Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Kinda Funny's Game of the Year 2025

Episode Date: January 12, 2026

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What's up and welcome to a very special Kind of Funny Gamescast for Monday, January 12th, 2026th. Of course, I'm your host Tim Gettys. I'm joined today by Blessing Eddie O. O. Ye Jr. Good day, Tim. Snowbike Mike. What up, Tim? Roger McCornie.

Good day, Kim. And, bam. He likes to think it's so easy being out. It's a bike fuck me fucking up first. That feels good. You messed it up. You messed it up. Matching the set that he designed it's Andy Cortez. Hello, Tim.

Hello. Of course, we have Barrett Courtney running the boards as well. This is our game of the year 2025 episode. So, of course, we all had to show up and we're about to have a ton of fun today. If you're watching live, be a part of the show by super chatting on YouTube.com slash kind of funny games. what your game of the year is. What's your top five? Fuck it. What's your top 10?

I want to know. Remember, we couldn't do this without our producers on patreon.com slash kind of funny. So thank you to James Hastings, Carl Jacobs, and Omega Buster. So let's start with it.

The topic of the show? Tats. Kind of funnies. Game of the year, 2025. This is our top 10. The last couple weeks we've been talking in various ways,

whether it's the Smilies, kind of awarding all the video games of 2025. Amazing episode, guys. I'm very sad. I got to miss it. I watched the entire thing. Y'all crushed it. Good jobs. If you didn't watch it or listen, you should do that after you watch or listen to this. Because this is it. This is the big one. This is where each one of us has submitted our final top 10 list of games from 2025 to bear it. He is the only person that has that information. We do not know what's on anyone else's list.

All of the numbers are aggregated into one final top 10 list that we will reveal live for our first time, first time from 10 all the way to number one, there might be ties. If that math, math in a way that there's ties, number eight might have two games. It might have three games. Bless, it might have four. No, we got to draw the line somewhere. It might have 10 games. It might happen.

So that is what's going to go now. You're excited for that, Greg. I am, and I'm glad you kicked to me. All right. Barrett playing. I'm kidding. There's no music to play. I wanted to say something.

Blessing stump me a couple weeks ago. Maybe it was the beginning of this week. maybe it was last week of work, I forget. But we were talking about how we do, how we do the top tens here, right? And I was like, well, you know, like, there's a million different ways to do your game of the year. And obviously, every site, every publication podcast is different.

And that's great. And I'm like, we could do a thing where we got into a room like IGN, and we all argued for our game and then pick a game that way. And bless it's like, well, yeah, that'd be kind of cool if we did that or whatever. I was like, well, yeah. And I think he was even like, well, what makes our special? And I kind of fumbled my answer. What I love about the way we do our top 10 is that I think it's,

so indicative of what the mindset of the company is. We're always so clear to call out that, you know, we're an 11-person small business, right? And like how much each one of us and our contributions make kind of funny, kind of funny. And I feel that, yeah, we could go into a room and we could have a fight the good fight for game A versus game X and eventually try to get people on your side

and do the whole thing and win the votes. And then that's the, I like the idea of, we come in as 11 individuals, not obviously everybody votes, but we come in as the number of individuals that votes. We give our top 10 that are definitively us, that are the games that defined our year. We put it out there that then becomes what this list is

and what the game of the year is for a company that represents that way. And it is today just about celebrating what we love in games for a year. I love that. Yeah. And on top of that, too, I do love that we, because we have the daily games cast, we can still do the other way.

Like, I feel like the final games cast of the year, I think it was last year, was a couple of you guys kind of like having more debate-style conversation about the games, which I think is great and valuable too. But yeah, I'm with you, Greg. I really think this is a super fun way to just celebrate. You know what I mean?

It's just like this isn't about being mad to the game that you have as number one, isn't number one. It's more about celebrating as a group, all of us love these games so much. Barrett, I see you popping up there. You got something to say? Just thinking about the uniqueness of our game of the year as well, something that, you know,

we've been doing it like this. Technically since 2020, I think 2020 was the last year where it was still only four people voting. But I love the idea of like a lot of our best content is our live reactions. And that's something that really sticks out to me, rather than everybody, all the other outlets, is it's y'all reacting to the first time

along with everybody else watching live. And we've been doing that since 2020, essentially. And so that's the thing that, like, I really appreciate about how we do game of the year is kind of, like, sticking to something that, like, is very kind of funny to me. And what I love, too, is that this was such a good year for video games.

And I know just talking. you guys for the last year. We all agree on some things and disagree on others. Like there are so many games that I have no idea what this list is going to look like. I have a good idea maybe about the top, but like I don't know about the bottom of this list. Like, do you guys have any bold predictions you want to throw out? I think the question that I got yesterday in Twitch chat was who's going to have the least amount of games in the top 10? And it was so hard to answer.

I think Mike is the obvious answer. It's clearly me. But I promise you it's me. No, but there will, but this will be the year where like, if you have the least, the next person might have one less. And then the next person, and then there might be a four-way tie for like that, you know, I think all of the taste this year is like there's three to four-ish games and the rest of them are just kind of crap shoots. Who knows? Yeah. Very interesting.

Who will have the most? Who will have the least? I'm more, I'm mostly curious about two through five. Yeah. Two through five is where I think things get a bit more competitive. Number one, I think it's an easy prediction. I'm not going to say. but I think that's a given.

No one can predict what it would be. Two through five is where I get like, all right, but like, you know, how much did y'all love X game versus the other game, you know? So I'm excited to get up there. And it gets tough. We have a while till we get there, because we got to start with number 10.

This is Kind of Funnies game of the year list for 2025. Number 10. And Roger. Yeah. Okay. Hell yeah. Love that. Sneaking in there at that top spot of the bottom of the list.

Me and Greg talked about this during the Smiley's. Tim, you weren't here for the Smiley's. I want to hear you talk about and Roger. Well, and Roger, not on my list. Oh. Not on my list, which I'm surprised to see it get in here. Having not, whose list was it on here? My list.

My list as well. Just the two of you? Damn. Two people's list got it on the top ten. Very interesting. I did love the game a lot, and I gave a review. of it on games casting that like if you are into like artsy indie games

definitely play this one and go in not knowing anything and I think it'll hit really hard and depending on your life experiences maybe hit too hard like it did for me but yeah really love it I think it is a perfect example of a story that was enhanced by being

a video game like it's the gameplay and the story back each other up in such unique way that you just can't get from any other form of storytelling but yeah really really love that Roger yeah I think there's like a certain category of video game for me where they take video games seriously enough as a medium to try and do something really special with it in terms of message and story. I look at a gone home, right?

Like I look at an immortality, right? Like those games that are, we might describe as art games, but there's a level of creativity that is so beyond that. Right. Like there's a level of creativity that I look at. I play and I'm like, oh, this not only is a quote unquote art game, this is a game that respects video games, right? And does such a good job of acknowledging of anyone. That's so funny. Just look at the wall.

Sorry, I noticed Ben Stars. Just the human being? That's not going to Ben Star image. Behind the two. Well, his face was in dead take. I was just a shout out Dead Tick. He was in four different spots on the wall. Ben Stey.

But yeah, the fact that they're able to take subject matter that is, that that he's tackling as serious, right? And, like, translate it to mechanics that really, really enhance the story that they're telling it that was really powerful and really well done. Yeah, as you know, not to, you know, echo everything you said and add a little bit more right that we kind of touched on the smile. Again, I think Ann Rogers is a great example of what video games are as a storytelling medium. Again, it's why I love the kind of games I love most of the

time is that this gets to put you in someone else's shoes. This gets to let you experience something that is a nightmare. It's so many different ways, right, of waking up and who is this man in your house and then having to figure out what's going on and being. confused and working through that and going on and then having the aha moments of what's going on. Like this is a game that I think is so powerful because it hopefully gives you an experience you will never have to experience in real life. Yeah. Definitely check out and Roger.

Shout out to it making the list. Very, very cool. Are we saying where it was on your list or no? I think we're saving that for the time then. Okay, gotcha. So then we move on to number nine. Number nine. Ghost of Yote.

Oh, nice. Okay. Okay. Okay. Ghost of Yote. Oh, okay. Bless, was this on your list? No.

Greg, was this on your list? I believe it was. Yeah, it was. It was not on yours. It was not on mine. Roger, was it on yours. Roger, kick us off. What did you think?

Yeah, Gosee Yote is a game that took me by surprise in a lot of ways because I liked Ghost of Sushima a lot. I don't think I loved it as much as a lot of people, but it was a fun experience. But Yote, for me, like, it had all those quality of life improvements that kind of ratcheted it up. And also, the story is just so incredible. The way that they weave Atsu's journey from her childhood all the way to adulthood and the twists and the turns.

It is such a compelling experience that, again, really took me by surprise. I adored it. I wanted to play it every single day. I wanted to platinum it. Of course, life got in the way. But, you know, when you have that itch against somebody who does not platinum anything or have that desire to do that, you know, you want to play it. when you have that feeling it's like oh shit this is something special for me yeah for sure so yeah

i i adored this experience and i'm very excited for legends which again did not expect to be excited for that at all so yeah i'm very is super high on my list i don't necessarily want to see the number yet but super high on my list and are we so are we agreeing barren is that the thing we're not going to give away our numbers uh yeah if we want to i feel like we talked about placements last year i thought we did too so yeah too i didn't want to okay well i'll just say yeah this is number two on my list. Oh wow. Okay. So it's super high up. I give it a 9.5 and I stand by that. This is a really amazing experience and it's it stayed with me the entire year. Bless, I know you were huge on legends. So sorry, Gose Yote did not make your list here. Are you excited for Yote Legends?

Oh, I'm so excited for the Yote Legends. Yeah, this is one where this is where the bottom part of my list got kind of tough to figure out. Like this would have lived if me and Andy did rallied for the top 15s. It would have lived in that 11 to 15 space for sure. Um, This is one that I'm happy to see make the list because I was worried that we wouldn't even see it on the list. Yeah, right? I think there's, you know, we can go back and forth as far as games iterating, AAA games, open world games, what things do differently, what things do the same. But I think at the very end of it, Ghost of Yote, I think puts together an experience that learn from what people liked about Ghost of Tsushima and refined it in ways that I think really work well for what it is.

I love being in that world as Atsu. I think that as a main character, she worked so well in the story there as far as a, revenge plot in video games. We've seen that countless times. I think this one was done particularly well. I think there's something about the characters that they introduce and how the stories interweave back into what ATS is going through.

That is really engaging and really good. And yeah, I think the game does a really good job but just like, you know, piggybacking off of what goes to Tsushima brought to the table, which is fun combat, a beautiful world, and a fun world to explore. Yeah, this is on my list. I had it at number eight, a game.

I gave a nine when we were viewed and standby. I think it's a amazing sound MRI film brought to a video game, right? The way you play between these protagonists as you go after the Yote 6. The surprises in there where, you know, some of them I thought, all right, that's predictable. And then others are like, holy shit.

You're okay. You know what I mean? Like, that was awesome. You know, the tips to the hat for Sushima, the sucker punch Easter eggs, the way the map worked, finding the little things and moving them in to put them on your map, rain on it,

all this stuff. Like, Gosevete is a very special game. I just think that, you know, it may be coming after Susha take some of its thunder away because it's iterating and improving on a game we already did love as well but I absolutely adored this one.

Yeah, I think the thing that blew me away was the way that the world came to you and the story came to you and I had so many, they're not emergent gameplay moments because they're handcrafted but I think that's what's so special about it because it felt emergent.

It felt like I'm just running around or oh my God, this character came to me and this brand oh now I'm doing the side quest or now I'm doing this main story thing and I was just randomly going off into a completely different direction. So the way that they were able to make that feel kind of elevated,

comparatively to a lot of the open world PlayStation or just, you know, Ubisoft Fair, it feels different, it feels unique. And I think this is like the level of handcraftedness that I think you need to kind of stand out in this landscape of, hey, we've been there, done that, we've done this a million times. This game is really special.

I'm going to be championing it specifically the way that they built out the story and made it so different. And Erica Ishi just killed it. Hilled it. Oh, my God. Fantastic performance. comments from her. Anyone else have anything to say about Ghost of Yote? That's awesome game. Everybody should play. Yeah, 100%. Before we move on, let's go back a little bit,

because we are talking about our rankings then. For Ann Roger, where did you guys have that, Greg and Bless? I had Ann Roger at number four. Number four. Super high on my list. I mean, like, you know, when I sit there for that game of the year, it's like, what defined my year? And I think what's interesting when we get in, you know, after this episode, the rest of the games cast this week are top 10 lists, right? And they are like when we go through and talk about it. And I really think there's a breaking point in my list where you get into a bunch of games that I loved and adored and had a great experience with, but didn't necessarily have that lasting power where when I think of 2026, that's what I think of.

Ghost of Yote being one of them, right? I think we throw around the word frictionless a lot. And it is that great experience and I had so much fun, but it's almost summer blockbustery where you leave. And that's not the film you think about the rest of the way. And so, yeah, my top five are in a very interesting place in terms of what pushed me, pulled me, what I can't stop playing versus the back have for like great experiences that I was able to put down

and walk away and be complete with. Yeah. And Roger for me was my number seven on my list. And we'll talk about when we get into the top tens of like that tiering where it is like, all right, this for me is like the topest of tiers of this year and like how does that fit in? And Roger at number seven is one for me

where I think right below that most high tier, which is crazy to say that I have like six games in that high tier. But that's the kind of year that we're having right below it. And Roger was the game for me that was the most, emotionally impactful, right? The game that moved me the most, the game that made me feel things, which shot it up there.

But yeah, no, going back to Ghost De Ote, right? Like, that's one where, again, in that, I guess, second tier, that third, in those tiers, it's a battle.

