Nintendo Year in Review 2025

It's the final Year in Review post for 2025 - and this time, it's Nintendo's year in review, which they actually put out in January instead of December, so it should account for my entire year's worth of stats. And the good news is that I played a considerable amount more Nintendo than I did last year, but then again, I did set the bar remarkably low.

2025 brought with it the Nintendo Switch 2, which took a second to obtain (including the delivery person driving aimlessly around my complex for a couple minutes and deciding "Maybe we'll let somebody else try tomorrow") but ended up being a great time.

Let's take a look at my highlights from last year's time spent playing Nintendo.

Gameplay Totals

I matched last year's total of 16 games but nearly tripled my hours played. That's a decent job of bouncing back, if you ask me.

Top Games

1. Pokémon Violet - 19 hours
2. Mario Kart World - 19 hours
3. Fitness Boxing 3 - 15 hours

"Pokémon Violet" coming out on top came as a bit of a surprise until I remembered that I told myself that I could only purchase the new "Pokémon Legends: Z-A" if I beat "Violet" first. Challenge accepted and completed.

I'm not necessarily a big "Mario Kart" guy - I enjoy it, but I'm not hardcore like some people - but "Mario Kart World" was fun and is a great game to play with the family. I spent a lot of time trying to track down all of the costumes for each character. I'm still a couple short, though, which irritates me.

Another year of "Fitness Boxing." This one is a Top Games mainstay because it's the only game that I play on a near-weekly basis. I'm bad and miss a week from time to time, but it's a nice way of getting some extra movement in.

Gaming Trends

A decent balance of game types. I accept.

Monthly Breakdown

As you can see, I got the Switch 2 in July. October was the month in which I challenged myself to beat "Pokémon Violet."

Favorite Game

My Nintendo game of the year is Mario Kart World. I really had fun with it, especially playing with my oldest son. There is a decent amount of stuff to do, from tracking down alternative outfits to collecting things in the open world, not to mention racing for glory across its handful of official cups. I also like the new ability to adjust races to start on one course and transition into another. Thanks to its extreme replayability factor, a lot more Mario Kart lies ahead for me and my family in 2026.

Top Games of All Time

One really cool feature in this year's Nintendo Year in Review was the ability to look back at previous years. Nintendo even provided a full breakdown of my top games over the past eight years, when I first bought the Switch 1.

Here are my top 20 games of all time:

1. Animal Crossing: New Horizons - 217 hours
2. Zelda: Breath of the Wild - 61 hours
3. Mario Golf: Super Rush - 50 hours
4. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - 45 hours
5. Pokémon Shield - 41 hours
6. Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope - 40 hours
7. New Pokémon Snap - 40 hours
8. Pokémon Violet - 34 hours
9. Pokémon Brilliant Diamond - 33 hours
10. Pokémon Legends: Arceus - 30 hours
11. Super Mario Odyssey - 29 hours
12. Luigi's Mansion 3 - 21 hours
13. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 - 20 hours
14. Metroid Dread - 20 hours
15. Mario Kart World - 19 hours
16. Fitness Boxing 3 - 16 hours
17. Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu - 15 hours
18. Mario Tennis Aces - 15 hours
19. Pokemon Legends: Z-A - 13 hours
20. Donkey Kong Bananza - 13 hours

Past Years Comparison

• 2025
• Games played: 16
• Hours played: 103
• Top games: "Pokémon Violet," "Mario Kart World," "Fitness Boxing 3"
• Game of the year: "Mario Kart World"
• 2024
• Games played: 16
• Hours played: 38
• Top games: "Fitness Boxing 2," "Sid Meier's Civilization VI," "Super Mario Party Jamboree"
• Game of the year: "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate"
• 2023
• Games played: 23
• Hours played: 169
• Top games: "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild," "Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope," "Metroid Dread"
• Game of the year: "Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope"
• 2022
• Hours played: 140
• Top games: "Pokémon Legends: Arceus," "Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope," "Pokémon Brilliant Diamond"
  
• 2021
• Hours played: 189
• Top games: "New Pokemon Snap," "Animal Crossing: New Horizons," "Mario Golf: Super Rush"
• 2020
• Hours played: 235
• Top games: "Animal Crossing: New Horizons," "Mario Tennis Aces," "Pokémon Shield"
• 2019
• Hours played: 56
• Top games: "Pokémon Shield," "Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3," "Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu"
• 2018
• Hours played: ~85
• Top games: "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate," "Super Mario Odyssey," "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild"

Final Thoughts

Overall, it was a decent and fun year of Nintendo for me. Granted, the Switch is not my primary console and it is often dominated by my oldest child, but I like to get in some time every now and again. I've got a bit of a backlog right now, with games like "Donkey Kong Bananaza" and "Pokémon Legends: Z-A" just sitting there, waiting to be played, so hopefully I'll be able to continue chipping away in 2026!

