Huff

Deltarune Chapters 3&4

Yeah, sorry to also my favorite game of all time, but you are disqualified. This game is guaranteed the #1 spot the year Chapter 7 releases, but this is not that year. 

Despite that, these two chapters have performed a feat similar to what Tears of the Kingdom did and catapulted this game right past Ghost Trick into the top let corner of my tri-yearly favorite games mosaic. On my initial playthrough I can't deny I was just a tad bit disappointed because neither was another Chapter 2. Chapter 2 was released at a really important time for me, focused highly on my favorite character in the game (and probably like, second favorite fictional character ever), and had such a wide berth of aspects to it. Chapter 3 felt a little flat (I do not much care for the faux-NES gameplay) and Chapter 4, while very, VERY good went on a little too long.

 

But on a repeat playthrough, I think these are some of the most subtly fantastic parts of the game. The quest to find the Egg in TV World is legitimately insane and the "X marks the Spot" in that line made me burst out laughing. The subtle callbacks to bits of Undertale in the music (using the Uwaa~ motif for the Parental Settings room? Genius). The sudden change in the atmosphere when you're alone in the S-Rank room. That FUCKING part in Tenna's battle where the music soars with one last blast of "Please Love ME!". Chapter 3 is probably the weakest chapter if you just go through it without digging or putting in effort to find things to love, but one of the deepest if you do that little bit of looking. But even then, an OK chapter of this game still, like, blows most games outta the gawdamn water. 

 

Chapter 4 is a lot more linear, but I think it was the correct decision for Tony to tell us exactly where to stand so he could drop a 12-ton cartoon anvil on us labeled "13 AM". The feeling when you start walking up the stairs and Dark Sanctuary starts playing and the MIzzles pop in and out while singing the choir... And that last update from The Man Who Got Hands while Neverending Night plays creates such a different feeling than any of the other chapter ends. Insanely special. Also the Jackenstein fight lole.

 

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe + Booster Course DLC.

Apparently this is the best Mario Kart ever made? I don't know if I agree, but I did enjoy my time with this game in the first chunk of 2025. Here's the thing: I detest the primary mode in Mario Kart. I am no fun and prefer Fox only, no items, final destination. Mario Kart is best enjoyed by me as a solo activity. So I made it a goal to play through all 96 (!) tracks in this game to see them all. Some are better and some are worse (mostly the Mario Kart Tour ones), but what I liked was how they were all a treat for the eyes and ears. Merry Mountain, Squeaky Clean Sprint, Yoshi's Island! Lots of great environments in this game. Only issue is that you can't really interact with or look at all of it due to the format of the game! Shucks, wish that could be fixed!

 

Also Pauline is my favorite Mario character and she's really annoying in this game because she keeps fucking belting out pieces of Jump Up Super Star every 3 seconds and it clashes with the music ughhhhh so I can't play her.

 

Jackbox Party Pack 11

Silent pretty much said it all above. All solid games, no duds, really great theming and aesthetics to all of them. I will add that Suspectives is great because half of our group puts on hardboiled detective voices and I get to call people "toots", "broad", "jack", and "kid" unironically for a few minutes. Also my preferred character in that game looks like Jerma.

 

Gorogoa

Rather beautiful indie game from a few years ago where you solve puzzles by overlaying images onto each other in a storybook/papercraft fashion. Didn't really jive with the gameplay that much, but it was creative and lovely to look at.

 

Logic Bombs.

I'll admit, this game is not here because I enjoyed it. I don't really get the appeal behind Minesweeper, Picross, and other "pure" puzzle games of this type. My love of puzzle games lies with first-person puzzlers and you will hear more about that later on. No, I love this game simply because I have a parasocial relationship with its developer and I am very proud of him for releasing this it. If you haven't watched MatthewMatosis' reviews and game analysis, you are in for a treat. I hope the next game he makes is more up my alley, but it is still a good logic puzzler for those so inclined (and who are smarter than me).

 

Botany Manor

You know that one meme about Disco Elysium being supposedly better if you stripped it of all meaning and it focused on a young witch in the alps searching for her neighbor's lost cat? This game is, like, the atmosphere that person wanted but without the part where you're a huge jackoff retard. And by that I mean it's very comfy. Almost feels like it started its life as the cover of a cozy mystery book that only a slightly depressed post-menopause woman would deign to pick up from its dusty Barnes & Noble shelf.A first-person puzzler where you play as an elderly botanist growing fantastical plants throughout her large and beautiful mansion by solving easy logic puzzles. Artstyle obviously copped from The Witness, but that's a good thing! It's got all the saturated colors and detailed architecture that I like. Only issues are, well, really big ones. Way too expensive for how short and easy it is in the end. I 100%'d this one in about 5 hours and it cost like $18 on sale. It was a nice little time, but it was not $18 of nice. If this goes on like a 65%+ sale it might be worth a pickup.