Like, that was a tough one to weigh in those ways. Yeah, and Fran and Roger, it'll be fun to talk about that in the top 10. There, I think I'm going to spoil it.

We're going to talk about what it's about. Because I've played a similar game in recent memory that I want to compare and contrast why this one is, I think head and shoulders above the one before it. This was 11 for me. Yeah. Fell just out.

Yeah, it was in that 11 to 13 range. I didn't fully flush out my like post 10, but it was like on the short list. It just didn't quite make the top 10. But let's get into kind of funnies, number eight. Number eight, Eldon Ring Nightbrace. Oh, oh. And skate early access. He fucking did it.

They fucking did it, everybody. Let's start. Let's get Mike off the bench. Let's start with some skate. Tell me all about it. Yeah, man. I'm on skate and Eldon Ring, actually, Tim. So I get a little fun back to back, but we'll focus on the skates.

The good and the bad, the year that it's had. But most importantly, the return of one of the most fun games that I have ever played in my life in the game that I enjoy the most playing. And that's skate. I love the fluid nature of it all. I love the flow. I love the flicket stick is right. And just having skate come back in early access, having skate come back into my life is such a big deal

because it feels so good to play. You can put on your own playlist. You can listen to their playlist. And you just kind of get lost in the world, right? That's what it's all about is finding your flow, your style, your stees, as I like to call it, and just getting lost in that headspace. And nothing is better than a, after a long day of work,

coming home with the homies and maybe having a spot battle or just finding your own spot, finding that nice downrail and smashing that nose blunt on it, right? Or finding the mega ramp and just going all out with backflips, front flips, 900s, whatever. And so skate having that return,

like I said, the good and the bads, right? There's a lot of bad to this early access launch, but there is a lot of good. And the gameplay is what is good. The moment to moment, the feel on the sticks, the momentum that you feel into that trick when you land it and you go, yeah, hell yeah, that was awesome.

that is really something that I love about this franchise and I love about this game. Greg? Yeah, I play skate every day. I think we've talked throughout the years it's kind of funny whether it be Diablo or some other games as a service that comes around and I was talking about, man, I would love to have a game

that I could check in and blah blah. Inevitably our jobs and our career move you so far from the point that the idea of dropping into Diablo right now for a session, I'd be like, what the fuck am I doing? Skate is a game that I check in every night on and whether it's just I'm claiming the free currency or whatever for the Rolstice or I'm doing it for the stuff they're doing right now

the season tokens it'll be I'm gonna I'll do one while I'm here and then it'll often be no no I'm gonna spend an hour and a half doing this it is that thing of the amount of times I've been reviewing a game and I'm like oh it's 11 15 these eyes are getting heavy but I didn't check in on skate and then before I know it it's 12 15 I'm like fuck okay gotta go to bed now real bad you know what I mean like it is that game and I think I know the chat is jovially upset, maybe really upset about it and stuff like that. Like, there's no character here.

This is, and this isn't, uh, me looking past the faults as Mike is talking about. Skate controls so fucking well. I think Skate's biggest flaw is that skate is not Skate 4. And that's what it's been destroyed about to this day on the Skate subreddit. Everybody shows up. I cannot get over how good skate feels to play. And the story I would give you about it is that when, even before Skate, arrived, Ben started getting into skate boarding.

And it was going to skate parks and stuff like that. And I kept telling Jan, I'm going to buy him a board and I'm going to buy myself one. And Jen said, you are not buying a board. You are 42 years old. You cannot skate. You're going to fall on and break. I'm like, Jen, I just want to roll. I don't want to do a trick.

I don't want to do a trick. I just want to roll next. And she's like, no, no, no, no. And then it was like talking to one of my friends who grew up skating. I'm like, I'm going to get a board. He's like, you are not getting a board that you will die. And it's like, that is what skate is filling for me. of I jump in and yeah, fucking the stupid AI bodvie is,

I muted her hundreds of hours ago in this game, right? Like I drop in and I go skate. And I mean like some days I do the challenges. Sometimes I do the season pass. Lots of times I just go to the southwest corner and use that skate park and just roll in the skate park and just chill. The amount of times out there you'll see me playing at my desk. It's not me fucking off.

It's that, man, I need to come up with kind of futy questions. I want to clear my mind. Man, I am not having a good day. I want to go skate a little bit. Like skate is fucking awesome on a gameplay level. Let's get mad about whatever else you want to get mad about. The fortnightification, this that, the other. Fuck that, though. It plays well.

And I do believe that in a year to 18 months, it probably won't exist. Like, I don't think, who the fuck? Games is service. That is not a 2026 thing. EA in general, EA about to be owned by Saudi Arabia. I don't think that they're going to be like, yeah, let's keep pouring money into this thing. But for what it is, it is so much fun to play. It is the best.

controlling game I've played this year. That's why I put it at number two. Number two. No shade. No crazy. And again, this isn't a character. This is me telling you as somebody who's poured so many hours into this game. It just is fun to play. Fuck yeah. Yeah, this didn't make my list, but like I do legit think it's some of the most fun I've had this year of the three of us with a couple of other gibronies just randomly not even on comms playing with each other and getting to sessions. It's a like playing that game, the actual act of playing that game is just a great reminder of how the foundation of the skate gameplay is so good. And I do think, you know, it reminds me of a lot of how well skate three controlled. But I imagine if we go back to

skate three after playing this one, there's a couple of differences probably where it's like, oh, they definitely have like updated some things to make it a bit more modern feeling. Everything around it, I absolutely hate and it definitely made me bounce off of the game. But I can't deny that, like, in terms of gameplay. It was just, it was such a great time and to hang out with y'all while playing it. Like, I totally get it. That first streamback was magical. Like, hanging out as we're all trying to get the game to work.

And, like, you know, try to connect and trying to actually, like, get past all the bugs that were there on day one. But getting to the point where me, like, I started in on a challenge that was basically like, oh, jumped down from here and then launch over the thing while you'd manual across the bridge or whatever. I started down that. And it brought me back to playing, like, the original skate games, right? It brought me back to what I like about these games, which is the trial and air and just the pure feel of it. There's something that inherently just works about that. And so, like, being, playing a version of this game

that wants you to just exist in a space with others, that is going after that kind of the live service thing. But I think working, at least for the time that I played the game, which I wish I played more, but the style of the substance of it didn't bring, didn't continually bring me in. I do think that, to your point, Greg, there is something about just that inherent feeling of skating around and hanging out that works.

That is satisfying for you. And that's the, you know, the pushing pull. I'm never trying to yuck anybody's yums, or I guess in this case, yom anybody's yucks. But so many people's big complaint was it doesn't feel like skate culture. And like, I get that if you're chasing the missions, which I really feel are the training wheels to get you to learn how the game works. Because skate culture, and I'm not a skater as much as I want to be. My wife won't let me. But like, we just went to the skate park this weekend with Ben, right?

And he's out there and it's all these adults who are doing stuff. And Ben walked up to a guy who was like, can you do a kickflip? And the guy's like, yeah, I can. It's been a few decades. and he went down there. He's like, I'm 49 years old. So 10 tries is one try. And the dude did it on a seventh try.

And it was just a community of people hanging out and having fun. And like, that to me is what this game is when I turn it on and I go off and I do that. And I think granted, they gave us the founders pass, but if they hadn't, I wouldn't have spent money in it yet. Like,

it's like, I think there's a lot of bad terminology thrown on top of it, but I think there's a great game there. Greg, if that guy can do a kickflip, still can you. Yeah. But he had been doing it for years.

He had been doing it when he was still jello. You know what he's like, Hey, jungle. It is where he couldn't earn it. Oh, my God. Okay, so it was number two on Greg's list. Mike, where was it for you? Number seven for me.

Number seven for Mike. Was it on anyone else's list, Roger? No. No. We make Roger's list there. Then let's talk about the second tie for number eight. Eldon Ring, Night Rain. We got to start with Andy.

This game is so good, and it's a game that I doubted. And I thought it was going to cheapen the Eldon Ring experience for me. and I already saw like I saw the worst future possible of you know we're here's a you know a near automata we're putting 2B in Eldon Ring and we're putting

fucking Yoshi and just like weird shit you know the guys from the boys you know who's Homelander and and I you know I Tim was really it was mainly Tim who was selling me on like an awful future of what this game could be if it starts to make money and like the battle pass

like oh man man, that's kind of like cheap it's something that's so special to me. And it just straight up didn't. I think this game has been the most games as a service game as it possibly could be, but on from software's terms and on Bandai Namco's terms. And I'm sure they would love to really cheaping the experience with a lot of like buy the in-game currency and buy these skins or whatever, but it's all just done kind of in-house in that video game. And Night Rain is a game that I felt was really, really messy at the start.

and there was this idea of, wow, it's like, it's like a battle royale ring kind of closing in. It's really weird and chaotic and super fast. And then the more and more I played, I think this is my most played game this year. I probably have like 120 hours in it. Wow. Still haven't been in awful at it.

It's just so good. It's so special. The different variety with the classes, the way that the world shifts and changes around, and playing with friends, yelling at Snowmike Mike, playing with, you know, Melissa with the Y,

who's our hard carry right now, and just having a freaking blast with it, Night Rain is a super special video game. This is number five on my list. Hell yeah. As the year went on, I just kept on playing it more and more. And I think dropping that DLC before the year ended,

boosted it a lot higher into my list because of the stuff that they added, quality of life additions. Still no crossplay. That will probably never happen. but I would really, really love to see that because I think you know, you still look on what the player base only on Steam is

and it's still like 30,000 concurrence. This isn't a PVP game. It's just the three player or solo or duo sort of like play against the world, play against the crazy bosses in this video game. It's a blast. It's a lot of fun. Hell yeah. Blast, did it make your list?

It did not make my list. This would have been my number 11. This is one that I was, I had to weigh it against certain other games. And I think there are enough things holding it back to where I critically couldn't put it in my top 10. But I do echo so much of what Andy's talking about as far as how good of a job, Elden Ring Nighterne does. I think being experimental with what it does with multiplayer and what it does with bringing people together in the from software world. You know, like, I remember the I remember the conversations about like, oh, they're going to monetize this thing.

I remember the first time we saw them flying in with like the fucking birds or whatever. and we're like, ah shit, Fortnite gliders, like it's gonna be one of them. It's over. It's over. And I, instead,

what you have is a studio that I think diligently looked at what other studios are doing and took the things that work about those games and made somewhat of a messy but really fun multiplayer game out of it.

And it's kind of crazy how much of the heart and soul it still carries, even though I think there are things where I'm like, ah, this, like, it kind of feels hobbled together in like the most like,

but it's fun at the end of the day kind of way. And I got to respect that. You know what I mean? So yeah, shout out to it. Shout out to also like the bosses, which I think are probably the best part of the game, in my opinion when you get to those,

when you get past those first couple of rounds and you get to that end of run boss. And each of them being unique, each of them being new for the most part. I forget of all them are new. I assume all them are new. Yeah, all them are new. Yeah, just super well designed,

especially for most player. Really, really fun game. Mike, where was it on your list? Yeah, I had it number four. Yeah. This is one of my favorite games of the year. This is my, I've said it before, my favorite FromSoft experience out of all of them. This is the one that I want to play all the time.

I've talked about it before. I love the co-op shared experience nature. And Bless said it so well like experimental, right? I really love what FromSoft did with this idea, right? And for me, it's the movement, right? The movement tech in this game is different from all the rest. All of a sudden, you are sprinting, you are double jumping. You're climbing up the side of mountain ridges.

And it's like, when you think of dark, souls in that lineage. It's slow, methodical, being smart about your parries and your dodge rolls. It is not, hey, me and Andy are going to jump off a hundred foot cliff. I'm going to double sprint taxman like call duty a thousand yards opposite way. And yeah, it's just this perfect mesh of discoverability with this open world map that I really enjoy finding all the secrets, finding the different flows from getting more health flasks, to getting magic wands, to going out and getting smithing stones in the caves, to then saying, okay, what is our game plan? What kind of kind of prep am I doing with my character, your character, and the options that we have

that really blend together. And yet for me, this has just been such a fun way to experience a FromSoft experience with these diehard bosses with your friends in a unique play style of having the ring close, day one completes. You go out there and do it again. I'm impressed that they didn't take the micro-transaction money way, right? They did it the From-Soft way. I would have been all over selling a battle pass, having different ways to fly.

in with gliders, having different unique costumes. Like, it was set up to just absolutely knock that out of the park if they wanted to. But they stood on business and they said, hey, that's not what FromSoft does, right? And so they proceeded to follow their path. They made us wait. They added different play styles from duos to different bosses with different tech into a whole DLC. And for me, I sat there doing the Fortnite thing of like, give me more, right? Give me another map.

Let's go. Give me this. And they took their time. And you know what? I enjoyed every moment of it. I really, really, I kudos to them for doing what they did. They kept me on and I,

I cannot say enough positive things about this. I can't wait for the future of what they do with the multiplayer space. I think they learned a lot from this. Of course, we know Dustbloods is around the corner. How will that attract players? But most importantly, what happens five years from now in their games, right?

And so, yeah, kudos. Shout out. Great game. What happens this year? We'll see. Anyone else have Eldon Rain? Eldon Ring Night Raid on their list. Okay. Then let's move on to number seven.

Number seven. Citizen Sleeper 2. Wow. Let's go. Bear, you're my guy. Andy Cortez, let's start with you. I mean, I wore the shirt. I just, you know, I had to just pray.

