As much work as I put into all of my various 2025 lists, there really is nothing else like a plain old year end top 10. I can make a million different types of weird lists to hype various games up, but there’s literally no way for me to tell you to play a game more than by putting it on this sacred list.
I also love a year-end top ten list because it’s such an easy way to take yourself back to a different point in your life. I am currently replaying Control, so I took a peek at my 2019 top 10 games to remember exactly where I had it. As I looked at that list, tons of great memories from playing those games came back to me, and in turn, I had memories of who I was at that point in my life as well. As I’ve said with other lists, how you rank your games can say a lot about you.
This was not intentional in the slightest, but I think my favorite part about my top ten this year is that I feel like it would be impossible to fully figure out what my gaming taste is from looking at it. There are a lot of games here with wildly different strengths across many different genres. I think this speaks to how much I genuinely love this medium. It’s also a testament to how many incredible experiences gaming provided this year, more specifically, indie games.
My top five games this year are all indies, and seven of the top ten are also indies. Indies, by their nature, tend to provide much more unique experiences on the whole than your average AAA game, so that helps explain my genre diversity here. Without indie games, I think this year still would have been good, but they are easily what made this year special. To me, the prevalence and strength of indie games was easily the story of 2025, and I wonder if it’s the start of this being the case more and more as years go on. So many AAA studios have laid off talented developers in the past few years. It makes sense that more and more of them might opt to do their own thing.
With that, here are my top ten games of 2025. I hope you will be inspired to try at least one of these games out after reading this.
I linked to my reviews in each of the titles.
BigNerdGaming’s Top 10 Games of 2024
BigNerdGaming’s Top 10 Games of 2023
I can’t deny that my background with grocery stores probably made me enjoy Discounty a bit more than I might have otherwise. I spent years working at a few different grocery stores. I’ve made several lifelong friends there and even met my wife while working for one.
But also, there is something so inherently satisfying about seeing a fully stocked grocery shelf. It’s very aesthetically pleasing, and Discounty captures that feeling perfectly. It’s addictive to organize both your sales floor and your backroom in ways that allow you to work effectively and keep your shelves as full as possible. I don’t think this would be enough to make the game enjoyable on its own, but it also throws in a cashier minigame that is very fun and addictive. There are two versions of it (manual entry and scanning) that both manage to be a lot of fun.
The cherry on top is the story, which I found surprisingly compelling. Discounty manages to weave in a tale about capitalism with small-town politics that is far more nuanced than I’d usually expect in this space.
Also, this one cleared the “will Westen stay up past his bedtime?” test. I’m not usually one to stay up late, as there is always a price to pay for doing so the next morning as a working father. However, I did it multiple nights in a row playing Discounty because I was so into it. The game also ends just in time before the formula was about to get stale.
I never expected a grocery store simulator to make my top ten this year, but Discounty earned it.
9. Octopath Traveler 0
This was a tough selection, as I have not completed Octopath Traveler 0 yet. I’m about 25ish hours into this game, which is likely going to take me close to 100 hours to complete. There are very few games I want to spend 100 hours with, but Octopath 0 looks set to be worthy of that high bar. This is crazy to me, as I was barely interested in buying this game in the first place. It was developed off the bones of a mobile game, and I didn’t believe they would be able to take the mobile game stink off of it. I was wrong.
I love the gameplay in the Octopath series, and Octopath 0 takes that formula to another level. While there is a bit less customization with each character than in the past, you can now take eight characters into battle and swap them between rows. This leads to tons of new strategies, and fiddling with your party to find the perfect group is really fun. The game also introduces a city-builder which checks every box for me. It’s not overly complicated, but it’s just deep and satisfying enough that I’ve been very addicted to it. The town you are rebuilding also feeds into the gameplay with various benefits and has a pretty nice story attached to it as well.
While the characters in the game are significantly weaker than past games and the silent protagonist is especially off-putting, I’m also not terribly concerned about that so far. This is the first Octopath Traveler with a truly cohesive main plot, and I personally prefer that over a series of strong character arcs.
When I finish the game in a month or two, I may have to update this list. I’ve heard some people say the game goes on too long, and I’ve seen some reviews discuss how epic the end of the game is. But this feels like a relatively safe spot to put Octopath 0, and I feel somewhat confident that I will still think it’s #9 when I finish the game (side note: Octopath Traveler 2 was also my #9 game in 2023).
8. Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo
Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo feels like the greatest Game Boy Advance Zelda game ever made, with an extra heaping of Metroidvania elements to take it to another level even beyond that. Is that a big enough sales pitch for you?
Pocket Trap calls Pipistrello a “Yoyovania,” and it’s fitting because they went all out trying to do creative things with a yoyo, and they couldn’t have done a better job with it. There are multiple neat yoyo abilities that make both combat and platforming so fun. I specifically loved how there are little corner pieces on the edges of the map that you can bounce your yoyo off of, which adds interesting layers to the angles you use while in combat (and it helps create some excellent puzzles as well).
