Games

New Game Releases: 2025 Buyer’s Guide – Part 2

With 2025 coming to a close, and Christmas just around the corner, most game companies have taken the next few weeks off.

“OH MY GOD?! IT’S ALMOST CHRISTMAS!!!! What do I do? My kid/wife/husband/secret santa wanted some game about…I don’t know, Claire Danes, or ghosts who YOLO, or a #2 combo at Hardee’s; or maybe something that had all three? Do those exist? If they don’t exist what can I get?? HELP ME!”

Okay, okay, stop fretting, I got you covered. I’ll be giving you a buyer’s guide for each month with my top picks in BOLD. What were the best games to come out; which ones sucked, and which ones flew under the radar and deserve your attention? Get ready to find out! Since this guide tends to be on the long side, and in the interest of keeping your attention, I will be splitting it into two parts; January to June and July to December. Get your pencils ready, folks, because the games are coming fast and I hope you’re taking notes.

July:

  • Best – Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate, Donkey Kong Bananza, EA Sports College Football 26, Monument Valley 3, Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, No Sleep for Kaname Date – From AI: The Somnium Files, Patapon 1+2 Replay, Shadow Labyrinth, Super Mario Party Jamboree: Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4
  • Avoid – Dungeons & Dragons Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition
  • Hidden Gem – Abiotic Factor (Recommended by Buttersnap), Dear me, I was… (Recommended by Merve & Mikey Insanity), The Drifter (Recommended by CedricTheOwl)

While Nintendo’s first party Switch 2 offerings on launch day might have been light, with only Mario Kart World being of note, they proceeded to release a steady stream of high quality content every month after (well, mostly every month). Starting things off in July, we have Donkey Kong Bananza, the Nintendo’s first major 3D platformer for the Switch 2. While I’m sure there are many people who would have preferred a new Mario game, Bananza certainly has Mario DNA in its gameplay, feeling like a spiritual successor to Super Mario Odyssey. The core gameplay element in Bananza is smashing stuff, and I don’t just mean barrels and crates, you smash EVERYTHING. Want to get to the other side of a mountain? Smash through it. Want to explore deep, underground caves? Smash through the floor. Want to reach the top of a platform? Smash into a wall and then smash your way upwards through the floor. Beautiful graphics, excellent music, and a cavalcade of unique and challenging bosses, Donkey Kong Bananza is, in my opinion, the best Nintendo developed Switch 2 game of 2025. You should absolutely grab a copy if you’re buying a Switch 2 this holiday season.

While July is traditionally a pretty slow month for releases, it felt exceptionally slower this year, likely due to the Switch 2 launch. Still, we had a handful of great games come out. Activision put out Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4, this time tapping developer Iron Galaxy as the developer. While it didn’t get as good a score from critics as the previous remake of 1+2, it was still a well received remake and should be plenty nostalgic for all you millennials out there. In other remake/remaster news, the rhythm game Patapon 1+2 Replay was released in July, bringing the cult classic PSP game to modern consoles.

Nintendo had a second release in July, as well, an update of sorts, with Super Mario Party Jamboree: Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV. It contains an upgraded version of Super Mario Party Jamboree as well as a brand new mode called Jamboree TV. Other new games this month included the bizarre Pac-Man spin-off Shadow Labyrinth, the 2D retro inspired Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, the visual novel No Sleep for Kaname Date – From AI: The Somnium Files, the three-quel Monument Valley 3, and the lone sports title (of note), EA Sports College Football 26. Oh, and July as saw the first of two major expansions for Destiny 2, called The Edge of Fate. You still playing Destiny 2? I’m not!

While there are many ports, re-releases, and remakes put out every year, not all are made equal. Take, for example, July’s title to avoid, Dungeons & Dragons Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition. While the original 2006 release from Obsidian Entertainment is among the most well received RPGs of all-time, the 2025 Enhanced Edition is a big ol’ pile of stink. The game is, apparently, riddled with bugs and is so poorly optimized that you are likely better off trying to find a copy of the original game, as it will run better on your PC than this monstrosity.

