Hi! I'm Marino, and I've been a moderator on this here web site for 72 years (since March 2010). I occasionally help out in a more official capacity, such as... Game of the Year guest lists. This year, Lex and I collected, organized, proofread, edited, formatted, added screenshots, and scheduled over 60 GOTY lists (new record!) and generally tried to make them look pretty in a brand new CMS that we'd basically never used before.
Some guests provide images they want us to use, but most of the time it's up to us to pick stuff. I used a lot of my own screenshots when I could, which is why you might notice some duplicates in this list. But, overall I'm just glad to be a part of keeping this tradition going. Guest lists have been a thing here on Giant Bomb since 2010!
I wasn't going to include myself, which is why I already posted my Top 10 on my profile, but Chuck said I should. This also allows me add a few things, revise a few things, and to post more than ten images. I also get to influence my own stats rundown that I'll post once this is all done. Oh! Collusion!
Twenty-twenty-five.
A solid year for the ol' video game releases. As for... [flails arms around gesturing at everything] ...everything else... not so much. But, we're not here to talk about all that.
As Chase says in Dispatch, "We joke. We Laugh. We suppress our trauma."
Before I get to my Top Ten, I'm handing out some superlatives to other games I played this year. You can decide for yourself if that superlative is parenthesis positive or negative.
[OBLIGATORY SPOILER WARNING]
Best Overstayed Its Welcome
- Donkey Kong Bananza
Best Game I Wanted to Like
- Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
Best Game to Wait 'Til Later
- Sid Meier's Civilization VII
Best Old Game - Tie!
- The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition
- Puzzle Quest: Immortal Edition
- Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles
Best "That's Cute"
- Squeakross: Home Squeak Home
Best Example of Weird Nintendo Decisions
- Mario Kart World
Biggest Disappointment
- Everybody's Golf: Hot Shots
Best "I Think I'm Just Bad at This"
- Hades II
Best Went So Hard on the Beta That I Didn't Need the Full Game
- Battlefield 6
Best Zone Out
- Sword of the Sea
The Top 10
skate.
- Is this the Skate sequel we've been clamoring for over the last decade plus? No.
- Was the closed pre-alpha testing period largely a mess? Yes.
- Was it ready to even go into Early Access at the time? No.
- Is it littered with loot boxes? Yes.
- Is the stuff in the loot boxes good? No.
- Are there upwards of four different currencies at any given time? Yes.
- Is the progression system total ass? Yes.
- Is the city as good as Skate 2 or 3? No.
- Can I stop playing it? No, god dammit.
At the end of the day, despite countless problems I have with skate., it's still fun as hell to just skate around. I will give them credit in that they do keep adding stuff to the game. Season 2 just started, and there's a bunch of rooftop pools and underground areas that weren't there before. And there are weekly and seasonal goals to go check out every so often. It's still disappointing, but I've spent so much time in it this year that I had to be real with myself and put it on my list.
Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection
It's difficult to convey the level of obsession I had for Mortal Kombat in the early-to-mid 90s. The advent of home internet, which we got in 1994, was like throwing gasoline on that fire. My friend Christopher and I were constantly scouring the internet for rumors, clipping magazines, making our own little cheat sheet flip books to take to the arcade, and anxiously awaiting the home releases. In Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection, Digital Eclipse's documentary team did an amazing job capturing why we and many others were so obsessed. I just wish my friend Christopher was here to see it all again with me.
- Kerri Hoskins and I at E3 1998 and then 27 years later at EVO 2025. Yes, she still has the original MK3 outfit. One of us hasn't aged. She got a kick out of me showing her the old photo.
I know some people were upset with the online functionality of the game and framerate issues, but all that is a minuscule nuisance to me. I'm here for the documentary footage, the game preservation, and the novelty of being able to easily mess around in any of these classics whenever I want now. Thanks for the rewind feature, by the way. The arcade CPU is even more brutal than I remember.
Split Fiction
There's a part in Split Fiction where you go inside the Deku Tree to play Donkey Kong Country, Ecco the Dolphin, and Ori. Then you accidentally kill a bird with a snowball, Randy Johnson style. It's a pretty cool game.
There are several "Holy shit, how'd they do that?" moments throughout the game, but that last level really is jaw-dropping.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4
I've played a lot of remasters and remakes, but there's something uniquely intense about Tony Hawk's Pro Skater's ability to repeatedly give that "where I was then" feeling. It's a central line of pure nostalgia. Do I wish THPS4 didn't have to be compromised? Yes, of course. But I understand why it happened, and I still had a great time going through all those levels and goals. I also think that Iron Galaxy proved that they know what makes a good THPS level, so I'm hoping they get a chance to create an all-new game next. Sure, a THUG remake would be great too, but an all-new game would excite me more right now.