10. The Ten Bells

Last year I said that I was very thankful that The Exit 8 (which now has a movie that I need to watch) had introduced me to the genre of Anomaly-Spotting Horror. Unfortunately it seems most of them suck huge ass and are Russian asset flips. Not this game though! It's short, but it has a story, a decent artstyle, and some scary spooks. I will say that all of the anomalies are very in your face and almost impossible to miss, which detracts from the game a bit. Exit 8's subtlety lent it a lot of its enjoyment.

 

9. Crashphalt

Crashphalt is a fun little indie game that's gone relatively unknown since its release in 2018 and ahahahahahah no can't do it. This is the game you install as the backdoor to play Undertale multiplayer online. Silent and I didn't finish this because I had to go underway near the end of our playthrough, but it's Undertale, and it's Undertale with my best friend. Fun way to play and having two Frisks just standing there and looking at stuff lent a lot of humor to the experience. Also, I pretty much only added this to the top 10 so the Ten Bells could be at place #10.

 

8. Secret Agent Wizard Boy and the International Crime Syndicate

I picked this game up from a /v/ thread about moments in videogames that are only possible due to the medium. Some anon stated that this game had a portion where you were expected to clip out of bounds to get somewhere. Unfortunately that ended up being false; the clipping area was simply unfinished. This game is, however, inherently funny and has a lot of potential. It's a sandbox where you play as a shitty Harry Potter expy in the gm_construct of Hogwartses. There's a story sure, but the game exists to fuck around with. It had just started to tap into the sociopathic wizard fantasy I wanted out of it when I played it with very strange and niche spells, and I think it's only gone further in that direction since I did. Will pick this back up once it hits 1.0 and is a little more stable and hopefully even more morally myopic.

 

7. Mindwave Demo

Ever since the latter half of 2007 there has been a giant Warioware: Smooth Moves shaped hole in the Warioware: Smooth Moves-shaped heart. Even the Switch Wariowares didn't fill it (and weren't very good if you remember my previous GOTY posts...)! But imagine my fucking shock when I open up a demo for a quirky indie game on Steam and get blasted with Tomorrow Hill 2. This is clearly and proudly a Warioware-inspired microgame collection game with its own characters and story, which are also very promising. What's with Wario where he just inspires people? That fat Italian is the muse of many, and I obviously couldn't be happier with how much I love Pizza Tower, like Antonblast, and am salivatingly awaiting this game's full release. I'm pretty sure I'm committing some kind of sin by placing a demo in my top ten but keeping the world-ender that is Deltarune chained up in its cabin basement prison. Ah well, my list my rules. Break it down white girl!

 

6. Rift of the Necrodancer

I think this marks the point where we start leaving the minor leagues. Like, these next few aren't gonna win the cup, but it'll be a damn good game if you ever saw one. Despite being lowest on the list of "real" games I actually played this year, I think Rift might have the most hours dumped into it out of all of these this year? I may have played a certain racing game a little more. This is the next entry in the Crypt of the Necrodancer series, following the titular entry and Cadence of Hyrule. This is a traditional rhythm game, which I have never been very good at. I do best with pure rhythm like Rhythm Heaven or with hybrid games like the original CotN, BPM, or Metal: Hellsinger. But I made it my goal to really practice at this game. And I succeeded! I'm still far below the talent of those who are truly into rhythm games, but I have gotten good enough to beat a lot of tracks on Hard, one or two on Impossible, and get a handful of Full Clears. This is similar to Guitar Hero and others of that ilk, but with a twist: the notes are replaced with the enemies of the CotN games and retain their movement patterns. It creates a very cool flowstate where you need to both accurately follow the song and logic out the notes' behavior simultaneously. The game's base soundtrack is quite solid and carries some new Danny B. originals, but the sauce lies in the custom tracks for me. Thankfully a lot of people are providing content on the workshop for those like me who are of a particularly mid skill level. My personal favorite is the custom track for the beautifully, infamously shitty Five Nights at Freddy's fansong "Jackie's Box". I have practiced that song so much that I am now ranked top 10 globally.

 

Also they made every woman in this game impossibly hot holy MOLY I need to fuck Dove right NOW.

