This Old Neon Forum

Happy New Year, everyone! Here's the annual Game Clear thread for logging all of our wonderful gaming progress, backlog clearing, and goal accomplishment throughout the year. Feel free to post your thoughts and reflections on the games you beat and look back and summarize your gaming achievements as well.

For handy reference, here are links to the previous decade's worth of game clear threads:

• 2024 Game Clear Thread
• 2023 Game Clear Thread
• 2022 Game Clear Thread
• 2021 Game Clear Thread
• 2020 Game Clear Thread
• 2019 Game Clear Thread
• 2018 Game Clear Thread
• 2017 Game Clear Thread
• 2016 Game Clear Thread
• 2015 Game Clear Thread

Just like I did last year, I'll silently make updates to this main post as I beat games, and then do a monthly round-up in the replies.

2025 PROGRESS

FINISHED:

01-09 - Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (PS5) — Dark Emperor / Bad End
01-11 - Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (PS5) — Ultimate Mode / Ignore Everyone
01-31 - Wilmot's Warehouse (PS4)
02-11 - Final Fantasy II Pixel Remaster (PS4)
02-17 - Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster (PS4)
02-19 - Final Fantasy IV Pixel Remaster (PS4)
03-01 - Final Fantasy V Pixel Remaster (PS4)
03-08 - Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster (PS4)
03-17 - Monster Hunter Wilds (PS5)
03-18 - Suikoden (PS5)
04-25 - Suikoden II (PS5)
04-26 - Trip World DX (PS5)
05-09 - Lunar: Silver Star Story (PS5)
05-14 - Donkey Kong Jr. Math (NSO)
05-18 - The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe (PS5)

COMPLETE:

01-11 - Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (PS5) — Boss Rush
01-31 - Wilmot's Warehouse (PS4)
02-11 - Final Fantasy II Pixel Remaster (PS4)
02-17 - Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster (PS4)
02-19 - Final Fantasy IV Pixel Remaster (PS4)
03-01 - Final Fantasy V Pixel Remaster (PS4)
03-08 - Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster (PS4)
03-18 - Suikoden (PS5)
03-31 - Monster Hunter Wilds (PS5)
04-25 - Suikoden II (PS5)
04-26 - Trip World DX (PS5)
05-09 - Lunar: Silver Star Story (PS5)
05-14 - Donkey Kong Jr. Math (NSO)
05-18 - The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe (PS5)

MASTERED:


PLATINUM:

02-03 - Wilmot's Warehouse (PS4)
02-05 - A Little to the Left (PS5)
02-11 - Final Fantasy II Pixel Remaster (PS4)
02-17 - Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster (PS4)
02-19 - Final Fantasy IV Pixel Remaster (PS4)
03-01 - Final Fantasy V Pixel Remaster (PS4)
03-31 - Monster Hunter Wilds (PS5)
04-25 - Suikoden I & II HD Remaster: Gate Rune and Dunan Unification Wars (PS5)
04-26 - Trip World DX (PS5)

PROGRESS   2020   2021   2022   2023   2024   2025
Finished     10      2     10     39     22     15
Complete      3      1      8     33      8     14
Mastered      1      1      1      2      1      0
Platinum      2      0      2      9      2      9

PREVIOUS   2010   2011   2012   2013   2014   2015   2016   2017   2018   2019
Finished     36     59     57     96     58      7     14     17     17     11
Complete     12     27     27     46     28      7     10      9     11     10
Mastered      1      0      1      3      2      1      0      4      2      1
Platinum      5      3      2     13      8      3      4      5      5      4


To avoid clutter, I'll keep my mini-summaries/pseudo-reviews in my monthly update summary posts:
January // February // March // April // May // June // July // August // September // October // November // December

+ Stray (PS5)


2025 total games beaten = 1 (1 new); unbeaten games acquired = 0
2024 total games beaten = 18 (12 new)
2023 total games beaten = 23 (19 new)
2022 total games beaten = 35 (26 new)
2021 total games beaten = 18 (12 new)
2020 total games beaten = 26 (16 new)
2019 total games beaten = 28 (20 new)
2018 total games beaten = 29 (16 new)
2017 total games beaten = 25 (22 new)
2016 total games beaten = 38 (21 new)
2015 total games beaten = 25
2014 total games beaten = 35
2013 total games beaten = 17
2012 total games beaten = 37
2011 total games beaten = 35

Here's to another year!

Finished:
Jan 11. Prince of Persia The Lost Crown (Switch)

Never played a PoP game before, turns out this was a good starting point as the game was incredible. Would probably be among my top 2024 games. Meaty metroidvania with a fantastic combat system and unique abilities. Story was very well done too - fantastic package overall.

The Shoemaker wrote: ↑12 Jan 2025 04:20 Here's to another year!

