Extra Life 2025 Recap
By Brian • 2 December 2025
I put more thought into the possibility of not doing Extra Life this year than any in recent memory. Mounting exhaustion, mounting world-weariness, and other complications nearly overwhelmed me. The desire was there, but the energy to plan or promote or set up the stream waned. The end of the year got closer, but preparation lay untouched. I started to think it wouldn’t happen.
Then I got an idea involving baseball, something to shake up the formula a bit and get our donors more involved. I could create a team of donors on Baseball Stars on NES, and pit them against the computer in a winner-take-all tournament.
The idea revitalized me. Extra Life needed to happen. Besides, it’s for the kids, right? That being said, I’m happy to report that we marathoned successfully on November 1, raising (as of this writing) $1,182 for St. Louis Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Here’s how it went down.
Balloon Fight (NES)
Satoru Iwata’s more-than-competent Joust clone became a favorite after I started playing it with Craig on Nintendo Switch Online. This was its first appearance in the marathon. It’s a high-score chaser, so it served as a fun, low-stakes opener for the day. I played a couple of rounds of the base game, one round of the horizontal-scrolling alternate mode called Balloon Trip, and called it good. Lots of games to get through—I felt warmed up and had to keep things moving.
Wizards & Warriors (NES)
Another low-stakes affair, Wizards & Warriors is a shockingly kind game, given its era. With unlimited continues and no penalty for death other than losing the high score, Kuros the knight has everything he needs to rescue his princess and put that good-for-nothing wizard Malkil in the ground, permitted he can navigate the twisting caves, towering forests, and damp dungeons between them. While I hadn’t played it in years, I remembered enough to come away with the win and have a great time along the way. Another good game to play early to establish good vibes for the day. I had some trouble with the giant bat boss, though. True EVIL at work. I’d love to see somebody beat Wizards & Warriors without using a continue. That sounds like a true feat!
Life Force (NES)
Hey, I remember when I was good at this game! Was I good during the marathon? No! Not at all. I was good about 10 years ago. As much as I’d like to believe that muscle memory and reflexes can get me through a tough shooter like Life Force, it’s really just practice. Lots and lots of practice. Without practice, I made it to the third level and burned out spectacularly...on the fire level, coincidentally! My troubles really began on the second level, though, where I kept getting killed by asteroids or volcanoes, losing my powerups and leaving myself unprepared for the third level. But, I couldn’t let this defeat bring me down—the next game wouldn’t be any easier.
Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! (NES)
Hey, I remember when I was good at this game! Was I good during the marathon? Actually, I wasn’t too bad, so maybe that muscle memory and reflexes can get me places, after all! I made it all the way to Mr. Sandman without incident, then lost two straight matches against him and had to battle my way back up the rankings to face him a third time, where I finally defeated him, and went on to beat Super Macho Man for the World Title. Then came Tyson, and while we won’t go into detail about my brutal (and repeated) demise at his hands, I want you to know that the rest of my time with Punch-Out!! punched above its weight class, and I regret that this game hasn’t appeared in marathons more often.
P.S. - Bald Bull’s Bull Charge didn’t give me any trouble...this time.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time (SNES)
This was actually the first time I played all the way through the Super Nintendo version of Turtles in Time. I don’t really know how that’s possible—I love beat ’em ups, I love the Ninja Turtles. How did I miss this for so long? Much like in the Hyper Stone Heist, which I played in last year’s marathon, I like the fairness and pattern recognition of the boss battles in Turtles in Time, and I like that the combat requires a certain degree of rhythm, of timing attacks instead of straight button-mashing. It took a little bit of getting used to, but it felt really good once I got the hang of it. I get why people like this game so much.
Gunstar Heroes (Sega Genesis)
Gunstar Heroes is crazy! It’s nonstop action. Bad guys flying around all over the place, explosions everywhere, wild boss encounters that go down to the wire—it’s a trip. I have no idea what’s happening as far as the story goes, but I know it’s a lot of fun. I got frustrated on one particularly lengthy level because I didn’t have the patience to take it slow, and I needed to keep the day moving. But, I still had fun. This was another marathon newcomer, by the way, and a welcome addition.
Super Return of the Jedi (SNES)
Super Return of the Jedi did not appear in the marathon as scheduled. I had to cut it from the lineup due to time constraints. It probably would have been a 2-3 hour game on its own. Just not enough time for all of these classics. Maybe next year—Star Wars is due for an appearance soon!
Baseball Stars (NES) Extra Life Hootenanny
The centerpiece of this year’s marathon, Baseball Stars brought a new donation incentive to the festivities. For a minimum donation, donors could join my Baseball Stars team, thanks to the game’s create-a-team mode, which allowed me to build a team, name the players, and assign them positions. Fittingly, I named the team the Extra Lifers and filled the team with donors and coworkers. The Extra Lifers played a round robin against five computer-controlled teams, and the top four teams advanced to a tournament to determine the winner of the first World Series of Extra Life!
