The Ringer-Verse - 2025 Games of the Year Draft | Button Mash

Episode Date: December 23, 2025

Ben, Matt, Steve, and Joshua Rivera recap an eventful year in video games by summing up the overall quantity and quality of games released in 2025, identifying both naughty and nice trends in the industry, and drafting their favorite titles across several categories. (00:00) Intro(3:35) Overall Quality of 2025 Games(8:35) Naughty and Nice Industry Trends(43:32) Games of the Year Draft Host: Ben LindberghGuests: Matt James, Steve Ahlman, and Joshua RiveraProducer: Isaiah BlakelyAdditional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopowell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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This episode is brought to you by Spectrum Business. Fast, reliable internet means everything for your business. And even this podcast, that's why I trust Spectrum Business to keep companies of all sizes connected with internet, advanced Wi-Fi, phone, TV, mobile services, plus 24-7 US-based support. Millions of business owners already trust Spectrum business. So visit Spectrum.com slash business to learn more. Restrictions apply. Services not available in all areas. Hello and welcome into the Ringerverse, your nexus speed for all things fandom. I am Ben Lindberg, senior editor for The Ringer, and by default, button mash host of the year. Congrats to me. Joining me, however, are a few folks who are in contention for co-hosts of the year.

First, a man who's well qualified to weigh in on the games of the year because he played almost all of them. For the last time in 2025, I'm rolling out the welcome Matt to say, welcome Matt. to Ringer Deputy Art Lead. Matt James. Hey, Ben. Happy to be back. Happy to stop obsessively trying to play everything before this episode. Well, yeah, there were only about 20,000 games released on Steam this year.

I don't know how close you got. Yeah, 19,000, but, you know, I'll do better next year. Yeah, your pile of shame of those thousand Steam games really mounted. But you'll get to it next year. You'll catch up. Next up, a midnight boy who's become a midnight all-man. Ringer, senior audio producer, Steve, the Allmanosphere, Allman. Oh, gee.

Wow, all right. Change of pod. Quick pivot. How many, how many supplements can we shill in the next five minutes? I think we're really going to get the pre-rolls in. I'm running out of good nicknames for you. It's very hard. You're doing your best.

Yeah. There are a lot, but we've been doing this pod for a couple of years at this point. And finally, for the first time on our annual year-end episode, though the third time overall, he's been saving up all of his video game takes on 2025 to dispense them on this podcast. Ringer contributor and critic extraordinaire. Joshua Rivera is here. Hello, Joshua. Hello, Ben.

I hope to earn a nickname by the end of this draft. Okay. We'll work up to it. We'll workshop something. We are talking today about the best games of 2025. We are not the first, and we won't be the last to do that. But we will try to do it a bit differently for most in that we will once again give the games of the year the ringer treatment by conducting a draft. Matt and I have already published our combined top 10 video games of the year list on the ringer.com.

What a great website. So if you want a straight up ranking, you can look that up, and I hope you will. But I hope you will also listen to us here now as we assemble our rosters of great games across six discrete games. categories, which we will lay out soon. It'll sound familiar to anyone who has listened to our Games of the Year drafts in the past couple years. We need a name for these. Maybe they can just be the buttons. We're putting a button on the year. The Mashies. I don't know. We'll workshop that too. But before we get to the draft, we'll talk about the year in gaming, which I think on the whole was good. As usual, there's a lot of bad to go with the good. But the games, the games were good.

and the best games specifically, because again, about 20,000 games released on Steam, a new high score as it is every year. And some of those, of course, no one actually plays or has ever heard of other than Matt, but about 4,400 of them found some sort of sizable audience. And there were more releases than ever on consoles, too. Fewer than last year on Xbox, I believe,

but more on PlayStation and Switch. So just an avalanche, a deluge, as usual. But, Matt, when we were compiling our personal rankings and combining them and negotiating and horse trading, we yet again were forced to come to the conclusion that the games were good this year, which it feels like we're a broken record. But the last few years have just been excellent years, at least, for the software itself. Yeah, it's impossible to know where to stop with our honorable mentions. Yeah. Because we could just go on to list 200 games or something. Yeah, no shortage of amazing experiences this year.

Yeah, and I guess every year is going to be good just because aside from you, most people are not actually playing all of the games. And so if you just take the top 50 or so, I mean, first of all, the average Steam stats, the year-end stats say that even people who are on Steam are playing an average of, I think, four games a year, something like that. And I believe those stats also said that 14% of total Steam playtime was on games actually released this year. And everything else is old games. And so, you know, we talk about games that are new for the most part and we draft games that came out this year. Those aren't actually the games that most people are spending most of their time playing. And most people aren't playing most of those games. So if you just limit it to the number of games that most people actually play, then I guess almost by default, every year is going to be good because there's going to be enough for you.

You're not going to run out of things to play. You're not going to run out of Fortnite. No. They'll keep the Kim Kardashian skins coming. So there's always something for everyone, I suppose, is what I'm saying. Steve, did you feel much the same way about gaming in 2025? I did. I don't think that I can safely say that I probably played the least amount of the

selections that we have from our game of the year sections. I've dabbled in most of them, if not all. But as far as my own personal gaming choices for this year, I think the word of the year is also the word of my gaming year, and that is slop. I'm in my slop era a little bit. And that's not to discredit

any of the games that I've been playing, but of the sheer gratification of bang my head against the screen, making numbers go up, make flashy things happen for me. That's really the thing that's been dictating my gaming preferences for this year, not to spoil any of my picks, but it's really kind of been the times that time management as a 30 plus something. I'm not going to spoil that, but the amount of time that

coming at a premium to play in 45 minute increments and only to reward myself thusly really dictated this year the most. And there were a couple of great galen. New nickname. Steve. Oh, no. Oh, no. Okay. It's either Manosphere or sloppy Steve. That's going to be tough. All right, Matt, what do you think is? Rock in a hard place. Slop in a hard place. The real treasure was the friend Slop we played along the way, I guess. Joshua, how did you feel about gaming in 2025? I love this notion that, like, how good your gear in games is is entirely up to you. So if you think it was bad, it's a skill issue. You pick the wrong. You chose unwisely. Yes. I do feel it's more notable when like a game is high profile and bad than it is when the game is good these days. But yeah, I mean, I think it was a weird year for me because I felt like I played so much. But then at the end of the day, I was like, did I play anything at all? Yeah.

And that's what happens when, you know, you got to compare it to Matt over 19,000. Yeah. Yeah, it always makes me feel inadequate because, you know, us arbiters of culture, we are called upon to pronounce the best this or that of the year. And none of us has actually played or seen or read everything comprehensively enough to do that. So we just do the best we can. But we're all looking at these things through our personal lenses. And we did want to do a little year-in-review recap here of 2025 before we get to our draft, as we have done on past Goody episodes. And the way we want to do that, because it's the holidays, is by doing a little naughty and nice.

So each of us has brought a story, a development, a trend from the year in gaming that we considered nice and one that we considered naughty. And maybe we have some backups. But we'll just go around and maybe we can each share our naughty and nice and talk about them a bit and move on. And Joshua, we're welcoming you in here. So why don't you begin? Oh, cool. I'll start with nice then. Okay.

And I think panic in particular is my favorite thing, which sounds like the emotion. But no, panic is a company. They make that little handheld device called The Play Date, but they also publish indie video games. And their continued commitment to that, to making little shashkis, right? and putting out like really, really idiosyncratic and personal video games that I'm not going to talk about just yet.

Has been a real delight and kind of a signifier of just sort of like what I think is one of the bigger nice stories of the year, which is sort of like indie, you know, independent, smaller games really, really taking the spotlight this year. Yeah. And making gaming feel like a more bespoke and personal place than it does, you know, years when there are like three big, you know, PlayStation titles that everybody's talking about, you know. Well, that's heartwarming. I have warm, fuzzy feelings now. Now hit us with the naughty. Oh, man.

Everything Xbox, dude. Like, what a, what a freaking bummer of a company. strategy, everything. And I feel bad because, you know, there are some games that they published that I liked, you know, Ninja Gade and 4. Yeah, that was the saving grace. They were actually good first-party Xbox games. Xbox published and Microsoft owned studios coming out this year,

but that was just buried and overshadowed by everything else Xbox. Yeah, yeah. It's just a deluge of bad press in a sense where it just sort of, that also feels like it jeopardizes, like, are we going to see that, you know, continued commitments and stuff. And then, you know, it's also like a wing of a huge company like Microsoft that has all sorts of other priorities right now. And like, you know, those aren't necessarily like aligned with publishing video games.

Yeah, I guess it depends on your perspective because if you're an Xbox partisan, then you probably resent the fact that there are fewer exclusives, everything's going multi-platform. If you're not, if you don't really have a horse in the race and you just want good games to come out, then that's not necessarily bad. I guess it depends on your attachment to the Xbox brand. But then beyond that, and layoffs and studio closures, their price hikes, both hardware price hikes and game pass price hikes. And so all of that, it's kind of like a confusing strategy. And then the whole reported mandate about having to have a 30% profit margin, leading to all these corners being cuts and things being rushed.

And so it's kind of like a bad year for Xbox and a bad year, I guess if you're in the Xbox ecosystem. But then if you just really wanted to play traditionally Xbox titles on PlayStation, I guess it's a good year for you. Is it familiar with the Sony Pictures Spider-Man rights deal where they basically have to, they basically have to release a Spider-Man movie every five years in order for them to maintain the rights. And I feel like that's almost like Xbox's attitude

when it comes to putting out video game products. Not to say that it's horrendous, but it seems like the gas in the tank is because they need it to be there. They need to be making games in some capacity and they need to be pushing this brand along in some way because there's some mandate somewhere that deems that they have to or it goes away.

And instead of innovating or instead of changing things, it just seems to be going along in some form of capacity where when I start to play my Halo games on my PS5 and then my brain explodes because my 12 year old nostalgia is only going to be remembering something like that

there's going to be something that changes in Xbox and I don't know what it's going to be but it's been nothing but confusion from them it does feel like Xbox is in this weird transitional moment where they have officially definitive lost the console war to the point of visibly tapping out, and they are seemingly poised now to instead pivot to the PC market,

where they have a maybe even greater hill to climb with Steam as a competitor in both software platform and hardware platform. That doesn't seem like any easier a battle than Xbox versus PlayStation. I think they've managed to lose a war on two fronts at the same time. But we will see. Perhaps all of a sudden one day we'll wake up and there'll be an excellent portable version of Windows that doesn't come installed with Microsoft Teams. And, you know, the Steam Store will pretty much vanish overnight.

