20th January 2026, 7:40 PM
As for a few of the other games of 2025 that I bought in 2025 but didn't get around to playing until now...
Kirby Air Riders - So recently I played a few hours of this game, and... eh. It's good I guess, a bit better than the first one, but I'm sorry, I do not understand why this got a lot of reviews saying it's better than Mario Kart World. So for context, looking at my collection spreadsheet, I have the original Kirby Air Ride at a C- grade. The tracks and core gameplay were good, but City Trial being '5 minutes to build up to one minigame' wasn't great and there was basically no single player at all. The one button design also was too simplified for its own good.
This sequel improves on the game all around, and I'd probably give it a B or B- now. The addition of online play adds great replayability, and having a single player campaign to go through is also welcome. It's not the longest campaign but it's much better than nothing. The controls are similar, but a second button for special attacks has been added, which is nice. The graphics are fantastic now, this game really shows off what the Switch 2 can do. The new tracks are very flashy. Also the board full of achievements returns, but with some improvements making it work better than it did before. I've never cared about achievements, though, and this is no exception, so whatever, it doesn't matter either way. Those things are good. The 18 tracks are all good also, and the new floating island you do City Trial on is solid, though it's disappointing that the original City Trial map isn't in this game given that basically everything else from the original game is.
However, the game still doesn't have cups, tournaments, or any of that stuff that most racing games have; it's single race, City Trial, or the campaign only, which is pretty disappointing. I do not understand why Sakurai doesn't care about a multi-race points championship mode but the game still feels lacking for not having it. It really drags down the single player and makes this a game primarily focused on first the short campaign and then just online play. But well, at least it has that online play, that does add a lot versus the Gamecube original. (Yes, I remember that the GC game had LAN play. No, I've never tried it, or owned a GC modem.)
Also, City Trial and the single player campaign also put the minigames in a very prominent spot. The single player has you riding along a straight path, and you choose from up to 3 things, with three lanes which each send you to a different activity. A lot of those activities are minigames, and the minigames are quite mixed in quality. Some minigames are actually impossible with some of the vehicles, too -- if you aren't on one which can float around the 'fall through rings' one is literally impossible, for instance. In single player this is okay so long as you remember which vehicles are good in which minigames -- the game doesn't really tell you this, you just need to know -- because you can choose your vehicle before each race, but in online this is sometimes an issue; you do choose from 4 tasks but in some situations you can be forced into a minigame you can't do anything in. But even if you have the right vehicle, why is so much of this game about the often-forgettable minigames? Shouldn't the main point be about races? But in the single player mode, actual full races are infrequent. And the most popular online mode is City Trial, where you just drive around randomly for 5 minutes getting powerups and then play a minigame. It's weird, what is this game about? Racing, or minigames and random driving around? I know that it is both, but the balance is a bit off in favor of the much less interesting part of that, the minigames. Sakurai's a genius but his tastes are weird and often don't really line up with mine. (For another example of this, his love for timed modes. I'm sorry but I have always hated the timed modes in Smash and never had any interest in playing that stuff, not in Melee or anywhere else.)
Also, I would like to quickly just comment that this game has 9 new tracks and 9 old ones, plus it also has Top Ride tracks in each setting, and also Skyah. That's a pretty solid amount of content. Meanwhile, Mario Kart World has 30 tracks plus a huge open world much much larger than Kirby Air Riders', and a lot of people were complaining that it doesn't have enough content because... because what, they were so spoiled by the ridiculous amount of tracks in the MK8 Switch version Season Passes and such that a "mere" 30 isn't enough? Don't be absurd, it's a lot! Like, yes, I want DLC for Mario Kart World. I want Nintendo to announce more content for the game. But the game already has a lot in it, there is no question about that. It's got more than Kirby, certainly. But anyway.
Sonic Crossworlds - This one I also only played for an hour or two so I can't say all that much, except... I don't get it, a lot of outlets gave this higher scores than MKW also? How? It feels so much lower budget! It's not even close, MKW has more and better across the board than anything I've seen in this game. I definitely haven't seen all the content here yet, I've only played a few cups, so I'm not going to grade it for sure, but my first impression is 'decent B game I guess, or maybe even C+'. How did IGN give this a 9 but MKW an 8.2? The items seem harder to learn than MK items -- mushroom for speed and shell for attack and such just make sense, but... blue creature for speed? Erm, I don't see the connection, that is not obvious. Also, the CrossWorlds thing. So, in this game, you start out on one track, but at some point it branches, and the person in first chooses which other course to go to. Then everyone else must go to that track. So, only the person in the lead at one specific spot actually ever chooses which other course to go to, and because you see multiple ones on each race it makes all of the tracks of each cup kind of blend together, you know? You see the same things multiple times as you warp around in "different" races... I don't know, I get what they were going for but I don't love it.
Also, I know a lot of people disagree with me on this but I like the open world and the interconnected nature of the MKW tracks. You don't NEED an open world, but that does mean that this game only does one thing, races on circuits. Those circuits are long and do have some long straight-ahead stretches, but that is what you get. There is no analog here for MKW's Knockout Tour and its straight-line point to point driving, and that is the thing I've played the most in that game by far.
