Top ten games I played in 2025

#10 Minishoot Adventures

This is basically a 2D Zelda game in the shape of a twin-stick shooter. There's an overworld full of secrets, caves with heart pieces, lock and key dungeons that culminate in a boss fight, and in said dungeons you find a new item halfway through that lets you explore the remainder of the dungeon and lets you push out further in the overworld afterwards. 

For me this game scratched an itch that the actual Zelda series hasn't for a long time, and that's not just because it borrows the structure of 2D Zelda, but because the game is genuinely good and excels at all the things a good 2D Zelda needs to. The map design is great and is constantly rewarding you for your exploration with power-ups and points of interest that you make a mental note of coming back to later when you've acquired the appropriate item. It was very addictive and I basically didn't stop playing this game once I picked it up. 

I'm not particularly big on bullet hell gameplay or shmups, but I found this game to be extremely approachable and reasonable in its patterns instead of being sheer insanity like Touhou or CAVE shmups, and I think anyone who can play something on the level of, say, Nier Automata's hacking minigame would be able to enjoy this perfectly well. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes 2D Zelda games. A true hidden gem.

 

 #9 Snake Pass

A platformer where you can't jump and instead maneuver around obstacles and even over bottomless pits via the physics of your snake body sounded really weird at first, and it was, but more than weird it was also fun. You have no powers or special abilities whatsoever beyond what being a snake allows you to do, but despite your repertoire of moves consisting only of slithering across the ground, dangling from ledges, and clinging onto objects, there's an impressive amount of variety in the design of the levels and their mechanics. 

One thing I really enjoyed in this game is that bottomless pits are fucking SCARY. In most platformers bottomless pits don't feel that different from other obstacles, and the way you engage with them is the same: you jump and for a brief moment you'll be floating over them in the air before landing back on safe ground (unless you're bad and messed up the jump of course). In Snake Pass, it's not that easy. Once you commit to crossing a bottomless pit, you'll need to clamber onto a pole and cling to it to maintain your grip as it spins, and need to release your grip at the right time to slither back onto land or onto the next obstacle without gravity dragging you to your death. You feel in danger when you're suspended above pits, and the trickier ones where you need to maneuver across multiple obstacles without a safety net underneath you are real ass-clenchers. 

Despite never having seen anything like it before and essentially having to learn a new skillset, it was surprisingly intuitive and after a while I found myself slithering like a pro. In fact, it being such a new experience and forcing me to learn a new skillset may well be part of why I enjoyed it so much. I'm not a franchise hater or someone who prizes innovation above all else, but there's still something to be said for truly fresh and unique experiences.

 

#8 Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds

This got robbed at the pope awards, but fortunately it now gains the recognition it deserves here at the extremely illustrious HJ awards. This game is simply a blast to play. The driving is a bit more arcadey compared to the smoothness of Mario Kart, but the sense of speed and momentum as you learn how it works and you're propelling yourself through all the twists and turns perfectly just feels awesome. This was a surprisingly robust singleplayer experience for me as well. A mission mode or something would have elevated it even further, but I had a lot of fun doing all the GPs and finding the red rings on every track. 

I particularly enjoyed how the time trials are for absolute sickos. Anyone can get A ranks if they apply themselves a bit, but S ranks are only for the real freaks. I had to really sit down and try to get those S ranks and several of the tracks took over 30 minutes of constant attempts, with a few particularly insidious ones running over an hour. 

Unfortunately the game's balancing is kinda poor and ever since I reached Legend rank online (which was far too easy and brief of a process) races have become almost unbearably sweaty, with players funneled into one or two specific playstyles if they want to consistently get more than middle of the pack results. The consequence of this is that I only play the game with my friends now, but we still have fun with it. It's also one of the best soundtracks of the year.

 

#7 Kirby and the Forgotten Land – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Star-Crossed World

Awesome title on this one, huh? This would have been a few spots higher on my list if the entire game had been new, but since only the relatively modest DLC was new it ends up at this spot instead. I've already talked about the base game before, but it's worth reiterating here that it's a really great experience. Linear stage-based 3D platformers feel like a dying breed as open world design trends with a higher focus on player expression and freedom take center stage instead, and that just makes games like this and 2024's incredible Astro Bot even more precious to me. The truth is, I often don't want freedom, and I don't want to make my own fun. I want these games to take me on a curated roller coaster ride through gorgeous and imaginative settings and have specific obstacles and mechanics in place that I need to deal with, and this is what Kirby gives me. Every stage feels like a journey, and despite Kirby's ability to effortlessly float over many obstacles there's still a lot of fun level design and mechanics to chew into here. It's not a hard game, but it is an engaging one, and the balance they struck is very impressive. 

The DLC simply pushes everything out further with the most creative and fun level gimmicks yet, and the new levels all look absolutely gorgeous. It's not a new experience or anything, but it is the best part of an already-great experience and I loved my time with it.

