What an impact 2025 has had on the gaming world. It’s been a mixed bag of areas to celebrate and to scorn at all at the same time. With much to worry about in this modern age, one thing stood out the most, and that was the games!
It’s been an incredible year, and I think we say this every year, but this time it really feels apt, as 2025 has walked all over previous years’ efforts in bringing us a continuous stream of quality, well-made games – our wishlists have never been this heavy!
Of course, this time of year is one of many favourites as outlets, podcasts and creators share their favourite games of the year. We wanted to be a part of this, but instead of compiling an overall list of top games, we have tried something a little different.
The So Many Games Writers have each compiled their own personal top three games of the year, including an honourable mention, which could include a game that was played this year but was released in a previous year. It’s a great way to highlight as many games as possible and show the diverse range of games and our writers’ tastes.
Let us know your thoughts on our picks, or come and share your top games of the year with us on BlueSky or in our Discord.
Dispatch
I was sceptical of this game at first. The humour came off as “high school boys’ locker room” to me. However, I soon realised that this was a team of rejected supervillains that the protagonist was tasked to manage, rehabilitate, and inspire. He wanted to help them all see their true worth as he rediscovered his own. This is a story of redemption, and seeing where the crew starts and where they end is miraculous. I got choked up, between bouts of laughter, seeing it all play out. The writing, production, artwork, game direction, and cinematography are all top-tier. Nothing quite compares with how well they executed this provocative, nuanced story. Funny how a gang of supervillains came together to tell the most “human” story of the year.
The Darkest Files
A brilliant noir-style detective game that has you reading through case files, interviewing suspects, and constructing your theory of the events in order to bring justice to those who were wrongfully condemned in Germany after WWII. Despite their defeat at the end of the war, Nazi powers were still clinging to their status and doing terrible things behind closed doors for the sake of self-preservation, many of which were never prosecuted. Attorney Fritz Bauer and his team set out to shine a light on these crimes, based on true historical events, and I found this game to be a wonderful representation of the courage it took to tell the truth for the sake of those who were denied it.
The Alters
I had such a good time with this base management, social-sim sci-fi epic. The gameplay loop was so compelling, I looked forward to pushing the boundaries of what I could accomplish each day as I improved my productivity and expanded my team. Yet, all of this would not matter that much to me if the game didn’t have such a tender heart. Beneath the hard, planetary crust of this game is a story about leadership, bioethics, and corporate morality that really caused me to stop and think. It was an entertaining ride, but more than that, an experience that keeps me pondering the “what-could-have-beens”.
Honourable Mention: Mind Beneath Us (2024)
Though the interactivity is a bit shallow, this is a game that goes miles deep into social commentary, technocratic critique, humanist ideology, and meta-narrative on player agency. I was constantly debating myself on the issues the game presented, which is a mark of strong writing that exposes the grey areas in topics I thought to be more solidly shaded. Some dialogue was long-winded and poorly localised, but wow did this game go places with its story. An affecting, challenging, provocative experience that will linger in my mind as its subjects hit close to home, both the present and future reality.
Bionic Bay
This dazzlingly brilliant 2D platformer blew me away with its original physics-based movement mechanics, its fantastical sci-fi aesthetic and its distinctive combination of precision and puzzle platforming. The zoomed-out perspective makes the protagonist feel like a small, fragile creature against the imposing backdrops of decayed industrial landscapes, and it’s so exhilarating platforming along the mysterious, jagged, rusty space-age debris. The Mario-kid inside of me was in awe at how far 2D platformers have come…
Hypogea
…And 2025 had another surprise up its sleeve for that kid, this time in the realm of 3D platforming. Unlike in the 2D space, which now has a firmly established tradition of more serious, sombre-toned games, 3D platforming still seems to lean hard on the bright and breezy mascot era of the form. Although Hypogea certainly has the kind of exuberant movement you’d want in a 3D platformer – the staff the automaton-protagonist uses to pole vault their way around the decaying underground megastructure is a joy to use – it’s the melancholic tone, with the quiet melody of hope at the heart of it, that really makes this game resonate so deeply. The tender, wordless tale is perhaps my favourite game narrative of the year. Interestingly, like Bionic Bay, it features many broken, rusty pipes, which reminded my kid self of those pristine bright green pipes from Super Mario. Things sure have changed in the world of platformers, but I’m glad that the pipeway to the exuberant shiny past remains open to fans of one of the older video game genres – even if, like the pipes, we’re all a little bit older and rustier.
