Every website I’ve ever worked at, even the scrappy upstart freelance sites, have eventually been blanked. Vanished. All my work, gone, deleted and unable to be retrieved. But since now I co-own this website, nobody gets to destroy my game of the year top ten lists but me!

For now, I have to re-do them from scratch, and I don’t care if the order isn’t the same as it was back in the day. This is 2025 me making these, not 2022 me! I’m sure there are things I forgot about, indies lost in the shuffle, honorable mentions not mentioned, but I’m only human. I’m just a mere mortal — a man dedicated to chronicling what I deem to be the best games of each chunk of twelve months.

2024

Honorable Mentions: “Mario and Luigi: Brothership,” “The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom,” “The Plucky Squire,” “Rise of the Ronin,” “Another Crab’s Treasure,” and “Metal Slug Tactics”

10. “Call of Duty: Black Ops 6” — I finally finished the single player campaign, and it’s really good. Wacky, absurd, clever, with a pinch of zombies and a dash of player choice. Combine that with the multiplayer, and this package edges out some of the games listed above that were nice, but they ran out of steam before the end.

9. “Wildfrost” — I was dying for a game to play on my iPad, and this is the closest I’ve come to finding a substitute for “Slay the Spire” or “Into the Breach.” This is quite the impressive roguelike card builder, but, unfortunately, the better you get at beating it, the harder it is to replay, and it just became too much of an uphill climb in the end game.

8. “Animal Well” — It’s hard, not impossible, to design a game where combat is nonexistent to the experience. No fighting, no shooting, no slicing. And “Animal Well” is one of the most brilliant indie titles I’ve ever seen, relying on a frisbee, a yoyo, a bubble wand, and excellent puzzles to construct a gorgeous mystery box within a riddle inside of an enigma. It takes some real ingenuity to accomplish something like “Animal Well.”

7. “Star Wars Outlaws” — Man did I play a shit ton of this extremely creaky 7/10 game. The “Lando” DLC, every Sabacc table — it was a touch obsessive considering how many problems I had to endure to get to the fun.

6. “Black Myth Wukong” — A soulslike that cashes in character customization, build options, weapons, and co-op for talking animals and a nimbus cloud you can ride around. It’s graphically impressive, very long, has tough-but-not-too-challenging boss fights, and I had a lot of fun ignoring the story/cut scenes while listening to podcasts.

5. “Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door” — This is one of my favorite games of all time, and it shouldn’t really count here. But it did add in just enough quality of life improvements and new content that I don’t feel guilty making it a top five pick. Play this game! Buy it and show Nintendo they need to make more RPGs!

4. “Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown” — If there is a Mount Rushmore of metroidvanias, this wouldn’t be on there but maybe just to the right there’s a fifth face and that would be of Sargon. Ubisoft nailed everything you’d expect (the map, the upgrades, the progression, the pacing, the art, etc.), and even innovated on the genre by adding in photos you can pin to the map to remember where to come back. If devs include this in their games forever, it would heighten the industry to a new plane. Too bad this one didn’t sell and will ruin Ubisoft forever though. RIP.

3. “Astro Bot” — Every positive word written about this is correct, and there is nothing I can add to the parade of compliments. It’s fun, it’s happy, it’s shiny, it’s nostalgic, it’s the right length, it’s got catchy music, uses the PS5 controller better than anyone else will ever, and is the most adorable love letter to PlayStation history you’ll find. This small team gave Nintendo a run for their platforming prowess — that’s the highest honor anyone can bestow.

2. “Indiana Jones and the Great Circle” — I wish more video games were like this one. Just give me a semi-large open world map, a list of objectives, and let me explore and punch my way around until I have to whip out my pistol. Sneaking, solving, journaling, talking, laughing; these are not words you usually get to write down when discussing what a game made you do. Indy hasn’t been this good since 1989.

1. “Balatro” — This is in the running for greatest puzzle game of all time. It is a masterpiece, a true highlight of what a single man can do in this space with right the ideas and execution. There’s a cult surrounding this, and for good reason. One that I will never be brainwashed out of being a member of.