 

5. Dispatch

You know what I have been missing all these years without knowing so? Telltale games. You know what this game is and I had no idea that it was going in? Yeah no points for getting it right. Dispatch is a game about Robert Robertson, a superhero going by the persona of Mechaman. One day a gang of villains put his mechsuit into the dumpster and the boy is too broke to fix it. He's put into the shoes of a Suicide Squad handler of a team of ex-villains to make ends meet. Honestly if I hadn't been tracking this game before it gained traction I'd have just expected some MCU or DCU slop, but Dispatch is surprisingly genuine and heartfelt. I really came to care for most of the crew towards the end of my time with them. The visuals are quite nice, I actually rather like the dispatching mingame each episode has a small taster of, and the writing is snappy and fun while also being surprisingly staightforward with its premise. No subversion for subversion's sake like most superhero media seems to flock to like Texans to the nearest Bucc-Ees. Good on them, looking forward to The Wolf Among Us 2 with refreshed optimism.

 

4. Pools

This is a simple one to clear up. You know all those Youtube shorts and Tiktoks and other brainrot that focus on the wrong version of the backrooms. Like haha scary monster shit? Like this, citing one of my favorite videos on the world wide web:

 

 

As fucking funny this video is, it really encapsulates how the majority of people have misinterpreted what makes the Poolrooms/Backrooms so compelling. I'm in it for the aesthetics, dreamlike absurdity, weird noneuclidean geometry, and feeling of isolation and solitude. I'm pretty sure I started a thread on this very forum like a decade ago called "Loneliness in Gaming" and Raz made a little fun of me? Regardless, that love of solitude in games has remained. And Pools has scratched this itch among others. It's a straightforward and pure interpretation of the Poolrooms with no monsters or jumpscares, just droning ambience and your mind making it creepy. Add in fun Easter eggs and impressive setpeices and you've got a winner. They even added in an extra DLC chapter for free! Looking forward to more from these devs. Only gripe is that the controls and visual settings are sub-par and always feel a little oily to look at.

 

3. Mario Kart World

Apparently this is the worst Mario Kart ever made? Or at least it would be if you were to listen only to the Internet's opinions. From what I've heard, the online is riddled with flaws, people hate the item balance and track choices, and so many other issues. But I mentioned above how I detest the base gameplay of Mario Kart, and I am eating good. 

 

I'd be hard-pressed not to say that MKW's open world is the second-best Nintendo has put out, only barely behind BotW's. Sure, Knockout tour is a fun and cool take on the formula and Grand Prix has one extremely kino moment, but the meat of what makes MKW special lies in the open world. The whole game's theming around advertisements and road trips and roadside attractions is intertwined with its open world, and it really feels like you're coasting down route 66, ready to stop and look at the world's biggest ball of yarn or something equally stupid. I've gotten about 85% of the collectables in the open world, and continue to drive around aimlessly looking for more. The chill feeling and style of the journey is something really special, and to someone who doesn't like the classic formula, this fresh new take on the franchise is a godsend.

 

This game also has my favorite moment out of any game this year. More than Ralsei's speech or the Snowgrave scenes, more than reaching room 46, more than seeing that big fat fuck at the end of Bananza. That moment where you start off at Peach Stadium and race down that straight line, only to be treated to the view of rainbow road and hear this godly, insanely beautiful track start to play... and eventually as you begin lap 5 and swirls of green, purple, and orange surround the final phase of the music track.... Ludokino at its best. This Rainbow Road is now my second favorite video game music track of all time, and will remain there for years.

 

EDIT: In my 2 AM stupor, I forgot to mention the rest of the soundtrack. I believe this game should hold the title for best ensemble soundtrack of all time. This beats out any smash bros and I am like 90% sure it was a Mario 40th anniversary album before being put into this game. It will probably get its own top ten in the favorite music tracks down below.

 

2. Donkey Kong Bananza & Emerald Rush DLC

Silent has summed up most of my feelings. It's fun to be a big dumb ape and crush everything! The game is fun, stylish, cute, and how the fuck does it work? Amazing.

 

What I'd like to touch on are two parts of the game that I didn't expect to enjoy quite so much: The story and the roguelike DLC mode added to the game a couple months after release, Emerald Mode.

 

Emerald mode is a well-crafted post-michelein star meal creme brulee' designed as a delicious last bite to fill up those who want MORE of this game. It's a great way to really prove your mastery of the game's mechanics, and feels right at home with the rest of the game. Was it endgame content cut out and repackaged for $20? Mmmmmaybe, but I really enjoyed it, and I have since maxed out the progression on it. High entry cost, but I don't regret a minute or dollar spent on this DLC.