It was a Hail Mary to get anybody else to play this video came at. Because it's a lot of reading. but god damn what a special experience citizen sleeper two is to follow up an amazing an already like masterpiece i've been experienced with since the sleeper one uh two phenomenal games that i would recommend anybody play if you are into just the most amazing riding you'll experience in games i think the narrative it's telling the choices you're making while uh you know rolling dice and trying to be successful on runs and you know every run is not going to be okay every mission, I say run like it's a roguide,

but like the missions you're doing, you won't be successful all the time. This isn't a game where you're supposed to like feel, oh, hell yeah, massive W, dude, let's go on to the next. Like, that's not what this game is about. Let's min-max this shit. Yeah, this game is about like just experiencing these characters and these side quests and what are you going to prioritize,

trying to, you know, liberate this one colony that is like under really, really bad oppression, or are you going to go after this one thing that's going to help? some close friends of yours. And it's like, it's such an oppressive game and then manages to make you just feel like warmth in your heart

after so many missions where the writing is just so amazing and they let you know like, hey man, sometimes life's gonna fuck you in some ways and it's gonna be tough. But we're gonna get back up because together is humans, we can do this together.

And it's like so hopeful and amazing. This game rocks. I could not recommend it more. And it plays awesome on Steam Deck. Barrett, let's get you talking for the first time. What do you think of Citizen Sleeper, too? Yeah, I adore this game. I do echo Andy's sentiment.

I think it's the best written game of the year. This was my number four in terms of how strong the writing was. In terms of, like, world building and how the many layers of how this game feels like it's constantly oppressing you in terms of trying to just be a worker under this, like, hyper-capitalist society, while there's this. galactic corporate space war going on in the background, and you're just trying to figure out how to survive in your little corner. And I think this is a lot of reading,

but the main mechanic, right, of doing these dice rolls to have a chance to do something well during a job or to find a new crewmate, I think that mechanic also backs up this kind of feeling of everything coming apart at just one bad moment, one bad day that I think really makes the core themes of this game sing. And yeah, in terms of, you know, you and your homie who are just like trying to escape from this little corner of the galaxy like space mob and just figure yourself out,

but then also slowly learning about this entire community of planets and how they're all going through their own things. And it really, you know, it tugs at the heartstrings in a lot of ways and, you know, how they all come together to try to fight back against oppression under a hyper-capitalist society and going into trying to build something beyond you. And, you know, the way this game ends really destroyed me. And it was like one of those few, like, 1 a.m. just rolled credits and I am bawling my goddamn eyes out just because of how. strong the writing is in terms of what it's doing in terms of a community, what it's doing in terms of you as a single person trying to navigate all of this stuff, I think is really impressive. And yeah, I think the really impressive thing is how different, different

play-throughs can be, you know, like Blessing only played a little bit of it. But he got a character on his crew that I had never met in my entire campaign, right? You know, there's little things here and there. Like, I did something successful on one mission where Andy failed, but then the writing was strong enough that even if you fail something, it feels like it kind of happens for a story purpose still. And I was really blown away by this title. And yeah, Andy, I'm sorry for ever doubting you for the years of saying,

hey, play this game. And now I've got to go back to the first one. Yeah, the amount of people that have told me I played citizen zebra one, holy fuck. like it makes me so happy because again it's one of those things where whenever I watch a movie and I go oh man can you imagine if they made this in this movie with that writer and that director and that's how I feel it's like I want these writers to write for everything from now on just because of how elite it is this is number four on my list

brunswick writes in saying do you need to play the first game to get the second one you don't need to but there's a lot of there's some some connections uh you know characters that will make you go, oh shit from part one, you know, but you don't need to necessarily. Yeah, I still haven't played the first one, and I've fell head over heels for this one. Yeah, you're a different character in this video game. You are a different sleeper. And in this world, the sleepers are this person whose consciousness is, you essentially sell your consciousness and the rights of your mind to put your consciousness into the body of a robot to then just kind of work forever and work your debt away because you are in.

debt to whatever, you know, you decided to say like, hey, man, I'll give you my body if you give me food to eat or whatever. And so you're a different sleeper in this video game. And, uh, fuck, I was going to bring up a point and I totally blanked on it. Number one. Good good. Uh, we have got through our number 10, nine, tie at eight, and number seven picks for kind of funny's game of the year, 2025. We'll be right back with the rest of the list. Remember, you can get the Kind of Funny membership on Patreon.com slash Kind of Funny or YouTube.com slash Kind of Funny games to get the shows ad-free.

And speaking of ads, let us tell you about our sponsors. This episode is brought to you by Rocket Money. The amount of times Mike is signed up for something, forgotten about it after the trial period ends, and then been charged month after month after month, is quite frankly terrifying. He didn't even realize he was paying for SoundCloud for 10 years until Rocket Money helped find and cancel his unwanted subscriptions.

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Join at RocketMoney.com slash Kind of Funny. That's RocketMoney.com slash Kind of Funny. RocketMoney.com slash Kind of Funny. This episode is brought to you by Factor. It's a new year, which means new goals and even more things to take up our time. That's why so many of us here at Kind of Funny love Factor. Factor makes it easy with fully prepared meals designed by dietitians and crafted by chefs so you can eat well without the shopping or cooking.

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Howard the Duck joins MCU in review Wednesday, January 28th at 7.30 p.m. at Cobb's Comedy Club for SF Sketch Fest. You can come watch me. do all the podcast within a podcast you love, and they'll be going do do do do do do. Nick will be shopping for pants stirring it, but everybody else will be there too for you to come hang out and see.

All you have to do is go over to kind of funny.com slash sketch fest right now to get your tickets before they sell out. Because come and watching a bunch of people talk about a very old Howard the Duck movie is really selling tickets fast. And we're back with number six. Really quick. I remember what I wanted to say. say about Citizen Sleeper, too. While the writing

is very poetic, I think the other thing it does really, uh, accidentally in terms of character writing is making dialogue not feel like super, like flowery and like, like, um, I don't know, like, not too, like, overindulgent. Yeah, overindulant. Like, it really feels like

actual people just fucking talking and surviving, which really stood out to me as well. What I need you two to do is play disc olysm the director's cut. We can play on your phone now. Well, no. Don't play TikTok. No, no, no. That's true. That's right of my ad.

Yeah, I downloaded it. I was to play it on an actual thing. That's like Mike watching every Christopher Nolan film on his phone. That's fire. That's what he did. In on business. Also, we haven't said it. Shout out to Lucy James for doing VO this year.

Yeah, Lucy. Lucy. And shout out to her saying Lumines. She had like six different takes of like, I don't know how to say this name. She just like went through a bunch of different pronunciations. I texted her immediately. Let's get to number six. Number six.

Death Stranding 2 on the beach. Donkey Kong Bonanza. Oh, coded six. Oh, I'm so worried about blueprints. I'm so worried about it. Donkey Kong Bonanza makes it my first game on the list.

Wow. But not your last. Let's start with death stranding two on the beach. Roger. Where did I have it? I had it on number three.

Number three on my list. Who else had it? Had it on my list. Number four. Oh. Yeah. Three four, three four.

Mikey? Nope. Greg. I had it on my list. I had it at number ten, I do believe. My reasoning being is that I enjoyed it so much at launch and was having a great time with it. What's wrong, Barry? Am I wrong?

I don't see that game on your list. Oh. Double check. You and B. Three, four. Okay. At one point, it was number ten. No, I don't, then that's a problem, Bear.

Oh. D.K. Benanzas is number 10 on my list, according to, him, I think. Oh, I see the problem. He misspelled it. He said, D.K. Badaza. Sorry, I thought you guys were talking about Death Stranding. We are. Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Okay. Yeah.

DeStranded did not make me really scared. Big panic. Big panic. Death Trannock was my number 11. This was my one that fell off the end there. Wow. I felt the fear in Barrett. Yeah. All right. Let's start with Roger then. Yeah, no. Of course, Mike and I, we went on a journey. We played Death Stranding 1, and then a month later, we ran it back

Death Stranding 2. Special experience to that, but by itself, the game is just so incredible. Such an elite sequel. We talk about PlayStation with Yote and now Death Stranding 2, bringing those quality of life improvements from a great base game with Tsushima and then now Death Stranding 1 going into 2. It made that experience, that simulation of being a delivery driver in this fucked up world so much more fun.

I think that's the stuff that stands out to me, right? I have issues with this game. when it comes to the story. I actually think this is a lesser game than Death Training 1 when it comes to the story and like the way it goes, there's some reveals that are like

okay, Kojima, bro, calm me now. Did you need to have this reveal five times in a row with that? It's like whatever. But when it comes to the actual gameplay, that's the thing that stands out to me. I was playing this game after playing it with Mike

and being stuck in a room with him for a fucking week. You would think that would be sick of this video game. But I was going back to it. I was trying to do all the side missions. I was doing a new game, not new game plus,

but just a new game it. I was obsessed with just the pure management sim of it, trying to go around and find my best course around the BTs. That is the stuff that stands out to me. Of course, there's some great set piece moments. There's some amazing twists and turns. And I will always think about the moment where you go into the other world, the BT world, and all the particles are going. And it's like, this is next gen. This is an insanely gorgeous video game. But the pure management of it all is just so fun. It's such a unique one-of-one experience that only a insane person like Kojima can one make and then two get greenlit. So I'm forever in debt for death training two

existing and I hope amongst hope that we actually get a death training three and that actually pushes it even further. I'm very excited. Bless. Yeah, this is the game that the moment to moment being in all of what I'm seeing on screen really hit for me with this game more so than any other game this year. I guess starting with presentation, right? I, I just starting with presentation, right? I do think this game is a step up from Death Training One in so many ways. Visually, I think this game is insane. I think this is the best looking game of the year. I think it's also the best sounding in so many ways, both in terms of audio design, but

then also in terms of soundtrack, just thinking about the opening parts of that game, walking through the mountains, seeing like all the detail, like all the, the fucking level of fidelity that I'm seeing on screen. Can't believe what I'm looking at here. But then, yeah, walking across those mountains, feeling the emotion, feeling the music swell up. Like, I think there's something so special about how. this game can build that feeling and then I think have ideas where I'm like oh snap all right so

the way that you're making this game harder in some places is by allowing rain to change the water level of like certain like rivers or whatever that's interesting oh okay fire is a bigger thing now right like the way that they're taking weather conditions into account into a game that is simply about simply about walking from point A to point B. I think it's so inspired, so fun, and so creative. I think story-wise, I love what they do there as well, right? They dive more into the ideas, the themes of grief and losing somebody, right? And I think the ways in which they go about that, I thought were really touching and inspired.

This is one that I really enjoyed from beginning to end, wowed me, you know, like had me like, what the fuck is going on in multiple moments in this game? I think this is just an incredible video game from, you know, start to finish. Andy, I'm surprised it's not on your list. Is that because you didn't finish it? Never finished it. I just didn't really find a momentum with it. I forget kind of what else was out around that time.

I played the intro of it, you know, enjoyed of, you know, whatever I experienced. But I never went back to it. And I don't really have a good reason why I'm doing. It's usually like something is in the way or there's some other game that I want to play. and yeah, I just, I also kind of, I also just imagine like, all right, I am enjoying this, but am I 70, 60 hours enjoying this right now? You know, that that's kind of where I was, similar to the way to where I was with Metaphor Refinazio last year or even Octavath Traveler Zero this year going like, all right, I'm enjoying this,

but I don't know if I'm enjoying it enough to, or if I'm going to enjoy it enough to take me away from other stuff that I want to play in the next week or so. I considered this game a lot, weirdly enough, even though the story stuff did not click with me a lot. A lot of the presentation stuff did, Roger, like you were talking about with going into like the other world and like that first sequence with all the like fireworks and stuff going on. It's like one of those insane tech like showcases. But really it's just the the moment to moment delivery stuff just like really grabs me and building stuff from my own world knowing that that was going to be helpful for other people.

and then getting that paid back to you. Like I started to appreciate the vision that Death Stranding 1 had that I only played a few hours of and then fell off of. Like I really just, some of my favorite moments were from this year were from Death Stranding 2 of just like going up that like mountain like just covered in snow and getting lost and hoping you can get like just over this ridge like in like a ridiculous tiny little car and all that stuff. Like a shout out to like the moment to moment gameplay which I really clicked with.

and like I think I forget if it was before baby steps or not but it was one of those like oh this is clicking in like a weird quop kind of way but like triple a quop gameplay that I really fucked with yeah this was the the game because when we played death training one of course notoriously I was freaking it right so I was just going up a mountain didn't care about the mechanics didn't care about building and then I played about halfway through this game and I was like oh I should be building like oh there's a whole community of things oh they like actually reward you and actually going deeper into that. And then I want to shout out the actual like shooting and gameplay when it comes to that side of everything where, you know, you're actually incentivized to like shoot people in this

game and like take them down almost like Metal Gear Solid 5, like Arley's as close as middle gear solid 5 is, you know, he's going to get to it. That was super fun. Being able to throw, you know, an electric spear across an entire map and shock somebody. Like being able to take down these camps the way that I wanted to in Destraining 1 and finally getting able to, being able to in Destraining 2 was really rewarding. So that stands out to it. I also just love how weird this game is on the most AAA levels. Like this might be one of if not the most AAA game to come out in this last year. And the fact that we get so weird and so crazy.

The ending is fucking, it's so much of this game is bonkers. In many different ways, right, you have different character backstories where you get flashbacks and shit. And like even those things are individually weird. You talk about the moment with all the light spinning and how cool that is. I'm thinking about like some of those opening moments with the character tomorrow and how it's like, oh, shit, where did this come from? Okay, now we're getting crazy over here.

here. And I know a big part of it is that is the fact that it's Kojima and Kojima is being thrown the bag and Kojima just wants to do weird shit. But the fact that this game can exist on this level, like, not necessarily a reason alone to be like, oh, I'm putting my top 10 game in the year. But it's something that really resonates with me. As somebody who just wants to see more weird shit in AAA. It scratches that same as or feels the same as like Allen Wake 2. Yeah. Oh, wow, you're creative that had the budget had the ability to make something really weird but authentic. And even though I don't agree with a lot of the choices that they make towards the ending of this game, it's authentic to Kojima, right? He's not just doing it just to do it.