So yeah, I will play some more Sonic CrossWorlds, but my first impression is that Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is still the best of Sega's attempts at Mario Kart. I like that Sega finally got to making Mario Kart games with Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing and its sequels like this game, but they aren't usually at the quality of Nintendo's efforts.
Hades II (Nintendo Switch 2 Edition) - This game is an overhead-ish action-RPG. The first Hades was hugely popular, but I wasn't sure if I would like it because of its run-based design, so I didn't get it. Well, I did get it for Xbox eventually, but still haven't played it. I decided to get Hades II for Switch 2 though and tried it a bit, and... well, it's another mixed bag. On the one hand the game has great graphics and art design and a decent, though simple, story. The combat feels good, also, with responsive controls. However, when compared to Diablo IV, this game is much more restrictive -- you are one character, Melinoe, and she has basically one combat style. You can switch weapons, and each one gives you a different type of attack, but you will always need to be very careful to try to avoid damage, because healing is difficult in this game. This is no Diablo or Guild Wars where you heal up after fights automatically, quite the opposite healing within each run is limited. This makes the game challenging and tense, sure, and it is fun to play, but I'd rather
Also, exploration here is minimal. You don't run around environments in this game; instead, each room is a small, generally one screen plus a bit, combat arena. Kill all the monsters in the area, go through a gate to a new room, repeat. You never explore areas beyond the semi-random choices of which gates to go through. You cannot go back to the previous room once you've gone through a door and it is all at least semi randomly generated, so while you do have choice -- little icons on the gates give you a hint at the contents of the area -- you don't have much choice and it doesn't feel like it means anything. As someone who loves exploration in games this is a huge loss that really takes me out of the game, I strongly prefer a game where you explore a persistent map over this kind of run-based randomness.
Overall, this game is good but as I suspected isn't really my thing, primarily because of its run-based randomness and the harsh penalty you take for taking damage. I am not good enough at games to want to deal with that kind of tension all the time, I think... still, it's certainly a solid game, B at least.
The last major title from 2025 that I got last year but haven't tried is Avowed. I still haven't played that one though, maybe soon.
Overall, if I was adding these three games to the list... they're below all six of them.
7. Kirby Air Riders
8. Hades II
9. Sonic CrossWorlds
Without having played it yet my guess for Avowed is above Sonic but below Hades II, but perhaps it could go into 8th, not sure.
Kirby Air Riders - So recently I played a few hours of this game, and... eh. It's good I guess, a bit better than the first one, but I'm sorry, I do not understand why this got a lot of reviews saying it's better than Mario Kart World. So for context, looking at my collection spreadsheet, I have the original Kirby Air Ride at a C- grade. The tracks and core gameplay were good, but City Trial being '5 minutes to build up to one minigame' wasn't great and there was basically no single player at all. The one button design also was too simplified for its own good.
This sequel improves on the game all around, and I'd probably give it a B or B- now. The addition of online play adds great replayability, and having a single player campaign to go through is also welcome. It's not the longest campaign but it's much better than nothing. The controls are similar, but a second button for special attacks has been added, which is nice. The graphics are fantastic now, this game really shows off what the Switch 2 can do. The new tracks are very flashy. Also the board full of achievements returns, but with some improvements making it work better than it did before. I've never cared about achievements, though, and this is no exception, so whatever, it doesn't matter either way. Those things are good. The 18 tracks are all good also, and the new floating island you do City Trial on is solid, though it's disappointing that the original City Trial map isn't in this game given that basically everything else from the original game is.
However, the game still doesn't have cups, tournaments, or any of that stuff that most racing games have; it's single race, City Trial, or the campaign only, which is pretty disappointing. I do not understand why Sakurai doesn't care about a multi-race points championship mode but the game still feels lacking for not having it. It really drags down the single player and makes this a game primarily focused on first the short campaign and then just online play. But well, at least it has that online play, that does add a lot versus the Gamecube original. (Yes, I remember that the GC game had LAN play. No, I've never tried it, or owned a GC modem.)
Also, City Trial and the single player campaign also put the minigames in a very prominent spot. The single player has you riding along a straight path, and you choose from up to 3 things, with three lanes which each send you to a different activity. A lot of those activities are minigames, and the minigames are quite mixed in quality. Some minigames are actually impossible with some of the vehicles, too -- if you aren't on one which can float around the 'fall through rings' one is literally impossible, for instance. In single player this is okay so long as you remember which vehicles are good in which minigames -- the game doesn't really tell you this, you just need to know -- because you can choose your vehicle before each race, but in online this is sometimes an issue; you do choose from 4 tasks but in some situations you can be forced into a minigame you can't do anything in. But even if you have the right vehicle, why is so much of this game about the often-forgettable minigames? Shouldn't the main point be about races? But in the single player mode, actual full races are infrequent. And the most popular online mode is City Trial, where you just drive around randomly for 5 minutes getting powerups and then play a minigame. It's weird, what is this game about? Racing, or minigames and random driving around? I know that it is both, but the balance is a bit off in favor of the much less interesting part of that, the minigames. Sakurai's a genius but his tastes are weird and often don't really line up with mine. (For another example of this, his love for timed modes. I'm sorry but I have always hated the timed modes in Smash and never had any interest in playing that stuff, not in Melee or anywhere else.)
