52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

[Cartagia]

Wrapped up the Robocop: Rogue City Unfinished Business expansion.  More of the same linear corridor shooter.  Fills in some more holes in Robocop lore, which is cool, but the voice acting and dialogue is abysmal.  Thankfully, I only payed about $18 for the whole experience or I would be livid.

[dhaabi]

32. Silent Hill: Orphan || Mobile || 08.30.2026



After playing the latest franchise entry, I decided I'd like to at least try out the remaining Silent Hill titles that I hadn't played yet, should the means to do so be relatively easy. So for about a year, I've had some mobile games and emulator installed on my device. I'm only just now getting around to trying them out, and I started with Silent Hill: Orphan.

At the game's beginning, players assume the role of Ben as he finds himself seemingly alone in the orphanage he grew up in. And while his memory is foggy, it doesn't take long for it to be explained that Ben has returned to the site thirty years later after a traumatic event where all but three people, himself included, died. Despite the game's short length, it's actually divided into three sections with a different protagonist for each: Ben, Moon, and Karen. Not much is really learned about each character during their individual sections, something that's perhaps influenced by the game's lack of psychological horror. Such themes are present to a degree but aren't conveyed well, so players are ultimately left with uninspired writing as they wander throughout a relatively spooky environment. Of course, none of the protagonists are actually alone as threats appears alongside some entity that series veterans will be familiar with who directly communicates with each character through their thoughts, guiding them in some way. To be upfront, the game's writing is rather subpar. Notes to be discovered and commentary from the characters themselves would have improved the story experience, as what little is learned is strictly told to the player without much to think about critically.

Given the significant limitations that come with being designed for a mobile platform at this time, Silent Hill: Orphan is not a particularly groundbreaking experience nor adheres to the expected survival horror genre. Instead, what's presented is a point-and-click horror adventure. Players are required to navigate through corridors and rooms from a first-person point-of-view, and despite the simple map layouts spread across three floors, it's easy to lose one's sense of direction even though a compass tool remains at the corner-screen. Environmental details and items in each room can be clicked on to gain insight about them, and the protagonist will collect some to use elsewhere. With that said, there are puzzles to solve that serve their purpose well enough. Solving them requires a considerable amount of meandering throughout the game's limited world, though, so I actually referenced a guide for a majority of my playthrough since simply controlling the game and player locomotion is rather tedious and cumbersome.

During the beginning section, the game plays similarly to its console counterparts: explore an environment that's creepy on its own with little or no dangers until something ultimately triggers the horrors waiting to torment the protagonist. While an outside environment is never shown or hinted at, it's assumed that players begin this adventure within the Fog World. In time, however, a gateway that introduces the player-character to the Otherworld becomes available, allowing players to freely travel to and from each environment instead of being bound to one specific setting as the game dictates. To my surprise, Silent Hill: Orphan becomes noticeably better once this point of the game is reached, though this is, of course, with tempered expectations. During exploration, some rooms are immersed in total darkness that require a light to be used, and panning across the single-screen room is an active action that reveals and obscures environmental details. Unfortunately, though, there is seldom anything of interest in these rooms, but that the mechanic exists at all is appreciated. Of course, enemies become an active threat throughout the Otherworld, and players aren't left defenseless. To my surprise, a rudimentary combat system has been implemented. Monsters can be felled with the game's single ranged weapon, and defeating them quick enough is necessary to avoid death. It's a simple system that feels tacked on in some ways, especially since health and bullets are more-or-less a finite resource while there's only one type of enemy.

Of course, it's easy to recognize the game's shortcomings, like with the game's writing or combat mentioned above. Some aspects are less egregious than others, but others are particularly bad or questionable. Perhaps the worst offender is the game's severe lack of music and sound. They're both used so sparingly that it's as if they're not used at all. Short melodies may play sporadically once a certain action or advancement is made, but they're abrupt and leave the player in total silence just as quickly as they came. This issue also extends to simple sound effects too. As a result, players left navigating an environment that's difficult to navigate despite its simple layout without any sort of ambiance to reinforce tension, dread, anxiety, or any feeling. Meanwhile, the other issue worth noting are the player's actions. When engaging with the environment, players have three options: inspect and touch which are straightforward, but also a third function with dual purpose that is talk to or taste. The third function is an action that serves no required purpose to progress the game, and I only noticed one piece of unique dialogue that triggers when using the action in a scenario that defaults to talk to. Why it exists at all, I'm unsure.

