Every Game I Played in 2025

A superb, Obra Dinn-like puzzle game. Doing genealogy homework never felt so great. Puzzles are tough, but fair and rewarding. Logical leaps aplenty, but in a good way. It really trusts its players, which is always a plus. Read more in my full review!

If I described it in one word, it would be "clunky", which is a tough adjective for a game about fluidity of motion. There are some cool ideas at play, but the open world feels lifeless (and not on purpose). Leveling mechanics were sort of neat, and the idea behind the combat was very cool. Unfortunately, it just felt dreadful to actually play. Combat got hectic quickly, so it's hard to see what's going on. Spells also didn't feel good to use - lots of holding of triggers. I really wanted to like it, but life's too short to keep playing.

Great presentation: the art, music, and voice acting are really well done. The gameplay itself is decent, but the actual deductions weren't as compelling as I'd have liked. It's a little bit caught between Frog Detective and Golden Idol, too much gameplay to be the former but not enough to be the latter. Fun overall though!

A short, clever little puzzle platformer. Your jump is high enough to kill you from fall damage, so you have to navigate its intricately designed rooms with care. Each room's solution feels so obvious in retrospect, which feels like the mark of a good puzzle: it's staring you in the face the whole time. Has plenty of little secret pathways to discover.

A game for absolute puzzle sickos. You're tasked with translating a ancient language, basically from scratch. It sets you loose without any guidance, which might work for people with backgrounds in linguistics but was frustrating for me. There are some good quality of life features to assist in your translations (being able to define a word once and see that translation everywhere), but I found the game way too hard and undirected.

Clever little puzzle game. Explores its mechanics well and has a pleasant presentation and design. Doesn't overstay its welcome and gets pretty tricky, especially towards the end. Great for what it is!

A total mess of design, but not altogether unpleasant. The islands are large and plain, but the bumpers and rails everywhere give it a sort of cool, proto-skatepark vibe. It plays with scale well- bosses are huge and the micro platforming challenges can span pretty large areas. The 3D platforming is sort of fun, while I did the mind-numbing fishing game rather than do any of the 2D levels. Exploring and mapping was neat, and you _do_ get to go fast. I also enjoyed some of the combat, weirdly, which had more depth than many previous Sonic games. The story is messy and there more than a few frustrating required mini-games that gate progression. All that said, I did play through to the end. It's a good game for turning your brain off.

The simplicity of each puzzle meant there was more space to play with the conceit: weird mazes! Doesn't overstay its welcome and never stops experimenting. Great design language too. Just a delight!

Funny and atmospheric gameplay coupled with a story that doesn't stick the landing. The art direction and voice acting are great, but it's frustrating to get invested in a story that doesn't resolve. Read more in my full review!

Beautiful, relaxing, tactile little game. Majority of the puzzles were great. Some got too tricky for their own good, but most were fun to play around with. The music fits the theme well. There's great foley work when you grab any item, making them each feel remarkably real.

Flirted with some interesting story moments. Great voice cast and characterization of this gaggle of AIs. Puzzles were basic and forgettable. Architecture was pretty. Short and sweet overall, but doesn't have the narrative staying power of other games in its class.

Ingenious little puzzle game about using (written) audio logs to track characters' paths through a house as they die dramatically. Its minimalistic UI helps the writing shine. The nonstop chain of logical deductions kept us on the edge of our seats. We made a spreadsheet to track everything, which is a mark of a great puzzle game. I would have liked some actual sound effects (keyboard, music, or even voice acting) and there were a _couple_ of nits we had with the ending, but it was a blast nonetheless. Excited for more!

Mechanically improved from the first game. Loved the "away missions" and push-your-luck mechanics. Exploring a galaxy was better than one big station, but it felt like there was less variety for actual activities. As a sequel, does an interesting job changing the vibe from wide and choice-heavy to more linear and exploratory. Not better or worse, just different. Great cameos from the first game if you played it (but not much is lost if you didn't). The emotional story beats hit hard (especially when there are no right answers). Some of the bigger-picture stuff falls flat, but the good parts made up for it. Does a shockingly poignant thing with the design of the post game which I really admired. A worthy sequel indeed!

