The Games of Not This Year - 2025 Edition

The NoTY Awards are back for their second year, and I had so much fun with it in 2024 that we've made this a team project, just like our Game of the Year piece! Seems I'm not the only one whose yearly playlist has a lot of games from prior years, so let's jump right into all the gaming goodness!

Baldur's Gate 3

Rachel Alm2 am

I've been going through 2023's GOTY, Baldur's Gate 3, with a friend for the better part of this year. We've...taken our time (mostly because I'm turning on all the candles and lamps in any given room) and I haven't been able to 'bag a baddie', as they say, even though my drow ranger has been hopelessly pining for Wyll. Dance with me, already! I've been playing on my own as well, on a different save, and while I get that romance isn't the point, it is my point; it's the first game I've found myself eager to see the romantic endgames of all of the characters.

Baldur's Gate 3 is, of course, an extremely beloved game, and now I can safely say I know what the fuss is about. We just hit act 3 in our joint playthrough, but in my own individual one, I've scraped some progress back a little so I can properly romance Astarion. He's not my favorite, but he is going to be my half-elf warlock's favorite. The party character stories are the most compelling to follow because each companion has a 'hook' to their overall backstory, and each of these hooks is different and interesting.

As a fairly incurious explorer, I also adore BG3's open narrative approach. It's a semi-open world, sure, but most of the flexibility comes from your decision-making. Do you want to give a saucy response or a serious one? There have been moments where I'll ask my friend if any one response is the right one. Sometimes, if it's really pivotal, she'll nudge me. Other times – well, we're just seeing what happens!

BlazBlue Entropy Effect

Ben Rowan

I stumbled onto BlazBlue Entropy Effect on Steam after spotting the obvious Dead Cells DNA, and I was hooked almost immediately. As I’ve said elsewhere, Dead Cells sits comfortably in my top ten most-played games, so anything built around that same Metroidvania-meets-action-roguelite structure gets my attention fast.

The game was developed by 91Act, a studio founded in Chengdu in 2014, and even their name tells you exactly what they’re about. It's a pun on the Chinese phrase “Jiu Yao ACT,” which basically translates to: 'we only want to make action games'. Yokohama's Arc System Works is in the mix too, lending the BlazBlue roster and that unmistakable anime-fighting-game flavour, with a line-up of characters built for room-clearing combos and stylish special moves.

Structurally, it sticks to the classic genre formula: tight, bite-sized stages, branching choices, and that addictive “one more run” loop. During runs, the cannon fodder mobs rarely threaten you, but they’re incredibly satisfying to demolish as you clear each zone with stylish combos and specials. Then the game throws you into a button-mashing, health-bar-for-days boss fight that demands every upgrade you’ve earned. To be honest, I’d love slightly tougher warm-ups and slightly less punishing bosses, but it’s still loads of fun.

The real draw is the match-made-in-heaven pedigree: it plays like a mash-up of Dead Cells with a BlazBlue fighting game, paired with some gorgeous animation and excellent music. Familiar characters come loaded with distinct moves, so swapping heroes keeps runs fresh, even when the stage layouts start to blur together. If you enjoy roguelite crossovers or anime brawlers, this is an easy recommendation. For me, it was one of the coolest games I played in 2025.

Cassette Beasts

Lawrence Adkins

Cassette Beasts did something for me that I had never considered in my nearly 20 years of playing Pokémon games — it made me think about the monsters, outside of my personal relationship with them or how cool they looked. I thought about the context of the monsters, where they were from, and how they got to be here.

Cassette Beasts takes place on an island between realities called New Wirral, and the monsters that exist here seem to be a manifestation of joint cognition of the denizens of New Wirral. Most of the NPCs in this game claim to be from a different variation of Earth. Some people have never seen animated cartoons before; others are unaware of landmark historical events, some even coming from realities based on books. That said, the monsters in this game seem to represent the similarities between these parallel worlds, highlighting the strange and mundane facets of reality that bind the people together. Take, for instance, Traffikrab, a small plastic crustacean with a red traffic light for an eye and an orange traffic cone for a shell. In a world where nearly everyone relies on cars to get anywhere, there's a layer of irony in seeing that dreaded red light appear as the first thing to impede your progress in this game. Why does it have to be so cute, too?

Since rolling credits on Cassette Beasts in 2025, any time I've played another monster-catching RPG, I've found myself studying the animals. I see how they fit their environment, which monsters NPCs may be using, and what stories they might tell.

