52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

[kashell]

31. SaGa Frontier Remastered - Fuse/Asellus

*victory music plays* 150 platinum trophies! (According to the PSN website I have 149, but my PlayStation account and my PlayStation app on my phone says 150 so we're going with that.) I'm glad I chose such a celebrated and favorite game to get the trophy. Most folks know I adore this game, and it's baffling that I continue to learn new things about it with each playthrough. The last trophy I needed wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be, but that might have been because I overprepared. But, that's better than the alternative. If there's one thing that this series has taught me it's that there is no "just prepared enough" middle ground. You're either overprepared or underprepared. Thus, the gauntlet of final bosses went by without a hitch. I got to learn more about Asellus, too. Final party of parties was: Fuse, Gen, Liza, Lute, and Blue.

[kashell]

32. SaGa Frontier Remastered - Fuse/Blue

I mean...I simply had to see what my favorite MC's campaign looked like with Fuse. Right? Right. Okay for real this time. I think I'm done with the Remaster for a good while.

[kashell]

33. SaGa Frontier Remastered - Fuse/Lute

34. SaGa Frontier Remastered - Fuse/Red

I guess I'm in it to win it. These are much, much shorter than I thought they'd be. So, despite getting everything in terms of trophies, I still want to see other things I haven't seen before.

[dhaabi]

*victory music plays* 150 platinum trophies! (According to the PSN website I have 149, but my PlayStation account and my PlayStation app on my phone says 150 so we're going with that.)

From my understanding, the likely issue is that, whether intentionally or not, one of your game trophy data is set to be hidden. I found a thorough series of steps to reverse that action, because apparently it's different to accomplish the task when using different consoles, and it may be required to use a specific console to reverse the action.

[Cartagia]

Speaking of Platinum trophies, I just got it for Prince of Persia: The Last Crown.  I hadn't intended to, but I made it to the last boss and I only had like 4 left and they were all pretty easy.  Great game.  Terrific map, great movement, combat was mostly solid (but it sometimes had issues getting your character to face the right direction).  Just had a lot fun with this.

[supremeusername]

17. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories | 2006 | PlayStation 2 | 3/27:



     It's felt like forever since I last played a GTA game, especially one from the PS2-era. The 'Stories' games were seen as an afterthought by a younger me because I had no idea what they were supposed to be. I thought they were extra challenges or bonus missions to their original games; I never knew Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories were full-blown GTA games! Since I'm more familiar with GTA III, I wanted to trudge through Liberty City Stories first and save the other one for later in the year.

     LCS is pretty much a 'GTA III Deluxe', with more extracurricular content than the original and some gameplay features borrowed from the later PS2 titles -- such as motorcycles, drive-by shootings, and a less restrictive player-controlled camera. In terms of presentation however, Liberty City Stories is somehow weaker than its father game. I've run across multiple weird glitches: like having one of my allies in one mission shoot at me for no explained reason and having to use the RPG to blow up an enemy stuck in a wall -- the kind of glitches I would never come across in GTA III. Maybe it's just my nostalgia or I'm just unlucky, I don't know. This game also runs very poorly on original hardware, like it was made for the PSP in mind and was ported over to the PS2 last minute. It's like whatever framework they borrowed from the original GTA III to build on with the PSP version, to then port later to the PlayStation 2 has made it more unstable.

     I can see it with the way the NPCs act on the streets: constantly getting stuck on cars or running into walls whenever they get spooked. Even during the credits when you are watching pedestrians drive around Liberty City, they are crashing into walls and other civilians. There's a level of polish from even GTA III that's not completely shown here. It has the same pop-in problems and there are still loading screens in-between islands (but now the music cuts out while you're loading for some reason). In half of the mission cutscenes, there's no lips moving and lots of static cinematography. Some missions feel too brief for what they are. There's a major character from Vice City that returns just to get gunned down for some papers; no dialogue from him or a special cutscene, you only get his likeness.

     The story is not that interesting either. Many of the original GTA III cast end up returning through a majority of the game's missions. Toni Cipriani, the main character you play as, is one of them. Unfortunately for me, I didn't care for most of these people. They've all had a complete personality change and come off as bizarre caricatures that follow the series' trademark humor more so than their original appearance. Maria in this game devolves into a hardcore drug addict and is never mentioned after leaving the first island. Sal came off as shady in GTA III but here, he's a large megalomaniac. The cutscene dialogue can be funny, but most of the time I'm wondering why I'm doing missions for these people that have no respect for you. It makes doing missions feel kind of pointless. Claude is a more involved, developed character in the GTA headcanon than Toni -- and Claude doesn't speak at all! I read from a positive review on Reddit that doing missions is supposed to feel pointless, and that the main theme of the story is the pointlessness of crime and the consequences of chasing it. I can definitely see it, but it doesn't make playing through Liberty City Stories more compelling to me.