The story is the star of the show: you get to live an Indiana Jones movie. And, much like its inspiration, the narrative is fun but the details (and gameplay) are lacking. Don't get me wrong- bonking Nazis on the head never really gets old. But the simplistic brawling and plodding platforming drag the good parts of this down. The environments were well designed and fun to explore, but there wasnt much reason to. Combat upgrades and money never felt rewarding. The sidequest stories were good and supported the main narrative well though. It really leans into it's "Indy" vibe and does well with what it's got. But if it were an original character, most folks wouldn't give it a second glance. Make of that what you will.

A fluid, high-octane platformer that shouldn't work as well as it does. The abilities are nicely varied and zipping through the impeccably designed levels never got old. The over-the-top anime writing ranged from decent to cringe, but it didn't distract too much from the gameplay. The story itself was fine. I wasn't crazy about the boss fights, which felt more frustrating than exhilarating. I finished at rank 19 without much backtracking, which I'm quite pleased with.

A bunch of good ideas that came together in a less-than-satisfying way. I liked the art direction and vibrancy of the world. The story was intriguing (if jargon-heavy) and the characters were wonderfully voice acted. I liked the idea of the physics powers mixed with combat. Unfortunately, using the powers felt weak and clunky compared to just hitting enemies with a sword. Exploration and backtracking got old quickly. The crafting system felt rewarding and had some cool design touches (like being able to improve parts of the item without redoing the whole thing). The bosses were cool at first, but they also only actually had a few variations (tall one, flying one, etc). Outside of bosses, most of your time is spent doing basic combat, which got samey (even in my short time playing it). There's a lot of junk resources and inventory management got old as well. It was tough that quests were only ever "kill a thing" or "find a thing" (and good luck with the latter). On the whole, a mixed bag that I liked the idea of more than actually playing.

What if Hades, but about death? Like, even more explicitly than the original. Good art direction with smooth animations and good weapon feel. The gameplay loop is unoriginal, but well done. Procedural map is fine, but the floors are too small to actually make exploration a thing. Weapon, spell, and upgrade variety is pretty good- there's a lot of options. I wish there wasn't such a big divide between the good ones and the bad ones, but at least it's easy to stick to the good ones. The health system is overly complicated and I still don't fully understand it. There's some story which provides direction without being in the way. The side characters were occasionally funny and fine otherwise. Difficulty wise, it was inconsistent. Basic enemies were too easy and bosses dealt too much damage. But, there's an easy mode that put the whole thing in a great spot- challenging, but forgiving. Coming up with weird interesting combos was fun, per usual with this genre. I've got other minor complaints, but ultimately I was glued to it for a week, so they clearly didn't stop me from enjoying myself. It doesn't have the staying power of Hades or Dead Cells, but I heartily enjoyed my time with it.

A small, tight puzzle game with some cool Sokoban mechanics. It's pretty short, but there's no cruft. Read more in my full review!

This was basically my introduction to souls-like games and I quite enjoyed it. But I also feel like I "figured out" the combat in a way that made it probably easier than they intended. But maybe that's part of the fun! In any case, the combat felt pretty good overall. It starts slow, but once you get some skills and gear, it really opens up. There's a nice rhythm to the whole thing: attack, block, attack, block. There are platforming sections that provide a nice break from combat despite being a little finicky. The best part is probably the overall presentation. It's a sort of dark story, in the end, but told with big Bikini Bottom vibrancy and tongue-in-cheek humor. Environments are mostly colorful and there's a constant stream of fish puns, jokes, and fish-related curse words that kept the vibe from getting too heavy. The story tackles current events both political and environmental without feeling out of place. They did a good job contextualizing the protagonist's feelings about his whole adventure in a novel way, which I admired. Felt like a good place to start with the genre!

