So 2025 was a bit of a crazy year for me in general. I moved to a completely new country, eventually got a job, and somehow I also had time to be gaming through all that commotion. As a result I have both played a lot of games this year, and also not played as many games as I thought I would (a bit of an oxymoron if you think about it too hard but I try not to do that generally). I had a very long look through my Steam replay (my internet did not want to cooperate) and through some thoughtful consideration I have decided that these are my top 10 games this year, whether I want to admit it or not.

Now some base rules for how this list works:

• I played all these games for the first time this year

• The games did not have to release this year

• I have either completed the game or played the game for a significant period of time

• I am very bad at making lists

Without further ado, here are my top 10 games in descending order (and maybe some extras because I can never be decisive)

10. CLICKHOLDING

This has been sitting uncomfortably on my wishlist for a while, but my boyfriend bought it for me this year so I had no choice but to play it. The only way I can describe this game is unsettling, like the feeling that you get right before you know a jumpscare is going to happen. I would highly recommend having some form of silent mouse or keyboard if you play this game, and to avoid having any activity that requires fine motor skills afterwards because you will not be happy with yourself, also playing this solo with some noise-cancelling headphones is a must.

9. Proverbs

I will admit that I'm a big fan of Minesweeper, and also proverbs, and also old paintings, so this was made for me to play. You have this massive canvas that you have to fill in by playing a minesweeper-type game, and at the end of each section you complete you get a proverb relating to the subjects in the painting. Not much more to say about it, a pretty relaxing game that got my completionist itch completely with both the main gameplay as well as the achievements.

8. Q-UP

Coin flipping, man's most complex game ever made, has now been turned into a roguelike, which is also an esport! This game is surprisingly fun but also very easy to get sucked into as it does have quite a lot of mechanics to learn. I also really love the tongue-in-cheek humour in the game, especially the messages you get after each match. If you want to have a fun roguelike to play solo or with your friends then I would highly recommend it.

7. Nubby's Number Factory

On the outside this may look like one of the hundreds of roguelikes that were inspired by Balatro, and you would be right. What makes this game different however is the absolute vibes that this game exudes. From the visuals to the soundtrack/song, this game has the ability to suck you in and focus on nothing but number go up for hours on end. The core gameplay is what you would expect, making a broken build to make the biggest number possible, but the items are diverse enough that it doesn't get boring. Overall I'd recommend just trying it out if you like roguelikes and quirky things.

6. Peglin

Speaking of roguelikes, Peglin is yet another one, but what makes this one different is that you are a cute little goblin and you use a variety of different orbs to make big number (it is also Peggle). The game is more fleshed out that it may appear though, and it does feel a lot like Slay the Spire in that there is a map that you can choose different routes on that affect what battles/rewards you get, and you have to defeat enemies using your orbs. The orbs you collect also make each run very unique from one another, and since 2025 was the year of the orb for me it's perfect. There is a charm to this game that I can't really describe but it won me over so much that I also bought the game on my phone which I never do, please try it out if you like cute pixel art and orbs.

5. MAHOUTEQ!

This is a very short game (my playthrough only took an hour), but there is so much soul packed in there that it was one of my highlights of the year regardless of length. If you miss the humour of Undertale then this is the perfect game for you, I can't really describe much else about the game without spoiling it but I would 100% recommend going into this blind if you have an evening to spare.

4. vivid/stasis

I love rhythm games with all my heart, but 2025 was not a good year for me rhythm game wise. I have my few favourites that I can always pick up (Project Diva I love you so much), but for whatever reason I just couldn't get myself to try any new rhythm games, and the ones that I tried from my library just weren't sucking me in. That was until I picked up vivid/stasis and I was hooked from the very start. The rhythm game part itself is really solid, I'm not the best at vertical scrollers but this is probably the best one I've tried in terms of charting, I was even able to get past the easy difficulty :). Where this game really shines is the story and ARG elements. I will admit that I have barely played the VN aspect, but the quality of the puzzles in the ARG segment is what really blew me away. The combination of everything put together is what made me put this so high up on my list, and also I really love how you can feel the passion that the devs have for this game, and I'm just really thankful to it for helping to reignite the love I have for rhythm games.

3. PEAK

Obviously this needs to be on this list because it's peak, nothing else I need to add. If I were going to add anything to this, I would say that this game has a very weird but much needed niche in the game industry right now. I already loved Aggro Crab from their previous game Going Under (and I have Another Crab's Treasure on my backlog), and I was a bit upset when I saw their video about how they shelved Going Under 2, but it was all worth it when I first booted up Peak with my friends and we had an absolute blast playing it. I've also played it solo as well and it holds up really well there too, just overall a very solid and unique game and like a lot of other games on this list there is so much passion being poured into it that it feels like a breath of fresh air that the industry desperately needed. I'm so incredibly looking forward to not only the future of Peak as they've already added so much new content since the game released, but also the future of Aggro Crab and the wider indie industry in general because 2025 really feels like a turning point (don't worry I'm already cooking up another post about my feelings on this so I won't go into too much detail here).