Baby Steps
An uncanny hiking simulator where every single step is a monumental challenge. From the makers of Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy (2017) and Ape Out (2019), this wonderfully unique, silly and frustratingly difficult game has so much to say about open-world game design. It’s one of those games that also gets you thinking about the medium as a whole, with its many parodic references to, and enactments of, the gaming mechanics and traditions we have perhaps come to take for granted. Certainly, I’ll never think about open-world games in quite the same way ever again. It’s also a very funny game. The inevitable pratfalls are often laugh-out-loud funny, as are the twisted cutscenes. Definitely my most unique gaming experience of the year.
Honourable Mention: Lamplight City (2018)
I love the storytelling possibilities in point-and-click games but often struggle with the obtuse ‘moon logic’ puzzles. Lamplight City, a brilliant detective tale, dispenses with some of the more vexing elements of the genre – including, controversially, the inventory – making for a more streamlined narrative experience. While fans of old LucasArts games might not approve, I found the dialogue system, the main means of progress in the game, to be robust and utterly compelling. The writing and the art are also superb (the pixel graphics and animations are out of this world), and the Dickensian world of New Bretagne is vivid and rich. This is probably my favourite point-and-click game ever. I’m very glad I stumbled across it this year.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
As an early December release, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond hasn’t had its chance to shine at the various game award presentations, but its continuation and remarkable improvements on a beloved game series astound me. Gameplay remains at a high, puzzles retain their friendly-yet-challenging standard, and the sheer level of flavour sprinkled throughout each scannable object proves that improving on something good can make it outstanding. Also Miles isn’t as bad a character as everyone makes out – he’s actually quite entertaining!
Hollow Knight: Silksong
Despite being a sequel, Hollow Knight: Silksong is a far departure from the first game, which has been a divisive point amongst fans. The game is fast, full-on and framed by an astonishing soundtrack, but critically feels more alive than the first – settlements grow, characters have wants and needs, the citadel hums with activity and the depths… let’s just say you’ll find out what they do later. Either way, Silksong was long anticipated for good reason, managing to deliver on its every promise and more, especially with Sherma – they must be protected at all costs.
Powerwash Simulator 2
It goes against every fibre of my being to have all three top games in my GOTY list be sequels, but the games feel actively transformative in their own rights; you could easily give them new titles, and I would purchase them in a heartbeat. For me personally, PowerWash Simulator 2 epitomises this – there’s nothing new in concept, as you still need to clean increasingly elaborate things while accidentally saving the world, but the new tools, increased visual quality and the attention to every dirty detail mean you’ll never be able to go back to the first game again.
Honourable Mentions:
It has been an incredible year for original games; Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 took the world (and myself with it) by storm in its portrayal of Belle Époque-era France, while Dear Me, I Was… proved that artistry alone can tell a story. For me personally, it was also a return to Final Fantasy XIII, which will continue to be an honourable mention until they finally give us the remastered trilogy we so deserve.
R.E.P.O
I was a bit unsure whether to include R.E.P.O., as I don’t usually select games for lists like these if they’re still in early access. But there is not a single game I spent more time with this year than this amazing friendslop title, as I got to experience getting into a game with friends for the first time. R.E.P.O. presents the perfect platform for it, with its adorable semibots, the phenomenal use of proximity chat, and the perfect blend of monsters and levels. I can’t wait to see what the developers still have in store for us as they continue updating the game.
Dispatch
The Next Fest demo for Dispatch got me really excited, as I had longed for a return to those Telltale and Life is Strange-esque games. That it was set in a superhero world made it even more enticing to me, and boy did it deliver. It’s definitely a more mature take on what a world full of superpowered beings would look like without ever becoming too cynical. Sure, the humour won’t be for everyone, but there’s so much heart beneath the gorgeous visuals, stellar soundtrack, phenomenal voice acting and stand-out set pieces. The moment I stopped playing, I was already hoping for a second season!
Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector
2025 sure featured a lot of indie game sequels, which is actually a really cool thing to see. None grabbed me like the very first one I played this year: Citizen Sleeper 2 – Starward Vector. Obviously I’m biased, as the first game is one of my all-time favourites, but I felt like this was exactly what a sequel needed to be: it was bigger, with more systems and more literal space to discover, without losing the intimacy that made the first game so special. I still feel like no game had better writing this year, and combined with the subtle yet brilliant music and beautiful visuals, I can’t look past it for a list like this.
Honourable Mention: Wanderstop
It really pains me not to select Wanderstop in my top 3, as this one will hold a special place in my heart for the rest of my life. As someone who has struggled with burnout, the game made me feel more seen than any other piece of media ever has. It’s not perfect, but that actually suits the theme rather splendidly, as there is no right way to recover from something as debilitating as this. It won’t always get you where you expected to go, but it’ll always put you where you need to be. And I’m so glad I ended up at Boro’s little tea shop.