Chained Echoes

Brandon R. Chinn

Revisiting Chained Echoes a few years after its release is interesting; indie games age much differently than their bigger genre counterparts. Chained Echoes still feels like an old-school RPG in the very best ways, combining ideas and inspirations from Xenogears, Final Fantasy XII, and Chrono Trigger to create a memorable experience with its own flair.

While the story itself falls apart a bit in the latter half, Chained Echoes remains one of the most entertaining original JRPG-style games in years, made more impressive by its solo development.

Costume Quest 2

CJ Wilson

Costume Quest 2, in many ways, is an improvement over the first game. Double Fine implemented some quality-of-life updates that make the gameplay much smoother. Combat is quicker, where you can initiate two attacks at once on your enemies, and you can use the creepy treat cards as additional buffs during battle, like being able to choose which party member avoids attacks during a given turn and gaining more experience after a battle has concluded.

There are plenty of new costumes to find, each with its own abilities, like a werewolf, a clown, and a superhero, among others. I appreciate how the story revolves around our two main characters, Wren and Reynold, as they try to prevent a bitter dentist, Dr. Orel White, from banning Halloween for good. There’s plenty of time travel shenanigans going on as both our heroes try their best to save the holiday, along with having additional help like having their friend’s kids as a companion or getting a younger version of Orel on their side.

It’s a short, simple RPG that’s not demanding in its combat, with an engaging story that will make you chuckle. It’s worthy of a playthrough, especially if you enjoyed the first Costume Quest.

Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars

Jahanzeb Khan

It's shocking to me that not only have we not seen a new entry in SEGA's inventive arcade racing score attack, but that none of the classic games have been readily available on modern platforms in a way that does the experience justice in high definition. Even now, the most definitive edition of the game is the original Dreamcast port, as it has all the Pizza Hut references intact and the excellent soundtrack featuring The Offspring.

I love collecting games for the PlayStation Portable, and Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars has been one of my favourites to jump back into time and time again. Despite the hardware limitations of the PSP, the game is functional and highly playable, though some of the music and references have been changed. Still, every time I pick it up for a round, it only makes me yearn for a new Nintendo Switch port even more.

Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth – Hacker's Memory

C.S. Voll

Although I enjoyed it, I struggled to care about some of the characters in the original Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth. This definitely isn’t the case for its sequel, Hacker's Memory, which integrates some of the original’s story beats and characters into its own plot. The characters feel more multi-dimensional than many of the first game’s cast. Coming across some of the references to the events of the first title is a really rewarding experience, too.

The interesting Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth RPG mechanics are still there, too, thankfully. You still digivolve and de-digivolve your Digimon through various digivolutions to get to the form you really want. It’s a gruelling process, but with a little patience (and the help of some PlatinumNumemons and Tactician USBs) it can become a rewarding one.

The side quests are more entertaining as well. In fact, some have surprisingly ingenious setups and resolutions, which really got me thinking about some deep issues, like how technology depersonalizes humans. The familiar fetch quest makes a return, too, but they aren’t mandatory, and I skipped most of them.

One gameplay addition I really enjoyed was the Domination Battles. Some might disagree with me, but I liked this tactical match type, and it’s fun to play with other characters’ Digimon teams, while also learning about their personalities along the way. My one quibble is that I would have liked to see more variety in the different Domination Battles.

The development team reduced the backtracking in this game, which I’m thankful for, because the first one felt like a marathon simulator at times. It seems the team listened to some of the player feedback and improved in many key areas; the result is an eccentric creature collector with a heart.

Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster

Nathan Kelly

I played through the first five Final Fantasy titles last year via their Pixel Remaster versions. The one that has stuck with me the most by far is the very first title. The story of the four warriors of light that just happened to have some rocks in their pocket is not the part that I love about this game; It's the feeling that it is truly a tabletop RPG system adapted for a computer. It feels like a playground of spells and abilities with monsters to use them on. It is easily the game that I am most excited to return to via both the PSP and GameBoy Advance versions.

It's short and straightforward nature make it a great game to relax and progress through while watching a show or playing next to a partner. It's a cozy RPG; after you've seen the challenge once, it becomes less intimidating as you become familiar. There is a decent difficulty spike right at the beginning of the game, up until the Earth Crystal fight. This is a barrier to entry, and when you pass it, you are rewarded with another 12 hours of snowballing up until the final boss.