Instead, why not check out these far superior games that our readers have recommended. First up, as recommended by Buttersnap, we have Abiotic Factor, who called it, “A quirky base building/survival game in which you also fight in weird alien worlds in the style of the first Half Life game“. Merve and Mikey Insanity both had a great time with Dear me, I was…, with Merve calling it “gorgeous” due to its watercolor-style graphics. Mikey was excited to try it out, as he was a fan of the director’s previous games, Another Code and Hotel Dusk. He says, “…it feels a bit inaccurate to call it a game…”, likening it more to an “interactive animation”, saying it is “A very good movie, to be clear“. Mikey then mentions that “Arc System Works said it was designed with adult women as the target audience so I played it with a friend who is an adult woman using GameChat. And they were far more emotionally impacted than I was“. He closes things out by saying that Dear me, I was… is among the best games he played in 2025 and suggests that all Switch 2 owners should give it a try.

Last up, our good buddy CedricTheOwl has another game for you to all check out, The Drifter. He says it is “Easily the most conventional adventure game on my list, but the artwork looks great and the story is unusually action-packed for an adventure game. Starward Vector may have an emotionally involving plot and somber but endearing characters, but it doesn’t let you control a rail-hopping drifter fighting monsters with a flamethrower“.

August:

  • Best – Gears of War: Reloaded, Kirby and the Forgotten Land: Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Star-Crossed World, Madden NFL 26, Mafia: The Old Country, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution, Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar, Sword of the Sea
  • Avoid – Lost Soul Aside
  • Hidden Gem – Shinobi: Art of Vengeance (Recommended by Kid Presentable)

August continued to be slow, though I can’t imagine any month being lackluster if the top game is Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater. A remake of the PS2 classic, Snake Eater takes everything you loved about the original and enhances it. Modern graphics, modern controls, but all of that weird stuff you loved about it in the first place (trust me, there’s a lot of weird stuff). It’s still a little weird to see a Metal Gear game come out that doesn’t have any involvement from Hideo Kojima, but at least Konami is making big, AAA games again after almost a decade of developing nothing but pachinko machines and free-to-play mobile titles.

In other weird things, Gears of War: Reloaded came to PlayStation 5 this month, ending the series’ Xbox exclusivity; it’s only a matter of time before Microsoft stops making consoles, right? Nintendo released Kirby and the Forgotten Land: Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Star-Crossed World, an updated version of my daughter’s all-time favorite Switch game. Retro gaming fans should check out Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution, a brand new Game Boy Advance platformer that was first conceived of back in 2002. For all you sports fans out there, the annual release of Madden came out; cool.

Aside from Snake Eater, there were only two other new titles of note August. The first is Mafia: The Old Country, the latest entry in the long running open world crime franchise. It was met with mixed reviews, with critics saying the gameplay felt dated but that it contained a gripping story. The second is Sword of the Sea, the latest game from developer Giant Squid who are best known for the games Abzu and The Pathless, and for working on the Sony title Journey.

There isn’t really a lot from August to avoid, I mean, aside from game’s you’ve never heard of. However, I gotta pick something and so I’m going with Lost Soul Aside, the first game from the Chinese developer Ultizero Games. Poorly received by critics, Lost Soul Aside was panned for being an unfinished mess of a game. While it does show some sparks of life in the combat and has really nice graphics, the overall package is quite boring and generic.

Instead, you should check out Shinobi: Art of Vengeance, as recommended by reader Kid Presentable. They say that the game would get overshadowed later in the year by another 2D platformer, Hollow Knight: Silksong, and implored all of us to give Shinobi a chance, saying, “…it was another good 2D action platformer. It wasn’t a metroidvania or a roguelike, just a good old fashioned linear side scroller with nice art and fun combat“.

September:

  • Best – Atelier Resleriana The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian, Borderlands 4, Donkey Kong Bananza: DK Island & Emerald Rush, EA Sports FC 26, Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, Hades II, Hollow Knight: Silksong, Hotel Barcelona, Indiana Jones & the Great Circle: The Order of Giants, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II Legacy of the Forge, NBA 2K26, NHL 26, Pac-Man World 2 Re-PAC, Silent Hill f, Skate., Sonic Racing CrossWorlds, Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter
  • Avoid – Everybody’s Golf: Hot Shots
  • Hidden Gem – Baby Steps (Recommended by Lamb Dance Revolution), Blippo+ (Recommended by Narrowstrife), Consume Me (Recommended by Lamb Dance Revolution), Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion (Recommended by NEPH//QUINLEY//THORNE), Messenger (Recommended by KingCrow), Road to Empress (Recommended by Merve), Strange Antiquities (Recommended by Toothpic Monsoon)

