Retro Gaming

Top 25 of ’25: Donkey Kong ’94

While most of my top 25 games of 2025 were actually released in 2025, some of them were not. The oldest on the list by a country mile is Donkey Kong ’94.

Release Year: 1994
Developer: Nintendo
Platform: Game Boy

Okay, so right off the bat, let’s cover the big questions on everyone’s mind: yes, I have played this game before. I’ve played this game many times before, in fact. I had the original Game Boy cartridge as a kid, and it was one of my absolute favourites on the system. Right up there with Pokémon Blue and Wario Land 2. The last time I had played it was, I believe, in 2011 when it was released as a Virtual console title on 3DS, and this year, it was added to Nintendo Switch Online’s Game Boy library, so it was definitely time for another run.

What is, at first, seemingly just a remake of the classic arcade Donkey Kong game, is in fact a massively expanded version of said game. You’ll play as Mario, climbing the the four classic stages that you know so well to rescue the fair lady Pauline from her captor, the titular gorilla, Donkey Kong. But then, just when it seems that you’ve defeated DK, he hops back up, snatches Pauline again, and runs off toward a whole new set of stages.

Nine new sets of stages, to be precise. Mario will chase DK all across the lands, through biomes such as the big city, a jungle, an airplane, and an iceberg, all culminating in a final battle atop a giant tower that is adorned by a massive statue of DK’s head. I don’t know when DK got this tower canonically or where in the Super Mario World it’s located, but I’ve certainly never seen it on DK Island.

Unlike the raw action of the original Donkey Kong game, this one is a puzzle-platformer, with each stage requiring you to find a key and then bring it to a locked door to continue your chase. Mario has like a billion different jump techniques in his arsenal, and he can pick up and toss enemies and objects, much like in Super Mario Bros 2. The puzzle elements often show up in levers that change the way platforms move or open doors, and blocks that temporarily create floors and ladders. Sometimes just getting from one end of the stage to the other is the challenge, and other times you have a strict time limit to deal with. Each world has not one, but two face-offs against the big ape himself, usually requiring you to dodge junk that DK throws at you and then chuck it back at him.

Like I said before, this is one of my all-time favourite Game Boy games, and coming back to it after so long did not disappoint. It’s honestly a little bit easier than I remember, but I do have many, many more years of video game experience under my belt at this point. Playing through this one again made me really happy, and also made me consider giving the GBA sequel, Mario vs Donkey Kong, another shot as well. But that’s a story for another day…

Top 25 of ’25: Prison City

Some retro games are just retro as an aesthetic. Other retro games are retro because they are top-down love letters to the 80s. The next entry on my list, Prison City, rests firmly in the latter camp.

Release Year: 2023
Developer: Retroware, Programancer
Platform: All of them

Prison City, as per the Steam store’s description, is a “dystopian, action-packed side-scroller with tight mechanics and intricate level design.” That’s all 100% true. It’s also more or less Escape From New York but with the serial numbers filed off. And I adore that about it.

You play as Hal Bruzer, a retired solider who has been called back to duty to infiltrate Detroit, which has been turned into a gigantic prison colony, and take down the techno-terrorists who have taken over the city and are presumably plotting something nefarious. The game opens with eight stages that you get to choose from freely, and then gives you a few more stages that serve as the finale, Mega Man-style.

The initial eight stages can be explored rather freely, and your goal is typically to find one of Hal’s allies, then locate and defeat the boss. Each stage also has a hidden power-up that will improve Hal’s abilities permanently, and a mini-game that you can play afterward to earn extra lives. One of the final stages is a huge map that you can roam around freely, where your objective is to place a number of bombs in specific locations. It reminded me strongly of the NES G.I. Joe game that I had as a kid and could never beat.

There’s also a ton of replay value in this one, with several different difficulty levels, a rather large list of achievements to earn, and even an extra “bomber mode” that unlocks once you beat the game.

Obviously the old-school action-platformer gameplay is the main thing that caught my attention, but I also ended up being completely charmed by the 80s aesthetic and references to movies and games of the era. Each boss is radically different, and quite honestly, I accidentally started with the hardest one, and it almost frustrated me enough that I was going to quit the game. But I pressed on, and I’m so glad that I did, because everything that came afterward seemed as if it was crafted specifically to my tastes.

The thing that really won me over, though, was the fact that there’s a cheesy (but incredible) rap song that plays over the credits. Which is just so very 80s, in all the ways. The whole soundtrack is pretty damn good, actually, and it’s available on Bandcamp. I played this game all the way back in January and I still listen to the soundtrack all the time while working, drawing, and driving.

So yeah, there’s no question here. Prison City is absolutely one of the best games I’ve played this year. It’s a rock-solid platformer that boasts a killer soundtrack and has character to spare. What else could you even ask for? …Some spare time to play through it again, would be my answer.

Month End Video Game Wrap-Up: October 2025

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The Trees Holding Heaven (PC) – A teeny-tiny “horror” game, which is mostly just a parable about not disposing of science water in the forest. It did legitimately cause me to scream, so that’s a thing.

Ramona – Play With Me demo (PC) – You ought to know how I feel about Doesn’t Matter Games by now. This is the demo for an upcoming title. It’s… exactly what you’d expect if you’re familiar with the developer. I liked it!

The Moth Inside Me (PC) – A horror game made for the “2024 LSD Game Jam”, which should tell you all you need to know. Great atmosphere, and some parts definitely resonated with me. While I think it was often a little too hard to figure out what to do next, I did enjoy it overall.

