A lot of the games on this list are gonna be "Wait, you seriously didn't play that until 2025?!" And this is definitely one of them. It started with me just enjoying this fantastic tech demo, but then I decided to platinum it. And one of the trophies was to get a combined time of under 7 minutes on all 8 bonus levels. That...quickly got out of hand. Like, I am 257th in the world right now. And I absolutely cannot wait to play more of this when I get my hands on Astro Bot. If you haven't tried this, bust it out. It's free, it's fun, and it's full of love and references to tons of Playstation franchises.

Man, was this a fun time. Yes, some of the levels got way too convoluted and probably doubled my playtime unnecessarily, but even then I was never bored. Many debate that this game defined the FPS genre, and rightfully so. 10/10, would rip and tear through Hell again.

I played the HELL out of the demo for this as a kid. But it only had the first couple of levels. So finally being able to sit down and play this whole title was so satisfying. Even better, it was the Kill-A-Ton collection, so it had all the expansions, too. And going from the grotesque levels in the final episodes to fighting aliens to the jaunty tunes of Christmas carols in Nuclear Winter was hysterical.

You've probably never heard of this. Rightfully so. It's not a great game. And it's a 10/10 game for me. Best gaming experience I had this year. This was a Sega Saturn title during the "Look, full motion video! It's gaming in the future!" era. And...my god. The writing is hysterical. I was belly laughing multiple times, and this actually has a stellar cast. The king has been in Ghost in the Shell for decades, the villain is played by Michael Gregory (yes, the man in Robocop and Cyberpunk 2077), and the main character is Kirk freaking Cameron before he went off the deep end. If you love B movies, this is a dream come true. Imagine a game made by people that wanted a D&D game, but had never played D&D in their life. Then they realized halfway through that they wanted a city management game, but half the cast wanted to make a comedy movie instead.

I played the hell out of Command and Conquer (the original game) as a kid, and finally decided to binge the entire series this year (except for Red Alert 3). This feels like the game where C&C truly embraced its campy atmosphere, and steered directly into it, with villains so over the top, you'd call a villain in a children's movie "subtle".

I'm usually a little skeptical of Dark Souls clone games. And picking Pinocchio was certainly...a choice. That being said, they did a pretty good job here. Save for a couple of poorly-designed bosses, this was a great experience. And unlike the Dark Souls games, this one actually has a story. I rarely buy DLCs, and I genuinely might by this one.

God, I had been waiting for this game since 2017. And I don't know if I would say it was worth that long a wait, but I had a great time with this. Like, I conquered the entire map and put over a hundred hours into the file. Of course, the moment I finished, the alpha for the new free expansion came out. Maybe someday I'll go back to see what Vikings add to the experience. If you like siege warfare, this is a golden game for you.

This was a great launch title to show what the PS5 was capable of. And man, Ratchet and Clank is SO back after seeing this and the reboot on PS4. It's eye candy, and has some great writing and throwbacks to the series. Check it out.

My only regret when playing this game is that I played it in 2025 rather than when it came out. I was skeptical what they could do on a handheld from the early 2000s. But not only did they make a great game, but you could do simultaneous missions with friends?! Oh, hell yes.

Danganronpa is definitely not a series for everyone. But if you're familiar with the earlier games, this one takes what was already a ridiculous series, and dials it up to 11. I genuinely don't know if they can follow this one up, but we'll just have to wait and see. If you haven't played this and like murder mysteries, give it a go. And take a shot every time they say "hope" or "despair". If you know, you know.