Just like that, the year has wrapped up and this blog has been irregularly chugging away for about 6 months now. I’ve spent the holiday with friends and family, and talked about some of my favorite experiences of the year with them. We’ll see if I have top lists for other forms of media, but I feel the most equipped to talk about games. Here’s an abbreviated look at my top ten (new to me) games of the year!

10- The Bazaar
I wrote a post all about this game back in September (You can find it here!) This narrowly beat out a bunch of other games vying for tenth place. I crave competitive games sometimes, but it can be hard to clear out the time to seek out those sorts of experiences. The Bazaar has the advantage of being asynchronous, so I can chip away at a run of it at my own pace, whether that’s sitting down for thirty to forty minutes, or knocking it out in a couple of sittings. I have to return to this one soon, it’s had a new character release since I last wrote about it, and balance patches have been coming at a steady pace.

It’s position in the list here could be precarious, because if the game doesn’t find huge success, I could see the servers not surviving, but the mechanics here are strong. I think The Bazaar will have a strong second wind if it ever comes to mobile. I’m looking forward to more bite-sized strategy from this in 2026!

9- Dispatch
Look at that, this one had a post from me as well! It’s like I’m a fan of the things I write about it (Post is right here!) This is one of the narrative superstars of the year for me, but myself and other have yapped a lot about that. This is a Telltale style game that borrows from tabletop RPG’s and their dice rolls for how it handles mechanics. This ultimately ends up feeling like a fusion of tabletop, television, and traditional video games with how much the systems interact with each other. It’s a breezy little game that can be knocked out in a weekend, but offers enough branching decisions that there’s still some solid replay value here.

Dispatch also has a curious quality: I was able to hold conversations about the game with folks who watched a playthrough of the game, rather than actually playing it, and we still ended up with similar experiences. Despite this, Dispatch has me very excited for whatever AdHoc has cooking, whether that’s another original experience, or a continuation of this story.

8- Monster Hunter Wilds
Here’s the first game of the list that doesn’t have a blog post by me. It came out before I started the blog, and to be quite honest, I have a lot of mixed feelings about this game. Still, I cannot deny the quality time I spent with friends hunting down fearsome behemoths. Monster Hunter is a game about the finely polished loop of killing monsters, turning them into equipment, and using that to kill bigger monsters. It’s a proven, 20+ year old formula now, but Monster Hunter Wilds needed some more time in the oven.

I play on a PC that’s just above minimum specs for the game, but it is a rough game to see in motion and look at. My screenshot demonstrates that much of my experience looked like I had smeared vaseline on my monitor, and zooming in on certain models would reward my inspection with some textures that look as if they were ripped from a PS2. Still, my complaints are not all technical. Progression through the story of the game is a series of long rides on your bird, being talked at, only punctuated by monster battles which feel much shorter than previous fights in the series. My friend group fell off of this Monster Hunter faster than any other Monster Hunter we have played.

So how can I rate something so highly, when I have so many complaints about it? Monster Hunter just has an extremely appealing core gameplay loop, and as for the hunting? Once all my complaints wash away, the gameplay feels excellent, probably some of the series strongest. Most years, if a new Monster Hunter came out, it would be a shoo-in for my favorite game of the year. This year, Mon Hun just has to settle for eighth place. This game will definitely be reevaluated in 2026 as we get further performance patches, and an upcoming master rank expansion surely in development will likely remedy many of my complaints about the core loop here. If you want to dip into the world of Monster Hunter, I would recommend Monster Hunter Rise before this one.

7- Q-UP
Here’s a game that’s really funny sitting right next to Monster Hunter in the rankings: Another game with an incredible loop, only instead of an intricate dance of combat systems, it’s just flipping a coin. I’ve already shared my thoughts about this wonderful game here, but I just want to reiterate that this was a real highlight of my year in gaming.

This one really has you examining what brings you back to games. I’ve spent more time analyzing the skill trees here than I have in some more, more competitive games. The act of just flipping a coin and watching numbers and scores spiral out from there is fascinating. I expect to continue seeing a deluge of Balatro-likes in the upcoming year, but Q-UP shows that it is a rich vein to strike.

6- Demonschool
Out of everything on this list, I’ve put the least amount of time into Demonschool, because it came out late in the year. It’s hard to clear time for RPGs, but this game is what I’m most excited to finish in 2026. Everything it’s showing off is so strong and fun, and I can’t wait to see how it continues to develop.

A Demon apocalypse is coming to your little college town, and you’re a demon hunter. The tone is goofy, the music is a groove, but the most impressive thing on display here is the mechanics. Most reviewers are identifying this as a Persona like, but this reminds me more of a quirky little TV show fused with Into the Breach styled fight mechanics, and that game rules. The fights are a real brainteaser, and much of my playtime was just sipping on coffee, staring at the monitor and scratching my chin. You can freely rewind your moves, so it feels like an optimization puzzle moreso than a traditional tactics game.

I’d love to have a post about this game when I wrap up with it. Please don’t let this one slip under the radar!

5- Starvaders
Starvaders deserves to be remembered as one of the deckbuilding greats. This came out before I started my blog, and honestly, I’d still love to write about this one some more. You play as a mech pilot battling space invaders that advance further down the screen every turn. Through clever management of your deck, you need to manage generated heat, and the doom that the invaders generate.

