Col Clark
It seems cheap and trite at first glance to focus my effort into putting my opinions on something so trivial as video games front and center when the world is literally burning. We’re living through the last gasping breaths of the failed experiment called The American Empire, and the entire planet – every inhabitant – is paying the price. An empire built on slavery, poverty, and inequity – however much our leaders claim the opposite. We are witnessing untrained, masked bigot-thugs tackle our neighbors and friends to the street simply for not being white, for daring to speak out against Fascism and Supremacy. We live in a time where our queer sisters are shot in the face by psychotic goons for attempting to drive away from an already hostile situation. A time in which we’ve been handing out red whistles to war each other of incoming nazi sweeps. Where we ask our kitchen friends every day what we can do for them. There is a fleet of over 70 ICE vehicles stationed in a parking lot not 15 minutes from my house, and we are expecting raids to begin any day. I wasn’t going to produce this list, and, while it follows, a few things have to be said first. I’ll make it short and concise: fuck generative AI in any and all creative processes. Ruination to despots and fascists. And most importantly, a prayer directed at every single ICE agent:
I hope you’re not well, I hope things aren’t fine
I hope your body dies long before your mind
I hope you reach for help with hands that refuse to reach
I hope you try to scream with a voice that just won’t scream
-The Banner, Venom and Hope, 2005
Chinga la Migra
Now for the good news: this year’s list heavily features themes of found family and community. Because in these dangerous times, that’s what we need the most. We keep each other healthy and safe and valued.
Aside from the general chaos of the year, and the absolute horror of the first month of 2026, 2025 itself was a different kind of year for me in how I approached gaming. Historically, I play damn near every new game of note that comes out during a year as I listen to podcast after podcast on games and games media. There are always dozens of games out at any one time that I put my time into. This year, however, was the year I got *violently* into retro gaming. Not only did I begin collecting retro handhelds (my office is now littered with them, and my AYN THOR is my purchase of the year), but I also recovered all of my old consoles from my childhood home and set them up on an acquired 36″ 165lb. CRT circa 2004. I’ve added enough PSX, PS2, Game Cube, N64, and NES games to my collection, we required a new shelf in the office. We also acquired a SNES which I had skipped over as a kid. It’s been a blast discovering and rediscovering classics from the 90s, and playing retro games with my spouse on our glowing behemoth of a screen. Speaking of my wonderful partner, she even snagged me a Playstation Vita for Candlenights which I’ve spent the last few weeks modding and tweaking and personalizing. And yes, even playing games on. Our retro collection grows ever more impressive month by month. That left precious little time for newer releases this year. This year also marked a turning point in my gaming habits, as I looked more to intrinsically motivated games, a process you can read about here. My top ten this year looks much different than it may have in a normal gaming calendar per my usual tastes. But throughout the year those tastes have evolved in ways and means never expressed before. In a year fraught with hardship after hardship after controversy in gaming and games media (and some wins: looking at you, Giant Bomb!): boycotts, layoffs, and the ever looming demon of AI, it was hard to get excited about new games. Still, there were some amazingly outstanding games released in 2025, and below I’ve compiled my favorite ten games of the year. A few I’ve written about on the site throughout 2025, but many may come as a surprise to habitual readers.
Speaking of which, 2025 has been a year of incredible growth for the site. To those of you who swing by for every post, I cannot thank you enough. And to the friends I’ve made through the site – the ones who have put us in BlueSky starter-packs, on sites like SixOneIndie amongst independent outlet giants like RPG Fan, Game Mess, Ladies Gamers, VG Bees, Retrograde Amnesia, and the all-father, Jeff Gerstmann, I cannot express how truly blessed I feel to be counted among my heroes. Please don’t notice me, senpai. That kind of support will never stop feeling unreal and unearned. Special thank you to Lex, my part-time editor this year, and to my incredible spouse for being a second/third pair of eyes before – or often after – posts go live and a constant supporter of this selfish project I’ve begun. Further and more specific thank-yous and house keeping at the end, including answers about Patreon (spoiler: nope) and Ko-fi (spoiler: sure).
It’s astounding, and flattering, and nerve-wracking that this list has been requested of me. But, uh… here we go!
