What is to say about 2025? A lot. But at the moment here, as I sit down and type out this post, I feel like it just went by, without much fuss.
Which is a good thing, compared to last year! On a personal level, I’ve been doing better than by the end of 2024. Not in the clear yet when it comes to a happy, content life with no debts, but it’s a start!
That being said, 2025 is a doomer of a year if you look at the news. There are still wars and conflicts out there. Tech is chasing a trend that will see us implode should the bubble still isn’t popping. Gamers can’t build a PC affordably as hyperscalers gobble up stock so they can make us pay rent for their PC as prophesied by the promise of cloud computing. Yeah, this year, in general, sucks, even for a gamer who has avenues to retreat for a moment’s respite from this cruel world of ours.
Doomerism aside, here’s a list of games I personally enjoyed in 2025. If your gaming tastes aligned with mine, consider this a recommendation list. Somewhere here you’ll find your next favourite game.
10: Skate Story
Coming in hot, just released at the start of December, Skate Story has to be my favourite skateboarding game of the year in a year filled with skateboarding games. The surreal NYC-infused hellscape that happens to be skater-friendly is fun world to get lost in. The abstract storytelling may not be for everyone, but I adore the writing prose of its text-only story, punctuated with good framing and impeccable music score. It can be funny at times! The phone gag had me howling!
But the real beauty of Skate Story is that despite its outlandish presentation, its gameplay mechanics communicated to me more about the depths of skateboarding, the actual act of riding on a piece of plank with four plastic wheels attached, than any other game have had. It made me greatly appreciate the complexity of pulling the humble kickflip, and how heroic it must be to bomb down a hill at 40km/h clinging on to a board and a dream. Short, but impactful. It also comes with a banger of an album by Blood Cultures, that’s cool too.
Here’s my review on Skate Story.
9: Blades Of Fire
Now here’s an underrated gem. For good reason: I had to look up the game’s name again because I just couldn’t remember it. And saying “blacksmith guy and a kid go around a medieval fantasy world on an adventure to save the world” doesn’t help narrow it down much. I’m too embarrassed to champion this for our own Top 30 Games Of 2025 list when we have stronger titles supported by the rest of the crew.
But get this: Blades Of Fire is a fantastic game. If your measure how good a soulslike is by how intricate the level design is and how good are the shortcuts, Blades Of Fire is up there with the greats. If you measure a good action game by how good the action of swinging your blade or hammer around, then Blades OF Fire is up there. If you wish to see a gameplay mechanic you don’t see elsewhere but fleshed out so well you wish more games take notes from it, Blades Of Fire’s custom weapon creation is up there. A shame the rest of the package isn’t as memorable. I imagine if I read what I wrote here in the years to come I’ll probably be surprised that I forgot its name again!
Here’s my review of Blades Of Fire.
8: Where Winds Meet
This is a game I file in my inner thought cabinet to be “too good to be true.” Not in the “it’s a scam” kind of way, but more “they can’t have everything they show here to be there.” I’m glad to discover that Where Winds Meet, indeed, has everything it promised. Maybe not as competent and fun as you’d expect them to be, it truly comes close to reach its ambitions.
The lavish world of ancient China during the Song dynasty of rule, viewed from the lense of wuxia (which means folks having wild kung fu powers including the ability to fly) is a mesmerising experience. It is rich in history, culture and lore. And to see it brought to life in this MMO-ish open world adventure is amazing to witness.
For years I’ve only consumed wuxia media passively (shoutout to my tuition teacher’s mom who puts on these dramas while we wait for our parents to pick us up) and still speak little to no Mandarin. Where Winds Meet is the piece of media that finally made me interested in wuxia, for real.
My review of Where Winds Meet.
7: Wuchang: Fallen Feathers
Well lookie here, another game set in ancient China, this time a depiction of the later Ming dynasty. But this one didn’t spark the interest of wuxia, this one made me love Bloodborne again.