We'll see what happens in 2026. Yep. Well, for the second or third or I don't know how many. years in a row, we can declare the console wars over. But for real this time. Okay, Matt, what's your nice for 2025? Well, speaking of Steam, my nice is a recent development. The Steam frame has been announced, that new Valve-based VR headset. And that's actually not that exciting to me, the Valve VR headset. I would love one if they want to send one to us. But the element of it that's exciting to me is that

the Steamframe runs on an arm processor. It's a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, which is something that you would find in like a phone. That's what I mean when we talk about arm architecture. That tends to be mobile chips, right? So, you know, the reason why the steam deck ended up being such a huge success

is because Valve had developed the proton compatibility layer that let PC games run on a Linux operating system. That kind of opened the floodgates for Steam Deck's success. And we could be seeing in the next year a similar scenario where Valve has started to accept the arm architecture with open arms. Now, we don't know if they will entirely, but imagine your entire Steam library being available.

to you on your phone. That is a possibility that we could be seeing. And right now on Android, there are already apps like Game Native and Game Hub that let you play a lot of your Steam library on an arm architecture device, such as your phone or one of these wonderful emulator, handheld emulator devices that you may or may not have. So that is my nice. The hope that your Steam library might become even more playable on even more devices, that freedom that you could have to play something on your PC, step out of the house, pop your phone open. Steve, you could, all of these games that you love to play where the blinking lights and the numbers go up, you know, they could all be on your phone instantly. The fact that I'm not just like a hair's breath away from being a mobile gamer anyway is really a miracle. Yes.

So just so I'm clear, Matt, you're nice for this year is the concept of hope. Yes. Or next year. All right. I just want to make that clear. There isn't like an abstract thing. You've written off 2025 as a loss. To be clear.

It might be better is what you're saying. I have, I have, I have an AYN Thor that new dual screen. emulator that is running on Android. And I've been using Game Hub and Game Native already to play a bunch of my Steam library on an Android device. And it's been a massive game changer. A lot of the games that I'll be talking about today are games that I've played on an Android, despite them not being Android games. Well, the more you can play on mobile, the better because you have to sell an organ to get a graphics card for PC now. So probably... RAM.

Yeah, that too. I don't think most people realize how powerful a lot of the modern mobile chips are. They can handle a lot. Phones. They're amazing these days. That's why they call them smart. Okay. What is your naughty, Matt?

Oh, you know, AI. Yeah. Everything, AI. Evil CEOs trying to replace. workers with robots, art becoming absolute sloping games. The endless... The kind Steve likes.

The endless bickering about where the line is in the AI debate. RAM prices across the entire computing landscape going up because of all of this garbage. It's some bleak stuff, and it's

only the beginning. And you can talk about it being horrible in so many ways. And I'm sure in 2026 we'll have new ways to view AI as a horrible thing in the gaming landscape. Yep. I was going to bring this up if you hadn't, but I didn't think it would even fall to me. It's specifically, of course, gen AI, generative AI, because AI just becomes a catch-all term. now for things that we've been calling AI for years less problematically. You know, we've been talking about enemy NPC behavior since Doom or Golden Eye or whatever,

and we used to call that AI. No, we can't call that AI or procedural generation or whatever else. We're talking about generative AI specifically, and it is just omnipresent. And you're right, it's not going to go away. It's going to get even more pervasive, I guess. It's almost like the best case scenario is that everyone will just resign themselves to it. so at least we won't have to talk any more about it. That's like the most fatalistic doomer view of it, but because it seems almost inevitable,

you're right, it's just like the constant conversation around it, where everyone's just talking past each other and super angry in a way that, even though I share the views of the vocal opponents to AI, sometimes it almost seems to go further than I would, I guess, in condemning. some uses of it. I'm treading carefully here because I don't want the mob to come for me. I'm a member of the mob. To be clear,

a card carrying member, but... Yeah, I think you have a great point, Ben, because the... Obviously, AI has been like a corrosive discussion point in all facets of our life this past year.

And when it eventually came for gaming, it was met with the same cynicism and pitchforks and hate that it probably rightfully deserves when it comes to a lot of the things that it takes away from the good parts of this industry. It's employment, it's creative cost-cutting and all of that stuff. But when you have an industry that's in hate, that is innately tied to technology of the day and making those innovations and things that are kind of par for the course that have been around for years that now all of these people that have to run de facto PR campaigns to justify pieces of technology that have either been changed or co-opted or rebranded in

certain ways to say AI or certain other things, that gets to be a very tricky proposition for a lot of people that are selling it. Like Larian recently got their foot in the mud for understanding or justifying what their use of generative AI was when if we were to look at that in the vacuum, again, I don't know the innate specifics of it, but to them and most of the people that were working there, depending on who you ask, might not have been that harmful. And it's only going to get worse, as you said. So Matt's, naughty and nice being hope and despair is pretty fitting. Yeah. Yeah, I understand the impulse to hold the line, because if you give any ground, if you normalize this, make any concessions, then you figure it'll be entrenched forever, we'll never get

rid of it, it'll lead to the death of creativity and layoffs and all of those things are very possible. There are gradations, I think, in the ethics of use, and sometimes those get lost a little in the blowback. I mean, they're obscure, for instance, a game that we may mention later on this episode, just had its indie game awards rescinded over. for its AI use, which was small scale, seemingly, but not disclosed in the appropriate way. There were some AI generated background assets and textures that slipped into the game and were patched out days after the game came out. And for whatever reason, it didn't become a big story now.

It's almost blowing up a bit after the fact. And that happens sometimes where there's a placeholder that's in there just sort of as a stopgap. and then sometimes it slips into the final release accidentally. Other times it's in there on purpose, and it's a full-throated endorsement of, yes, this is our process, this is what we want to do. And so it's hard to know because there are people who believe

and maybe quite correctly that any AI use is wrong. It will inevitably lead to laying people off, or it's just bad for the environment, and it uses a lot of energy, and there are just better ways to do all these things. I don't use AI as part of my process. I'm not using Gen. AI to brainstorm or something and then replacing it with real words later. I don't do any of that stuff. It's hard for me to judge if you're a developer, if there are ways that it can be genuinely useful and it can save you some time on some grunt work that will free you up to be creative. Or is that just the excuse that companies trot out there to justify inevitable cost cutting and downsizing? What do you make of all this, Joshua? Yeah, I think I, it's funny because like I would rather people tell me than not. And I am not like so high in myself as to say that I could spot it every time.

You know, it's going to happen. It's going to be increasingly difficult to. Yeah. I mean, that's one of the things is that like this backlash I think at least exists because for now we can kind of tell usually. although it does lead to this culture of kind of paranoia because it's like, is that AI art or is it just not very good art? It could do that. Or, you know, once we all just resign ourselves to it, then we won't object anymore and then everyone will be quiet. But it's because we'll be living in the dystopian gen AI future.

Well, I mean, that's kind of what it, you know, like how I feel in a sense, where it's just sort of, it's going to slip into something that we all play. You know, we're going to be mad about it and rightfully so. I think just shouldn't use it. But I also trust companies to do what companies do, which is use every tool they can to cut things to the bone. And we're going to find out very quickly, you know, how sustainable and useful a tool that is. And right now it doesn't seem terribly useful. So like, why risk it? But at the same time, you know, because they can, you know, fire people and make more money in the short term.

Yeah. Or potentially in the long term, there's some possibility that at some point it might be useful. And that seemed to be sort of what Larian said the other day and they just got dog piled in a way that makes me think that you're right. In the future, companies just won't be forthcoming about what they're doing because it's just this shibboleth basically. Like you say anything about AI other than the most vocal vehement condemnation of it, people are going to come for you. So it's better just not to disclose it. And that's bad because it is better to know, I think. But when Larian is essentially like, you know, and this is beloved company, self-owned and

operated makers at Baldr's Gate 3 and the upcoming Divinity, and they're basically like, well, everyone else is doing it. So we just kind of have to experiment and figure out if there's a use here and we're actually hiring artists and we're not firing people. And it was just a bloodbath. So I don't know. Not all AI use is created equal. guess unless you think that it all kind of erodes the resistance to it. And therefore,

it all must be just as quickly and vociferously condemned. So I am curious to see, like, whether this kind of war of words persists. I saw a study the other day by Quantic Foundry, not to be confused with Digital Foundry, which holds gamers and found that 85% of respondents have a below neutral attitude toward the use of Gen A.I. and video games with a highly skewed 63% who selected the most negative option. And that's why you get just very vocal response. But I do wonder when it actually comes to it, like when the rubber meets the road, if there's a good game that you want to play, how many people are passing up that game? I wonder, you know, if Arc Raiders has some AI generated content, but you really like and want to

play ARC creators, are you actually sitting that out or not? Or does it become kind of a Hogwarts legacy situation where a lot of people understandably have a lot of antipathy toward the Harry Potter universe and don't want to support it with their money. And yet it sells 40 million copies. So obviously somebody's buying it, right? So I don't know whether it's a very vocal minority or it is more pervasive. I kind of, I hope it's the latter. But it does become this kind of reflexive response to any invocation of AI. And I don't know. Maybe at some point there is. is some way in which it could be useful. It just seems like if there is,

it's likely to be corrupted and enlisted for the worst possible aims and motivations. So it's all very scary and depressing. I'm definitely against the idea of Gen AI in video game development. And even when you think about, you know, okay, we have our concept artists. They're just using it as a starting point. And then they're going to create concept art.

They're not replaced. Like, even when you go down this route, a starting point is a terrible place for art when it's generated by AI. That's just a really, so, you know, there is some nuance to be had in this discussion, and it's a new technology. So naturally, there are people who are going to be playing with it, experimenting it, with it, figuring out, does this have a role to play here or does it not? And I think that, you know, you'd be doing a disservice to not explore these tools, at least privately, as a game developer, to figure out if there's any value here. I mean, you can't make an informed decision about this without, you know, using it to some degree and experimenting with it. But I think that the kind of harsh backlash against Gen AI is, kind of holding the line here for us.

I don't think anyone really expects to be able to eliminate it fully from gaming, but I think that taking a hard line stance, it's making it hard for CEOs to say, okay, we're going to use this. Any CEO now knows that if we want to use Gen A.I, it's going to be an uphill battle for us. We're going to have to pay the price.

We're going to have to have a PR team about this. and I think just making it that hard is more of the point. Like, if this has value, you're going to have to be ready to prove it. We're not going to let anyone slide by and fire people and replace our assets with garbage. So I think that they'd know that. I don't know that all of them do. Yeah, well, based on some of those statements. Yes, they do very quickly get their come up and see.

Yeah. And, you know, yes, maybe if you're training the model on your own work, as opposed to other people's plagiarized work. Again, there's some nuance here, but also it seems like it's a Pandora's box that probably will be open inevitably, but maybe we can slow it a little bit, hopefully. Okay, Steve, give me a nice.

I will give you a nice. And my nice is a bit more of a conceptual one, and I'm calling it the obliteration of the middle. And this is what I'm going to be giving. a sort of like name to the movement of the end of the idea of the like mid-tier budget game. And I say that because obviously games cost a lot of different types of amounts of money made by different numbers of teams and people. But I think the idea of a certain game that got a certain amount of many Game of the Year awards this year that had a lot of the sort of like philosophical and principled tenants of a independent or low to mid-budget game seemingly got all of the praise that,

rightfully, some would say, it deserved this year. And the more and more I look around, the more and more I see that a lot of these teams seem to get smaller and smaller with ambitions that get higher and higher. And a lot of the times, these end up working out great. And a lot of this is due to the lot of technological advancements and, like, budgetary constraints that are actually quite useful to allow that level of creativity. We just had like an anti-AI thing. And I know that that sort of restriction, like a great director can make a movie that is

made for like $20,000 and it becomes a sensational hit. And it makes people's careers. And I'm seeing that more and more in this industry where it's not even so much a top-down, eight-bit retro Zelda-like that gets a lot of high praise or a lot of big releases on Steam and then universal acclaim. And then they just keep on making those. But instead, people are getting far more ambitious and making far bigger projects along the same lines of like a Claire obscure. And they're getting more and more attention for it. And they are competing against the Titans of this industry. And that to me is probably the most encouraging thing that I've seen, not just from this

year, but for the past few years in the gaming industry. All right. What's your naughty? My naughty is private equity, baby. Really, really sad. There are so many acrony, but still naughty. Yeah. There are so many acronyms that bought EA this year, along with a lot of nefarious different sources for that money, and they took the company private, and all of these things are leading to the bigger aspects of this industry.

leading towards more greedy and predatory types of ways of selling games and keeping those games in your play cycle and library for as long as they possibly can. It's saying the quiet part out loud to know that they're coming for every second of our lives and every dime that we have. And when I see the likes of EA, the people that make sports games and effective digital casinos run around with either I'm so I'm really miss the loot box discourse because we really need to be

having it again now. We really, really do need to be having it again now. Some of our favorite games and franchises will likely go this route and we need to have that co-tore remake come out as soon as possible before those changes are really implemented because it's going to get really gross when we get to see the big games that come out and there are going to be a lot of things in it that we don't like.

