5 Christmas Wishlist of 2025

During the season of this winter holiday, have you even seen a bunch of decorations throughout the town, the street, and the houses with the trees full of tinsels, lights, and bobbles? well I'm glad you've asked because it's a Merry f***ing Christmas of 2025 everyone. 

It's a winter holiday festival where you get to do something really festive things like building up a snowman with scarf and hat on, riding on your own sleigh throughout the street, playing snowfall fight with friends at outdoors, listening and singing your favourite Christmas songs, watching a various of your favourite Christmas movies, roasting your own Christmas dinner with big large turkey, and of course you get to meet a Father Christmas himself giving out a presents is what makes this holiday celebration so special.  

As a long-time gamer myself, I love spending time of collecting many of retro and modern gaming titles as well as the gaming accessories that I really want to get it for the Christmas holiday, so I've made my own 5 most wanted items that I'd like to add it on my wishlist and give the reason to own it for my gaming collection.

So without go further do, here is my 5 Christmas Wishlist of 2025.

1 - Sonic Racing Crossworlds (PS5)

When it comes with company like SEGA which was fondly remembered for their classic racing arcade hits from the mid-80s and early-90s days like Outrun, Virtua Racing, Daytona USA, and of course SEGA Rally Championship are the prime examples of being a pinnacle of arcade racing genre, and then pushing forward to year of 2010s there's a racing franchise that caught my attention was Sonic and SEGA All-Stars Racing for 7th-gen consoles and PC release which is a kart-racing game similar to Nintendo's Mario Kart in terms of gameplay style and design, and it features not only just a Sonic and his friends but also has a various of playable characters from different SEGA franchises joins-in for a kart racing battle.

I really enjoyed the first installiment of the series which I have praised it for its base rosters, wacky stage design, and driving controls with great drifting mechanics is what I liked about the game, where as the follow-up title like Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed was released 2 years after the first game had done something better for its innovation of vehicle transformation mechanic, various of great game modes, and additional improvements over the first game is what makes the second title being my favourite in the racing series.

The third title such as Team Sonic Racing was released in 2019 for 8th-gen consoles and PC making it a first game only features Sonic characters as opposed to SEGA rosters from different franchise, so I say it wasn't as good in comparison with the second game does it better but overall it's still a fine racing game in the good way.

In 2025, SEGA had bought a fourth title called Sonic Racing Crossworlds for both 8th and 9th-gen consoles as well as PC which many had said it's one of the better racing title than the third game in the series with large playable rosters including 3rd-party guests and returning style of 2012's title for gameplay mechanics is all praised by fans and critics which gives me the reason to own this kart-racing title for PS5.

It's like this game are finally taking back to it's roots that made the first and second game in the series so amazing to play and I definitely can't wait to look forward with the recent Sonic racing game that I would love to play.

2 - Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac (PS5)

An iconic franchise of Bandai Namco's titular hero that we all know and love when the 80s maze-like arcade hit are widely being one of the all-time greatest arcade game in gaming history.

As I loved the 80s old-school classic that became a gaming popular culture over the years, the media franchise had shared with different kinds of spin-offs and others that are quite different from the maze-chase arcade games, so it delved into other genres like platformers, racing and, sports. 
I've discovered Pac-Man World Re-Pac which is a 2022's full remake of the 1999's original game, so I did really enjoyed the game for its amazing presentation design, great platforming levels, cool boss segments, and enhanced visuals is the reason why I liked the idea of having the spin-off series going for a different route as a 3D platforming action as opposed to main series maze-like approach.

It was followed by 2025's title such as Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac which is a full remake of 2002's original game which I have heard really positive things from many people calling this second game a fun platforming adventure that are also a must play for the fans of the 3D platforming genre thanks to improved gameplay design and game's additional content are highly praised which I am definitely gonna add this to my wishlist.

3 - Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Ultimate (PS5)

 

Before I discovered the Beat-em-up spin-off, it all started with the 2011's Fighting game title called Phantom Breaker was created by the developer team 5pb.

To be frankly honest, I've never played the 2011's game but it seems to be an really interesting fighting game that I wanted to check it out, so instead I have found the 2013's spin-off title called Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds which was released for X360, PS Vita, and PC.

Unlike the main game which is a fighting game, this spin-off title is a side-scrolling beat-em-ups action which plays kinda like the Treasure's Guardian Heroes in the style of gameplay and design are quite similar. 

