2025 In Games
The Switch Pro.. errr Switch 2 is finally here! Surely a big new console launch means a big year for games right? Riiiight???? Well, maybe for some, but not really for me. Honestly, the most fun I had this year was replaying Symphony of the Night and Ys: Oath in Felghana. It was also kind of a rough year overall though, so it might not really be entirely on the new releases this year that I feel so melancholic about it. Either way, it's time to get into everything I played this year!
⭐ =Play If You're Curious
⭐⭐ = Generally Recommended
(YouTube links have been embedded into the games' titles)
(*Asterisks show the console version I played)
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~JANUARY~
⭐⭐⭐
I started off my year on a high note with a remaster of the best Ys game: 2005's superlative Action-RPG The Oath in Felghana. While there isn't much new in this remaster, and some argue the current PC port is actually superior, it's just great to have more Ys games on contemporary consoles. The top-down Ys games play like combat-focused Zelda games, and the action is fast and addictive. The soundtrack is also stellar, with a hair-metal inspired motif that I can never get enough of. The combat, platforming, and Metroidvania-like level design is really just the perfect blend for me, and comes together to make possibly my favorite Action RPG ever. I really can not recommend this game enough to everyone.
⭐⭐⭐
Team Ladybug returns once again with their third pixel-art Metroidvania, Blade Chimera. I love Team Ladybug's games, and was super excited for this one. And it was a ton of fun! The pixel art is gorgeous and expressive, the soundtrack is great, and the story was really solid. You play as a demon hunter, and are slowly unraveling the insidious nature of the police force that you work for, and how your own history connects with the establishment of it. Highly recommend it for fans of Metroidvanias.
(NS*, PS4, PS5, XBO, XS, PC, MAC, MOBILE)
⭐⭐
I needed a breather after two frenetic action games, so I slowed things down with the puzzle game Paper Trail. It's a charming, somber game about a runaway and plays similarly to games like Carto and Arranger, where you manipulate the environment to progress. In this one, you fold and unravel the world like papercraft to make pathways to the next area. It stumped me a few times, but if you like puzzle games, it's really good.
~FEBRUARY~
⭐⭐
Yay! Another pixel-art Metroidvania! Sorry, I really can't get enough of these, and I hope I never do. I really like the Momodora series, though I still have to play the first two at some point. This one acts as a narrative closer for the series, so you'll probably at least want to be familiar with what happens in the previous games before jumping in, but I had a great time with it. The art is gorgeous, and looked extra stunning on my Switch's OLED screen.
⭐
I was super excited for Fantasian, the new game from Mistwalker, to finally hit consoles at the end of 2024, but when I finally got around to playing it, I ended up being a little let-down by it. The game itself is gorgeous; Mistwalker emulated the pre-rendered backgrounds of late-90s RPGs by creating full-scale models of environments and using those as backgrounds. It's a marvel to see, and the game is worth checking out for that alone. The battle system is also a lot of fun, and allows you to skip random encounters by stacking them all into one encounter. The issue I had was that the story and characters were just not interesting. I got maybe 10 hours in before quitting due to lack of interest. And as much as I'd like to go back to it and try and see if it gets more compelling later on, I just don't have the time to devote to games over 10 hours that don't captivate me early on.
⭐⭐
Speaking of games with unique visual styles, The Plucky Squire combines 2D and 3D gameplay in some really cool ways, not unlike 2013's The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. It never really did anything that truly wowed me though, and ended up being a fairly standard Zelda-clone. That's not a bad things though! It was a really fun and charming time, and if the visual style looks appealing to you, I think you'll find a lot to like here.
⭐⭐
Earlier this year, I got together with a friend of mine in a Discord group and we helped each other finish out the LGPE and SV Pokedex. It was nice to finally have them both done.
~MARCH~
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
⭐⭐⭐
Speaking of Discord groups, that same one did a replay of Symphony of the Night together, and it might be the most fun I had with a game all year. This game remains the gold standard for Metroidvanias and 2D Action games in general. Every moment of it just oozes with perfection. The visuals are stunning, the soundtrack is superb, and the game is always just challenging enough; offering plenty of little cheesy ways to get past areas that feel too difficult without letting you just barrel through everything until close to the end of the game. What a masterpiece. I should play it again.