As happens every year, the slow trickle of games from April to August is suddenly turned into a geyser, as September gave us a TON of games. However, one stood out above the rest, in my opinion, and that was Hades II. While the game had been available in early access since May of 2024, the full, final version of the game didn’t arrive until September of 2025 and, my god, it was worth the wait. Continuing the satisfying gameplay loop of the first Hades, part II doesn’t just come across as “more of the same”, at least not to me, as it carves out a space unto itself. While the game is incredibly difficult, it never feels entirely unfair to play, as your progression is organic. The procedural generation of levels helps keep things fresh, as opposed to another difficult game this month, and can make the game feel new, even if you’re still stuck in the first area. I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED, Hades II and can easily call it one of my favorites in 2025.

That other “really difficult” game from September was also one of the most anticipated of the year, Hollow Knight: Silksong. Initially intended to be DLC for 2017’s Hollow Knight, Silksong became so large and so different that developer Team Cherry spun it off into its own game. Mercilessly difficult, Silksong is not for everyone. However, those that can master the game will come away from it feeling a major sense of accomplishment and pride. Easily one of the best games of 2025, Silksong will continue to delight and frustrate players for generations to come. Maybe one day I’ll master the downward thrust attack, when my great grandchildren teach me how to “git gud”.

After just six months, we got a brand new entry in the Atelier series with Atelier Resleriana The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian. There was a lot of hub-bub in the run up to the release of Borderlands 4 in regards to its price. When it finally released, the game was a standard $70 bucks and it was, as far as I can tell, instantly forgettable. Notable gaming auteurs Suda 51 and Swery put out a brand new game called Hotel Barcelona; did you know? I don’t think you did. September also gave us Silent Hill f, the first new, mainline game in that franchise since 2012’s Downpour. I wish I would have spent more time with this game in 2025, alas, I just did not have the time.

While I typically don’t highlight early access games, there was a lot of hype surrounding the release of Skate. this past September. It’s been very well received, so far, though it does seem to be getting some flack for being an “always online” game. In an attempt to revive its 90’s rivalry with Mario, Sega released Sonic Racing CrossWorlds and promoted it with a trailer that made fun of how slow and boring Mario Kart World was in comparison. In the wide world of sports, NBA 2K26, EA Sports FC 26, and NHL 26 both released and are probably being played by your dentist as you read this.

September was a HUGE month for expansions, ports, and remakes, with Donkey Kong Bananza: DK Island & Emerald Rush, Indiana Jones & the Great Circle: The Order of Giants, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II Legacy of the Forge being our big DLC releases. They were joined by Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, Pac-Man World 2 Re-PAC, and Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter as your major ports/remakes of the month.

Our title to avoid for September is Everybody’s Golf: Hot Shots, the latest entry in the long running franchise that is now owned by Bandai Namco. While it has never been a huge franchise in terms of sales and critical acclaim, it has been liked well enough to earn 15 entries in the last 28 years. However, this latest release is supposed to be just awful. Poorly optimized for PC, full of game breaking bugs and a plethora of glitches, Everybody’s Golf: Hot Shots is a bogey, for sure. Oh, and like many of our other games to avoid, there is copious use of AI generated art assets in the game, as well. What a shame.

Instead of that AI garbage, check out these other games that were handcrafted with love and care in a small cottage in the woods with only tree bark and twine. Like the number of releases, there are a ton to get through here. First up, as recommended by Lamb Dance Revolution, we have Baby Steps. They say, “Like previous works by Bennett Foddy, it’s another game built around the comedic frustration as you contend with its challenging walking controls, but also gives you a sense of exploration as you traverse its world and meet its strange characters. Really satisfying if you’re willing to overcome its learning curve“. Lamb Dance also recommended Consume Me, saying, “A life management sim with silly microgames, you play as a teenager under pressure from her various goals and self-imposed diet. It tackles serious subject matters like the protagonist’s eating disorder in a relatable semi-biographical narrative, yet still maintains a strong sense of humor“.