Nine Sols has a lot going for it- beautiful hand-drawn animation style, engaging exploration, and blistering parry-focused gameplay. The map is intricately designed and there are tons of nooks and crannies to explore. Combat is tough, but generally fair. Getting your parry timings down takes some practice, but it just so rewarding when you nail it. Rebuking every attack before turning on a boss never got old. There's very little required backtracking which kept everything moving along nicely. Upgrades generally feel meaningful, rewarding careful play. The story is also pretty good. Yi's relationship with the ensemble supports the action and learning more about the world slowly as you slay bosses provided ample reason to keep at it. Difficulty felt right up until the final boss. I ended up cranking down the difficulty because hey, life's too short to keep banging my head against this thing. Proud I made it that far though!

Hinterberg leans heavily on its presentation and characters over depth of gameplay. Joining Persona-style social links to progression felt great. There was good puzzle variety and the unique spells in each world kept dungeons from feeling too samey. The story was surprisingly engaging- it really grapples with the impact of tourism on a small town and how each of its ensemble feels about the associated changes. The sore(st) thumb here is the combat- it starts clunky and never really gets better (just easier). Customization is decent and I loved the charm system (passive abilities that you can "shrink" over time). Too bad it was wasted on such forgettable fights.

Had some of the charm from the first game, which is why I tried it in the first place. Unfortunately, they replaced the simplistic but compelling exploration & combat with a twin-stick roguelike. It felt like a cross between Enter the Gungeon and Minit. There was still exploration, but only for a few minutes at a time. There's more to the gameplay, but not much more. Instead, it's repetitive more kludgy than fun. I liked the weapon variety, but it felt like there were a few standouts and "the rest of them". I'm glad the devs got to try something new, but I wish they had stuck with what made the original formula so fun.

Cozy, clever, and tricky. A contemplative outing that's well worth your time. Read more in my full review!

Some cool mechanics and a lot of passion held back by muddled visuals and uneven puzzle design. Read more in my full review!

A charming physics-based puzzler. Loved the attention to detail and the wide variety of possible solutions for each level. Read more in my full review!

Stunning in its vastness and meticulousness. Dense, deep puzzles and a continuous stream of discoveries kept us engaged for nearly 100 hours. That's extremely rare for any game, much less a puzzle game. The pacing was occasionally frustrating and the RNG worked against us as much as it worked for us. The sheer scale and specificity of everything outweighs any flaws and untied loose ends. Everything about BP's design was just so graceful. I was constantly impressed with how precisely every game mechanic fit together.

The actual deck builder was fun in its own right, but it blows my mind how deeply connected every inch of it was to the underlying meta puzzles. Every inch of this game was precise and rocked. Though there was actual in-game progression too, I loved the knowledge-based power curve. The more we knew about the house, the more successfully you could build and navigate it. Some could be a little obtuse, but marinating on the puzzles and/or some (eventual) light web searching kept us moving. Each time our interest waned, we'd find a New Clue that would pull us back in.

I also took more notes than I've ever taken for a game- probably 100 distinct pages, plus countless screenshots. Gameplay wise, we drafted more than 2,300 rooms across 83 in-game days, taking more than 7,400 steps across those runs. We hit the initial credits after 17 hours or so, but that was basically just the tutorial.

This game was a blast, gripes and all.

Cute dialogue and a funny premise, but punishingly boring minigames soured the experience. Charming and nicely animated overall, but doesn't really work as a game without gameplay.

Flexible, tactical gameplay at its very best. The engage system a little over complicated and takes some time to get going, but it adds a lot of strategic depth and customization to the game. They've streamlined a lot of systems that used to be more cumbersome than they needed to be, so everything flowed well. I especially liked the refinement and weapon systems. You get to spend more time battling, though there are a lot of menus. I loved walking around 3D maps after a battle to really hammer home the sense of scale you lack in a top down view. There's plenty of fun cameos if you've played a ton of these, but newcomers won't miss much. The gacha for extra rings seemed pointless, but doesn't get in the way. The story is also dreadful- tropey and boring. Most of the characters are 1-dimensional and forgettable, but the voice acting is good, per usual. I really waffled between a 3 and a 4 rating, but ultimately the glaring flaws didn't prevent me from being glued to the game for nearly 65 hours. Feels like a big step in the right direction for the series overall.