Older RPGs can be intimidating; they don't have the quality of life features that developers add to all of these modern remasters. I would give this game to anyone interested in getting into retro RPGs. With a little patience and the willpower to get a little lost and get back up after getting knocked down, anyone could beat this game and have fun doing it. I play this on my retro handheld during my work lunch break now, and I don't plan to stop anytime soon.

Final Fantasy XVI

Ben Macready

The new Final Fantasy set for Magic: The Gathering got me back into the series in a major way, so I decided to check out its latest installment.

Final Fantasy XVI doesn't feel much like a Final Fantasy game; its gameplay is so action-oriented that I would hesitate to describe it as an RPG at all. Its story has a lot more in common with A Song of Ice and Fire than it does with the adventures of Cloud Strife, Lightning, or Zidane Tribal. Fortunately, I'm always up for some explosive real-time combat, and I'm a massive fan of the writings of George RR Martin, so all of this came together nicely for me.

Final Fantasy XVI succeeds at adopting a darker tone targeted at mature audiences. This is no small feat, and many other series have faltered in such attempts (why did Sega give Shadow the Hedgehog an assault rifle?). Fundamentally, the game’s writers know that the key to telling a mature story isn’t trying to be excessively edgy or indulging in grimness for its own sake. Instead, the game offers a deeply character-focused narrative where the cruelty of the world is matched by the characters' perseverance to challenge its injustices and change it for the better.

It also reimagines the familiar roster of Final Fantasy Summons as clashing kaiju, with boss battles that deliver an earth-shattering degree of spectacle.

Frostpunk

Rachel Alm

I was up until the wee hours one night playing Frostpunk. This was exceptionally abnormal for me; I'm a recovering night owl adjusting happily to my fiancé's much healthier sleep schedule. I also rarely play resource-management sims or city builders, but there is something about a post-apocalyptic ice world that just calls to me. When I was a kid, I'd traipse down our country road on blizzard-warning days, sometimes to sled with friends, sometimes just for the heck of it. I had some well-meaning cops pull up on me once and ask why I was out during a state of emergency. 'It's not so bad,' I'd said, weighed down by the downy white like some wretched snow creature.

This isn't to say 70-degrees-below-zero sounds fine, but I'm endeared to the climate of snow in a way that makes the game exceptionally addicting, especially in a narrative sense. You have so much to balance mechanics-wise, and the game itself is described as fairly brutal, as you sink or swim based on a lot of little factors. Getting wood, steel, coal, and food eventually evolves into balancing hope and discontent and a myriad of other factors – do you go all-in with religion, or establish regimented order (or, perhaps, legalize child labor)? You can take these to their extreme conclusions and become a theocratic leader or hammer them all with authoritarianism, but the fun part has been in managing everything successfully, even under the pressure of increasing cold.

It's one of those games, similar to Blue Prince, where each time I start anew, I have a different way of tackling a past challenge. I know to start thumping coal early, or to serve soup initially – it's ruthless, but it's satisfying too.

Telltale's Guardians of the Galaxy

Many people would forget that Telltale made a Guardians of the Galaxy game. It plays very similarly to many of the developer's other games. There are quick-time events sprinkled throughout, along with the occasional opportunity to walk around and talk to the various members of the Guardians while solving puzzles to progress the story. Along the way, you will have to make various dialogue choices that will shape the story with dramatic consequences that will affect your relationships with the other characters.

The story zeroes in on the Eternity Forge, an object with the power to bring someone back from the dead. Each episode of the 5-part series would focus on a particular team member, examining their struggles and the issues they want to overcome. You primarily play as Star Lord, where your choices will determine the story as it plays out. The only downside with this game is that you can’t connect to the servers to see what your choices are like compared to others. Otherwise, if you happen to like some of Telltale’s other work, like The Walking Dead or The Wolf Among Us, then you will surely enjoy this underrated gem.

Hypnospace Outlaw

Charlotte Huston

On June 21, 2025, it was announced that the intended sequel for Hypnospace Outlaw, titled 'Dreamsettler', would be cancelled. The lead developer of both games, Jay Tholen, looked heartbroken in the video he made discussing the cancellation. He reasoned that they "overscoped" their ambitions for the project. When aspects of Dreamsettler had to be cut to stay under budget, much of Jay's motivation also went along with that absence. It was a shame to hear this, especially with how unique and odd Hypnospace Outlaw is. The throes of pure creativity were poured into Hypnospace Outlaw, but like many other indie titles, it also held a bevy of messaging that was really sobering.