⭐
Good Feel's latest game is a fun and charming throback to the Ganbare Goemon series, and like everything Good Feel has done in the past few years, it looks far better than it plays. Is it possible for something to be too polished? I had a similar with Astro Bot, though in that case it was mostly the art direction that I had issues with. Bakeru lacks "crunch". It lacks something for the player to bounce off of and react to. The attacks don't have a strong impact, and the only real point of challenge in the game is figuring out where secrets are hidden, which comes off more annoying than challenging. This was my complaint with Yoshi's Crafted World in 2019 as well. I really wanted to like this game, but just ended up getting bored.
Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance
⭐
After years of casually making my way through them, I have finally played every IGAvania. I had such a good time with Symphony of the Night, I decided not to wait any longer and just knock this one out. It's an interesting one, and absolutely the weakest of Iga's handheld Castlevania games. I think they tried too hard to make SotN again, and came out with a castle that was annoying and confusing to navigate. It's actually really impressive that the next title, Aria of Sorrow, ended up nearly being SotN's equal given how mediocre this game is.
~APRIL~
(PC, iOS, 3DS, PSV - NS*, PS4, PSV)
⭐⭐⭐
I had been looking for an excuse to dive into this acclaimed Visual Novel for a while, when LRG suddenly dropped more physical copies for Switch. I played through this one with my partner, and we were enthralled. The House in Fata Morgana is a gothic-horror story of love and revenge spanning several centuries of history around a mansion and the lives of the people that have inhabited it. And it is in no hurry to reveal its deeper layers to the player, as you take in three seemingly disparate tales before learning how it all weaves together. It took us around 50 hours to get through the whole story, but a fast reader on their own could get through it in around 30. It's not the most fun game I played this year. But it isn't a fun story. It is heartbreaking and painful. And it will sit with me for years.
⭐⭐
I needed something casual to play on evenings where we weren't playing The House in Fata Morgana, so I finally started up Gravity Rush. The game really reminds me of PS3/360-era Action games, and it was super charming. I loved flying around and exploring the city. If this were a 50-episode anime, I would be obsessed with it. But I never ended up getting very far in it. I kept meaning to go back to it, but just never found the time.
⭐⭐
I don't typically throw this kind of thing on these lists, but I had a friend over one evening to show off her new SummerCart64, and I played through all of this Super Mario 64 ROMhack. It was a lot of fun! Mario has been on vacation and has forgotten all his moves, including jumping. Every time you collect a star, you get a move back. It's a ton of fun, and now that I have a SummerCart64, I'm going to be looking for more ROMhacks like this.
(SCD - PS, PS3 - NS*, PS4, XBO, PC)
⭐⭐
Back in 2010, I picked up Silver Star Saga on PSP and fell in love with it. It was so charming and earnest, with incredibly likable characters. I kept waiting for a re-release of Eternal Blue, but until 2025, it just wasn't happening. Now was finally my chance to check it out! The vibe is definitely on par with the first game, but the cast really isn't as strong, and often feels like derivatives of the first game's cast. This seems to be a common sentiment from what I've heard. Still though, it's nice to play charming, short RPGs in a world of too many 50+ hour games.
~MAY~
⭐⭐⭐
With the announcement of Chapters 3-4, I decided to revisit the first two chapters on Switch. My partner and I played these together, and loved every minute. Even on my second run, there were still things hidden that I missed, and I am now wondering if I should go back and do all four chapters again before 5 drops this year. At the very least, I'd like to do another run of 3-4.
⭐⭐
Keita Takahashi's new game is a fun and cute exploration of navigating disability, though it never quite goes all the way with it. In fact, it's almost more a playable anime than anything else, with each chapter ending in teasers and each episode having an opening song. I found the game charming, but kind of just okay. It's very video game-y, but doesn't really want you to engage with it like a video game? I think the more casually you approach this game, the more you'll enjoy it.
~JUNE~
⭐⭐⭐
With the launch of the Switch 2, we finally get the first proper new Mario Kart game in 11 years. While a lot of people seem to be mixed on this game, I have absolutely adored it. I never, ever, imagined I would play a Mario Kart to relax, but Free Roam in this game is the ultimate vibe. I had a ton of fun exploring and doing the P-Switch challenges. Enough so that in my 40 hours of playing, I have not completed Grand Prix, and haven't even touched Knockout Tour or online play. And even on Free Roam alone, I would label this my GOTY. I was never the biggest fan of Mario Kart 8, but one thing it did well was the music, and World blows that out of the water with jazz renditions of tons of music from Mario series and sub-series history, including nearly every song from previous Mario Kart games. There is an incredible amount to discover here, and I hope we get an official release of the soundtrack someday.
