Honestly, one of the hardest tasks of the year is narrowing down my top 10 games. That’s mainly because there are only so many games that I can play during the year. Outside of Greg, I’m probably the staffer who’s racked up the most traveling miles and that time away from home cuts into what I can play throughout the year. Plus, with the reviews that pile up and the time that I take to catch up with my daily quests on other games, it’s tough to keep up with 2025’s load.
Still, there are quite a few games that left an impression on me this year. So let’s chat about them for a minute.
10. Mario Kart World
Mario Kart has been such a big part of my life. Even when I wasn’t gaming so much during my college days, Mario Kart found its way into some of my most fun evenings. After decades, I couldn’t fathom what more this series could do, especially after a decade with Mario Kart 8. Then came Mario Kart World with Knockout Tour, which provided top-notch entertainment for me throughout the year. And, yeah, I have a feeling that I’m going to be playing it a lot in the coming years.
9. Skate Story
I was raised on the mean streets of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, so the idea of a THPS-style game with an actual story intrigued me greatly. Man, was it good to see Sam Eng and Devolver Digital nail the execution on this. The visuals alone are hypnotic, but the idea of busting out sick combos to survive in the underworld is just too cool. The wait was definitely worth it for this one.
8. Hollow Knight: Silksong
Speaking of waits, I wasn’t waiting on the edge of my seat for Hollow Knight: Silksong the way that some people were. With that said, I’m always down for a challenging platformer. Silksong’s challenges could get aggravating, mainly the challenge of finding my way around and keeping track of where I was. That aside, these boss fights scratched a primitive itch for me, the kind that tested my reflexes and my patience and the kind that left me feeling really proud of myself when I came out on top. Silksong’s story is a memorable one, but I was in this for the almost NES-like difficulty of these fights.
7. Dispatch
I have missed these types of games immensely. Peak Telltale was a vibe. I loved The Walking Dead. The Wolf Among Us was everything I wanted out of a game based on Fables. Tales From the Borderlands still stands out to me as the developer’s best work. For some of those old faces to come back with a vengeance under a new banner and with a gripping, emotional, and funny superhero story, I was all about that.
Dispatch brought back that old feeling of finishing an episode and chatting with friends about the choices we made. Part of what made this particular game feel like magic were the choices wrapped around that critical love triangle and the many ways that it could have gone. I love these characters and I hope it’s not the last time we see them.
6. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Speaking of amazing characters, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 gave me an attachment to its cast in a different way. It was a bond forged through trauma. It was a trauma caused by an almost existential sense of pending, unavoidable doom.
Of course, a big part of what made me want to take this ride with these characters was the excellent turn-based combat. People seem to like parries in RPGs. As an old-school Super Mario RPG player, I could speak this language, because it’s basically the old Timed Hits system taken to its next evolution. I relished the time spent playing around with the combat system and it made this one of the better RPG experiences I had this year.
5. DOOM: The Dark Ages
Not every great game needs to have this incredible narrative. In fact, DOOM: The Dark Ages’ story actively worked against it. Stop that, id. You stop that right now. I don’t need pathos with my Doom Slayer. I just want to rip and tear.
Fortunately, ripping and tearing is where the third entry in this modern trilogy excels. I’ve greatly enjoyed how the three latest DOOM games allow players to rip and tear in different ways. In this case, it was largely about bashing skulls with a new shield that brought out my inner Captain America. Plus, the bombastic visuals of flying around on a dragon and entering arenas within arenas never left me feeling bored. In fact, I was surprised when the ride ended.
4. Lumines Arise
Enhance is so good at this, taking simple puzzle games and making them into a feast for the senses. Lumines Arise’s visuals are so striking that they actively work as a distraction. I had to turn down the intensity at points whenever I wanted to just play the game. With that said, this is such a fun puzzle game, one that flourishes with imagination. The gameplay, the visuals, and the music all come together for an unforgettable puzzle experience.
I’m a Tetris guy through and through, but I had a great appreciation for Lumines by the time I rolled credits on Arise.
3. Donkey Kong Bananza
It’s well over 25 years since Donkey Kong’s last true foray into 3D platforming. It was that bad. That’s why I thought it was bold that Nintendo’s first big 3D platformer for the Switch 2 was starring the big ape himself.
This felt like a new beginning in so many ways. The whole new visual style for DK himself, the de-aging of Pauline, and the vast worlds to explore beyond DK Island. The primitive destruction feels so satisfying, almost like a different side of the DOOM: The Dark Ages coin. It’s executed so brilliantly and while the notion of DK turning into other animals is a little weird, the Bananzas ended up being one of the game’s biggest highlights.
That’s before even getting to the big twist finale, which I ate up with a spoon.
2. Blue Prince
I was one of the first members of the press to look at an early build of Blue Prince back in 2024. The concept hooked me immediately. A roguelite puzzle game? One that’s about 3D exploration in a mansion that keeps changing its layout every day?
When the final version came out, it lived up to every expectation I had. My mind was broken for weeks, especially as I kept stumbling onto new puzzles, as well as puzzles within puzzles. There’s a consistent sense of mystery in Blue Prince, one that tests every escape room instinct you might have. I can think of few gaming discourses I enjoyed more than Blue Prince, poking people’s brains about puzzle solutions, whatever weird thing they found, the weird things I found, and everything else that came up in the weeks after it was released.
I had this at the top of my list throughout 2025. Then…
1. Hades 2
I was so tempted to pick up Hades 2 on Steam Early Access for such a long time. I wanted to take that gradual journey across the underworld, but I knew there would be a satisfaction in just waiting. I discovered the magic of the original Hades on the Nintendo Switch, so the sequel demanded to be played on the Switch 2 after it reached 1.0. I’m so glad I waited.
Melinoe’s journey delivers the same level of satisfaction that I got from Zagreus back in 2020. But Supergiant managed to build on that foundation so beautifully, delivering a full-blown hub world, a deeper combat system, and so much more to explore. Failure almost feels like its own reward, just because you get to see the story move incrementally forward in such an engaging manner.
If this had been “Hades, but with a few more things,” that’s an incredible effort anyway. But once Melinoe was called upon by the Olympian gods to aid them on the surface, opening up an entirely different route with an even greater challenge, I was so happy. It was the kind of difficulty spike that I used to get out of something like the original Legend of Zelda’s second quest. It fed me more challenge, more story, and more characters to love. Hades 2’s cast is magnificent and, yeah, Melinoe doesn’t have the natural magnetism of her brother, but she plays off of everybody else so well that it doesn’t matter.
A total masterpiece of a game. I never give out 10s in my reviews. I don’t believe in it. A game has to be something truly special to earn a 10. Hades 2 got my first 10 at Shacknews. It’s everything I look for in a video game.
