It’s Time To Address That Indie Backlog in 2026

Welcome back to the latest edition of Punished Notes, the 42nd of its name and the very first one of the new year! I’m starting off 2026 with some New Year’s gaming resolutions, as well as a few predictions (and hopes) for some big gaming anniversaries coming up. Also: Wuthering Heights?

Sam’s 2026 New Year’s Gaming Resolutions

To ring in 2026 — a year that has already had a rocky start, to say the least — I’m once again listing a couple of New Year’s gaming resolutions! While I think we can all be a little hard on ourselves when it comes to overall resolutions, it’s always a good idea to try and better oneself, regardless of whether that starts in January or any other month. Creating basic, straightforward goals about your life is always worth it, and failure is just another step toward success (okay, clichés are over, now).

Before I get into the two resolutions I’ve created for this year, let’s check in on how I did on last year’s resolutions:

1. Finish Metaphor: ReFantazio: Success!
2. Start (but not necessarily finish) another Dragon Quest game: Big success! Started (but didn’t finish) the Nintendo 3DS version of Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past, and started (and nearly finished) Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake.
3. Purchase one classic game cartridge during my trip to Japan: Okay, so technically this is a failure, because I didn’t actually do this. HOWEVER, I still picked up plenty of gaming-related stuff while I was there, including keychains of the Dragon Quest slime and Waddle Dee from Kirby, as well as plenty of Pokémon cards.

Overall, I’d say I succeeded in my very simple and very easy resolutions for 2025. Looking to this year, though, I’m taking a slightly different approach, one that actually tasks me with pushing myself out of certain comfort zones.

1. Play more backlog indies. If you are a frequent reader of this site (and I’m sure you are), you know that basically everyone who writes here constantly bemoans the number of games they intend to play that continue to pile up in their… well… punished backlogs. Eventually, we try to get to some of them (and occasionally succeed in doing so), but a strange trend I’ve noticed for myself over the years is that the smaller games are actually the ones that tend to slip through the cracks the most. Over the past few years, I’ve managed to cross off a number of AAA games from my backlog (mostly older games like Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and Luigi’s Mansion), but I’ve failed to give plenty of delightful indies a chance for whatever reason.
   
   This year, I’ll try to prioritize more of these kinds of titles. Already I’ve got my eye on indies from the past few years that I can play on PlayStation Plus, including Thank Goodness You’re Here!, Skate Story, Crow Country, and the first Citizen Sleeper. Hopefully, though, I can also find time for Dispatch, Despelote, Sektori, PEAK, and maybe even Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo (David would love that, I’m sure). Addressing the backlog is a common resolution for me, but maybe it’ll help to be a little more targeted about it.
2. Write more “deep dive” articles. I like to joke with the other Punished Backlog editors that I’m good for “one of these” every year, meaning a more-than-4,000-word op-ed often inspired by something that bothers me. In 2024, I managed to do “two of these,” one on the somewhat prescient narrative of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and another on the declining cultural relevance of Call of Duty. However, in 2025, I only did one, this time on how poorly God of War III holds up to modern scrutiny.
   
   This year, I’m aiming to do AT LEAST two big deep dives, and hopefully more if I can swing it. This resolution will be especially tricky, of course, since I tend to write these longer pieces after a moment of inspiration, and whether I’d be motivated to write so much on a single topic is something I can’t really plan for, no matter what I say now. Still, I want to challenge myself as a writer even more in 2026, even if what ends up on the other side isn’t perfect (I kill several pieces each year because they don’t reach a certain level of quality I’ve set for myself, and I’d rather keep doing that than lower my standards).

If my resolutions for 2025 were about being kinder to myself and positioning myself to succeed, my resolutions for 2026 are about challenging myself to be a little more focused with how I spend my time around gaming and, well, writing about gaming. I believe I can achieve these goals as long as I remember that, at the end of the day, it’s fine if I don’t.

Anniversaries! Predictions! Wishes!