Tough but stylish. Loved the puzzle variety and overall design. Puzzles get pretty punishing towards the end of the game. Lots of great mechanics though. Read more in my full review!

Relaxing, tricky, and heartfelt all at once. Great presentation overall. Heartening to see the Zachtronics folks return to form. Read more in my full review!

Delightfully tight puzzle game. Takes a simple mechanic, commits to it, and really explores the space. Art is beautiful, soundtrack is nice, story is just thought provoking enough Art is beautiful, soundtrack is nice, story is just thought provoking enough. Doesn't overstay its welcome either. Loved the whole thing!

Small and delightful. The relaxed jigsaw-centric gameplay is a step up from the fairly frantic order fulfillment of the first game. I liked the little narrative that moves everything along without taking center stage. The whole thing is pleasant and just thinky enough to keep you engaged without being punitive in any way. There's a cool new game plus mode as well! It's a rare sequel that improves on its original in basically every way.

Just killer. Clever little puzzles, tons of mechanics, cute side characters, simple yet expressive art. Not too long, but engaging. Enough variety that the same base mechanic (sliding puzzles) never gets boring. Good music on a few of the levels. Can get tough, but there's a good hint/answer system posted online by the dev. And you can't beat this price!

Odd little interactive experience. Weaves a bit of story into its walking. Builds a lot of world in a very short amount of space.

A non-linear heist. What it lacks in gameplay, it makes up for in storytelling. There's a lot there in between its surrealism. Weirdly, the cinematography is what stood out the most to me. Everything is "shot" very precisely. Music is great too. It's a fun, odd, tidy little package.

There's a lot of game in this game, but much of it is good!

It did a great delivering the tried-and-true JRPG formula: lots of gear / stats / abilities, repetitive turn-based battles, and rewarding you for going the extra mile. It felt good to be back in the saddle, since I don't always have patience for these. The crafting system was pretty good, adding a level of skill to a system that's usually just a menu. The pace of the battles reminded me a lot of FFX, which is always good. I really liked that you could set your whole party to CPU controlled, so battles would fight themselves. That let me grind as much (or as little) as I wanted, which was huge when the game was so long. The world is large and well-realized. There's plenty of things to do. The series' cheeky humor is on full display, which leant a lighter air to some more serious goings-on.

The worst part is probably the pacing- there are too many endings in this game. Being a legendary hero was fun, but they needed to know when to quit. The difficulty was also on the easy side (maybe because of the aforementioned auto-grinding), but there's a setting for that if you want a hard mode. It's also a little silly to complain about, but there's maybe too much of everything? In addition to the whole main quest, there's a whole separate series of 2D sidequests I basically never touched. They act as a love letter to the rest of the series, which is cool. But at some point, there's just too much if I'm going to play anything else this year.

That said, nobody is doing very traditional JRPGs better, so if that's what you're in the mood for, DQXI acts as potent comfort food.

Mixes strategic combat with typing better than I would have thought possible. Guessing the words to level up worked well and getting letters as rewards is an ingenious bit of design. Remembering what combos I could use got increasingly tricky, which was fun.

Exploring the world was great, even if the minimap left something to be desired. The music is unexpectedly top-tier and the stark art style works great. There's also great cast of NPCs that bring the world of the undead to life. And I'm a sucker for a game with a in-universe card game that everyone plays. Matches could be inconsistent, but it acted as a great change of pace when regular combat was getting stressful.

The game played a little fast & loose with cooldowns and when exactly the enemy would attack. While I suspect it was cheating a bit in my favor, the lack of precision sometimes made planning hard. But, these complaints are minor. Was pleasantly surprised at every step of the journey.

A beautiful, intense game that I unfortunately liked the idea of more than actually playing.

