Several of the moderators from the official Giant Bomb Discord have stepped through an Outworld portal to share their top picks for Game of the Year right here on this brand new website.
Panda
Silent Hill f
A satisfying accomplishment is fear-promoting compassion, attained through presenting creatures symbolizing your inner conflicts and social pressures. As Shimizu Hinako, you are traversing the small 1960s Japanese town of Ebisugaoka. Being explicit from the start, you are expected to conform to societal norms (family hierarchy, marriage, and gender roles). The source of Silent Hill f horror and empathy. With its over-the-shoulder perspective and combat style, one could approach gameplay like a Souls title. I’m going to state that Silent Hill f is being done a disservice. Silent Hill’s combat is set apart due to the story being told. The narrative concentrates on her anger and its management given her circumstances. Here’s where the game’s compassion is expressed. You are fighting monsters that appear like community standards that surfaced. That is where this horror title gets its themes. The horrific fiends nailed the point of Hinako's rage. She only desires to be true to herself and resists conforming to others’ expectations, causing her resentment. The action involves dealing with the fury of taking hold of lead pipes, baseball bats, heavy weapons, and beating the nightmares to shit. This title felt personal because of the way the experience manages Hinako’s issues with her household, friends, and the pressure to adapt, despite this leading to hurting herself and her ideals. Silent Hill F, at its core, is a remarkable mixture of plot and game mechanics, making these subjects easy to connect to but not preachy. This experience is worth recommending, also to those who don't enjoy horror games.
Beard Duder
Not sure if I want to admit this, but Donkey Kong Bananza was the game that got me to pick up a Switch 2. I was 50/50 on the whole deal, but then I saw this weird clip and went right out and got one. I played the hell out of that game and enjoyed every second. Between the excellent game play, silly humor, and those dumb songs, I was sold. The twist at the end was a welcome surprise.
I bounced around after DK between more Balatro and Clone Hero. I ended up getting one of those new CRKD guitars, and it was a ton of fun. This lasted me until Silksong came out. I devoured that game and would think I beat in like a day or two…nope. It took me almost a month, even though I was playing it all the time. I got stuck a few places, but mostly I just took my time exploring and enjoying it. I think it’s great, but I don’t know, I think maybe the built-up hype for it left a vacuum looking back on it.
Luckily, Hades 2 was out in 1.0 after I finished up with Silksong, and hot damn did they do it again. The first few times I played in early access, I was not sure sold on it, but coming back, I was instantly hooked. Between all the weapons and abilities and different paths, I think it’s great. I also felt a real struggle and challenge as I played and started to learn about each weapon, boss, and so on. Like, at a certain point, I was able to steam Chronos no problem, but Typhon? Na. I was getting whooped. Then, one run it just clicked, I figured it out, and put that dude in the dirt without using any of my Death Defiance. Then, how the story starts to push full steam ahead towards the ending was delightful! I think it wrapped up nicely, and my only small complaint is that how they explain doing those final boss encounters after the ending is weird, but I get it. I have yet to get the true ending (stuck on my relationship with Moros), but I plan to slowly chip away at it.
Last two things I played this year are Pokémon Z-A and Metroid Prime 4. Been a long time Pokemon guy, but haven’t played a game in years. This one seemed fun, and they were right! I loved the way the Pokemon where just in the world and in battles would mostly doing there attacks. It really brought to life how I thought it would back in the Red/Blue days. I ended up 100% the game and got a living dex. Probably won't get the DLC, but who knows what next year will bring. Now I’m on Metroid Prime 4, and it’s interesting. I never played Prime 1 (for shame, I know), but this was so hyped up, and I wanted something to play on my Switch 2. So I grabbed it, and boy, did I bounce off. I don’t know, it’s been like 10+ years since the last time I played a shooter on a controller. It just felt weird and clunky and off, but I stuck with it and tried to meet it on its terms. I’m glad I did! I just hit the boss of the mines and I'm really enjoying it now. Also, how does this look and play so well on the Switch 2….IN HANDHELD?!?!?! I am blown away. Anywho, that is all for me. Below is my top 10 games I played for the year. Looking forward to 2026, and first up on my list is probably going to be either Dispatch (that I just completely missed) or Clair Obscur. Cheers!
- Hades II
- Donkey Kong Bananza
- A Game About Digging a Hole
- Balatro
- Hollow Knight: Silksong
- Pokémon Legends: Z-A
- Stardew Valley
- Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
- Clone Hero
- Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4
Nikral
Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew
I'm a little late to the party with this developer. This being Mimimi Games' third game that they have made like this, so it might not be new to some people. This is the first game I've played from them, and I absolutely enjoyed it the entire time. The character abilities were unique and fun, the story kept me wanting to see what happened next, and the gameplay loop was thrilling. I'm not usually a fan of stealth-like games, but they made a stealth game that had a good guardrail for messing up with a rewind feature. When I did execute my plan, I felt like a tactical mastermind, seeing three of my allies all striking their targets at the same time. To me, the game felt more like a puzzle to me, trying to solve how to efficiently reach my targets.
Runners-Up
- Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess
- Ball x Pit
Forestl
Lumines Arise
Your emotions gave it meaning.
Before writing this, I played through all of Lumines Arise again. In the time I played, I wanted to dance, laugh, cry, and countless other feelings. I lost track of time in a way I haven’t with any other series, and the next day, I was still under the effects of it. All in a game where you just drop blocks.