 

The other thing is the story in the base game. Yeah, yeah who cares about story in a Mario game........... fuck yuo.............. The plot of Bananza was surprisingly heartfelt and touching, and I think it really owes that all to the single fully-voiced character in the game, Teenage Pauline. Like I said above, Pauline's always been my favorite Mario character. I was a pretty big fan of the Mario vs Donkey Kong line of games, thought the busty bombshell in Odyssey was really fun and hot, and she's cool in Mario Kart. Her younger iteration here is the heart and soul of the game, as is the jock brother-kid sister relationship she and DK build through the game. All of the getaway conversations she has throughout exploring the layers adds a LOT to her personality as a goofy, excitable kid who loves what life has to offer. Her motivation is basic kid's game plot stuff, but she's just a very charming character personality and designwise. I won't lie that the ending scene where she waves DK off got to me just a little bit. Now they just need to port that personality over to her adult self and we'll have a new breed of female mainline Mario character: one with a personality.

 

1. Blue Prince

Yep, here it is. Silent said it best above. The most Witness and Outer Wilds-like game I've played since those two, but what it reminded me of was, similar to his experience, a puzzle book I owned in my youth. The Eleventh Hour was a picture book full of puzzles, hints, and ciphers that I adored as a kid. One was tasked with figuring out the culprit of a meal heist, choosing between a host of animal suspects. Blue Prince is the closest I've come to feeling that cryptic, "how far does this shit go?" puzzle nirvana since. I won't go too deep, but reaching Room 46 is act one of four, and I've loved every step. If you like puzzles at all, play this game. Maybe I have superhuman patience, but the RNG barely annoyed me at all. Keep with it and there's an insane wealth of depth to this game. Truly a masterpiece, and one of my favorite games of all time.

Marvel Rivals

Yes, yes I know this is rich coming from the only Overwatch 2 player in the year of our Lord 2026, but I didn't enjoy this game all that much. Overwatch is really undervalued for the quality of its visual and audio design, and those were my top issues with this game. Everything is so muddled! Could barely tell what heroes were on the map, there were 4 blue-clad blonde white women, and I just didn't have much fun. Very cool takes on the Marvel cast though, hope they do more with this set of designs.

 

Everybody's Gone to the Rapture

Bad and bland walking sim I've had in library for like five years made by the people who made Dear Esther I can't even dunk on this properly because it ran at like 15 FPS on my decent PC. I want my money back from 2021 or whatever.

 

Pokemon Legends Arceus

Yeah, finally gave this a solid try and bounced off of it after like five hours of trying. Just doesn't gel with me and is remarkably ugly. I do not like open-world Pokemon and I want to fuck Irida.

Best girls:

-Blonde Blazer

-Pauline

-Irida

-Malevola

-Abbie

-Dove

-Carol Holiday

-Noelle..................

 

Best men:

-Flambae

-Donkey Kong

-Gerson Boom

 

Best protagonist:

Robert Robertson

Mario Kart World:

 

Mindwave Demo:

 

Rift of the Necrodancer:

 

Dispatch:

 

DK Bananza:

 

Blue Prince:

 

Pokemon Legends ZA: (I am choosing to include this because I like this track that much:

 

Deltarune Chp 3&4 (Choosing different tracks from Silent to showcase the variety.......

 

Thank you to copy/paste as well.

 

Top Priority:

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Metal Gear Solid...

Control

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes

 

Most interested:

Onimusha(s)

Persona 3/4

Not for Broadcast

No More Heroes(es)

Night in the Woods

Nine Sols

Metaphor: ReFantazio

Halo Reach & ODST

Half Life Alyx

Black Mesa

DDLC

Devil May Cries

Road 96

Red Dead Redemption 2

Lolipop Chainsaw Repop (/w music restoration mod)

ENA: Dream BBQ

Black Mesa

The Cabin Factory

Metroid Dread

Paper Mario TTYD

Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask

 

Medium Interest:

Perfect Tides

ULTRAKILL

Titanfall 2

SBCG4AP

Pyre

Mullet Madjack

Carrion

Bayonetta

Animal Well

Void Stranger

Tiny Glade

Lofi Spirit Sessions

Penny's Big Breakaway

Onirism

Metroid Prime Trilogy

RE4

Killer7

Chicory: A Colorful Tale

Cast n' Chill

 

If I have time:

Monster Prom

All the Yakuzas

Spiritfarer

Rain World

Hunt Down the Freeman

Trepang2

Fran Bow

Fight Knight

 

Don't want to finish until Deltarune Chapter 7 is out because they probably have similar endings:

OMORI

 

Frontlog:

Bioshock 4...

Judas...

Deltarune chp 5

Haunted Chocolatier

Rhythm Heaven Groove

Tomodatchi Life Living the Dream

Woon?

Mouse: PI For Hire

Big Walk