Narrowstrife recommends the game Blippo+, saying, “…it’s not so much a game as an…interactive video art project. The premise is that an alien TV station is having its channels suddenly beamed to Earth through a hole in space….where each “show” is 3 minutes long, and you flip through channels, until you’ve watched enough…to unlock the next set of episodes“. NEPH//QUINLEY//THORNE recommends Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion, saying the game is very similar to Xenoblade Chronicles X, “A mission structure, a main hub, a sprawling world that’s a blast to explore in your Arsenal…and also just lets you be a moody asshole which I’m always for. But of course, the main reason I’d suggest this game is largely due to something that both frustrated and outright flabbergasted most players: the optional boss that you have to manually fly to in order to reach–a flight that can take anywhere from 4 to 6 real-time hours. I’m not saying that this is necessarily a good choice but, at the same time, I cannot help but respect the sheer audacity of it“.

Continuing with the recommended titles, KingCrow wants us to check out the free-to-play game Messenger, saying, “…you’re a (customizable) kid recruited to deliver mail between people around a town, except the town is contoured as a tiny planet. It’s a relaxing fetch quest game with a beautiful presentation“. Merve has another recommendation, the interactive FMV title Road to Empress, saying, “You play as a member of the imperial harem, dodging the schemes of courtiers and your fellow consorts to stay alive. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed an FMV game this much before“. Last up, Toothpic Monsoon recommends Strange Antiquities, the sequel to Strange Horticulture, saying, “Creepy cozy atmosphere, not too easy/not too hard deduction puzzles and you get to pet a cat. What more do you want?!?“.

October:

  • Best – ARC Raiders, Battlefield 6, Digimon Story: Time Stranger, Dispatch, Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake, Ghost of Yotei, Jurassic World Evolution 3, Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection, Ninja Gaiden 4, Once Upon a Katamari, Pokémon Legends Z-A, PowerWash Simulator 2, Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2, Tales of Xillia Remastered, The Jackbox Party Pack 11, The Outer Worlds 2
  • Avoid – Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2
  • Hidden Gem – Absolum (Recommended by Jarathen), Ball X Pit (Recommended by Toothpic Monsoon), Keeper (Recommended by Toothpic Monsoon), The Seance of Blake Manor (Recommended by CedricTheOwl)

October continued the onslaught of new titles, with our biggest release being Ghost of Yotei, from developer Sucker Punch. The sequel to 2020’s Ghost of Tsushima, Yotei takes place over 300 years later and features a new protagonist, the wandering mercenary Atsu. The game takes players to the area of Mount Yotei as Atsu seeks revenge against a band of evil samurai who killed her family sixteen years earlier. Hailed as one of the greatest games of 2025, Ghost of Yotei improves on its predecessor while remaining true to what made Tsushima so good to begin with; solid combat, gorgeous graphics, and a gripping story. In the lead up to the game’s launch, and subsequent release, Yotei was the target of anti-LGBT propaganda and slander from prominent right-wing comentators online, and became even more controversial after a former Sucker Punch employee made disparaging remarks about the death of Charlie Kirk. Does any of this have any bearing on the quality of the game? Of course not, but I’d be remiss for not bringing it up, because that one Uncle you have will certainly have some things to say about Ghost of Yotei if you happen to open it up on Christmas morning. Just be prepared for that inevitability.

October also gave us Nintendo’s next major title, Pokémon Legends Z-A, which changed up how the game played. Traditionally, Pokémon games have been turn based affairs; Z-A, on the other hand, is an action RPG, with combat happening in real-time, similar to how Final Fantasy XVI played. In other monster battling game news, Digimon Story: Time Stranger came out; I didn’t play it, but I bet Merve did. The first two episodes of Dispatch released in October, a new interactive story developed by AdHoc Studio, a company made up of former TellTale, Ubisoft, and Night School Studio employees.

Let’s see, what else, oh, for all you online gaming nuts out there, ARC Raiders showed up out of nowhere to become one of the biggest games of 2025, while Battlefield 6 offered a more serious alternative to the wacky antics of recent Call of Duty entries. Strategy game fans and dinosaur enthusiasts could build their own Jurassic Park with Jurassic World Evolution 3, Ninja Gaiden 4 was the SECOND new entry in the series to come out in 2025 (if you can believe it), fans of the mundane could check out PowerWash Simulator 2, your family gatherings this holiday season can get silly with The Jackbox Party Pack 11, weebs and weeb-ettes got Once Upon a Katamari to cheer them up, and Obsidian tried to redeem themselves with The Outer Worlds 2 after the less than positively received Avowed. Did they? Well, you didn’t see TOW2 show up on many “Best of…” lists, did you?