So that's my naughty for this year. Yeah, we're recording this on the day of the shareholder vote to approve the electronic arts sale to Saudi Arabia. That is definitely a naughty for me as well. I guess for Nice, as some of you have touched on it, kind of danced around it, but I will go with kind of the year of indie acclaim, at least in a mainstream center of the spotlight way. It's not new that indie games are good. But it did feel like they picked up the slack this year in terms of the, the most prominent high-profile games, when a lot of AAA games either got delayed, not naming any names, or came out and were mildly disappointing, or just took years and years

to be developed and hundreds of zillions of dollars. And there were just a lot of great indie games, some of which also took years to come out, to be clear. But when you get three indie games nominated for Game of the Year at the Game Awards, and I know that there is a whole conversation about whether Claire Obscure is an indie game and what an indie game even is and what that means anymore. And maybe we'll get into that later. But regardless, there are some meaningful distinctions here. And even if you kind of include the friend Slop sort of steam sensations that Steve was shouting out and that I did an episode of this podcast about a few weeks ago, a lot of those, you know, the barrier to entry has been lowered for game development just because of tools like the Unreal Engine and Unity and everything else. And on the one hand, I guess that could be bad long term. If you can build a great game with one or two people and maybe some outsourced tasks too,

then does that mean fewer developers will be employed? But on the plus side, you can have one person who's just sort of laboring in obscurity as a side gig, and they can make some of the best games of the year. So when you have, sure, Hades 2 and Silk Song and Claire Obscure sort of special cases in their own ways, And then you have something like blueprints or you have Absalom or, you know, lots of other games that I probably should stop listing right now because we might be able to trap them. But you get the point. You know, it was easy to feel good about AI, about not AI. No.

No. It's a radian slip. It's easy to feel good about indie games, which do not use AI in any capacity, not even just to experiment with and not intended for the final release. No, I felt good about a lot of indie games. And also, they tend to be cheap sometimes. which is also kind of nice just because the development costs are lower. My Nottie, however, when it comes to prices, a lot of them did increase. And so I'm going to give Notties just to consoles in general.

It's been rough lately. We're coming off a November, which was historically terrible for console sales. And according to the data from Sarkana, it's like the fewest consoles sold in a November since 1995. that's a long time ago. And that's with a new Nintendo system, which to be fair has been selling like hotcakes up until this past month. But

with the price hikes, with the tariffs, with the inflation, and frankly with the appeal of PC as a platform, so it's not all consoles bad. Some of it is just PC's good. And as a guy who is very excited for the steam machine and

hopes and plans to be doing more of my gaming on PC's, see in some form in 2026 as a traditionally console gamer these days, maybe that's not so bad. But it has been really rough lately. And whereas we usually see prices for hardware come down at this point in the console lifecycle. Instead, it's just going up and up and up. And that is odd.

And it's been bad for consoles in general. Yeah. You know, I think that you're naughty and nicees are very kind of interlinked. You're seeing this flourishing of indie games, primarily on a PC platform and through Steam and everything. And then on consoles, there's this stagnation. And you can see when you go into the PlayStation store, it's hard to be presented with anything other than a sports game or a shooter in that store.

And this kind of tends to be where console gaming is at right now. Safe bets rule the console. console landscape. And I think that a lot of gamers are turning towards PC for more interesting experiences for ones. And I guess I'll just shout out a few other stragglers I consider. I mean, some things could be kind of naughty or nice or naughty and nice. The Switch 2 launch, for instance, which very nice for Nintendo in a lot of ways. It's sold outsold the Switch outsold any other console in the same amount of time after launch. And there were a lot of great games to play on it.

But it was sort of lacking the big, I mean, even though systems were being sold, it was lacking some of the traditional Nintendo system sellers, a new 3D Mario, a new Zelda, et cetera, right? So some things seemed to be missing. And some of it was ports and, you know, ports are important. And if you didn't have an original switch or you haven't had other consoles for the past several years and your Switch couldn't run games released in the past five years, then suddenly it's a bonanza and a bananza for you on Switch 2.

But, you know, some bad with the good there, I would say. And similarly, like, Roblox, I think it was like fantastically successful this year. And yet also, are miners safe on that platform? Not at all clear, right? So it kind of morphed into this Fortnite-esque platform that could be, a hub for other games to be developed. And there's lots of slop on there, too, that has, you know, 20 million concurrent users. Clearly, some people were having fun on Roblox, but also clearly some nefarious activity was taking place there. And it doesn't seem like the people in charge of it are

appropriately concerned about that. So those were a couple other things on my mind. And lastly, I guess, kind of a nice, I thought that call of duty got taken down a pick. And I'm not anti-call-of-duty, exactly. It's just that I like that call of duty was kind of held accountable, that you can't just sort of fart out a new iterative addition of black ops and expected to sell to the same people who buy Madden and Call of Duty every year in the same quantities. There was some actual competition and some people were coming for the king this year, whether it be Battlefield 6 or Arc Raiders, and it actually worked seemingly going toe to toe head to head with Call of Duty through some combination of the ingenuity of those games and Call of Duty just kind of mailing it in this year,

it actually had an effect, a measurable effect in terms of revenue and number of players. And even though I don't have it out for that franchise or anything, I just kind of like that it was held to account. Like, keep Call of Duty on its toes. You can't count on being the dominant game every year if you don't actually innovate, just in the slightest little bit. I don't know. I think you have it out for the game.

that franchise. Maybe. That sort of sounds like I have an extra criteria. All right. Anything else? Anyone else?

Anyone wants to shout out before we get to drafting? I could just elaborate a little on Nintendo's decisions around the Switch 2 launched really quickly. Just game key cards, right?

Like only offering like the high capacity cards. So all these games ended up being like essentially a download code in the box, charging for Nintendo Switch 2 welcome tour

not getting enough dev kids. Worth every penny, Matt. Not getting enough dev kits out to people. So you would have games that should run well on your Switch 2 that there's just only a Switch 1 version of. I was very hyped to play Ninja Guide

and Ragebound on my Switch 2, only to learn that there's only a Switch 1 version that is capped at 30 frames for seconds. So why would I play it there when I can play it at 60 frames elsewhere? And then not enough upgrades for Switch 1 games that take advantage of the Switch 2 hardware like Xenoblate Chronicles definitive edition, X definitive edition, still locked at 30 frames per second, despite like

all these rumblings of like maybe a 60 FPS mode like in the back end of that somewhere when it was launched and then we just have no, I just assumed I would be able to to play that at 60 frames pretty quick after launch and I am still waiting. Yeah, after Metroid Prime 4, it's 120 or bust. Just get out of here with that 60. It's like slow motion moving in molasses here. Yeah, it was the year when I came to fully appreciate frame rates and also the year of parrying in video games, which is not new, but felt like it peaked.

We reached peak Perry this year. We'll probably get to that as we do some drafting. So let's get to our draft. This episode is brought to you by WeatherTech. Everyone knows winter is the MVP and making a mess. You don't need WeatherTech floor liners in the summer, unless you hit the beach or go camping. Then you'd want a cargo liner. Or a road trip goes sideways, ketchup goes rogue, ice cream drips.

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Corn salsa. 40 grams of protein. Made to keep up with whatever comes next. New sweetgreen wraps hit different. Order now at order. dot sweetgreen.com. We're running back the format from last year, which seemed to be successful. So we have six categories. And they are action adventure, which we're going to be pretty liberal about this one, because we don't have subcategories for, say, platformers or shooters. So it's more

like if there's action or adventure, more so than the combination of those things, like a traditional action adventure game. So a lot of things will fit into that umbrella RPG. is our second category. Indy is our third. Now, whether we have to have wars about what qualifies for indie here or not, I don't know, we can hash that out. And, you know, if there are any questions, complaints about people trying to draft things for categories where others don't believe that it's eligible, well, we can have that conversation. Ongoing game is our fourth category and I think a slight wrinkle here. So ongoing game can count games that came out prior to 2025, but had some meaningful update this year, maybe some big expansion or DLC or just

patches that completely fixed the game that was broken at launch, let's say, or it can be a live service game that just never ends. It could be a very old game that's still going. but we are going to say that we will allow new ongoing games as well. So these games do not have to have predated 2025. They could be new as long as they are designed to be ongoing, or they have been ongoing in some meaningful way. Maybe they've already gotten new content, or maybe they are just live service games

that have been maintained and updated throughout the year. Okay. Rerun is our fifth category, And this just encompasses anything that was repackaged or re-released in some form, a remake, a re-release, a remaster. If it came out before and this year it came out again, then it is eligible in rerun. And finally, we have the Wild Card category where anything can go. So we can draft certain games that are eligible in more than one category. And if so, then you just have to specify which slot you are occupying.

There's positional scarcity considerations that might come into play here. And, you know, we can argue. Arguing is good for a draft. If people want to insist that something is an RPG because you play a role and you want to get pedantic and technical about it, then we'll get into it. Donkey Kong banisters an RPG. I mean, I role to play doggyong every day. Okay. I min-maxed my way through Dunkin.

Monkey Kong panana. All right. Let's start drafting and we'll do a snake draft format here. And Isaiah Blakely, who is producing this episode, filling in for Devin Realnaudo, has come up with a random draft order. So Isaiah, give us the good or bad news. Yeah, so the draft order is Matt has the first pick. Steve has the second pick. Joshua has the third pick. And then it is bad news. You have the fourth pick. Rigged, rigged. Amazing. Recount.

Wow. Okay, this is rough, but at least on the turn I get my back-to-back picks. But okay. All right. So, Nat, where are you going to go with number one? This isn't going to surprise anybody if you've ever listened to me this year. I wish Steve had got number one. Me too.

