There are very few small years for video games, but 2025 felt like a big and mildly weird one in a lot of ways.
It was a year relatively lacking in big-budget first-party bangers from the likes of PlayStation and Xbox, though you'll see a bit of the former on this list. Nintendo had a big year, finally launching the Switch 2, but still, the most talked-about game of the year was a Japanese RPG made in France. Aside from all of that, it was a big year for soccer, non-French-RPGs, lonely hikes, and hotly anticipated sequels to indie smash hits.
Enough of the preamble. Here are Mashable's (unranked) picks for the best video games of 2025.
Trails in the Sky: 1st Chapter
The combat is so, so good.
Credit: GungHo/Falcom/Steam
For me, personally, 2025 was defined less by games that came out this year and more by a long-running series of turn-based RPGs known as Trails in the English-speaking world. There are more than a dozen of them, most of which are at least 50 hours long, and they all connect narratively. The best point of comparison, in terms of the breadth of its story and the sheer number of characters to keep track of, would probably be A Song of Ice and Fire. It's a massive commitment, but I have truly loved playing through the series this year.
And what a nice coincidence it was that developer Nihon Falcom decided to release a shiny new from-the-ground-up remake of Trails in the Sky, the very first game in the series, in late 2025. Aside from just being a great entry point into this incredible series, Trails in the Sky: 1st Chapter is an astounding RPG on its own merits. Its art style brims with personality, the unique real-time/turn-based hybrid combat is my personal favorite RPG combat of the year, and it's fascinating to see the seeds for future high-stakes storytelling planted in this humble, low-stakes adventure.
If any of this sounds at all interesting to you, start with this game and keep going after that. There's also a remake of the second game coming in the near future.
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
They went nuts with the weather in this one.
Credit: Kojima Productions/PlayStation
While I will stop short of calling Death Stranding director Hideo Kojima an unprecedented genius, I do think he represents what I would love to see out of big-budget game development: Eccentric creators with cool ideas given massive amounts of money to make whatever they want, no matter how off-putting the elevator pitch for the project might be.
Death Stranding 2 is certainly less off-putting than its flawed 2019 predecessor, thanks to more forgiving combat and an overall design philosophy that empowers the player more than it disempowers them. That doesn't make it any less goofy, though. This is a game with pizza-based martial arts, a kind and helpful talking doll by your side at all times, a truly confounding central performance from Norman Reedus, and a climactic shirtless electric guitar battle at its conclusion.
Most importantly, Death Stranding 2 is a much more confident take on the ultimate masculine power fantasy of being emotionally unavailable and pondering public infrastructure projects. Its personality shines through where it didn't in the first game, and it's going to stick with me as much as anything I played this year.
Mario Kart World
That dolphin is riding a motorcycle that looks like a dolphin.
Credit: Nintendo
The first of two early Switch 2 exclusives on this list, Mario Kart World is also perhaps the most divisive game in that category so far. Some people, like me, love its focused design, increased sense of chaos, and astoundingly fun Knockout Tour mode. Other people feel that the open-world portion of World is half-baked and that a lack of post-launch support has stifled its long-term viability as a multiplayer game.
That's fine, I guess, but I never needed Mario Kart World to be Fortnite. In fact, I'm glad it's not. Nintendo created a great racing game full of fun activities to enjoy, and most importantly, it doesn't require your constant attention. If you want to put it down for weeks or months at a time and come back later, you won't miss anything. Mario Kart World also shies away from embarrassing, undignified corporate crossovers, rounding out its character roster with random Mario enemies instead of SpongeBob SquarePants and Hatsune Miku.
Between all of that and a truly astonishing and dense soundtrack full of loving renditions of songs from across the Mario universe, Mario Kart World is a great celebration of Nintendo's mascot and a great entry point into the Switch 2 as a console.
Despelote
Play 'Despelote' at your earliest convenience.
Credit: Panic/Steam
Despelote speaks for itself better than I could ever put into words. You should really just plop down $15, play through it in the 90 minutes it takes to finish, and come back here instead of reading more.
In case you can't or don't want to do that, though, Despelote is a first-person narrative adventure about growing up in Ecuador in the early 2000s, as the country's national men's soccer team attempts to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in its history. Time is measured by game days and further contextualized by political and economic instability that fades into the background because you're playing as a child who cares more about soccer than anything else in the world. Its environments are hazy and dreamlike, resembling half-formed childhood memories better than almost any other game I can think of.
More than anything, Despelote transports the player to a very particular time and place, focusing on a culture that often receives little attention in video games. I choose to celebrate that.
Donkey Kong Bananza
Pauline is so cool.
Credit: Nintendo
Our second Switch 2 exclusive understands one crucial aspect of video game design: Punching things until they explode is a lot of fun.
Donkey Kong Bananza is notable for a few reasons. One is that it marks the return of one of Nintendo's oldest characters as a 3D platformer hero, his first game in that role in 25 years. Another is that he got a fresh redesign and a new best friend in the infinitely charming Pauline, a singing teenage girl who joins DK on his quest to the core of the planet. Bananza marries tons of personality with highly destructible environments, all of which will fall to DK's fists on a long enough timeline.