I feel like I’m still alone with this by saying Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is the closest thing we’d get to a new Bloodborne. Of course I’m weird, I played Lies Of P, the game everyone is saying is the closest thing to a new Bloodborne, after completing Wuchang.
But I still stand by it. The plague setting, the spiraling level designs complete with specifically placed enemies to mess with you via jumpscares and traps, the nastily grotesque enemies and the sad state of the world is all Bloodborne-coded. With a hint of Sekiro/Black Myth Wukong thanks to the parry system.
And yes, I’m also alone by saying Wuchang: Fallen Feathers to be the game of this year to have a good parry system when everyone is saying it’s the that other game (that is on this list).
My review of Wuchang: Fallen Feathers.
6: Doom: The Dark Ages
I’m a year older than the Doom series, but it has never been my game. I remember watching a neighbour play the OG Doom on his PC but it never sparked my interest to play it myself on my home PC.
Here we are 30 years or so later and they finally made a Doom game for me. They made a character action Doom, with parries. It’s slower, more methodical and I hear fans who love the evolution of the rebooted Doom (2016) into Doom Eternal don’t prefer what Doom: The Dark Ages did.
I’m sorry, but they made a Doom game for a non-Doom liker for once but I can assure you I enjoyed my time with the more open-ended maps and silly-awesome kaiju sequences. But if Doom goes back into a different, more familiar direction that Doom fans crave I’ll be perfectly happy to have been there to glaze this dark age that we’re in.
My review of Doom: The Dark Ages.
5: Split Fiction
Co-op games are fun. If only I can regularly get a willing partner to participate. So when the opportunity to review Split Fiction arrives with the ability to test out online co-op, I just had to do it.
While I’m familiar with Hazelight’s brand of “throw new gameplay every few minutes” but man, this one has it all. Racing, flying, gravity bending puzzles, bullet hell shooters, the closest thing to a new SSX, devious co-op puzzles that require precise coordination and trust. The list goes on and on.
Split Fiction feels like playing through the video game equivalent of a by-the-numbers blockbuster movie. Not that it’s terrible, but you know what to expect before going in, the bombast of it all is predictable. And yet it still holds some surprises here and there, whatever the video game equivalent of “movie magic” is it’s there in that last level. A sublime experience to go through with a friend (assuming the friend has experience gaming, this is less for the casual crowd).
Plus points for having commentary against the slop machine.
My review of Split Fiction. And here’s a piece I made glazing that jaw-dropping finale.
4: Death Stranding 2
This blockbuster game has two sides. On one side, the delivery gameplay that some folks derided so much about is absolutely fantastic. I love micromanaging my delivery loadout, picking routes and slowly make my way from point A to point B over picturesque environments. I love the tedious delivery of supplies to create road networks that may help other connected players to have a better time delivering. I love the insane dedication to the bit: having Norman Reedus indirectly interacting with Usada Pekora is still an all-time greatest collab that Fortnite can’t top in my eyes.
On the other hand, whatever movie magic those cutscenes and story is supposed to be, it didn’t do it for me. Not that it’s bad, I’m probably just a tough customer. I see weird stuff, I just go “cool, and?” and the cutscene ends.
That said, Hideo Kojima’s worldview is still as prescient. The truth nukes are toned down a bit (his biggest truth nuke remains to be MGS 2, though MGS 3’s conspiracy and commentary on nationalism is something we see unfold today still).
A shame Kojima is holding back his writing punches, I actually want him to go full weird and swing for the fences agains when it comes to social and political commentary, because the sci-fi stuff just gives me Subway sandwich filling rather than a true deli sub.
But hey, plus points for having commentary against the slop machine.
My review on Death Stranding 2. And why I think the seemingly odd VTuber collab is rad.
3: Ghost Of Yōtei
Sometimes you need a girl samurai to be the best cowboy, and Ghost Of Yōtei is indeed one the best Western games I’ve played. A funny sentence to write, since we’re talking about an open-world action adventure set in late Edo Japan featuring samurais and ronins with deep inspirations from samurai cinema. And somehow, it’s cowboy-coded.