Finished:
Jan 11. Prince of Persia The Lost Crown (Switch)

Never played a PoP game before, turns out this was a good starting point as the game was incredible. Would probably be among my top 2024 games. Meaty metroidvania with a fantastic combat system and unique abilities. Story was very well done too - fantastic package overall.

Glad to hear! I picked it up on sale over Xmas at Kanti's recommendation over on TONEcord, but haven't gotten around to playing it yet. Soon.

The only thing I will say is that it's not very representative of the gameplay style of most Princes of Persia.

Kong Wen wrote: ↑12 Jan 2025 04:26

The Shoemaker wrote: ↑12 Jan 2025 04:20 Here's to another year!

Finished:
Jan 11. Prince of Persia The Lost Crown (Switch)

Never played a PoP game before, turns out this was a good starting point as the game was incredible. Would probably be among my top 2024 games. Meaty metroidvania with a fantastic combat system and unique abilities. Story was very well done too - fantastic package overall.

Glad to hear! I picked it up on sale over Xmas at Kanti's recommendation over on TONEcord, but haven't gotten around to playing it yet. Soon.

The only thing I will say is that it's not very representative of the gameplay style of most Princes of Persia.

No not representative of the mid-2000's era Prince of Persia's, but it does remind me a lot of what I've seen of the early 2D Prince of Persia games which is pretty neat!

Finished:
Jan 11. Prince of Persia The Lost Crown (Switch)
Jan 13. Final Fantasy (Switch)

About a year late to my resolution to play more final fantasy, but here we go! I picked up the pixel remaster collection and blasted through FF1. I used the 4x exp multiplayer and turned most random encounters off, which made this a nice breezy game to play through. Otherwise my goodness this would be a very grindy experience! Pretty neat that the boat and airship were included this early in the series (and jrpg's in general).

Finished:
Jan 11. Prince of Persia The Lost Crown (Switch)
Jan 13. Final Fantasy (Switch)
Jan 14. Princess Peach Showtime! (Switch)


Peach Showtime is a delightfully charming game, great for young kids in particular. Each level plays out like a story book or play, and the joy comes from seeing what comes next more so than the gameplay itself. This was a good rent.

Finished:
Jan 11. Prince of Persia The Lost Crown (Switch)
Jan 13. Final Fantasy (Switch)
Jan 14. Princess Peach Showtime! (Switch)
Jan 19. Pokemon Sword (Switch)

Haven't played a traditional pokemon in a long time, and Sword was a decent bout. I remember a lot of controversy with the game... from a casual perspective it seems just as good as previous Pokemon entries. Which is to say it's a fine game overall, not amazing. This game had less gameplay decisions that made my scratch my head compared to previous entries, but battles are still way too slow. To the point where I would avoid catching new Pokemon because the process is a pain.

As the first home console Pokemon - the game looks nice. Vibrant colors and nice backgrounds. Obviously super limited in its linear "hallway" design, except for the wold area. Feels like an evolution of the handheld games, but I imagine many wanted "more".

Finished:
Jan 11. Prince of Persia The Lost Crown (Switch)
Jan 13. Final Fantasy (Switch)
Jan 14. Princess Peach Showtime! (Switch)
Jan 19. Pokemon Sword (Switch)
Jan 29. SteamWorld Heist II (Switch)

Another great steamworld game, and in one of my favorite sub-genres of the series. Heist II was easily double the length of the first game. The addition of submarine exploration made for a good break between the strategy battles. And the music by Steam Powered Giraffe was just as awesome as last time.

Beaten:
01/13 - Late Shift (PS5)
01/21 - Rocket League (PS4)
01/22 - Five Dates (PS5)
01/24 - StreetPass Mii Plaza: Puzzle Swap (3DS)
01/25 - F-Zero AX (Arcade)
01/25 - StreetPass Mii Plaza: Market Crashers (3DS)

First batch of game clears for the New Year! F-Zero AX was obviously the highlight here, but I enjoyed engaging with StreetPass for the first time in awhile too. I thought this was going to be a slow month, but I ended up putting the finishing touches on four games that I first started playing years ago while also knocking out a couple short FMV games.

Working on Tomba! now, so I figure that'll be next, but I'm often wrong. Picked up a couple little Famicom and Saturn games at MAGFest that could probably be finished in a sitting, so one of those may beat it to the punch. We'll see!

Looking forward to another "productive" year!

Completed:
01/24 - StreetPass Mii Plaza: Puzzle Swap (3DS)

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Progress - 2012 - 2013 - 2014 - 2015 - 2016 - 2017 - 2018 - 2019 - 2020 - 2021 - 2022 - 2023 - 2024 - 2025
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Finished - 0024 - 0041 - 0034 - 0022 - 0025 - 0014 - 0019 - 0025 - 0038 - 0060 - 0042 - 0038 - 0052 - 0006
Complete - 0000 - 0004 - 0005 - 0001 - 0002 - 0001 - 0002 - 0002 - 0006 - 0006 - 0005 - 0006 - 0009 - 0001
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