I am not a “game of the year” person. The whole idea seems utterly goofy to me—when I play so many games in a single year, many I’ve enjoyed and plenty I’ve scorned, how do I quantify that into some sort of top ten list? Well, that’s the thing: I’m not going to bother! Just like the last time I made a list, below you’ll find an excerpt of notable titles that have occupied mindshare in the year two-thousand and twenty five.
It was a good year for games and an awful one for the industry, which has continued to see layoffs, studios closures, and assimilations into larger entities like the Electronic Arts and Saudi Arabia purchase. And look, 2026 is looking to be an absolute stellar year (one I’m way more excited to share about than this “list”) for games, but as the passage of time continues its onslaught, I want you to remember the industry and watch out for it—because it’s the creatives within that bring about the best of gaming to us year-after-year. I’m talking about the developer who is highlighted onstage at massive events like The Game Awards and the developer that silently toils away in some corner of the world, keeping their fans and new ones delighted for years to come. Without these people, there is no games industry.
Anywho, without further ado, here’s my 2025 “Top 10”, not numbered in any particular order.
Hymer 2000
I snagged Hymer 2000 on a whim, not expecting to enjoy its dystopian and, frankly, depressing narrative about being born into a singular purpose with no way out and to accept your fate. For the overseer that maintains this place, it’s just as heart-wrenching, even if it’s just a bucket of bolts.
Hymer 2000 is available on PC/macOS via Steam, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch consoles.
POPUCOM
Getting my younger siblings to play a game with me these days is a trial and a half. They’ve their own friends and they love to spend precious, precious time playing rubbish like ‘League of Legends’ and ‘Deepwoken’ like a hamster on wheels. So, it’s exceedingly rare for me to not only pull one of them away from their nine-to-fives but for the both of us to even enjoy the game we’re playing—and that leads us to ‘POPUCOM’, a very fun cooperative 3D puzzle platformer.
POPUCOM is available on PC via Steam and Nintendo Switch consoles. The game will launch on PlayStation 5 consoles in the future.
Wanderstop
Wanderstop is a short, simple tale that reminds people why tea is just oh-so delicious. But it also reminds us that sometimes, it’s okay to take a break.
Wanderstop is available on PC via Steam, Xbox Series, and PlayStation 5 consoles.
StarVaders
Every time I tell myself “ok, I will take a break from reviewing roguelikes. No more roguelikes.”, a billion more show up in my inbox. Am I an ungrateful bastard? Yes! But it’s hard saying “no”, it really is.
But thankfully, I didn’t turn this one down—‘StarVaders’ is a deckbuilding roguelike complete with insane set up possibilities and downright tough enemies. I keep going back to it on occasion and trust me, that’s quite rare.
StarVaders is available on PC/macOS via Steam.
ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom in the Mist
Binary Haze came back from a rather middling strategy game to continue their Ender line of 2D Metroidvania titles. ‘ENDER MAGNOLIA’ is the same bit of fun that Quietus of the Knight was, but expanded on narratively and increasing the scope of levels all the while tossing in fun boss fights. I particularly loved the aesthetic and music, performed by none other than Mili themselves.
ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom in the Mist is available on PC via Steam, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch consoles.
Toontown Rewritten (and Other Fan-run MMOs)
I didn’t say this list was going to be exclusively 2025 releases, wink wink.
Toontown Rewritten is an age-old MMORPG, once known as Toontown Online before Disney disolved it along with all of its internal gaming operations more than a decade ago. Since then, a number of fans across the globe have taken it upon themselves to resurrect the game they loved. There are many variants of Toontown out there now, doing their little own thing, but Rewritten is about as close to the original experience as you can get. Dare I say, now better than the original release ever was!
The effort it takes to resurrect an old game, let alone an MMO, is an enourmous undertaking. I really want to emphasise that, because I need you to get the scale of this sort of operation. The reverse engineering required, the time spent looking through old game documentations (if any exist!), research, etcetera etcetera. On top of all this , after all the years spent rebuilding an ancient codebase and modernising it, they’ve gone and built their own content creation pipeline and have been adding free content updates to Toontown like it never stopped running.
And the toughest part of all? People who take these sorts of things on do it for free. They won’t take donations either, as most fan-run MMOs don’t want to draw ire from the original copyright holders. These doods do it for the love of the game, and it’s thanks to them that I have a family-friendly game I can hop into across even the slowest of computers on hand to play with my family and relatives.
You guys are some of the coolest living, breathing human beans around. To all the fan-run MMO developers, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for keeping gaming history alive. Maybe someday, all this effort won’t be needed for future games.
To the People Who Create Mods
Don’t think I forgot about you guys!
People have been making mods for ages, but they don’t get enough recognition. I’m taking the doods that make something as simple as a hat, quality-of-life changes, the little things that enhance a base game and keeps a community going for years on end. Of course, there’s also those that go above and beyond, shipping massive expansions and all-new games within games for zero dollars and zero cents.
I can’t list them all here, but know that I’ll be talking more about mods and modders in 2026.
Chaos Zero Nightmare
Lastly, here’s a free-to-play gacha-based roguelike deckbuilder I still play even after my review session. ‘Chaos Zero Nightmare’ is a “simpler” Darkest Dungeons, but don’t be fooled—it’s still tough and you can build some seriously strong kits by taking on the game’s “Chaos” zones. Featuring strong graphics, enjoyable music, and fun mechanics, I find myself coming back to this game every day since its launch and I have no intentions of stopping—even as a game I’m really looking forward to threatens my gacha rotation.
Chaos Zero Nightmare is available on PC via Stove/macOS via the Mac App Store (iPad ver.), iOS, and Android via Google Play.
…and that’s that! I’ll try to wiggle out of this nonsense next year, so see you never.
Oh and, uh, best new years wishes to you. ∎