*****

We finally did it! That's the end of our 2025 Year in Review posts! What were your top Nintendo games of 2025? Any recommendations for the upcoming year? Let us know in the comments below, on Twitter (here and here) or on Facebook.

Until next time!

How to Receive All Three Starter Pokemon in Pokemon Scarlet/Violet

 

We received amazing news a couple weeks ago when Nintendo announced that Pokemon Scarlet and Violet players would be able to receive Sprigatito, Fuecoco and Quaxly simply by linking their game to the Pokemon Home app. It seemed too good to be true... so was it?

Tonight, we finally got around to attempting this process, and we found it to be much less straight forward than advertised. We even had a bit of trouble finding a simple walkthrough when, defeated, we turned to Google for help. So, we thought it might be a good idea to break down the process for anyone else who's looking to bolster their Pokedex.

First of all, you'll want to make sure that you have the Pokemon Home app on both your Switch and your phone, and that your account is connected to those apps. We're not going to break down that process here, but this article by Eurogamer.net seems to be pretty thorough (although a bit outdated, now that Scarlet and Violet are compatible with Home).

Secondly, you'll need (of course) either Pokemon Scarlet or Pokemon Violet and, presumably, you should have played the game at least once and caught a few Pokemon in the wild.

After you've got Pokemon Home on your Switch and your phone, with your account connected, and caught a couple wild Pokemon on Scarlet or Violet, follow this process to link your game and claim those elusive Scarlet/Violet starters:

1. Open Pokemon Home on the Switch.
2. Push any button to enter the app. Wait for the app to load.
3. Press A on the "POKEMON" button. The app will display any Pokemon games you've played on the Switch.
4. Highlight Pokemon Scarlet/Violet and press A.
5. Confirm that you want to connect to this game by pressing A again. The app will move to a screen that shows any Pokemon currently stored in Pokemon Home on the left side of the screen. On the right, it will show any Pokemon currently held in your "box" in Scarlet/Violet.
6. Supposedly, the free gifts are awarded the first time the user transfers a Pokemon from Scarlet/Violet to Home. To be safe, we also transferred a Pokemon from Home to, in our case, Violet. Do so by selecting the desired monster with A, moving them to the opposite side of the screen and depositing them in the other box with another press of A.
7. Once done, press the + button to quit.
8. Press A to "Save changes and exit."
9. Close the Pokemon Home app on the Switch.
10. Open the Pokemon Home app on your phone.
11. Tap the screen to start the app.
12. Once the app loads, press the menu button in the bottom-middle edge of the screen. A menu will pop up.
13. Tap the "Mystery Gifts" button.
14. Tap the "Gift Box" button.
15. The three starter Pokemon are claimable here and are named "Special Link Gift No. 7!", "Special Link Gift No. 8!" and "Special Link Gift No. 9!" Opening each gift will allow you to claim these little cuties for use in Pokemon Scarlet/Violet.
16. Close the Pokemon Home app on your phone.
17. Open Pokemon Home again on the Switch. (Note: We assume that having previously closed the app in Step 9 and re-opening it will allow the apps to sync the three new Pokemon to your Home app.)
18. Press A on the "POKEMON" button.
19. Again, select Pokemon Scarlet/Violet, as in Step 4.
20. Move all three new starters from the Basic Box on the left to the in-game boxes on the right.
21. Press the + button to quit.
22. Press A to save the changes.
23. Close the Pokemon Home app on the Switch, for good.
24. Boot up Pokemon Scarlet/Violet on the Switch.
25. Your three new starter Pokemon can be found by accessing your "boxes." Press X to open the main menu.
26. Navigate to the "Boxes" option on the right side of the screen and press A.
27. Verify that the three new Pokemon are found in your box, then use them to your heart's content.

There you go! A 27-step process certainly isn't like riding a bike, but we got there in the end, and that's all that really matters. We hope this guide made things easier for you than it was for us.

While you're here, feel free to check out any of our other amazing blogs about video games. You can also follow us on Twitter (here and here), leave us a note in the comments section below or, if you want to get really crazy, try to find us on Facebook.

Until next time, keep it here at Signs of the Times.