Whether he would have betrayed his principles. I really wanted that. Yeah. I would have done the funniest thing ever, and I would have done what Matt's about to do, and it would have been the most bad faith thing I've ever done in this job. I should say, you can follow your heart

and you can draft the, shall we say, obscure titles with an E at the end, not without the E important distinction in this case. But this will presumably theoretically be put to a vote. I don't know. I don't want to get Jomi. I don't want to bother Jomey during the holidays. But if eventually he's able to,

put up a poll, then we will have people vote on who they think won this draft. So there are some stakes and ragging rights. But Matt, make the predictable pick. All right. I'm going to take Claire obscure. I'm going to take it in RPG. Yeah. Shocker. I don't think we even talk about this. Even though there were AI placeholder assets, are you endorsing generative AI, Matt? I'm not. But what I am endorsing is the greatest game of the year, the greatest game of several years, maybe even. I believe in this game a lot. I think it's just a near-perfect game, one of the most powerful narratives of the year, an incredibly innovative yet nostalgic combat system, gorgeous non-AI-generated

artwork in it. And I think that this game is way too good to exclude it from this discussion because of the particular gen AI that they used and then replaced in it. You know, we were talking about how there needs to be some nuance to the AI discussion. And I think this is a good example of that. We can't just toss this thing aside. I understand if you want to, you know, it has lost an indie award in the wake of this Gen AI news. And I think that's fair. I think that's entirely fair, especially within the indie space.

Yeah, there were clear conditions also for that award where you were supposed to state whether you used it. Yeah, to declare. And they didn't. And they didn't. That's totally fair. Knowing what I know now, I still can't overlook that I think this is the best game of the year easily. Yeah. Well, they also owned it, which is like refreshing.

That's true. It's like they there's like, yeah, we did. We patched it out. We're not doing that again as far as I understand, right? My main regret is that I didn't bring props because I would just like start buttering a baguette during your whole spiel. Yeah, I should have done that. I have a baguette downstairs. The Sandfall attaeroy.

Was them doing that at the game awards too cute? Or were they? No. Was that fine? Okay. That was fun. I thought it was cute, but I guess maybe the cuteness wore off after the first eight awards that the game won. I get your high on your own supply a little bit and get it, take your victory lap.

That's fine. But I'm like, all right. Right. It's a case where I think the critical consensus and the popular consensus is just correct. And Steve, if you want to be a contrarian in a second, I will. clear the floor for you. No, actually, don't. Actually, don't.

Because I'm very happy for them. I'm exceedingly happy for this game. No, no, no, no, no. This is the problem. The discourse and the, and the human experience has corroded. If I don't like a thing, that means I don't like you for liking the thing. That's not true, all right? I'm happy for you to like the thing.

But you still don't like the thing. I don't like the thing, and that's fine. That's okay. Don't be mad at me because I don't like a thing. Steve's very happy for me. I am. So this has been a running gag and bit for months. I guess it's not a bit.

You are sincere about this. But what is it? Is it just the lack of originality? The fact that this clearly harkened back to classic RPGs, turn-based RPGs of your and didn't do enough new for you? Is that the main complaint? Yeah, I think it was a tad stacked against me for the things that I didn't exactly love.

Like, I felt that the game was, like, perfectly and adequately made and, like, clearly done with love. But I could feel and see a lot of the limitations that that team had. I don't discredit them for having them because they had what they had. It never really resonated with me.

And then that stops me from enjoying a lot of the things that they had to offer for me. Like, the combat to me didn't resonate. It was clunky. it did not feel like a turn-based experience that I was used to and particularly liked. And the story and settings were fine, but nothing that was grabbing me. And then, yes, I probably was a tad too contrarian the first time that I talked about it because of the fact that it was getting all of the praise from everybody.

And I was like, you know what? No, this is actually bigger than you, Steve, all right? You got to learn to love and hug the person, reach across the aisle and say, this is fine, this is good, because you're going to like some fake gambling simulator that nobody's going to respect, and they could be happy for me. So I'm going to do that for that. But you're not extending the same grace to Avatar, Fire, and Ash. Absolutely not.

No. Yeah. Okay. Look, I really love this game. I think it is properly rated as the game of the year. And yes, it does become tiresome at a certain point to keep hearing about how great a game is to the point where it's excluding recognition of so many other games because it's just sweeping every award. And it's like, okay, we get it. And so there's an impulse to have kind of

a backlash or a contrarian take or a hater take. But I can't muster one because I just really love this game. And, you know, yes, it is kind of consciously modeled on some past games. And it is a bit of a throwback, but it's done so well and not just kind of in a copycat way in a way that really modernizes that template, I think, and just does it so beautifully, visually, orally. The soundtrack is incredible. The characters, the story, the voice acting just top to bottom. It's great. And I'm almost sorry that can't just kind of stand on its own as a great game.

It has to kind of be like an avatar for your hobby horse about the gaming industry, basically. when it came out, it was the savior. It was like, here's how games can be developed, and they won't take eight years and $400 million, and you can actually a debut game, granted experience developers, but with a fairly small in-house staff, plus a bunch of people working from afar, you can make this game in a fairly reasonable time frame

for a fairly reasonable budget, and it can be great. And I'm kind of glad you didn't draft it as an indie, so we don't have to have that discussion. But regardless of whether it qualifies as an indie for you or not, I think at first people seized on it sort of as like, this is the panacea, this is the solution to all that ails the gaming industry. And maybe that's a lot to put on any one game. And if we can just kind of appreciate it as, you know what,

this is just like a fantastic game. This is just the game of the year, whether it represents anything or stands for anything or is like the... It's just a good game. Yeah. It really sounds like you're in a hostage video talking about this game. Like, it's really, it's sorry to you are under arrest. You're holding up a copy of today's newspaper.

No, I don't put words in my mouth. I really like this game. I just, I wish we could kind of appreciate it on its own terms as opposed to it just being so central. It was the game of the year, not only in terms of quality, but just in terms of conversation, just think pieces generated, right? And sometimes that's just too much. But on a pure game level, you know. Even those of us who absolutely love this game are ready to stop talking about it.

Yes. You know what? That's so funny. That is good to hear because I think that game is fine. I think it's just fine. We all played a bunch of RPGs when we were sad teenagers and now we're sad adults and there's an RPG about sad adults. Thank God.

Okay. You know, I see a therapist too. I love this I love it, Joshua Yeah So like again It's cool It's like a greatest hits of all these other things

I also like And I like that they're all here in this one game And you know The little paintbrush dudes are cute That's fun And What do you call it? You know

Gettles, right? The Gets, yes But like, I am baffled a little bit by the reception. That reception could go to a worse game. So, like, you know, have fun, I guess. I don't know. I did. I'll play something more embarrassing, probably.

Yeah. Yeah, it's like the game itself didn't outstay its welcome because it's fairly compact as turn-based RPGs go. But perhaps the. conversation surrounding the game has overstated its welcome somewhat. You know, there's, there can be too much of any good thing. And so with that, I suppose we can move on to our next pick. And that's me.

And I hope to God that I'm going to, I'm going to pick Indy just for the sake that if I get it wrong, then we could have this discussion now. I'm taking blueprints. Oh, yeah. No doubt. Great. Yeah. Okay.

Thank you. Okay. Attendment to what makes a great game for me is if you actually turn me into a crazy person and this game got me writing a notepads. It got me thinking like I am living in a simulation in real life and that I'm trying to find the puzzle to the solution

of what the blue note and the major key is in my real life. This game's incredible. It's to anybody who even thought they loved puzzles, no, you don't play blueprints and it will make you rage quit because if you actually stick with this game, I think you're probably

going to find a never-ending lack of better term, puzzle pox, you're going to find like the Hellraiser Cube of puzzles here. It's completely enriching, nearly infinitely replayable. The amount of things that I got to think of, let alone

was told to think about, when solving puzzles in this game is kind of revelatory to make it all in one package. All of these things are elements of puzzles that I've either come across or seen before in my life, but they are packaged in a way in this game

that is kind of amazing. And I have nothing but respect for a game that is so simple on its surface, but it is as deep as an ocean for the things that you get to explore and see. Well put, yeah, it just, An unforgettable experience that made me recall the first time I played missed on CD-ROM, this incredible sense of a place having stories to tell without characters walking around in that world

and mysteries that have been hidden in plain sight the entire time. And just a game that you can completely obsess over and fall in love with. and it was out of nowhere for a lot of us, and I'll never forget this game. Yeah. I don't have a cranky centrist take here. I am deep in the all-manosphere on this one, and find the supplements.

Just, you know, like an astonishing game and like deeply felt in a way that isn't necessarily apparent until you're deeply feeling, you know, Everything that it's serving up. And I also, you know, I cracked, you know, I opened a notebook. I scribbled in it. I started, you know, like just wanting to like go to my, my partner and just be like, does this look like something to you?

Yeah. It's like, no, no, no. Look at this other page. Babe, it's not that. It's this. No, no, no. You don't understand. If I count my steps to go back to the garage, I'm screwed.

the day. No, it's pure intention. It's pure, like, it's craft to the utmost degree because the things that you can never possibly think about this game thought of. And, like, counting the number of books on a shelf

to thinking about the color that you see a note written in is meaningful. And things are reiterative and changing at every second of every time you do a run in this game. game, it is, it's probably, it might be the best rogue like ever made, in my opinion, because this is something that every single possible element of things that can change and be reacted upon is considered. And it boggles my mind that this was made by a team of not like 5,000 people,

let alone a few dozen. So a wildly impressive game that. I'll happily put as my first pick. Yeah. And you never know when it ends. You never know what it's over. It could be an ongoing game pick next year because there could be more. There might be more under there. And I experienced it mostly secondhand vicariously, which seems safer to me just to maintain

my distance a little bit. So I sort of sicked it on my wife because I knew that she would go for it because I'm a puzzle game player, but she's a hardcore puzzler person. And so I knew that this would be catnip for her. And I felt a little bit bad about introducing it to her because I knew it would consume her life. And it did. But she seems pleased for it to consume her life. And there was a period of months maybe where any time I looked up, she was playing blueprints.

And so I watched many hours of it without actually taking the controls myself all that much. All right. Joshua, what you got? I'm going to do something maybe a little unorthodox. and my first pick will be a rerun because I want Final Fantasy Tactics the Ivelace Chronicles on my roster and I'm confident with that game alone

I could beat all I could smoke all of you but really well well well but no I think I think you know one of the perfect games you know a game that that sort of like, just on a pure, like, play level invites you to break it, you know,

invites you to sort of like experiment and mess around and just sort of like build all kinds of teams, right? If you want to run at it with like a team and ninjas, you can do that. If you want to grind for a couple hours, you can build a bunch of God kings and level, you know, everybody. Or you can just play it the way that, you know, you think it's meant to be played, which still invites plenty of variety, right? And then, you know, it's just like one of the

the best final fantasy story, you know, and one of like the great video game stories. Just, it's really sort of, it goes in like this Shakespearean mode that like in the previous releases, you know, I mentioned this somewhere else.

It might have been on another podcast. I don't know. But like it people... You can't reuse takes from other podcasts on that message. This is the first of course. This is the ring. Has to be on. Button mesh exclusive.

Come on. The, okay, the exclusive take here is that I don't necessarily care if it's spoken or not. But for some people, the voice acting does a lot, you know? Yeah. And it's sort of like, yeah. And so like it's been cool to see people get it with like the voice acting in this game. And I don't know.

It's just like one of those great. One of my favorite kinds of stories is like two bros divided by fate and forced to face each other on the battlefield. I would have loved that. And you're really in the minister. Two bros is like a close behind, you know? Right, right, right. Two bros. But like just pushing it right above the edge.

