The A.V. Club's best games of 2025

A feverish creation, ENA: Dream BBQ is a kaleidoscopic Frankenstein’s monster of every aesthetic under the sun. Hand-drawn FMV animation, anime, 3D polygonal adventure games, and more all blend together into a dreamlike world with characters that feel inspired in equal parts by Looney Tunes and Pablo Picasso. The project started as a web series on YouTube in 2020, simply titled ENA, and created by Peruvian animator Joel Guerra. The fact that it has now borne fruit as one of the most visually vivid and manic games you could play this year is a crazed dream come true. There is currently only one chapter out, with more to come in the future, but what has been shared so far is more than enough to have anyone waiting with anxious anticipation for years. To top it all off, you can play it for free. [Farouk Kannout]

22. Death Stranding 2: On the Beach

Platform: PlayStation 5

Much like its predecessor, Death Stranding 2: On The Beach is an experience defined by contrasts: its general sense of maximalism (with its flamethrower guitars and samurai robots) is in tension with the transcendentalist rhythms of long drives through empty deserts and tundras. Its deeply non-commercial gameplay hook of delivering packages squares unusually with its status as a big-budget game in a gaming landscape where graphical fidelity is associated with hedged creative bets. Its love of deeply convoluted sci-fi nonsense and labyrinthine plot devices meets a personal story about grief and finding a reason to live on. But somehow, virtually all of these elements fit together snugly like puzzle pieces. The result is a cross-country adventure across a post-apocalyptic Australia that wants to kill you as much as the real thing; rivers flood, fireballs rain from the sky, and there are a whole bunch of globby ghost monsters eager to drag you to the other side. It’s a hostile world, sure, but the connections you form along the way with both these lovable oddball characters and other real-world players make each step a bit easier, as does its much-improved storytelling that doesn’t lore dump (as much) at the 11th hour. At a time when the AAA industry has never been more stale, Death Stranding 2 is the kind of expensive weirdo art we badly need. [Elijah Gonzalez]

21. Shinobi: Art of Vengeance

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

Sages will be hashing out the relationship between play and story as long as games criticism exists (so, uh, another year or two?), but a game’s physicality can be as powerful and transforming as any narrative. For proof play Sega’s Shinobi: Art of Vengeance, a silent killer that appeared from the shadows and sped past four other prominent ninja games in what many called the “Year of the Ninja.” Yes, it has a story, but it’s irrelevant in the face of action this crisp, varied, and challenging. It’s the rare modern platformer that looks to the structure of something like Bionic Commando more than any Metroid or Castlevania, letting players drop in on levels from an overworld map instead of rambling through a single giant maze or playing a sequence of levels in order; it then tasks them with navigating often breath-takingly complex action setpieces. If you have any fondness for the Shinobi games Sega made in the ‘80s and ‘90s, or love bashing your head against the brick walls of retro punishers like the Mega Man series, vengeance is one art you’ll want to dabble in. [Garrett Martin]

20. Promise Mascot Agency

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch

It feels like there are as many reasons to love Kaizen Game Work’s Promise Mascot Agency as there are strange mascots to recruit. It tells a well-written story that jumps from being a buddy comedy between a (hot) disgraced yakuza lieutenant and an anthropomorphic pinky finger one moment, to a high-stakes soap opera that unravels generational curses, political corruption, and community care the next. It plays like a management sim that somehow mixes in elements of deck-building card games, Japanese game shows, and labor contract negotiations, while just barely keeping it from overwhelming you. All of this is bolstered by a jazzy, Japanese Showa era-inspired soundtrack that captures the cursed town of Kaso-Machi’s layered personality. But what ultimately makes Promise Mascot Agency stick with you is its overpowering amount of heart. By the time credits roll, Kaso-Machi is no longer just a place best known for bleeding residents and housing yakuza-killing curses. It’s a historical site swimming in folk tales that give it an eccentric but charming personality; a refuge where those pushed to society’s margins can find meaningful lives and be recognized for their unique talents; and, most importantly, a home where creatures and humans of all types will make you laugh, cry and embrace your inner weird. [Wallace Truesdale]

19. Deltarune

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Switch 2, Mac, PlayStation 4, Switch