2025 GOTOYs
Here’s a quick shout out to my favorite games I played in 2025 that released in other years, many of which were played on original hardware hooked up to a blurry old glowing box, experienced at 3am when the world is still. My GOTOYs:
10. Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean (2003, Nintendo Game Cube, original hardware): This Mountain Dew tinged 3DG3L0RD JRPG from the legendary Monolith Soft was my first entry point into Game Cube RPGs this year. A strange one at that. Part card battler, part traditional JRPG, unlike anything before or since. Probably for the best, but damn I love it so.
9. Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (2010, Sony PSP, AYN THOR): The newly crowned second favorite entry in the most nostalgic series of my childhood, Birth by Sleep is only overtaken still by KH2 in the pantheon of Tetsuya Nomura fever dreams.
8. Summon Knight Swordcraft Story 2 (2004, Nintendo Game Boy Advance, Anbernic RG34XXSP) While scouring for obscure and overlooked meaty GBA games to play on my freshly acquired GBA screen aspect ratio perfection machine, I came across the Summon Knight duology and immediately fell in love. I played through the majority of the first entry before moving onto and completing 2 over the course of a single week. With its action combat and surprisingly deep crafting mechanics, Swordcraft Story 2 is a strange and unique beast to sink yourself into. Plus you can befriend an enby nature spirit as your permanent companion. And watch every character argue and confuse each other with gender significance. Bless.
7. Star Ocean: The Second Story (1998, Sony PSX, original hardware): Had I known how intricate and deep you can get in gaming The Second Story’s mechanics and crafting system, I may have approached this monstrosity with a little more reverence and hesitation. Infinitely replayable, and boasting two main campaigns that weave between and around each other, it won’t be long before I go back for a second helping of Second Story.
6. Metroid Prime (2005, Nintendo Game Cube, original hardware): I had never completed a Metroid game before this year, and had never touched the Prime series at all. There’s nothing that I can say about this masterpiece that hasn’t been said for 20 years.
5. Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask (2011, Nintendo 3DS, original hardware): I spent dozens upon dozens of hours with Professor Layton on the NDS in his first three entries throughout my college years, but never delved into the 3DS offerings until 2025. It sure is a Professor Layton game, and I sure do love those things. The anime is on for ambiance on the CRT behind me as I compile this list. Level-5 is pure a e s t h e t i c.
4. Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo (1996, Sony PSX, original hardware): My most specialist-ist memories of gaming this year came from playing games with my spouse, and specifically getting trounced by her at Supper Puzzle Fighter II Turbo. I might never beat her, but I’ll never turn down a round or eight of this hectic puzzle brawler. Plus, Chibi Hsin-Ko.
3. Seiken Densetsu III: Trials of Mana (1995, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, original hardware, fabricated English translation cartridge): Speaking of multiplayer experiences, while we didn’t get overly far in Seiken Densetsu, it quickly rose the ranks among my favorite multiplayer games of all time. Especially because it does away with an absolutely crippling AI teammate. With 6 playable characters, this one’s shelf life may outlast my own.
2. Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past/Warrior VII (2000, Sony PSX / 2013 Nintendo 3DS) & Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King(2004, Sony Playstation 2 / 2015, Nintendo 3DS, original hardware): 2025 was the year of Dragon Quest under my thumbs and on my screens. I started DQVII first on a PSX disc on my PS2 after acquiring an all too expensive copy (so that I could boast at having completed the full 8+ hour no-combat prologue experience – put it on my gamer tombstone) before moving over to the 3DS version to complete. I also started DQVIII on the same PS2 before completing my play through on the 3DS as well. Before experiencing these two entries in the series, I had only played Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age in 2024 when it quickly became one of my favorite games of all time. While the two earlier entries are far more inscrutable in their original formats, and often require guide reading, the 3DS entries provide enough quality of life features as to be playable by a much wider audience. 2025 solidified Dragon Quest as my favorite franchise of all time. While Final Fantasy wins out in nostalgia and soundtracks, Dragon Quest is nearest and dearest to my heart for its simply presented yet complex philosophical themes, as well as near constant triumph and celebration of community and found family over the perils of evil and self doubt. The soon-to-be released Dragon Quest VII Reimagined threatens to take over the number one spot in my heart if the demo is anything to go by. Holy shit. Final Fantasy could never.