Avowed
How does Obsidian do it? Three games in one year? Two of which are sprawling RPGs? It doesn't make sense. Regardless, I enjoyed Avowed quite a bit. It streamlines so many things about these kinds of RPGs, mostly to good effect. Its design seems to ask, "What would be the most fun way to do this?" and just goes with that rather than accepting the conventional method. Do I miss some of those intricacies? Sure, but I appreciate that this game was going for something different. They successfully distilled all the fluff into a fun adventure with great writing, an engaging loot/upgrade system, and some really difficult choices to make throughout the story. I spent the last several hours thinking I was definitely choosing one thing, only to swerve at the last minute due to some dialogue that hit hard. Avowed also nails first-person combat in a way no other similar games have been able to do. And don’t let anyone tell you it’s short. If you’re a sicko like me who has to clear all the fog on the map, it took me 80 hours. It also doesn't hurt to have Garrus Vakarian's voice actor right next to you the whole way through.
Assassin's Creed Shadows
Assassin's Creed is one of my all-time favorite franchises. I'm one of those sickos who's platinum'd Origins, Odyssey, Valhalla, Mirage, and now Shadows. Out of the "modern era" AC games, I still think Odyssey is the best, but Shadows is not far behind it. Hey, they finally gave us the Japan setting we'd been asking about for fifteen years, and it's beautiful. I still love how the series mixes historical fact with fiction, and how I can discover a place like the beach of Amanohashidate, then look it up online and see what it's like now.
Naoe is a lot of fun to play, and Yasuke is great to switch to every once in a while to mix things up. I do wish there was more to do with him, but his lack of mobility makes Naoe the default for exploring. I probably played for 30-40 before ever getting to the point where I could freely play as him. While I do believe AC is trending upwards with this game, there's still a not insignificant amount of bloat. There are simply too many groups of targets to go after. It's neat that you can stumble upon targets you didn't even know about that then open up a series of new things to do, but they often don't tie into anything important.
Ball X Pit
Ball is life.
Ball X Pit was an obsession for a few weeks. It has an immensely powerful "one more run" in its loop. The village management portion isn't perfect. Having to constantly rearrange the buildings for the most effective ricochets is too time-consuming, but it's still fun. Each time the game feels like it might be getting a little stale, a new character is introduced that flips everything upside down, sometimes literally. The shoot-from-the-back guy, the tag team, and a guy that turns the entire game into a turn-based strategy game? What the hell? My obsession drove me to find all the secret combinations of items and finish every level with every character to snag that platinum trophy.
Dispatch
"Is Dispatch even a game though? It's just talking and choices."
"Yes. It is. Fuck off."
AdHoc Studio obviously has some Telltale alumni on the team, and they've successfully modernized and streamlined what those games were. Most of the voice acting is great. You can clearly tell who are pros are and who the streamers are, but it doesn't really bother me because the writing is so damn good. Over the course of just a few of the eight episodes, I was already deeply invested in this found-family tale. Part of me wanted to start over again right after it ended, but part of me wants to live with the choices I made and let it stand. They also fully justified the episodic release schedule. Episode 6 wouldn't have been as impactful if the "Keep up" cliffhanger didn't have room to breathe. Lastly, no other game this year made me laugh this much and maybe even tear up a little.
Before we continue with the list, we're gonna jam out for minute with Bershy...
Ghost of Yōtei
I don't know that I'm ever going to get tired of these types of open-world games, and Ghost of Yōtei is excellent. It's impossible not to compare it to Assassin's Creed Shadows, considering the similarities of the stories, but I feel like Atsu's story was more emotional and impactful. Also, Sucker Punch still has the best photo mode in the industry.
But, yeah, Atsu is a complete badass. The decision to change the focus from stances (in Tsushima) to weapon disciplines was a good one because the paper-rock-scissors style match-up switching is fun and makes you get out of your comfort zone. And tying the outfits to quests makes it feel way more special than just finding one at a vendor. Oh, and how awesome is it to be able to fast-travel to a specific person in a town? Hot damn.
It was also my 69th platinum trophy.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has undoubtedly been my Game of the Year ever since I finished it. It's so good that it makes me question my assessment of other RPGs in recent years; namely the Final Fantasy VII remakes. For twenty years, Square has been telling us no one wants turn-based RPGs anymore as they repeatedly attempt to make Final Fantasy an action-adventure franchise. Sandfall Interactive not only proved them wrong, but they did it by cherry-picking many of the classic RPG tropes from the past that I'd nearly forgotten I loved. Running around on a world map? Got it. Finding single-screen, pre-rendered background areas a la Final Fantasy VIII? Got it. And how did they make the parry feel so damn good every single time from beginning to end?
They took all that and wrapped it in an incredible story about the stages of grief and topped it off with one of the greatest soundtracks of all time. I'm the type of player who will ignore the main story and spend dozens of hours doing side stuff to finish checklists, clear the fog off the map, or whatever the case is. Not here. Once I hit Act III, I had to know how it ended. I flew Esquie straight back to town and saw it through.
Lastly... if you chose Maelle at the end, I think less of you.
For those who come after. <>