I don’t think I totally realised how strong a year 2025 was for ‘best video games’ until I sat down and wrote my game of the year longlist and saw that it was, indeed, a very long list.
The closest thing we have to a unifying number one pick is Clair Obscura (which might make my list if I ever go back and play past the opening five hours) but it seems to me that this was the sort of year where there really was something for everyone, and where no two game of the year lists will look the same.
With that in mind, here are the top three games of 2025, plus seven I couldn’t bring myself not to mention, to make an even 10.
Best games of 2025 – quick links
The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy
The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy is my favourite game of the year, though it isn’t one that I’d comfortably recommend to everyone. There are certain elements that I know some people are allergic to, including its anime aesthetics, extraordinary length and occasional dalliances into the absolutely absurd. But this is my number one by some margin – it’s audacious, ridiculous and brilliant.
At the beginning of The Hundred Line, a group of young adults are thrust into a situation that will feel familiar to fans of Danganronpa, co-director Kazutaka Kodaka’s previous game series: they’ve been trapped inside a school by a cute sentient robot. Instead of being thrown into a killing game, the kids are told that they need to defend the school from alien invaders for the next 100 days through a series of turn-based strategy battles.
What follows is a solid, entertaining, turn-based strategy game mixed with a visual novelty that feels a little less wild and wooly than you might expect … until you reach a certain point. About 25 hours in, the whole game flips on its head and to reveal it is, in fact, much bigger, much deeper and much weirder than you realised.
The Hundred Line is a 150+ hour game that does not feel like homework or a slog; it’s something to be picked away at over time, a project you can return to over and over again. Without spoiling anything, it’s one of the most incredible pieces of narrative design I’ve ever seen. The other co-director, Kotaro Uchikoshi, is best known for the Zero Escape series, and his influence comes through very clearly in how the game is structured.
This is a game that I have returned to periodically throughout the year, often with long gaps between sessions, and each time I return I know that I’ll have a great time pulling at the next thread in front of me. Through its branching storytelling system, The Hundred Line tries out so many different ideas and storylines. Not all of them work, but I’ve had such a good time exploring.
This is the sort of game that just gets me really jazzed about being able to write about, work on and play games.
It’s not that it’s the most systematically deep experience, or the most inventive piece of storytelling, or something that will appeal to everyone. It’s a very specific, very strange, absolutely huge piece of work, and a reminder that games are a great place for strange voices and ideas to thrive. I love that this game is able to exist and find an audience and I love being part of that audience.
The Drifter
The Drifter, the long-in-development, point-and-click adventure from local developers Powerhoof, is the kind of game that feels like it should be packaged in a big box with some sort of boutique label slapped on the front denoting it as an Aussie classic from an alternate history version of the 90s.
You play as Mick Carter, voiced by Adrian Vaughan in the year’s best performance. (Sorry again, Clair Obscura.) Carter is the eponymous drifter, who gets swept up in a vast and horrifying conspiracy after witnessing a murder and finding himself suddenly in possession of an incredible power – when he dies, time rewinds enough to bring him back.
This smart concept lets the game present you with good old-fashioned, life-or-death adventure game scenarios where you learn a little something whenever you die, which is used to smart effect throughout.
The Drifter is a rare gift of a game, one that feels like both a throwback and a look forward. It’s both culturally significant and delightfully pulpy and irreverent. I appreciate a game that feels authentically Australian without being totally beholden to its setting.
The puzzle design gets the ratio of smart, rational solutions to adventure game nonsense exactly right. It’s funny, clever, a little scary at times and – perhaps above all else – it just feels complete. The Drifter is a game in harmony with itself. It won big at the Australian Game Developer Awards and for good reason – this one’s a bloody ripper.
Donkey Kong Bananza
You know it’s been a good year for games when you find yourself worrying if a huge, deep, wonderful Nintendo platformer is a boring choice for your best games of the year list. But there’s no denying the return of Nintendo’s great ape, or how satisfying it is to bore through each level with Donkey Kong’s giant fists, smashing right through rock to seek out hidden treasure.
Some of the best Nintendo games are just about the pure joy that comes from interesting movement, and Donkey Kong Bananza has really nailed that vibe – there is no action you can perform that doesn’t feel good.
Each new world is colourful and exciting and ready for you to break apart, and surfing around it on a piece of land you just ripped out of the ground never gets old. It has the big expensive feeling of a AAA game, but with all of the inventive playfulness that is often missing from these sorts of experiences.
I also appreciate that the development team has accepted the limitations that come from really letting you smash your way through levels. Yes, it’s going to occasionally lead to you missing interesting details, and sure, the camera is going to really struggle to keep up, but Bananza is a game that trusts its players to accept these issues. A difficult camera is worth putting up with if it means total freedom.
The launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 has yielded many good new Nintendo games. I’ve been enjoying Metroid Prime 4, Pokemon Z-A is a delight, and Mario Kart World is a smart reinterpretation of what’s fundamentally good about Mario Kart. (The jury’s still out on Kirby Air Riders but I need to spend more time with it.)
Read: Pokemon Legends: Z-A sells 5.8 million copies in its first week
But Bananza is the game that most feels like it’s pushing its own series forward, exploring new frontiers – like how Breath of the Wild felt for Zelda. Because of that, it’s the best exclusive of the system’s first year on sale.
Honourable Mentions
Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles
Including remasters on best games of the year lists does not sit well with me for entirely arbitrary reasons, but I’m making an exception to my own personal rules here because this game is truly one of the all-time greats, and this remaster is tremendous. An absolutely essential, five-star masterpiece.
Citizen Sleeper 2
Gareth Damian Martin is a gifted game designer and storyteller, and Citizen Sleeper 2 is their best work. The central dice metaphor of the Citizen Sleeper series is pushed in exciting new directions in this sequel, and I truly loved how much the game made me think about what it means to be alive.
Split Fiction
Split Fiction may drop the ball a little too hard on its story, but there are moments of real joy and excitement here, and a sense of creativity that is very exciting to share with another person.
Expelled! An Overboard Game
In a perfect world we’d be getting a new Overboard-a-like every year instead of a new Call of Duty. This one runs wonderfully deep, and has some of the best moments of plot revelation in any game this year.
Hades 2
This is not quite as special to me as the first game was, but there’s no such thing as bad Hades, and when you get a good build going, it’s as electrifying as one of Zeus’ lightning bolts.
Promise Mascot Agency
Kaizen Game Works is one of the coolest teams in the world, and their follow-up to Paradise Killer really got its hooks into me – I could not put it down until I’d 100% completed it. It’s another unique, hyper-specific vision, and I love it.
Old Skies
Wadjet Eye Games never misses, and Old Skies is another point-and-click classic. Fun puzzles, a great plot, and strong voice acting meant that this one was at least on par with Unavowed for me.
