POLL: Your game of the Year for 2025

[RedTwoster]

The Game Awards take place this week, which begs the question - what’s your personal game of the year? I’ve included a poll listing some of the main contenders, but feel free to list whatever you want. I had no room for Split Fiction, Deltarune, Indiana Jones (eligible for The Game Awards, so it’s fine here!), Megabonk, The Alters, Pokemon Legends ZA and a whole host of other heavy hitters, given that it’s been such a spectacular year.

For me, my GOTY is Clair Obscur: Exhibition 33, hands down. I’ve played it and replayed it, and I’m pretty certain it’s surpassed Final Fantasy VII as my favourite game of all time. Runners up would be Dispatch and Donkey Kong Bananza, with my hidden gem of the year being Dig Dig Dino on Playdate.

What’s your favourite game released this year?

Edited December 8, 2025 by RedTwoster

[TildeGuy~!]

I still have Clair Obscur in the backlog.

So for me it’s Silent Hill F, multiple playthroughs are needed but it’s like playing a different story every time and once all things come together it makes it all worth it.

[FLips]

Clair Obscur for me as well. Don't get me wrong, I love a turn based JRPG but with all due respect to the genre I wouldn't be caught dead playing some of them.
It feels like for years now it's a genre that's been filled with just embarrassingly weeby (for lack of a better term) games, and even some of the bigger hitters like Persona still needs you to explain some of the more icky bits of it to people, and then you get stuff like Undertale/Deltarune where the fanbase is taken over completely by kids, weirdos and sex offenders.

Clair Obscur felt like an RPG for adults made by adults and it kept all of the expected gameplay elements and traditions but presented them in a way that wasn't awkward to show people or explain, and dare I say it was actually really cool. It was nice to play an RPG where you're not a school child, or a generic bright blue/pink haired anime character. I can only hope it reignites the industry when it comes to these types of games, not only to allow indie developers to think bigger than pixel graphics and roguelites but also realise that you can do a JRPG style game with all the bells and whistles and not have to target it towards certain audiences.

[RedTwoster]

29 minutes ago, TildeGuy~! said:

I still have Clair Obscur in the backlog.

So for me it’s Silent Hill F, multiple playthroughs are needed but it’s like playing a different story every time and once all things come together it makes it all worth it.

I always enjoy your thoughts on games, Tilde so be sure to share your thoughts on Clair Obscur after you’ve played it. I’m also hoping you’ve avoided having any of the big moments spoiled.

Silent Hill F is one I’m planning to get to after Christmas, I enjoyed the Silent Hill 2 remake, but I didn’t think it quite hit the heights of the Resident Evil remakes, as good as it was. I really liked the trailers for F, so I’m looking forward to seeing how it fares.

[Jesse]

It's SIlksong for me. I've played 45 games this year, and rolled credits on 36 of them. This was the only one where I got genuinely sad that there was nothing left to do in the game when I was done. The changes to the combat system made it so much easier to engage with for me than Hollow Knight was to begin with, and I'm sure I was helped by doing a complete runthrough of the 2D Castlevania's in the 12 months preceding it but I loved every single thing about this.

[Fog Dude]

From what I've seen it looks like it should be between Clair Obscur and Bananza, but since the release of the Switch 2 in June it means I'm now a generation behind on all three major console platforms, so of the games that have been given last-gen releases and I'm actually able to play, I'd say I've enjoyed Sonic Racing: Cross Worlds the most.

I'm not kidding myself that it's better on a technical or storytelling level than any of the nine games in the poll, but I wanted to mention it anyway because I've seen some GotY lists rank it below Mario Kart World already and that's questionable at best.

Also worth noting that Nintendo finally brought out a HD version of Mario Galaxy 2 in October, albeit they didn't really change enough about it for it to count as a full remaster and therefore a "new" release for 2025.

[TildeGuy~!]

5 hours ago, RedTwoster said:

I always enjoy your thoughts on games, Tilde so be sure to share your thoughts on Clair Obscur after you’ve played it. I’m also hoping you’ve avoided having any of the big moments spoiled.

I’ve got the gist of what happens unfortunately but that won’t ruin my opinion of it once I get to it, bought it in the Black Friday deals for £25. 

[RedTwoster]

7 hours ago, Fog Dude said:

Also worth noting that Nintendo finally brought out a HD version of Mario Galaxy 2 in October, albeit they didn't really change enough about it for it to count as a full remaster and therefore a "new" release for 2025.

I didn’t include it in the main list or my rankings given that it’s essentially the same game, but replaying it reminded me that it probably is the best Mario game ever. Still, even if I did personally consider it, it wouldn’t beat Clair Obscur for me personally.

7 hours ago, Fog Dude said:

I'm not kidding myself that it's better on a technical or storytelling level than any of the nine games in the poll, but I wanted to mention it anyway because I've seen some GotY lists rank it below Mario Kart World already and that's questionable at best.