Deltarune tomorrow? For years fans of Undertale have waited for the follow-up, a wealth of fan art and merchandise spawned by just the first two demo chapters. Finally, the day came where we could play… the next two chapters. Now halfway through its seven chapter arc, Deltarune is already one of the best modern RPGs out there. Over your journey through the Dark World, you’ll fight spambots spewing pop-ups, duel with a jester, collect eggs, knock people’s socks off, channel surf to death, explore worlds within worlds, and so much more. Every type of mini-game, boss fight, and offbeat side character imaginable is crammed into Deltarune. While still scored and written by Toby Fox, Deltarune is more of a team effort, fitting given you now play as the trio of Kris, Susie, and Ralsei on your adventures. Progress after the first chapter was slow thanks to Fox aggravating his chronic wrist pain by trying to code, draw, and compose the whole thing. Since expanding to a team of eight, development has not only sped up but each chapter has been stronger than the last. Both in and out of the game, Deltarune is about relying on your friends when you need to—and who didn’t need friends more than ever in 2025? [Catherine Masters]

18. Type Help

Platforms: PC, Mac

William Rous’s Type Help doesn’t need frills. The text-based murder mystery, available on Itch.io, is as brilliant as it is quiet, and your ability to solve its secrets depends entirely on your own deduction capability. Tasked with picking up the cold trail of a string of deaths that occurred in 1936 at the wealthy Galley House, you have nothing but an ancient computer at your disposal, which will only grant access to audio transcripts of the nights leading up to the tragedy if you can puzzle out precise details of each conversation. This story is the game, and the way it unfurls around you is equal parts electric and melancholic. It is irresistible from the very first puzzle—the key to which is already right in front of you. Also, it’s getting a remaster in 2026 as The Incident at Galley Houses. [Bee Wertheimer]

17. Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Switch 2, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Switch

This remake of Final Fantasy Tactics proves that its medieval fantasy story is just as gripping today as it was in 1997. Ramza Beoulve, raised in wealth despite being the illegitimate love child of a noble and a commoner, gets caught up on the wrong side of a burgeoning class war. He has several “are we the baddies?” moments over the course of the game, as an increasingly complex conflict unravels into squabbling over ancient magical artifacts and false claims to the royal throne. The story plays out in cutscenes in between difficult, turn-based battles that require the player to get down and dirty with the game’s (sometimes tedious) job system. Even though we have now lost many hours of our lives making sure all of our Final Fantasy Tactics fighters had the precise power sets that we wanted them to have for every altercation, we don’t regret a moment, because landing the right type of attack at the right time always feels so damn satisfying. Getting to see the story play out to its conclusion was just extra icing, perhaps even tastier than the tactical cake that forms the bedrock of this newly remastered classic. This updated Tactics includes tons of quality-of-life changes (you can “flee” battles at any time, even the notoriously difficult battle against Wiegraf), as well as an easier difficulty setting to swap down into if you just want to get to the end. And by the way, if you find yourself reminded of Game of Thrones, it’s not your imagination; this game’s story was inspired by the War of the Roses, just like George R. R. Martin’s series. [Maddy Myers]

16. The Hundred Line: Last Defense Agency

Platforms: PC, Switch

The ending of tactical RPG The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy is devastating. You second-guess every decision you made. The people around you—those still standing, anyway—wonder if they were doomed to lose their war against the forces invading their city from the start, or if there was indeed a chance of turning things around at some point, and it just slipped away from grasp. Now, all you have left is a heart filled with pain and regret, and a uniform soaked in blood. But this is just one culmination of the events. In the face of defeat, you’re gifted choice: travel back in time and attempt to rewrite history—this time with knowledge and spite driving your pace. The Hundred Line doesn’t offer a hand as you sink for the first time. It’s a deliberate decision to inspire motivation in pursuing the other 99 endings to the story. The more you peel off the gargantuan scale of the joint project by the lead creators of the Danganronpa and the Zero Escape series, the more your heart will ache. You’ll see humans at their ugliest, frenzied by anger, violence, and desperation. And you’ll see them die time and time again, no matter how many calculations you make. Stand your ground in the face of defeat for long enough, however, and you might just get your chance to build a better future. [Diego Nicolás Argüello]

15. Lumines Arise

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5

Lumines, Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s psychedelic, beat-driven puzzler that debuted alongside the PSP in 2004, smartly adds a major new gameplay wrinkle with almost every revision. The new Lumines Arise introduces the “burst” mechanic, a “slow down” mode that builds up over time and can be deployed at the player’s discretion, and which has the double whammy effect of clearing a huge chunk of the board and then dropping several blocks of the same color to fill that void, providing two big score jolts in a row. It’s one of those changes that quickly becomes second nature, like it’s been there forever, fitting seamlessly into the core Lumines concept (quickly: squares made up of four smaller squares fall from above; those squares are made up of any combination of two different colors; you have to make 2×2 [or bigger] blocks of the same color to clear them; and, crucially, a line regularly sweeps the screen to the BPM of the song, only clearing any matched blocks once it finishes its sweep). Lumines Arise can’t quite match the best games in the series—its original soundtrack is a bummer, full of generic dance tracks with lyrics that are both too literal and especially insipid even for dance music—but it’s absolutely worth rising up to. [Garrett Martin]