I spent a few hours prior to the marathon leveling up the team so they would be interesting to watch, but I may have gone a little too far with it. Aside from a couple of close games, the Extra Lifers crushed their opposition in both round robin and tournament play, and captured the title convincingly. Our pitchers only gave up a couple of runs all day, one threw a no-hitter, and Craig had a batting average in excess of .850 at one point in time. While it was too easy, I had a blast bringing Baseball Stars and a new means of donor participation to the marathon, and I’m happy to bring it back again in the future, but maybe with a little more competition next time. To inject even more baseball into the mix, bad enough dude and Twitch chat moderator Melissa kept us up-to-date on Game 7 of the actual World Series during the World Series of Extra Life. Baseball on top of baseball!
Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins (Game Boy)
I’ve played Super Mario Land 2 a couple of times during the marathon in the last few years. It’s fun, and it’s weird, and I get the distinct feeling that I’m missing something about the game. I know there are hidden exits and secret levels—I’ve found a few, but I don’t think I’ve found all of them, and I’m wondering if something interesting might happen if I do. It’s a good game, but I suspect I haven’t unlocked its full potential. Hmmm. One of these days.
Super Castlevania IV (SNES)
Super Castlevania IV grows on me a little more each time I play it. My initial impression, that of an unorthodox installment in the series that’s too long and has weird music, still stands, but it just has so much character that it’s getting harder for me to resist. I’m not that good at it, probably part of the reason why it seems so long, but I can’t dismiss it quite so quickly anymore. I hope the challenges I ran into on this one entertained the stream audience, especially the time I died because I sank in a pile of treasure. Whoops!
Mega Man 3 (NES)
All of a sudden, there was a section of Spark Man’s level, a section with a bottomless pit I’ve never had much trouble with before, that threw me for a loop. I couldn’t get past it. I had to leave Spark Man until the end, after I acquired the Rush Jet, so I could cross the pit without getting knocked in by enemies. That got me thinking about revising my entire boss order, the one I’ve been using since 1991 or whenever I first played this. It has a weird hole in the middle of it where I face Snake Man without the weapon that’s effective against him. It has room for improvement, and my sudden inability to beat Spark Man’s level without Rush Jet might be the catalyst to finally perfect it. Anyway, I had fun in spite of that sudden hiccup. Mega Man 3 rules.
A Tradition Unlike Any Other:™ NES Open Tournament Golf (NES)
I dug into the archives to check my score from last year’s marathon: +7. This year? +12. In my defense, I’ve been playing a lot of Mario Golf on Game Boy Color lately, and the mechanics and swing speeds are slightly different in that game, so I had to make some quick adjustments. But then I kind of choked at the end, so the middle 10 holes were great, but the first four and last four were a mess.
Classic PC Block: Commander Keen, Crystal Caves HD, Secret Agent HD
I was pretty out of it on these games, so I’ll condense them into a single recap. All three games have sprawling levels with lots of bonus points and keys to collect, so I spent a chunk of the overnight hours exploring three episodes’ worth of huge stages, picking up stuff to my heart’s content. Not only that, but I played Crystal Caves and Secret Agent on hard mode, so my already addled brain also had to deal with minimal ammunition and a smaller health bar. What is my fascination with subjecting myself to additional torture and misery when I’m already not at my best?
Final Games: The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (Game Boy Color) and Metroid: Zero Mission
I split these over the last four hours of the marathon, not intending to finish either, but to get as far as possible. I played Link’s Awakening a bit longer than Zero Mission and got to the entrance of the third dungeon, the Key Cavern. In Zero Mission, I beat Kraid, and I think the last item I collected before time mercifully ran out and I turned off the stream was the Varia Suit. I didn’t intentionally pick two portable games as my final two, but they reminded me of how awesome Game Boy games can be, whether original, Color, or Advance. Between these games and playing lots of Game Boy games on Nintendo Switch Online over the last couple of years, I’ve enjoyed a lot of portable games lately, and I’m so impressed by how much game developers eked out of these tiny systems. I think about games like Link’s Awakening, Bionic Commando, Donkey Kong ’94, the GBA Castlevanias and/or Metroids, and so on, and the amount of space they fill in my gaming memories feels disproportionate to all the console and PC and otherwise “technically superior” games. They are great games, not to be taken for granted. I think I’ve spent a lot more time on portables in my life than I realized. Either that, or the games are just really good. Probably a little of both!
That wraps up Extra Life for this year! I want to extend a special thanks to everybody who donated toward, participated in, or otherwise supported the marathon. It’s for a good cause and makes a real difference for the kids and families at our local St. Louis Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Obviously, I’m glad I ended up going through with it, and while I’m not interested in doing another marathon any time soon, by the time next fall arrives, I’ll be ready for another 24 hours of charity gaming madness.
Thanks for reading, and see you next mission!