Yeah, like, Hojima could, I think I said this after I played Deserating One, but like, instead of making this, you could have made a more traditional third-person action game, and it would be an easy conversations for top five game of the year, top three game of the year, whatever. But you continually to choose to make things that for you have so much meaning. And I think on the AAA level are just things that can't get made anywhere else, especially as we're talking more and more about budgets and shareholders and AI and all these things getting in the way of how we go about AAA development and how things are starting to feel same in all this shit. Death Training 2 still stands in a place where it is, oh shit, this is the weirdest thing

that you could have possibly spent this much money on. And it really works for me. And so I really like this game. Anyone else have any Deathsrending two thoughts? Let's move on then to Donkey Kong Bonanza. Who had it on their list? Would you have it, Bless? I had it at number five, right below Death Training 2.

Greg? Number 10. I had it at number four. I had a number 10 as well. Broadhead number 10. So there we go. Is this the first game to be on four people's lists? Must be.

Today. I think so. I think it is. Wow. That's crazy. It's starting to solidify. He's starting to get tied to the top. Quagulating.

I really, really love this game. And I have been a Donkey Kong country fan my entire life. and the difference between a Donkey Kong country game and a Super Mario Brothers game. I've always really appreciated a bit more emphasis on the exploration and I don't even want to call it combat, but kind of the way that Donkey Kong rolls and the momentum of it all.

And translating that into 3D just works so well. And it is something that I never thought we would ever get. The amount of love specifically to the country games that you get in this is so evident, whether it's the music, whether it's the looks, whether it's characters, and just the game feel. We've talked so much about the tech of the game,

how impressive it is that you literally can break anything and the way that you're moving through all of the different kind of materials, like the feel of it feels so special and so good, and the control scheme of break up, break down, break left, right, like it just works so well. And I feel like the team that made it, the highest compliment I can give them is controlling characters in their games,

it can't be any better, right? Like, whether it's Mario Odyssey or Donkey Kong Bonanza, like two very different characters with completely different kind of move sets in terms of mobility, but it feels, you always are in perfect control of what you're doing. You know, if you're going to make the jump, if you're not going to make the jump,

and you know how much more you need to roll to get the momentum to do it next time, right? I think this game is very well balanced in terms of platforming challenges versus exploration. I love the amount of challenge levels that they have. I love how integrated they are into the bigger exploration adventure that you're going on. And I love that there are multiple bananas to collect in each one of the challenges.

Like this to me is just a super fun game that makes me want to 100%. It makes me want to do every single thing. And I think that they do a really good job of the different economies of having the maps to be able to find the bananas, to be able to keep going. It's like I never feel like I'm wasting time breaking things. Like I feel like I'm always like kind of doing something that is rewarding in a fun way gameplay wise. Bless. Yeah. I think one of the things that this game accomplishes that from the get-go makes it work is the fact that, like you mentioned, controlling the game is fun.

But I think even more so, breaking things is fun. You know, like that is the ethos of this game. Get in there. Break shit. Find shit. And when you're breaking shit, like even just through the different materials, how when you press, I think it's R to fucking grab a piece of ground and rip it out. that feels different if you're on dirt versus if you're on concrete

and that extra level of like umph when you're on concrete like there's something about it that just like feels nice to do and the vibrations are different too vibrations are different and I think when you're designing a game you want to get people in there

through that first second right I think you go back to Mario 64 and the first thing you do in that game I'm gonna climb a street even before that you stretch out Mario's face and shit right and even that's fun but you do that in talk about it on topcom

do you do that in talkangangana yeah all the face paint stuff yes oh yeah exactly yeah And then, like, yeah, you climb the trees and you jump around and there's something inherently fun from control in the game from the get-go. I think it's very valuable in this type of game design. I think they nail that, but then even beyond that, I think they take what a lot of the framework they set up in Mario Odyssey. And again, I think a theme for 2025 with games for me is that games were inspired this last year. And so the fact that you took that and went, all right, what's the X factor here?

Oh, it is the different materials. Oh, it is being able to like throw this material and it's going to explode. or you throw this material and it does X-it-the-thing, or, you know, I break this material and it shows up somewhere else, right? I think that is so fun and so inspired and allows for a really cool design around what you're doing from level to level in the game.

And so really, really enjoy this one. I love that we have a new 3D Donkey Kong as well, right? For me and Barrett, who are the DK-64 boys, I never thought we'd be here again. We're up. Greg. Yeah, 10 on my list, it's in that back half like I was talking about.

I've experienced I had a great time with, but just didn't have a lasting impact necessarily on me. I enjoyed this so much at launch and had so much fun with it, but it's similar to what Andy said about Death Stranding. It was a momentum thing. Put it down to move on to the next review. And over a break, I hop back in expecting to find that same love.

And I didn't. And it wasn't because it's bad or anything to that thing. It just speaks to what I have said about Nintendo games for so long. I think Nintendo is great at making toys. And that's not an insult. It's fun to smash. It's fun to do this thing. But jumping back in,

it was like, cool, I can get more bananas, but why am I getting more bananas? What am I doing here? And it's like, okay, I think I know what the fun is in this game and I enjoyed it quite a bit. And that's enough to get it on there. But not being able to be motivated to go finish it and roll credits or chase every banana or 100% or anything like that. That's why I left it here in the back 10.

Yeah, I echo a lot of what you're saying, Greg, where I booted it up when it launched and I had a good time with it, put it down for something, came back to it. And I was like, oh, I don't know if I love this as much. I think I started to every time I would put it down and pick it back up, I liked it less and less. And it still ended up in a place where it's on my list, right? It's still a great video game. I really enjoyed it. But when it came to like the actual level design and specifically the puzzle designs, I think the idea, the ethos rather of Donkey Kong can break everything.

And then that also means you can kind of break the puzzles a lot of the times. It just didn't work for me. I felt like I was able to go around a lot of things. I felt like the boss battles were over in a flash, which I understand because he's big and strong and you can break everything. But I think I was looking for more of the traditional Mario Odyssey type deal with the breaking mechanics. and of course, completely different things, but it just didn't work for me in my brain.

I didn't love it as much as I wanted to, but it's basically Hulk ultimate destruction again. So it gets a bunch of points for that and has to be number 10, just for that alone. Any other thoughts on D.K. Bonanza? I want to shout out the ending. Of course, we're not going to spoil anything. I think that game does a great job of really uplifting,

just D.K. as a franchise, reminding you why you like these characters, why you like this world, why you like what goes on here. and the fact that they got pops for me where I'm like, oh shit, I didn't know I could be this hype about Donkey Kong. I forgot how much I love this shit, right? I got a shout that out as well. DK64 better.

It's about to celebrate games, not tear them apart. Don't be like that. Don't be evil on this one. Let's get to number five. I say don't be evil. Number five, Blue Prince. Wow.

Kevin's here. Accepting the award for Blue Prince. It's Kevin Coel. Kevin's Game of the Forever Blueprints is kind of funny. He's number five game of 2025. Bless. I was scared this wouldn't make it on the list. Where was it for you?

This was my number one. Number one. Blessing at a yoia, Jr. Yeah. Was this on anybody else's list? This was my number two. Wow. Yeah, Blueprints for me is one that, I mean, again, we're talking about a year of games

that were inspired, right? Like, games that did something weird, games that did something different, games that really locked in and tried to find something fresh and new to do. And Blueprints, for me, is the definition of a game that does all those things.

The fact that, and it's also like a recipe to appeal to me specifically, this game, because you're talking about a first person, puzzle game, escape room with roguelite mechanics, with also, like, card drafting mechanics as well.

Like, these are all things that really just work for my brain. And so already this game was, was teed up to me to be one that was going to love. But for me, it comes back to when we got review codes. And I didn't really know much about blueprints, but I remember Greg slacked me and was like, yo, this game blueprints that we got a code for. This might be your jam.

Like, this seems like some blessing puzzle poppy type shit. And I looked at it. I was like, yeah, it has the words, but is it going to have the sauce? And I start playing it a little bit. And like, I was like, okay. Like, I see what you're doing in terms of premise. Played a little bit of it. I was like, all right, this is cool.

And then it was Jason. I think I met Jason Shrier. at the Nintendo Switch event in New York and talked about it with him and I was like fuck dude alright I gotta come back and play more of this Blueprints game and the more I played it the more it felt like I was attached

to my Steam deck at the hip I could not put down this game I took my Steam deck to the I remember playing it at the car wash Like I was sitting in the car Not in the car It was one of those ones where I left my car for them They're doing the interior clean as well

So I'm sitting in the place on my Steam deck Playing Blueprints but that's how much I could not let myself go from this game because they found something here as far as being able to build out the blueprint for this house. If somehow you don't know what blueprint is, it's a game where essentially you're trying to earn this house

by getting to room 46, I believe. And you are basically every single time you're going in, you're building out the blueprint of this house by drafting rooms, and you only have a certain number of steps to get you there. Within all of that, the game goes deep. The game goes real deep as far as meta-puzzles, as far as finding out things that you've been looking at this whole time.

is actually a puzzle, right? It is a historical narrative that I still don't know much about because that feels like 10 layers deep into what you're doing with this game. But it did everything right, man. Like, it is a game that is so well designed and got me hooked so much.

And I think the biggest compliment I could get to this game was that I was playing it while playing Expedition 33 because they came out very close to each other. And after coming out of a blueprints hole, like I boot up Expedition 33 and I go into a,

a new level in that game. And I started looking at like the lights because it's a level that has like different colored lights on the ceiling or whatever. And I tried to solve the puzzle of what's going on with that. And I was like, wait a second, this is not that game. Like I am playing other games differently because Blueprints is making me look at every single thing in such a particular way. And I think that's just a strength of its game design.

I think it's just a very extremely well-made thing. What an honor. Number one from blessing this year of all years. Oh yeah. Go check out Blueprints if you haven't already. Blueprints, Barrett? Yeah, it was my number two. When we reviewed it initially, like I think Kevin was on that and Bless and Shriar, when we talked about it, I remember saying it would take a lot for a game to overtake this as my game of the year.

And for so long, this was my game of the year. I think it's just like one of the most interestingly designed games in the last few years that I played. I'm not like the biggest puzzle poppy. I'm not a guy who like dove deep into games like The Witness or anything. but there's just something about the loop that you get into once you get into, like, once you go through that first hour and start to understand the language and the flow of what this game is asking of you. And, you know, it's still satisfying, you know, 20 days in, and you get to the three little boxes

and you have to figure out, like, okay, which one of them has, like, an item that's going to help me for the day. And, you know, thinking about puzzles on that small level that feel very escape roomy, and then thinking about the grander scale of this house and the randomization of this house that you're gonna try to get through to get to the 46th room of this 45 room house, right? And then going even beyond that

and getting into the late game and understanding like, oh, how deep this actually goes, not just in terms of story, but design and conspiracy as well that I found really, really fun to dive into and sink my teeth into. But, you know, shout out. to Kevin, who I think is probably the biggest fan of Blueprints here at the company.

The Mr. Escape Room himself really found something that spoke to him. I would call Blueprints this year is my metaphor re-fantazio of last year, where it didn't make my top 10, but I have no issues with it being anybody's game of the year, because I just know how amazing it is. And this is a game that I beat about 35 hours. I hit credits. And then I watched a bunch of videos because I was talking to Alana. at the time, Alana was like, oh my God, but I'm like 80 hours in or 90 hours in.

It's like, I don't have time for that. And I know how deeper it gets and was blown away by a lot of what the lore videos are about the political struggle and history. It's wild where this place goes. And it's really cool and impressive. And yeah, just one of those that like, I think if anything, it's the game. It's one of those games that I look at and go, AI could never do this. Like, and it's, because it, it has such a human touch to it. Like, everything is there deliberately because the creator wanted those things to be there in that moment.

And it's just so impressive. Yeah. Blueprints? Blue prints. Yeah. I just realized. No, Roger. That's sick.

That's dope, bro. That's dope. One of the biggest criticisms I've seen in the last couple of months and throughout the years, like, the RNG of it all of, like, trying to get the perfect run. to get to the final room and all this stuff. I never really, like, yeah, there was maybe like a run or two where I'm like, damn, I was like one step away from making this all line up. But to me, there are so many threads of not just getting to room 46 that were also satisfying as well of just solving a puzzle that might not help you get to the end of it, but still

dissatisfying in and of itself to figure out, right? Where it's like, oh, my God, there's a poster in every room. And that's supposed to signify a letter. And like now I'm doing this huge puzzle where I have mapped out the layout of every, uh, every room to try to spell out this code that's going to help unlock a thing under the amount of screenshots. The amount of screenshots I have in my steam deck and the Google Doc I have for this game that is just filled with just, if you found this, if like the,

diary of a madman. Yeah. If the police found this Google Dog, oh, I'm fucked. They're like, they're looking and they're like, oh, he's crazy. Like he's fucking plotting something. We can't, we don't know what, but he's plotting something. Yeah. No, it's like a game that I will have.

Have you having like brain blast moments of shit, this has been what this is the whole time. Like I was looking at the paintings for 30 hours before I even thought about the paintings. And once I started thinking about the painting, I was like, oh shit. Here's the thing I will say about the RNG is that I'm with you, Barrett. Like I don't, it wasn't that big of a problem for me until there's a room you can find that lets you edit the frequency of other rooms. And so there was one room where I was like, oh, I hate finding this room. I'm going to turn this all the way down. Then I realized a different puzzle.

and now all I need is that room. I need that room to show up and I can't get that room to pop up again. And I'm like, fuck, dude. And that's kind of where I put down the game on it. But I will say that this game to both the 80s thing, right, of playing through the main story rolling credits and then putting it down. And the Alana thing of playing 90 hours, 100 hours, Jason Schreier as well. This game is an everlasting gop stopper in the way that like,

you can kind of play this game until you're tired. Like, put down the game whenever you want. I played probably about 60 to 6. 70 hours, if I remember correctly. And I just put it down when I was like, all right, cool, I want to move on with my life, or I got something else to do, but I still value, you don't have to 100% this game. Yeah, I mean, I'm doing me wrong, way far from 100%.

