It’s a cliché at this point to start out one of these Game of the Year articles by saying how bad of a year I’ve had, but man, 2025 was truly awful to me in some aspects. Thankfully, the games that I’ve enjoyed were there to help me through it, as usual.
Here are some of them.
Best Remake/Remaster(s) of the Year:
Final Fantasy: The Ivalice Chronicles | Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter
At a time when remakes and remasters are aplenty, why not talk about the ones I’ve actually played in 2025? Two RPGs that couldn’t be more on opposite ends of the popularity spectrum. One, a remaster of one of the best games of its generation, a tactical twist of a very popular and established franchise, the other, a remake of a still very niche but still long-running series that spans dozens of games. Two extremely enjoyable titles lovingly recreated that I fell in love with in 2025.
Old Game(s) of the Year:
Shin Megami Tensei IV | Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux
Simply put, these games have been sitting in my backlog for years and thanks to a blackout that lasted almost two weeks, I eventually got around to playing on my 3DS. Both excellent RPGs that I’m nowhere near finishing – nor am I in any hurry to – that took hold of me for quite a while in 2025.
Most Anticipated Game(s) of the Year:
Commandos Origins | Hollow Knight: Silksong | Old Skies
I’m a sucker for the two of these for different reasons. Decades-long fan of a series that hasn’t gotten a sequel for just about as long, and for as full of issues as it had on release, its newest entry was certainly worth the wait. The adventure genre is undoubtedly a part of my relationship with videogames and this one made me fall in love with them all over again. Simply brilliant from top to bottom. Can’t say I’ve put a fair number of hours into Hollow Knight but never finished it, but I know who Hornet is and was definitely excited to play its sequel. It definitely lived up to the hype!
Best Surprise(s) of the Year:
Baby Steps
Games don’t have to be smart nor do they have to force you to think a whole lot in order to be “fun”. This one in particular tries its best to make you think it’s really dumb… it’s anything but. Clever, full of cheeky humor, and with a particular brand of gameplay that nearly drove me up the wall – and tumbling more than a few times down a couple of mountains – I couldn’t help but dust off, laugh, and try again.
Dispatch
The return of Telltale Games-styled adventure games has been teased so much over the last few years with smaller budget releases like Star Trek Defiance, it’s with this one that it feels like not only are they back, but truly improved upon. I’m excited to see it to the end.
Comfort Food Game of the Year:
Donkey Kong Bananza
It took Nintendo a couple of months to finally put out a game that made it worth getting a Switch 2 for with this. Probably spent more time breaking everything than actually making any progress, lol.
It’s not a game but it’s in my Game of the Year list, damn it:
Twisted Metal (the TV show!)
Late last year I finally hit play on this thing over at HBO Max after trying my best not to, thinking it would be hot trash. Boy, how surprised I was to find it anything but. A TV show based on a series with not that much going on storywise that treats its source material with a shocking amount of reverence and a much welcome silly tone, while at the same time having some amazing character moments.
That’s especially thanks to Anthony Mackie’s and Stephanie Beatriz’s earnest performances and Samoa Joe/Will Forte’s over-the-top combo of body and vocal humor that made Sweet Tooth into an extremely likable psycho. Also, big props to Michael James Shaw who made even throwaway Axel fun in season two, released this year. Here’s hoping NBC will be able to close it all up well with the third one in 2026.
Game of the Year:
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2
Sometimes, something you play early in the year sticks with you long after it’s over, clearly signaling that it’ll be worth mentioning in one of these. That’s the case with Warhorse’s latest. A superior sequel in just about every way imaginable, it was a joy to drop 100 hours into this sucker in January and still be thinking about it at the end of the year. It’s that good.
Honorable Mentions:
Ghost of Yōtei
Have to admit I wasn’t as hot for Ghost of Tsushima as some of the other reviewers around. I knew that there was a good game there but some things about it didn’t stick as much with me. Well, it all changed with its “sequel”. Yotei has a much more likeable protagonist and its progression loop is on a whole other level. It’s one of the games I’ll be going back to next year for sure since there’s plenty I’ve left unexplored.
Lies of P: Overture
Lies of P doesn’t get nearly the amount of love it deserves and its Overture only highlighted that fact. It’s an EXCELLENT addition to an already pretty much brilliant Souslike experiences around. If you’ve missed it the first time around, you show definitely circle back and check it out.
Lumines Arise
I’m horrible at puzzle and music games, so when one comes that fuses both, I generally try to stay well away from them. Luckily, this isn’t happening with this, and regardless of how bad I play it, I keep coming back for more and am likely to do so further into the new year as well!
STALKER 2: Shadow of Chornobyl
For as big of a fan of the series that I am, I got to this very late thanks to its release on PlayStation 5 and coincidentally, there’s new DLC to it, so it’s very likely I’ll be trudging around the Zone well into the next year and beyond given the sheer size of this thing (even without any new content, it’s ridiculous, I’m over 50 hours in and it’s still going strong, plus there are alternative paths to take in the story that branch out).
It’s been quite the year, to say the least. Have any suggestions of games I may have missed? You know what to do! Be sure to hit the comments below. See you in 2026!