On the one hand, Sifu has a lot going for it. Its environments are starkly beautiful. I also loved the way playing later levels unlocked shortcuts through earlier ones. It's a simple yet elegant solution to streamline the process of playing through levels repeatedly. Every animation is precise and fluid, which makes it feel like you're in a Jackie Chan movie. You get to play through his chaotic, 8 vs 1 brawls in close quarters with plenty of environmental interactions. Their vision here was clear and I think they nailed it. The dodging animations were just as good as the punching, so getting into a rhythm felt great. The age system, which lowers your health in exchange for more damage as you die, is a unique twist on the genre.

On the other hand, the combat itself felt tedious. Once you learn the enemy attack timings, fights (especially bosses) become these drawn-out slogs where you dodge, get two attacks in, and then have to wait your turn to do a tiny bit more of damage. And you'll learn the timings pretty fast, because there's not much in the way of enemy variety. The outfits change, but there are only about 4 basic enemies you'll square off against (plus a few varieties of elites). But the number of times you run through the game coupled with the repetitiveness of it all makes for a shine that wears off quickly.

I also didn't care for the progression system, which lets you slowly unlock new moves for your current run. But when you reset, you lose anything you haven't unlocked 5 times. For a genre that's so muscle memory dependent, having an attack work now and stop working later was consistently frustrating rather than rewarding.

Great care clearly went into Sifu's production and that attention to detail shines through in every moment. But In a game that's all about combat, fights really need to knock it out of the park. None of this is helped by the fact that I don't really care for fighting games. In the end, I dropped the game to its easier difficulty and sailed through, but I was disappointed that it came to that. I think there's a game in there I would have liked more, but this wasn't quite it.

Clever little puzzles and superb atmosphere make for a great Halloween experience. Read more in my full review!

Exquisite UI coupled with tons of great puzzle mechanics & an atmospheric setting make for a dynamite time. Read more in my full review!

Decent deduction gameplay that was a little too easy for my tastes. But a great finale to cap the whole thing off! Read more in my full review!

Decent enough puzzles held back by a lackluster narrative. Read more in my full review!

Like a good sequel, it improves and streamlines the bumpy parts of the first game. Gone are costly weapon upgrades, replaced by "just leveling up" and cosmetics.

The tactical gameplay I liked from the first game was back, but the open-world levels were more filler than focus. The story levels themselves were varied and interesting, but there were plenty of random encounters that were too easy. The big cast could have dropped a few characters without missing much. And, the story was pretty bad and missing much of the humor from before. Also, the shopping wasn't especially compelling.

It scores this highly on the strength of its core gameplay, in spite of basically everything else (like how badly it ran on the Switch).

Öoo is both the name of the game and the sound I constantly made while playing this extremely tight little puzzle platformer. Elegantly teaches you mechanics while ensuring you understand them before progressing to the next area. Packs a remarkable amount of gameplay into a deceptively simple experience.

Clever concept that took some time to wrap my head around. The minesweeper gameplay is good, but felt like it leaned too far into randomness vs the (closer to) pure strategy of real minesweeper. Props for trying new things though!

Absolutely stunning presentation. Every frame is gorgeous, every animation a delight. The music is pleasant and the puzzles are fun, but not especially challenging. There's a bit of story that's pretty abstract, but stays out of the way. More than anything, it's a very relaxing 2 hours, absorbed into this pastel world.

There are few games as whimsical and engaging as what FLEB puts out. They're perfectly sized, surprising at every turn, and playful without compromise. I loved how every puzzled involved some sort of jigsaw, but their application and the process behind solving them varied wildly, so gameplay never felt repetitive. I love its eclectic art style and the experience of literally never knowing what's coming next.

I never played the book, so I was glad the game seamlessly made the transition to digital. Finding paths through the grid is such a simple concept, but executed flawlessly. The puzzles themselves are clever and add new words and rules with care. The hint system worked well for unblocking us without just handing us the answers. The animations and overall presentation are delightful too.