What makes Lumines Arise my favorite game of the year is hard to describe without seeming a little annoying. It’s a transcendent experience that affects me on a deeper level than basically any other game. Blending senses together with dynamic music, intense vibrations, and overwhelming visuals, the game is truly special if you give in to what it’s trying. It’s an almost spiritual journey full of vastly different and beautiful levels. One area features gloopy bouncy nerves being weaved by abstract hands to discordant music, and another has flowers drenched in water while tropical birds jam to intense fun dumb music.
The moment this got announced, I said it would probably be my game of the year. I’m already a sucker for the series, and if they just made an ok new version of the game, I still might be writing about it here. Instead, Enhance and Monstars push the best elements of Tetsuya Mizuguchi-produced games like Tetris Effect and Rez to another level and have created something truly special. I have to play it a lot more in the coming months and years to be sure, but right now I can’t think of a game I’ve liked more.
The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy
I’ve hit credits in this game over ten times. I’ve played for over 60 hours. I’ve barely started.
Hundred Line is a terrifyingly massive game with 100 different endings. Now, some of those are just alternative endings, but there are well over 20 full routes to go down that’ll take well over 100 (or more likely 150 or 200) hours to get through. The scope of this game is intimidating, but I keep coming back because it’s so good.
An adventure game broken up by occasional (and surprisingly good) tactics, Hundred Line was developed by the creators of Danganronpa and Zero Escape/The Somnium Files. The story, which features you defending a school for 100 days against mysterious invaders, is massively over-the-top and full of twists and big characters. Thankfully, unlike some previous games by the directors, the cast is almost all pretty enjoyable, from Moko Majiro, who almost only talks in wrestling terms, to Darumi Amemiya, who’s a fun loser that constantly wants to turn things into a killing game like Danganronpa. It’s fun and wacky, and I can’t wait to keep chipping away at it in the coming years.
Also, oh god, they’re teasing DLC with more endings, they can’t keep making this bigger.
Other games I liked this year: Blade Chimera, Ace Attorney Investigations 1, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Ring Fit Adventure, Skate Story, The Rogue Prince of Persia, Shinobi: Art of Vengeance (except for that one platforming part), PowerWash Simulator 1 and 2, Gnosia, Fate/Samurai Remnant, Sword of the Sea, Indika, Death Stranding 2, Octopath Traveler 2, Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew, Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin, Kaizen: A Factory Story
Tosshi
Ghost of Yōtei
This has been another year filled with change. My spouse and I picked up roots and moved across the country, believing it to be the best long term choice for our lives. It continues to be a stressful situation. The logistics, cost, leaving behind our favorite people and places, finding ourselves in a strange city, unpacking, building routine…it’s all been a lot. We have been fighting homesickness and feeling out of place, so of course, we’ve been leaning on each other more than usual.
We don’t play a ton of games together, but when we do, it’s the thing that we do together. To end last year, we played Mouthwashing and Thank Goodness You’re Here during the holidays. Since then, we have been searching for another game to draw us in. The first half of the year, our lives were consumed by organizing our move. Once we settled in, we finally found the first game we played together almost every night, Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time. I was on my SteamDeck every evening, and they were on their Switch 2. By the end of August, I assumed that was our one game this year.
I was so wrong.
The grasp Ghost of Yotei had on this house. Y’all. This was our game for 2025.
Leading up to the release, my spouse told me about Erika Ishii and how they were a big fan of Erika’s work. I will be honest, I didn’t know Erika Ishii outside of Ghost of Yōtei, so I was learning in real time. I showed my spouse a few trailers, which turned into “Should we watch some Kurosawa?” Now, as an insufferable middle-aged white man who dreamed of making movies well into my 20s, I am plenty familiar with Kurosawa, and until this moment never got a hint of interest from them. We didn’t watch any of his movies before Yōtei released, but those old Criterion DVDs were dug out of an unpacked box and sat near the TV.
It’s such a great feeling to watch someone who doesn’t play a lot of games, or at least many of a particular type of game - in this case, the single-player mega-budget narrative action game, be totally enthralled by it. The gorgeous landscapes, music, and voice acting really worked wonders on my spouse. Every night, we would sit down to play a bit, and they would be shocked by some cliche video game plot twist, or an ambush setup on a road. Things that do not even register for me were major moments for them.
When we didn’t play Yōtei we were talking about Yotei. Or Kurosawa. Or Ghost of Tsushima. It was all this house cared about. The conversations were not unique to conversations I’ve had with other people over the years, but finally these conversations were important. After the stress of the last several years, then finding ourselves isolated in a new place, our conversations were finally dominated by excitement and happiness. Not on loss, or lawyers, or money, or uprooting our lives. Just a good-ass video game and even better movies. The things that really made us fall in love in the first place.
We played Yōtei until there was no meat left on the bone. Well, except for Takezo the Unrivaled, but fuck that guy. When we finally moved on, we found our next game quickly, Ghost of Tsushima. We played about 15 hours of it before agreeing we needed a bit of a break, but would come back to it. We did finally dig into Kurosawa with Throne of Blood, but the runtime of Seven Samurai has kept that one on the back burner.
Plenty of people are going to talk about the technical achievements or gameplay improvements that Yōtei accomplished and how it contributed to it being a favorite this year. That’s all fine and true. It’s not why I care about it though. I honestly could have chosen Avowed, Shinobi: Art of Vengeance, Power Washer Simulator 2, or any other game on my list as my favorite game to play this year.
Yōtei is the only game this year that made my life, and the life of my spouse, better. How often in your lifetime can you say that about a game?