Summer Game Challenge 2026 results!

Back in May I decided to participate in the challenge mentioned in the title. From May 25 to September 7 (Memorial and Labour Day in the US), the goal was to make a list of at least ten games, and try to beat a minimum of four before the due date. As a Mexican, I gave myself some extra time, until September 16, which is Mexican Independence Day.

The goal is to make some progress on the backlog and well, play videogames! And that’s exactly what I did, I think!

My friend Bobby also participated in the challenge, check out his blogpost!

My original list consisted of fiftheen titles, although again, I only needed to beat four of them!

• Grapple Dog
• Terranigma
• Hades
• Outer Wilds
• Silksong
• Resident Evil 3: Nemesis
• Metroid Prime Remastered
• Chants of Sennaar
• Emio the Smiling Man
• Pipistrello and the Cursed YoYo
• Gris
• Super Mario 3D World
• Metroid Fusion
• CrossCode
• The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy
• Transistor (an addition early on!)

The completed ones

In the end, from that list I managed to beat 6/15 games!

I made a neat collage of the art of all the completed games, APPRECIATE IT!

And here are some extra thoughts if you want—most of them have reviews you can check out.

Hades

I was already on the last stretch after managing to defeat Hades a couple times before the challenge started, and by May 31st, I rolled credits and got some closure for one of the best titles of the decade.

I know there is still a lot this game has to offer, and I may return eventually for it, but I also don’t want to end up trapped giving dozens of extra hours to this game, which as fun as it may be, wouldn’t let me get other things done!

Metroid Prime Remastered

This is probably my favorite game that I both started and beat during the challenge! Playing continuously from June 1 to 12. A perfect transition to 3D done by Retro Studios that I loved from beginning to end!

The game was absolutely beautiful too, this is the best looking game in the Nintendo Switch as far as I’m concerned, and a pleasure to experience without any hiccups or issues at all. The challenge, the world design and upgrades were all fun. While it does have outdated elements, they weren’t a big deal for me at all. I love Metroid.

Transistor

This one was not on my original list, but I still want to count it since I reaplced it very early on in the the challenge, to be honest, swapping it with Chants of Sennar or something akin.

The combat and the story were the highlight here, a very interesting mix of turn based and action gameplay. The way the plot unfolded was incredible to see, the voice acting and score is also a highlight. There were a couple new things I could try starting a New Game+, but I got my fill, and it was great.

Gris

An unexpected choice for me given my options, I was home alone for a couple of days and decided to go ahead and give it a go. The experience was incredible. Going through it all while nobody else was around, letting the soundtrack play at max volume on my TV, with all the lights turned off, it was great.

The story and art, so beautiful, the platforming and the puzzles were light and elegant, and the vibes were just right for this one, a pleasure to have it finished.

Outer Wilds

But what else can I say about such a perfect experience? This game does not have the prettiest graphics on the Switch, and the performance is not ideal. However, I still pushed through it, and it was still incredible.

I had played like fourteen hours earlier in the year, and I went through almost twenty more as I resumed my journey and simply lived in the moment every time. The story, the mechanics, the characters, the discoveries. The planets aligned for once in a lifetime, they gave us a beautiful arrangement, it shall never be equaled.

Emio: The Smiling Man

My review for this title is still only a draft in my head, but it’s a detective story and visual novel where we are the main protagonist, a young detective who has to work on a rather creepy case and get to the truth of it all.

The art of this game is truly beautiful, the writing was also awesome, drip-feeding information in a great way, the mystery of it all, the score. It is a great visual novel with great production values that I devoured in just three days! I got stuck a couple of times, but not a detriment at all.

The forgotten ones

During all of the challenge, none of these got a time to shine at all, for one reason or another! They are all pretty great games though, but well, time management, procrastination, and stuff.

• Grapple Dog - Even though I have progress on this game, and it really is a fun time, I pretty much didn’t touch it at all during the whole challenge, it kind of ended up shelved for the sake of other titles.

• Resident Evil 3: Nemesis - I think I booted this up once, but my retro handheld use saw itself diminished and I pretty much forgot for a while until it was too late! Definitely still thinking of playing though.

• Chants of Sennaar - I would have loved to get to this one, but I didn’t even install it. Besides, after Outer Wilds it was probably better to wait some time to get to this one.

• Pipistrello and the Cursed YoYo - This is another one that I didn’t even boot up, it stayed in the box for the whole duration of the challenge, I chose to unbox Emio: The Smiling Man instead.

• The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy - I am actually surprised I didn’t get at least one more ending of this for so many months. Definitely looking forward to a return though, there’s dozens of hours left for me to experience here!

• Metroid Fusion - I guess I just feel like I could beat this in an afternoon and didn’t really bother to check. It’s a fantastic game though, I just wanted new experiences, and Prime provided that Metroid sauce anyway.

The works in progress

Even though these games were not quite completed (I technically rolled credits on Silksong when getting Act 3 though), I still enjoyed a bunch of my time playing a bit of some of them.

• Silksong - Honestly I am extremely pleased with the progress I’ve made on Silksong, from getting a lot of extra wishes and items, to finally unlocking Act 3 and starting to face against some new enemies, bosses and new areas that I have loved (and hated) to explore! Will definitely continue this adventure.

• Terranigma - To be quite fair, I only played this gem for a couple short sessions, I even forgot to update my journal about it. In any case, I know how good this game is and I have to catch up with Sam soon.

• Super Mario 3D World - My friends and I simply didn’t pick this one up enough times… I am very close to the finale though, but we are also collecting all the stars and stamps!

• CrossCode - Some of my friends kind of lost steam, and I refuse to go without them even now, I hope they regain their morale and get into this journey again, it has been so nice!

The extras…

During the timespan of the challenge, I completed 9 more titles!—including some DLC and shorter indie games.

• Monument Valley (overall) - This was a wonderful set of levels and artistic visuals that kind of blew me away from beginning to end! The overall puzzle design wasn’t always consistent, and some of the ideas were not explored as much as I would have liked, but everything there is was always a joy!

• Jabberwocky - This was just a short indie Game Boy game that I beat in twenty minutes, a fun story you can get for free on itch.io

• The Two Rivers Hypothesis - Another short indie title, with a much more serious existential horror theme, it is pretty quick to finish, and it’s a nice time if you are into speculative fiction stuff. Free on itch.io!

And the never ending…

There is always a big supply of other titles I’m playing, trying them out here and there. Games I got started with, games I’ve been poking at for years, you already know many of them!

• Fire Emblem Awakening and Ocarina of Time have been an absolute menace on my Nintendo 3DS, with a lot of story yet to experience.

• Faster Than Light and Minecraft have gotten plenty of playtime on my PC, especially the latter on a server with friends.

• Donkey Kong , Astro Boy Omega Factor and the lovely Final Fantasy VI are still ongoing, claiming their spot on my emulation handheld.

• Black Rock Shooter, Ys I & II Chronicles, Final Fantasy IV or Ridge Racer, keeping me busy whenever I give my PSP some love.

And of course, my Nintendo Switch alone has its own set of problems! From Kirby and the Forgotten Land which I’m barely getting started on, or the many little gems in UFO 50. The fantastic Tomodachi Life: Living The Dream which ate a bunch of my summer when it came out, and Super Smash Bros, still king of my multiplayer afternoons.

Not much else to say by now. The challenge is completed! It was a success, I played a bunch, and I had a lot of fun, I am probably going to try to keep a list going for the rest of the year too, but nothing as structural as this. Time to wait for the year’s recap and see how things turn out with only a few months left for 2026.

This is day 35 of #100DaysToOffload