As I mentioned in my review of the game, you can trace the genre of spaghetti western back to samurai cinema, and Ghost Of Yōtei is a case the looping nature of cultural exchanges. More often than not, it goes both ways. Cultures may make us all different, but we’re actually more connected than we actually are as humans. And this isn’t the only example of this phenomenon on this list (see #1).
What will remain in my memories playing this cowboy game is the times I just roam about, discovering the world, taking in the sights to the beat of lo-fi mixes. I love that Ghost Of Yōtei isn’t just about the experience of being a lone wanderer (in this case, a ronin). It’s more than just samurais.
2: Umamusume: Pretty Derby
Wait, hold the phone. This is only number 2? If you could believe it, yes. Gamer Malaya and Gamer Matters’ Game Of The Year for 2025 isn’t the top pick. And yet it was I who really made the case that this free-to-play mobile game with gacha elements had a chance to be at the top, which it did.
But first, addressing the horse in the room. Yes, this is a gacha game I’m placing here. Based on horse racing, a sport built into its DNA the elements of gambling, no less. I’m aware of its potential negative impacts to promote and vouch for games like this. And yes, it’s absolutely messed up that a game that uses semi-gambling mechanics can lead you down the rabbit hole of actual gambling.
Game and spend money responsibly, there’s no way you can get all the horsegirls and support cards when the EN server is dishing out content at ridiculously rapid pace. Don’t FOMO your spendings.
So I had to disclose all that, for a game that’s about horsegirls who are anthropomorphised thoroughbreds from Japan who go to school (“academy” for horsegirls of all ages but then they live on campus in dorms and wear school uniforms so it’s still a school to me) and also idols. None of this would have interested me, at all. In any way. So why did I play this?
It’s the racing.
For years, I feel like racing games are either stagnant or couldn’t figure out how to tell a story. But then Umamusume comes off the gates and show you how it’s done. The racing presentation is phenomenal. Yeah, it’s odd to see ladies wearing way-too-elaborate costumes to run for a literal mile like a track event, but ignore that oddity and they treat the racing like you’d expect a racing event would. Excellent commentary work. Amazing camera work. It captures the sense of speed these girls are running like how Indycar and NASCAR stock cars can feel fast when the static cams shake from them whooshing past. It scratches that racing itch.
But it does more to suck you into the world of these racers, training every day in a three-year career. The little slice of life moments, from the mundane (oh no, where’s that one friend that got separated from the group in the shopping mall trip?) to the insane (where in the world did your horsegirl trainee took you and what’s this fantasy land she’s been babbling about?) is really what makes you invested to see your chosen horsegirl to do their best. Rivalries against fellow racers. Personal drive and insecurities.
These horsegirls may be portrayed to be appealing to various kinds of specific fans, from tokusatsu enthusiasts to giantess enjoyers, but they are more than just their visual appeal. These are genuine characters you can get to know and be invested in. Heck, my current fave Gold City (who I affectionately call Kak City) has a literally that story arc, she wants to race and be fast to prove she’s more than a pretty face model where people care about her pleasing looks rather than the person she is.
Formula 1 had a massive surge in new fans, and mostly it’s been attributed to Netflix’s Drive To Survive documentary. I go one step further and say that it’s not just that there’s a Netflix show, it’s that for the first time that whole new generation see F1 drivers more than just people in race suits and helmets that drive cars. They’re people. With relationships, personality, quirks. Getting a glimpse of their slice of life, and the occasional interaction between other drivers, is what gets these folks invested.
Umamusume: Pretty Derby is horse racing’s Drive To Survive. The niche sport has suddenly gotten a whole new generation of young fans to be passionate about horse racing. Worldwide. Even in Southeast Asia. Even in Malaysia. I don’t know what the uncles and aunties feel about seeing youngsters in cosplay running on the racetrack, but if anything, that should be enough of a big deal that this video game, part of a bigger cross-media IP with a running anime series and several manga series, is making people discover the beauty of racing.