Hypnospace Outlaw is a time capsule of the early internet, particularly the 1990s era. In the game, the player explores a simulation of this era of the internet while exploring things of humanity woven throughout. The most striking aspect of the game is how positively human it feels. There's an overwhelming, sobering sense of nostalgia that resonates in a bittersweet way. When you see how colorful the retro internet actually was and how much personality was injected into every single web page, you start to wonder how the internet lost its way. Why has it lost so much flavor and individuality? We've become too one-note with our social media platforms, and cannot express ourselves freely the way we likely should or even want. To that end, Jay Tholen's meticulously crafted experience here is excellent, and one wishes the best for his motivation to create another such an experience in the future.

Metroid Fusion

Brandon R. Chinn

The Metroid series is no stranger to horror elements. I remember Metroid Prime absolutely terrifying me as a child, forcing me into oppressive spaces to fight against gnarly enemies while wild, frenetic music played in the background. Metroid Fusion introduces its own stalker enemy, the SA-X, a clone of Samus that follows her through the space station, creating memorable encounters against an unstoppable foe.

Metroid Fusion itself is a bright, beautiful game from Nintendo's pixel-art era, and a monumental moment in forwarding the Metroid lore by introducing the X virus.

Mouthwashing

Nathan Kelly

I hate horror games. The tension of hiding from some monster you stand no chance of ever beating is not my definition of fun. I couldn't tell you what drove me to give Mouthwashing a try at the beginning of 2025, but I sat in my room and played the entire game on Steam Deck from start to finish and couldn't put it down. The game has expertly translated the growing tension from classic horror films into three-dimensional, explorable space, keeping me on the edge of my seat for its entire 3-hour runtime.

All the way through its insane plot twist and psychotic finale sequence, Mouthwashing is a thrill ride that never lets up as you investigate the events of the destitute space transport. I recommend this indie game to everyone, regardless of their proximity to the horror genre. It's a must-play and one of the greatest games you could ever play in one evening.

Ms. Pac-Man Special Color Edition

Jahanzeb Khan

I love seeking out Game Boy ports of classic games. Although there are countless ways to play the Pac-Man games on portable devices, the Game Boy ports are still special in their own right and make for great collectables, too.

Ms. Pac-Man Special Color Edition makes great use of the hardware as an effective and addictive way to play the classic. I love the zoomed-in mode as it adds a layer of surprise and challenge, but the game allows the full table view tool. Unique to the release are difficulty settings to spice up the maze action.

Ori and the Blind Forest

Bryan Finck

I had started Ori years ago, but bounced off of it due to my love/hate relationship with Metroidvanias. I remember it being more open-ended and difficult, but it really isn't either of those things. It is quite linear for the genre, and the now-common Hollow Knight-inspired difficult bosses are nowhere to be seen. The biggest challenges came in escaping each portion of the forest once the goal was achieved, and they did feel spikey in their difficulty, but it was never a deal-breaker.

I truly appreciate a game that offers a straightforward path, a story that the developer wants to tell, and a world that feels complete without requiring too much from the player. Sometimes I want to go on a journey without the overwhelming feeling of needing to discover it all myself. I loved everything about the game, and nearly a decade after its release, it still stands tall among the best of the crowded genre to which it belongs.

Pacific Drive

Matt Lawrence

Pacific Drive is a unique roguelite game that scratches a specific gaming itch for me. I am a huge fan of the game STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl, as well as the source materials which influenced it, the book “Roadside Picnic” by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, and the movie “Stalker” by Andrei Tarkovsky. The setting in the US Pacific Northwest, an area I have always found to be beautiful, made me even more interested in giving it a try.

The game takes place in a fictionalized version of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula following a cataclysmic disaster, leaving the region riddled with strange SCP-like anomalies and plagued with dangerous storms. This area, referred to as the Zone, is as beautiful as it is mysterious. The relationship between the beauty and mystery of the Zone and its inherent dangers is demonstrated by the pace of the game. At times, the player cruises along, almost leisurely, as they search for documents and logs that help to fill in the backstory of the Zone and the characters inhabiting it. At other times, the player is left to put the pedal to the metal with total abandon as they sail their station wagon through woods and across rivers in an effort to make it back to safety in one piece. A deep sense of suspense permeates exploration; it is never far from the player’s mind that it's only a matter of time before you’ll have to outrun the Zone’s storms.