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2023

Honorable Mentions: “Starfield,” “Blasphemous 2,” “Spider-Man 2,” “Atomic Heart,” “Humanity,” “Viewfinder,” “Advance Wars 1+2,” “Remnant 2,” and “Diablo IV”

10. “We Love Katamari Reroll” — Some of the hardest cuts I’ve ever had to make when making a top ten. That honorable mention list is good enough to be its own list, but I can’t help it. I’m a Katamari lifelong stan, and this is probably the last entry in this franchise I’ll ever get that isn’t a mobile port. The soundtrack alone. My god.

9. “Star Wars: Jedi Survivor” — It’s hard to pull off a plot twist that I don’t see coming, and this game has one of ’em (and another I did see coming, but it gets so much more ridiculous the longer the story goes). This is quite the follow-up to a great non-From soulslike, and I hope that Respawn can stay alive within the closing maw of EA to pump out another one. Or “Titanfall 3.”

8. “Dead Space” — A whole lot of this year was remakes/remasters, but they’re, thankfully, excellent versions of already great games. Anything that imitates/emulates the Resident Evil formula is a-okay in my book. And this was a terrific interpretation of the original with a better interconnected space station and one hell of a fresh coat of paint. Too bad it cost a fortune and EA will never make another one! Oh, well, too bad. We can’t have nice things anymore because of capitalism.

7. “Super Mario Wonder” — As much as I love the art style, and the end to the “New” sub-series, this was not quite peak 2D Mario. It’s fantastic, and I’ll take a new one of these every year, but after “Super Mario Odyssey,” this is not so much a revelation as it is yet another feather in the cap. Of Cappy the talking hat. You get what I was trying to do there.

6. “Street Fighter VI” — They did it! Capcom finally re-resurrected the franchise, and brought back the hip-hop inspired flavor we’ve been waiting for since “Third Strike.” Utilizing the new RE Engine, it blended together every major mechanic of the previous games into one new Drive meter, and there was also a novelty single player campaign I wish was better.

5. “Resident Evil 4” — I am on the record about this: They should not have remade this game. It was already perfect, and I still think the original is better. This remake lost the campy fun, and didn’t add anything besides expected QoL changes. It cut a lot of content, things I would not have gotten rid of, but it’s still built on the bones of one of the greatest games of all time, so I can’t complain too much.

4. “Pikmin 4” — I’m a very recent Pikmin convert, and each game in the series is exponentially better than the previous one. Which means this game is 1,000,000 times better than the original, and I was addicted to it. I’m a hardcore, on the hook, Pikmin truther having played this game. It’s so much fun, wicked smart, and cute too. Plus, I got to make my own little astronaut dude, and I got a dog to ride around. More games need to let me do that.

3. “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” — There’s an argument to be made this is the best game ever made on paper if you can get past the frame rate issues. No game has ever done what this game pulls off: Three open worlds stacked on top of each other, an entire building mechanic akin to “Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts,” and then there’s a fucking Zelda game underneath it all.

It’s better than “Breath of the Wild,” and the only reason it’s not higher on my personal list is because I don’t foresee myself ever coming back to this as a personal favorite, but it should have won every GOTY award eligible.

2. “Lies of P” — This is better than some FromSoft soulslikes. It’s in its own stratosphere in regards to “Bloodborne” knock-offs and clones. It’s preposterous to think a game based on this source material and with this ludicrous title could be so elegant and sophisticated, but we live in strange, unprecedented times. “Lies of P” is a triumph, and the best game to come out of South Korea to date.

1. “Alan Wake 2” — I’m sensing a pattern with my number one picks; idiosyncratic works of art deeply drenched in a flavor that’s similar to other media and entertainment, but is solely unique in the world of gaming when it comes to its aesthetics and gameplay mechanics. I never thought that a second Alan Wake would ever exist, could hope be as good as the first, or perhaps even surpass it.

But here we are, and “Alan Wake 2” is a gripping, hilarious, absorbing tale that is told through gameplay as much as its cork boards and red strings connecting photos and evidence. This game floored me, and is another all-time pantheon game that takes the “RE4” over the shoulder trope and sends it to the moon.