Those puzzles are the biggest highlight of the game for me, as they capture that perfect old-school Zelda, but I adore the way they handled exploration as well. There are secrets everywhere you look here. Pipistrello won both “Best Exploration” and “Best Puzzles” at the BigNerdGaming Awards with good reason. More people need to play this game.
7. Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
I could spend a long time complaining and nitpicking when it comes to Death Stranding 2. They eliminated too much of the friction that made the first game what it is was. The story plods in stretches. They made the music too upbeat, and a few plot twists just didn’t work for me.
But god damn, when this game is cooking, there’s still nothing else like it. The journeys from point A to point B on this map can still be epic as hell, especially since I purposely avoided vehicles whenever possible. The new stealth and action upgrades are part of what make the game feel a bit too easy in spots, but they also lead to some badass sequences that I enjoyed a lot. And while I wish the music were sadder, it still does hit some of those original Death Stranding vibes to great effect in spots.
And of course, as much as the story was hit or miss for me in stretches, the conclusion delivered and then some. The last hour or so of Death Stranding 2 is one of the best continuous hours I have ever experienced in a video game. So, as much as I can complain about this game, the highs are almost nothing else out there, and I have to acknowledge how the game made me feel.
I would say Split Fiction is the best co-op specific experience that I’ve ever played. It beats out It Takes Two and the Portal 2 co-op levels for me. That is very high praise, yet it only sits at #6. That’s just how brutal this year was. This would be much higher in many other years.
Split Fiction delivers a nearly flawless and fun experience. The gameplay is varied, fast-paced, and frenetic. It’s also constantly creative. Just when you think it’s done surprising you, it finds another way, all the way to the very end.
And in addition to that, the game has some of the best optional content that you’ll ever find. I thought it even surpassed the quality of the main mission at times. It’s amazing how it feels like they were truly able to perfect the formula here.
Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for the story, which doesn’t even reach the “it’s so bad, it’s kind of good” levels that the last game occasionally did. It’s just bad. But the gameplay is so dang good, that it doesn’t matter. Even if you don’t like playing games with other people, you should get out of your comfort zone for this one.
It’s impressive that Hollow Knight: Silksong made the top 5 this year, considering it’s probably the game that I “hated” more than almost anything I played this year. I don’t understand why Team Cherry hates trademarks of the Metroidvania genre so much. The map is awful, and it’s crazy that I have to use an equipment slot to see where my character is on it. Many of the runbacks are way too unnecessarily long, and some of the horde rooms can feel cheap in a way that the actual boss fights in the game never do.
But despite all my issues, this might be the best feeling 2D game I have ever played. The controls are incredibly responsive. The enemy and boss design is masterful, and the level design is devilish in some of the best ways. This won my award for “Best Combat” and “Best Platforming” at the BigNerdGaming Awards, and no matter how much I disliked certain design decisions, when the gameplay is that good, I’m still going to enjoy it.
In the end, the highest praise I can give Silksong is that it’s the first Soulslike I ever decided I needed to complete. I have played dozens of Souls games over the years, and I’ve appreciated many of them. But even with the ones I really, really enjoyed, like Elden Ring, I always end up hitting a point where I don’t think it’s worth it anymore. I don’t feel like pushing through and taking multiple days to beat a boss or overcome some other challenge. With Silksong, despite hitting this wall big time on one fight in particular, I never really considered putting the game down. I had to see it through to the end because it was that good. With Silksong now under my belt, I’ll be curious to see if I can push through the same way with other Souls games in the coming years, or if this was just that one special game that could bring the stubbornness out of me. Either way, this was a monumental experience for me in many ways.
If I had an award for “most smiles per minute” from a game this year, Dispatch would have to be the winner. Every hour-long episode of this game just whizzed by and left me in a great mood when I was done. More than anything, I’m just glad that something with art, music, acting, and writing this good decided to be a video game instead of a TV show. It’s a good look for our favorite medium.
One of the best parts about Dispatch is that it just keeps getting better as the game progresses. The last three episodes in particular were easily the three best for me. Also, the dispatching gameplay, while it has some flaws, ends up being way more fun than expected, and they do a fantastic job of weaving it into the storytelling. And while the choices you make don’t always change as much of the story as you might like, they do meaningfully change the experience in ways that make Dispatch very replayable.
This is another game that forced me to break my strict bedtime rules. Each Wednesday, when new episodes would drop, I would end up staying up late thanks to Dispatch. But the thing is, I was rarely actually up late because it took me that long to get through the episodes. Dispatch was just one of those experiences that was so good, it would have my mind racing for a few hours after I completed each session, which then made it a bit harder to wind down and get to sleep. When a game worms its way into my head like that, you know it’s special. This is such a fun and polished experience. Even though this wasn’t technically made by Telltale, it still feels great to know that they are essentially back through AdHoc Studio. I can’t wait to see what they do next.
When I saw the first trailer for Rematch, my initial reaction was pure disappointment. I liked Sifu and was curious to see what Sloclap would do next, as they are clearly very talented. Their pivot to a multiplayer soccer game was bizarre to me. I didn’t expect to play it, as I generally do not play sports games, and I rarely play multiplayer games.
Then, after a bit of buzz, and thanks to Xbox Game Pass, I decided to try it out, and I couldn’t believe how in love I was almost immediately.