1. Legend of Mana (1999, Sony PSX, original hardware): This game. This game will stay with me for the rest of my life. This game is officially in my top 5 of all time. This game has more to say than entire libraries of games often do. This game has more to say than one human can express in an entire lifetime. Enigmatic, inscrutable, charming, disturbing, and damn near impossible to get right without the guide I purchased, Legend of Mana easily clears the #1 slot of my GOTOY list for 2025. It’s certainly not for everyone, but it sure as hell is for me. What a charming headache of a game.
2025
Gs of the Y
#10 – Blippo+
“Is Blippo+ even a game?” That’s the sentiment I’ve heard surrounding this astounding piece of work from Panic, creators of the Play Date – a little yellow one-bit gaming handheld with a crank – which I picked up late last year. I first played Blippo on the Play Date, and was immediately enraptured in its setting and lore. Presented as an off-air cable television service broadcast to earth from another galaxy – one shockingly similar to ours – Blippo+ is a nostalgic trip down memory lane for those of us old enough to remember the early days of cable television. Programs run for 60 seconds each, and you have to cycle through the channels to catch every show throughout a programming block that repeats itself over a set period of time. The programs are surreal and ridiculous, but believable enough for local programming from across the universe. The catch here, however, is the story that slowly unfolded over the course of the Blippo release on the Playdate. While the Plus version is available in color on Steam and Nintendo Switch, the original game came first to the Play Date in all its black and white glory. The weeks of its release saw me glued to the Panic Discord channel for the game, as the community slowly unraveled the mystery and lore of the far-flung galaxy we got a peak into. Not all is well for our off-planet broadcasters, and things aren’t as A-OK as they seem. Artsy LA types often tend to be my least favorite brand of human, but every once in a while they create something really… special. Do yourself a favor and check into the rotating programming of Blippo+ and immerse yourself in the mystery of an alien culture all too familiar to our own.
#9 – Sektori
Sektori is the game I am most likely to come back to over the years. It’s the one that will permanently remain installed on both my Steam Deck and the Gamehub layer of my AYN THOR. Building off of and evolving from the Geometry Wars series’ formula (which I only recently learned had a third installment on the Playstation Vita), Sektori is a non-stop heart pounding brain breaking master’s course in controlled and precise mayhem. The twin stick shooter’s main gimmick is the level system that evolves your abilities as you play. By defeating enemies, you can pick up the little gems left behind which slowly move you up the level track on the left side of the screen as you bash your way around the stage racking up combos. From bottom to top is Speed, Score, Strike, Shield, Missiles, and Blaster. By pressing a button to “cash in” your points on said level, you upgrade that function of your ship. You’ll find quickly enough why Speed is the first available upgrade when the first boss outpaces you like an Olympic sprinter and Zambonis the floor with your run. Sektori will not be stopped. Sektori cannot be stopped. We wrote more about Sektori here. My heart rate spikes just thinking about this thing.
#8 – Hyperbeat
If Blippo Plus is Los Angeles, Hyperbeat is New York City. Hyperbeat is a game made by folx who are cooler than I’ll ever hope be. Witty, sharp, biting, satirical, and fast, Hyperbeat separates itself into two portions.The first presents a cast of characters in a unique space who deliver the most absurd and whip-smart lines of dialogue to your character in a fake AI text-to-voice tone, slowly revealing a kind of narrative and world surrounding the actual meat of the game: the rhythm sections. Each “world” found inside a work of stained glass boasts a number of songs upon which to train your twitch reflexes on a rhythm game like no other. You move your character around the sides of a tube, through targets, some of which require you to push one of two buttons in time of you flying through them. It’s as difficult as you want it to be, but I’m so bad I still have yet to unlock all the worlds. I’m working on it with all my might because I need to see all of the dialogue. What lands Hyperbeat on my top ten this year, though, is its soundtrack. It’s all I’ve been listening to. No question best soundtrack of the year. The congruity of the synth tones and over arching thematic bridges help make Hyperbeat one of the best games of the year. With a blend of comfort, hope, attitude, and just a little darkness and late night mystery, Chancellor Wallin may have created my favorite game soundtrack of all time. Please give it a listen and purchase over on Bandcamp. I’m listening to it right now. (We wrote more about Hyperbeat here.)