14. Sektori

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S

Is the old school twin-stick shooter—think Robotron, think Smash TV, think Geometry Wars—not chaotic enough for you? Get your thumbs on Sektori, a bewilderingly tough, compulsively playable new spin on the genre from a former designer at Housemarque, a studio that long specialized in modern updates of brutal arcade experiences. Sektori’s main “campaign” mode is played on a constantly-shifting playfield, with enemies materializing in unpredictable locations and the very walls morphing every few seconds. You don’t just have to target incessant waves of bad guys, but contend with the fluctuating terrain (if a wall materializes where your ship is, it instantly kills you), grab much-needed power-ups before they quickly disappear, prioritize which of a handful of skills to upgrade, and also manage a deck of cards that offer perks that can be drawn during a run if you kill certain enemies quickly enough. (Okay, that last thing might be one wrinkle too many…) And that’s just one of several modes, including a few that will be immediately familiar to any Geometry Wars fans. Sektori is as uncaring and unsparing as any legendary arcade game, challenging you to earn any sense of accomplishment you get from it—which makes any feeling of success hit especially hard. [Garrett Martin] 

13. Hades II

Platforms: PC, Switch 2, Switch, Mac

Hades II could have been “just more Hades,” but in the daring sequel, Supergiant took major structural risks with both the narrative and mechanics. Each unique biome in this lightning fast ARPG brings as much devious challenge as it does context and meaning to the game’s plot. It’s a story about deific power and the limits of control, coiled around an experience in which players can taste that power for themselves—for just one night, at least. Script and gameplay work in concert, as each uplift the other to make the Greek pantheon as contemporary as possible while retaining its dangerous, risky timelessness. Anchored by a multi-faceted protagonist and punctuated by an eclectic score, Hades II is a stylish, laser-focused game that’s never restrictive and always builds momentum. No matter how many times a player brings death to Chronos, odds are good they’ll want another go… and then another. [Madeline Blondeau]

12. And Roger

Platforms: PC, Switch, Mac

A little girl wakes up with a strange man in her father’s place who’s trying to make her take pills. It sounds like the start of a horror, but and Roger spans many genres in its hour run-time. If you’re looking for romance, psychological thriller, slice-of-life or Florence-esque gamification of the mundane, look no further. It’s hard to openly discuss what And Roger is about without undermining its impact, but it’s smart and moving enough to retain most of its power even if it’s been spoiled for you. Play to find out who Roger is and leave with one of the most touching stories of the year. [Catherine Masters]

11. Blue Prince

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Mac

The mysteries at the heart of Blue Prince don’t unravel, but rather branch off into new and endless proliferations. It is a house that you never stop building, which is something like the act of being alive. Entangled in its savvy puzzles, family secrets, and political histories—all designed for us sickos who loved logic proofs back when we took geometry in high school—is a game about how the physical spaces we inhabit carry all the memories we experience in our short time living within them, even after we’re gone. It is a perfect coincidence that this game released the same year as Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, two neighbors who mutually understand how the household objects we interact with daily become imbued with what the film is titled after. [Farouk Kannout]

10. Silent Hill f

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S

The world is blooming for her—or so Hinako thinks once she comes to the end of her journey. She ascends the hills of her mountain town, back to her home, with the world turned into a wonderland of blossomed flesh. It has been a long time since Silent Hill, or frankly any mainstream horror game, has had images this provocative and beautiful. Once more they are felt. Without spoiling anything, Hinako’s transformation is a bristling advent of terror, summoning a cascade of ideas and images which have stuck in our minds long after finishing. Despite its deflating ultimate ending, Silent Hill f is dense and profound in almost every aspect of its being. If only more games could be so artful and interesting. [Grace Benfell]