I took that morning off and went to a coffee shop and had it in the notebook. And I played, it must have been four hours sitting there. And I had a great time with it. But it was just that thing similar. I'm talking about where the hooks weren't in it of, oh, I need to see what's happening in that room. I was like, oh, I enjoyed this and I know it's going to get crazy. And yeah, yeah.

I liked this, but I'm going to move on. I mean, Chad says you can reset that now. we're so back Before we get to number four I want to get to some super chats You can super chat over on YouTube.com Slash Kind of Funny Games Just like Gondor's Condor did

Saying shout to my Blueprints Excel Book of Notes Gifted Pink says This is my favorite content of the year right here Here's some love from Canada Thank you. Thanks so much Mayor of Sexy Town

Says blessing, don't let me down I'm counting on you for rematch My personal game of the year I've had so much fun Better and better at the game Is Rematch on your list Bless. It is on my list. We'll hear about that this whole week.

We're going to be doing our personal top-den breakdowns on games cast. So the episode Bless is on. You'll hear him talk all about. Maybe you'll be our number four. Or yeah, maybe, Brad says, listen, for a few months, this is my first time watching live. Keep up the positive, nerdy, fun.

Rankings decide what 2025 games do you think have real staying power? I think a lot of these do. I think this whole list. Yeah, I think that this was a year that we're going to talk about these games for forever. I'm going to play citizen sleeper. One day.

Zanfair has the Expedition 33 at number one. A.K. Dot says this is a tip for Blessings Barber. Oh, thank you, A.K.A.S. Wow. Yeah. We have the Metal Falcon with Ghost of Yote at number one. The Brande has Hades 2

at number one. Gigazjarne has Expedition at number one. Zeke Speaks says, quick shout out to Lucy James, who I would die for. She's great. She's a great. one to die for. Mike on drums says number one, Expedition 33. Mediocre

gamer has Expedition 33 at number one as well. With Indiana Jones on PS5, sliding in at number five on his list. Then we got Minecraft Galaxy saying 2025 was an incredible year for games. I believe this year has been the best year for games

in a while. And we got Kobe. Diverse for sure. Kobe saying, Happy Game of the Year podcast. All my top five are Expedition 33 at number one, Death Stranding 2 and number 2, Hades 2 at number 3, Kingdom Come Deliverance at number 4, and dispatch at number 5.

My honorable mentions would be Ark Raiders and Keeper. Listening to the Smiley's. I appreciate you throwing the love on on Keeper. I know I was the one that nominated as a hidden gem, but you held it down. You explained it very well. What a charming little game. Super Charming.

Let's see, I want to get to a couple more here. The Postman, Mike, this one's for you. I know, ready? Trails in the Sky. First chapter made my favorite game of all time. Hell yeah. And it's a true JRPG masterpiece, my 2025 game of the year. And Mike, you did actually just tap into something that I'd like from Jetpack Watchdog, who says, very late birthday tax, it lands literally right on Christmas.

Hi, Joey. Thank you guys so much for years of entertainment. P.S., can I get the loudest, most intense, hell yeah, from Mike. Yeah. Happy birthday, Big Dog. Hell yeah! You know, I bought Final Fame 10 last night on PlayStation. It's on sale, by the way.

It was like $10. There's never been a better time. It's always on sale. I'll tell you what. I mean, I felt the 25% after, though. Favorite game of all time? Maybe I don't know. We'll see what I get into next.

Let's see what I get into next. Oh, my God. I'm so excited. I'm also excited for our number four. Number four. Hades two. Oh, ho. Back years on the list.

Number four. You'll love to see it at Hades 2. I had Hades 2 at number 3 on my list. Wow. Bless? I had it at number 2 on my list. Greg? No.

Mike? No. Raj? Nope. Andy. Yeah. He's scrolling. I had it at number 6.

And I had it at number 10. Number 10 on Barrett's list. Let's start with the person that had it highest. Blessing. Number two. I mean, what more can I say about this game? Fucking immaculate video game right here. And it's so funny for this to be so high on my list.

Because Hades 1 was a game that I really enjoy. But even though everybody was like, Hades 1 is this is the video game. It never really got that high up for like my personal list slash my personal affinity to it. For some reason, Hades 2 just hit another level where I finally got it. It finally clicked. And I think the cast, yeah.

I think the cast. The cast button. Oh, yeah. I finally learned triangle in that game. It's so funny. Man, let me tell you, the cast is the 80s too. Oh, man. I'm like I hate your ass.

I hate your ass. But yeah, no, I absolutely love everything they do here. The amount of, one of the things that Andy brings up often with this one is like the amount of dialogue in this game. And it's so true. The amount of words characters have to say and you come back after a run and they always have new shit to say every time makes me fall in love with those characters, right? Like, I feel like I'm growing with these characters.

characters, the the roguelight mechanics, the abilities, the booms they're collecting are always so satisfying. And I truly feel that I felt that every single time I went in for a new run, I found a new play style, right? So much variability as far as the ways they allow you to play, the ways they allow you to strategize. And I think it's just an immaculately put together video game, let alone how it looks, how it's the soundtrack. Oh, the amount of content. Beautiful game. Yeah, I had Hades 2 and number 3, which is shocking to me because, like, this is a game that Many years could be number one. I love this so much.

I will be playing it forever. It's immaculate. The gameplay is everything I could want from a video game in terms of engagement and action. It is so well designed. Every single weapon feels worth playing. Every single element that they add with the roguelight stuff is just as fun as the other. Even if you see something you're like, I'm not going to want the slow weapon. Yeah, you're going to want it actually.

When you have a killer run and you realize how all the things kind of fit together. The amount of dialogue, the amount of art going up. for the first time and being like, there's two games here. Like, I'm getting Hades 3 right now. This is kind of wild. I am so impressed with how much fun I had for the amount of time and how much I still have to do,

and I'm going to be playing this game forever. This game rocks, and I am so, so, so impressed with what they were able to pull off. I loved Hades 1. I love Hades 2 even more. The ending I really don't like story-wise, that doesn't really get in my way, though, because the characters in this game are so good

and the dialogue and the story overall, not so much the plot, I am infatuated with, and they've done such a good job with it. It's just, yeah, the plot kind of lost me a bit at the end, but totally okay. Roger. No, no, Bear.

Roger put a napkin. Number 10. I did. Yeah, this was one where the gameplay of Hades 2, I think, clicked more for me than Hades 1. I think that's just because of the move set you get this time around that felt a bit more like AOE base that I really fucked with, especially with, like, the cast mixed with your, like, your axe

and, like, finding builds that were just fascinating around that. I really loved. I think having a down route and an up route, I think, was really refreshing to keep me going in terms of, you know, once I cleared Hades one once. It was one of those, like, I don't know if I want to keep doing this to get, like, the real ending and, like, I'm just kind of going through the same motions over and over again. but I think having the two different routes lets you shake things up in terms of like, okay, I've cleared down a couple of times.

Let me take a stab at up. And like, I think even just how they're presented in terms of how you have to navigate your build when you go up at first, I think is really cool. Yeah, in terms of like story and world building, I was less into this one. I think in terms of the motivation and kind of overall plot, I think, is way less interesting than the personal motivation for Hades 1 and what that story tells. But still a fantastic time, really fun characters to interact with. The music as well just fucking hit every time.

Like this was the game that I had fun editing the most in terms of the video wall stuff just because it was hard to choose which song to use is because the entire soundtrack. It's just a fucking banger. Yeah. And also speaking to the soundtrack, and we talk a lot about the art, this is kind of a little outside of the game. but the launch trailer for this and like the last couple trailers that they did, they showed it all.

I think it was at Game Awards or Summer Game for something. Some of the most stunning animation I've ever seen. Like I can't believe the level of skill and talent that these people have. Like there's like a five minute animation of just Hades 2. And it's like that is gameplay like come to life in this beautiful way. I recommend everybody watch it because it is sick as hell. And it just shows millennia in a way that I never expected to see this tiny. little character, you know.

But I just love that Super Giants been killing it so much with sales. They can contract out and pay a shitload for an awesome animation to show off their game. Yeah, this game was, uh, I agree with you, Tim. I think that it didn't quite exactly stick the landing. And I, it's such an impossible task after many, many, many hours. I played this game more in 2024, actually, than I did in 2025. Um, and I still had an awesome time with it. I said, and I think every roguelight will always be judged next to Hades 2 and Hades

and unfortunately, because any other game that I play, I just feel like, man, I don't like, the abilities aren't cool, that, you know, you're never going to get close to the Boone system and how varied that all of those are. And Hades 2 and Hades 1 are the examples of starting off a run and thinking that, ah, this run's going to be a stinker, may as well just quit here. and you find a cool move that you'd never really like experimented with it before and then you start to fall in love with it and you go oh shit i'm gonna work this into my whole move set later on and i don't know it's just it it's the game that keeps on giving hades two is awesome there's so much to do there's so many characters to meet and talk with and um i think if the boss fights were a little bit more fun and if the ending would have stuck this would have been like a top three for me probably speaking to top three that's where we are. Before you go any further, I'm sorry.

I do have breaking news from the Situation Desk. Katie Butler, 13 in the chat, says Mike made a pizza bet with Barrett about Hades 2 and Silk Song, which was Hollow Night Silk Song will be kind of funny's number two game of the year, followed by Hades 2 at number 3. Therefore, Mike owes Barrett a pizza due to being wrong with 82 coming in a number 5. Thank you. I will get on that. And I also would like to look at you, the YouTube comments out there because me,

blessing and Barrett, went back and forth on what will be kind of funny. Top four. I just want you all to know. I nailed it, and you didn't believe it. Remember that. You just got it wrong. Yeah, you just got it wrong. That's why you owe me a pizza. I nailed the four that would be in there. Oh, okay. And the YouTube was not happy with me.

Yeah. They were screaming a lot of ghosts of Yote. A lot of doubters. Settle down. Fruem wrong, like you all would have settled down. Settle down. Settle down. Prove them wrong, Mike.

You proved them. That is so funny. Yeah, I mean, are we all aligned in what the top. The order will see. Yeah, the order will see. I'm shocked to see Hadesu number four. I thought for sure we would have said, saw another game here. But I'm excited.

Yeah. I'm excited to see where this lands at. Yeah, this is getting interesting. It is getting interesting. Let's get into it. Number three. Number three. Hollow Knight's Silk Song.

Oh, shit. Very interesting. Yeah. That's nuts. Whoa. Wow. Hollow Night Silk Song at number three. I had this at number two on my list.

And it was the biggest. struggle for me to really sit there and decide is this above Expedition 33 in my mind? Because I beat Act 3 last week. This game is incredible. I can't believe what such a small team can pull off. The level of artistry

in every single frame of this game blows my mind every time I play it. It feels so good. It is so many of my favorite genres in one. I can't believe how much of a success. Hollow Night Silk Song is. It's $20. It lived up to the hype. There was way too.

much game in this game. I said this a second ago about Hades 2, but Act 3 really feels like an entire DLC pack that they were just like, no, we're putting this in the core edition of the game. I can't believe how good this game is. The music, the feel, the look. Every single thing about it is, it's a masterpiece. Andy. Yeah, it's a masterpiece to be able to meet those expectations after so much hype, after so many years ago, and we're definitely going to see Silk Song here. It's 2021. We're seeing Silk Song. It's 2022. There's no way we go another year without seeing it. And for it to finally come out and hit all those expectations and exceed them in my opinion.

I think what it does storytelling is storytelling wise is so fantastic. The themes that you deal with, just dealing with like the whole church and all like, fuck, it's just so damn well told. But I think the boss fights in this game are the most fun. and well-designed and difficult at times, of course, but it's just so amazing. Like, I can't believe that I got Barrett to play Citizen Sleeper, and I got Tim to play Silk Song. Like, I know you're going to try it out,

but I'm like, who knows how long this will go? And the fact that it is that compelling and that good to make you stick with it is like so fucking awesome. This game is amazing. This is like a generational type video game. Who else had Hollow Night Silk Song on their list? Hollow Night Silk Song was my game of the year. Yeah.

There we go. Number one for Barra Courtney. This was not one I was expecting to fall in love with as much as I did. I shouldn't be shocked that it was something I gravitated towards you, especially last year falling in love with nine souls. And then like, honestly, just the journey I've had in the past few years of gravitating towards harder games, you know, getting onto the bandwagon with blessing and anti-esies. in terms of falling in love with these harder games, Souls games,

and then always just loving kind of like cartoon aesthetic, loving games like Cuphead, and then all of that coming into, you know, the meme that I really only knew it as was Hollow Night Silk Song because I was not a Hollow Night One guy. And, you know, feeling a little bit of the fomo. I remember launch day I was supposed to come in with Andy to help him with the marathon stream,

and I tested for COVID that morning. And I was like, I texted Andy from my room, And I was like, hey, man, call me when you get to the office because I'm going to have the video call you through how to turn on the studio. But then watching that stream from home, being in the chat with everybody and having this like, you know what, I'm going to buy this game and I'm going to check it out and just falling ahead over heels for it in terms of, yeah, not expecting it to be like this huge commentary on organized religions and institutions and the hollow promise that sometimes they. they give a lot of people, and then also just being just one of the best feeling 2D Metroidvania action games that I've played in a very, very long time.