I’d actually rank MKW above it, I think. There’s a lot more to do in MKW, and although I enjoyed both games, I spent much more time playing Mario, exploring the Open World, trying my hand at the various challenges and modes and getting my arse kicked online.

Sonic is very good, but I don’t think it lives up to Mario Kart - or Sonic & All-stars Racing Transformed, for that matter. 

[Scratch]

I voted other - Ball x Pit.

[Fog Dude]

14 hours ago, RedTwoster said:

I didn’t include it in the main list or my rankings given that it’s essentially the same game, but replaying it reminded me that it probably is the best Mario game ever. Still, even if I did personally consider it, it wouldn’t beat Clair Obscur for me personally.

I’d actually rank MKW above it, I think. There’s a lot more to do in MKW, and although I enjoyed both games, I spent much more time playing Mario, exploring the Open World, trying my hand at the various challenges and modes and getting my arse kicked online.

Sonic is very good, but I don’t think it lives up to Mario Kart - or Sonic & All-stars Racing Transformed, for that matter. 

Both fair points. Even my stepbrother, who doesn't normally like that type of game, had to message me a few months ago to let me know Expedition 33 does actually live up to the hype.

Another sore point with Bananza was that DK Island, the obvious equivalent of the Mushroom Kingdom post-game section in Mario Odyssey (and largely from the same dev team), was only brought out later as DLC rather than just being included already as a reward for completing the main story. That could be more of a value for money gripe than a quality one, mind, but even on the latter metric it sounds like Clair Obscur wins out anyway.

I've been able to play MKW a couple of times despite not owning a Switch 2, and understand why it can be considered a disappointment. It does sound as if, after six months, Nintendo has finally patched some things in to allow people to play the game the way they like, instead of insisting on making people play a silly party game according to the intention of the auteur's vision.

That initial stubbornness seemed to drive a lot of players back to MK8 Deluxe. Although I haven't seen anybody go back to the predecessor title with Sonic Racing yet, thinking about it, All-Stars Transformed was actually more enjoyable so I guess that's a mark against Cross Worlds I hadn't considered.

[RedTwoster]

I thought I’d do a post highlighting some of my hidden gem games of the year.

Before I do that, though - as I said, my GOTY is Clair Obscur, and that would be followed by the outstanding Dispatch, which tells one of my favourite stories in a long time. That would be followed by Donkey Kong Bananza, which I adore. Outside of that, though…

Dig Dig Dino (Playdate, currently $7)

Sorry to go with a price in dollars, but that’s what they charge on the Playdate store, and with the addition of tax it’s hard to convert. It’s also available as part of the season 2 collection of games. I’ve spoken about this before, but it’s a brilliant little game in which you dig up fossils to piece together full dinosaurs, strengthening and earning funds as you go to dig faster and use less energy. I’ve not played anything like it before, and it’s stupidly addictive. And it’s short, at around 5-hours in length, perfect for someone with limited time to game. 

Look Outside (currently £6.29 on Steam, 30% off)

A grotesque survival horror JRPG that I really enjoyed. Although there have been horror JRPGs before, this feels very unique with the premise being something has happened, and if you look outside your flat you’ll turn into a deformed monster. You have to stay inside your apartment block until it passes, exploring it and picking up resources to survive. That’s a huge over-simplification of what this is, but it’s a game in which you’ll enjoy more if you know less. Be warned though, it features extreme body horror and if that’s a bit much for you, avoid.

Date Everything (currently on a sale price on most platforms)

I wasn’t sure what to expect with this one, but I like a bit of weird and this sounded very fucking odd. Basically, you get a pair of glasses that let you see pretty much every inanimate object in your house as people, and you can date them. And the objective is to date everything - or befriend them, or make them hate you (in fact, you should take that option at least once to unlock an additional dateable). It’s fun, with a nice story - unfortunately I was bugged out of being able to 100% complete it, which was a bit annoying. Still, I enjoyed it a lot and would recommend.

Pipistrello and the Cursed Yo-yo (reduced on most platforms)

I’m playing this on Switch 2. I’ve seen it compared to classic Zelda combined with a metroidvania, and while that’s accurate, I’d say what is classic Zelda but a metroidvania? Your powers are yo-yo based, you explore the world using them and unlock new abilities as you go allowing you to access new places. This is a very nostalgic game, that managed to do something new at the same time. I’m playing this one at the moment and while I’ve not finished it yet, the fact I’m listing it here in spite of that hopefully tells you how highly I think of it.

Ball X Pit (reduced on various platforms)

If you like the sound of Vampire Survivors-meets-Breakout, you’ll love this. If you hate roguelikes, you possibly won’t. Although I don’t tend to like them, and I had a lot of fun with this.