A 3D platformer where you can ignore the baked-in level design and simply punch your way to the goal works remarkably well. I'm not sure ifΒ BananzaΒ is as good asΒ Super Mario OdysseyΒ (the last game from this development team),Β but it's definitely worthy of being on this list.
Ghost of Yotei
Pretty.
Credit: Sucker Punch/PlayStation
PlayStation's Ghost of Yotei is one of the few games on this list that I have not personally had time to check out yet, but our reviewer George Yang adored his time with the open-world samurai adventure. His take on the quest design really stood out to me:
"Ghost of Yotei has one of the best open-world formats out there, and thatβs due to how seamlessly its side quests and exploration unfold. As Atsu travels across Ezo, NPC characters will call out to her, signaling that they have a side quest for her to tackle. Itβs worth doing them too, as they reward Atsu with new equipment or money to help her on her journey. The side quests arenβt mindless fetch quests either β each one has a story that expands Yoteiβs lore and worldbuilding. For example, one quest had Atsu rescuing an imprisoned gambler who maintained a winning streak against SaitΕβs lackeys, showing not only their lack of morals but their pettiness, too."
It's hard to make open-world games feel fresh in 2025, but by all accounts, Yotei does an admirable job of that. If you want to luxuriate in gorgeous visuals and do cool sword tricks for a few dozen hours, here you go.
Hades II
The part where you play 'Hades II' is still unparelleled.
Credit: Supergiant Games/Steam
I have to admit that Hades II has not stuck with me for hundreds of hours in the same way the first game did in 2020. Its faults include a story that wraps up in a rather unsatisfying manner and the fact that it's been done before.
Still, even taking into account a lack of novelty, I think Hades II just barely makes the cut here because more Hades is still more Hades. Developer Supergiant Games marries its usual excellent art direction, audio design, and variable combat mechanics into something that's downright thrilling to play at its best. Introducing a second route to the game also dramatically increased the variety therein. I don't think Hades II measures up to its predecessor, but it doesn't have to in order to make this list.
Baby Steps
I'm getting stressed just looking at this.
Credit: Devolver Digital/Steam
Baby Steps, the newest joint from developer Bennett Foddy, is a game you can consume entirely via social media clips of players failing hilariously, if you want. It's another in a long line of games about physics-based movement, where the act of walking requires intent and precision, and nothing is handled for you automatically. Merely going up a set of stairs is a challenge here. Turning the mundane into profound obstacles is a significant part of the appeal ofΒ Baby StepsΒ and similar games.
On top of all of that, Baby Steps is just strange (complimentary). It's a game where weird things happen on a regular basis, as a reward for sticking with it through the frustration. I have a feeling Baby Steps will have some of the longest-lasting appeal of any 2025 release.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
Heck yes dude.
Credit: Nintendo
I don't know if any 2025 video game had more weight on its shoulders than Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. It's the first Prime game in 18 years, following extensive delays and a general sense among Metroid fans that Nintendo had lost interest in the series. It also had to contend with some pre-release controversy surrounding a certainΒ engineer, which led some fans to believe the game was beyond saving before it even came out.
I am pleased to report thatΒ Metroid Prime 4Β is great, regardless of the anxiety surrounding it. Samus Aran's latest adventure combines rock-solid level design with a haunting desert hub that you traverse on a kick-ass motorcycle. It's the best-looking Switch 2 game so far, and it has a great sense of atmosphere, along with excellent music. Most importantly, it proves that Metroid Prime can still work in a modern context, even if that engineer guy is really irritating.
Honorable Mention: Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition
I beg you to give this one a shot.
Credit: Nintendo
At the risk of putting too many Nintendo games on this list, I do want to shout out Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition. It's an oft-requested Switch remaster of the last great Wii U exclusive, a gargantuan open-world RPG about human refugees trying to make a life on a distant alien planet after Earth's destruction.
Xenoblade X has one of the three or four best open worlds in any video game, ever. Every inch of it is thoughtfully designed, including the vast, empty stretches of it. It feels alien and hostile when it needs to, and also awe-inspiring and beautiful when it needs to be those things, too. And after about 40 hours, you can fly around the world in a mech, which recontextualizes your relationship with the planet in a heartbeat. It's a remarkable progression of scale that I've never seen another open-world game pull off.
Honorable Mention: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
The combat rules.
Credit: Sandfall Interactive/Steam
I mentioned earlier that the most talked-about game of 2025 was a JRPG made in France. That would be Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a gorgeous turn-based RPG inspired by several genre classics (and some other, more obscure titles), but with a bleak tone and aesthetic all its own. Set in a world where everyone above a certain age is killed every year (with the number going down year by year), Clair Obscur tells a tale of loss and grief that didn't personally work for me, but did work for plenty of other people I know.
What did work for me was its excellent combat, which synthesizes turn-based battles with real-time dodge and counter mechanics. The result is a game where you can break the math, or just get really good at countering enemy attacks. Or, you can be like me and do both, resulting in a final boss fight that lasts about 20 seconds. The point is that Clair Obscur has excellent combat, great music, a fun world to explore, and exciting boss fights, regardless of how much its story does or doesn't affect you.
Login
Sally Ward-Foxton / EE Times:
