by mocbucket62
Showing 1-10 of 13 items
I'm seeing that while Hades II is getting plenty of love from Outlets in GOTY season, it doesn't seem to be getting as much love as its predecessor since Hades 1 felt like this new and fresh take on action roguelikes that nailed everything it set out to do and it won many GOTY awards in 2020. People recognize that Hades II is a great sequel but feels like its not doing enough new to stand out as much as it did in 2020. That wasn't me in 2020. Hades I was one of my favorite games of 2020 but it wasn't THE Favorite that year. My 2020 GOTY was Cook, Serve, Delicious 3 and funny enough, both Supergiant and Vertigo Gaming (CSD devs) released a game out of Early Access in 2025. And as you can see not only did I rank Supergiant's game higher this time around, but Hades II is my 2025 GOTY. I found Hades II overall gameplay to be more enjoyable than Hades 1 which is quite an achievement since 1 already had a stellar gameplay loop! I think part of that is because I enjoy Melinoe's arsenal of weapons more. Hades 1 had some great weapons such as the Bow and Shield but felt like the Adament Rail wasn't fun. Here in Hades II there's no duds. Every weapon was a blast to fight with and make builds for such as the Witch Staff, the Moonstone Axe and my favorite the Umbrel Flames. The boons from Olympians old and new are a lot of fun to use as I found perfect matches for certain weapons such as Hestia's scorch attack on the Twin Daggers and Hephaestus's Volcanic Flourish kinda worked with nearly every weapon. The music is incredible as expected as the Scylla and the Sirens' boss themes are some of the best boss music out there. I even love the additional layer of going up in runs and I totally get why it won best moment or sequence for GB GOTY in 2024. But really what I think puts Hades II at the top spot was when my brother and I both bought the game on our Base Switch consoles when I was visiting him on Vacation back in September. We both did a couple of runs a day and we'd see different game mechanics get revealed based on our own runs. I learned from my brother that Eris will drop in and nerf Melinoe on a run where the game detects the player doing better than it expects them to do (I never dealt with this). But I was the one to beat Chronos first and my brother and I were so excited to see Chronos defeated for a brief time and it was equally exciting to see him beat Chronos. That vacation had my bro and I bond in many ways but discovering things in our runs in Hades I was really awesome to me. Will say I definitely agree that the plot is inferior to the first game and the initial ending doesn't feel earned. But other than that I don't have any complaints about Hades II. Its an incredible Sequel that I think is better than Hades 1 and is my favorite 2025 release!
2025 was a big year for Shinobi for me. Before Art of Vengeance released, I played some Shinobi games on Genesis NSO. Tried out Revenge of Shinobi and frankly felt the game felt kinda wonky in combat and platforming and bounced off of that quickly (sadly I didn't fight Batman). Then I tried Shinobi III and I loved my time with that. Felt like the Combat had an easier flow, the platforming felt very satisfying for a Genesis game and it had some really fun boss fights. Loved that I managed to Beat MechaGodzilla in 1 try and went on to beat the game. Beating Shinobi III got me more excited for Art of Vengeance and funny enough, I like Art of Vengeance even more. Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is a masterful blend of Combat and 2D Exploration. I love how powerful Joe Musashi gets whether he is discovering new attacks and skills Metroidvania style or when he buys new attacks and badges at the shop. Whether its roll dodging to then following up with a Drop Kick to then perform a light sword combo and then finish by jumping back while throwing kunai or performing a divekick and then doing the mid-air circular Sword attack. There's so many fun ways for Joe to attack his foes and juggle them around. It's even more satisfying if you can get 1 or more enemies into a finishing state and Joe will Speedily wipe out the forces and get plenty of Health and Money rewards from the finisher. Plus I'll be honest, I quite liked the platforming in this game. People seemed down on the platforming but I had a good time moving around in the levels and even quite liked the Celeste inspired bonus rooms. One thing I really like about Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is that it is secretly a Wario land 3 like (which is extremely high praise from me since WL3 is one of my favorite games ever). It is like Wario Land 3 in that there is a Metroidvania layout to the levels where there is more to explore in the level then when you initially play the level but you may not have the abilities to access that area of the game. When you do get the abilities from another level you an go back and use those abilities to find new areas of the level to find Elite Squad Rooms or Ankou Rifts. But here's the thing, Wario land 3 had bite sized Metroidvania zones where you can use abilities to traverse new areas within that level but these levels are not interconnected. Art of Vengeance does a similar thing where each level is a Mini Metroidvania map and the level don't connect. So yeah from the combat to its structure Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is a fantastic revival of a Classic Sega IP. Not to mention the boss fights are extremely fun and the art direction and music are lovely.
This is perhaps the game I'm gonna write the least about because I want more people to play this game blind. Its a $5 dollar, 2 hour game that got me extremely emotional. Its a game that I felt confident in beating in one sitting but its story direction and its emotional gut punches got me to stop and take a break after Act 2. It is a game that successfully manages to use its simple, Warioware like gameplay to tell its story beautifully. That's honestly a word I would describe and Roger. Beautiful. Its has a wonderful looking 2D hand drawn art style. The music is incredible with how it accompanies the game's specific scenes. And again, the Narrative really hit me on the emotional core. Seriously if you have 2 hours to spare and want to play a short game that tells a heartfelt story, please check out and Roger.
Despelote is one of the coolest games I've played. Like and Roger, its not very long and has a very heartfelt story to tell. However I feel better about describing Despelote's plot openly since it is set in Quito, Ecuador in 2001. This was when Ecuador was trying to qualify for a spot to participate in the FIFA World Cup for the first time in the nation. Though the story is told mostly thru the eyes of an 8 year old boy named Julian. He himself is into soccer as he spend much of the game playing a PS1 inspired Soccer game (which is a mini game within the game itself) and will often kick a soccer ball with his friends at school. But through the eyes of Julian you see how important soccer is for a country like Ecuador. Though throughout the game you even get a narrative about Julian himself and see how his relationships with his family and friends develop and even get hints of what happens to him in his future life. Even for a country that doesn't have the history of Soccer compared to the likes of Argentina or Germany, it meant the world to so many Ecuadorians to see their team fight for a spot to contend for the World Cup. It does an excellent job transporting the player into a specific time and place in Ecuadorian history. Heck I got a kick in one chapter where it starts in a Video Rental store and I could decipher which 2001 Films had posters in the Rental store despite the games' Obra Dinn esque art style not making it completely clear. I even got to learn more about Ecuadorian Sports history because of this game. I now know of Jefferson Perez, the man to win Ecuador its first ever gold medal in the Olympics when he won the gold for the 20KM Walk at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. And while I won't spoil too much late game moments those story moments were terrific to experience. The big moment that happens in Chapter 5 alone will be something I will think about for some time. Despelote is one of the coolest games I got to play in 2025. It really felt like I was back in 2001 and I was getting behind Ecuador qualifying for the World Cup for the first time.
So this is the one game I have yet to beat in the top 10. Heck when the year was over I initially ranked DK Bananza at 8 and it only got that high because my brother and I both gifted each other a Switch 2 and my Mom bought us both Bananza. I played the game during Christmas and since then am still playing it and loving it. Heck I think Bananza could still be climbing up the list once I revisit this list later. Perhaps this could be just me but I love the format of this game. Donkey Kong hears about these Banadium Gems found on Ingot Isle and he wants nothing more but to Punch the ground, stone or other materials in his way to find those Banadium Gems and eat them up. Between these Gems and the Rock Roasts from TOTK, Nintendo sure loves Rock Food huh? DK has such a fun moveset where 3 of the face buttons are different punches, using Chunks of rock to either Chunk Jump, Surf on Turf and Water or attack enemies with throws or Giant Swings and using the DKC roll Jump tech to reach farther places feels GOOD. Plus I actually quite like the dynamic of him and kid Pauline where both want to reach the Planet Core and she has some fun conversations with DK whenever they rest. Also the Bananza forms are really fun to use for specific scenarios and I just got one Form that is probably the best in the game. Though Zebra Bananza does indeed have the best song. DK Bananza is scratching an itch that Super Mario Odyssey provided. Its a game that you can mainline and get thru the story as quick as possible. But its so fun to look all around the levels and find Banadium Gems or rare fossils from pure curiosity. Really looking forward to beating this game now since I hear the ending is incredible. But for now I'd say Bananza is a top 5 2025 release for myself.
So here's the follow up to that 2020 GOTY game I was talking about. Cook, Serve, Delicious 3 won my personal GOTY in 2020 and Vertigo Gaming's newest game was Cook, Serve, Forever. A more narratively driven cooking game that stars Nori Kaga, a Food Cart Chef who aspires to become a TV Chef much like her hero Chef Rhubarb but got her cooking skills from her late mother. Nori and her partner Brie are struggling to pay for Rent but Nori sees an opportunity to participate for this huge cooking contest called the Cote a'Dor and Nori and Brie move to Helianthus to make it big. So this game initially launched in early access in 2023 and the gameplay flow back then was much different. At first when I played it in 2023 I thought the format felt reminiscent of Parappa the Rapper where there are 4 cooking ratings similar to Rapping Cool, Good, Bad and Awful but you had to cook all of these dishes as fast as you can to get the best rating. At the time I was cool with this format but overtime I grew to think it just didn't have the fun typing gameplay of the CSD games to have me hooked. Then last year the game got a massive overhaul in how it played and I much prefer this change. It captures the thrilling scene CSD has where speedily typing buttons to cook dishes with little to no error feels awesome. But you are cooking 1 dish at a time for each patron rather than serving a bunch a food at a time. I loved typing the Q key 16 times to cut an onion and holding down buttons when baking a pizza or deep frying some fries. It is a game that sits at a Mixed on Steam but I think most of those reviews are still from the Early Access period and I like it way more than the "mixed" reception it got. Besides standard cooking days there are Blitz Levels that require the player to cook certain dishes within a time limit to earn a medal and getting a gold medal is so hard the Steam Achievement requires the player to get 1 Gold Medal rather than all 13. There's also a Cooking School side section where you can practice mastering the recipes of some dishes in the game such as Hot Dogs, Miso Ramen and Chivito (Uruguayan Steak Sandwiches) but not every dish is in the School as I was hoping for more of an encyclopedia of every food similar to the CSD series. But also I found myself loving Nori and Brie's chemistry as Nori is doing her best to cook quality meals and get the recognition from Chef Rhubarb while Brie is incredibly supportive of Nori and is also working on her own career as a Musician. Oh and the Music in the game might be the best soundtrack Jonathon Geer has done! Seriously go on YouTube and search "Happy with Myself" and Holy Mackeral" from Cook, Serve, Forever. CSF may not reach the highs as something like CSD3 but I recognize it was trying to be more of a spinoff with its own gameplay loop and I think for the most part it succeeds. Maybe I just really love the styles of cooking games Vertigo makes. Though like the CSD series it has goten me to cook some of the food from this game in real life and when I do my Game Award article, There is gonna be an award dedicated to the CSF food I cooked last year. Stay Tuned for that!
I remember first playing the demo for Blue Prince early in the year via the Steam Next Fest. I heard about the game thanks to Lucy James drafting it for Giant Bomb's FantasyCritic league last year. When I played the demo I knew this game was gonna be special where it is a Roguelite where you draft rooms in a mansion and use those rooms to either get resources, items or even solve puzzles within the rooms. The Demo left such an impression I decided to play this game on PC Game Pass and looking back, it is a game that frustrated me more than I anticipated but a game that I recognize its brilliant Design and is in my top 10 of 2025. Blue Prince is unlike any Rougelike out there. The main objective is to construct a path in this mansion to reach Room 46 in which a wealthy Relative has something for you. But there is quite a lot to learn from each day constructing you paths as certain rooms will have information that is worthy jotting some notes down. One Room may have info on a renowned Children's Book Author and I had to take notes to see if that was important for any puzzles. Another room could have a photo that gives away a solution to a puzzle somewhere else and that could give me a permanent upgrade. Also I really enjoyed the puzzles of this game whether they be a simple puzzle for getting items such as the Billiards Room puzzle or puzzles that are more crucial to reaching the credits. It is a game where I didn't always aim to reach room 46 as some runs I wanted to get more focused building classrooms to eventually do an exam. But eventually I wanted to see credits on this game and I'll admit, sometimes the RNG did get a little too unfavorable for my liking at times. There was one run where I used a Freezer to carry over 11 Coins and 12 Jewels and I was ready to use those on the next day. However that day only gave me rooms where I could go as far as layer 3 and got too many dead end rooms or rooms with a path that led to a dead end. Also I don't like how Calling it a Day and Saving and Quitting have the same function of ending a run when I want to save my run and finish my run later when short on time. This made me regret not playing it on PS5 instead. But despite my gripes I still look at Blue Prince as an innovative game for Roguelikes and puzzle games. A game where taking notes is important and that knowledge acquired is key to either completing major puzzles or even beating the game. When I reached Room 46 on Day 50 it was perhaps the most gratifying credit roll I saw from a 2025 game! Heck this might be my brother's GOTY and I don't blame. A brilliant Puzzle game that I believe will inspire other puzzle game devs to make more games like it. Now I should go back and get more red letters.
So I played and beat Chrono Gear: Warden of Time for really 1 reason. This is a brand new game developed by GalaxyTrail, the developers behind the Freedom Planet series and 3 ears after releasing the very long in development Freedom Planet 2, they developed a new action platformer starring a bunch of Hololive VTubers. So I had no idea who these VTubers were when first playing this game and I wasn't sure if I was missing any inside baseball dialouge between the characters. I felt like Norm McDonald at the YouTube Comedy Fesitval. But again I was here because the team behind some of my favorite indie platformers worked on it and I was very pleased with the end result. Chrono Gear stars Ouro Kronii, the Warden of Time herself and has the ability to either slow down enemies and projectiles around her or speed up and land quicker and more powerful attacks. She also fights with dual swords and can use typical slashes or even do a drill dash to attack. Though for Ouro she must rebuild the titular Chrono Gear and has to collect Golden Gears spread across different realms owned by her friends. She and her friends act as Goddesses in these realms, and are also VTubers that I learned that some are active (Baelz) while others graduated (Ceres Fauna). Like the Freedom Planet games Chrono Gear uses a Sprite based art style that is similar to how Pixel Art games looked on the Sega Saturn. The music was actually really solid where I believe 5 different composers worked on the soundtrack and there is a large variety of music genres in the OST going from Calm Orchestral Music to Genesis style tracks. Its a game where while the combat is solid (as expected from a GalaxyTrail game) I did wish there was a little more variety in combat where you could give Ouro more perks. But that is made up with the Level Design as each level introduced a new gimmick to keep things fresh. In some ways I feel Chrono Gear should be higher on my list since this is a quality action platformer from a dev that I love! Perhaps compared to some other games I played this year it didn't stand out as much to me personally but Chrono Gear was definitely a fantastic time! Gotta say this is easily GalaxyTrail's best narrative in a game and the ending goes into some wild directions. Heck I got to watch some clips of Ouro Kronii as a VTuber play Chrono Gear and you know, I enjoy watching Ouro Kronii from time to time. Guess this game succeeded in getting me more into VTubers.