I hope that racing game devs take some notes on Umamusume: Pretty Derby. But hopefully the takeaway is not “add anime girls” (though it some cases it does help) or “add gacha mechanics” (please don’t), but it’s how they make players care about racing, making it matter.
What drives a driver to do whatever it takes to win? When I saw a usually blank-face cyborg-like Mihono Bourbon shed tears in disbelief as she fail to reach her dreams of becoming a Triple Crown winner, it hit me like a truck that I failed her. I have to go back and do better in the next run. For her sake. Racing means everything to her. And racing should mean something more than just being the best for the sake of it to the players.
I didn’t review Umamusume: Pretty Derby, but I have basically done the same essay about why Umamusume: Pretty Derby makes for a fantastic racing game.
1: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
The obvious pick is clear, of course. While Gamer Matters don’t join the chorus of praise and glaze for Sandfall Interactive’s debut wonder of a video game, I personally do.
As a person who would’ve gommaged at the start of the game (you’d probably guess that earlier, there was an earlier hint), Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 speaks to me. The themes and storytelling are something so profound that it sticked with more long after I’ve moved on from the game.
Expedition 33 is an excellent homage to its inspirations, from Lost Odyssey and Persona to Devil May Cry, while still can stand on its two feet with its own additions to the RPG formula. The reactive combat, the party members kit being a build-a-character-action-character-of-your-choice where flexibility in role is complemented with a specifically strict and unique playstyle. Those are cool things E33 brought to the table.
Alas, it’s not enough to convince the rest of the GM team to bring another GOTY award for the game that clearly sweep the games industry. But in my heart, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is easily the best game I’ve played this year. Flawed, frustrating at times. By no means perfect. But it arrived at the right time for me, just as I saw last year where the role of fantasy (video games) can be safe avenue to explore and see the greater world with. E33 taught me that fantasy (video games) can be a safe avenue to deal with personal issues. That ending seals it as one of the most profound works of art the industry has produced. In short, Très bien.
My review of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
Honorable Mentions
Could’ve made this a Top 12 list, but I think I’ve wrote enough already. But here’s two other games I enjoyed that should get a fair shout.
Blue Prince. It had an incredible run during our GOTY Awards 2025 deliberations that it ended up in second place. The most inventive game of 2025 by far. And the game the crew had most experience with—it’s why it had a bigger shout to win GOTY over Expedition 33. As brilliant as the game is and as much as I enjoyed the elegant blend of roguelike and puzzles, I just don’t rate it high enough to vouch it. I did reach Room 46, thought it was brilliant, and moved on. And never gotten to do a proper review of it, just this one rant about how I don’t jive with having to play a puzzle game like a roguelike. I swear I like it, I wrote as such here, it’s rated that high in our collective list!
Tokyo Xtreme Racer (2025). One of my childhood obscure game series I loved that went dormant for about a decade and made a comeback following Helldivers and Armored Core. It’s been that long. But due to my current situation of not having access to a gaming PC on a permanent basis, I only play a few sessions of this legacy sequel. I love that it stayed mostly intact as how it used to be after all these years.
Here’s To 2026!
Happy new year! May you find more games that you connect and resonate with, and games that you have fun playing. We all have to do what we can to make the world better, more than ever. But it’s totally fine to take respite when the going gets tough. Find your happy place. It’s okay to be disconnected for a bit. But not for long. As when others fall, we continue.
Usually, I always have a game I’m excited about as we enter a new year. But not 2026. Not that there’s nothing, unless GTA VI gets delayed again. Maybe I’m old now, and played too many games as work that it has impacted me in some ways. That’s not saying I’m not just as enthusiastic as some gamers tired of seeing the same kind of games over and over again. Going through the games I (and the crew) played in 2025, and the list we’ve created, really shows that if you open up your perspectives and try and play a little bit of everything, there’s so many games to discover. And with me having no games actively on my radar, I hope 2026 surprises me, in a good way!