Grade: D-

[supremeusername]

18. BALL x PIT | 2025 | PC | 3/28:



     I played the demo for this during the Steam Next Fest last summer, and I was pretty excited to start playing it now. It's a roguelike where you shoot balls at encroaching opponents to eliminate them, similar to Arkanoid. It helps if you can get the balls to the back wall so they start bouncing between there and the opponent's back. You don't have to do that though, and it may not even be feasible depending on what build you're running. You have 20ish characters to pick from, with each one having their own unique ability. There's one character that bounces the projectiles you fire back with a shield, one that lobs projectiles, even one that turns BALL x PIT into a turn-based game. You can even choose a character that just plays the game for you and makes their own decisions on what upgrades to get.

     Upgrading your character works by picking up gems dropped by eliminated opponents. You can then choose from either passives or special balls with signature abilities like Burn, Charm, or Lightning. Eventually, an opponent will drop a power-up that will let you fuse certain balls or passives together. This is where the magic of the game happens. You can have -- for example -- a Laser ball shooting horizontally and another one vertically fuse to make one ball that shoots in both directions simultaneously. You can then fuse that one with the Ghost ball so that it passes directly through opponents now, while firing lasers every time it touches someone new. It's easier to make a powerful build in this game versus a lot of other roguelikes just from playing casually. By experimenting and believing in what you think would work, you could make something amazing.



     There's also the home base: from which you farm resources like wheat and stone to construct buildings that will either grant you stat boosts or unlock a new character. After every match, you harvest by picking a direction to fire all your unlocked characters towards and seeing them ping-pong and bounce in various directions like the balls you fire in the main game. It's a fun gameplay loop of placing structures and harvesting crops, then attempting to beat the next level with slightly better stats and more information to work with. This game does run out of steam towards the end as it stops introducing new ideas to you, but the first 80% of BALL x PIT is very engaging to play. It's well worth the base $15 asking price for a one-week gaming addiction. Grade: A-

[kashell]

35. SaGa Frontier Remastered - Fuse/T260G

36. SaGa Frontier Remastered - Fuse/Riki

For real-real, not for play-play this time. The game can be wrapped up in a bow. But this isn't a true ending. It's just taking a breath. It's my favorite game of all time. Of course I'll be back for more. The ending scene that was shown was really heartwarming. Almost heartwarming enough to make me want to do another file but there are other games I want to focus on.

*victory music plays* 150 platinum trophies! (According to the PSN website I have 149, but my PlayStation account and my PlayStation app on my phone says 150 so we're going with that.)

From my understanding, the likely issue is that, whether intentionally or not, one of your game trophy data is set to be hidden. I found a thorough series of steps to reverse that action, because apparently it's different to accomplish the task when using different consoles, and it may be required to use a specific console to reverse the action.

It's worth a shot. I think I know which game it's for (the original Dark Souls on PlayStation 3).

Update: the above method only works for PlayStation 4/5 games, unfortunately.

[dhaabi]

*victory music plays* 150 platinum trophies! (According to the PSN website I have 149, but my PlayStation account and my PlayStation app on my phone says 150 so we're going with that.)

From my understanding, the likely issue is that, whether intentionally or not, one of your game trophy data is set to be hidden. I found a thorough series of steps to reverse that action, because apparently it's different to accomplish the task when using different consoles, and it may be required to use a specific console to reverse the action.

It's worth a shot. I think I know which game it's for (the original Dark Souls on PlayStation 3).

Update: the above method only works for PlayStation 4/5 games, unfortunately.

There are different steps depending on which console someone may need to use. I haven't actually tested any of these methods with any console, but I imagine they're correct unless system updates have changed them. From the link:

ON PS3

If all of your games are hidden on this website, go to the PSN section of the PS3's main menu, then go to Account Management, then select Privacy settings. It will ask you to verify by typing in your PSN password. Then where it says "Show Trophies", you need to select 'Anyone' from the drop-down menu. Now go to step 8 below.

If only specific games are hidden and you want to unhide individual PS4, PS3, and Vita games, follow these steps:

Go to your trophy collection.
Note: Make sure your trophy collection is in "online mode" (Press triangle over the trophy collection icon and then select online mode).
Select your trophy collection and your list of games should populate the screen.
Find a game that doesn't show up on your list on PSNProfiles. Do not press X to select the game though, instead press triangle.
A few options should show up, press privacy settings.
At the top it should say "Show Trophies for This Game" - make sure the box has a check-mark! (If the box is left without a check-mark, the game will stay hidden).
When the box has a check-mark, press OK. Then do the same for all of your other games that don't show up on this website.
Now you'll need to earn at least 1 new trophy in any game to see your changes show on this website (PSNProfiles), it can be any trophy on any console.
After you've earned a new trophy, then update your profile here on this website by entering your name on the homepage and everything should be fixed!

[kashell]

I think the issue is that the game that's hidden is a PlayStation 3 game and those can't be accessed or shown on a PS5.

[dhaabi]

I think the issue is that the game that's hidden is a PlayStation 3 game and those can't be accessed or shown on a PS5.