Earthion is such a cool game. It is a game produced by Sega legend Yuzo Koshiro. The man responsible for so many iconic soundtracks for the Sega Genesis library from Streets of Rage 2 to Beyond Oasis. He worked with the studio YKGGG to create essentially a brand new SHMUP for the Genesis. It is playable on Steam and on modern consoles for now but it is aiming to release on an actual Genesis with a Cart in the future. I heard about Earthion on Discord and as someone who has been developing an appreciation for SHMUPS from playing games such as Thunder Force 4, G-Darius and M.U.S.H.A., Earthion hit the spot. It really does look like it's for the Genesis as the pixel art feels pretty authentic to other games from that console. The music itself rules as it gets me in the mood to shoot down some spaceships but Koshiro made another all timer soundtrack that could rival his best work on the Genesis. For the game itself its is a Horizontal Shooter as you shoot down enemies but there are fun systems in play to make Earthion stand out. For instance instead of dying from one shot you have a health bar and it goes down when you take too many hits. The game will yell "Caution" at you in its Mega Drive voice when you are low on health so evade any attacks to heal or you'll lose a life. There are sub weapon chambers where after collecting a sub weapon you can choose to use that weapon to attack but it may run out. You also need to collect green gems to upgrade your base shot and adaptation pods after beating a boss to give your ship permanent upgrades. They range from having increased health and shields to more sub weapon slots. Earthion is a game that I admittedly beat on Easy but on that run it felt exhilarating to lock in and defeat the 8 stages in the game. Some really fun but challenging boss fights and the sub weapon variety was fairly deep. Though it's a game that I struggle on normal difficulty. I may not have a real Sega Genesis to play an authentic cart of Earthion on, but I had a great time playing this on Switch and appreciate that a Legend Like Yuzo Koshiro made not only another great Soundtrack, but worked with a team to produce a killer homebrew Genesis shooter that feels like it released in 1992 rather than 2025.
Pac Man World 2 was one of the first GameCube games my parents got my brother and I. If I remember it released before Super Mario Sunshine so this ended up being our first 3D Platformer for the system. World 2 is a game I'm pretty nostalgic for since I always felt the platforming in that game is pretty good and it had lots of fun Pac Man content from Mazes based on the game's levels to actual Pac Man games such as Pac Man and the Japanese only PS1 rom of Pac-Attack. It is a game that I certainly have fond memories of having Pac Man Jump and Rev Roll around to collect the Golden Fruit and get a kick at seeing Clyde's Killer Frog Mech (the game called it Blinky's Killer Frog though which is wrong since the ghost is Orange). But I was never able to beat the game and had been curious about revisiting it but thankfully Bandai Namco published Pac Man World 2 Re-Pac and gotta say I'm pretty impressed with this remake. It maintain much of what I remember from Pac Man World 2 with the movement and level design being mostly similar to the original. Heck I got really nostalgic listening to the Re Pac soundtrack since much of the music is pretty faithful to the original. Got really excited hearing the music for Ice River Run again. But there are a few changes that I think make this the better package to the original. Pac Man now has a timed butt bounce which if timed correctly gives him a higher jump to reach higher platforms and that feels nice. The Boss Fights for Inky, Pinky and Blinky have changed where instead of having 3 identical Ghost Mechs, they each have their own Animal Mech to fight you in much like the Frog mech. The Hub Area of Pac Village connects to all the biomes rather than following 1 trail up Pac Land to reach level and you can decorate the village with Statues that you earn throughout the game. Frankly I was impressed so much love and thought went into a remake for a game I'm fond of but admit it was perhaps a 7/10 game at the time. There are still nods and love for the original game in this package but the changes I feel are for the better in making a better platforming experience. Oh but don't get me started on the final boss fight though. Let's just say I was surprised the final boss of World 2 Re Pac was far more challenging than I was expecting. Otherwise, I'm very happy World 2 got the Re Pac treatment and definitely recommend it to anyone who was fond of the original World 2 or wants a fun platformer.