10 Pokémon that should have been awesome but sucked

I'm what they call a "90s Kid." I was born in 1986 and spent my most formative years in the 1990s. It was in the blessed year of 1996, when I turned 10 years old, that the United States were introduced to a Japanese phenomenon known as "Pokémon." That Christmas was one of my all-time favorites. I spent days glued to my Game Boy and my new "Pokémon: Blue" video game.

I assume that if you took the time to pull up this blog post, you know what Pokémon is, so I'm not going to bore you by trying to explain it. I will, however, clarify that my knowledge of the franchise mainly stops a couple games in, so, despite there being 807 Pokémon (currently, at the time of writing), in my mind, there are only about 200 or so: the original 150 from the "Red" and "Blue" video games and the original TV show, plus a handful of others that I would recognize from later video games. For the purposes of this blog, I have only taken into consideration the original 150 monsters.

The idea behind this blog stems from a conversation I had with my siblings a couple days ago during a family vacation. While roasting S'mores, we discussed our favorite and least favorite Pokémon. We eventually wound up talking about those that we thought were the biggest disappointments. If you ever played any of the Pokémon video games, you understand from personal experience that there were some characters that initially looked amazing but ultimately didn't end up meeting your expectations. It happened to the best of us.

Let's break down ten of my biggest Poké-flops, in no particular order:

#132 Ditto

• Type: Normal
• Attributes: 1'0", 8.8 lbs.
• Rarity: Common
• Pokédex entry: Capable of copying an enemy's genetic code to instantly transform itself into a duplicate of the enemy.
• Why they should have been awesome: Ditto can mimic any Pokémon. On paper, that's an awesome stat. Plus, he just looks so cute!
• Why they weren't: In reality, nobody stuck with Ditto. The only move it knows is Transform and its primary power turns out to be little more than a gimmick, at best - certainly nothing you'd ever want to take into a serious battle. Also, if you've seen "Detective Pikachu," there's a great chance you've had nightmares about Ditto at some point since you left the theater.

#104 Cubone

• Type: Ground
• Attributes: 1'4", 14.3 lbs.
• Rarity: Common
• Pokédex entry: Because it never removes its skull helmet, no one has ever seen this Pokémon's real face.
• Why they should have been awesome: The skeleton mask is a baller costume choice, for sure. The boomerang bone is also a nice touch.
• Why they weren't: Mama drama! Cubone is frequently portrayed as a scared, lonely crybaby with major parental issues, completely negating the awesome character design.

#068 Machamp

• Type: Fighting
• Attributes: 5'3", 286.6 lbs.
• Rarity: N/A - Third evolutionary stage of Machop
• Pokédex entry: Using its heavy muscles, it throws powerful punches that can send the victim clear over the horizon.
• Why they should have been awesome: A four-armed pro wrestler? Heck yeah! He certainly looks like one of the strongest Pokémon in the Kanto region, and I know I wouldn't want to mess with a Machamp if I ever met one in a dark alleyway.
• Why they weren't: Raise your hand if you ever fought more than, like, four times with Machamp... Exactly. As far as I know, he just wasn't a very popular character in any of the video games. Missed opportunity, people. Missed opportunity.

#048 Venonat

• Type: Bug / Poison
• Attributes: 3'3", 66.1 lbs.
• Rarity: Uncommon
• Pokédex entry: Lives in the shadows of tall trees where it eats bugs. It is attracted by light at night.
• Why they should have been awesome: I hate bugs in real life, and I'm not too fond of them in the world of Pokémon, either, but, for some reason, I always thought Venonat looked cool. If nothing else, Venonat is unique; you'd definitely stand out if it was your main companion. I wanted to like him. I really did.
• Why they weren't: First of all, Venemoth is a crappy evolution that nobody likes, so if you ever chose to evolve a Venonat, the chances are that you never played with it ever again. Bug type Pokémon are weak against Fire types, which are some of the most commonly encountered and strongest monsters during trainer battles, and insects like Venonat are only super-effective against Psychic, Grass and Dark type creatures, which... isn't helpful at all, really.

#123 Scyther

• Type: Bug / Flying
• Attributes: 4'11", 123.5 lbs.
• Rarity: Rare
• Pokédex entry: With ninja-like agility and speed, it can create the illusion that there is more than one.
• Why they should have been awesome: Look at that thing! Look at those dang razor blade-arms!
• Why they weren't: Scyther could only be found in the Safari Zone or at Rocket Game Corner (depending on whether you were playing Red or Blue), which meant that it was incredibly difficult to find. Then, if you were lucky or rich enough to get your hands on one, you very likely already had a go-to squad, so adding a Level 10 or 15 Scyther would actually be a downgrade.