Yeah, I adore this game. I adore all the little creatures and friends that you make. You know, even when I'm... It's the game of little guys. It's the game of little guys everywhere. They're all amazing. They're also well-raned. And like, when I'm dying as Horton,

I'm not, like, I'm frustrated because I'm like, God damn, and I know I can beat this fight, but then Hornet does that little scream where it sounds like she's just like an annoyed teenager almost. It just makes me giggle, you know? It's like I love this world. I love the gameplay and, you know, the story and the lore around it is just something that really hooked me.

And it's one that I played again just recently over break. You know, I was kind of done playing 2025 games. I was like, I just want to have something on my switch while we're watching, you know, one piece on TV. And I just, I did another casual play-through. and beat the entirety of like Act 3 in like 35 hours. And that just reaffirms like, damn, this game really fired on all cylinders for me. And, you know, I said it's going to take a lot for a game to take over blueprints.

And this game did it. One of those rare games where like every MPC you meet is your favorite MPC. Yeah. Like the next one is always going to be your favorite one because everyone's just so awesome and well-ridden. And like, I think affable in a way. Everybody's so likable in this game. even some of the villains with their motivations. It's like, man, everybody here feels so well thought out.

I'm so impressed with the amount of tech in the game, like different ways to vary up your combat style and movesets. Like 60, 70 hours in the game, you're getting new abilities. And I like the way that the abilities work in this game where it's not like a lot of other things where you do have loadouts in this, but your character moveset is essentially just jump and slash. Right? It's like it's not like you're have all these like different moves you can do. It's just kind of you're adding angles to the slash or how much it goes out and like the little tiny differences in the beginning I feel are so frustrating.

But as you start playing the game more and more and unlocking so much more of the toolkit, it's like, holy crap. Like you can really have everyone's Hornet is going to play just a little bit differently. But like it's such a dramatic difference in terms of how you're going to face off against a boss. And for such a simple move set, I can't believe how complex it can get over time when you have the different tools. And you can just not even use the tools at all and still beat the game.

Like, that's crazy. But if you're having a lot of trouble with this type of platforming or this type of combat in boss fights, you have so many different tool sets you can use to change that and make it easier and then switch it out right afterwards. You have to go to the stupid bench.

But you can do that. And what I love is anytime you're stuck in the game, you can just go somewhere else, and you'll find something that allows you to solve a problem that you have. And like, that is Metroidvania in its truest essence. And I've experienced that in some other games. But Holo Night is the definite biggest example of,

it's not just, oh, I see that, like, cliff that I can't reach right now. I'll be able to eventually because I'm going to get the cliff jumper ability. And you can do that. Yeah.

You're just getting random abilities that might help you in a ton of different ways. It feels like not. Nothing is made for one specific use. It's just you have these tools. How are you going to use the tools? And the fact that I don't have, I beat the game at 89% and there's a bunch of tools I don't have. And those tools might dramatically change the way the game would play for me. That's crazy.

Like that's so nuts that I felt like I experienced so many different things. And even the end game, I'm like, oh, wow, people have this ability for the entire game. That's crazy. Barrett? Yeah. And just to talk about like story and lore. stuff. I remember when the Game Awards nominations came out and Silk Song wasn't nominated for best narrative. I was like, damn, that's crazy. You hate to see it. I remember so many people in chat

being like, damn, another Barrett Allen. That's crazy to me because I think what the story does in terms of what it's commenting on, but just the personal character stories as well. We talk so much about the cogwork dancers and like how great of a boss fight that is. And then how heartbreaking of a payoff it is once you go to a certain character's past and learn what the cogwork dancers are based off of, right? I just met the character loam for the first time, which I know a lot of people talk about of, like, this poor creature who is essentially making the entire underworks,

like, run, all that. Running on a treadmill. Running on a treadmill, making the entire, like, machine of the heart of the Citadel run. And then, you know, I know this, there's a bit more context about this outside of the game, but, like, Seth, right? Like, Seth is a mini boss that you fight right?

before one of the final bosses, and you learn that this was a character designed by a fan of the game who knew they were going to pass before Silk Song came out. And so they, like, got with the design team, designed this character, and then they, like, immortalized him in this game. And then when you beat him, he disappears, and then you realize in the act three kind of areas, you can run into him,

and it's him rediscovering, like, life, and the world that he is now living in for the rest of time. And, like, that shit fucking hit. And hit me, like, a train wreck. Like, that, like, all of the little character arcs, I think, are so sad. Like, shout out to who's the little, a Sherma, right? Like, who starts off as just, like, just this one kid who thinks all it is is about, like, just being faithful. And then where Sherma goes by the end of it, you're like, damn, that is a full-ass character arc.

Yep. And I've run into you. you, like, you've only had character beats like six times in this entire, like, 80-hour natural playthrough, right? I really adore the the character writing and the arcs throughout this game.

Yeah, can't wait for the DLC. It's going to be awesome. Hell yeah. All right, let's get two. Our number two. Number two. Dispatch. For a second. Hey, that's a win right there.

For a second, you let yourself, like, it was like fucking Sammy versus Roman raids of like, you could defend it. Did dispatch do this? Could it have overthrown expedition? Dispatch, I imagine, is on many of our lists. I had it at number six.

Oh. Plus? I had it at number three. I had it at number three. I had it at number five. Ten. Eight. Wow.

So this is definitely the one that it, I mean, it's on all of our list, which got it all the way up to number two, even though none of us had it that high on the list. Who wants to kick off with dispatch? For the future game developers, make an eight-hour game that's about superheroes Greg?

Oh man, what a love letter to the tell-tale games and then what a fucking generational leap for it, you know what I mean, to see ad hoc come out this be their debut game, but obviously them be tell-tale people, tell-tale voice actors, come out and do this, have Aaron Paul in it and have this amazing cast in

and have this amazing animation in it and have this great story in it. I think the way dispatch has hit has shocked me. I think we talk so much in the lead-up to this. Does episodic work in 2026?

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And the fact that it has found the fan base it has and resonated with cosplayers and TikTokers and any, you know, it's on all of my feeds anywhere I look far outside

of our normal scope of friends who also love it. Like, this game was a very, very, very special story and a very, very special game, I think, in the way it did it. You know, for me, being in the back half of my list,

it was more that fact there's the gameplay itself for me wasn't that great. I didn't love dispatching. And so like I loved the choices and I loved the narrative they were doing. But when I stack it up against other things I wanted to play that I was drawn to go off and really get crazy with, it's a different ball of wax, but an amazing experience. Mike? Yeah.

I mean, as Greg said, I'll echo that. It's a love letter to telltale games. And those games, of course, we all kind of grew up on and really enjoyed. And we were looking for choices that matter, right? connections that can grow and make for really fun storytelling moments. And for me, I actually really fell in love with the dispatching and the hacking. I didn't want to walk around in a room and open up drawers similar to the walking dead back in the day. And I think this team at ad hoc figured that out for me personally.

It was like, hey, this is what I want in 2025. I want the story to be a bangor. I want to fall in love with these characters. But I really don't want to walk in circles and search rooms. I just kind of want to focus in on what's going on. and it felt like they did that for me. And I really, really enjoyed that. There's characters that will stick with me to the end.

And man, shout to Young Gravy. Right. Like, it was just felt like, just these characters. And you're like, who voices that? And you're like, oh, my God, Alana, you're doing an amazing job, right? Jack Septica, you're doing a great job, right? Charlie Moore's Critical, you did a great job. Like, all of these characters were awesome.

And you fall in love with your own and you found your own rhythm with the dispatching minigame and who you relied on the most. You loved at the end, just like all the telltale games of like, Man, I'm in like the 98 percentile of everybody picking the same thing. Or, you know, Tim and G over there. Like, we're on 5%. Like, nobody else is doing what we're doing. And you love that.

Yeah, I played it all in one sitting, actually. I really enjoyed that. I'm not an episodic guy. I want you to give it all to me and I want to binge it. And it was the perfect sit-back lax and just let this thing run. Never had a problem with it. Really enjoyed all of it. Roger.

Yeah, I had a really special experience playing this game. I played it in New York with my brother. We played it the entire way. and we were just not passing the control around, but we, every decision was 50-50. I actually had to remote into my work computer to play it because that was the only way I could play it because I didn't have my Steam deck, whatever.

So that's the dedication that I had for dispatch. Playing and streaming it, made the hacking impossible, by the way. Impossible. It's horrible. But actually for me, the thing that pushes it forward is the dispatching. The dispatching was the thing that me and my brother were freaking out about. Every time we were, okay, what do we do?

Is Waterboy go here? Where is Invisigal? we're debating it. Like, we're debating it more than a lot of the actual choices in the game. So that, to me was the surprise. I expected to,

you know, have the things where, you know, who are you going to choose? What love interest? What are you going to send out this here? You're not going to, but like,

the actual dispatching was super fun. It was engaging, especially having my brother right next to me. And yeah, it brought back that feeling of like, oh, man, we're so back. Like, maybe there is a future in the telltale formula.

Maybe there is a future in this elevated format that, man, ad hoc, they killed it right out the gate. and they have this and then they have the, what are the, who's the team that they're working with? Critical role. Yeah, critical role and they have the critical role game coming out eventually.

So, man, super exciting stuff. And just the sleeper hit for me, did not expect this one to, one, come out this year and then two, be this freaking good. And I love that it's also a shared experience between not only us here at the table, but Greg, as you said, like people outside of every circle

and every circle that I know, everyone's playing dispatch, everyone talks about it, and it's becoming a new franchise. It's really exciting. Yeah, I mean, you know, we've touched on this already, but it's like this is one of the rare games I played with Gia and seeing her freak out during the hacking minigames.

Like her understanding what's happening and seeing me do it. Like the controller was in my hand, but she was like engaged with that level of gameplay. And it's like, damn, this game really pulled something off that every single aspect it's throwing at us, like she's paying attention to and caring about. And I think that that's such a testament to what they really succeeded at doing here, which is making the story and characters great.

Cool. That's the quote unquote easy part here. but how do you make the gameplay stuff add up to make this a video game and it's not just watching a TV show. And yes, we've seen Tell Telltel before have the you're making choices and that affects the character. We'll remember this and all that. But for the dispatching to have that level of they're remembering what you're doing. Like your gameplay choices there are also going to affect the character relationships. And whether you make the hack or not make the hack, all that stuff, like all of it adding to this very clear and easy to follow kind of flow chart of

every single thing you're doing in the game actually is going to affect the story is so impressive and for over a decade now we have talked about the early tell tell games and does episodic still work? Life is strange. All of this of like we've seen even the best

in the craft utterly fail. Like I don't know that I can think of a game that actually hit its episodic release plan. Like am I wrong there? I don't think you're wrong. Real talk. Let me know with the comments. Has there ever been an episode of game that actually hit its plan besides dispatch and they did it perfectly.

And on top of that, this is a story that we have seen on paper too many times recently. All right, it's a superhero story that makes dick jokes. And I feel like that could have went so wrong, so easily. But this stands up there with the boys and the invincibles in a different way. And I feel like they made it human. They really focused on the character relationships. and because of that, we now all care about these characters. This is a brand new superhero world.

And so many just write calls down the line. Just check, check, check. Amazing performances. Very clever gameplay. Dispatch freaking rules. And I can't wait for more. Yeah. This is one that I, if I'm going to use the word to describe it for me, be refreshing.

Even though there's so many things coming off of what you just said that are kind of iterative, right? It's superheroes. It's episodic. It's tail-tale choose or an adventure. It's edgy. It's doing all these things, but somehow it brings it all together to still feel. feel refreshing, especially in a year where I keep saying, everything is unique. Everything is finding its own flavor, right? The fact that I have it above other games that like death straining

or like, like, Ian Roger or other games that I would look at as like, oh, these games have something to say. There's something about dispatch that I think really nails all the things that it's going for. And I think that alone just makes it worth it. That alone just makes it exciting to me. I think everything you guys talk about here as far as the choices that you're making and how invested you get in these characters and like even the joke that was made online that like i think we referenced in the earlier thing of like dispatch is twilight for men i think there's something to be said about like how much you get invested in that like i remember going back a decade ago talking about team jacob versus team ever and he's swearing by team jacob because of course i'm a dude

come on but like you know getting into the thing of like i don't want to do this or do i want to do that do that we're going to have to dive into that later yeah like such an obvious answer like that's hilarious oh yeah but like i i had a pause like multiple times in this game where i'm like oh, what choice we want to make here? And that's how you make a good one of these, right? Like every year, there's always maybe a couple of these Choosier and Adventure things I play. And some get it right in the case of a Life of Strange,

true colors. Some get it wrong. Like a Life Strange double exposure. Like a Leveragher. Right? And there is a very thin line of succeeding and not succeeding in this space. And they just made every right decision. And I love that they're like, don't walk around.

Like, we're not making you walk around to collect things or do whatever. Just play the dispatch game. That's the gameplay part of this. making the decisions is the gameplay part of this, but we have a art style that works so well for presentation. We have moments in this game that you're going to remember and love and fall in love with.

We have humor here that's going to hit for you. We have like superhero moments that feel sick as hell. Like, yeah, dude, this game for me does everything that I want this type of game to do. Anyone else with words on dispatch? I just going off of like the whole like I like the fact that it is not just the boys, right? Like when I

first saw this, I was like, oh, this is going to like, oh, it's like anti-superhero. It's the superhero, it's like, everyone's bad. It's like, no, it's like, it still has those, not generic, but like, what makes a superhero thing crowd-pleasing and exciting. And I- Got a heart. Heart.

And then also, it has some of those swerves that you don't expect and that real, you know, office drama that it makes it really fun. So that, to me, I think, is the core of what makes this work so well for the larger audience, but also for all of us. Yeah, I think it's really impressive of, like, how they kind of do a guardian story again of just like a team of jackasses coming together and trying to figure it out and still making it refreshing. And I think having it be an office comedy is like a great way to freshen up that formula.

