Parents love video games, and every day, new games get released that are cooler than we could have imagined as little kids. And we don’t even have to convince our parents to buy them for us for Christmas!
But we also have kids, and job(s) we need to work to make all the game-buying money. So when we actually sit down to play a game, we’re paying not just our hard-earned dough, but the opportunity cost of not playing like 78 others.
Thus, this gift to my fellow hectic parents: The best games of the year I’m glad I didn’t play.
Hollow Knight: Silksong
I didn’t play the original Hollow Knight because I was parenting three little kids; critics and fans touting its extreme levels of challenge, depth, and replayability only convinced me I was right not to give it a try. I didn’t have time for all that!
Now my kids aren’t so little anymore–and guess what? I still don’t have time for all that.
Between then and now, all three of my young-adult progeny have played, and loved, the original. Watching them experience the anticipatory, joyful, and nostalgic ecstasies of a worthy direct sequel to one of their psychic-keystone games was even more fun than, you know, playing it myself–especially watching them do so together: trading tips, avoiding spoilers, and cheering each other on through countless boss fights.
Better yet, Silksong’s non-linear, permutative nature made this bit extra-rewarding; my kids surprising and delighting each other with what did and didn’t happen on their run-throughs couldn’t have been a better gameplay-by-proxy experience.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Man, this one just seems like such a bummer.
No need to @ me, social media friends: It is my kind of game, and I will get around to playing it. But the main reason I haven’t yet is that, I dunno, I’m bummed out enough? All the time?
Of course, art that deals heavily with loss, trauma, and grief is capital-I Important, and video games are no less worthy a medium to tell those stories than any other. That Expedition 33 seems like a well-crafted RPG with a strong narrative, clear artistic vision, and manageable playtime, making it on-paper extremely my jam.
But on Bluesky, the official app of Xennials like me, I saw a lot more people say they were entranced by the beginning of this one than the end (or even say they made it to the end). I’ll get to it, but not in 2025.
Donkey Kong Bananza
Okay, so part of this one is that I don’t have a Switch 2 yet–but part of the reason for that is that there hasn’t been a Switch 2 exclusive that’s made me think I can’t possibly miss out on it. And while dads of smaller kids might rightly have seen the Switch 2 as a must-buy, regardless, mine are old enough to tell me they don’t want our family to support Nintendo’s aggressive DRM tech.
We’ll see how long that lasts once some of the Zelda remasters start dropping.
In the meantime, a lot of people I respect have been hot and cold on this game–and while I’m bummed I’ve missed out on some truly wild co-op goofiness, collectathon mechanics have never been all that compelling for me (and, by extension, neither have the classic Donkey Kong platformers, going all the way back to Donkey Kong Country).
So while your mileage may vary, fellow parents, I didn’t see this one as a system-seller before or after it dropped.
Blue Prince
My podcast partner, Aidan Moher, and I, often joke about starting a game site for grownups: exactly the same as all the other sites, but the articles run three months later.
One of the reasons is games like Blue Prince, where typically thoughtful critics who’ve played the first 10-20 hours of a game run screaming through the halls of social media on launch week about how it’s so incredible, you’ve gotta play it, just go in blind right now before anyone spoils you on it. But then your friends are talking about keeping all their pen-and-paper Blue Prince notes organized, struggling to find time to couch co-op with their partner, and eventually, months later, how they really should get back to Blue Prince…
And as much as I love thoughtful and/or narrative-based games, this is exactly the kind of experience I don’t want to have with them. I’ll set a reminder for when the last of the kids moves out.
Consume Me
Aaaaaaaah, nope nope nope nope nope. With the exception of the specifically gendered, body-image aspects of the subject material, everything I hear about this game makes it sound like an advanced simulator/triggerer of the stress I feel every waking minute of my life.
As a parent with clinically diagnosed ADHD, general anxiety disorder, the attendant lack of executive function, and several professionalized hobbies, I at all times feel like I am failing at everything I love doing, personally failing everyone I care about, and checking off to-do boxes more slowly than they’re being added on.
I am so glad Consume Me exists, and that it’s getting attention. It sounds like a brilliant concept, well-executed. I’m sure it’ll be cathartic and/or revealing for so many people who play it! And I am truly sorry that I’m just not going to be one of those people.
…and instead?
As a stocking stuffer, please enjoy a few games I’m extra-glad I made time for this year in between catching up on my backlog:
- Umamusume: Pretty Derby, the anime of which my kids and I stumbled onto a couple of years ago. Everything about this property is better than it has any right to be, its visual-novel-meets-roguelike-deckbuilder-but-make-it-sports concept presses so many of my brain buttons, and unlike Silksong I can join in the parallel-play fun with my kids by sneaking in runs while I’m on con calls.
- Despelote, which again blends narrative and sports in a unique, brilliant, compelling, and snackable package.
- And Retro Bowl, which brings a diet version of my beloved Tecmo Super Bowl to mobile platforms with some very deftly done touchscreen-gameplay twists.
And now, the midnight cookies and milk: Big thanks to Jeff and the Giant Bomb crew for allowing me on their killer new site–and to all of you for reading! My retro-games-media podcast, “Fun Factor: Two Old Gamers Review Old Video Game Magazine Reviews,” is available on YouTube, Apple, and Spotify. I’m also a professional NFL analyst, journalist, and author who posts too much on Bluesky.