Guess what? We’re a quarter-way through 2025! From warmer weather to exciting reveals and releases ahead, the rest of year is shaping up to be a dynamic one, for sure. As always, let’s recap the highlights of this month before we turn to our illustrious writing crew to see what they’ve been up to:
Please give a warm welcome to one of our newest writers, Dan of the Retro Logic Podcast! He starts off this month by talking about a game that’s near and dear to my heart: StarFox Adventures for the GameCube. While visually stunning and packed with lots to do, shoehorning StarFox lore and a poor aiming mechanic ultimately marred the experience. Next, Red celebrates the anniversary of the PlayStation 2 with a cheeky and good-natured list of his top 25 PS2 games. There are unexpected, yet, valid choices within and I encourage you to check it out.
Matt Lotti teleports in with a look at Mega Man II for the Game Boy. While sharing the moniker as the legendary NES title, you would be remiss to knock it as a simple port. Check out the review for more details. Red revisits Super Mario Bros. 3 to celebrate MAR10 Day. It’s a perfect game, what more can I say? Agent Clarke returns to take potshots at Sniper Elite: Resistance for the PlayStation 5. Feeling more like DLC than a full game, Sniper Elite fans may still find this one enjoyable. Red sharpens his sword and takes off for the hunt in his look at Monster Hunter Wilds for the PlayStation 5. Wilds is a more streamlined Monster Hunter experience than previous entries, but one doesn’t get that full experience until after the end credits.
Keeping up with the Year of the RPG, we have a review of Disgaea: Hour of Darkness for the PlayStation 2 from new writer, Displaced Appalachian – a warm welcome to him as well! The first in the series of SRPGs with over-the-top level and damage caps, Disgaea: Hour of Darkness is less of a time sink and more of a black hole in terms of content. Be sure to read his thoughts, fellow Disgaea lovers! Holyrustedmetal took a look at Avowed for the Xbox Series X. He likens the game to a popcorn flick – it doesn’t have the depth of more renowned RPGs, but it does provide fun combat experiences, high fantasy shenanigans and silly swears to boot.
And finally, yours truly wrote up a review of Super C for the NES. My best friend and I played this run-and-gun endlessly growing up and it holds a soft spot in my heart. You can check out my thoughts in the post.
With the wrap-up wrapped up, let’s see what our writers have been up to this month:
Once again, a busy month means not as much gaming as I would have liked. Mostly I played a bunch of small games under an hour because it’s what I could fit in. However, as we approached the end of March, I did manage to slip in a few larger titles, and one for my RetroAchievements A-Z: L is for Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. One of the few games I consider a 5-star title and easily one of my favorites (though not my favorite within Zelda games). I got most of the achievements barring several that require a second playthrough challenge run (3 hearts only). Will I try for them? Maybe. To be determined.
For more modern games, I played through Penko Park, a Pokemon Snap-like with a spooky-cute aesthetic. A tiny tour guide drives you through an abandoned wildlife park where you take pictures of the strange creatures that live there. Much like Snap, you get upgrades like things to throw at the creatures and a flute that makes different reactions with different songs. It’s charming in a somewhat dark way.
And while it’s going to be a while before I finish, I’ve started playing an RPGMaker title called Final Profit. A friend recommended it to me most enthusiastically, so I grabbed it during a recent sale. Bless him, I’m gonna be playing this for ages. When capitalism threatens even the fairy kingdom, Queen Mab must take down the evil Bureau of Business the only way she can think of: from within. Open shops in various towns, find items to sell, find customers, and earn your way up to being a Lord of Business. It’s a solid RPGMaker game, with decent pixel art, great writing, and fun, diverse gameplay that separates itself from the majority of RPGMaker games on the market. If you enjoy shop sim RPGs like Recettear, definitely look into this one.
March has seen me continue my Mega Man trend, this time with MegaMan Xtreme on the GBC. While hard as nails, the game plays really well. Controls are tight and responsive, but screen real estate is limited, making it tough to avoid enemies. Just added to the challenge, I suppose, but certainly led to some profanity-laden reactions throughout. A mashup of Mega Man X 1 and 2, Xtreme blends elements of each into a singular adventure smoothie. It’s also fun to see bosses rendered in 8-bits, and makes you realize that, had the old school NES still been supported at the time, we could’ve easily received the X series on that classic console.
Secondly, and hear me out on this one: Monsters Inc. on the GBC. I know, I know, you’d think it was a shallow licensed title at first glance. That’s certainly what I assumed. The game came as an extra freebie in a handful of other GameBoy games I purchased, so I didn’t give it much thought. It was actually my five year old daughter who caught sight of Mike and Sully on the cover and asked if we could play together. What followed was not only a surprisingly solid action platformer, but a great experience playing through a game alongside my daughter. We had a blast following the film’s storyline, which the game sticks to surprisingly well. I dunno if I’d go so far as to call Monsters Inc. on the GBC a hidden gem, but it certainly exceeded my expectations.