⭐
Haters can stay mad, I enjoyed Welcome Tour. It gets a little too quiz-heavy in the last stretch, but there's a lot of really fun mini-games that show off the tech. I think it's worth the $10, but not everyone is going to get enjoyment out of it.
⭐⭐⭐
Finally! Chapters 3 and 4 are here. Chapter 3 started a little slow, but the game within a game concept really captivated me, and it was fascinating to dig into. Chapter 4 was a beast of a chapter, with more than I could really take in in a single playthrough. This is the one I really want to replay before Chapter 5 drops. Nobody else is out there doing it like Toby Fox is doing it.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild & Tears of the Kingdom Nintendo Switch 2 Editions (DLC)
⭐⭐⭐
So they added more content to some Zelda games, which means a dozen more hours in each! I wrapped up all the added audio files, but didn't go after the achievements since it was going to be an unreasonable amount of work. I really can and will play these two games forever.
Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution
⭐⭐
For better or worse, Shante Advance really does feel like a game straight of out 2004. It's really cool that they went back to the original concept for what would become Shantae: Risky's Revenge and made it into a full game, GBA cartridge and all. Like all Shantae games, it's a little fetch-questy and obtuse, but I really love these little Action games.
~JULY~
(NS*, XBO, XS, PC, MAC, MOBILE)
⭐⭐
This is a fun little puzzle game where you are arranging food in a bento box for your child's lunch. I haven't finished it, but I've been popping in periodically to solve a puzzle or two.
⭐
It's a shame. I was really excited for Edgy Pac-Man Metroidvania, but it simply did not deliver. Remember earlier when I said about Fantasian that I did not have the time for games that took too long to get going? Similarly here, it takes like 8-10 hours for this game to open up, and by the time I got to that point in the game, I had lost interest. The 2010 XBLA look of the game was compelling in 2025, but not really enough to keep me invested, and the game is just not good at building intrigue early on. The ideal Metroidvania is 10-20 hours, and seeing that this game exceeds 30 really sapped all my motivation to keep going. Yes, I adored the way-too-long Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, but I also loved everything it was doing during all that time. This game was just a little too dour and a little too dull for a little too long.
⭐
Another cute little puzzle game I've been playing in my spare time on my iPhone, though I keep forgetting about it. It's got kind of a WarioWare vibe to it, and while the puzzles start out like they're made for 6 year olds, they do eventually get to be the right level of challenge.
~AUGUST~
⭐⭐
Cing is a developer known for their Adventure/Visual Novel games on NDS, and while they aren't around any more, some members of that team have come together at Arc System Works to bring us a brand new game after remaking Another Code. Dear me, I was... is a lovely and short tale about a woman's life, and the impact those close to her had on her. There is no dialogue, and the visuals are a gorgeous water color design. I love games like this that you can play in an afternoon, that give you a window into others' lived experiences.
⭐⭐⭐
I love, love, love this little bird! It's been a little bit since developer Siactro's last game, and Toree Saturn is a big love letter to 90s Sega games, even featuring a guest appearance by Crush 40's Johnny Gioeli! It's fantastic, though I think Toree 2 is still my favorite so far. I've loved everything Siactro has put out so far, and I hope he's got many more years of game dev in him!
No Sleep For Kaname Date - From AI: The Somnium Files
⭐⭐
I love the Somnium Files series, though it feels like the narrative choices at the end of the first game, and the insistence of sequel games to avoid spoilers, are really painting us into a corner on what we can do in this world. I don't personally think anything from the first game really keeps us from having more mysteries with these characters, but both this game and Nirvana Initiative end up flanderizing characters in order to avoid developing them well. It's a weird, unnecessary approach. This game is positioned as a side-story that can feature characters without needing to develop them, and I think it manages it well. But I really don't know how this series continues on after this. Are we just going to keep making games with inconsequential narratives? I do want to see these characters more, but I feel like the correct thing to do at this point would be to develop a new series with the same writers and character designers, but with a plan in place to make more games. That, or declare the second game non-canon. Anyway, this game is a lot of fun, and just as hilarious as the last two. They brought back the escape room challenges from the Zero Escape series, but they just don't have the punch here that they did then. Probably because series director Uchikoshi only did consulting work for this one. I don't know what's next for this team, but I'd hate to see these kinds of games stop being made by Spike Chunsoft just because Uchikoshi seems ready to move on.
