Don’t ask how, but I think I played more new games in 2025 than I ever have in a single year before. Which initially made trying to think of my Top 10 kinda difficult. So I tried to narrow things down by trying to focus on genuinely new games. So yeah, I loved Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O World Stage, but is it really a new game in 2025? Ditto the Capcom Fighting Collection 2. I loved it, but it feels wrong to include what is for all intents and purposes a collection of games most people have loaded on their Rasbperry Pis on a GOTY list in a year so full of incredible new games. So I guess stuff like that can make the Honourable Mentions…
As such, here are those Honourable Mentions
- South of Midnight
- Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O World Stage
- Capcom Fighting Collection 2
- Assassin’s Creed Shadows
- Donkey Kong Returns HD
- Pokémon Legends Z-A
- Ninja Gaiden II Black
- Earthion
But now onto the Top 10:
Number 10 – Ninja Gaiden Ragebound
2025 will go down as the year of the Ninja. Not only did we get at least 4 Ninja based video games, all of them were absolutely fantastic. Ragebound did an incredible job of bringing an old school feel to modern gaming without being cheap or unfairly difficult.
Number Nine – The Rogue Prince of Persia
This is the “grey area” choice. Why? Because it technically released last year…in early access. It officially released into 1.0 in 2025 and you know what? It’s bloody fantastic so I’m including it so you can go and get stuffed. Might be one of the best soundtracks in a video game ever.
Number Eight – Marvel Cosmic Invasion
While Marvel Cosmic Invasion didn’t live up to the lofty heights achieved by it’s developers previous work Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, it was still a very good scrolling beat ’em up in it’s own right.
Number Seven – Ninja Gaiden 4
In a sea full of “Soulslike” third person action games, it was incredibly refreshing to have a true blue hack ‘n’ slash action game again. For that game to be the return of Ninja Gaiden? Made by Platinum? Well, that’s just the delicious cream on a beautiful vanilla sponge cake.
Number Six – Mario Kart World
Nintendo is getting into this weird habit of cramming open worlds into all their games and I’m not sure how I feel about it as an overall strategic direction. But it just so happens that it kinda of works in Mario Kart World? Because the world simply acts as a way to “interconnect” all the race tracks, it’s not something you feel compelled to “complete” making the overall game feel bloated. While I think I prefer how 8 Deluxe feels to play, World is still one of the best entires in the series.
Number 5 – Donkey Kong Bananza
Look, I really liked Donkey Kong Bananaza…a lot, but somehow I still find the way it’s spoken about weird. Seeing it in GOTY discussions feels wrong. Not because it’s not good, but because it’s really not that good. I say that as someone who has it in their Top 5. But that’s because I generally don’t play (let alone complete) a lot of games.
I 100%ed Donkey Kong Bananaza and I loved it. But that’s because I was fine spending 90% of the game….digging. Yes, digging. Because that’s almost all you’ll be doing when you play this game. Dig. So much digging. If you’re ok with that, then you’ll love this game as much as I did.
Number Four – Metroid Prime 4
Metroid Prime 4. The only Nintendo game in history to be hated on for no good reason like an Xbox game.
This game was awesome and I don’t know what the hell everyone is talking about. Yeah it’s not as good a Metroid Prime, but then not many games are. While I understood why some would have the valid complaints they did, giving a game this good scores like 5/10 and below? Just bizarro world we’re living in.
Number Three – Doom: The Dark Ages
Speaking of Xbox games getting hate for no reason…Doom The Dark Ages was incredible and a perfect way to cap off an amazing trilogy. Introducing new mechanics, a different level structure, new combat options and all while running at a blistering pace with incredible visuals.
Much like Metroid Prime 4, I still can’t understand the weird hate this game got.
Number Two – Shinobi Art of Vengeance
Lizardcube legitimately don’t miss. Ever. Everything they make is like fine handcrafted woodwork. Shinobi’s return is almost perfect. Almost. Everything about this game outside the core platforming is exquisitely executed. This game would have been my first 10/10 since Super Mario Odyssey had they nailed the platforming. But the platforming is such an integral part to the game overall that it was too difficult to look past.
But seriously though, Sega needs to wake up and just let Lizardcube bring back all the dormant Sega IPs.
Number One – Hades II
This game man. I haven’t been this immediately hooked on a game in years. From the moment I purchased it and started playing, I played for 9 hours straight. I simply couldn’t stop. I didn’t know how to stop.
I kept playing it, every day for a week. Even now, I will still randomly boot it up and make a few runs. I honestly don’t know how to articulate what it is about this game that has me so addicted in a way the original didn’t (although I loved the original game too).
So that’s it, that’s my Top 10. I’m sure immediately after posting this I’ll probably forget about a game I should have included in there because 2025 has been rather ridiculous in throwing so many amazing games at us.
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