Month End Video Game Wrap-Up: September 2025

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The Lancaster Leak (PC) – This is actually a trilogy of 20-30 minute games. An anthology that tells three different stories, each in a different style, and with an overarching plot thread that connects them all. Looking forward to more!

Kirby and the Forgotten Land + Star-Crossed World (Switch2) – I’ve been wanting to replay this game ever since I finished it, and the new DLC was more than enough reason to do so. Still the best Kirby game, and now there’s even more of it.

Replay (PC) – A 7-minute-long indie horror where you play as a person playing a haunted video game. Gave off FNAF vibes despite not being anything like FNAF, and left me wanting more.

Let’s Talk Dragon Quest Heroes

Ten years ago, Square-Enix and Omega Force released a video game called Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree’s Woe and the Blight Below. It is a “musou” game, which means that it’s a generally mindless hack-and-slash game where you mostly just tear through thousands of hapless goons. It’s also a spin-off of the Dragon Quest series, but I think that part’s a little more obvious.

Nintendo did a similar thing with the Legend of Zelda the year before, Hyrule Warriors, which is a game that I played obsessively. Twice. I didn’t end up playing Dragon Quest Heroes, though, since I was poor at the time and had to be more selective about my video game purchases. But it has stuck in the back of my mind all these years. Ironically, now I have enough money to buy all the games I want, but there isn’t nearly enough time to play them all. The grass is always greener.

All that to say that I finally bought and started playing DQ Heroes the other day.

Month End Video Game Wrap-Up: August 2025

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Donkey Kong Bananza (Switch2) – I expected to enjoy this game, but I never expected it to be one of the best games of the year. It’s Super Mario Odyssey 2 in a lot of ways, with a little Banjo-Kazooie and Minecraft sprinkled on for flavour. And the ending? This might have the most perfect final hours of a video game ever.

Under the Waves (PC) – A swimming simulator where you help a man overcome his grief (or not). It’s kind of like Firewatch by way of Subnautica, but also not as good as Firewatch because it’s like twice as long and a lot of the “gameplay” is really tedious valve-turning. I liked it, but could have liked it a lot more.

Christmas Night (PC) – Look, I like to have my let’s plays recorded months in advance, okay? This is a very basic haunted house kind of game with a little bit of stealth thrown in. Nothing special or ambitious, but it was free.

UFO 50: The First Row

A new game… compilation… thingy came out recently. I’m not sure when it launched on Steam, but it got shadow-dropped onto Switch last week. (Some) people were in quite a furor about it -apparently the game is quite good- so I dropped some fraction of a Benjamin and decided to see about it myself.

UFO 50 is a compilation of 50 very retro-styled games. Many are early 80s arcade quality, or not unlike more rudimentary NES games. That’s not to say that they’re all simple score-chasers! Oh my goodness, no! There are some like that, however, the game’s whole framing device is that these were lost games for a lost console that’s been retrieved and refurbished. And so you can play through the history of this console and watch as the games grow in quality and complexity. And that’s what caught my attention: it sounded very much like another Retro Game Challenge, which was a Nintendo DS game with a very similar premise that I remember very fondly. I quite wish I hadn’t sold it.

Anyway! UFO 50 is what I’m playing now, and today I want to tell you a little bit about the first ten games in the collection. Provided you’re looking at them in chronological order. Which is the default. So you should be. Enough preamble!

Month End Video Game Wrap-Up: July 2025

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Gestalt: Steam & Cinder (PC) – A totally average metroidvania. The gameplay is solid and the world design is good, but the unlockable skills are largely useless and the story is waaaaaay too wordy. Also the ending is poo.

Deltarune (Switch2) – It’s absolutely wild that somehow each chapter manages to be better and more mind-bending than the last. I guess that what happens when there are years of development between them. Hopefully the rest of the chapters are released in my lifetime!

Five Nights at Freddy’s: Secret of the Mimic (PS5) – A complete 180 from the unfinished mess that was Security Breach, I thought this game was genuinely really good. It’s a ton of fun, has plenty of variety, didn’t crash once, and has a plot that you could clearly follow from start to finish. Great success!

Month End Video Game Wrap-Up: June 2025

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Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana (Switch) – Did I need this remaster? No, not really. But I did need the arranged music CD that came with the special edition. And I had fun (let’s) playing it again, so it worked out in the end.

The Deadseat (PC) – I bought this because the three seconds of footage I saw on the Steam page looked exactly like something I would want. Little did I know that it’s Five Nights at Freddy’s, but in a car. Also, dark as heck and I quite enjoyed it.

It’s Just a Prank (PC) – This game is even darker than the last, but far too grounded and I did not enjoy it. I need a pretty thick level of abstraction to be able to stomach the themes present in this one.

Month End Video Game Wrap-Up: May 2025

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Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 (PC) – Soviet side’s done, so I’m calling it beaten. Looking forward to powering through the Allied campaign, too.

Iron Meat (PC) – A Contra-like with an excellent soundtrack from the same guys who made Prison City. Plenty of unlockables to provide reasons to play it over and over again, too. Which I will likely do.

BloodBark (PC) – An indie horror about chipping down trees that bleed and make you hallucinate. It sounds weird, and it is weird, but I had a great time with it. I look forward to sharing my let’s play when Spooktober comes around.