Little Kitty, Big City: The Picture Purrfect Update (DLC)
⭐⭐⭐
One of my favorite games from 2024 got a little update in August that added a couple hours of quests and cat customization. It was nice to revisit it, even if it was over in an afternoon. Hopefully it doesn't take too long for this team to deliver their next work.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land: Star-Crossed World (DLC)
⭐⭐
Nintendo has been adding Switch 2 exclusive content to their Switch games, and for Kirby and the Forgotten Land we got about a dozen new stages, some extra bosses, and a new Arena. I adored Forgotten Land when I played it in 2022, but revisiting it with these new stages somehow felt less compelling. Is it because the new content doesn't really feel new? Or is Kirby just not really scratching the same itch it used to? I had a hard time getting into Return to Dream Land Deluxe, and never did end up finishing it and playing through the new post-game content. I guess we'll see how I feel when the next new Kirby platforming game releases.
~SEPTEMBER~
Sea of Stars: Throes of the Watchmaker (DLC)
⭐⭐
Sea of Stars was a decent game, but not quite remarkable. It comes off just a bit too derivative of the games it was inspired by, and the two leads are dull and flat. While the DLC Throes of the Watchmaker doesn't do too much aside from pad out the runtime of the game, what it does do is give the two leads some much-needed depth. Not enough to make up for their personalities in the rest of the game, but enough to make this worth playing alongside the rest of the adventure.
(NS, NS2, PS4, PS5*, XBO, XS, PC)
⭐⭐⭐
Finally, a great Sonic racer again! Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed might just be the best kart racer ever made, but the follow-up Team Sonic Racing did not deliver in the way anyone really wanted, focusing almost entirely on co-op racing. Crossworlds brings back the best parts of Transformed's dynamic tracks and transforming karts to make a game that I feel compliments Mario Kart World's more casual approach really well. Where Crossworlds falls a little flat for me, and why I haven't played it any since October, is the lack of compelling single-player content. Transformed had this massive single-player challenge board that was a ton of fun to complete, but Crossworlds only has typical Grand Prix. Now granted, I still haven't finished Grand Prix, but I haven't played online at all, and that really seems to be where all the attention of the game is going. And that's definitely the right call, it just means the game didn't really end up being what I wanted. One other nitpick that has more to do with the PS5 than Crossworlds is that my experience of connecting multiple controllers to my PS5 to play a round of multiplayer was so atrociously bad, that I think I will never, ever buy another multiplayer PlayStation game again. And in fact, if the Switch 2 version of this game is on par performance-wise with the PS5 version, I might swap the game out for that.
(GCN, PS2, XB, GBA - NS, NS2*, PS4, PS5, XBO, XS, PC)
⭐
I like cute, mediocre platformers. I played Chibi-Robo: Zip Lash to completion. I enjoyed the first Pac-Man World Re-Pac. But the sequel just did not have the sauce for me, and I kept getting bored playing it. I know this is a really popular game for people a bit younger than me, and I was excited to give it a shot, but I just had to put it down after getting pretty close to the end. I've heard this remake isn't quite as good as the original, but is it really this much worse?
~OCTOBER~
⭐⭐⭐
I have been saying for years that this is the best 3D Super Mario game, and after revisiting it, I still more or less feel that way. It delivers on everything I enjoyed about the first Galaxy, a game I don't really care much for overall, and just makes every element of it better. The pace of new ideas and things to interact with never slows down. The music is incredible, and we get our first taste of the big band style music that would become central to Mario's identity in the 2010s. In fact, the only real flaw with this game is that there is not enough Rosalina.
Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga
⭐
Ever the Nihon Falcom fan, I was excited to give this previously Japan-exclusive PSP fighting game a shot. Unfortunately, it is not only very basic, but suuuuuuper grindy to unlock enough content to even make good use of local multiplayer. And as a crossover, given when it released, it does not have a lot to pull from from either series, so it ends up being mostly Trails in the Sky 1 and Ys Seven. I was hoping for a solid new party game to put into rotation, but alas.
⭐⭐⭐
It's been a very long time since there has been a new Katamari Damacy game, and even longer since I played one, since the last one I played was Beautiful Katamari on Xbox 360. And while I haven't played the Apple Arcade Katamari that also released this year, I am pleased as punch to report that Once Upon a Katamari has the sauce. The gameplay draws heavily from We Love Katamari, which was absolutely the right call. It's not quite on that level, but it is more than a worthy successor. Thankfully, the soundtrack is fantastic as well. The one downside is that the Switch version is a bit janky, which is a shame when the two Katamari Reroll games ran just fine. I am hoping a Switch 2 patch is in the works to stabilize things. Either way though, I still give this game a big recommendation!