 

#6 Donkey Kong Bananza

I was skeptical of this game before launch, because I thought if you had the ability to just break everything then the level design would probably suffer as a result of focusing on player expression and freeform mechanics instead. While this came true to a degree, it ended up not being nearly as bad as I feared thanks to the judicious use of unbreakable materials as well as materials with special properties that actually become mechanics in and of themselves. Furthermore I must admit that despite my misgivings, the destruction mechanics are actually incredibly fun and satisfying. There's a great sense of heft, and it feels good to smash through the terrain and rip off pieces to use as projectiles or makeshfit surfboards. There remains an issue in the sense that you can skip a ton of the level design with your overpowered bananza forms if you so choose, but at least the level design exists and is satisfying if you opt not to do this. 

I feel like Bananza has a better awareness of the fact that it's a collectathon than Odyssey and embraces this. The fact that bananas aren't strictly tied to progression but rather to skill points and that skill points are actually valuable and expand your tool set in important ways is a big part of this game's secret sauce. It creates a very satisfying feedback loop and you don't tend to mind as much that some bananas are a bit easier to find than others, unlike in Odyssey where I would sometimes have a "really, that's it?" reaction to finding a particularly easy moon. Another hugely valuable design decision on the dev team's part is that the amount of bananas you need to find for a skill point never goes up. If they had gone the route of koroks from the open world Zeldas it could have been a disaster. I don't know about anyone else, but once you start needing 20+ koroks in those games for a single inventory upgrade, I lose interest because every one you find feels like such an insignificant amount of progress that it's hard to care or feel like there's a point, but Bananza sidesteps this issue by keeping the necessary amount at 5 from start to finish, and I'm very thankful for that. 

Special mention must be given to the finale of this game, which is by far the greatest I've ever seen in a Nintendo platformer and may even surpass titans of the genre like Sonic Adventure 1 and 2. Aside from the incredible fanservice, the way it keeps upping the stakes and spectacle when you think it's over is just insane and had me laughing the entire time until the credits rolled for real.

 

 #5 Kingdom Come: Deliverance

I used to entirely dismiss the western RPG genre due to playing a few in my teens and not liking them, but some years ago I met my ex girlfriend and now best friend who's an absolute WRPG fiend and slowly started to develop a curiosity for revisiting the genre. It's still not a genre I play much, but I have since managed to get a few under my belt. Even after dipping my feet in with some other games, KCD felt like an intimidating foray into the genre because of how dense its systems are. After I took the plunge, however, those systems and how they all work together ended up being my favorite part of the experience, and it's a testament to how restrictions and limitations can work to increase my enjoyment of something rather than lessen it. 

The main character, Henry, is a fella with real human needs like us. He needs to eat and sleep, he gets dirty, and if he gets too dirty people will like him less or bandits and other enemies will literally smell him coming because he stinks too much. So you need to eat and sleep, wash yourself, maintain your clothes, and so on. It sounds like a lot, but once you get into the swing of it, it becomes an integral part in immersing you into the world. I settled into a pattern of riding out to do a few quests in a day, make my way back to town and wash up and mend my gear, get something to eat, and then maybe do a few side activities around town before going to bed, and it was a very immersive and rewarding loop. This commitment to immersion and making the world feel authentic extends to other things as well, such as the game's stat progression or even the alchemy system where you have a recipe book next to you and manually put the herbs into a cauldron, grind them in a mortar, distill the mixture, or whatever else you need to do. There's a part later in the story where you infiltrate a monastery by joining the order as a monk, and you have to actually obey their rules or you'll get kicked out and fail the quest. It was restrictive and even annoying sometimes, but it was a very memorable experience as well, and the game's commitment to immersion and realism (as much as can be expected from a video game) is undoubtedly its biggest strength. 

That being said, the rest of the experience is no slouch either. The game features some sharp writing with enjoyable characters and some interesting sidequests.The main story really picks up steam as it goes on and ends on a note that has me very excited to dive into the sequel soon. All in all a very unique and fulfilling experience that requires commitment and effort on the player's part but rewards it in kind.

 

 #4 Hollow Knight: Silksong

 

 

I like Hollow Knight a whole lot, but one of its biggest weaknesses for me is its movement being very basic and this in conjunction with it being a backtracking-heavy game could get a bit tiresome. Silksong on the other hand is one of the best examples of a metroidvania where you can zip through earlier parts of the game like a badass later on as you become more and more comfortable with the game's mechanics. The movement in this game is just excellent. It's precise and measured when you want it to be, but you can also let loose and dash and dart your way through previously-intimidating locales very quickly once you have the confidence. It's also a lot more challenging than Hollow Knight, which I personally enjoyed. 

 

Still, the biggest appeal of Silksong for me is clear: the exploration. The metroidvania genre is usually all about exploration, but exploration is a term that encompasses many different things. Sometimes when people say a game has fun exploration, they mean it has a large amount of upgrades that provides a satisfying feedback loop. Sometimes they mean it doesn't have much backtracking due to a generous teleport system, but conversely some people think this actually makes exploration less fun. It's easy to simply say I find Silksong's exploration fun, because I do, but I think what Silksong's exploration specifically offers is a feeling of delving into the unknown. 