Just like if they're divided by fate and then force to face each other on the battlefield. Yeah. That's what Mario RPG should have been, you know. Yeah. Mario versus Luigi, the ultimate showdown. Brother versus brother. And, you know, and it gets in all these, like, fun, I mean, not fun, but, like, you know, like worthwhile, like philosophical questions about, like, you know, class and class struggle and war and what do you call it? like institutional power and how these things sort of these gears.

And it's interested in, for me, the fact that it's a strategy game also underlines that, right? Like the gameplay underlines the story where it's sort of like, it's a game about, you know, that the wire thing where all the pieces matter, you know? And that's sort of the fantasy of it. Like, what if all the pieces mattered? What would that do in a story like this? And in your investment in your team and how you build your characters, the pieces do matter, you know? And you get to see that sort of like play out in a very video game way.

I think it's brilliant. And I am so happy that it is easy to play in a good version that lots of people have access to them. It's just it's one of my favorites. Yeah. Okay. Well, Final Fantasy Tactics better game than anything newly released in 2025, according to Joshua Rivera. And I guess it's okay if you did have a rehash to take in the rerun category. That actually might have been appropriate if you did recycle something there.

Okay. Well, I have two picks to make, which is my reward for waiting this long to go. And Steve, a second ago, you said blueprints might possibly be the best rogue like ever. Another contender for that crown is Hades 2, which I will be selecting in the indie category. I love this game. and I was sort of surprised by how much I loved this game and how much more meat was on the bone because I was initially slightly disconcerted that Super Giant was making a direct sequel to something instead of striking off in a completely new direction with some new IP.

And I hope they get back to that because they haven't missed yet. But Hades 2 really did perfect the Hades experience gameplay-wise, at least in my mind. And I was not really aware that it was imperfect previously. So the fact that it actually improved on that formula really impressed me. There is just more of it. But it's also, I think, better. It's not bloat. There is complexity, but it never actually intimidated me.

I never felt like it was extraneous. I felt like I could kind of create my own build and make my own way through the game. And I could go up or I could go down. and it was always challenging but never frustrating and just another masterwork really from Super Giant and I now cannot begrudge them

through desire to make a follow-up to their most successful game thus far this was not just a cash grab to capitalize on a big breakout hit they clearly had more to say and there was more to play so 80s 2 is my first pick and with my second pick

I will be selecting for my RPG Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. And I'm taking this because I don't think any game had a higher bar to clear for me personally to get me to like this game. It would have been so easy for me to bounce off this thing. And maybe if I hadn't been playing it for a podcast,

I would have because friction is the philosophy here. I mean, that's the name of the game. they do not want to make anything easy or simplistic for you. And you really just have to invest in that and give yourself over to it and say, yes, I am actually going to sword fight by swinging this thing awkwardly and like trying to find a weak point and looking incredibly uncoordinated while I do it. And if I want a potion, then I'm going to have to grind the damn powder myself over and over and over again.

and it's not going to be just pressing a button to do anything or go anywhere. And a lot of the time, you will just be doing nothing or nothing interesting. And it's super mundane tasks and world. And in this video gamey way, you expect something to constantly be assaulting you or accosting you. And it's just not always like that. But it's incredibly lifelike, ultimately, and just permits this incredible interactivity, I think. And this sort of emergent behavior. I mean, I don't know anything this side of Baldr's Gate 3 or something, which just like lets you put your stamp on this world and this narrative and this character and kind of come up with unique ways to approach things or at least solutions that seem unique and idiosyncratic.

And it's just so impressive. And it's a really impressive story too. And they just don't skimp on dialogue at all. And it's just so deep. and you just kind of have to commit to it and give yourself over to it. And if you do, like, I'm the last person who usually would want something where there's this amount of micromanagement and inventory and weight and crafting and steps to do anything. For me, that's usually just the impediment in the way of getting to the good stuff. But here, it just felt fully realized in a way that I admire mostly.

And I'm surprised and pleased that this was as much of a. hit and as well received as it was because it's it's not easy to love and yet evidently it was for plenty of people yeah it was for me 99 hours uh still not done scratching the surface i'm so i'm so shocked at how this game seems to be able to confidently like there's a confidence in the way that this game is made that is really like you don't see this unless it's like a witcher or it's something that has a massive pedigree of, like, time and fans and, like, honestly, trust amongst its, like, established player base to really go for an RPG like this. Again, this was, I played this for a lot longer than I actually, like, enjoyed Claire Obscura.

And I still didn't come away with thinking that this was for me, but I'm like, wow, this is an incredible experience for somebody who is not me. because to think of like all of the things that you can impactfully do that are meaningful of like a lot of the streamers that I would see or a lot of the friends of mine that would play it. It's like yeah, I'm like grinding potions for like 45 minutes in this game. All to go out for like maybe like a 10 minute fight.

And it's sort of soothing bit away. Yeah, just focusing on grinding potions. Right. Right. Not even regular RPG grinding, just literally physically grinding powder into a potion. Yeah. And yeah, it's like even if it's not for you, even if you don't enjoy it, you just have to respect it. You kind of have to like, you have to hand it to them. And it's the kind of thing that I don't know that you could get this past a Western publisher. Like if you tried to pitch this, I just don't know that it might just die on the vine. And so the fact that it came to fruition like this and actually found an audience. It's, it heartens me. that one completely passed me by. Just, I was mad that it was not a medieval sequel to deliverance. Yeah. Well, lots in store for you in 2026 if you want to dive in then.

And we're back to you, Joshua. Yeah, so this is going to be my first, can I do this? Okay. And for ongoing game, I want to pick Mario Kart World. I was planning to do this myself. I would say you can do this. Yeah, I think so. They changed a lot of it.

Yeah, they've been patching. They've been tinkering. There's going to be DLC. Like, they're in this for the long haul, clearly. Yeah. This is very encouraging to me. Okay. Expanded the definition of the category.

Yeah. Yeah. My argument, should any of you decided to not be so gracious, was going to be like, well, that was the reason they charged $80 for it. Yeah. If you remember. But yeah, it's one of those games where I do not like a bunch of YouTubers like came out hard against it initially and they were all wrong.

And I think what it does is really cool. I think it is a Mario Kart game that has a little bit of Mario platformer spirit to it. I think to really be successful in a race, you have to engage with every part of the track, you know? And that's a lot of fun. That has been the, it has been the game that, like, the Mario Kart that got me to just, like, pick up Mario Kart by myself, you know? And that alone makes it feel worthwhile.

That makes it feel like, you know, a left of center shore, but also, like, solid Switch. launch title for me, Switch 2 launch for me. And I'm happy to just keep it on that system and play it whenever. Yeah. I think the weight of expectations hurt it at first just because A, yeah, it was in that pole position. It was like, here's the game that you can get for Switch 2. And this is supposed to be the system seller. And granted, Mario Kart sells tons and tons and tons of copies. It's, you know, look at Mario Card 8. But it also felt slightly insubes. substantial as like the argument for picking up a switch to. I did it and you know, was happy too. And the crowd goes mild.

Yeah. And that and just the expectation that this is going to be the breath of the wild for Mario card and it's open world and they're completely reinventing everything. And then it was kind of like, there's some of that. But it's also like I'm just sort of driving from track to track. And that's kind of cool, but it's not really that rich or fully fleshed out an open world experience.

But the actual racing and the gameplay, I know there are people who think it's like, again, too much of a good thing, like just too many racers and it's too chaotic. So it depends on what kind of Mario Kart experience you like. But it's really fun just on a like moment to moment race to race level. It's easy to pick up and play, but there's a good amount of depth and mastery. And this is the first Mario Kart that I've experienced as a dad with my daughter. and I've had fun playing it with her, and so I've appreciated it on that level also.

So yeah, it's a good pick. It was going to be one of the top two on my board in this category. I think it gets a bad rap that's undeserved. I think, you know, expectations aside, it really is a fun game. And if there's any Nintendo game guilty of disappointing me this year, it was Metroid Prime 4 and not Mario Kart World. But I will say that that narrative of,

of Mario Kart World being a disappointment is out there. When I was at the Game Awards, there were booze for Mario Kart World and cheers for Sonic Cross Worlds. What is people's problems? Seriously, how disappointed could you possibly be with any Mario Kart game? Do you race in Mario Kart? Great. There's carts. What more do you want?

Not everyone there was on the level, so. Okay, back to you, Steve. What do you say? All right, it's back to me. I'm going to take your baby if you don't take it. You're going to take my baby? You're going to take my baby. You don't know my real baby.

Do you know my real baby? I don't know if you know my real baby. Okay, for action adventure, I'm going to take Death Stranding 2. Nice. I wasn't going to take that. I was playing a game. Yeah.

That's fine. I was like, you don't know my baby. You don't know my real baby. Is it a baby in a jar that you wear around your chest? Yeah, Descrating too on the beach. I really shouldn't have liked this game at all. I agree. As much as I did.

I know Matt's pissed about it, all right? It's his clear obscure. I'm happy that you're happy about this. Thank you, my brother. Thank you. This game is insane. It's nonsense. Kojima's on his bullshit once again, and I couldn't be happier.

I won't say that I loved the story, because if you asked me about it, I wouldn't really be able to tell you much. But sometimes you just get the masculine urge to complete a monorail and drive around shipping around minerals, and I fucking loved it. I heard the moon was big in that game. The moon's fucking huge, bro. It's a big moon? It's a big ass moon. That's wild. I loved it.

No, it's great. There's really something that's like, only Kojima can do this, where the amount of things that he can find interesting and compelling that he wants to make a player engage with is, and to make it also compelling is kind of incredible. to know that he makes the sequel to the thing that people cloud as being the Amazon delivery driver simulator and still made it good and still made it the thing that people are like, man, like, if I like make this run or this, this, uh, track better, I can have enough minerals to make this road finished or have my truck auto drive itself on a road or have this monorail completed and then I can mass ship a bunch of things to. these other different things. Like all to the degree of that you're completing this like frankly insane story with all of his celebrity friends.

It might be the most like kind of like vanity project. I think you could you might want to say that he's ever going to get away with before he makes his. Oh, you think there's a limit to what he can get away with? Absolutely not. Is that what you think? There absolutely is not a limit. I'm saying the limit is broken for now.

And that's only been emboldened by the success of death. Stranding 2. No, it's a wildly weird, compelling game that I have to respect and I kind of still really, really enjoy. Yeah, I feel the same way. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this. And it would have felt wrong, I think, to select the first Death Stranding in action adventure, even if it technically fit.

But Death Stranding 2, the action actually was fairly satisfying. The combat, the mechanics, the controls. Yeah. And Death Stranding 1 was just too much for me. But Descranning 2, it worked. And it was not quite as onerous. Things were streamlined, you know, within reason. It's still Kojima.

It's still Death Stranding. But it was not quite as painful just to walk around this world. And it was weird. And it was really memorable and kind of haunting the combination of the photorealistic, isolated landscapes with the soundtrack. Some of my just favorite memories of gaming this year were just walking around or riding around by myself in the world of Death Stranding, too. and I surprised myself by how much I enjoyed that game.

By the way, Ben, when you really locked in on the combat, did you not feel the bones of Metal Gear 5 being like, man, Kojima, if you just did it again, if you just did it again? Yeah, it's in there somewhere. Okay, Matt, back to you. I do intend to play at least 20 hours of death stranding to at some point, like I did with the first one. Maybe you'll change your tune.