~NOVEMBER~
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment
⭐
Was it not enough that Tears of the Kingdom was a huge disappointment? Did we really have to do this? Honestly, I was ready to move on from this world, but I thought, "Well, Age of Calamity was one of my favorite Switch games, so maybe they can pull of the unthinkable and make me like Tears of the Kingdom more by expanding the story?" Unfortunately, the opposite happened. Despite being centered on Zelda, and featuring Sonia and Ganondorf, the game barely expands on any of them. Sonia is only present in the first couple hours, and Ganondorf barely ever appears. While Zelda is a major character, the Zonai Construct stand-in for Link ends up taking center stage. We learn absolutely nothing of note about the Imprisoning War, Zelda, Rauru, the Zonai, or Ganondorf. If there were any doubt that Tears of the Kingdom has the most basic, mary-sue-ass writing in the entire series, Age of Imprisonment firmly establishes that narrative immaturity as an intentional choice, and closes the Wild-era out with the equivalent of a wet fart.
⭐⭐
I adore developer Colorgrave, but as much as I'd like to explore their works, I just can not motivate myself to play games on my PC. And so, I played a couple hours of Claire a la Mode, and while I really liked this pixel-art platformer, I never did get around to playing very much of it, so I can't say if it lives up to the stellar Curse Crackers. I feel like it does though, as the early parts of the game were really strong. I'm hoping to make time for this and Colorgave's other games this year.
~DECEMBER~
⭐⭐
This game was not worth the wait. I don't know what Nintendo was thinking announcing this so far in advance, even considering this was originally likely to launch around 2020/2021. Metroid Prime 4 isn't a bad game, but it's just an okay one. It feels as good to play as any of the other Prime games, but the level and boss design never reaches the highs of those games. But where the game really falls apart is the narrative and writing. Metroid isn't a series that's known for narrative, but at its best, it takes a "less is more" approach of environmental storytelling and optional data logs to expand the world. The lore of the alien race of Lamorn is solid, but the interactions of Samus with the Federation soldiers she is partnered with need a lot of work. I don't think they are as annoying as previews led us all to believe, but they don't really belong in a Metroid game, unless Nintendo wants Metroid Prime to be more like Halo. And honestly, I don't think that is a bad thing! But if that's what we're doing, Samus has to talk. Having her be chatty in Other M wasn't a bad call, it was the correct decision. The issue with that game was how they characterized Samus, not the fact that she spoke. In this game, we have the opposite problem, where she never speaks, and rarely emotes, so we're left to wonder why any other character is present at all. Our primary antagonist this time, Sylux from Metroid Prime: Hunters, could be a great recurring antagonist, but his purpose here and his newly established backstory only serve to make Sylux seem pointless as well. I liked playing this game, but at the end of it all, I can only ask: What was the point of this?
⭐
I love Bubble Bobble, so I am really happy the series is getting attention again! Unfortunately, Sugar Dungeons turned out to be a Roguelike, so, alas, it is not for me. Honestly, though, that's a great idea for a new Bubble Bobble game. Hope this game finds some fans.
⭐⭐⭐
Fortunately, Sugar Dungeons came bundled with the Arcade classic Bubble Symphony, which was the inspiration for my retro game white whale, Bubble Bobble: Part 2. I played through this with a friend, and plan on playing it many more times over the years. I wish I could tell you to go get it as well, but alas, it is bundled exclusively with Sugar Dungeons. Hopefully that changes. An Arcade Archives release of this would be great.
Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection
⭐⭐⭐
I love developer Digital Eclipse's documentary game collections, so I was really excited to see the background of one of my favorite game series from my childhood. I haven't really been into Mortal Kombat since the 90s, and honestly, I mainly bought this to watch the features more than play the games. These games are hard! I haven't finished the features yet, maybe I'll make time this year to go through it and the other Digital Eclipse games I haven't finished.
⭐⭐
My final game of the year, though I have yet to finish it, is Naiad. It is a relaxing game where you are swimming downstream and helping flora and fauna while learning more about yourself and your role in nature. It's lovely, and relaxing, and a great game to wrap up the year on.
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And that's a wrap for 2025! Not a terribly eventful year for playing games, but maybe a more eventful year than I would have liked in other areas. Once I wrap up Naiad, I plan on playing through Claire Obscure and then deciding if I have Octopath Traveler 0 in me or not. I would really like to get through some games on my PC like Momodora and Colorgave's library, as well as some of the Gold Master Series games by Digital Eclipse. We'll see how much, if any, progress I make on any of that when we meet again at the end of 2026!
Beat:26
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