By combining the elements of driving simulators and roguelites, Pacific Drive creates an experience that gamers of both genres will enjoy. These elements, coupled with an intriguing story and deep lore, make Pacific Drive my favorite game I played in 2025.

Bryan Finck

The early reviews for Pacific Drive were underwhelming, so I waited for a sale, and happily, it came to PS Plus in November. Very quickly, I realized this was going to be one of my favorite games of the year, as it is quite unlike anything I've ever played.

At its heart, Pacific Drive is a mix of survival horror and extraction-type gameplay. Your job is to take your car into the Zone, collect all kinds of loot from the remains of the government experiments and various flora and fauna they created, and get out with your car and your body intact. Whatever you bring out with you goes toward souping up your car (and maybe some new threads for you, too); new gear, like lead-lined doors and armored bumpers, will help you survive as you delve deeper into the zone. It gets crazier and scarier as you go, and there's a compelling story to keep you pushing forward.

The action is fantastic, with really compelling discoverability and great driving mechanics. The extraction parts at the end of each level can be incredibly tense, and I routinely found I was holding my breath until I made it safely out. I hope a lot of folks play this through PS Plus, because I'd love to see what developer Ironwood Studios can pull off with their next game.

Pokémon Emerald

Lawrence Adkins

When Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl came out in 2021, I found myself in the minority. As someone who only ever experienced the Sinnoh region through the lens of Pokémon Platinum, this revisit felt fresh to me, not only in some of the core gameplay differences, but in the fact that I played it as a Nuzlocke. Having finally obtained an authentic cartridge copy of Emerald, I took it upon myself to experience the Hoenn region similarly, playing an Avatar Mode Nuzlocke. These take the traditional Nuzlocke rules but add type limitations to represent each element of the show; I chose Earth, only having access to Ground, Rock, Steel, Fighting, Normal, and Bug type Pokémon.

Not only did this limit my encounters greatly for this run, but it also bolstered my creativity with how I built my team. Spinda and Illumise were suddenly the saving grace for my battle against Norman, Numel had immense value with its access to Fire-type moves, and failed encounters meant so much more. I ended up losing the battle against Winona, ending my run, but I look back on such a unique experience and want to replicate it in some way. This wacky first playthrough of Pokémon Emerald deserves its spot as one of my NoTYs.

Resident Evil 4 Remake

Bryan Finck

Capcom's resurgence over the last 9 years, starting with the release of Resident Evil 7 in 2017, is nothing short of miraculous. The storied developer looked on the edge of creative death after years of disappointing releases, leaving fans to dream of a return to the good old days. Thankfully, Capcom has been on a roll ever since, and the remakes of their most loved franchise are leading the way.

RE2 and RE3 Remakes were both fantastic, having never played them before, so I expected RE4 to be even better, as it was one of my GOATs from its original release on PS2. I was definitely not disappointed; it took everything I loved about the first game - fear of chainsaws included - and brought the archaic tank controls into the modern day to truly perfect the experience.

I hadn't remembered as much about the game as I thought; there were a lot of surprises I was overjoyed to experience again for the first time. The massive upgrade to the visuals and soundscape - including the main characters' re-recorded voice acting, which toned down the original's campy style just enough - allowed the action to shine brighter than ever before. RE4 adjusted the survival-horror formula just a bit more to the action side, which I loved, so having the gunplay and combat be even more at the forefront here is a tremendous improvement. Play it, play them all, and please, Capcom, let's get that official reveal for Code Veronica Remake soon!

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux

Brandon R. Chinn

Atlus re-released Strange Journey on the 3DS with improved graphics, additional features, new characters, and a secondary plot that adds even more to this SMT spin-off title. While Strange Journey does feel like a prototype for SMT IV and Apocalypse, it carries its own brand of the SMT formula, challenging the player on a brutal mission that requires some very old-school RPG patience.

Every fight feels earned in Strange Journey, and while the atmosphere and difficulty may feel oppressive at times, it's a worthy SMT title that comes close to contending with its numbered series brethren.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Lawrence Adkins

Skyrim seems to be one of those games that's impossible to really pull away from. In my efforts to engage with replaying games in different fashions, I took the time this year to finally start role-playing in Skyrim instead of just going with the motions.