But in spite of the Silent Hill: Orphan's issues, it's ultimately a game that could be a much worse adaptation from console to mobile considering its time of release. While I originally intended for my playthrough to be experienced on mobile just as the game was designed for, it did not take long for me to realize that such a setup was an awful experience and shifted to PC where it was a certainly more tolerable after setting up adequate key bindings. Nevertheless, it's a game that's far from being a title worth playing, and it only comes recommended for fans of the franchise who are curious about it.

[bikingjahuty]

Well, this isn't the grand, sprawling adventure experience I was hoping for to commemorate my 52nd game beat this year, but seeing how I've been in a major rut with games for about a month, it was either something I could just pick up and play or nothing. I also regret picking this game about a month too early; this would have been a great game to play in October. But anyhow, with my life going a million miles an hour still, I'll take what I can get as far as playing games go. So yeah, here's game #52!


52. Zombies Ate My Neighbors (Switch)

One of my best friends growing up was really into horror from an early age. Even as early as like 1st grade, he'd love talking about cemeteries, zombies, vampires, and various other horror tropes. It was around 3rd grade or so, he started talking about a game he got on his Super Nintendo called Zombies Ate My Neighbors and would not shut the hell up about it for months. It was his absolute obsession to the point where he started creating his own custom maps, weapons, and monsters for his fantasy Zombies At My Neighbors sequel he wished he could make. One Friday evening, I too got to play Zombies at his house to see what all the fuss was about, and well, I thought it was pretty cool, but nothing remotely I'd have obsessed over like my friend. My attitude has pretty much remained the same over 30 years later.


For a mid 90s top down shooter, Zombies At My Neighbors has a lot going for it, however it unfortunately does show its age these days, quite a bit actually. There is no questions that the most aged aspect of Zombies is its gameplay. While the core controls of aiming, shooting, and moving can feel a bit clunky and inaccurate more times than I'd have liked, what really makes this game a slog in our current year is its repetitive gameplay and its crap level design which just gets worse and worse the further into the game you get. Every level in Zombies Ate My Neighbors has the same objective; rescue the surviving humans before zombies or monsters kill them, rinse and repeat. While you do get to kill these horror themed foes while doing all this with an impressive, albeit mostly useless arsenal of weapons, by the tme you get in the late teens or early 20s in terms of levels, you'll pretty much be over it for the most part. You'll also have seen mostly everything at this point minus a few novelty stages that become way more annoying than fun. THis brings me to my other major grievance with Zombies Ate My Neighbors.


You'd expect any video game to become more challenging the further into you get. However, the way a game accomplishes this can greatly impact whether a game is still fun or a complete chore. Zombies absolutely falls into the latter quality. The gameplay and controls do not lend themselves well to the often cramped or difficult to navigate mazes you often encounter in later levels. Meanwhile, the game throws an obscene amount of enemies at you which make it nearly assured you will die before you discover where that last surviver is hiding or to get a key you need to each them. Add to that, barely any invincibility frames between taking damage and you're mostly in for a crappy time in the later third of Zombies At My Neighbors.


Luckily, this game's presentation really helps carry it and prevents it from being another poorly aged retro game. By far, the visuals in Zombies At My Neighbors is its strongest asset, and unlike the game's gameplay, it actually did age pretty damn well. There is an impressive variety of enemies, stage themes, special stages and bosses, weapon effects, and generally fn animations where it's hard not to be charmed by this SNES release. Sure, things are reused and recycled a lot in Zombies, but at least for me the visuals were the thing that remained appealing the most as I played through it. Zombies Ate My Neighbors borrows heavily from the B horror films of the 30s, 40s, and 50s, particularly that last decade. The names of all stages all intentionally sound like 1950s B movies and are presented in a self aware fashion as well. The end result is an incredibility charming game that will have you smiling throughout...at least when you're not on the verge of rage quitting due to actually playing this game.


The audio is also really good. It also borrows greatly from old sounding B movies and fits the overall look and feel of the game pretty damn well. The major issues with the game's OST is the fact that there just aren't that many tracks. Zombies At My Neighbors would have benefited significantly from just a handful more of songs, but for what it does have, it's still pretty rockin. The sound effects of weapons and monsters also sonds pretty good, although like the music, they cna be a little on the repetitive side at the end of the day.