Without much time to play earlier in the month, I struggled to find the time and motivation to continue Fantasian: Neo Dimension. It’s a good game, but I think I’m experiencing turn-based fatigue. Ys has been more my speed as of late.
Then the wizards at Monolithsoft blessed us with the incomparable Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition, and I haven’t been this enraptured by a game since Tears of the Kingdom came out. It’s hitting every checkbox for me, and I can’t put it down. Here’s to at least 150 hours!
I’m currently playing through Atlas Fallen, which gives me Greedfall vibes in a weird way (I’ll explain it in the forthcoming review). On deck is Ys X: Nordics, I really like the Ys games (Lacrimosa of Dana in particular is great) so I’m excited to try this one. I’m also a huge Assassin’s Creed fan (while not disagreeing that the last few entries haven’t been the strongest) so I’m looking forward to getting some time with Assassin’s Creed: Shadows in the near future.
My son LOVES Mega Man (the classic ones especially) so I’ve been replaying through the classic ones a lot. I consider Mega Man 2 a top-five all time game, so I’m always happy to return to it. I still have my issues with a few (7 is rough, and 9 is incredibly unbalanced) but they’re all definitely worth playing to this day.
I jumped briefly into a number of games this month. I came across an ad in an old Nintendo Power for Survival Kids. Which is 2D Minecraft before there was Minecraft. The game is brutal. You WILL die over and over again trying to get to the end. But eventually you’ll learn how to craft your way through it, and make friends with a monkey along the way… even so, I suggest save states for this game in 2025.
I’ve been going hard on Rogue:Genesia, a bullet heaven by a solo developer backed by a Chinese dev. It’s in version 1.0 and there’s a ton of content, 8 different characters (so far) that all play VERY differently and any of them can absolutely break the game and turn into a walking nuke. Weapons, modifiers, stat cards, evolutions, challenge modes that unlock layers of meta-progression, an equipment system, internal achievements. Runs take anywhere from 5-30 minutes.
After beating Avowed, I finally got to my preorder of Donkey Kong Country Returns HD! I’m midway (I assume) into the Suikoden 1 HD Remaster, and I played a couple hours of Sonic Colors Ultimate, both for the first time seeing in any form. I usually play more titles but I have been busy or tired from work and planning a family vacation for early April, and will hit up some Retro shops since I’ll be in another state. I also built a new Standard (ranked casual) mono-white life gain deck in Magic the Gathering Arena to play on my phone during work breaks, or while casually watching something. The game just added Achievements and Titles that can be viewed under your profile name seen at the beginning of a matchup with someone.
I knocked out a good bunch of games off the backlog this month! After getting 100% on Kirby and the Forgotten Land, I tackled Journey to Sillius and StarTropics respectively. Sillius was difficult, but it was short enough to finish within a day or so. StarTropics was much longer, but the Zelda-like gameplay and structure were very engaging.
After what felt like ages, I finished Landstalker. It was a fairly reasonable game with one or two difficult puzzles to complete. This game made me appreciate Alundra even more, given that the latter game reused and improved on elements of the former. Thinking of it now, I might revisit Alundra and see if I can pinpoint some Landstalker easter eggs. Should be a fun time.
Next on the list is the Apollo Justice Ace Attorney Trilogy – a game that I borrowed from my local library. I’ve already completed Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney – the first game – ages ago; I’m more interested in the 3DS titles since I didn’t have a system to play those ones on. Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies has, so far, been an absolute romp. It’s chock-full of the classic humor and absurd logical leaps that define the series. I can’t wait to play the last title of the trilogy!
Monster Hunter Wilds post-game has just about reached its conclusion and it turns out it’s much shorter than many of its predecessors. Looking forward to future expansions!
I’ve also been mercilessly sucked back into Total War: Warhammer II, a game so inscrutably complex and downright nitpicky that it’s almost impossible to recommend unless you already love that sort of game. The plus side this time around is that my kid brother is joining me in a co-op campaign from across the sea. We’re teaming up as the Lizardmen, Gor-Rok and Tehenhauin out smashing Skaven together. It’s the reptilian buddy cop war game you never knew you needed.
Beyond that, I’m taking a little bit of a break from games. Trying to play too many at once can become hectic and stressful, at least for me. It’s further exacerbated by feelings of missing out and trying to keep up with everybody else, but let’s face it… if you’re not having fun, why bother? Fun is the whole point. Now get me back to my scaly takeover of the Old World.
And so ends March. What have you been playing recently? What did you finish? And what’s next on your backlog? Let us know in the comments below.
Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you all again next month! Same Pixel Time! Same Pixel Channel!
Ryan Cheddi – our friendly, neighbourhood caffeine addict – is a man of many talents: an engineer, a gaming historian, a fiction writer and a streamer. He is also a self-avowed Sonic the Hedgehog fan. You can check out his cool beans at his site – Games with Coffee – or find him on Bluesky as @gameswithcoffee, and Instagram as @games_with_coffee. He streams on Twitch, also as GamesWithCoffee.