This would also be my first time engaging with the Survival mode that hadn't existed the last time I played this game, and all of this new context really bolstered the experience for me. I had to manage my money, learn recipes for meals when I needed to eat, or be forced to buy the cheapest food to keep me from going hungry. Inns finally had a utility outside of the Dark Brotherhood questline. I couldn't just steal from NPCs because it wasn't what my character would do.

I played as a sellsword Redguard, trying to learn magic to earn more coin while embarking across the strange, cold forests and mountains of the north. What added some comedy to this was how fast news tends to travel in Skyrim. Keeping track of the calendar showed me how it only took a few days to become Thane of Whiterun, or a little over two weeks to get a letter from the Jarl of Falkreath. While this poked some holes in the storytelling, it didn't harm the experience at all. If you're out there and contemplating a replay of Skyrim while we all wait for TES VI, I can't recommend this approach to the game enough.

Star Wars Battlefront II

Charlotte Huston

The resurgence of Star Wars Battlefront II was truly a sight to behold around the midpoint of 2025. This is a game that had its support cut off by EA in 2020 to shift all focus at DICE towards Battlefield 2042. It had a disastrous launch filled with microtransactions and tons of missing content. Yet, its player base stood behind the developers who continued working on the game. Soon enough, those microtransactions became cosmetic-only. You no longer needed to acquire in-game currency to unlock heroes as they became playable by default. DICE's team added iconic Clone Wars Era content in the form of Geonosis, heroes Anakin and Obi-Wan, and much more.

One can only imagine what DICE could've accomplished if they were given the opportunity to work on it longer. Star Wars Battlefront II, even before its comeback, provided real authenticity to the Star Wars setting. Sound design is visceral, immersive, and resoundingly well-fitted to sthe universe. The photogrammetry technique used to make the battlefields feel movie-authentic is incredible. If you're purely looking to exist within the universe for a small amount of time, Battlefront II accomplishes that with flying colors.

It is why the sudden and somewhat random resurgence it had in May 2025 was really wonderful to witness. People were enjoying Star Wars again, stemming from Season 2 of Andor as well as the re-releases of Revenge of the Sith in theaters. What better way to simply enjoy Star Wars than a game such as Battlefront? This game, which essentially remained dormant for five years, had finally been acknowledged by the general public once more; the work DICE did to improve it post-launch finally appreciated for its excellence.

Steins;Gate Ø

C.S. Voll

Although the anime adaptation is much maligned, the game has much more breathing room to tell its introspective, dark tale. It was ahead of its time in 2015, too, as it anticipated many of the troubles we’re facing approximately ten years later. Steins;Gate Ø is my 2025 Game of Not This Year!

It was able to make me care about a story that already had a resolution — quite a feat. It did that in some intelligent ways. By adding some interesting characters that enhance the backstories of established characters, the new characters didn’t take away too much of the spotlight, which also makes you forgive some of the characters.

The story explored facets of the story we didn’t see much of in the first game, like the dystopian future that hung over proceedings for a long time. After seeing that world line, my admiration for Okabe’s gumption and resolve only grew, and my mind kept going back to one particular storyline that dwelled on some topics, such as imposter syndrome, that you don’t see too often in a narrative.

The soundtrack is also amazing. It built on the old melodies, but also added its own twists, like a version of Gate of Steiner with vocals sung by Eri Sasaki, which is sure to draw a few tears from players.

Do I like it more than Steins;Gate, though? I played the original last year, so it couldn’t be in contention for these awards. The fact is, Steins;Gate Ø interlocks with the original, so in my mind it is very hard to split the two from each other. Both are great examples of storytelling at its best.

Stranglehold

CJ Wilson

Stranglehold is a third-person shooter that plays like a Hong Kong action film, with bullet-time mechanics like Max Payne. The story is set after the events of John Woo’s Hard Boiled, where you play as Chow Yun-fat’s character, Inspector Tequila. You travel to various places, including Chicago and Hong Kong, taking down criminal gangs to get Tequila to reunite with his wife and daughter.