I have not done that yet. Okay. Don't knock until you tried it. Yeah, I mean, I'll knock it a little bit just because I know Kojima. I know Kojima, and I know that he's not super for me. But you know what? Again, I'm happy for you, Steve. Thank you, buddy. It's the only place to be. And I'm happy for me, too, because somehow Hollow Knight has returned. Yeah.

And I'm going to pick Silk Song. with my second pick, third, second, second pick. I'm going to pick it in Action Adventure, Hollow Night, Silk Song. Boy, we've talked about this a lot, so I don't know how much more we need to say about it. Just absolutely delivered on all of the hype. Difficulty discourse aside, I think outside of that difficulty discourse, it's pretty much an unassailable game from every vantage point, from pricing to art design, to sound, to music, to boss ingenuity and creativity,

to games with weird little guys. Like, it's got, it's, again, outside that difficulty discourse, like, there's not many faults to find here. It's just an incredible game. would anyone like to It's eligible for ongoing game next year Oh that's right Yeah DLC coming

Next year Yes Take it to the bank That's a song expansion will come out in 2026 Yeah I'm

It's a great pick And probably fell Further than expected Getting to you here In the second round I'm glad there was a Cajima game this year Yeah

Yeah Thank God right We When we did our ranking for the website, I think we had it fourth on our list. And you were briefly pushing for it even higher than that. And I just said, I cannot in good conscience condone it a game that made me this mad, that high on the list. It upset me so much more than anything else I played this year. And I guess that is to some extent a sign of its effectiveness. And it's kind of going for that.

And it got me to engage. It made me feel feelings. It provoked. It got to rise out. out of me. There was a lot that I really loved. It just also made me come closer to rage quitting many times than I typically do. And so I ding it a bit for that. That dropped it down my list. But if you're someone who appreciates and welcomes that kind of frustration, then this is for you. Yep. All right. Moving on. You're picking again. I'm going to have to hit up the remake category. Don't worry, Steve. I'm not taking your other baby. I'm going to pick in the remake category,

Dragon Quest 1 plus 2 HD2 remake. I played the crap out of DragonQuest 3, HD2D remake last year, and this year I've been loving, playing through 1 and 2. 1 and 2, famously, not the most, developed RPGs back in the day. They kind of invented the genre in a lot of ways. And these HD2D remakes, in addition to having that gorgeous HD2D remake style that I know

Joshua and I are obsessed with, in addition to that, they kind of reinvented both of these games in really beautiful ways that fleshed them out and made them feel modern and whole in a way that I think was super successful and I think in a way that was a bit brave to alter such storied history and expand upon things and take that creative license

and I think with three they earned the trust to do that and I think that trust has absolutely paid off in the one and two remakes these are very new fleshed out versions of these games that make them to me even more special than they ever were. And every time I hear that Dragon Quest music boot up, it's only becoming more and more emotional for me as all of these HD2D remakes hit time after time.

I can't wait for the Seven remake. This was just such a joyous experience for me this year. Lovely. All right, Steve. Just to briefly touch on that Dragon Quest, aspect of it. I'm infinitely compelled by these HD2D remakes, but I can never find one that I've

really dug because I was slightly burned by Octopath Traveler. And not to say that I know that all those games are different, but like, I've never really wanted to dabble in Dragon Quest more than I wanted to with one of these. And I'm curious if you could recommend me, if like, do I start with one and two

or should I just go to three because everybody loves three? Okay. Go to three. Start with three. They picked three to start with for a reason. Because everybody loves it. Yeah, and because it's one complete experience where, like, they had to flesh out one a lot. And two is closer to a full-length game. I just think three is a more palatable starting point than one and two.

Beautiful. Lovely. All right. I am going to take my next pick, and my next pick is going to be in the role-playing category, and I'm going to pick Eldon Ring Night Rain.

Oh. Okay. I surprisingly had a delightful time with this. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on now. You're rejecting to the class. I'm not necessarily objecting

to calling this an RPG. Okay. But I do think, I don't think you just wave this through without any discussion. Yeah, we got to send us up to New York, you know? All right, get the script, get the script. This is kind of like Elden Ring stripped of the RPG elements in a lot of ways to me. And guess what? No, I get it.

I get it if there's actually, if there's actually contested here, I understand that. If you want to do it, like, okay, these comments are your comments, you know? Right. Okay. So really you just interrupted me just to say that this is probably wrong, but you're okay with it. Yeah. I'm just one of you. If you want to, okay. I'm just looking out for you. It's just, damn. All right. So if somebody comes out and harasses me, the moment that I walk out this door, I'll know why, Matt. No, I enjoyed. It's because you love Virginia. Yes, I do. I know. I really did dig on Night Rain, mainly because, I mean, Eldon Ring is like unimpeachable for, the RPG that it is and like the importance of what that game became. And I feel like a lot of people got very disappointed in what Night Rain was initially.

And I think that I respect the swing that this actually made because it's a bit more than just trying to buck the trend of making a roguelike in a Elton Ring Dark Souls template. it's really kind of the, I would actually recommend this before doing anything in a Dark Souls setting if you're genuinely interested in doing it, only because of the fact that a lot of people are daunted by looking at character sheets, looking at all of these different types of stat lines and different weapons, and the difficulty aside, it's the moment-to-moment parts of gameplay that are just shi,

shaved away to a streamlined Dark Souls experience to where like, hey, do you really like rolling and finding new weapons and making a seemingly fully developed character right out of the jump just to try something out? Because you don't really have those opportunities in an Elven Ring game. You kind of got to commit to stuff for a while before you realize that you like it. And Night Rain really gives you the opportunity to just like, okay, I want to try a wizard. And I want to try like something that's relatively higher level. really quickly and get to a combat to where like I'm going to be playing a boss within the first 10 minutes. And that offers this.

And as much as like, and I get it that it's a very different experience than what you should be expecting from a Dark Souls or an Eldon Ring game. But I genuinely think that this is probably a good onramp for a lot of those experiences. And that's why it's my favorite. I had it on my board under action adventure and ongoing game. understandable. But I'm going to let you get away with it because I probably wasn't going to draft it. Are you ready to jump on me the second that we stopped potting? Steve, can I just say, I know I gave you some some shirt at the top there.

I love this game. I didn't expect to love this game. I spent a lot of hours having a lot of fun playing this with my friends. I think it's a great pick in some place of this draft. I think I'd like to praise you for your pick of Alder Ring Night Rain. It's a great game. And it definitely had an uphill battle looking like, you know, Eldon Ring meets Fortnite. That was a hard hill to climb.

And I think they really did it. And it's a great success. Okay. Joshua. Yeah, congrats to Steve on the successful avant-garde pick for RPG. Aren't you all happy for me? Yeah. Yeah, postmodern pick, post-categories.

He's such a hips for that, Steve. Yeah. Here is the place where I don't know, this is where the draft gets tricky for me. Because they're like, yeah, you know what? I'm not as worried about it because I'm going to go again before Matt goes. So, I think. Wow.

You respect Matt as an opponent, but dismiss Steve, evidently. He's going to take a vowed. He's going to do it. Oh, no. Steve will take a vowed in action adventure. In rerun. It's just Skyrim again. No, for action adventure, I'm going to do Silent Hill F.

Woo. Damn it. Oh. I was going to eventually take that. You were right. You're absolutely. Oh, man. I love this game.

Go for it, buddy. This is great. Yeah, but I mean, like, I mean, you know what's good, man. It's, it is, it is, you know, I think, all right. So just to, just to distill it down to, like, the pot take, right? It is a horror game that is just really goddamn mean. You know, it's not afraid to be mean. You know, it's, it's really like putting him in the shoes of this character is this, this girl.

and just sort of like, you know, it starts at a place of like that fear that you have that all your friends hate you. And then this supernatural stuff starts happening as well. And, you know, it just goes from there. And it's sort of like unusually, like the guy that they got to write at Ryukishi 7 is his pen name, right? he comes from like the weirdo visual novel space and he brings that energy to this game and it results in a story that is like unsettling and you play through it again and again and get like different layers and perspectives on it and it just sort of like deepens everything I think it's I think it's so cool I think a lot of people were not sure that there was any

gas in the tank left in Silent Hill. And this game said, hell yeah, there is. And yeah, I think it rocks. It does. It rocks. And the narrative is amazing. The only reason why this isn't in like everyone's like very top of the year lists is because the combat being melee only is a little limited. if that combat had popped,

this would be a legit contender. It's one of the best stories of the year. It's this incredible, it's an incredible, like, feminist text, which is weird because it comes from the mind of a man, which is a whole other weird thing to look into. I just, it's an unforgettable story. And, and yeah, man, like,

We thought that they were just going to be farming the Silent Hill remake mines, and there wasn't going to be anything of note coming out. And, man, now I just want new Silent Hills even more than I want those remakes. I thought I wanted. It's so incredibly refreshing because the fact that the Silent Hill 2 remake was legitimately great and well and deservedly praised. And when that came out, you would have thought that, because before that, you would have thought Konami didn't really know what to do with itself when it came to its 10 pole franchises. And the fact that it not only could draft a great team.

Where is it? Yeah. The fact that it could draft a great team to make a remake of the most beloved Silent Hill and then come out with a brand new one from a different team that still has just as much juice as that first one is kind of incredible to think that like not they're not actually just because they had every opportunity to cash in. and make low efforts, sequels, prequels, and remakes that are indicative of the other Silent Hills that came out, like, in the mid to late 2000s, that weren't that great. And we kind of would have been happy about it because it would have just been a new Silent Hill.

But instead, they're actually trying to do something meaningful. And I cannot praise this game enough for pretty much every single thing but the combat because its technicals are perfect. Like the music is insane The story is awesome The setting is perfect The art style is perfect The design of these creatures Is beautiful and haunting

It's one of my favorite games Of this year And I'm so jealous that you took it I read every piece of paper On the ground in this game That's exactly what I was saying Yeah it makes like reading the journal worth it You know instead of just like a

I don't know Matter of course you know. Yeah. Like in Outer Worlds too this year, there were like, you'd go up to a computer terminal and there's just like eight pages to read about something. And I was just like, oh, Jesus Christ. Sond Hill F.

Gashed past that shit. Every single word that I found in that world was read. It's so great. Okay. Well, unlike the pace of combat in Silent Hill F, I'm going to try to pick up the speed a little bit here. It'll be like when you set combat to fast in Dragon Quest 3, HD 2D. So I'm going to take, yeah, if not ultra fast, I'm going to take Donkey Kong Bonanza in action adventure. I'm thrilled that it's dropped to me, much like Donkey dropping to the Planet Core. This game was just

fun from start to finish, a barrel of fun even to go along with Duncan. Donkey Kong thematically. I was surprised by how good it was because when I first played just a taste of the first level at a showcase event, I wasn't that impressed. And I thought that the camera wasn't going to support the ambition. But it did. I'm a big fan of destructable environments in games, which have kind of fallen by the wayside. This brought that back in a big way. We did not get a new 3D Mario, but I didn't much miss one because we got Donkey Kong Panza, which was a perfectly fine substitute made by some of the same people who made Odyssey and it showed. And just. just the way that you could shape these environments and explore. And, you know, it's part and parcel with something you've talked about, Joshua, which is just Nintendo kind of handing you the sandbox, giving you the tools to play it your way and allowing freedom for the player. It was just incredibly creative and fun all the way through. So Donkey Kong Bonanza, which was really the gem of the switch launch window lineup for me. And for ongoing game, I will select Arc Raiders. because it's kind of a thin,

category. So this is a little positional scarcity creeping in here. But also, I think this is a really good game. I already shouted out it kind of tagteeping with Battlefield to take down Call of Duty against all odds. You know, it's a new IP. It's something that really perfected and popularized the extraction shooter.