There were, of course, many ports and remakes in October. One of the more controversial was Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2, which was knocked for its $70 price tag (or $40 each, individually). One of the more well received remakes, however, was Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake, a companion to 2024’s Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake. Another big RPG, Tales of Xillia Remastered, came out, while 90’s fighting game fans were excited to get Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection. It was initially a digital-only release, though a physical version did arrive in December.

If you’re looking for a game to avoid in October, be sure to stay away from Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2. Critically panned, Bloodlines 2 is considered one of the most disappointing games of 2025. Initially met with a lot of pre-release hype and expectations, the final product was a buggy mess (seems to be the case with a lot of these titles to avoid) and was seen as being inferior to its predecessor. I know there are some people who like this game, including more than a few of you reading this, and I don’t really understand why. Please explain yourselves.

Instead, check out one of the titles recommended by our readers. Jarathen wants us to play Absolum, saying, “…it’s a gorgeous roguelike…with an incredible soundtrack that…you can 100% in about 20-30 hours, which means you can wrap it up with a smile on your face long before you tire of yet another run“. Toothpic Monsoon recommends Ball X Pit, saying, “…a strange roguelite that’s like Vampire Survivors meets Breakout. I didn’t get super far in but it was pretty fun. The combos you can create are pretty silly“. Toothpic also recommends Keeper, the new Double Fine game where you play as a sentient lighthouse, saying, “It starts a bit slow. Mainly a walking simulator at first but light puzzling shows up and the art direction is pretty spectacular throughout. Didn’t care for it much at first but I came around in the end“.

Last up for October, CedricTheOwl gives us another recommendation (how many games do you play a year?!), The Seance of Blake Manor. They say, “A spooky mystery adventure game with a neat comic book-y art style where your every action advances an in-game clock, requiring you to make decisions on what leads to follow up on in the limited amount of time you’re allotted. Adventure games that add an element of time or resource management have a good track record recently, and I’ve heard nothing but good things about this one“.

November:

  • Best – Anno 117: Pax Romana, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II Mysteria Ecclesiae, Kirby Air Riders
  • Avoid – Sonic Rumble
  • Hidden Gem – Foolish Mortals (Recommended by CedricTheOwl), Satisfactory (Recommended by Buttersnap)

Nintendo continued their hot streak in November, releasing a brand new Zelda game, the musou title Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment. In case you don’t know what a musou title is, these are a series of games created by the developer Omega Force and are more commonly known in America as “Warriors” games, i.e., Dynasty Warriors, Samurai Warriors, etc. Age of Imprisonment is the third game in the Hyrule Warriors spin-off and the second to take place in the current style of Zelda games that began with Breath of the Wild. In Age of Imprisonment, players learn the story of what Princess Zelda was doing in the far past while Link was busy saving Hyrule (again) in Tears of the Kingdom. It is a hack & slash extravaganza that might not be for everyone, but for long-time Zeldafans I would argue that this is as essential to the full story as any mainline title.

That wasn’t all for Nintendo in November, as they also had a brand new Kirby game come out, Kirby Air Riders. A follow-up to the 2003 GameCube title Kirby Air Ride, players control the little pink puff ball, or one of his multitude of friends & enemies, racing around extravagant courses. It’s pretty wild that Nintendo would release two racing games in the same year, let alone two racing games that are both set in large, open worlds (though Kirby’s is a bit smaller).

Aside from that, we got a new strategy game from Ubisoft, Anno 117: Pax Romana, a new Call of Duty with Black Ops 7 (which has pretty much be D.O.A. since it launched), and an expansion for Kingdom Come: Deliverance II called Mysteria Ecclesiae. That was pretty much all the major stuff. November was ignored, for the most part, and I’m a bit curious if The Game Awards have anything to do with it. The cut off date for game releases is around the middle of November, so are companies purposely using September and October to put out their big titles and leaving November relatively bare in the hopes of getting nominations? Eh, probably not…but maybe?

November’s game to avoid is another mobile title, Sonic Rumble. This game is a Fall Guys clone, with players getting to run around obstacle courses as their favorite Sonic characters (the video game, not the fast food chain). Sonic Rumble is a mild diversion, it’s not hurting anything and I’m sure it’s giving joy to children who have a copy of it on their iPad. However, if you need to ignore a game from November, Sonic Rumble easily fills that spot.