You use various weapons like pistols, submachine guns, shotguns, and rocket launchers as you perform stylish kills that will increase your combos, giving you more stars, which in turn gives you energy to perform powerful moves called Tequila bombs. These, like Precision Aim, let you fire your weapon in slow motion with precise movement to take out a single enemy. There’s a meter that lets you use as much slow motion as you can to kill the enemies in your path, like with the Max Payne series. Some gripes that I have with the game are that aiming can be difficult to manage with the camera and that certain sections can be brutally difficult at times, even on the normal setting.

While Stranglehold doesn’t look particularly lovely, I feel that's due to the game's use of Unreal Engine 3. That version of the game engine was known for a desaturated, brownish color palette, prevalent in many games that used it. Otherwise, if you are looking for a fun, action-packed game with excellent gunplay, I would recommend you add a copy of Stranglehold to your collection.

Super Mario World

Ben Rowan

In 2025, more than 30 years after first playing it as a kid, I finally committed to finishing Super Mario World. I first played it back in 1991, not long after it launched on the SNES, and I was completely floored. I still remember picking it up at my best friend’s place, the SNES box freshly unwrapped, the kind of Christmas gift every ’90s kid dreamed about. But sadly, I never actually stuck with it long enough to see the final credits.

The spark to revisit Mario's 16-bit debut came from watching the brilliant YouTube documentary, The Story of Super Mario World by The Gaming Historian. It’s a lovingly crafted deep dive into how Shigeru Miyamoto and team shaped this pivotal launch title, and how confidently they nailed the fundamentals. Watching it made me want to experience Mario’s seminal journey again, and finally see it through to completion.

I’ve been playing via Nintendo Switch Online, and it’s the perfect setup. Handheld mode means I can pick it up anywhere, and the quick-save feature has been a no-stress lifesaver on the tougher stages. Every session I play reinforces how close to a perfect 2D platformer this is: the variety of levels, the playful mechanics, the cape, the fireballs, Yoshi, and all those hidden exits and puzzles. There’s so much brilliance here, and it’s wild to think this incredible game was a launch title for Nintendo’s iconic console.

I also adore the world map. It almost makes it feel like an open-world title, and in some ways, it truly is. For a 1991 game, the pixel art still pops, the sound effects are a joy, and the music never gets old. One of my best games of 2025 wasn't released this year, or even this century, but my word, Super Mario World is undoubtedly one of the best games of all time.

Suzerain: Kingdom of Rizia

C.S. Voll

While I do love the original Suzerain, I just think Kingdom of Rizia improves on some key gameplay and design aspects. The characters, for one, are more memorable, and I feel like they are more complex this time around. It’s still cruel; still unforgiving — but the new systems do a better job of telling you why you might be having a tough time. Without the challenges, the victories wouldn’t taste as sweet, either.

The inclusion of romance storylines also adds another layer of complexity to an already great mix. Many of the character interactions feel more fun and informal, sort of like real people. By the end of my first playthrough, I was surprised by how much I cared about the citizens within my kingdom, and that’s due in large part to the strong writing.

Playing through it, you can also uncover secret storylines, schemes, and more information about the world’s history and culture. It gives you more freedom, too, because in this entry, you can command your armies, and it makes it easier to track your resources and implement laws, allowing you to shape Rizia in certain ways. Being a king in this game really feels different than being a president.

Kingdom of Rizia is a game that might not appeal to everyone because of its slow pace and difficulty, but I really enjoyed my time with it. I actually completed a couple of playthroughs to see how my choices affected the storylines. Unlike some games, the choices in Suzerain aren’t just superficial, and one mistake can have massive ramifications. The game’s concepts are so intriguing that all I can say is, “More, please”.

Transistor

Charlotte Huston

Supergiant has received a lot of praise for its more recent games, namely Hades and its 2025 sequel. They're both fantastic games, but with Supergiant proving to be so excellent as a studio, some curiosity grew over their previous entries. Going back to the first game a studio produced and then subsequently playing through them in order is a unique and interesting experience. Bastion was a lovely game for its time, and very candid about giving you explanations on almost everything. The DNA that would shape future Supergiant titles was there from their first game.

Transistor was a reversal of that notion, a game that strives to be entirely the opposite. It explains a minuscule amount, for better or worse. It has a plot that is much easier to digest without spelling out a plethora of exposition for the player. Transistor arguably has the most unique combat system Supergiant has done to date, taking many cues from the VATS system of the Fallout series. Entering a turn of combat fills an action bar for each action the player queues up while time is frozen. The actions chosen then play out once the player unfreezes the game.