 

The game had an infamously long development time, but despite the frustration this caused in some circles online, I can only conclude that the long dev time was worth it, because the game is so large and lavish that it leverages this to be highly unpredictable. You're never quite sure what you're going to find at the end of that path you're following, and sometimes you're also not going to be sure what the purpose of what you just found even is either. Sometimes it'll be a boss, or even an entirely new area that you feel like you weren't meant to find yet, but you just can't help but probe a little deeper now that you're here. The game is steeped in this sense of mystery and surprise, and that to me is the driving force of its exploration, and the reason it can excel at it to this degree is because they took the time to not only make a massive game but also infuse every inch of it with great care and attention to detail. There were multiple times where I thought I had to have explored most of the map or that there couldn't be much left to find, but I was proven wrong again and again, and it never stopped being an exciting feeling.

 

 #3 Fate/Stay Night Remastered

I consider this a formative piece of media for me. Probably not quite as significant as, say, Majora's Mask or Ace Attorney, but still something that left a big impression on me and helped to shape my tastes and my idea of "cool." I only read Fate and Unlimited Blade Works back in the day, so while this was 2/3s a replay, the last third was completely new to me. This led to a pretty unique experience, because revisiting this after so long felt like visiting an important place from your childhood for the first time since you were a kid, but then it was also incredibly exciting to reach Heaven's Feel and have no idea what would happen. 

As for the game itself, it's awesome, of course. I consider this to be one of the best examples of using slice of life content in a way that enhances the overall narrative and only adds to the so-called aura and hype moments. This can be a tricky balance, and I've played my share of narrative-driven games where the downtime and character interaction between the strictly "necessary" plot sections end up being exhausting and feeling like mere padding, but Nasu's great character writing makes for scenes that are so endearing and doled out in just the right measure that it never becomes the case here. It's only because of all the quiet and fun-filled moments that I truly become invested when the story kicks into high gear and the characters fight to win back those peaceful days. 

Beyond that, it's also brimming with great characters and memorable moments across every route. There's no point in me rattling off a bunch of them here, so instead I'll just say that there's a reason this game is as influential as it is. It's simply an all-timer.

 

#2 Lies of P Overture

So, remember how I said I was holding Kirby back a bit because I already played it on release and only the DLC was new? Well, that's also true for Lies of P Overture, but it still ended up at #2. I'm sorry, but it's just that good. This almost rivals Sekiro as my favorite action game and there are even some ways in which I prefer it. The base game is quite good as well, but Overture takes it a step further with more interesting level design (which was probably the weakest point of the base game), incredible boss fights, and of course the gunblade which is my favorite weapon in any soulslike and it's not even close. I didn't think a Korean soulslike would give me the gunblade gameplay of my dreams, but somehow it happened. 

I don't have very high expectations for story in soulslikes, but the one in Lies of P grabbed my interest a lot more than From's offerings thanks to a balance of "lore" (item descriptions and so forth) and direct storytelling that's much more to my taste. Overture slots in very naturally as a mini-prequel focusing on how the stage was set for the main game and expanding on a few key characters from the main game's lore, and I found that to be a very effective approach. It adds some additional context to characters and events from the main game and infuses them with an even deeper sense of pathos and enhances the tragic and bittersweet vibe the game overall has. This DLC is a masterpiece that feels like the team took all the experience they gained from the base game and used it to create a refined and nigh-perfect take on it. If they can make an entire game that hits on this level, I'll have a new favorite action game.

 

 #1 Dragon Quest II HD

This game helped me rediscover my love for Dragon Quest. It's been a series near and dear to my heart since I was in my teens, but between Dragon Quest XI and Dragon Quest III HD both being more good than great, I was starting to wonder if my fervent love for the series was slowly transitioning into being a thing of the past like certain other beloved franchises of mine. Dragon Quest II-HD put an end to that concern by delivering one of my favorite entries in the entire series. A feat that's doubly impressive considering Dragon Quest II used to be my least favorite entry. 

The feeling of going on an adventure is one of the most integral parts of DQ to me, and this game delivers on that in spades with one of the most satisfying DQ worlds to explore. To me it strikes a basically perfect balance in terms of direction and letting you off the leash to explore. It's open and inviting you to explore, but not aimless; guided, but not on rails. In the very first town you're teased with locked chests and doors, and a mysterious teleporter that transports you to a distant location where you can't do much yet. My curiosity was engaged right from the start, and it feels like you're setting off on an epic adventure. 

The cast also plays a huge part in infusing the journey with a sense of joy and adventure. I was surprised at how heartfelt many scenes are, with some of the interactions between Prince Cannock and Princess Moonbrooke being particular highlights. The party knows they have a duty as heroes and that the fulfillment of their quest is the most important thing, but they can't help but enjoy the journey together and marvel at the sights along the way. It's not a particularly wordy game by RPG standards, but it says a lot with a little, and for me the camaraderie between the party and their sheer love for adventure stood out and were simply a delight to witness as I was playing through it, because I was feeling those things alongside them. Dragon Quest II HD is an incredible game and I'm confident in saying it's my game of the year.