GadgetGuy’s 15 favorite video video games of 2025

Better late than by no means, proper? After taking extra time than traditional to ponder my 2025 in gaming (learn: I spent my summer season break excited about actually something apart from work), these had been the video games I stored excited about, lengthy after I performed them.

I don’t suppose there’s a powerful, apparent connective tissue between my favorite video games of 2025. Nor was there in my picks of 2024, now that I consider it. Generally talking, I don’t keep on with anybody style; I simply comply with my curiosity and see the place it goes. It often results in one thing shiny and vibrant, the human embodiment of a shiny object-seeking magpie that I’m, to be sincere.

Despite my finest efforts, a number of the large video games recognised at The Game Awards by no means fairly grabbed me. Death Stranding 2 and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 had their moments in between bouts of frustration, whereas Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 didn’t absolutely seize me within the time I spent with it.

Looking again at 2025, my favorite video games hardly ever took themselves too severely. They had been earnest and enjoyable, very like the bond between a gorilla and his showtune-singing companion, or the unlikely friendship between a yakuza and a sentient mascot within the form of a dismembered pinky finger.

Donkey Kong Bananza

I really like Donkey Kong. I additionally love 3D platformers. Put that easy equation in your calculator, and I used to be destined to like Donkey Kong Bananza, proper? Well, certain, however I don’t need my predisposition to get in the way in which of how fantastic Bananza is.

One of the flagship titles for the brand new Nintendo Switch 2, Donkey Kong Bananza delights as a technical showcase for the brand new {hardware}. It additionally earns its place among the many ever-growing pantheon of Nintendo’s all-time nice video games.

Expressive and tactile, Bananza permits you to free in vibrant sandboxes of destruction as one in all gaming’s most beloved characters. To be a giant goofy gorilla inflicting mayhem: that’s all I’ve ever needed in life.

Blue Prince

Blue Prince — or ‘Print Wars’, as my Mum calls it — is exhilarating and infuriating, usually on the identical time. Think Betrayal on the House on the Hill, however a lot grander in scale, with the fixed hum of political intrigue within the background.

Your aim? Find the rumoured room 46 in your nice uncle’s mansion to assert your inheritance. It sounds easy sufficient, besides that the mansion’s format adjustments on daily basis.

Instead of realizing what’s on the opposite aspect of a door, you draft a number of blueprints and select which room you’ll stroll into. Some rooms are full of boons, like mysterious keys, whereas others tax you with unfavourable results, pushing you additional away from room 46 — if it even exists.

Blue Prince‘s randomised nature often throws curveballs your way, sometimes grinding your progress to a frustrating halt. Quickly, though, you learn how to use its systems, eking out something of value, even when the odds are against you.

It’s all price it when, after days of pondering a puzzle, a pocket book in hand full of what seems to be just like the scribblings of a madman, you lastly make a breakthrough. Only to find how a lot deeper Blue Prince‘s conspiracies go. And so begins the cycle anew.

The Séance of Blake Manor

If you like a good whodunnit, do I have the game for you. Rooted in Irish mythology and customs, The Séance of Blake Manor makes every decision count, with a clever time-based system that encourages you to quickly adapt to the game’s logic.

Spooky with out being terrifying, Séance duties you with investigating suspects over the disappearance of a younger lady. As Declan Ward, the detective with razor-sharp cheekbones, you don’t even know who employed you. All that you already know is that from the second you set foot into Blake Manor, there are unusual forces at play.

Finding out what, precisely, is a terrific time.

Pokemon Legends: Z-A

I described Pokémon Legends: Z-A because the blended martial arts of Pokémon video games, a press release I stand behind. It’s quick, scrappy, and doesn’t allow you to take a second to breathe. Sometimes actually: a petite Pokémon taking a Hydro Pump to the face is slapstick comedy at its best.

Recent Pokémon video games have attracted myriad criticisms, starting from an absence of visible constancy to stagnant design. Legends: Z-A well narrowed its scope to a single location, emphasising the revamped real-time fight and a captivating solid of characters.

Regardless of whether or not or not real-time battles develop into a one-time dalliance for the collection, this was probably the most I’ve loved the moment-to-moment motion of a Pokémon sport in years.

Hollow Knight: Silksong

They did it. They really bloody did it. Adelaide’s personal Team Cherry defied years of built-up expectations and caught the touchdown with Hollow Knight: Silksong. Bigger, harder, and extra expressive, Silksong will probably be hailed as an Australian sport growth success story for years to come back.

I may wax lyrical about Hornet’s terrific character design, the sprawling ranges, and Christopher Larkin’s superbly melancholy soundtrack. But the second seared into my mind is the struggle in opposition to a boss often known as the First Sinner. It triggered a move state that felt like a meticulously choreographed dance. Upon beating the boss, all I needed to do was relive it again and again.