#108 Lickitung

• Type: Normal
• Attributes: 3'11", 144.4 lbs.
• Rarity: One - via trade for Slowbro
• Pokédex entry: Its tongue can be extended like a chameleon's. It leaves a tingling sensation when it licks enemies.
• Why they should have been awesome: Lickitung looks like a lot of fun. What's not to love about that goofy face and extra-long tongue?
• Why they weren't: As a rule of thumb, any "Normal" type Pokémon sucks. It's a fact. Check for yourselves. Furthermore, you have to trade for Lickitung in Versions Red and Blue, which means that its previous owner already gave it a nickname. "Marc." That's right. MARC. That's what Lickitung is called when you get him. Why on earth would you want to play with a Pokémon named Marc? Ugh. So stupid.

#134-136 Eevee's evolutions (Vaporeon / Jolteon / Flareon)

• Type: V: Water / J: Electric / F: Fire
• Attributes: V: 3'3", 29.0 lbs. / J: 2'7", 54.0 lbs / F: 2'11", 55.1 lbs.
• Rarity: N/A - Only available via elemental stone evolution of Eevee
• Pokédex entry: V: Lives close to water. Its long tail is ridged with a fin which is often mistaken for a mermaid's. / J: It accumulates negative ions in the atmosphere to blast out 10000-volt lightning bolts. / F: When storing thermal energy in its body, its temperature could soar to over 1,600 degrees.
• Why they should have been awesome: Water, Electric, Fire. Take your pick! And all of these Pokémon look really fancy. Which to choose? Which to choose??
• Why they weren't: Well, you can only get one Eevee in Red and Blue, and you only get to evolve it once, so you've got to choose wisely. More often than not, fear of making an unwise decision prevented me from evolving Eevee at all! Plus, if you're looking for an elemental creature, there are much better ones out there than any of these three.

#137 Porygon

• Type: Normal
• Attributes: 2'7", 80.5 lbs.
• Rarity: Unlimited - via purchase at Rocket Game Corner
• Pokédex entry: A Pokémon that consists entirely of programming code. Capable of moving freely in cyberspace.
• Why they should have been awesome: Porygon was the first completely synthetic Pokémon. That's pretty sick. The jagged, futuristic design is also really cool. Who among us hasn't ever coveted that nice, shiny toy at the top of an arcade prize wall?
• Why they weren't: You had to buy this dang thing from Rocket Game Corner. Had to! In Pokémon Blue, a Porygon cost 8,300 coins. In Pokémon Red, it cost a whopping 9,999! Did ANYONE save enough coins to buy one??

Editor's note: Mere hours after writing this blog, I was playing "Let's Go, Pikachu!" on the Nintendo Switch, making my way from Lavendar Town to Celadon City, when lo, and behold - a freaking Porygon was floating around in the bushes! Apparently, Porygon is a catchable Pokemon in the modern version of the old game! Coincidence??

And it only cost me a couple berries and like 5 Ultra Balls. Now, I guess I'll finally be able to tell whether or not Porygon actually sucks.

#093 Haunter

• Type: Ghost / Poison
• Attributes: 5'3", 0.2 lbs.
• Rarity: Uncommon
• Pokédex entry: Because of its ability to slip through block walls, it is said to be from another dimension.
• Why they should have been awesome: Haunter is easily one of the funniest Pokémon from the animated series. He has the best laugh! And he just seems so mischievous and fun!
• Why they weren't: Ghost type Pokémon aren't super useful in standard battles. They're only effective against Grass and Fairy types, and they're weak against Poison, Ground, Rock and other ghosts (which doesn't even make sense). There's a small window in the game where it can be fun to use ghosts (right after you first encounter them, typically), but it uses its luster quickly. Sadly, Haunter was not nearly as fun in the game as he was on TV.

#026 Raichu

• Type: Electric
• Attributes: 2'7", 66.1 lbs.
• Rarity: N/A - Second evolutionary stage of Pikachu
• Pokédex entry: Its long tail serves as a ground to protect itself from its own high voltage power.
• Why they should have been awesome: Everybody loves Pikachu, the face of the entire franchise. Surely, everyone would love a stronger, evolved version of the little lightning ball, right?
• Why they weren't: Wrong. Using a Thunder Stone is simultaneously one of the saddest and most disappointing decisions you could ever make in the game. After spending so much time nurturing and fighting with your beloved Pikachu, one use of the evolution stone will irreversibly take your pal away from you, never to return. I'm telling you - instant regret.

***

How did we do? Were there any of the original 150 Pokémon that should have been included on the list? Which Pokémon were the biggest let-downs for you? Let us know in the comments section below, on Facebook or on Twitter.