#7 – Lumines Arise
I wrote an entire piece about a breakdown and breakthrough I experienced while playing Lumines Arise. Anything I could say here pales in comparison to what I said here. Lumines Arise is an astounding work of art. And it is dangerous.
#6 Many Nights a Whisper
Many Nights a Whisper taught me how to play games again. A course in perfectionism, extreme societal pressure, philosophical struggle, and what it means to live the human experience, Many Nights a Whisper is one of those rare “perfect games”. It will haunt me forever.
#5 Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter
The Trails series has seen me through some *shit* in my years in this brain. I first played Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky on PSP in 2016 during a divorce which landed me living in my car for a few months. Before falling asleep every night in the back seat, I would plug the PSP into my Ford Focus’ rear cigarette lighter and play the first Trails entry as a bedtime story between panic attacks. The low-stakes, slice-of-life take on a classic JRPG featuring found family and what it takes to be a good human while reckoning with our worst traits was a personal play through to say the least. I picked up the series again in 2024 with the Daybreak arc before going back and starting it all anew in order to fill in the arcs I had skipped. I have now worked my way through the Liberl and Crossbell arcs and aim to begin the Erebonia arc in 2026. But in the meantime, I took a pit-stop to play the first entry’s 2025 complete overhaul/remake. Built upon the Daybreak engine, 1st Chapter is one of the slickest looking JRPGs of all time. To be able to inhabit Liberl on the ground in 3D is beyond special. And the combat. Holy hell the combat overhaul. It’s perfection. Combining action and turn based mechanics, Falcom has created the most robust, flexible, and interesting gameplay loop possibly ever in an anime RPG. If you find yourself put-off by the trope-y aesthetic, I urge you to yet give the Legend of Heroes franchise a try. And there’s no better place to start than 1st Chapter. Sink into the world of Zemuria, the most fleshed-out and lore-heavy setting in all of gaming, and give yourself a chance to be part of one of the most epically comprehensive stories ever told.
#4 Skate Story
Skate Story found me a few weeks after its release, at the tail end of December when work was so busy my life was all but in shambles, glued only together through the support of my partner. And what a time to sink into this esoteric nightmarish Dante-esque adventure through the layers of hell. Skate Story is a millennial’s ideal game. Those of us who spent hundreds if not thousands of hours with the Tony Hawk franchise during our youth will find purchase here with the skate mechanics – evolved enough to be fresh, but recognizably comfortable and endlessly playable in nostalgic bliss. On top of meticulously crafted levels to grind and grab and gap, Skate Story asks us to examine what it means to give ourselves over to a creative passionate endeavor. How far will we go to make it the thing we dream it to be? What are we willing to sacrifice? Who are the people we meet who support us or antagonize us along the way? What does it mean to live with debilitating creative passion? How safe are we from perfectionism? And what happens when others simply don’t “get it, man”? Flaunting influences ranging from Greek Philosophy to the memetic modern era (and even some deathcore), Skate Story is a beautiful car crash of ideas and flow-state narration. It asks more questions than it answers, and that’s okay. Q: How many times are we willing to shatter to find creative bliss in the end? A: As many times as it takes. Q: What if no one gets it? A: Who fucking cares.
#3 – Dragon Quest I & II HD Remake
This double-whammy of a release is not only the best looking rendition of the becoming-trite HD-2D ever released, and it completely solidifies the first two entries in the most important RPG series of all time as two of its fiercest. I played through a few hours of Dragon Warrior I on the NES this year. Enough to know how much change and work went into this remake. Not only can you experience two brand new entries into the Dragon Quest pantheon of story-lines, the quality of life features are assurance that even the JRPG newcomer can be comfortable playing this collection. I ripped through DQI in a haze over the course of two days, and I’m currently wrapping up DQII, which now sits as one of my favorite Dragon Quest stories ever written. Presenting its classic themes of self confidence, found family, trauma, and community, Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake ranks among XI, VII, and VIII as a franchise highlight. I can’t wait for Dragon Quest VII Reimagined to continue to solidify the franchise as my favorite video game series of all time. Take me back to Alefgard. Let me sing of Erdrick the Hero once more.