And at the end of it, you know, there's a bunch of different endings you can get. And being really satisfied with my ending and seeing this team be like, you know, coming together in a very like satisfying, awesome, friendly way that's kind of like a fucked up family. I thought I was, you know, surprised, you know, when we've reviewed the first three episodes, I was like, I'm enjoying this, but I'll be surprised if it really blows me away. And I was shocked at, like, how much they stuck the landing in that, like, last batch of episodes to really make me care. And yeah, I just want to shout out the dispatching itself.

I had a great time with because I think similar to the dice rolling stuff and Citizen Sleeper 2, I think, and I would have liked to see this more in dispatch, I think when they do use the dispatching as a way to sell a mood or tone. in appointment of store, I thought was really impressive, especially in those last few episodes. I still need a challenge mode for the dispatching. Like, I want them to connect all the dispatch moments of game played together, just so you can do like an endless run.

Try to do a per or like do like all of the batches together and try to do a perfect run with like no dying or something like that. Or dispatch 99. We all get in there. Oh shit. You start causing our own crimes. That's a million dollar idea right there. That's one of those things like this game would not have been in my top 10 if it weren't

for the sharp comedic writing. I think I that's the thing that holds it all together for me. And once they nail a couple of jokes and you go, oh shit, they're like actually, this is like good comedy. They're writing really well here. And I appreciate that the writing is so sharp. But if it didn't stay strong throughout all of it,

I, the story wasn't like necessarily like the most amazing thing. I think it was like really good still. But, and the gameplay certainly wasn't like awesome or anything for me. But it was like, that's the thing keeping me here for all of this journey. And I thought they killed it there.

All right. Now it's time for Kind of Funnies game of the year, 2025. Kirby Airwriters. And Kind of Funny's Game of the Year is Claire Obscure Expedition 33. There you go. Expedition 33 is our game of the year 2025 with this amazing backdrop. But Andy Cortez-Man. Thank you.

A lot of wallpaper engine. Shout to Roger for showing me. Spot paper engine. Going down the list here, I had Expedition 33 at number one. Bless. At number six. Greg. N.R.

And Mike. Number one. Number four. Number one. Number three. And with that, on everyone's list, except Greg's, gives it the number one spot. Let's start with Andy Cortez. I mean, I've just talked about this game for so long, so many times here.

But yeah, man, it's, it's, you know. you know, making turn-based super fun for me in a way that I didn't expect it to with how reactive everything is and how skillful things feel, but also having awesome characters, awesome memorable characters with impactful writing and really cool twists and turns that, you know, didn't just feel like they were thrown in there for shock factor, like stuff that's really earned and really well plotted out. I just think this game is... This is like, like I mentioned with Silksong, this to me is like a generational type of game.

We will be talking about this game for the rest of gaming history, I think. Yeah. I mean, honestly, like I totally agree with that. And my top three being Expedition 33, Silk Song in 80s too, I can say that about all of them in different ways. And I really had to sit there and try to decide how I'm ranking those on my list. And at the end of the day,

I put this at number one, not because I think it's necessarily the best in every single way compared to those two. But I just think that it is the game of the. year. It is my game of the year for sure. It's the one that I think about the most that I want to replay and like I want to know every single thing about it. Jake Baldino said this months ago and I keep repeating it because like it is so true to me that it's rare that I play a game or any type of media consume it and want just it in every single form. Like this is the first world in I don't know a decade

maybe that I'm like I like since I first started watching Game of Thrones that I'm like I love this. I want more. I want comic books, I want, I want books, I want TV shows, I want anime, I want anything from this. Because the sheer fact that they had a vision that they set out for that is so clearly inspired by JRPGs from the 90s and 2000s that they love. And they're like, but how do we do it the way we want to do it? It's just like across the board, just such a impossible task to be this special and pull off the music, the gameplay, the story, the performances, the vision. visuals, everything backing each other up. Like this being an indie game, it's like kind of just every single thing feels unbelievable.

And playing it, experiencing it, the amount of conversations I've had with you guys, with my friends, like there's so much to talk about with this video game. And I think that that, to me, makes a game of the year. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I forget exactly the quote. There was like some piece of marketing before this game came out where it said it was going to like revolutionize your RPGs.

And I remember hating that piece of marketing. I hated it more after playing the game. I don't think it revolutionizes the genre. I think it pays so much respect to the genre in ways where I'm like, wow, you guys love JRP's. I see so much of various JRP's, right? Like, I see Final Fantasy.

I see persona, right? Like, I even see, like, Mario Luigi in terms of, like, the peri mechanics and shit. There's so much inspiration that's brought into this game. But then I do think that the original flavor, the French flavoring they add to this thing, takes it to a new level as far as, like,

oh, damn, okay, this is, a world that I've not seen before. This is something that feels like it's doing something brand new. And this is a story that I think resonates with people. Or at the very least, even if you've not experienced anything remotely close to what they're talking about in the game, you can still get it. You can

still understand it. Whether that be through the story, whether that be through the music, whether that be through the presentation, whether that be through the twists, right? Like, I think there's so much thought put into every facet of what they did with Claire of Scare Expedition 33. And there's a reason why multiple people at this desk have it at

their number one, let alone the industry at large, having it at their number one this year. Incredible game. Mike, you're the most recent one to have beat this game. Yeah, what a year for me, right? Final Fantasy 10 into Expedition 33 being my number one game of the year. This ball and gun gamer opened his heart and tried new things, and I was blown away. I had such a journey with this game. And as you guys have really said, this one's going to stick with me, right?

From the story to the art design, to the characters, to the, just gameplay, it just all worked for me. It was head and shoulders above the rest when I look back on my ear and thought, man, what a fun time, right? It's like I had so much fun going from Final Fantasy 10 and thinking, you know what, I'm good. I played a lot of turn base this year. There's no way that I could play anymore.

Like I'm tapped out. And the moment I turn this on all the way through act number one, I said, man, I can't stop thinking about this. And the, you know, the voice actors carried this, right? Ben Starr and that whole team really did a phenomenal job. This team from France really did something special with the genre, right? It's like the pictos to the, of course, counter and Perry mechanic, the map and the open world design being mixed in with these beautifully designed levels that really made you say,

ah, wow, this is crazy that I'm here to the boss fights, right? Each boss being so special and cool. I just had an absolute blast with this game. And I can't believe in 2025 I'm saying this. and, you know, looking forward to the next year of, like, I can't wait to see what other games I'll give a try and what I might fall in love with. You bringing up the boss fights reminds me,

like one thing I want to shout out with with the respect and love to old JRP games. Like the world map here is so beautiful and such a great, it's fun to play. It looks so different than the rest of the game. But like old school Final Fantasy Sickles want the world map back. And I remember Final Fantasy 10 being my first Final Fantasy, like the biggest criticism that game had from gamers at that point was, where's the world map?

Like what I feel like we're taking a step back here. And to see it now added here in such a brilliant way is like so impressive. And also just the sheer scale of some of the enemies in this game. Like I remember playing old when I went back to like Final Fantasy 6 or some of the other Final Fantasy is like the sense of scale of fighting the bosses always felt wacky because you're little pixels. And it's just like the idea of what would this look like? And now we have Final Fantasy 7 remake to kind of have a better idea of like what the different

weapons would look like at that size or whatever. But Expedition 33 takes that to such a different scale where it's like you're these little dudes against these massive massive bosses, but it makes sense. It doesn't feel like you're hitting them with a sword. It's like because they designed the weapons and the magic and everything the way that they did, it's so believable. And the way that it's presented is so nuts. Like in early game, you're like walking around and you're fighting some enemies that are very big. And in the distance, you see something that is like 15 times as big as the thing that you're fighting and you're like, there's no way I'm actually going to fight that. And you do. And that's not like a big boss moment. It's just an enemy. So cool. Roger.

Yeah. This is number four on my list. I had such a great time with it. I think this has to be on the top of my list of a replay. Right. Like I need to replay this game. And I again, I enjoyed my time a lot. I loved where the story was building towards. I didn't love the ending of the game. But again, I need to replay it because every time I see gameplay, I'm like, fuck man. I had such a good time. and I'm reminded of that experience and playing it for the first time, especially my brother was in town and I'm playing it in front of him

and he's like, what the fuck is this game? And then putting him on, he'd never played any type of turn-based video game ever. And he looks at me a week later, he's like, I beat the entire game. Holy shit, let's talk about it. Having that experience with not just him, multiple people in my life.

Like, it is such a infectious experience playing Expedition 33 with other people talking about it. And yeah, I cannot wait to play it again because, holy shit. I feel like I'm going to be goaded at the parries. I mean, I figured it out. It's a little push and pull, you know, stop and start there, but now I'm going to be goaded.

I'm going to be. Were you also streaming it across the country, like off and back in the air? No, yeah. I said goaded at the paris, but I heard goaded at the Paris. I'm going to be goaded at the Paris too, bro. I'm going to go crazy. You'll do that to you. It's a weird one.

Like, I don't generally replay a whole lot of video games. You know, Chris Anka and So Mike, Mike and Madok and everybody have the joke that I've played Liza P seven times. And it's just I played it a second time to, to get ready for the TLC. But, like, this was one that I wanted to record for YouTube, and I recorded the Act 1, and then I play the rest of it, not recording it,

because I was playing it for a review, and the game hadn't come out yet, and was just so enamored with it. I think, like, my number one love language is I love showing people shit that I love, and I had just beaten it, we reviewed it, and I was like, I'm going to replay everything again, because I want people to see how amazing. And it's like, I don't do that.

that shit. And like, I was there for another 40 hours playing the rest of from the start of Act 2 until the rest of the video game, doing extra shit that I didn't do the first time, which is also super beneficial. And I think when I reviewed it, I was like, this is an 8 out of an 8.5 out of 10. Like, this is an amazing,

like, really close to like an amazing video game. And when I beat it, I was like, when I beat it for the second time, after seeing all the little subtle hints that they were dropping the whole time at you and recognizing those things while also doing extra stuff that helped out. and really bolster the story even more

and character arcs even more. This is a masterpiece. This is, yeah, this should have been a 10 out of 10 from me. My bad on that one. Barrett, any thoughts on Expedition 33? Yeah, something I don't think we give enough credit to is just how in depth each character's specific moveset is and how detailed that is

and how much, like, in the weeds you can get with Everett, like, it's been a midst since I've played the game. So, like, the woman with the cards and finding out her flow and then Lune's flow of trying to fill in all of the different corners of her weird little floating thing

and, you know, finding builds for every single character, not just the team set, I thought was really fun and satisfying to kind of break this game in really, really fun ways. And then also, like, it, I remember when we first started playing this game,

when we got review code, or maybe even preview, I forget. but I remember being maybe almost halfway through and kind of having this click moment of realizing what the game is maybe going to be about on a grander scale and thinking to myself, man, this is a really weird game to come out six months after metaphor refentazio and kind of being right about that and like what they're talking about in terms of,

you know, existential thoughts, but then also talking about art and the importance of art and all this stuff that I really, I love that they, there are similar things that they're commenting on, but having a different perspective of that. Like, for me, like the, an exciting part of why I love this game was having it so soon after a metaphor and having these different conversations and thinking to myself, like, we're these teams getting like coffee together and like talking about like game design and, you know, story design and all this stuff. I really fucked with it. But, yeah. And, you know what?

shout out to act three, too much hate on act three. I think it really ties it all together. I agree. Yeah, great dialogue, great writing and phenomenal performance. As like Mike mentioned earlier, I thought, like, the whole cast just makes it so believable. And these characters feel so real and their experiences feel so genuine and experienced. Like, when they tell you their stories and then you get to the end of their arcs, it's like, oh, that is so earned. And I love you even more than I did before. Like, this is fantastic. So that is Kind of Funnies top 10 game of the year

2025 list. I'm sure everybody agrees wholeheartedly with our list. So please let us know if that is correct. Before we leave for today, I do want to let everybody know, of course, the rest of this week, we're going to be doing games cast with different combinations of us going over our personal top 10

list so we can talk about the games that didn't make the group's top 10. I'm sure there are many, many, many of them. But before we leave today, we have a bunch of fun stats that we want to get to do. Love this. This is my favorite section. So Barrett, hit us.

Welcome to Boss, baby. Statt Corner. We've got point breakdowns for the top 10. We've got some fun facts and stats for you. And we've got the official honorable mention for kind of funny. Kind of funny is Game of the Year list for 20, 25. The first thing we'll go through is our point breakdown for the top 10. See a lot of people in chat, you know, doing it live in real time and all that stuff.

But let me give an official breakdown for you. going into this year, just as a little precursor here, I was really worried about ties. I remember even coming to Andy a couple months ago of like, what are we going to do if there's a million ties on this list? Granted, only had two, which is kind of the same. It's been the last couple of years.

But you'll understand why I was so nervous and kind of being validated on how nervous I was about ties. When we start getting into the bottom half of this list and how tight everything was together. So number 10 and Roger coming in with, 11 points, which was the barrier to entry here. Goseviote at number nine came in with... I should have known better.

Ghost of Yote coming in at number nine with 12 points. Eldon Ring, Night Rain and Skate Early Axis coming in at number eight. Say it with me, everybody. 13 points. Citizen Sleeper 2, Starward Vector coming in at number seven. Say it with me, everybody. 14 points. And then Death Stranding 2 on the beach and Donkey Kong Bonanza at number 6.

one last time, everybody. 15 points. So the bottom half of this list, all within a, what, 4.5 point margin of each other. And it's really just like, if one thing was different. If one of us wakes up on the left side of the bed instead of the right side of the bed, this whole list looks different.