Hades II
Hades is one of my favourite games ever made, so the fact that they pushed every element even further with the sequel is amazing to me. Melinoë and the layered tragedies of not only her circumstances but also how they affect each of her relationships in varied, complex ways build her to be one of the most compelling characters I’ve played as. Supergiant promised me a good time and delivered something even greater. I can’t lie, I miss the fist weapons and running into a crowd of enemies without much planning fiercely, but I’m still pumped to grind every achievement just as I did with its predecessor.
PEAK
A big reason that I love video games so much is their use as a social space. I’ve played PEAK with friends I’ve known for decades and people I’ve never had a one-on-one interaction with before, and it’s always great. Maybe I feel a little less inclined to sabotage a relative stranger mid-climb with a sleep dart…but the option is always there, and that’s part of the fun. The simple mechanics of pulling each other up and bouncing on each other’s shoulders, mixed with the strategy of juggling hunger, weight, and the decision of when to use supplies vs hoarding them for the more difficult levels and risking dying with something important, gives complexity that makes every climb feel fresh.
Pipistrello and the Cursed Yo-Yo
Of all the games I reviewed this year, Pipistrello and the Cursed YoYo is the one I still think about the most. A variety of powers to switch up gameplay, punchy sound design, and a sheen of polish I rarely see in games with 10x the resources made booting up this game part of my morning routine for a while. The gameplay is pure perfection. With puzzles and game mechanics working together, the weight of your moves, and nothing too handholdy nor frustratingly complex, it’s a game meant to be experienced by your own hands.
Also, my entire family besides me was born in Italy, so it tickles me whenever there’s Italian in games. Just a little bit on top to endear me to a game that already has so much to love.
Honourable Mention: Pokémon Scarlet (2022)
I found the story and characters in Gen 9 really fun and endearing; some of the new designs have become my favourites ever (ORTHWORM), and it’s one of the only Pokémon games that I’ve gone out of my way to complete the Pokédex for and have been actively shiny hunting ever since.
Pokémon Scarlet has clear flaws that have sadly become part of the franchise’s standard, but the writing clearly has so much care put into it, and I had such a blast playing through this game that I wanted to celebrate the effort that I can feel the developers put into it, despite time and budget working against them.
Kabuto Park
While Doot, the lead developer of Kabuto Park, wasn’t aiming to make a game that challenged Pokemon, the battle system in Kabuto Park rivals the one Game Freak standardised. Players can quickly understand the sumo-style push-and-pull deckbuilder, but the system’s total package boasts much more depth than you glean from a first glance. Outside of your matches, cycling around the idyllic Kabuto Park with your handy net opens this depth further, with dozens of insects to add to your squad, including ones with perfect stats or shiny alternatives to craft the best teams to crush your opponents as you claw your way to the top of the tournament. Oh, there’s a heart-warming summer adventure story in there too.
Hollow Knight: Silksong
There was an impossible standard set up here from an impossible jury: the internet at large. A seven-year wait was just the eye of an out-of-control tornado of excitement as fans of Hollow Knight, and then every showcase chatter, clamoured for any scrap of news that fell from Team Cherry’s table. They pulled it off. Hollow Knight: Silksong rose above the din of Metroidvanias with an incredible story and voice, giving its many NPCs and the protagonist Hornet much more drive as you push forward through hostile environments of Pharloom. The expanded toolkit on Hornet’s hips as you zip between areas makes for an expansive fight that some two-dimensional frames can hardly contain.
Time Flies
You know, this may have just been my year of the bug. Playing this time as a common housefly, Time Flies was an unexpectedly warm and meditative experience. Buzzing through a house without any real obligation, you just interact with the world in front of you. It’s silly but remarkably profound, making you consider what is worth your one wild and precious life as you discover and complete made-up goals. It’s a metanarrative in the best ways, mimicking the performative aspect of living life to the fullest, whatever fulfilment really is and if it really matters. Wait, Jake, wasn’t this a game about a fly?
Honourable Mention: Artis Impact:
Artis Impact is an immensely broken and mechanically refined game. But I’m still chewing on it. It’s also one of the best pixel art games I’ve ever seen. The style and craft deeply soaked in every vista, set piece, and locale is enough to warrant a calendar or museum exhibit. The story is unruly, in that no, it will not follow any rules, and no, it cannot be contained. Maybe Artis Impact is a performance in Murphy’s Law. I still can’t wrap my head around what I played here. Narrative arcs be damned; the world splits open impossible paths for protagonist Akane. I think what I really walked away from was that it’s okay to enjoy a game simply for what it is, and if you liked it, own that proudly.