I remembered owning it digitally on the PS Vita in around mid-2010s and I began to play the game for the first time, as I'm kinda impressed with the game's anime-visual presentation and 4-player co-op action, but never fully had a chance to finish the game is due to being busy mostly on my PS3 and PS4 games that became my major focus.

In 10 years later since I've played the original game, I had found out the news that the game gets a fully definitive version with the Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Ultimate for 8th and 9th-gen consoles as well as PC which the original game gets fully remade using the unreal engine 5 adding a fresh updated visuals, enhanced battle system, and adding 6 to 8 players online for co-op and versus mode with full cross-platform play is something that I'll be interested in getting this game for the Christmas season.

4 - Touhou: Luna Nights (PS5)

            

There's one of the franchise that I never quite heard of it before until when the internet became a thing in mid-2000s and early-2010s, this is where I first discovered the franchise called Touhou Project which is a Bullet-Hell Shoot-Em-Up series that became a large cult-following in Japan which was really known for its skill-based challenging gameplay and large number of memorable soundtrack, then the franchise has exploded to the popularity thanks to the creator ZUN allowing and encouraging the communities to create a fan-made content includes art, music, and video games that helps the franchise keeping active, and it was notoriously being the internet culture with bunch of memes, music videos, and animation that attracts a new audiences especially it appeared on the online platforms like forums, fan-art site, and YouTube.

The series has spawned with many of spin-offs games with different genres such as Fighting, Turn-Based or Tactical RPGs, Action-Adventure, Metroidvania, Dungeon-Crawlers, and Platformers.

To be really honest, I never actually played any of the Touhou games which I had a trouble of picking any of these games whether if they are good or bad enough to play, until one of the game that I am mostly interested in playing is Touhou: Luna Nights, an side-scrolling Metroidvania games which I heard many of Touhou Fans had said that this could be one of the best game in the series has garnered positive reception from critics and near-perfect score from user-review. 

The reason why I am interested in adding this game to my wishlist is because since I've previously enjoyed some of the Bullet-Hell style Metroidvania games from the past like CreSpirit's Rabi-Ribi and Tevi which are incredibly fun Side-Scrolling Adventure, I was expecting this game to be just as good in terms of exploration, combat skills, and chaotic boss battle which is why I wanted to play similar game like this that I am looking forward too.    

 

5 - Hori Fighting Stick Mini (PS4/PS5)

 

Having an arcade stick at home is something that I'd like to have this on my wishlist. Just like what I've experienced with the Mad Catz Arcade Fight Stick for Wii which was designed for certain of Wii fighting games that are suitable for 8-buttons controls such as Tatsunoko vs Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars, Guilty Gear XX: Accent Core, and Super Smash Bros Brawl, where as the others with different genre such as the sports titles like EA's NBA JAM and SEGA Superstars Tennis, and of course SNK's 3 titles like Metal Slug Anthology, Samurai Shodown Anthology, and Arcade Classics Vol.1 are also worked well which is the reason why it became one of my favourite video game accessories.

Now that I was thinking to get another arcade stick for PS4 and PS5 which is Hori Fighting Stick Mini, an arcade video game controller designed by Hori which was made not only just for Fighting games but also suitable for various of arcade games with different genres such as Beat-em-ups, Shoot-em-ups, and Run 'N' Gun.

That'll be awesome to play arcade games for PS5 like Tekken 8, Street Fighter 6, Raiden 3 and 4 Mikado Remix, R-Type Final 3 Evolved, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind, and Contra: Operation Galuga as an example. 

I also heard that this arcade stick are also worked on PC as well in which you can connect it to your gaming PCs with the wired USB connector, so I think it's a perfect way of playing the most of the arcade titles on MAME emulator.    

I don't really mind the size of the arcade stick which is small, compact, and affordable are best designed for casuals or those who are new to arcade stick will likely going to enjoy their fun arcade experience.

I was hoping that I will consider to think about getting this mini-sized arcade controller seems to be a awesome idea for my arcade games that I've owned on PS4 and PS5, so I definitely will add this to my Christmas wishlist.

    

Honourable mention:

Shinobi: Art of Vengeance (PS5)

Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound (PS5)

Silent Hill 2 (PS5)

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater (PS5)

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (PS5)

Metaphor: ReFantazio (PS5)

Castlevania (PS2)

Resident Evil Survivors 2 (PS2)

Warhammer 40K: Fire Warrior (PS2)

Maken X (Dreamcast)

Illusion of Time (SNES)

Wolfchild (SNES)

Super Fantasy Zone (Genesis/MD)

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This is Zeeshan Mirza's Blog and I'll see you next time, happy blogging and have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.