#2 Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
Here’s a conundrum and a bummer: I’m brutally conflicted about my number two slot this year. Level-5 has been – canonically – my favorite developer of all time, spanning all the way back to 2000s Dark Cloud, which we often rented from Blockbuster. It was Level-5’s first outing and my first experience in one of their worlds. Since then, the storybooks of Professor Layton, Ni no Kuni, Dark Cloud 2 (#1 all time PS2 game), Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King, Jean d’Arc, Rogue Galaxy, Fantasy Life, and even Yo-kai Watch and Inazuma Eleven have enraptured me like no other. Level-5’s track record boasts entry after entry among my favorite games… ever. The skill at which they portray a pastoral aesthetic, and the promise of character and style is completely unrivaled in the medium. Creativity, whimsy, and comfort abound in every single one of their charmingly imperfect offerings. And 2025’s Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time – the second in the series – threatened to top my GOTY list all the way until a September release yoinked away the number one slot. Here’s the rub. Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino has doubled down in expressing support and bragging about use of generative AI in their games moving forward. What… the fuck? To say I’m devastated is an understatement. All the feelings I’ve been having the last two years about this unethical, theft producing, economy collapsing use of a snake-oil technology meant to replace human creativity became hyper-solidified and terrifyingly personal when I heard even the illustriously plucky Level-5 – my darling studio, my personal GOAT – had succumbed to the siren song of tech-bro douchebaggery, environment r*ping practices, and hard work thieving illegal data crawls. That being said, and perhaps unfortunately, I struggle to remove The Girl Who Steals Time from my GOTY list. It simply has become too near and dear to my heart this year. I will forever vilify and shout down Generative AI use and supporters in the creative arts, but I also must extol this game’s virtues, and the hardworking people who made it a reality. Building upon 2012’s 3DS release Fantasy Life, a life sim RPG that captured my attention over a decade ago, Fantasy Life i perfects and expounds upon a seemingly perfect and hyper-targeted concept. I spent hundreds of hours this year grinding my gathering, crafting, and combat “lives” (classes) and building up my Animal Crossing-esqu village among a charming cast of characters and misfits. I have always been a crafting freak in my RPGs, particularly my MMOs, and the combination and focus on crafting and Action RPG mechanics couldn’t be more perfectly directed at my heart and immagination. And from Level-5 no less! *Swoon*.This is the exact kind of gaming I hunt for, day after day, and so rarely find. The Girl Who Steals Time is a masterpiece made just for me. While the story didn’t do much for me – or seemingly most players – I open up this storybook world a few times a month to craft some new gear, free some new villagers, and just soak in the pastoral glory that Level-5 has created. It has, however, been tainted – as most good things have – by the horrifying “darkest timeline” we currently exist within. I’m sad. But I will always cherish the time I’ve spent with my master crafts-person and all their island friends. All of which, I would like to believe, were imagined by human minds and the creative process. Those artists, writers, and coders should be valued, employed, and cherished. Not replaced with economy ruining empty promises. Akihiro Hino and those of his ilk will be remembered for their ruinous practices, callous techniques, and gross misunderstanding of what made their companies great to begin with. Shame on them.
For examples of magnificent games that AI could never produce, I hereby direct your attention to my favorite outlet’s column “AI Could Never” over at Skybox Critics.
#1 Easy Delivery Co.