Deckbuilding games have become a crowded field, and I play a lot of them. I also end up being a big fan of most I play, but I really want to shout from the rooftops how solid and engaging this one is. I kept coming back to this one throughout the year, and I lost myself in a run of this game in the middle of writing this article while getting some screenshots. The game also includes an excellent system to shake up the items available every run, striking a harmonious balance between getting to see novel options, and getting equipment that works well with the rest of the pool. Definitely my steam deck highlight of the year, and my fingers are crossed that this game gets a Switch release eventually to find a bigger audience.

4- Kirby Air Riders
Here’s the real best racing game on the switch 2. Mario Kart World is neat, but Air Riders has some real fresh ideas. The game is played entirely with two buttons and the control stick, and the second button is usually only hit once during each race. Braking, boosting, drifting, and sucking up enemies are all combined into one context sensitive button, and it gives you a game with an astonishingly low skill floor, and a surprisingly high ceiling.

I believe that it is going to be a hot minute before we get any wind of a new Smash Bros, but Air Riders is the actual successor. It’s a multiplayer game that excels when you’re on the couch, and it is absolutely stuffed to the gills with unlockables. There are so many modes here that the game will happily match whatever mood you’re in. Want a top down arcade racer? Tight racing that honestly reminds me of F-Zero sometimes? The absolute chaos of City Trials? Air Riders delivers gaming sessions of any length and player count. Playing alone, I could have the joys of intense online races, or the surprise hit Road Trip mode. Road Trip delivers single player challenges so brief and diverse, that it almost reminds me of a racing game Wario Ware.

The first Air Rider on the Gamecube was not critically beloved, but became a quiet cult favorite. This new iteration finally has the hardware to showcase all the dazzling nonsense it’s always wanted to champion. I think a lot of folks may balk at the price of this game for how simple it appears on paper, but this game rocketed up the list, despite being a November release.

3- Donkey Kong Bananza
Wow, what a masterpiece. The Mario Odyssey team embarks on an even more ambitious design, and knocks it out of the park. You can see years of Nintendo’s research and development hard at work here. It’s a spectacular fusion of destructible environments that let you shape the world to your whims, and the tightly designed platforming showcase pieces that we celebrate Mario games for accomplishing. Rarely have I played a game that so seamlessly transitions between the joys of exploration, discovery and technical movement challenges.

Unlike Air Riders, this game isn’t in need of more people championing it’s name. This is the runaway star of the Switch 2, and my vote for the must have game of the system. A unique take I can provide on this game is that I played through all of it cooperatively with my wife, passing controllers back and forth between who would play DK, and who would play support as Pauline, shouting and hurling bits of terrain at foes and landscape alike. These second player “assist” styled additions started in Mario back on the Wii with Mario Galaxy, but this is the best iteration it has ever had.

I’m just beginning to explore the post-game in this title, and will likely pick up the DLC soon. Personally, I enjoyed this game even more than Mario Odyssey, which I though was an impossibly high bar to clear, but DK has hopped into a barrel and sailed over the moon. The only sad thing I can say about this golden game is that it is a pity that we’ll likely have to wait for the Switch 3 to see the Odyssey team’s next game.

2- Deltarune Chapters 2,3, and 4
I made note at the top of this post that I was counting games new to me, not just new to 2025. Because of this, I got to play 2021’s Chapter 2 along with 2025’s 3 and 4. Deltarune being placed this high is probably my hottest take of the list: Deltarune, even only being half finished, towers over so many of the games that I played this year.

This is a hard game to talk about without spoiling, but mechanically, this is a JRPG where you dodge attacks via bullet hell segments, but the game revels in having so much more than that to throw at you. Chapters go down very smooth, and the game hits an excellent balance of being humorous, charming, and intriguing. This game is also easily the soundtrack of the year. Toby Fox puts out some absolute jams, and many songs have kept me grooving on long drives this year. This whole ride gave me some of the widest range of emotions I’ve experienced in a game this year.

Deltarune will likely keep making appearances on my GOTY lists, and if the team can keep at completing a chapter a year, Deltarune could wrap up in 2028. With all the chapters currently released, I put in twenty hours. It’ll be a long development for what will likely be a forty hour game, but I have loved every moment of it.

1- Hades II
Hades II is my game of the year, and is likely a very popular choice for many other folks. The characters and story are engaging, the gameplay is polished to a mirror sheen, and the urge to play one more time is unparalleled. You get more of a payoff if you play the first Hades before this one, but I believe this one could shine even on its own.

You play as Melinoë, little known daughter of Hades, in a quest to save your family from the Titan Chronos. You progress through four regions, with every room in the region presenting a challenge, and then a reward that will let you build up your powers differently every time you play. It’s very similar in structure to the first game, but this game refines it even further, and spins it into some new directions.

Mechanically, Melinoë is not as zippy as her brother Zagreus, so you’re a little slower than the first game, but your spell circle lets you manage the greater hordes of enemies you’ll have to deal with. The selection of weapons is much more eclectic than the previous game, and creates some more unique play patterns than the first game. Overall, the variety on display is incredible. Without spoiling some of the early game developments, one gameplay choice had me realize that this game is not only Hades II, but also Hades II and III.

Conclusion
2025 was a hell of a year for video games. I intend for these entries to be about fantastic experiences new to me, not necessarily from the year. Despite this, the list was dominated by releases of the year. More and more releases come out every year, so there’s always bound to be something fascinating to try out. In 2026, I hope to explore more retro games and my back catalog. Here’s to another year of exploring rich mechanics and trying to be on time with my writing!