So innovative, just established a new genre. Kind of felt to me like the Hell Divers 2 of this year. I mean, it's not exactly the same kind of shooter, but just in the sense that I wasn't really anticipating playing this that much. I wasn't really looking forward to it. And then suddenly it was good and it was everywhere. And it was just a big part of the latter part of this year and something that I could envision myself returning to for years as it evolves. It's just a cool world, a cool gameplay loop, just really intriguing encounters with other players in a way that most games and most, genres don't really permit. And I'm really fascinated to see how it evolves. So are greaters for me.

And now we are back to Joshua. Yeah. So I'm going to make my next pick in the indie category, which is a very fraught space right now. Lots of possibilities. Lots of boards are going to be changed by my choice. And I personally, in the interest of keeping it fresh, we're not in the remake category. I'm not going to rehash any takes you here on other lesser podcasts. This is completely original for button mash listeners in their universe. I choose the Seance at Blake Manor for my indie pick. Stolen from Matt. I would have taken it.

Yeah, I knew you would. Matt did an excellent write-up in the Ringers 2025 games of the year list. So I'm going to keep my take short. I think it is, I love Folkar. I love Ireland I love mysteries and that's like all of them man it's got it's got all those things I think

mysteries are coolest shit I think video game mysteries are like some of like has like so much potential I have like a take brewing in me that like the miss I'm solving a mystery is one of the coolest things you can do in the video game you know yep and that's the one to do my pitch to you if you are skeptical is if you see

saw people losing their minds about blueprints and thought it was too uptoos, too big, too sprawling or something like that. Santa Blake Manor sort of scratches a lot of those itches, but like in a guided way, it's sort of like gives you the framework to organize your thoughts to lure you in with characters and story that are all very present. And, you know, it's very much like a good way to sort of like get those gears in your brain working and thinking in that space. And it's fun.

It's cool as hell. Yeah. Okay. Love it. Good pick. We'll keep it moving. Steve, you're up. Yes, sir.

Mine is going to be in rerun, and I'm going with Metal Gear Solid, Delta Snake Eater. It's, yeah, laugh it up, Matt James. You bake a gym again. But not really. I had a great time with that game.

It did. I had a very good time with it. No, this was, I think Metal Gear Solid 3 is probably like the most replayed game in the Metal Gear Solid franchise in my life. And to play this again and literally execute this like muscle memory and play it as I both remember it and want to change things up both with its new camera angles and with a couple of new changes that it made to its control schemes, I'm wildly impressed by it because yet again I have infinite skepticism when it comes to Konami

making and much less remaking something that is beloved by them and they really seem to care about how this remake goes and I don't know what this means for the future of their take on the Metal Gear Solid franchise without Kojima

but I think this is a very encouraging space to be in knowing that with remasters coming of other games that are like nigh impossible to emulate and games in this franchise that could use a polish like this, this was wildly impressive and I'm very, very happy that they got it. And they got the snake versus monkey in there again. They didn't need to do that. I love that. I love that shit. I'm happy that you got this game, Steve. And now, all right. Now you're just... This game is good too I just want to join the chorus

of everyone being happy for everyone else Matt, so what will we be happy that you are selecting multiple Matt picks on tap? Yeah, this is a tough one here.

I have a lot of games I want to pick and not many slots. Which kind of hurts. Okay, well, I got to do this. I'm going to take Ghost of Yote which

I thought was a really fantastic game I know some of you feel otherwise I found What?

Not you Steve Joshua's not too high on it but I found that even though the overall overall plot was a bit simplistic

I found the characters to be really fantastic and well-acted, and I thought that those characters made that sort of well-trodden story come alive in emotionally impacting ways that I wasn't expecting. And on top of that, you know, maybe Sucker Punch played it pretty safe with this game in a lot of ways, not being too different from Ghost of Sushima. but I think ultimately, you know, if someone picked up this game, judging this game just on its own merits, it's still an absolutely breathtaking experience. And I think sometimes we do get caught up in viewing games through the lens of like, what did they do different from the last one versus what, how good is just this game? Yes.

You know, like there's a difference between thinking of this as its own thing and the sequel to Tsushima. And I think both are valid ways of looking at it. But I think maybe we overlook that element of thinking about it as stuff. Anyway, okay, so I'm going to take Yote as my wild card because it is not an indie game. No, sir. It's the opposite of that. Is this your last pick now that you're making? No, it's not.

Okay. So the next pick I'm going to make, it's going to be in the indie category. And I didn't really want to do this, but it's still on the board. So I got to take it. I'm going to take dispatch. Which, so grudgingly, I would have happily taken dispatch. Well, I have. Leave it for someone who wants it.

I got to treat it well. I'm sorry, I hurt you, Ben. I have mixed thoughts about dispatch. I think it is one of the most memorable and great experiences I've had this year playing a game, but I also have thoughts that this is a wonderful TV show with a pretty cool mobile game for 15 minutes in it. That actually would have played better on mobile, where we could have just touched all of the things on the map rather than using directions to try and get to something before the timer runs out unsuccessfully. So I loved my time with Dispatch, and I think that it's a landmark event in gaming.

So I'm going to take it with Indy. And I haven't met anyone who absolutely hated this game or disliked it even. I think if you have criticisms of it, they're probably very similar to my criticisms. And I think that all those criticisms are kind of, you know, know, you can kind of blow by them by the fact that this is just a really fun time. And you might not need to dig too much deeper than that. Yep. I had some of the same complaints.

I would have taken it more enthusiastically. I would have in the wild card category. Are you not happy for me? No, it doesn't seem like you're happy for yourself. So not particularly. But yeah, I would have taken it as my wild card because I would have felt good about the sort of genre defying aspects of it or the lightly interactive elements, which were not even the high points of the game for me. But I like this kind of game. And it told a great story that I was

surprised to find still felt fresh after all the superhero stuff that we have seen and been subjected to over the past several years. So I also very much enjoyed my time with this game, especially when I was just sitting back and watching it. Okay, back to Steve. Back to me. Both of these are in my sloth era that I'm trying to pick between. Embrace the slap. Okay. I'm taking Megabonk for my wild card.

I love vampire survivors. I love these types of games. And I think Megabonk, while incredibly dumb, incredibly stupid, really does scratch a niche. that I've needed for most plane rides, and this is exactly what I've needed for a while. It's very easy to play. It's exceedingly fun and rewarding, and it's my numbers go up game of the year.

Woo! Steve, have you played Deep Rock Galactic Survivor yet? Yes, I have. Yes. That game also rules while we're talking about Survivor. It does. It really, really does. Yeah. Were it coming out next year, I would have, I would have loved that, or this year. Back to Joshua.

Yeah. So my role plan for the year will be Digimon story, Time Stranger. Hey. Yeah. There's a little soapbox I have for this. And it's everyone is complaining about like, when will they make a Pokemon game for my sophisticated adult brain? And it's Digimon story, Time Stranger.

It's there. It exists. I'm not saying that they're going out there, they're out there like doing hard drugs and other stuff you would see on an adult HBO show. But it does sort of like indulge in that very sort of like spreadsheety fantasy football side of your brain where it's very much about like getting team comp together and, you know, figuring out not just which. monsters best for the Java, which form of that monster you have to evolve and indeed did evolve. And the story is just sort of like, you know, fun anime nonsense, you know? Like it's not, you know, it's not, it's better than Pokemon, you know?

But yeah, I like it a lot. They haven't made one of these since what, like 2014's CyberSlooth. And that game was really good, but it was made for the Vita. If you get a port, you sure can tell. So it's cool to have like a modern version of this. And I hope they, I think the Digimon games are quietly all interesting in distinct ways. And I hope they keep making more. I haven't played this, but I really am trying to play it before the end of the year because I keep hearing awesome things about it.

Almost all of these Digimon RPGs are like coming away like critically smash hits. Like, people love these things. And I'm starting to really think, I'm like, okay, maybe I might need to do this because I remember Digimon as a kid, but like, they're apparently really making some banger games over there. Okay. Well, we know how Matt will be spending his holidays. So for my final two picks, I need a wild card and a rerun.

Wild card category is where I would have excitedly selected dispatch had I had the chance. But because it was stolen from me, I will select split fiction. as my wild card. Good stuff. I really, yeah, I had a good time playing this game. Sometimes I had a great time. The drawback was all the parts when I wasn't playing. The story asked, it's sort of, in a way, it's like the bizarro dispatch, really,

because I only wanted to play it and not watch it. And your mileage may vary. I was sort of excited for the story of split fiction, because on paper, It sounded very much up my alley. Oh, we have a sci-fi writer and a fantasy writer, and they're coming together in sci-fi and fantasy worlds. And, you know, it takes two was a little corny at times, but I thought heartfelt and it was fun to play with my wife, even though we were not separating, but it was still good to play. And so I had high hopes for the narrative of split fiction, which I sadly didn't enjoy much. And that was kind of a common theme with me and Steve and Matt when we talked about it on the podcast and the dialogue, man.

Just really. Real head scratch. Because there's moments of like real brilliance in that that I know that we know that that team is very good at delivering, especially when it comes to like cooperative experiences. But man, there's like some. Yeah, it's it's heartfelt and there are cathartic moments. But man, and I hate to overuse the term cringe. but it's, yeah, it's just, it's earnest. It's very earnest, but in a way that just leads to non-natural-sounding interactions. And for a lot of people, that just doesn't matter that much because they're thinking,

it's not really a story game. You're there for the co-op gameplay. And on that level, it absolutely delivers. And in fact, the latter stages of split fiction, among the best gaming experiences I had this year, the last level specifically is incredibly impressive and inventive. But just, you know, we played that in the middle of the night, Matt, and just some of the ways that it uses that co-op formula are just unlike anything. And, you know, I've played all the games that they've made. And even so, it's just no one else is quite doing it that way. So it's accessible, it's fun and kind of arcady and great mix of genres and gameplay. And when it works, it just, it works really, really well. And for my rerun, I will be selecting the Elder Scrolls for Oblivion remaster.

which I'm sort of surprised fell this far. But, you know, it was a welcome sort of surprise drop. I say sort of because everyone kind of knew that it was in the works. It was the worst kept secret in gaming. But when it was finally announced, it was just kind of dropped. And that's always fun. And it was around the same time as Clarebskir. And so RPG players were eating well those days.

And it was nice to be back. And it held up fairly well, just fresh coat of paint. always good to be back in the world of oblivion and you know it's going to be another decade till we get the Elder Scroll 6 probably so we'll just keep revisiting

Elder Scrolls past and most of us will keep happily signing up for more all right back to Joshua for his last pick yeah my final pick is a wildcard and I am going to pick a game that doesn't neatly fit into any category

that we have And that's what And that's the luminous arise. Oh, okay. Have any of you play Tetris Effect at all? Yeah. And LumetTes Arise. They did it again, bro.