It is a wonderfully bittersweet experience, from the tone down to the story itself. Even if one can argue that it is not Supergiant's best game, Transistor nonetheless has a strong case for it. It resonates as a very special game, cut from its own cloth in a way that lets it stand on the same footing as Hades, which is completely remarkable considering this was only Supergiant's second game as a studio.

Wildermyth

Nathan Kelly

Wildermyth was a rare find for me. It caught me when I was searching for a tactics game to really sink my teeth into. What I thought was another attempt at Final Fantasy Tactics, or Wartales, was actually a sneaky indie game with simple rules and a unique aesthetic. I was hooked from the first campaign.

I think that anybody who has played this title will tell you that it's the writing that will grab you if nothing else. The art is stylish and definitely an eye catcher (although I've seen some people turned off by the aesthetic), and the combat, although fast, is a bit too simple during extended play. What raises this game to greatness is the prose and emotion in the writing here; it's unmatched in its genre and in gaming at large.

You randomly create characters in this game that look like any other people in its world: colored pencil-designed faces plastered on top of class-specified body models. As the story unfolds, you will bemoan deaths and injuries, you will cheer at magical transformations and loves blossoming, and you will grit your teeth as characters stand amongst hordes of creatures with one health remaining.

Later, once you have established the lives of some heroes, the game allows you to start the game with some of your legacy characters from other games, a feature that I dearly love. One of the huge draws of the game is the feeling that you are creating this extended universe of stories, where famous heroes guest-star in the origin stories of the next generation. Any person who has ever wished they had the time to world-build or create layered stories is going to find that itch gently but satisfyingly scratched after a few hours in Wildermyth.

Wrestling Empire

Jahanzeb Khan

At this point, I might as well call Wrestling Empire my 'Game of the Forever'. It first launched on the eShop back in January of 2021, and from the first boot-up on my Nintendo Switch, it has constantly been in my play rotation. In my Nintendo Switch Year in Review for 2021, Wrestling Empire topped the list as my most-played title. Since then, it has topped my Year in Review every single year to date, including 2025. I doubt this will change in my 2026 Review, but Animal Crossing Switch 2 Edition will likely give it some competition in the wrestling ring.

I don't think any video game in the last decade has constantly and consistently captivated my imagination quite like Wrestling Empire. The experience speaks to me both as a gamer and as a tragic fan of professional wrestling.

Zenless Zone Zero

Ben Rowan

OK, I’ll confess: I’m a HoYoverse fan, and I love playing Genshin Impact. Exploring Teyvat’s massive world, unlocking new regions, and soaking up that Genshin vibe is one of my guilty pleasures. So when I decided to give Zenless Zone Zero (ZZZ) a proper go, I was a little apprehensive, as I knew it wasn’t going to offer those same open vistas. Still, when the lead-dev said Street Fighter 6 was one of their biggest influences, curiosity won out.

Thankfully, what I discovered was genuinely thrilling: ZZZ is laser-focused on action, and it looks, feels, and sounds incredible. Instead of a sprawling open world, you fast-travel around the futuristic Tokyo-style city of New Eridu. When it’s time to throw down, you dive into a parallel dimension called the Hollows, which exists almost purely to serve up an endless stream of stylish combat encounters as you fight ethereal demons, corrupted robots, and military tech gone rogue.

Between Hollow runs, you drift around New Eridu taking on commissions, farming resources, and dipping into limited-time events, all wrapped in an off-the-wall, Persona-ish storyline told through comic-style panels and occasional cutscenes. By day, you’re an unassuming video store clerk grabbing buffs from ramen and coffee, then you’re right back into the Hollows for the next job. It’s like a metaphor for gaming itself: you clock off, head home, sit at your gaming PC, and jack into a parallel reality to save the world.

Sure, the combat isn’t complex like Devil May Cry, but it doesn’t need to be. Built for touch, it feels incredible on a controller: fast, fluid, and gloriously overpowered. The depth comes from team builds, synergies, and timing, not complex inputs. With huge ultimates, slick animation, and killer music, it feels like Street Fighter on steroids. Free to play, full of style, and easily one of the best games I played in 2025.

Are you a NoTY gamer? Tell us in the comments about the games you loved in 2025 that came out earlier, and stay tuned to our pages for the best gaming coverage in 2026!