Speaking of “AI Could Never”, let me introduce you to my number one, best ever, top dog (or cat), gAmeDHD 2025 Game of the Year: Easy Delivery Co. Holy shit, this thing. Sam C’s strange little PSX delivery simulator left me blisteringly melancholic, but peacefully fulfilled by my experience inside heads of a quiet mountain community as I spirited delivery after delivery up and down the snowy banks while ambient drum and bass kept me company over my truck’s internal radio. I wrote about everything the game gets right in its dissertation on community and weirdos here on the site earlier this year. Easy Delivery Co. is part horror, part life sim, part interactive essay on disappearing human connections as we rely more and more on illegal taxi rides, illegal hotels, and illegal goods and service delivery in the world of contract work and faceless automation. What really matters, it posits, are the weirdos who make up our chosen family and the lengths we would go to make their lives a better experience to inhabit. It is a love letter to the NPCs of the world, and for that I will be forever grateful. As one of those NPCs, my eyes well up every time I think back on my time with Easy Delivery Co. The early mornings and late nights I spent with the game were my most memorable moments of the year, and possibly of all time in gaming. A game has never affected me quite as viscerally as this, and every time I listen to the soundtrack it all comes flooding back: that cacophony of ideas and posits and gratitude and sadness. We’re all strangers until we’re not, and Easy Delivery Co. wants you to remember those who make day to day life turn and turn. What happens to our souls and society when we begin to lose human connection? Who are the weirdos you love? The ones that make your community what it is? The ones no one else understands? The ones who leave an indelible mark on your heart? The ones you would stop the world turning for.
So there they are. My top ten GOTOYs and GOTYs of 2025. Yes, there is an obvious glaring omission. I enjoyed my time with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, but after I accidentally spoiled the ending for myself, I found the gameplay wasn’t enthralling enough to keep me going and finish the fight for those who come after. That being said, I’ll be there day one for whatever Sandfall Interactive sets on the table next. I can’t wait for their Sophomoric effort.
Thank you again, especially to those of you who reached out asking if I was going to publish one of these. Hopefully you found a thing or two to contemplate inside your never-ceasing, ever-churning brain meat. Or at the very least a few things to go play. It’s an emotional list this year, one that leaned heavily on found family and community. And you know that’s my entire freakitude shit. That’s the stuff I get out of bed for. 2025 was hard, and I think 2026 is going to be harder. But we have community, we have our perfectly broken brains and souls, and gAmeDHD will continue examining what it means to be neurodivergent in a medium that often celebrates normalcy, pablum, crunch culture, and now art theft.
I’m hoping to bring on more contributors this year and continue to grow the site into the welcoming, specific, expansive, and safe community I dream it to become. It’s well on its way because of you.
If you’d like to contribute, please reach out. We want to provide a space for you to tell your story. You belong.
On that note, thank you to all the developers who created the experiences I loved and lived this year. 2025 was an all-timer for impossibly impressive games, and honing this down to ten was damn near impossible. I’m still not sure I got it right, but it’s as good as it’s going to get.
Thank you for joining me on this, the first full year of the site. To everyone who shares pieces online, provides feedback, or even just quietly reads and moves on, thank you. You’ve given this silly little project the legs and the footing to begin to become something I cherish and am proud of. You bring me joy in a dangerous time.
There have been some requests and interest shown in a possible Patreon. To that, I just have to admit that I’m not ready. Nor do I have the spoons these days. While I have endless ideas for content, I simply don’t have the time or energy to produce it, and would feel incredibly guilty about charging for anything right now, if ever. I don’t want this to be behind a pay wall.
That being said, if you would like to support gAmeDHD financially, you can donate as little as one USA Fascist Buck at ko-fi.com/gamedhd. All donations go directly back into site maintenance, research, and hosting materials, never to personal finances. This ain’t my job.
Stay safe and love each other. There’s only so much we can say, but so much more we can do.
Fuck ICE. Fuck Gen AI. Fuck CEOs. Fuck Fascism. Oi Oi!
Long live games and art. Long live artists, and poets, and dreamers, and freaks, and misfits. Long live educators, and baristas, and construction workers, and non-violent first responders. Long live the NPCs. Long live the Black Panthers. Long live the Marxists. Viva la prole. Long live the immigrants, the refugees, the migrant workers. The unhoused, the unwell, the struggling, the displaced, the lost. Long live Palestine. Long live the survivors, and rest for the murdered. Long live the mothers, and the sisters, and the daughters. Long live the oppressed, the other, the queer, the undiagnosed, the closeted. Long live the afflicted. Long live the poor, the hungry, those left wanting. Long live the obsessed, the over-thinkers, the anxious, the distracted, and the hyper-focused. Peace and comfort to the broken. Long live Found Family. Long live Community.
I love you. Go play a game.
-Col
1.17.2026
gAmeDHD 
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