Hollow Knight: Silksong
Silksong feels like returning to a world I’ve loved for years only to find it richer, sharper, and impossibly more alive. Team Cherry expands every facet: art, lore, challenge, and characters with a confidence that rewards the long wait. It’s familiar yet elevated, a sequel that doesn’t just iterate but reimagines what made the original so special. Every note I hoped it would hit, it delivered and then some.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
No game this year swept me away like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. It carries the transportive magic of a great film—the kind that leaves you sitting in silence afterward, changed in ways you can’t immediately explain. Its blending of style, storytelling, and emotion creates something dreamlike, almost mythic. But it’s the game’s willingness to confront grief – how we bear it, share it, and survive it – that makes it unforgettable. Few games dare to feel this deeply.
Consume Me
Consume Me begins as a charming, witty autobiographical game and quietly transforms into something painfully and refreshingly honest. Jenny’s attempts to balance health, goals, expectations, and self-worth echoed struggles I often dodge in my own life. The way its minigames turn everyday pressures into systems you can feel—failures and all—is surprisingly affecting. It captures the push-and-pull of wanting to improve yourself while constantly negotiating with the weight of being human. I saw far too much of myself in it, and that’s why it stuck.
Honorable Mention: ARC Raiders
ARC Raiders surprised me by being less about extraction and loot and more about people—the strangers you trust, the choices you make under pressure, and the small social experiments that unfold every match. Its tension lives in those moments between gunfights, when cooperation feels fragile and earned. With its incredible audio design, sharp atmosphere, and a world that keeps you guessing, it became one of the most unexpectedly memorable multiplayer experiences this year. It’s messy, human, and thrilling in all the right ways.
Death Stranding 2: On The Beach
I’m no kind of Kojima Stan, but I have deep admiration for the layered gameplay, art-house experimentalism, bonkers sci-fi, and cutting-edge production values of the Death Stranding games. This masterful sequel eased off on the schlepping and stealth, instead empowering players with a vast toolkit to enjoy its astounding photorealistic sandbox. A full rework of the combat turned enemy encounters into an unexpected high point, and while the story is erratic and overwritten—grasping for grand meaning that never quite coheres—the game as a whole remains hypnotic, cinematic, and improbably transcendent.
Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector
Citizen Sleeper was set entirely on the Erlin’s Eye space station, but from people passing through we heard whispers of the wild moons and far-flung stations that lay out there in the Starward Belt. This sequel realises the dream of journeying through these places, from a hollow station used to catch errant signals, to a cosmic shanty-town built from hundreds of connected ships, to the ice mine that provides the entire system with water. It’s top-drawer sci-fi that also meaningfully expands on the sleeper experience, offering a vision of transhumanist cyberpunk that’s laced with kindness, resilience, and the importance of community.
Promise Mascot Agency
This one is a truly unique indie weirdo. It’s an oddball gameplay cocktail that mixes together a fantastical VN-style Yakuza crime story, a freewheeling vehicular open-world collectathon, and a light but engaging business management sim — and somehow makes that work. From hiring and wrangling the unhinged cast of anthropomorphic mascots to managing the gruelling, ever-growing payments to your Yakuza family to untangling mayoral corruption and chilling local legends, there’s simply never a dull moment. The retro small-town Japan aesthetic is on point – the music and the voice acting slay. This is my kind of cosy game.
Honourable Mention: Many Nights a Whisper
I have So Many Games editor Jason to thank for turning me on to this small, thoughtful indie game. We play as an archer who has trained for years to make an improbable 500 m bullseye shot; if they hit, the world’s dreams will come true. I played it in a single two-hour sitting, and finishing it felt like waking up from a beautiful dream — a must-play for art game fans.
Blue Prince
Blue Prince takes a simple concept, draft the rooms of a mysterious mountainside estate to reach the hidden 46th room, and immediately spirals out into a hundred subgoals, inspiring me to grab a pen and notebook and start taking notes during each run. Its roguelite trappings and random room draws will frustrate those who want to follow a preferred loose end, but I found myself able to go with the flow and explore what was presented to me, resulting in some of the most compelling game time of the year. I stopped, satisfied, after about 25 hours, but I know there are dozens more hours of discovery waiting for me, should I choose to go back.
Hollow Knight: Silksong
Something about the extended development time and radio silence led me to believe that Silksong would come out messy, and I’ve never been so happy to be wrong. Much of the conversation has centered on its difficulty (and it is difficult, to be sure), but what stands out to me most are its many interwoven layers. It’s not just a challenging game – its trials and frustrations reinforce the story themes, they encourage you to explore the bleak-yet-beautiful world, and the game has the design chops to back up all that it asks of you. At the end of it all, Team Cherry has yet again set a new high bar.