2026 also marks a number of notable video game anniversaries, but I want to focus on three in particular: the 40th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda and Dragon Quest, as well as the 30th anniversary of Pokémon. These are three of the biggest and most influential franchises in the history of the medium, and I’m sure many fans of such games — myself included — are hoping Nintendo, Square Enix, and The Pokémon Company will probably honor such anniversaries with Cool New Stuff. That said, here are some predictions and wishes I have for all three:

• The Legend of Zelda: My prediction? Some small things, like Twilight Princess being added to GameCube Classics on Switch 2, and maybe a teaser for a brand-new game that won’t be out for a few years.
  • My wish? Shadow-drop full remakes of Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks for Switch 2, but make them, you know, good.
• Dragon Quest: Making a prediction for this one is a bit tougher since Dragon Quest VII Reimagined, a fairly big release on its own, literally comes out next month. Still, my prediction? Full trailer for Dragon Quest XII: The Flames of Fate (out 2027) and maybe teaser announcements for remakes of Dragon Quest IV and Dragon Quest V, potentially in the HD-2D style.
  • My wish? Just make some version of Dragon Quest X available outside of Japan. Come on, Square Enix! Dozens of us would buy it!
• Pokémon: My prediction? A bunch of updates to those mobile games nobody likes, some random shiny-hunting events for Pokémon Legends: Z-A, and maybe an announcement for the new generation of mainline Pokémon titles, out for Switch and Switch 2 later this year.
  • My wish? Just give me the damn Game Boy games on NSO. That’s literally all anybody wants now. Hell, I’d throw a freaking parade for the inclusion of Pokémon Pinball!

Are we going to get any of the things I just predicted? I imagine so. These companies can be fairly predictable about big promotional events, and they’d be idiots not to capitalize on arbitrary measurements of time. Am I going to get any of the things I just wished for? God, no. Why would anyone ever get what they want?

LIGHTNING ROUND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• Part of me thought of doing a bigger piece on this, but I’ll just do a note here: I’d give the first seven months of the Switch 2’s existence a B grade so far. Obviously, it has a handful of great exclusives (Donkey Kong Bananza, Kirby Air Riders, Mario Kart World), as well as plenty of terrific third party support (Hollow Knight: Silksong, Cyberpunk 2077, Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake). Still, it’s mostly just a better version of its predecessor (including its Nintendo Switch online library), and we have yet to see a true “must-have” exclusive for it just yet. Also, this grade would have been higher if not for… Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, the most disappointing game of 2025.
• For the past few weeks, the only game I’ve really played substantially is Dragon Quest II HD-2D Remake, and it’s honestly incredible. From what I understand, it’s a pretty major update from the original NES title (wouldn’t know, never played it myself), but either way it might be my favorite Dragon Quest title I’ve played so far. The party characters are incredibly well-written for something so earnest, the little stories you experience throughout the adventure range from adorably charming to beautifully heartbreaking, and the soundtrack absolutely ranks among the series’ best. A truly fantastic RPG overall, and easily the best of the Erdrick Trilogy remakes.

• Speaking of which: I’ve gotten to the point with Dragon Quest as a franchise that I’d honestly be just as excited for a brand-new game in the series as I would a new Legend of Zelda or 3D Super Mario. This is a shocking development for me, as A) I didn’t touch a Dragon Quest title until just weeks before my 30th birthday, and B) I barely even played turn-based JRPGs until the late 2010s at all. These games are just that good!
• I decided to finally give Cyberpunk 2077 a shot (several other TPB writers seem to be trying it as well, figured I’d try it out), and after one hour all I can say is that I’m not sure it’s something I need right now. The hopeful, heroic whimsy of Dragon Quest just keeps drawing me away from the dark, gritty streets of Night City, at least for now.
• I’m reading Wuthering Heights for the first time, having been inspired by trailers for the upcoming Emerald Fennel film adaptation. I’m only about a quarter of the way through, and my main takeaway is that Jacob Elordi is a potentially disastrous casting as Heathcliff for a number of reasons, and I’m also unconvinced Margot Robbie works as Catherine, either. I don’t want to get into it if you’d like to read the book, too, but: If you know, you know.