few of the items.

We'll be going again in Peak and dying in the kiln this morning, so that'll be fun. We're at the last upgrade for The Riftbreaker, so it may be we're polishing that off. Such a fun co-op experience.

Soren has been delivering some timely lines in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance that feel TOO relevant, which has made this playthrough a...unique experience.

I may be starting up Fire Emblem on GBA, too, if I can pull myself away from Erikson's Midnight Tides. And, of course, I may dive back into Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

$650, whoo boy.

I like the Pokemon Center. Might try to snag that.

Remapping is vital for situations like yours.
I mostly just stick to what I'm given, but God damn, can I really not swap plus and minus for opening the menu?!

Little bit of Metroid Prime 4, little Peak. I beat MotionRec, and we're entering what I'd call the post game of The Riftbreaker.

My cousin and brother have both started Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. It's my cousin's first time, and he is totally engrossed, so that's fun. I just replayed it a year or two ago, but I might jump on Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, my personal favorite in the series. Or maybe I'll replay the GBA one. It's been more than a decade since I've played either...

Significantly better than modern FE games in every way. It has actually good villains, and a story, and a plot tied to actual strategy, and character growth, and deaths that feel meaningful, and all the other stuff that the series left behind. And world building! Genuine world building!
They just don't make em like they used to...

Had a good time with Aces, and I feel like these fever rackets kind of hearken back to Power Tennis, which is still my favorite.

So I'm semi-optimistic! But I agree that this campaign won't hold a candle to the Gameboy versions.

The beginning of one of gaming's best duologies.
I'm very excited that people will be playing it for the first time, and see that Ike isn't the one-note character Engage and Heroes make him out to be.

Loved Black Ops 1-2 and MW 1-3, plus Big Red One on GameCube.
But Activision can suck it these days, so even if they got ported... I'm good.

Animal Crossing update. I'm not sure if I'll make time for it in January or not, though. Busy.

Now that I've beaten basically everything I was in the middle of (E33, Borderlands 4, Baldur's Gate 3, etc.), I'm on the next set of games:
Metroid Prime 4 has been predictable but fun. Peak with friends has been a dramatic blast. And Riftbreaker has been everything I could have ever wanted it to be with the new (late August) co-op update.

I also started MotionRec this week. Absolutely lovely little brain-teaser that I recommend when it comes to consoles next year. Elechead, except you play with time instead of power.

Probably just Mario Tennis Fever for me. Most of the first few months of this year will be catching up on the last 2025 games and playing through some retro titles.

Played some Absolum last night, and am likely to play some Nightreign tomorrow. Today I'll be reading The House Witch to try and tuck away ANOTHER one more book before the end of the year, and playing more Metroid Prime 4.

Absolum, Mario Kart World, and Donkey Kong Bananza are probably my favorites. Er, wait, XCX: DE...

Absolum, DKB, and XCX:DE, final answer?

Last night, after a months-long adventure, my cousin, brother and I finally polished off Baldur's Gate 3. The ending, especially the pieces of our own making, elevated what was already a memorable experience. I can see why my cousin has 1,000 hours in it, and why it's his favorite game of all time.
Of course, the quality was no surprise to me, since I've played both Original Sin games.

My brother and I are playing split screen Call of Duty: Black Ops just to revisit the maps and remember the good times, before the franchise (and company, and planet...) went down hill.

I'm planning to start Metroid Prime 4 as well. But I may decide to do Ghost of Yotei instead.

I am ALSO trying to finish one more book before the end of the year (The Wager by David Grann). I've got about 300 pages left. That'd put me at 18 for the year, which is less than last year's 25, but you won't catch me complaining.

@Kraven You can respec! Right after Fort Joy, iirc. I don't remember if there was a cost associated, just that my brother had respecced several times.