out of these

it’s not perfect but its getting there

Holy cow what a year. I don't think I've ever had this many games that I wanted to highlight, and even crazier, almost all of these games actually came out this year! As always, the rules here are only that I played it in 2025, release date doesn't matter.

Game of the Year: Endless Monday

A game that wears its heart on its sleeve. It's a wonderfully crafted little thing with fantastic art and a charming everything. Penny is my new favorite girlfailure. Skye's post-employment antics break my heart. Tiger-chan has got me ending sentences randomly with, "As they say." It's as funny as it is both relatable and depressing. I love this game so much I bought merch (Penny plushie) as soon as it went on sale. It's an incredibly specific game for an incredibly specific kind of person, but if the words "Jira jumpscare" mean anything to you, I highly recommend checking Endless Monday out.

Best Building Game But Good: Aviassembly

If I see somebody start using blocks to build a spaceship/boat/whatever I immediately tune out. I just can't do these kinds of games anymore, because to me they feel more like physics toys than games. Aviassembly though, is weird. There's gameplay. You have specific goals to accomplish, a limited budget, a limited partset, and it's up to you to put something together than can accomplish the mission. Missions reward you with bigger budgets and more parts. I got sucked into this game hard when it came out, to the point where I beat the entire ~14 hour Early Access campaign in 2 very long sittings over a weekend.

Best Glidecore Game: Desecrators

We've seen plenty of Playstation looking games. We've seen a handful of N64 looking games. When are we getting the 90s hardware accelerated Voodoo graphics games? It's a very specific look, and Desecrators absolutely nails that late 90s look when everybody figured out colored lights and lens flares and blending and you got games that looked like tech demos. Desecrators plays as smooth and polished as it looks too, and is an easy recommend for anybody looking for a 6DOF shooter.

Best Warthog Game: Easy Delivery Company

I stumbled across this on a Next Fest, gave it a try, and immediately fell in love. It has a ton of charm and character, and the vibes are immaculate. You recklessly drive your little kei truck with really fun physics and bouncy suspension to deliver packages around snowy mountain towns all set to a great soundtrack that I've actually listened to outside of the game. I'm very picky about vehicle physics since that's kind of my thing, and I love the way the truck drives in this.

Best Game I Can't Recommend: skate.

This game is the very definition of slop. It is the most edges sanded off shareholder approved soulless grating online-only microtransaction driven live-service game you could possibly make about something that is fundamentally a counter-culture staple. And yet, I keep playing it. It's a comfy game that I keep coming back to because skating around and doing tricks by flicking and rotating the thumbstick just satisfies a very specific part of my brain. I actually like this game a lot, but man, I really can't recommend it because it's basically everything wrong with modern games.

Best Examples of Good Indie Gamedev: Easy Delivery Co. / Hijong Park's Defender Patrol