by Chris Selogy
2025 had a lot of good games to make up for the rough year the industry had as a whole.
This year has been quite a challenging year to cover games. The weekly news showed how badly studios did if they didn’t release a hugely successful game and needed funding for their next game, as all of that money seemed to be going to AI bullshit that is soaking up so much of the stock market. So much so that we’re on the verge of a recession when this bubble bursts. It’s a disheartening time to pretend everything is great in this industry when so many have suffered, and others are fearing for their jobs.
Despite that, there were a bunch of great games that came out this year — much more than I could keep up with, so not everything made my Top 10 list below.
This was a tough year to cut my list down to 10 games, so there were plenty of close calls that I’ll shout out. Blue Prince was a puzzle roguelite game I enjoyed a lot, but got a bit lost in the middle part of the game as I tried to juggle the various quest lines before moving on to other games. Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor is probably the best of the auto-shooting survival games that came out this year, and it nearly made the list after putting a bunch of time into it after it hit 1.0. Consume Me is such a cool little autobiographical game about the developer’s teenage years dealing with eating disorders and other issues that led to her having such a bad time. It’s worth your attention for its fun spin on such a depressing topic. MLB The Show 25 was my favorite sports game of the year, as I put a lot of time into both the Road to the Show mode and Diamond Dynasty, which was the longest I stuck with any sports game’s UT mode. Avowed was the one Microsoft game that I put any real time into. I enjoyed it a lot for its world design and combat before just moving on. Despelote is a really good sports adventure game where you’re a kid seeing his home country of Ecuador make the World Cup for the first time. TMNT: Tactical Takedown was my most surprising game of the year since I didn’t expect Strange Scaffold to get to make a TMNT game, much less a strategy game set after Splinter and Shredder’s death, where the turtles have been scattered, so they have to fight alone to get back to each other. That’s not even everything, but I have to stop at some point.
Here are my top 10 games of 2025:
10. Ghost of Yotei – PlayStation 5
Ghost of Yotei takes the great core of Tsushima and puts it into a more open framework to let you tackle the Yotei 6 in a more freeform manner that has been a joy every time that I play it. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the time to really sink into it yet, but I’ve loved Erika Ishii’s performance and a beautiful world to explore at my usual slow pace. At least this game is built for letting me change my plans as erratically as my time allows me to play it.
9. Hollow Knight: Silksong – PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, PC
I didn’t really get into Hollow Knight until a fresh restart earlier this year, as I had anticipated Silksong’s release at some point. It made for quite an experience to hop into this strange new world with one of the best characters of the original game. Silksong doesn’t hesitate to make big changes to the ways you expect a sequel to work, with Hornet’s diagonal jumps changing how you’re used to playing the first game, to big changes to equipping crest, and the economy being overhauled. It’s a bold sequel that will push you to your limits with its tough bosses. I can’t wait to see how it evolves with Team Cherry’s planned post-launch updates.
8. Sektori – PlayStation 5, Xbox, PC
If there’s one way to really get me into a game, it’s to have a former Housemarque developer make a rad new dual-stick shooter that combines elements of Geometry Wars, Super Stardust HD, and Resogun to make for one of the best in the genre in years. Sektori can be challenging early on with its tutorial that explains a few of its mechanics and leaves the rest for you to explore. That means being overwhelmed with its visuals to the degree that you don’t even notice various parts of the HUD for a while. And that tips you off to more things you could learn to get better scores. I’ve still got a long way to go to be good at this game, but it’s a challenge that I’ll keep returning to throughout 2026.
7. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – PlayStation 5, Xbox, PC
In spite of Clair Obsur: Expedition 33 being on the shorter side for its genre, I still have not beaten it yet to potentially place it higher on this list, but that’s not for a lack of interest in doing so. The story has been excellent so far, but it starts with a hell of a bummer note that wasn’t as enticing as it could’ve been for this potentially depressing journey. The battle system is very well done, with each character having their own mechanics within the battle system, though not every character I’ve seen so far has mechanics I want to bother with. That makes me bummed as my crew grows when they also don’t have experience sharing for the benchwarmers. I enjoy the moments when everybody gets to relax and have a little bit more fun in these new areas that come with the caveat that it’ll always end.
