My Top 3 Games of 2025

 My top 10 games of 2025

 

I have put together my top 10 games for 2025.  Note that these are games that I have played for the first time in 2025, not necessarily games that were released in 2025.  With all the games that I already have, I got another 22 games plus expansions last year.  Some were gifts, some were purchased at the thrift stores, and some were new.

This was my lowest year for playing new games.  We didn’t get together and play games at all, and I did not manage to play any of the solo games that I still have unplayed.  I will need to put a lot more effort into getting some played this year.

 

The new games were: Absolute Emperor, Blood Bowl: Gutter Bowl, Disney Villainout: Treacherous Tides, Freakz!: Mutant Murder Machine, Frostgrave 2nd ed, Hairfoot Jousting, Lion Rampant – second edition, Marvel United – Spider-geddon, Men of Bronze, Ragnarok, Stargrave, Star Trek Away Missions, The Doomed, Unmatched – Battle of Legends – volume 3, Unmatched – Bruce Lee vs Muhammad Ali, Unmatched – The Witcher – Realms Fall, Unmatched – The Witcher – Silver & Steel, Unmatched Adventures – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Uno – Show Em No Mercy, Wars of the Republic, Xenos Rampant.

 

 

The ones I picked up not new were:

Illuminati Crime Lords ( which was one of my grail games)

 

 

A lot of these did not hit the table this year.  Some games from previous years were finally played.

 

Games that I played for the first time that did not make my list were:

3 – Arschmallows – It has a similar gameplay to an extended blind 31, with special powers on some of the cards.  It plays okay but was nothing special.

 

2 – Uno – Show Em No Mercy – Surprisingly fun for an Uno game.  With the stacking rules and the Take 10 and Miss a Turn cards, this one plays a lot faster.  If a player’s hand becomes larger than 25 cards, they are out for the round.  This would still be lower on the list if more games were played.

 

1 – Sorry! Sliders – A Crokinole variation using Sorry pawns with Rebound-like rollers in their base.  There are 4 game variations and 4 board set up variations.  It plays pretty fun.  This was the big hit of the year.

Books Read - September to December 2025

 Sept

The Men Who Would Be Kings: The Last Samurai Rebellion by Eric Wood and Daniel Mersey

How My Rescue Dog Rescued Me edited by David Gowriluk and Donna White

Codex Orks 8th edition by Games Workshop of Nottingham

Chapter Approved 2018 by Games Workshop of Nottingham

Odd Interlude by Dean Koontz

Caged by Jennifer Blackstream

Chapter Approved 2019 by Games Workshop of Nottingham

 

Oct

Codex Tyranids 8th edition by Games Workshop of Nottingham

Psychic Awakening: Phoenix Rising by Games Workshop of Nottingham 

Psychic Awakening: Faith & Fury by Games Workshop of Nottingham 

Betrayal by Jennifer Blackstream

Psychic Awakening: Blood of Baal by Games Workshop of Nottingham 

 

Nov

Psychic Awakening: Ritual of the Damned by Games Workshop of Nottingham

Psychic Awakening: The Greater Good by Games Workshop of Nottingham

Odd Apocalypse by Dean Koonz

Psychic Awakening: Saga of the Wolf by Games Workshop of Nottingham

Canadian Boomers by Frederick and Helga Ross

Psychic Awakenings: Engine War by Games Workshop of Nottingham

Psychic Awakenings: War of the Spider by Games Workshop of Nottingham

Worth Dying For by Lee Child

Thrall by Jennifer Blackstream

Warhammer: Triumph & Treachery by Jervis Johnson and Andy Clark

 

Dec

The Silver Bayonet: Britain – Bones of Albion by Joseph A McCullough

Marvel Universe Role Playing Game: Guide to the X-Men by Jim Krueger, Jeffery Simons, Evan Jones, Den Gelber

Marvel Universe Role Playing Game: Guide to the Hulk & the Avengers by Jim Krueger, Jeffery Simons, Evan Jones, Den Gelber

Eat, Drink, and be Murray by Andy Murray

Conviction by Jennifer Blackstream

Ravening Hordes the Warhammer Fantasy Battle Lists by Richard Halliwell with Brian Ansell

Intellivision 2025 - end of year overview

 The Intellivison Club games that I ordered back in 2023 finally showed up back in January.  Being so delayed, it kind of knocked back my momentum to complete the original 55.  I had only gotten a few games in 2024, and a few more in 2025.  I haven’t even gotten rid of the duplicate games that I have acquired in lots yet.

 

I was very happy with being able to play Time Pilot on the Intellivison.  It is one of my favorite arcade games, and it has been very well translated to the platform.  It was the reason that I bought the Club set.  Grail of the Gods is also fun, but I have not put in as much time on it.  I have not tried the Antarctic Tales: Enhanced Edition.

 

As well, on the Intellivision part of the AtariAge board, I played in the High Score Club for 2025.  Basically, they list a new game every few weeks, and you send in screen shots of your high scores.  It gave me a reason to play a bunch of games again.  Even though I don’t have all the games, and am certainly not the best at the ones I do have, I earned enough in participation points to be in the top 10 for the season.

 

I’ve ordered the first new Intellivision game by Atari – Akalabeth: World of Doom.  I received my shipping notice but it hasn’t arrived yet.  I was a big Ultima fan on the Apple – for both Ultima III and Ultima IV.  I am very excited to see how it plays on the Intellivision. 