Hollow Knight: Silksong is full of these moments. Every act of overcoming adversity appears like a reward in itself.

Promise Mascot Agency

Ah, sure, the morbid but unusually serene sport about sentient Japanese mascots and the looming Yakuza risk. Promise Mascot Agency actually does defy any simple clarification.

Come for the hilarious enterprise administration mini-games, keep for the heartwarming tales of the individuals who care about their run-down regional city.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows

Shadows is probably the most I’ve loved an Assassin’s Creed sport in years. Deftly balancing stealth and all-out motion in a gorgeous Japanese setting, Assassin’s Creed Shadows did lots proper. Sure, it nonetheless leans closely on some arbitrary RPG parts, however I beloved Naoe and Yasuke’s tales sufficient to see previous a number of the gameplay friction.

Ball X Pit

Ball X Pit tickled my mind in all the fitting methods. Taking Breakout‘s simple brick-breaking gameplay, then adding roguelike progression and town-building elements, this is a dangerously good time sink of a game.

Hades 2

I’ve performed Hades 2 throughout Early Access, seeing how its story performed with the idea of what was an in-progress sport all through its lively growth.

Did it stick the touchdown upon its full launch? Not fully, but it surely was one heck of a journey attending to the vacation spot.

Just like the primary sport, Hades 2 is a superb dungeon-crawler that solely will get higher the extra you play. And rattling, Darren Korb smashed it out of the park with the soundtrack as soon as once more.

Monster Train 2

It’s like Monster Train, however with a 2 on the tip, and much more playing cards to grasp. You’d suppose that after years of roguelike deckbuilding video games, the style would really feel a bit stale by now. Nope. Monster Train 2 is without doubt one of the greats, identical to its predecessor.

Rift of the Necrodancer

Rhythm video games reside or die based mostly on the standard of their soundtracks. Rift of the Necrodancer has an impeccably dancey setlist of unique tunes that retains you coming again for extra.

It’s not a mere Guitar Hero imitation, both. Necrodancer challenges you with an assortment of foes who don’t simply go away once you press the proper button with the fitting timing. Each enemy reacts in another way; some solely go down after a number of inputs, whereas others are pushed again, making them a future downside.

I believed I used to be fairly good at this sport. Then I turned the issue up a notch and fell aside the second I needed to cope with off-beat notes.

Mario Kart World

Nintendo’s first large crack at an open-world racing sport, Mario Kart World, is a road-tripping delight. With a better talent ceiling than ever earlier than, and a number of the finest tracks in your entire collection, this was a sensible Nintendo Switch 2 launch title.

Of all the things Mario Kart World does properly, Knockout Tour drifts into first place. An endurance race mode throughout a number of tracks that regularly eliminates the slowest racers, it’s up there with the tensest I’ve felt throughout a multiplayer session.

If there’s one factor that helped cement simply how good Mario Kart World is, it was this deliriously fun speedrun at Awesome Games Done Quick. Streamer Helix13_ proved as soon as and for all that World is definitely a 3D platformer in disguise.

I do have one criticism, nonetheless: give Donkey Kong extra outfits, Nintendo. The king deserves one of the best.

Kirby Air Riders

I used to be baffled that Nintendo determined to carry out a sequel to a distinct segment GameDice sport simply months after Mario Kart World. Even extra shocking was how a lot I loved Kirby Air Riders.

Beyond the cutesy aesthetic of Kirby and his eccentric mates is a fast-paced racer with extra depth than meets the attention. Each car tangibly adjustments the way in which you race, as does your character choice, to a larger extent than most arcade racing video games.

The Drifter

The Drifter occupies uncommon territory: it’s an Australian-made sport set in Australia that doesn’t lean on Australiana tropes or references. It simply occurs to star a fella with a harsh Aussie accent caught up in a grand sci-fi conspiracy.

There are components of The Drifter that conjure fond recollections of Ghost Trick, in that it mixes a point-and-click interface with some intelligent real-time puzzles. It additionally tells a ripper of a yarn that retains you guessing all the way in which till the tip.

The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy

If pressed to assign a ‘game of the year’, I’d most probably give the nod to The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy. One of probably the most formidable video games I’ve ever performed, this expansive visible novel-tactics hybrid has a mind-boggling 100 endings to expertise based mostly in your selections.

That in isolation may not imply a lot, however the sheer scope of every diverging storyline is a herculean feat from developer Too Kyo Games. From the minds behind the Danganronpa and Zero Escape collection, Last Defense Academy is equally as twist-laden, but it surely’s a lot tighter in execution, regardless of being a lot larger than its creators’ earlier video games.

Not only a distraction from the plot, the grid-based techniques gameplay matches the depth of Last Defense Academy‘s storytelling. I didn’t count on defending a mysterious militaristic college with a bunch of super-powered excessive schoolers would have gripped me a lot, however right here we’re.