Rematch somehow blends an arcade experience with realism seamlessly. You actually have to aim your passes and shots with precision, and the physics of the game feel about as real as you could expect. But you still have a few tricks in your arsenal, and the Rocket League-esque wall surrounding the field also adds some fun extra quirks. Basically, playing this game feels like the ultimate sci-fi indoor soccer simulator, and I’m here for it.
Most importantly, the game sets itself up so that you are doomed to fail if you don’t truly work with your teammates. Passing and communication are vital for a team to operate at its best. Obviously, this can set you up for frustration if you play with randoms online, but hey, that’s also team sports. As a very avid pickup basketball player, I’ve experienced that disappointment in poor teammates many times in my life.
But then, when you get the reverse, and you either play with friends or find a team that “gets it,” some true magic happens. I love team sports because you need to learn to rely on others, and there is a camaraderie that comes with that. I’ve never played any multiplayer game that makes me feel the kind of pride that this game makes me feel when a team is truly working together. It’s beautiful stuff.
In the past 10 years, there have been only four multiplayer games that I have logged over 50 hours into, and Rematch is one of them. It’s also the only sports game I’ve played for more than a few dozen hours since the Xbox 360. I truly can’t believe how much I love this game.
There was a gnawing feeling in the back of my head, wondering if I was ranking this game a bit too high, as I hadn’t played it for several months due to the crazy influx of games that hit in the last several months of 2025. But in the last few weeks, I picked it back up, and I’ve been so into it all over again. If you love team sports, I don’t think you’ll ever play a game that captures what they are all about more than this one. It has rightfully earned its place as a top three game for me in a very stacked year.
I love the roguelike genre, and Hades 2 is the best roguelike I have ever played. Despite that, it does not win my “Game of the Year” prize. There are any other recent years where it would have won (2019, 2021, 2022, and 2023), but life is often unfair.
The craziest thing about Hades 2 is that I would actually describe everything about both the core gameplay and the roguelite upgrade system as flawless. The diversity of the weapons and the incredible build variety within each of those weapons is like nothing else the genre has to offer. It also does this while having two separate levels for its runs that are equally beefy and well made. The original Hades was already an all-timer, and Hades 2 somehow completely blows it away in pretty much every way.
The same care is also put into every little detail, as you’d expect from Supergiant. The writing, voice acting, music, and art are all sublime. The boss design is excellent. And even though I wasn’t a massive fan of the story, it’s still easily among the best that this genre has to offer. Every time I completed a run, I expected the game to start running out of new things for each of its characters to say back at Tartarus, and that never seemed to happen.
In my eyes, between both the quantity and quality of their output, I think Supergiant’s case as the greatest indie developer of all time is becoming very compelling.
1. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
JRPGs mean something to me damn it.
The reason I love video games as much as I do is almost entirely because I discovered JRPGs at a young age. Back when games were only capable of so much technically, JRPGs were the main genre that felt like they were truly trying to showcase what gaming could one day be. They often shot the highest with their writing, music, visuals, and stories. There are plenty of other games that I loved and enjoyed playing, but only JRPGs felt like they took me into another world every time I turned them on. The feeling those games gave me is why I knew I would always love this medium.
And when I play Expedition 33, I can tell how much the people who made it also felt that way about JRPGs. This is the ultimate love letter to this genre. I think the first time I came upon the game’s amazing world map is when I realized that Sandfall Interactive was filled with my kind of people.
But this isn’t some pure nostalgia trip either. Expedition 33 tries its hardest to push the genre forward, and I think it does so in a variety of ways. It has a battle system that merges action and turn-based on a level that we haven’t seen before, with slight Sekiro influences to go with Mario and Luigi. It still incorporates some innovations into its turn-based elements too, with some pretty impressive build variety options, and characters that all have their own unique systems attached in a way I’ve never seen from this genre before on the turn-based side.
And of course, it merges this with an epic story that is easily in my personal conversation for the best gaming story of all time. The bombs this game drops on you narratively are so impressive, and they can elicit some of the most interesting gaming conversations that you’ve ever had with another individual.
While having all of this, it also somehow includes some of the best gaming voice acting you’ll find, some of the best visual design ever, and one of the best gaming soundtracks ever.
As much as I love this game, I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite ever, but it’s probably very safe within my all-time top 10. This is a game that both makes me wistful for the past and excited for the future. There is nothing more worthy to be the “BigNerdGaming Game of the Year”. Until next year comes.
I love Game of the Year season. If you’ve been reading along, I hope you’ve enjoyed my various pieces this year. This year is probably the hardest I’ve ever gone on my end-of-year coverage, and I’m admittedly a bit tired because of it.
Next week will be my first week off from writing since I launched the blog over two years ago. I just need that week to recuperate and maybe slowly chip away at some other pieces that are coming for 2026 preview coverage so that I don’t feel so behind the eight ball anymore.
However, I still plan on releasing my latest “BigNerdGaming Podcast” next week. It contains a more group-oriented top 10 games of 2025 between me and friends who have appeared on the show this year.
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