My December 2025 Media Diet

December, as always, flew by, and this year was no exception. Work hit full crunch mode with end-of-year deliverables, and my whirlwind tour of family and friends in Ohio mostly went according to plan, aside from a few airport-related hiccups (boo Spirit, boo Delta). I played a wide variety of video games, spent way too much money during the Steam Winter Sale, and only just realized that I played almost everything I bought through GameHub Lite on my Ayn Odin 2 Portal. Android gaming handhelds are the future, folks.

I’m hoping to ship a few app updates next month and, if all goes according to plan, finally launch the first version of my new app. Stay tuned.

Oh, and here’s what else I was up to:

🍿 Secret Mall Apartment. Probably about half an hour too long, but still a genuinely fascinating story. The early 2000s really were a simpler time, before everything was optimized, surveilled, and monetized to death.

🏎️ 2025 Formula One World Championship. This season went right down to the wire and I loved almost every race. Norris earned the championship, no question, but it really does feel like Piastri got robbed along the way. Also, should I feel bad that I was rooting for Max at the end? The guy is a missile. 👍

🕹️ Yoku’s Island Express. Pinball metroidvania is an insane pitch and somehow it works. I put this down about halfway through, but I’m absolutely coming back to it. I’ve never played anything quite like it, and that alone makes it special. 👍

🍿 Frankenstein. I wanted to like this more than I did. It held my attention, but by the end I was mostly bored. The split perspective between the monster and Dr. Frankenstein is a strong idea, but it never fully pays off.

🍿 Wake Up Dead Man. I don’t think any of the Knives Out sequels will ever hit the highs of the first movie. That said, I liked this a lot more than Glass Onion. I enjoy the Agatha Christie-style plotting, but something still felt off. I seem to be in the minority though, since everyone else I’ve talked to loved it.

🍿 It Ends. This feels like a movie that only ever existed on the festival circuit for a reason. The first third is genuinely compelling, but it becomes so repetitive that I struggled to stay engaged by the end. Not surprised this never got a proper release.

🕹️ Sea of Stars. I bounced off this years ago on Xbox after getting stuck early, which always annoyed me because I love Chrono Trigger-style RPGs and the visuals here are incredible. I gave it another shot and honestly have no idea what my problem was the first time. The game is pretty easy. Great combat, beautiful pixel art, and a story that’s finally got its hooks in me. Fully addicted now. Highly recommended. 👍

📺 Sean Combs: The Reckoning. I expected this to be four episodes cataloging various “freak-offs” and it ended up being something very different. Instead, it completely dismantled the myth of Diddy as a genius and, unfortunately, changed how I listen to Biggie’s still-great catalog. Not a fun watch, but an eye-opening one. 👍

🕹️ Megabonk. This is basically 3D Vampire Survivors. It’s absolutely a rip-off, but somehow it clicks in ways that Vampire Survivors doesn’t for me. I’d love to see multiplayer added. Perfect “five spare minutes” game. 👍

🕹️ StarVaders. Sleeper hit of the year. A smart deck builder with light tactics elements that feels immediately good to play. You probably haven’t touched this yet. You should fix that. 👍

🍿 The Running Man. This is a huge miss. Edgar Wright has made some of my favorite movies ever, including Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Shaun of the Dead, but this doesn’t even measure up to the mediocre 80s version. Deeply disappointing.

🕹️ Star of Providence. This Videogamedunkey-produced game is very good. A tight, pick-up-and-play twin-stick bullet hell shooter with enough variety to keep runs feeling fresh. Also surprisingly cheap. Easy recommendation. 👍

🍿 Stand by Me. Still just as affecting as ever. Peak Rob Reiner for me, and a perfect example of Stephen King’s range beyond horror. 👍

🍿 Five Nights at Freddy’s 2. This is a bad movie, but I kind of like Josh Hutcherson now? And apparently these movies make a ton of money. I don’t understand it, but clearly someone does.

🍿 Sisu: Road to Revenge. Finnish old man John Wick. The revenge story itself didn’t really work for me, but some of the action sequences absolutely rip.

🍿 Marty Supreme. I saw this on New Year’s Eve and it immediately shot into my top five movies of the year. Timothée Chalamet is an absolute force here, and Safdie’s direction is as sharp as ever. It’s been fascinating watching the Safdie brothers take solo swings this year, and I think Josh came out on top this time. The casting alone is wild. Kevin O’Leary, Penn Jillette, Fran Drescher, Tyler, the Creator, and somehow all of them work? Any other year, this would’ve been my number one. 👍