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2022

Honorable Mentions: “God of War: Ragnarok,” “Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope,” “Cuphead DLC,” “Prodeus,” “Tinykin,” “High on Life,” “TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge,” and “The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe”

10. “Power Wash Simulator” — This turned into the go-to co-op game of the generation for me and my friends group. It’s just a soothing, relaxing game that becomes a high-stakes search-a-thon when you get to 99%, and cannot find that final speck. The DLC was sensational, its got wacky fun upgrades to your nozzles and outfits, and the auto-spray option is a godsend. I cannot wait for the sequel.

9. “Neon White” — No game has ever gotten me to intentionally go for a faster time before. I’ve always watched speed runs, but never wanted to speed run a game. Until I found out my brother had good times in “Neon White” and then I knew I had to smoke him from under the table. This game glides, it slaps, it fucks, and it oozes style. Not just the anime characters, those are take it or leave it for me — it’s the rest. Just an incredible concept on a platformer that uses cards and guns in a fabulous way.

8. “Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands” — What a turnaround from the dreadful “Borderlands 3.” That game was miserable, whereas this one was delightful. It’s a smaller game than the mainline series is known for, but has enough twists on the formula as well as fun nods to all of the famous fantasy titles that inspired this one. It also contains actual laughs, which hasn’t occurred since the second mainline “Borderlands” title, so it’s been a while! Hopefully, the next entry is a return to form.

7. “Ghostwire Tokyo” — I was shocked at how much I enjoyed this romp through Japan despite knowing that it’s ultimately a 7.5/10 at its heart. I love the one-to-one translation of Shibuya, walking around the streets, the nooks and crannies, shooting the occasional projectile at a flying ghost yokai, and then floating from rooftop to rooftop gracefully to pet a Shiba Inu. A magical game that didn’t deserve the hate it got.

6. “Pokemon Legends Arceus/Pokemon Scarlet” — These games ran like dogshit on the OG Switch, better on the Switch 2, but still look like GameCube games at best. But… but, man, were they fun. And, actually, they evolved the series in different ways that are good for the franchise, but I doubt Game Freak will ever keep that snowball going to transform these games into something worthy of being played in the year of our lord 2025. Maybe some day they can spend the money to pump out a decent title. Some day. A man can dream.

5. “Stray” — Cat game! It’s a cat game. You play as a cat. The cat stretches. Oooh, big stretch.

4. “Vampire Survivors” — The genesis of an entire subgenre. I like to call them garlic-likes, and I haven’t touched a single other clone of this game. The DLC drops alone force my hand, and I have to keep coming back every time and sink dozens of hours into moving around my little guy. Bullet hell situations being dropped into more games that aren’t just “Ikaruga” fills me with life, as does including “Castlevania” characters/weapons. Only if Konami had the balls to make a new game, those fucking cowards.

3. “Marvel Snap” — I still play this. every day. Doing daily quests and unlocking new cards. Slowly, but surely (very slowly, the card acquisition and progression in this game is predatory and laborious). But the main gist of the game, the core gameplay, the balance, the characters, the abilities, the simplicity of it, the speed, it’s like snorting coke while at a “Hearthstone” tournament. It’s addicting as hell, and if only the owners weren’t only interested in making buckets of money instead of community goodwill and fan outreach. The sentiments coming from them has soured me, but that’s a 2025 complaint from a game that came out in 2022, it’s all hindsight.

2. “Marvel Midnight Suns” — Fuck everybody for not buying and playing this game. This shit is the strategy game of my dreams. It’s HeroClix but in a game, it has the dating you look for from a Fire Emblem game, it has the deck building of a “Slay the Spire.” It has everything, and yet nobody gave a shit. I blame you, dear reader, for this travesty. It killed the studio and made it so I’ll never get anything close to it again for the rest of my life. What a marvelous gift. I wish I could wipe my memory and replay it all over again.

1. “Elden Ring” — Do I even have to articulate why this is the best game of this year? Wasn’t this everybody’s GOTY? It’s the best parts of the “Dark Souls” series, with shorter boss runs, a jump button, and an open world. Hell, it has a map in it! Case closed. Industry leading art direction, more content than some MMOs, and an endless spin-off is available in “Nightreign” to remind you that this shit still delivers years after its release. Is it the best game FromSoftware has ever made? Debatable, but that debate really only has one or two other competitors, and this is by far the game that holds up the best to modern standards and contemporary expectations.

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Image credit: “Balatro,” LocalThunk