As a quick, little distraction, Zombies At My Neighbors is a pretty good game. I did find myself enjoying the game often, however it's primary issues discussed earlier really kept me from going, "wow, what an amazing, underappreciated SNES game!" If anything, I feel like Zombies At My Neighbors is a tad overrated as one of those "must play" gems on the console. I really wish the gameplay had been refined a little more, because if it had, I feel like we'd be having a very different conversation about the quality of this title. Instead, not even my childhood nostalgia and my love of horror tropes in games could help me like this game than barely a smidge over the Just Okay mark. (8/31/26) [31/50]

[realpoketendonl]

22. Freedom Planet 2

I beat the original Freedom Planet over eight years ago, and I remember liking it. So I was happy to jump into Freedom Planet 2. And I really enjoyed it! The game has four playable characters and I only did a playthrough as Lilac thus far, but from what I understand the levels are largely the same between the characters, so I'm going to count this playthrough as beating it.

The Freedom Planet games are blatantly inspired by the 2D Sonic the Hedgehog games. But honestly? I think that Freedom Planet surpasses Sonic in nearly every way. I think it primarily comes down to the expanded movesets. In addition to running fast, the characters have multiple attacks, a dodge move, and character specific moves (in Lilac's case: a damaging double jump and a damaging boost through the air). These make fighting bosses so much more fun for me. The fact the characters have a simple standard health bar helps too.

The levels are wonderfully designed. I never really clicked with 2D Sonic level design. I don't know why, I just didn't. But these levels totally work for me. I really enjoy moving through these. The game is never frustrating either, at most you might get a tiny bit lost sometimes but if you move around a little and try a random direction you'll usually get out soon enough. The difficulty is on a good level for me too: it's not exactly hard if you ask me, but it's still challenging enough to be fun.

Freedom Planet 2 is great, and I highly recommend it. Even if you don't like 2D Sonic that much, if you enjoy other 2D platformers, I think you may still find a lot to like here.

[ssj4yamgeta]

12: Injustice: Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition (PS4)

I've been falling behind on completions for this challenge, so I'm going through a couple quick games to boost my numbers while I work my way through Nioh and Dragon's Dogma. Injustice is a fun DC universe fighting game made by the same guys who make the Mortal Kombat series. It's very obvious without even reading the box because the game plays like a Mortal Kombat game minus the gore and fatalities. It has both a solid Arcade mode with lots of routes/options and a robust story mode that lasts 4-5 hours, so there's plenty of single player content without even getting into STAR Labs. The character designs are still visually appealing, as they decided to go with stylized graphics instead of straight-up realism. There's also a pleasantly large roster of 30 characters, all of whom are unlocked from the start. The game does have a couple of big flaws, though. First, the game is very unfriendly to new players. It's even harder to pull off combos here than it is in Mortal Kombat. I'm not claiming to be great at fighting games or anything, but just pulling off a 3-hit combo was really pushing my limits with most of the characters. The sole exception was Batman, who felt tailor-made to be the first character you're supposed to play. Second, a lot of attacks require either very precise timing or holding a direction on the D-pad for a long time before pressing a button, which makes combat feel spongy and unresponsive. Third, the game's story mode follows the modern trend of making you play most of the characters on the roster to beat it. I really wish fighting games would go back to individual story routes for each character, because it gets really aggravating when you're almost at the end and the game forces you to use a character you don't jive with. It also interferes with the player's ability to learn movesets when their character is constantly being switched. Despite all of this, the game is really fun, and I'm glad I bought it.

Rating: 7/10 (Great)

Completed:

Tomb Raider II (Evercade)
Tomb Raider III (Evercade)
Mafia: The Old Country (PS5)
Gundam Breaker 4 (PS5)
Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection (PS5)
Resident Evil: Code Veronica X (Gamecube)
Final Fantasy IV Advance (GBA)
Dragon Ball FighterZ (XBOX One)
Virtua Fighter 2 (Genesis)
Street Fighter 2: Special Champion Edition (Genesis)
Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation Remastered (PS4)
Injustice: Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition (PS4)

In Progress:

Nioh (PS4)
Farmagia (Switch)
Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen (PS4)

[kashell]

61. Shovel Knight - Plague of Shadows

This was more fun than the original campaign, but not without its issues. Plague Knight is obviously not as sturdy or mobile as Shovel Knight - at least not initially. As the upgrades start pouring in, things get a lot more fun. The number of combinations for the bombs, their detonations, etc. is worthy of praise. Still, his overall movement and design makes bad stages (Propeller Knight, the final areas) even worse. Unless there was some combination of tools I didn't explore, I had the worst time getting through these last stages of the game. I ended up not bothering with collecting the remaining green coins because I wanted things to be done with. I'm glad I played this but I won't be replaying it.

