Mat Piscatella is the Senior Director for Video Games at Circana (formerly NPD). You've seen him numerous times on Game Mess Mornings. Otherwise, he's probably at Petco Park supporting his San Diego Padres.
Games are at their best when they make you feel something.
It’s one of those simple, fundamental truths of the medium that can get a bit lost when one (like me) finds themselves diving into financial statements, being buried in spreadsheets, or trying to figure out why a game sold whatever or had so many players all the time. Great games can be a (at least partial) cure for the numbness modern society tries to force us into.
And really, isn’t it the human emotion and feelings video games can open the doors to that made us all fall in love with them to begin with?
So, here are ten games that made me feel something in 2025.
10. MLB The Show 25
When I was very young, I had this blanket. It was white with yellow edges and had a big smiling bunny on it.
It wasn’t a great blanket. It was itchy and rough. Over time, it developed some thin spots, started to fray, and I swear sometimes the bunny looked sad or that it wanted me to just put it out of its misery.
It was obvious that basically any other blanket would do the job of blanketing better.
But I loved that blanket.
Any time 4-year-old me just needed to chill out and watch some cartoons or whatever, I’d hang out with that blanket. For all its flaws, it was my blanket, and me and that bunny were tight.
MLB The Show is that blanket for the now old me.
9. Herdling
Herdling was made by Okomotive games, the folks who created the wonderful FAR series. I love the way Okomotive does storytelling. It is atmospheric, subtle, and forces the player to fill in the missing gaps on their own.
Herdling makes the player a shepherd of sorts, looking to at first free, then build trust with, and ultimately deliver a herd of creatures to safety through a mysterious and dangerous world. I was struck by the emotional attachment to my group of beastie besties the game helped cultivate. At the end of each day, their individual personalities would come out, and keeping them clean and fed (and even playing a little ball) was something I wanted to do for them, not something the game made necessary.
When a dumb routing decision I made resulted in the loss of one member of my herd, it sucked. I was legitimately and completely bummed out.
I did get the rest of the herd there. But I never forgot the one I lost.
8. and Roger
Short, heartbreaking, and poignant, and Roger presents dementia and its impact through its light, varied, and narrative-focused gameplay mechanics.
Complex, disorienting at times, and emotionally weighty, and Roger facilitates a peek into the loss of oneself, both internally and to those who love them.
It was a real kick to the feels.
7. Sword of the Sea
Journey, but surfing, doesn’t cover Sword of the Sea. But it’s also not wrong. Flying through gorgeous landscapes on my sword surfboard was exhilarating. Helping to restore the world’s oceans from barren deserts was a joy.
Beautiful, atmospheric, and ethereal, Sword of the Sea gave me a sense of hope and joy, all while doing some sick 180s and riding flying whales.
Hope is a pretty great feeling to have.
6. The Midnight Walk
Being “the Burnt One,” meeting a friend in Potboy, and taking The Midnight Walk to try and restore the sun in a world constructed entirely of clay models that were 3D-scanned and then animated… what a wondrous journey it was. The Midnight Walk is not the most complex game when it comes to its mechanics, but wow, does it overdeliver in atmosphere and emotion.
Bringing light to darkness was a joyous feeling.
5. Pocket Boss
I’m not sure I’ve ever played a game that so captured the absurdity of climbing a corporate ladder (or what it’s like to be a sales analyst, to be honest). You get a series of text messages and requests from your boss to… let’s call it get creative… with various kinds of business charts.
Over time, the requests get more ridiculous, the charts become wilder and more dazzling puzzles, until the player is left wondering how they’ve ended up in such a psychedelic hellscape where nothing really matters.
Short, colorful, fast-paced, bizarre, and with more than a little truth buried in it, I walked away from Pocket Boss feeling as though I needed to take a good look in the mirror and remind myself to always stay attached to reality. If for no other reason than my own sanity.
4. Goodnight Universe
It breaks my heart that this isn’t one of the most talked-about potential GOTYs of 2025. There are aliens, crazy tech bros, family dynamics, quiet moments, and big set pieces! It has it all, including a very clever camera mechanic (like, an actual webcam to watch the player, otherwise it can be controlled by a gamepad) of being able to close one’s eyes and have it impact the game.
There was a moment in the game that also presented me with one of the toughest gameplay challenges of the year. No spoilers, but to progress through a certain portion of the game, the player must do… nothing. Just close your eyes, listen, and wait. At first, I couldn’t do it. I was pressing all the buttons and doing all the things, and nothing was happening.
But then, I stopped. I closed my eyes and just listened. And waited. The game then signified I’d progressed. But I didn’t open my eyes right away. I just kept them closed and kept listening. The game had forced me to meditate to progress.
It was one of the coolest moments in any video game I’ve played in years.
3. Mafia: The Old Country
Is Mafia: The Old Country the best video game? I mean, it’s pretty good for a driving/fighting/shooting type game, but it’s not breaking any new ground. But boy howdy does the game do an amazing job of creating a fictional historic Sicily and giving the player a story to care about.
If Mafia: The Old Country were a mob movie, I’d put it up there with a Goodfellas (ok, shy of Goodfellas, but it is better than The Godfather 3 and no, I’m not calling it The Godfather: Coda or whatever name they’ve given it. Be serious). And being of Sicilian descent myself, I reveled in every opportunity to soak the entire game in. Oh, it’s also jaw-droppingly gorgeous. Biased? Sure. Do I care? *Curses in Italian*.
It made me feel like booking a trip to Sicily. See you soon, Palermo!
2. Keeper
Alright, at first, Keeper has the vibes of a clunky walking sim. I get it.
To say it opens up after the first little bit, however, would be one hell of an understatement.
Keeper is a psychedelic carnival for the brain.
Mechanics being introduced and then abandoned. Playstyles changing from moment to moment. You never know what’s going to be thrown at you next.
What a ride. I love Double Fine games. And they went ahead and did it again.
After finishing Keeper, I felt like wanting to give everyone that came up with this ludicrous idea and everything in it the biggest hug.
1. Dispatch
This game had me the most in my feels of any game in 2025.
I wasn’t expecting that going in, to say the least. I thought that it might be a fun superhero-style Telltale-type experience. Maybe a few jokes, some choices that didn’t matter all that much, a good time but not a great one. But what I found instead were characters I grew to care deeply about, writing and acting that had me laughing out loud, and moments of heartbreak and regret.
The voice acting performances were what really made this game shine. Every actor brought these characters to life, and I didn’t want the ride to end. It’s the game that made me feel the most in 2025. And for that, I’m feeling grateful.