9. Blippo+

Platforms: PC, PlayDate, Switch

This multimedia oddity recreates the idle joy of channel-surfing basic cable in the late ‘80s, while telling a sci-fi tale that touches on ideas of identity, self-discovery, corporate control of the media, and more. Artists, musicians, alt-comedy stars (Mitra Jouhari, Whitmer Thomas, Brent Weinbach), and all-purpose weirdos collide on an interactive work that isn’t quite a traditional game but remains game-adjacent in the way visual novels or old FMV games are. It has love for the mysteries and randomness of TV’s past, but isn’t some limp, uninspired nostalgia-fest, with the art-damaged whimsy of Adult Swim or MTV’s cool old bumper ads coursing through the whole project. [Garrett Martin]

8. Skate Story

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Switch 2, Mac

Like the name says, Sam Eng’s surreal skating adventure has a story. Never say it doesn’t. Cut-scenes, characters, dialogue (some of the year’s best)… it’s got the works. And it’s definitely an eye-catching one that people love to talk about; you’re a glass demon skating through hell to challenge the devil for your soul, eating a few moons along the way to get it done. Now that’s a story! And yet few games are so resolutely about atmosphere above all else as this one—before the narrative, before the combo-stringing skate action, the vibe takes precedence. Eng has talked about how much skating through New York City at night while listening to music influenced his game (which he is the sole credited developer on, in a year where “small team” development has been marketed and misinterpreted like never before), and that can be seen and heard at every point in Skate Story. If you’ve ever wished there was a classic skate video set in a psychedelic, expressionistic, synth-heavy version of the underworld, now’s your chance to not just see one but play one. [Garrett Martin]

7. Baby Steps

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5

Simultaneously one of the funniest and saddest games of 2025, Bennett Foddy, Gabe Cuzillo, and Maxi Boch’s Baby Steps could have just been rote streamer-bait. The premise is built for it, certainly: As a onesie-wearing failson attempting to navigate a fantastical world one pick-up-left-foot, pick-up-right-foot step at a time, players are positioned to fuck up at every turn, sending the hapless Nate tumbling down mountains and plummeting off precarious ledges while Cuzillo’s low-key, hilarious voice acting deadpans grunts of pain and the occasional, muffled “Shit!” But look beyond the memes (and the, uh, swinging donkey-man penises), and you’ll find a game that loves play on a fundamental level, where the greatest reason to do anything—whether it’s climbing a tower, hiking up a mountain, or spending an hour trying to secure and gobble down a glowing piece of fruit—is for the sheer pleasure of having done so. Like many of Foddy’s games, Baby Steps is a love letter to struggle, encompassing what is both ridiculous and beautiful about grinding your brain and body against a challenge that exists for no other reason than to be challenging. But it also hides a genuinely sweet heart, one that wants to remind you that help is out there—if you only have the strength to ask. [William Hughes]

6. Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, Mac

The first Citizen Sleeper was one of those seemingly impossible-to-replicate surprises, its harsh, well-realized world and weighty die rolls putting the player in the kind of trance that made it concerningly easy to shotgun blast through 10 hours in one or two sittings. In short, it’s the kind of special game that’s tough to follow. Despite this, its sequel, Starward Vector, manages to pull off much of the same magic a second time, once again putting the players in the metal chassis of an artificially created person trapped in servitude. It shares that same carefully portrayed setting, where unbelievably harsh realities (being abandoned at the far reaches of interstellar capitalism) are curbed by an underlying humanism and empathy found in Gareth Damian Martin’s prose. These thoughtfully portrayed characters make it all the more nerve-racking when encountering the deadly challenges of more in-depth tabletop RPG-inspired systems; you’ll have to balance the strengths and weaknesses of your crew while engaging in multi-part missions that love to use stressful countdowns. Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector may lose a little bit of the close-knit charm of the original’s single-location setting, but its more free-wheeling attitude sets up a galaxy of possibilities. [Elijah Gonzalez]

5. Hollow Knight: Silksong

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch 2, Mac, Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

Before Silksong was a game, it was a joke in the comment sections and Twitch chats of every video detailing a slate of upcoming game releases. This was cheeky fun to most, but a desperate pilgrimage to others. For the most devoted, it was a test of faith through the years that Silksong, praise be, would finally arrive, and that it might miraculously live up to the immeasurable hype that was preceding its release for nearly seven years. Silksong finally arrived in September, and those who maintained their zealotry have seen it pay off in spades—alhough now they have new hurdles to overcome. The religiously drenched world of Pharloom is teeming with elusive secrets and herculean bosses that will have you picking any god to pray to as you trek to the heights of the Citadel. But this is precisely what we’re all here for, and Hornet is our perfect, balletic ambassador through these dexterous duels in such a merciless place. With her, we find small pockets of community in a land that is dying, but not yet dead. This pittance, a few lovable little guys like Sherma, is all we need to keep going. Something to fight for, to protect. [Farouk Kannout]