Exactly. And we might have a fun anecdote about that at the end. Okay, yeah, I'll leave that there. So then we get to the top five where we start to see a bit more hand holding between each other. And we start to get a bit more breathing room with these point breakdown. So blueprints coming in at number five,

came in with 19 points, so we start to see a little bit of distance there. Hades 2 coming in at number four with 23 points. Hollow Night's Silk Song came in at third place with 28 points, and Dispatch came in at number two with a solid 35 points.

That's another piece of bet I won. Blessing, guess that Hollow Night's Silk Song will come in at number two, and I had a feeling it wouldn't because I knew. I had a feeling. I was like, it's only good. going to be me, Andy, and Tim fighting for it. Get pipe punks.

No, don't I get to decide or do they get to decide? I already want pizza. We're having pizza. Do it for everybody. Pizza bets work. You buy that guy. So. Yeah, for the person, though.

I don't know. Every day's there's not for the whole office. Yeah, I feel like, don't I get the pizza? Anyways, not the most surprising. That Claire Obscure Expedition 331 game of the year for kind of funny, it's winning game of the year for almost every other goddamn outlet. Yeah. I started the graphic like a month ago.

Did you accidentally put it in assets? Yeah. Did you? He put it in assets and I got the notification and immediately deleted. I'm like, I hope no one saw that. It was a shocker. Was there any shot? It wasn't.

What was the points there for expedition? So, and I know people are probably wondering how big of a sweep was it for Claire obscure? How much of the point difference was there between one and two? You know, was it a Ragnarok here? where Ragnarok won by 30 points? Was it a Zelda year or Zelda won, I believe, by 20 points? It got close, but not quite.

Claire Obscure Expedition 33 came in at number one with a solid 50 points. So a 15 point difference. So not as wide of a margin between 1 and 2 as we've seen in the past. I think Ragnarok still undefeated in that category. This is the lowest scoring number one since Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart, I believe.

Put Ragnarok in this year, though. I mean, come on. It was like number six, maybe. It's not right. Yeah, I believe last year, Atrobat won with 52 points. I forget what Zelda and Ragnarok did, but they were both pretty high.

And then Ratchet and Clank still are lowest winning game of the year with 41 points. And that will still probably be the tightest voting between number one and two because I think Ratchet won by one point over Returnal? Definitely one of those.

They were all within two points of each other. It was returnal, it was number two. Melissa with a Y in the chat, kind of funny's favorite game of all time. Asked for a lot. Never forget. So with that, then we get into some fun facts and fun stats. People were already pointing this out.

Third year in a row, we've had 12 games make it on to our game of the year list. But seven of those 12 games were indie games. And the entire top five, as you see here, come in all shapes, different shapes and sizes. We're all indie games, which is a first for a kind of funny game. of the year list.

Another first we have. Dispatch breaks a trend. Typically, if there is a game that is on everybody's list that votes for game of the year, it does win game of the year, as we've seen with Ratchin and Clank, God of War, Ragnarok, and

Astrobot. This is the first year ever where dispatch was on all of our list, but did not make the number one spot, coming in at number two. And Roger is now also the lowest score lowest scoring number 10 game coming in with 11 points. I think that might have beaten last year.

Yeah, Blackop 6 and Tekon 8 were tied with 12 points last year. So very low barrier of entry there. Another fun stat for you. Blueprint shares this stat actually with last year's Eldon Ring Shadow of the Urtree. Those are the highest games on the list only being voted on twice. So last year, Shadow of the Urtree, tied with Prince of Persia,

but Shadow the Earth Tree was only voted on twice. Same with this year, Blueprints coming in at number five with only Blessing and I voting for it. So then we get to the last, not even fun stat or fun fact or anything. Let's talk about a saga. The voting drama saga.

As some of you know, voting for game of the year. Like, who's the problem here? I love it could be any of you three. I know who's not us three. We know who's the problem. But it could be any of you three. Okay, I didn't do anything.

Yeah, I would actually give Roger the benefit of the doubt here. You know, for those who don't know, game of the year for kind of funny voting opens on our last day in office in 2020 or of the year. So I think that was December 19th or 20th around there. And then voting ends the first day we come back in office. So this year, that was January 2nd. That was the day we came in office to really prep for kind of funny day. and voting is due at 3 p.m. on the last day of voting. And I knew there was going to be a problem.

On January 2nd, we all came together. We were kind of like doing a mini production meeting, figuring out KF Day what we still needed to do. And I said, hey, reminder for everybody who votes for game of the year, your votes are due by 3 p.m. today. And I knew there was going to be a problem when one snow bike, Mike uttered under his breath, oh shit. Like he hasn't done this for the last five years. I was playing for Monday, Tim. For Monday. That's never how it worked, Mike.

So, you know, voting slowly comes through. It's not like there's a meeting every week where we go over this information. Yeah, exactly. Oh, shit, I haven't done that. Exactly. And so voting comes through. Voting's due by 3 p.m. And at one point, actually, to Mike's credit, I think it was around like 1230, all of the votes came through.

And I was like, oh, shit, okay. All right. An hour goes by. And I get a slack message from Mike. It's like, Subroney, please, I'm begging. I know you say once we vote, we can't change our vote, but it's still before 3 p.m. Please, for the love of God, I forgot about a game. I forgot about a game.

I need to fix my list. Mikey, what game did you forget about that you'll talk about on your personal list later this week? Baby steps. This motherfucker forgot about baby steps. Yeah, that's a big one to forget. It's got to be on there. It's got to be on there. Got to recognize it.

So before Mike changed his vote, if I remember, I think there was one tie on this list. Mike changed his vote. There was not one tie. There were not two ties. There were three ties. And one of them was a three-way tie. And I was thinking of myself, fuck, this sucks.

You know, I fuck with ties. It's a fun way to celebrate more games. But I'm thinking about the chat who already cries about ties every year. And I'm like a three-way tie, which has a three-way tie, which has a happened since 2020 when only four people voted on game of the year is going to melt people's brains and then also like Andy came up with a solution for ties on the front desk a couple of years ago looks great try to get three games into a slot I was like this is going to look like it was a tough it was a tough graphic you asked me to do it was like and I was worried about it months ago

I was like I have a feeling it might happen can you make a mockup of what a three way tie would look like and it looked kind of stupid and so I was like sorry Andy no I mean I did my best I agree It looks stupid. The games look so tiny. Yeah, that's not a commentary on 80. Why are you going to use a call? And so it was just like, all right, well, this is the list. And the one strict rule I have is that I'm not allowed to change my own list once I see someone

else's because I'm the only one who sees the results here. Sure. Yeah. So it's like, all right, like I got to play it where it lies. And so I started and mainly the reason why I have people not resubmit is mainly for assets sake. Once I start, you know, finalizing these assets, I don't want to have to go back. and redo a bunch of things once I start locking things in.

But that three-way tie and having three ties on the top ten, I was like, fuck, man, this sucks. But then one night, a glowing star from the heavens came down in the form of a text message from one Andy Cortez. And he said, Debroni, and he didn't say Gibroni. He doesn't talk like Mike like that. He said, yo, I know you say no resubmission. Jesus Christ.

I said what if I said what if I messed up my list So the credit I will give to Andy Because Andy, while we can assume What game of the year is going to be And we pre-make a lot of these assets Before like voting even comes through You know, he doesn't see the rest of the list

He doesn't know the situation I'm in on the back end He's just like, hey I was trying to keep a game off of my list Because I thought it was early access But then someone Someone pointed out to me that it's not actually early access. So I would like to fix my list. And what game was that, Andy?

The king is watching. Number eight, gave it on the list. I thought it was early access this whole time. And I was like, no, Andy, it's not. Like, I'm looking right now. I'm pretty sure. Didn't they just put DLC out? Well, like, I just thought that I was like, an update. Every other early access has their roadmap or whatever.

And I'm looking at it. And I was like, oh my God, you're right. Holy fuck it. So I texted it was like, look, if it fucks things up, don't worry about it. I'll leave it off the list. Don't worry about it. Like, I know this is three days. late and then Barrett replied with I'll allow it because it helps out because I did some

mental math and I was like oh this would knock off one of the three way or one of the three ties and then it would break up Ghost of Yote from being tied with night rain and skate early access and I thought about and I made that final decision so I wouldn't melt Shat's brain with a three way tie

and then to also think about assets and how annoying it would be to make a three way It's okay when Andy does it, but not when Mike does it. That's crazy. Well, it'll help the situation. Well, Mike fucked it and then Andy unfucked it. Exactly. And I will say, after Mike resubmitted his list, I did go to him and I looked him in the eye

and I said, I'm just going to be straight with you. You've made my life a fucking headache and I'm actually really annoyed with him. And he looks at me with a smile on his face, glimmer in his eye and he says, Barrett, I couldn't ask for anything more and then just walked away. I was like, all right, man. I guess that's my life. But I made the executive decision on that, and maybe I'll talk a little bit more about that process

on tomorrow's Gregway, which you can get on patreon.com. So that's kind of funny where I'll talk about game of the year process, you know, the executive decision I had to make this year when it came to resubmitting votes and all that stuff, which is always a little daunting when it's only me who's, like, kind of making the decision at the end of the day, because I want to surprise the rest of you with the list. But that gets us to our honorable mention, which was a tie originally on our top 10 games.

And because I made assets for it, here you go. Octopath Traveler Zero. And? And who's it? Kirby Airwriters. Wow. Wow. You two.

Fuck me. How? It's not a top 10 games. That's not a top 10. Kirby Airwriters is my game of the year. Shut up, Roger. No way. Stand strong.

Octopath. Kirby fans unite. We've been quiet too long this episode. I feel like I was invited to a party by one person. And one person I knew left the party. That's what happened here. It's always like, oh, man, definitely this is going to be number 10. I'm sure Tim or maybe bless having a number 10 around that.

I put it at number one. None of you guys put it there. What the fuck is going on here? We're going to have a blood bath tomorrow. We're going to have a conversation between Tim, bless and myself, because it's going to be a reckoning. Because Kirby Air Riders is the game of the fucking gear. I don't think I have that.

I will stand by that. No bit nothing. This game is fucking perfect. Holy shit. I thought when you put a hamster on your list. Yeah, Rick. I thought when you put Rick on the list, like, yeah, that's the recognition. I'll give it.

No. I was wondering to talk about today. That's so funny. Let me tell you the amount of, of, when we were going through a 10, 9, 8, I was like, oh, man, number seven. I was, wait. About number four. About number three, I gave up.

I was like, I, like. About number three? That's where you gave up? Doug. I was right. I am so mad at Andy. Andy Cortez is the man who earns my hire because a few weeks ago, when we started thinking,

he was like, hey, let me log into your steam. I need to grab Octopath traveler assets. And I was like, oh, it's no way it's on the list. He's like,

we're so spread out this year. You've been so vocal to your number one. 10 points might get it done. Yeah. So I had that twinkle in my eye. I'm like, I'm like, maybe 10. So Ann Roger popped up,

but I was trying to figure out the math, but I couldn't do it quick enough. And when we got to, you know, I'm like, I'm fucked. it's happening. Yeah, Roger, I have my top 20 written down.

Kirby Air Rider's not even close. Wow. We're going to have a conversation tomorrow. If skate wasn't a tie, Greg, it would have been the graphic of you with the skateboard that had the ghost buses on it. Nice. But since it's that, you know, I appreciate that. Thank you.

Thank you. Roger's a gamer, man. I'm a gamer, bro. It changed my life. I really thought that Tim helped. No. Get into honorable men. Oh.

Dang. Yeah. Number one. I mean this with a bullet. With a bullet. With a bullet, bro. Easy. Look at Exmission 33. I said, get away from me.

out of here. I love that for you. Wow, that is number one. I mean it, bro. Changed my life. That's awesome. Love that. So, change my life, bro. Also, you know, this was the first year that I I'm like, all right, no early access.

Last year I've had Hades 2 in a thing, but it's like, this is the year I want to like make that rule for myself after hearing other people make that rule of themselves. Like, I want to do the same thing, but not DLC because Liza P. Overture. That's new. That's new content. real high up on that. I think I was top 15 for me.

And that was another reason why I allowed it for you because it didn't feel like a oh, I forgot about this. Like you were trying to make a point and then, you know, it was like, oh, you made that point for no reason. So I was like, yeah, that's also this was before I became Barrett parentheses evil. I was like, you know what?

I'll allow it just because you were trying really hard. King was watching. Yeah, you got so far. He was watching. I thought that the number 11 was going to be Shinobi. I thought Shinobo would have made more people's lists kind of in that back end, because it was my number nine was on anyone else's?

It was in my 15. Wow. Yeah, you're the only one who voted for it, 10. It was really close for me. It's crazy. Chris Hank in the chat. Oh, surprise, surprise, Andy brings up Liza P. Later 10, dumbs.

Cute. Well, a shout out to Shinobi. That was like some of the most fun I've had in terms of an action game this year, for sure. And shout out Kirby, Irriders. Shout out of our riders. I'm glad we're here. I mean, shout about Ninja Guy and 40.

Oh, man. Like I was saying, the rest of this week will be games cast of all of our personal top tens getting into every single game on the list, whether they're on this group list or not, kind of given more thoughts on everything. Thank you so much for hanging out with us. If you haven't seen the Smilies, go check it out. Last week we did an awesome show, kind of celebrating video games from a bunch of different perspectives, giving it out of a bunch of awards to games and to Mike. And you're going to want to see all of those because they have a lot of fun. Andy, did you edit all those clips together? Yeah, I want to re-upload somewhere.

Something happened. It was fucked. The whole video was fucked up. So sorry about that. But it was the message got across. It got across for sure. Thank you all for hanging out with us. This has been another kind of funny game of the year.

Greg Miller. More importantly, though, don't go anywhere. Up next is Kind of Feudy. Episode two of the Greg Miller regime. And you're going to like the prize. I guarantee it. He guarantees it, everybody. Thank you for hanging out with us. Watch Kind of Feudy. Love you all. Goodbye.