Instead, play one of these games that our readers have suggested. First, CedricTheOwl ONCE AGAIN has a recommendation for us, Foolish Mortals. Is it a point & click adventure game? What the fuck do you think? They say, “A simple but fun-looking throwback to 90s adventure games, primarily made by a husband-wife team of developers. Looks very much inspired by Lucasarts adventure games, but with full voice acting and some modern QOL features in place“. Reader Buttersnap also has a recommendation, the console port of the game Satisfactory. They admit that they are a big fan of the original game, which is an open-world factory building game, and felt that the console version was a really solid, well-made port.

December:

  • Best – Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora – From the Ashes, Destiny 2: Renegades, Elden Ring: Nightreign – The Forsaken Hollows, Marvel Cosmic Invasion, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, Octopath Traveler 0, Pokémon Legends: Z-A – Mega Dimension, Terminator 2D: No Fate
  • Avoid – Let It Die: Inferno
  • Hidden Gem – Skate Story (Recommended by Andy)

In the final month of the year, Nintendo just couldn’t be stopped, releasing a game that was announced all the way back in 2017, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. Taking place in a semi-open world (the Big N seem all-in on open world now, huh?), players guide Samus across vast wastelands as she looks for dungeons, for lack of a better term, to explore. While the game was not the critical smash that people may have been expecting, it’s still a solid entry in the series and is leaps and bounds better than many of the other titles released this year. You could do worse, is what I’m saying.

The rest of December was pretty stacked as well, surprisingly. Typically we don’t have a lot to talk about but we were graced with some great games this year. For starters, we had two retro inspired titles, the first is the brawler Marvel Cosmic Invasion, a beat ’em up from the same developers of the TMNT game Shredder’s Revenge. Our other retro title is Terminator 2D: No Fate, a hybrid beat ’em up and shooter, reminiscent of Contra with a little bit of Double Dragon for good measure. RPG fans were treated to the release of Octopath Traveler 0, which was inspired by the franchise’s free-to-play mobile spin-off, Champions of the Continent, removing all of the gacha and mobile game bullshit that you usually get.

It was a big month for expansions, as we got four of them. To tie into the new film coming out, we got Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora – From the Ashes, which can be purchased in a package with the base game or by itself. Destiny 2 got its second expansion of the year, the Star Wars inspired Renegades. Elden Ring: Nightreign got its first expansion, The Forsaken Hollows, while Pokémon Legends: Z-A received its first expansion as well, Mega Dimension, which promises even more crazy ass Pokémon mega evolutions.

It’s usually pretty tough trying to find a game to avoid in December because, well, not a ton of games come out and it’s hard to figure out what the shittiest one is. Well, I’ve got one for you, Let It Die: Inferno. Why avoid this game? Simple, it’s full of generative AI art assets! While the first game was developed by the well respected studio Grasshopper Manufacture, this new game was developed by a different company, Supertrick Games, with only the same publisher. As if the AI wasn’t bad enough, the game is also really bad, being just another generic extraction shooter in a landscape already littered with dozens of them.

Instead, I’ve got a recommendation for you, folks, one that snuck up on me right at the tail end of the year; Skate Story. While the core gameplay centers around skateboarding (which controls phenomenally well), Skate Story is so much more than that. Pulling off tricks is essential to progress the game but, unlike Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, your end goal is not to rack up the most points, tricks are used to defeat enemies. In Skate Story, players take on the role of a demon who has signed a contract with the Devil to regain his soul. To do this, players must travel through the nine levels of Hell, eating Moons along the way. Simple, right? With a charming, low-fi PS2 look and a killer soundtrack, Skate Story is a surreal, one of a kind experience that feels like something David Lynch would have made if he got into video games instead of film. I can’t recommend it enough.

We did it! That’s all twelve months recapped and dissected. I hope you were able to discover a few titles you missed over the year, and I also hope that I’ve steered you clear of a few of the stinkers.

As 2025 comes to a close I am again reminded by how much I enjoy writing these columns every week and seeing all of your wonderful, happy avatars in the comments. Take care of yourselves this Holiday, folks, I hope your upcoming days are filled with laughter, joy, and good music. Before I go, I want to leave you with my favorite song of 2025, “Belong to You” by the band Cut Copy:

That’ll do it for the 2025 Buyer’s Guide, special coverage will continue this coming Tuesday, Dec. 23rd, with Notable Events From 1985, 1995, 2005, & 2015. See you next week!