4. The Séance of Blake Manor

Platforms: PC

An astounding commitment to detail makes The Séance of Blake Manor a mystery game without equal. Be it the titular setting or the people that inhabit it, there is seemingly no piece of furniture or quirk of character design that is not in service of making the possibilities of investigation seem almost endless. What starts as a single thread for you to follow as private investigator Declan Ward soon unravels into dozens of offshoots that wind back into each other in an unexpected web. Combined with clever (but never too obvious) breadcrumbing of clues and a time limit on your investigation, the pace feels perfectly brisk, applying just the right amount of pressure to make you worry you might not be able to put all the pieces together. And while being a superb mystery game is more than enough, that doesn’t paint a full picture of The Séance of Blake Manor. This is, in truth, a story about those in search of revenge, retribution, repentance, and reparations stemming from British imperialism. A haunted Irish estate weighed down by the evils of its inhabitants only serves as the container for a survey of global generational traumas in one of this year’s best games. [Willa Rowe]

3. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S

Almost every year has That Game, the one that dominates discourse and is met with very loud praise before contrarianism inevitably crops up, and then counter-contrarianism to combat it, and so on, until the fervor eventually dies down and people can actually appraise its long-term impact for real. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is very much one of those. And while debates over its controversial ending have dominated much of this year’s discussion, it’s worth reflecting again on how impressive each of its component parts are. Its surrealist art direction combines the decadence and gold lacquer of Belle Époque France with swirling, inevitable death as bodies contort into unnatural sculptures. Its central battles pair the theorycrafting and tactical fun of turn-based encounters with timing-based swordplay inspired by the Mario RPGs. Its performances, both its excellent voice acting and expressive mo-cap work, help sell these messed-up characters who’ve lived their lives under a ticking clock. And maybe its most unassailable element is Lorien Testard and Alice Duport-Percier’s incredible soundtrack, which fully sells the haunting beauty of this setting with each operatic turn. Could Clair Obscur have settled for a more straightforward, traditional ending that may have tied its themes (musings on death and grief) and plotting (the titular expedition) together a bit more tidily, so you weren’t essentially forced to choose between one or the other? Definitely. But no matter how you feel about the climax, like the rest of the game, it’s hard to argue that it’s boring. [Elijah Gonzalez]

2. Donkey Kong Bananza

Platform: Switch 2

Donkey Kong Bananza is a better fit for Nintendo EPD’s specific open-world, transformation-based designs than Super Mario Odyssey was, and did an exponentially superior job of cutting back on the worst of Rare’s Donkey Kong 64-era excesses when it came to collectathon bloat, too. Leaving aside any comparisons to other games, though, it’s just a lot of fun. It’s fun to smash stuff. It’s fun to chain together rolls and jumps and punches and to use a piece of ground you snatched up in the middle of all of that as a launching pad to vault yourself even higher and continue your kinetic movements. It’s a game that prioritizes what you might want to discover by punching your way through every surface, even if it means some ugly camera angles that aren’t staged and Photo Mode-ready. It gives you ample opportunity to destroy everything around you, only truly constricting you not in its main game, but in its roguelike DLC that shows off even more of a Splatoon connection than the game already possessed—and there, as with any good roguelike, those constrictions are the point. Plus, one of the levels involves just, like, the biggest cheeseburger you have ever seen. More games need the kind of vision that led to that. [Marc Normandin]

1. Despelote

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Mac, PlayStation 4, Switch, Xbox One

It is August 15, 2001, and Ecuador’s fourth World Cup qualifying match is on all nine televisions in the front windows of Electronica Tecnirama. Your mother told you to wait for two hours on a bench in the park, just 20 yards away, while she went to an appointment. But a combination of youthful curiosity and the earliest rumblings of national pride have drawn you to the storefront display. Maybe you’ll stay there, watching the whole game (a loss to Argentina). Or maybe you’ll find yourself pulled away to play with the other children in the park, eavesdrop on a phone call, or chase around that stray dog.

Despelote is a first-person documentary about childhood, home, soccer, and (in its most remarkable moments) what it might mean to bring documentarian principles and goals to a medium so often defined by digital embodiment and perspectival agency.

Time moves. The ball rolls a little further and you grow a little older. You find that your place in the world is the place you are, like it or not. [Austin Walker]