That's my pitch. They did it again. Tetris Effect was like sort of you have a conversation every time you bring it up where it's sort of like, you know Tetris. And they're like, yeah, no Tetris. And it's like, well, it's, they made it better. And that's how I feel about luminous arise, which was like a puzzle game that I don't get as intuitively as I get Tetris.

But they made me want to, and they did it in this very, like, I don't know, this very cathartic. And usually I'm not for this stuff. I'm not like a very, it's very like plur, you know, very like, you know, like Burning Man, we're all one connected sort of like, what do you call it? and stuff. But it's like it's earnest and in the right key in a way where it's just sort of like it makes you want to solve these puzzles. It makes you want to get good at this game. And when you do, it's such like a really great sensory experience. Fantastic game. It really is. And I say that as someone who often is ravy and overly sincere like that. I found that Luminous, as you mentioned, like it's not as intuitive as Tetris. It really isn't. Having to create squares is so much different than lines. And maybe it's because I played Tetris Effect for so long, but hopping into Luminizerize, my brain just wants to make lines and not squares. And at first it was a little frustrating.

And then I really sat down and I said, okay, I'm going to reprogram my brain. I'm going to work on this, figure it out. And I did get to a place where it started to click with me. and I really started enjoying it more and more. And I think that that sort of necessary rewiring made it a very unique experience separate from Tetris Effect that I ended up enjoying somewhat equally, despite, you know, it not clicking like that initially. Really fun, fun experience.

Just chasing that digital bliss, man. Yeah. Wow, digital jazz, man. Okay. Steve, complete your roster. Yes, sir. for ongoing game it's an unconventional pick

but this is had this has been ongoing for quite a minute and substantial updates I would say my pick is going to be Warhammer Space Marine 2 I know that I have a lot of like more popular more conventional ongoing last year too and guess what

it's still great it's ongoing so it's ongoing good job Steve right category aren't you happy for me We have so many great updates that I have like, I hate to think that I am part of a like community when it comes to a game. But like, I don't know, man, I'm on this. I'm like, I'm really digging everything that the love and care that they're putting into this game that I feel so good in spending my money purely on cosmetics for because everything that's substantial gameplay wise and like equipment and gun wise.

and boss fight wise, that's all free. That's all free to the player. And everything that you could possibly spend extra money on is purely cosmetic. And I know that there's a lot of models that come from ongoing games that have those same things. But this is far less predatory. This is far more, in my mind, at least, wholesome and focused on making a very fun and visceral gameplay experience. It's one of my favorite games for the past few years. and I've really had a blast with it.

I love that game. I kind of checked out on it. Have they been releasing a lot of stuff for that? Are you just enjoying? Their last big major update came this November. They've added two new maps, one big boss fight, six new weapons,

six armor pieces, and then a bunch of cosmetic stuff. Yeah, dude. Well, thank you. It's still great. I love that game. I'm going to hop right back in as soon as I've done with Digimon. Yeah, man.

It's really, really good. Well, we've come full circle. Matt, take us home. Okay, I'm going to try and get away with something here, and if it doesn't work, I have a pick I'm just as happy to make. Okay. So I have my ongoing left. I am going to attempt to select a game that right now does not have DLC, but will have DLC in the next few days. It is not out yet.

Is that legal? As long as it's not Star Citizen, you're fine. That's the most ongoing game ever. I'm not picking that. If you'll allow me, I would like to select Fantasy Life I, the girl who steals time as my ongoing pick. They're about to drop,

they're about to drop a rogue-like mode that is going to take over my whole life. Okay. Hey, it's coming out this year, right? Any objections? Under the wire in calendar year 2025. If you're nice for this year wasn't hope, then I wouldn't allow this.

since it is, then it now is you should be aligned. Yeah, there's a consistency there that we respect. Okay. Yeah. Well, then I will select Fantasy Life. It was Night Rain as an RPG. Then he owes us, he was one again after that. Yep.

Fantasy Life I, I hadn't played a Fantasy Life game before. And I found this so endearing. It is a cross of so many genres. And every sort of element of that, whether it is, the RPG elements or the action elements or even their quaint little story. This game just tries so much and fails at none of it. It's a real sleeper hit this year that I think deserves some more attention than it's maybe got. Well, we've done it.

So we need our traditional recap of the picks that we made. Isaiah. Can you fill us in? Remind us what has happened to you? I think I got everything. Do your best. I think I've got it cleared up, but please stop me if I get it wrong.

But Matt's action and venture was Hollow Night's Silk Song. His role-playing game was Claire Obscure. His indie was dispatch. His ongoing game, Fantasy Live Eye, The Girl Who Steels Time, Re-Run, Dragon Quest, 1-2 HD-2 remake, or 2D remake

and wildcard Ghost of Yote that's a strong strong slate there you got Silk Sons and Claire Obscure and Dispatch and Yote

then you felt like you could you could experiment a little with a couple of those I didn't get Sectory that was I was trying to find some space

for sectory I couldn't damn okay all right and then Steve his action adventure was Destor ending 2 RPG

Elden Ring Night Rain Indy Blueprint, uh, ongoing game, Warhammer Space Marine 2, rerun, Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater, and Wildcard MegaBunk.

Okay. Joshua's was Action Adventure, Silent Hill F, RPG, Digimon Storytime, Stranger, indie, seance of Blake Mainer, ongoing game, Mario Car World,

rerun, Final Fantasy Tactics, wildcard, luminous, Arras. And then Ben, yours were action adventure, Donkey Kong, Bonanza, RPG, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, indie,

Hades 2, ongoing game, Ark Raiders, rerun, Elder Scrolls, a Bolivian remastered, and Wildcard, split fiction. I think you nailed it,

and hopefully we did too. Thank you, sir. And that's a lot of great games. Obviously, we're just scratching the surface here of good to great games that came out in 2025. And we can just list a few snubs, I suppose, to stave off the inevitable angry people in our mentions. But I mean, I had at least twice as many games just on my board than we actually drafted,

even though we had only 24 slots here collectively. So I'll just list off a few. Sword of the Sea, I loved a lot. Assassin's Creed shadows, doom the dark ages, all the ninja guidance that we didn't draft just the year of Ninja Guide for, Ninja Guidein 2 Black, Ninja Guideon, Ragebound, Shinobi, Art of Vengeance, South of Midnight, Outer Worlds 2, Avowed. I'm surprised that Avowed didn't get drafted in this group here. Let's see, Delta Rune, Octopath Traveler Zero, 100-line Last Defense Academy, which I have not played yet.

But haven't played. The fans are big fans. That's a good game. Yeah. Pokemon Legends, Zeta A, look outside. Where Wins Meet? An obsession of Matt James's. That's right.

Demon School. Trails in the Sky, first chapter. Really, a lot of RPG reruns. Reruns kind of ran the board in the category. And RPG's dominated. Donkey Kong Country Returns, HD. You mentioned Zena Blade Chronicles X, Tony Hawks. Pro Skater, 3 to 4, Tomb Raider, 4 to 6 remasters.

I considered trying to get away with the root trees are dead as a rerun. I wasn't sure if I would pull that because it was a browser game originally. I would have allowed it because that's ball knowledge somewhere. Ball knowledge. Even if it was an indie, whatever category, good game. Absalom, I liked a lot. Despelote. You love that game.

So good. Ball pit and d'clock. peak in the friend's slop kind of category. The Alters, another Matt favorite. I considered selecting No Man Sky in ongoing game. Had another great year.

So did the Game Awards. Yeah, it's true. Anyone else want to quickly shout out anything? I had won. My gambling simulator of the year was Clover Pit. You love that game. Super fun.

I want to shout out Sectory again. That is such a fun game to play. I don't think I'll ever remove that from any device that I own. It's such a playable game that you can pick up at any time, and it feels incredible and has amazing music. Keep Driving was one of my favorite indies of the year. Really heartfelt, like, road trip simulator with an incredible indie soundtrack.

Ooh. I believe the correct pronunciation. Just a very short sort of Metroid Braini that has no dialogue and is just a masterclass in compact game design. And the Drifter, the Drifter, a throwback indie title that is reminiscent of all the old LucasArts adventure games that figured out how to make that work on a controller.

It works so well on a controller. And it's a really cool story that really means something. So those are the ones I have to shout out. And I will not shout out. You could keep going for it. You could check out the honorable mentions. Yeah. On the website, we listed even more.

That's what we have not mentioned. So just assume that it was there if we somehow apologies to anything. that we have omitted. Joshua, anything you had to get in there? Oh, yeah, super quickly. Blipo Plus, the channel surfing indie game, fantastic. You think it might not be telling a grander story, but it is, and it rules. A lot of good horror stuff this year. Routine, after 12 years in development, that was a big deal. Really frightening game to the point that I don't know if I can do it. Kronos, which is Bluber, they're back with another good one.

And then Possessors, which is Heart Machine, which unfortunately seems to be a defunct studio now, or at least had to let go much of his development staff. They did Hyperlight Drifter, Solar Ash. I've always vibed with their whole deal, and Possessors is a cool Metroidvania take from them worth checking out. Well, Joshua's work is also worth checking out, whether it be at the time. The Ringer or one of the many other sites that he freelances for. Any central repository, Rivera repository, you would recommend where people can find all your stuff?

Oh, not particularly. You can follow me on Blue Sky at J.M. Rivera. at blue sky.com.com. Twitter at J.M. Rivera, 02.2. And, you know, just or yell out the window. I'll probably hear. You know? Well, thank you for joining us.

And Matt and Steve. Thank you as well. Yeah, thank you for having me. I will read an email of thanks that we received from listener Daniel in Ireland, which touched my heart. Daniel wrote, I wrote a longer email and scrapped it. Instead, I'm going to keep it as brief as possible. Thank you and the team for a year of wonderful podcasts and articles. I'm sure many of your listeners have had a difficult year, what life isn't presented with endless hurdles for me.

And I hope for them to your podcast, your hours of discussion with Matt and Steve. and the gang have provided great joy. And as a consequence, relief and solace throughout these last 12 months, I'm indebted to you all. What makes my experience with your podcast all the wilder is I haven't gamed in 15 or so years. Yet hearing the excitement and love and thoughtfulness for the art form brings me so much joy. I've even gone so far as to download Steam. So I could yet be rewinding the clock. So in short, thank you.

Wishing you and yours, a very happy Christmas and a wonderful new year. Right back at you, Daniel. It's very sweet. Yeah, it's so sweet. And love all our listeners, but love our non-gamer listeners who are just along for the ride and might have no idea what we're talking about. But evidently enjoy listening to us, say it regardless. So I appreciate it. And you can contact us at ringerversegaming at gmail.com.

You don't have to praise us. So please feel free to. Clearly, it's a good way to get your email read on the show. And thanks in advance. to Jomey for if and when he gets all these picks up on the socials and perhaps even enables people to vote on our selections. And big thanks to Isaiah Blakely for subbing in for Devin Milano a few days before Christmas and producing today's episode and to Arjunar, Rema Pau for his stewardship of the Ringiverse feed. If you get games for Christmas, if you get

anything for Christmas, enjoy your holiday hall. Maybe you can use a slow late December and January to start catching up on some of what you haven't had time to play this year, Digimon related or otherwise. Stay tuned for our reactions to fallout season two, episode two. Coming up later this week, Christmas Eve, in fact, we will put that podcast under your tree. We will talk to you then. Glad the games were so good this year. Hope they'll be just as good in 2026.

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