 

Even though the Amica relaunch of the Intellivision games did not pan out, another retro relaunch has been announced.  The Sprint has 45 games preloaded on it and connects to the TV through an HDMI cable.  It also has disc controllers similar in design to the original ones, but wireless.

I did not order one yet, but it seems like some people are already getting their units.  Some people are upset that it does not have a slot to be able to play old cartridges, as well as the new homebrews, but it does has usb connections to allow you to load more games to play.

 

I am still missing 6 of the original 55 games.  I am missing Shark Shark, Bump ‘n’ Jump, Buzz Bomber, Kool Aid Man, Motocross, and Pinball.  Only Bump 'n' Jump and Kool Aid Man are not on the Flashback.  I am also missing 2 of the games from 1982 from other companies – Mousetrap from Coleco, and Dragonfire from Imagic.  I would like to get these 8 games by the end of next year.  I might also get some of the other games from 1983 from other companies.  I am not sure how many of the remaining 63 games needed to complete the original 125 I would chase down as some are quite expensive, and the 6 Aquarius games would need the computer keyboard expansion to be able to play.  I might try to get some more of the 96 games up to 1983.  I would only need another 26 games after the 8 I am actively chasing, but even a few of those are very pricey.

Figure Painting Total - November 2025

 Even though I haven’t played Star Trek Away Missions, I picked up a bunch of the expansions.  This is looking like it will be a very small year for painting.  I don’t foresee a large amount of spare time in December to crank out a bunch of figures.  I may have to try and get a few easy wins.  At least I have primed a bunch of figures for next year, so maybe I can get a jump on that.

 

 

Bought

Star Trek Away Missions – Sela – 5

Star Trek Away Missions – Gowron – 4

Star Trek Away Missions – Kirk – 4

Unmatched: Bruce Lee vs Muhammad Ali – 2

 

 

Painted

 

 

Nov total – figures bought 15, figures painted 0

Running total 2025 – figures bought 111, figures painted 2

Figured Painting Total - October 2025

 I had holidays for the last week of October and the first week of November.  While I did not get anything painted, I did assemble my Blood Bowl Gnome Treeman, and the Goblin team.  Then I primed both of them.  I also assembled the rest of my Black Site Studios/Don’t Look Back figures and was able to get them primed as well.  This way I am ready to paint when I can make the time.

I finally caved and picked up the Star Trek Away Missions game, and have ordered more of the team sets.  They are a bit larger scale, and are very small teams (4- 6 figures) so I hope to be likely to get them moved up the queue.

 

Bought

Star Trek Away Missions - 10

 

Painted

 

 

Oct total – figures bought 10, figures painted 0

Running total 2025 – figures bought 96, figures painted 2

Grail Game - Illuminati Crime Lords

 Crime Lords is a stand-alone Illuminati variant.  As the original Illuminati is one of my top ten favorite games, I am hopeful about this one.  I haven’t played it yet, but I added it to my grail list when I found out about it.

 

I finally picked up a copy for $12 US, plus double that for shipping.

 

It was supposed to be complete, and it is.  In fact, the 2 sheets of counters, and 2 sheets of money are all unpunched.

 

With the reprint of Illuminati, I kept hoping that they would reprint this as well, but they haven’t yet.  Now that I finally have one, I expect they will.

 

 

Shopping at the Sentry Box

 We did a road trip in August to Vancouver Island and  back for my niece’s wedding.  We drove straight there but took our time on the road back.

While coming back through Calgary, we made sure to stop in at The Sentry Box – a very large game store.  Their prices may not be low, but their selection is unmatched.  They often have a deep selection of older products that are still in stock. 

 

It is not complete.  I wasn’t able to fill everything from my want list, but I did find a lot that I have not been able  to get.  They did not have the Lion Rampant expansions The Crusader States, and A Viking in the Sun (not published by Osprey but rather the University of Edinburgh).  I did get The Last Samurai Rebellion expansion for the Men Who Would be Kings.

 

They had a bunch of forces for Silver Bayonet.  I was very tempted, but ended up spending my budget elsewhere.  I also looked at the Hairfoot Jousting figures and, if they had had all six from either faction, or even all twelve from both, I probably would have bought them. 

 

They had no Dust Tactics, Batman Miniatures, or DC Universe figures.  These were a long shot though.  I did not find any model kits in the time I had to look.  While they did have some older video game systems, they did not have any Intellivision at all.  I also did not find any of the Fallout Factions sets, else that would have probably made my stack.

 

 

I was hoping to pick up a bunch of older codices for Warhammer 40,000.  I did find the eighth edition Ork codex for $20, as well as five books in the Psychic Awakening campaign for $10 each.  Out of the nine books in the campaign, I previously only had the first book.  The remining three books I have since picked up online.

This has given me a bit of a boost towards filling in some gaps in my 40K editions.  I have picked up the Chapter Approved 2018, and 2019 editions, as well as the eighth and ninth editions of the Tyranid codex from Facebook Marketplace.  I will keep an eye out locally and try to fill in more gaps, especially as the new edition drops next year.

 

I bought the Goblins team for Blood Bowl.  This has been scarce to find.  With the Orc team on my painting table, I figured that the Goblins could be painted concurrently.  I grabbed the new Gnome Treeman as well.  I am tempted by the idea of putting together the stunty teams for a league, if I can out together the time.

I finished up with the Warriors 2 and Wizards 2 sets for Frostgrave.  These are the female characters in very multipart sets.  No one locally carries them and they are tough to find online.

All together I spent just a bit over $300 dollars in a bit over two hours.  It made a very happy little game stack.