[kamikazekeeg]

34 - Sonic Racing: Crossworlds (PS5 2026) - BEAT - Been in an arcade racer mood with my hyper level for that Star Wars Racing game that is coming up next month.  I wasn't super amped by what I saw with Mario Kart World, so decided to go for Sonic Racing instead.  I played the demo back before it released and didn't love it, but thought I'd give it another shot and it's pretty fun.  I think this is as close to a return to Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed that we'll get that isn't a sequel to that lol This one isn't as good as that as it's generally a pretty straightforward racing game, there's only Grand Prix modes and that's kinda it for content outside of multiplayer and time trials and such. 

The racing is solid, it's about all you expect from a kart racer, though they added the gadget system which really lets you choose what your playstyle is which is neat.  The tracks are fun, I like that the main 23 racers can have light interactions at the start of the grand prix, though they could've done more.

My negatives about the game aren't terrible, but they half-assed the extra characters, they don't get voice work at all, which makes them feel weird as you feel like are getting a lesser experience when you play as Sonic the Werehog or Miku or the Ninja Turtles (I did grab the season pass for the maps mostly).  There's distinct audio issues on the PS5 version, though I hear it's on other versions, where the music can sound low quality, especially noticeable in the Jukebox, and the audio has mixing issues ingame where it seems like effects cause the music to dip and when such a big factor of the game revolves around music, it's such a weird oversight.  These don't actively harm the game, but it feels like things that shouldn't be an issue.  I also question earning tickets as there's kind of a lot to unlock with everything, and you don't earn a lot with challenges and grand prix wins so I'm curious if there is a good way to farm things, because to unlock everything has to require over like 10,000 tickets and when grand prix wins barely give you a couple hundred at most, the grind could be absurd.

Also the game doesn't have the song "Super Sonic Racing" from Sonic R, which immediately gives the game a large point loss and no the one...Oceanview or whatever that track is that has the tune mixed into it doesn't count, I need the original Super Sonic Racing song in this game now lol.  Apparently it was found in the files early on, but got removed, so not sure what is going.  Also they didn't put in other stuff that would make sense to add like stuff from Sonic Frontiers (Just a weaker remix of...Unbreakable I think for the Frontiers track) and really others that should be added as Sonic's music over the years is too good to not have here.

Overall, it's fun, I went through Normal and Sonic Speed Grand Prix's, I'm working on Super Sonic Speed Grand Prix's now, and then there's the mirror mode grand prix, along with red star rings to get in every map that I'm nearly done with as I want to complete all the main proper stuff along with unlocking all the main body parts for the customizable cars.

[kashell]

62. Shovel Knight - Specter of Torment

I can't remember the last time I fluctuated between "this is awesome!" and "I'm about to throw my Switch out the window!" So far, this has been my favorite of the campaigns but man. The controls for this one were finicky. The idea was there; I see what the developers were going for. But it didn't always work because of how damn precise a lot of the stages were. As expected Propeller Knight's stage was a nightmare to get through. If anything, this one had the most interesting story. It was cool to see the origins behind the Order, the Black Knight, and Riese. I'll also say that this game had the best collectables. Learning new dark arts was fun since most of them had their usefulness.

[marvelvscapcom2]

up "wow, what an amazing, underappreciated SNES game!" If anything, I feel like Zombies At My Neighbors is a tad overrated as one of those "must play" gems on the console. I really wish the gameplay had been refined a little more, because if it had, I feel like we'd be having a very different conversation about the quality of this title. Instead, not even my childhood nostalgia and my love of horror tropes in games could help me like this game than barely a smidge over the Just Okay mark. (8/31/26) [31/50]

Massively agree. I mean. I liked it.  But the way people talk about it you'd swear it was the best man at their wedding. It's neat but boy is this one overhyped in retro spaces lol.  My Uncle puts this over anything.

I do hear it's literally 5x better in co-op with a friend though.  Did you experience it that way at all? I never did but it does seem it lends itself that way. Kinda like left 4 dead.  Good solo. Amazing with a friend.