6. Squeakross: Home Squeak Home – Switch, PC
Last year was the first year that I was able to put a Picross-like game on my Top 10 and I’m happy that another great game in this subgenre of puzzle games has appeared with Squeakross: Home Squeak Home. Made by developers with the same high expectations and need for a variety of options to make these Picross puzzles as hard as I wish them to be, it does just about everything I wish Jupiter would do to spice up their own puzzle designs for an even more satisfying experience. Squeakross is a lovely blend of Picross and Animal Crossing, as you complete puzzles to gain new furniture for your rodent’s new home and clothing for them to wear. The big improvement is that the puzzle isn’t just an item in a neutral position, as they often rotate to an angle that makes for a more interesting puzzle. The challenge versions also do the same thing, so they’re not recycling the same puzzles like Jupiter does with Mega Picross. It’s such a lovely Picross experience that lets you tailor it to your skill level without judging you for needing help or taking your time.
5. Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time – PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, PC
Fantasy Life was my favorite 3DS game, so this sequel had a lot to live up to. It does a great job of meeting those expectations despite everything going against it. I’ve returned to the min-max lifestyle where I constantly check the challenges each job as I try to complete them for each job as efficiently as I can while exploring and grinding to my heart’s content. The main story is not as long as I’d like, but they let you get back to the fun of the grind that is more of the focus for me. It’s why this game is one of the best of this year. Sometimes it’s the simple things that make a game great.
4. Ball x Pit – PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, PC
Ball x Pit might be the most surprising game of the year. I didn’t expect this unique Arkanoid-meets-Vampire Survivors roguelite to be a game that I’ve had trouble putting down, even though I’ve beaten the campaign ages ago. The special sauce here is that the game keeps adding new characters that completely change the way the game works. You have guys who shoot the ball from the back of the field, pick their own upgrades, and even a guy who changes it into a turn-based game. They even let you use two characters simultaneously to make for even wilder combos of those abilities. The town-building part of the game is its weakest link, but it gets better as you get further into the game, with the way it improves your stats and makes it much easier to beat stages. I can’t wait for the updates Kenny Sun has announced for 2026, so I can keep the fun going for another year.
3. Herdling – PC, PlayStation 5
Okomotive has made two great games in their Far series, and they’ve taken a break to make what is their best game so far in Herdling in an almost Journey-like fashion. You’re a kid that goes on an amazing journey, guiding these goofy goober Calicorns that you bring into the herd you’re controlling as you traverse open fields and some dangerously narrow paths for one of the best short games in a long time. There’s really not much else to add other than it makes Okomotive one of the best indie developers out there. I can’t wait for their weird pinball game that they announced recently because it seems so different than their previous games.
2. Baby Steps – PlayStation 5, PC
It’s no surprise that a game from Bennett Foddy, Gabe Cuzzillo, and Maxi Boch is one of the strangest games of the year. It’s also not surprising that it ended up being one of my favorite games of the year that constantly subverted my expectations. Nate is a loser failson that gets isekaied into a new world where he must do everything on his own two feet, which controls the way you’d expect from the developer of the awkward QWOP. After getting used to how it works, Baby Steps becomes more of a chill, fascinating experience as I find fun challenges around each area, collect some cool hats I’ll inevitably lose when I fall down a big hill, and run into the weirdest people in this messed-up alternate world. It’s the kind of game that feels like it was made for people like me, and it’s awesome to see how many others are also vibing with this unique experience.
1. PowerWash Simulator 2 – PlayStation, Xbox, Switch 2, PC
PowerWash Simulator has been one of the best games of the past few years with its continued support of new DLCs and free jobs. It’s become a staple of my streaming schedule every few months. FuturLab has done a great job with its successor, showing they are masters of the chill simulator genre. The story does a good job of fleshing out the world even more as you visit the neighboring cities of Muckingham during the new county mayor’s Town of the Year contest. It pays off a lot of the story from the first game and its DLC. Not many games get me to want to replay them over and over again, but PowerWash Simulator 2 is one of those that I’ll be playing until we get a third game with a new mystery to solve.
If you’re interested in any of the small games on this list, please check them out and buy them to support great devs who could use some help. The big companies will be mostly fine, but small devs make some of the best games every year and don’t get even 1% of the coverage they deserve. Maybe then these devs could be like Supergiant Games or Team Cherry: working on new games at their own pace and releasing them when they’re ready without having their games buried on Steam, PSN, the eShop, and the Xbox Store. Take more chances and try new games so you can find more exciting games to surprise you every once in a while.