2. ANIMAL WELL

Did this game come out this year? No. Did I skip it last year because I don't usually play platformers? Yes. Do I regret that decision? 100%. Billy Basso is a madman because the complexity of this game is incredible to me, not only gameplay wise but also WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE BUILT THIS GAME FROM THE GROUND UP??? I could literally stare at the shadows cast in the background and how they move with the character's movement because making your own graphics engine for that is insane and it's one of the many reasons that I fell in love with this game at the start of the year and it's stuck so high in this list. If you know nothing about this game then you HAVE to go into it completely blind and avoid looking anything up until you've completed the game, and once you get to that point you will understand why because this truly is one of the best modern games (now please skip the next paragraph).

Without giving too much away I will say that I completed the first layer by myself, I only looked up the second layer when I was stuck but 95% was done blind, and I did half of the third layer with a guide but I haven't played it since so I'm not sure if I'll complete it. I did become a bit obsessed with the game after I finished it like any moderately sane person would do, and I watched every possible video I could find about the game, but honestly I think that that's a reasonable response to the game.

Honourable Mentions:

A few games that I also enjoyed this year but didn't make the list, but I have to include because I'm incredibly indecisive.

Fingerdance

A fun little game where you have to press keys that match the ones displayed on the screen in as little time as possible. I'm really bad at hand-eye coordination so this was pretty challenging for me but a normal person should have a bit of fun with it if you like things like typing speed tests.

tuna hake's underwater

Have you ever wanted to play Tony Hawk's Pro Skater but you're a fish in a fruitier aero world? This is the perfect game for you! I would highly recommend plaything this with a controller, and while the controls take a bit of getting used to it's a fun little game to spend some time doing some sick tricks and flips in.

Haste

Imagine if Sonic was turned into a postwoman who was also trying to save the world from impending doom, and you have Haste. A really fun and fast-paced game, but you have items that can affect how exactly you navigate the levels you find yourself in. I think the story could be fleshed out a bit more between levels, but regardless it's a really fun game to have a run or two of at the end of a day.

The Farmer Was Replaced

If you want to learn Python this is the perfect game to do so. You have a little farmer drone and you need to use some simplified Python to get him to plant and harvest crops for you. Unlike some of the other coding-based games that I've played, I feel like this is the only one that isn't holding your hand and forcing you to make a specific solution to the problem, you can quite literally choose any solution to making your farm work in whatever time complexity you choose (my favourite was just making him go in a random direction and planting a random crop, I also love bogosort in the same way).

Marvel Rivals

I'm terrible at shooters but Marvel Rivals is the one that finally sucked me in and forced me to get gud. That being said I made it out of bronze in ranked for a whole 12 hours I'm pretty sure? And the matchmaking is completely skewed to not actually match players with people of the same skill level which is infuriating when you can't play shooters, but I enjoyed the time I had with it and I will not be returning any time soon.

And finally, for my top game of the year...

1. Infinity Nikki

I'm not proud of this one, especially since I've made a new year's resolution to myself to not play any gacha/free-to-play games in 2026 (mainly because of this game), but goddamnit I fell in love with Infinity Nikki and the world that it gave to us. An open world game that's also a dress-up game that also has beautiful scenery with one of the best photo modes in a game AND it has detailed and interesting lore? I was hooked from the moment the game finished downloading and I first stepped into Miraland (I'm only realising as I'm writing this now that I actually started playing this in December 2024 but it was such an integral part of 2025 for me that I'm bending the rules a tiny bit since it only released on Steam in 2025).

Now I won't get too much into the 1.5 version controversy (TLDR the game was very broken), but it did almost very nearly put me off the game altogether, but there's something special that Infold have captured in here that I just can't stop playing it. Maybe it's the crippling FOMO that I feel from missing one outfit that I could've gotten in the Fireworks Season patch, maybe it's the fact that I've sworn to never spend money on this game (f2p 4 life), but no matter how burnt out I feel I always am able to at least log on for a few mins to do my dailies and maybe make a new outfit. Infinity Nikki has also cemented in me that I can never play another gacha game again, and to that I thank them. My 2025 would be drastically different without this game, and while I probably won't be able to play it as often anymore due to the fact that I'm employed now, I will do my absolute hardest to collect every item I can and to explore the new area that dropped.

The community around this game has also been one of the main highlights, I really love meeting random Nikkis and doing random poses together or showing them around my house. I also love how they will not try and sugarcoat the issues with this game and they speak out when something isn't fun anymore. I cannot recommend anyone go out and try to play this game since it's been out for a full year at this point and so much limited content has been released and is unavailable now, but if I continue playing in the new year will be a really tough choice for me to make because I love this game so much.

So those were my top games this year, a bit of a random bunch but I really love games and they are my favourite type of media because there is just so much you can do with them. Hopefully next year has some really good games too and that GTA6 finally comes out so the games industry can just move on from that...