That's not true—at least, it's not true for me and my own account as I'm able to view all trophies that I've earned for PlayStation 3 games while using a PlayStation 5. Regardless, we know it's not a problem related to your console choice as trophy information for Dark Souls also isn't available on public websites such as PSN Profiles (most easily evident by your forum signature which states 149 Platinum trophies despite your reporting of 150 while using the PS App.) For some reason, the hidden option settings don't sync from one generational console to the next, which is why you'll need to actually use a PlayStation 3 console to adjust the setting.

[dhaabi]

15. Ratcheteer || Playdate || 03.28.2026



After two years, I've finally reached the end of Playdate's season one of games that were included with the handheld. And, fortunately, the last game Ratcheteer is one of the more premium offerings with a full action-narrative campaign.

Over the course of the game's events, players are slowly introduced to Ratcheteer's story that involves the human population having been largely decimated after a meteor impacted the planet that resulted in an unceasing winter. At the start, we're introduced to a surviving population of people referred to as Freezers who have manufactured some semblance of a society and normalcy by mostly living underground in cryogenic sleep and only awakening every ten years to conduct routine maintenance. Here, everyone seems to be either a master or apprentice in a various craft, as the player-character and townspeople are all mechanics, engineers, smiths, or the like to ensure their people's survival as they wait out the arctic climate above. To a higher degree than I was anticipating, the plot elevates the game's overall experience as it does provide reason and motive for why the player-character protagonist sets out on an adventure alongside alongside the unexpected path it takes. At the same time, there is actually a considerable amount of optional narrative information and dialogue to uncover, including one-half that's hidden behind a foreign language that can be deciphered if willing to be thorough while exploring.

Overall, the game offers a commendable sense of world exploration as various locales are not only presented, but the means to navigate them are seldom simple. Multiple regions are further separated into many individual, top-down screens that interconnect with another, and the game can be fully explored from the beginning to end in an open-world fashion without interruption. To help players, a map system is available that is filled out with each room that's explored; it's obviously helpful to figure out which specific rooms have yet to be found, though it's not particularly detailed as to illustrate where certain barriers and obstacles exist—something that is fine to me as this decision only provides a more fulfilling exploratory experience. Unexpectedly, there is also a fast travel system of sorts in the form of wells and cave systems, though the map doesn't mark them nor are they fully connected with another. While the game features a connected overworld, it's also charcterized by well-crafted dungeons. There is always a small detail to pay attention for, such as one specific platform that permits further progress or an opening in a wall that a tool can unlock. Another unexpected but welcome feature of the game is its emphasis on top-down platforming that is precise and regularly requires combining multiple tools available to the player to be used.

On that note, players will notice that some sort of tool is being used for one reason or another at nearly every moment, including a crank lantern that provides some light in an otherwise overly dark environment. To the game's benefit, the need for every one of the tools acquired throughout the course of the game is mostly balanced, aside from one which does eventually become obsolete. Another one in particular is also comparatively less important, as I believe it's only required for two different situations, one of which is optional. Nevertheless, tools are constantly being swapped, which does require the inventory menu to be opened. Two tools can also be set as active equipment, which is something that is certainly helpful as the game continues and varying actions must be taken in quick succession. How tools are equipped is an imperfect system as a result of the Playdate system's limitations, but it's efficient in spite of it. Yet, even when recognizing this, I did find myself toggling back-and-forth between game and menu far more often than I'd have liked. The equipment screen is actually only accessible as a sub-menu despite being used far more often than the mostly static inventory screen that I really never referenced, so the UX for swapping tools is something I do think could have been better slightly better.

With all this said, Ratcheteer is a top-down 2D action-adventure game that is quite reminiscent of certain older titles. While platforming and puzzles are quite pronounced, action combat is also a main feature, though it's an element that feels tertiary to the former two. Fodder enemies routinely appear that do require tools to be used (at minimum, the wrench sword which acts as a weapon), but they're generally easy to defeat or avoid. Meanwhile, bosses only accessible by obtaining the dungeon boss key are opposite—that is, until the player is able to figure how exactly they're to be damaged. Because of that, boss battles are their own kind of puzzle, and they're the only segments where I would lose all health and be sent to the start of the area. Generally, though, combat isn't particularly robust but it complements the game well. Something else worth mentioning is that the game's world is free to explore at any point so long as it's been unlocked, but it's only in dungeons where significant progress will be made. What I mean by this is that, once a dungeon has been unlocked, players will already have everything that's needed to clear it or will gain what's needed inside. However, this isn't to suggest that everything in a dungeon can be accessed at first, as optional collectibles are present in every dungeon that require returning at a later point with later-acquired tools.

Throughout my time playing Ratcheteer, I had a lot of fun from beginning to end (despite the game's final boss that's more annoying than not.) It's familiar in a way that players experienced with this kind of game will recognize, but it stands out for its strong use of the system's crank feature that's integrated successfully and not just as some tacked-on component.