Also, I would like to quickly just comment that this game has 9 new tracks and 9 old ones, plus it also has Top Ride tracks in each setting, and also Skyah. That's a pretty solid amount of content. Meanwhile, Mario Kart World has 30 tracks plus a huge open world much much larger than Kirby Air Riders', and a lot of people were complaining that it doesn't have enough content because... because what, they were so spoiled by the ridiculous amount of tracks in the MK8 Switch version Season Passes and such that a "mere" 30 isn't enough? Don't be absurd, it's a lot! Like, yes, I want DLC for Mario Kart World. I want Nintendo to announce more content for the game. But the game already has a lot in it, there is no question about that. It's got more than Kirby, certainly. But anyway.
Sonic Crossworlds - This one I also only played for an hour or two so I can't say all that much, except... I don't get it, a lot of outlets gave this higher scores than MKW also? How? It feels so much lower budget! It's not even close, MKW has more and better across the board than anything I've seen in this game. I definitely haven't seen all the content here yet, I've only played a few cups, so I'm not going to grade it for sure, but my first impression is 'decent B game I guess, or maybe even C+'. How did IGN give this a 9 but MKW an 8.2? The items seem harder to learn than MK items -- mushroom for speed and shell for attack and such just make sense, but... blue creature for speed? Erm, I don't see the connection, that is not obvious. Also, the CrossWorlds thing. So, in this game, you start out on one track, but at some point it branches, and the person in first chooses which other course to go to. Then everyone else must go to that track. So, only the person in the lead at one specific spot actually ever chooses which other course to go to, and because you see multiple ones on each race it makes all of the tracks of each cup kind of blend together, you know? You see the same things multiple times as you warp around in "different" races... I don't know, I get what they were going for but I don't love it.
Also, I know a lot of people disagree with me on this but I like the open world and the interconnected nature of the MKW tracks. You don't NEED an open world, but that does mean that this game only does one thing, races on circuits. Those circuits are long and do have some long straight-ahead stretches, but that is what you get. There is no analog here for MKW's Knockout Tour and its straight-line point to point driving, and that is the thing I've played the most in that game by far.
So yeah, I will play some more Sonic CrossWorlds, but my first impression is that Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is still the best of Sega's attempts at Mario Kart. I like that Sega finally got to making Mario Kart games with Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing and its sequels like this game, but they aren't usually at the quality of Nintendo's efforts.
Hades II (Nintendo Switch 2 Edition) - This game is an overhead-ish action-RPG. The first Hades was hugely popular, but I wasn't sure if I would like it because of its run-based design, so I didn't get it. Well, I did get it for Xbox eventually, but still haven't played it. I decided to get Hades II for Switch 2 though and tried it a bit, and... well, it's another mixed bag. On the one hand the game has great graphics and art design and a decent, though simple, story. The combat feels good, also, with responsive controls. However, when compared to Diablo IV, this game is much more restrictive -- you are one character, Melinoe, and she has basically one combat style. You can switch weapons, and each one gives you a different type of attack, but you will always need to be very careful to try to avoid damage, because healing is difficult in this game. This is no Diablo or Guild Wars where you heal up after fights automatically, quite the opposite healing within each run is limited. This makes the game challenging and tense, sure, and it is fun to play, but I'd rather
Also, exploration here is minimal. You don't run around environments in this game; instead, each room is a small, generally one screen plus a bit, combat arena. Kill all the monsters in the area, go through a gate to a new room, repeat. You never explore areas beyond the semi-random choices of which gates to go through. You cannot go back to the previous room once you've gone through a door and it is all at least semi randomly generated, so while you do have choice -- little icons on the gates give you a hint at the contents of the area -- you don't have much choice and it doesn't feel like it means anything. As someone who loves exploration in games this is a huge loss that really takes me out of the game, I strongly prefer a game where you explore a persistent map over this kind of run-based randomness.
Overall, this game is good but as I suspected isn't really my thing, primarily because of its run-based randomness and the harsh penalty you take for taking damage. I am not good enough at games to want to deal with that kind of tension all the time, I think... still, it's certainly a solid game, B at least.
The last major title from 2025 that I got last year but haven't tried is Avowed. I still haven't played that one though, maybe soon.
Overall, if I was adding these three games to the list... they're below all six of them.
7. Kirby Air Riders
8. Hades II
9. Sonic CrossWorlds
Without having played it yet my guess for Avowed is above Sonic but below Hades II, but perhaps it could go into 8th, not sure.
![[Image: logo_bos_79x76.jpg]](https://www.tendocity.net/logo_bos_79x76.jpg){kind=logo}