The 25 Best Video Games of 2025 - Rolling Stone

### Christopher Cruz


Images in illustration

Kepler Interactive; Sony Interactive Entertainment; Nintendo; AdHoc Studio

There are years where the wait for the best video games draws impatience; a slow drip of quality titles punctuating each fiscal quarter with some surprising goodies nestled in between. This was not one of those years. From the onset, games big and small were launching week after week, with major franchises likeMonster HunterandAssassin’s Creeddropping big new entries, and unexpected breakouts likeBlue PrinceandThe Hundred Line: Last Defense Academybeing clocked for awards season celebration before spring was even in full swing.

In fact, the sheer immensity of the 2025 release calendar has practically tricked people into thinking that the year wasn’t up to snuff. With so muchto play, it’s a blur even remember what came out. This year saw thereturn ofDoom,two brand-newObsidian RPGs, and three(!)Ninja Gaidengames. Classics were remade, remastered, and re-released at a dizzying rate, bringingMetal Gear Solid,Dragon Quest, andFinal Fantasy Tacticsback into the cultural consciousness, and multiple beloved single-player series gotcooperative online spin-offsthat branched out their worldsin unpredictable ways.

But it was also a pivotal time for big new things — namely the next generation of Nintendo hardware. In just six months,Switch 2has seen a greater concentration of bangers than midway through some of their previous consoles’ entire lifecycles.Mario Kart,Donkey Kong,Kirby, andMetroidare all back in full force, not even including updated versions of previous games being trotted out as a crash course refresher.

And once again, it was a banner year for indie games which, depending on your personal definition, includes the year’s most-discussed RPG (Clair Obscur: Expedition 33), cooperative “friendslop” likeR.E.P.O.andPeak, andHollow Knight: Silksong— a release so hyped over the years that its very existencebecame a meme.

Empires fellas games likeBattlefieldchallenged the stalwartCall of Dutyfor the competitive shooter crown, and online gaming briefly became a kinder place as players banded together to collectively shape and contain the digital discord of the PvPvE survival space ofARC Raiders.

And to think, there were games that we didn’t even get this year. PlayStation’s next big attempt at multiplayer domination crashed and burned asMarathonwas pulled from the release calendar.Grand Theft Auto VIplayed things fast and loose with its launch, testing players’ patience as itbumped back yet againto nuke next year’s launch slate instead.

Suffice to say, it was a phenomenal year for gaming; don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. It’s a tough task, butRolling Stonehas combed through the embarrassment of riches to pick the top 25 games that defined 2025. Where does your favorite rank below?

• ‘Silent Hill f’Image Credit: KonamiFor horror game fans, the nameSilent Hillholds weight. One of the seminal survival games of the first two PlayStation eras, the series got its luster back following last year’s remake of crown jewelSilent Hill 2.But now is the time for publisher Konami to keep the ball rolling, and the latest all-new entry in the franchise,Silent Hill f, delivers the frights in spades.Unlike previous installments that have contemporary, middle-American settings,Silent Hill ftransports players back to 1960s Japan to the fictional rural town of Ebisugaoka. The story follows a teenage girl named Shimizu Hinako, who is reeling from an argument with her parents right when the infamous fog rolls in — the series’ hallmark that indicates a psychological and body horror nightmare is about to begin. Channeling the trauma of her familial abuse, Shimizu has the tragic backstory and fragile psyche of a trueSilent Hillprotagonist, but her feminine adolescence offers a singular perspective for the franchise. The combat can be rough around the edges, butSilent Hill fis easily the most harrowing horror game of the year.
• ‘Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles’Image Credit: Square EnixIn a year packed with so many high-visibility sequels and (especially) all-new games, it can be easy to gloss over the remakes and remasters that really deserve a second glance. And while updated versions of titles likeMetal Gear Solid 3did a serviceable job at reminding folks why the original worked so well, one remake brought back a game at a time when its story and themes are timelier than ever:Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles.Long heralded as one of the best strategy-RPGs ever,Final Fantasy Tacticsswapped out the traditional turn-based battles and sweeping romanticism of many of the genre’s Nineties-era games for something more tactile and headier. The story follows two young men, friends from an early age, who through the discordant politics and classism of their world end up on opposing sides of a revolution.The Ivalice Chroniclesbrings some improvements, primarily in streamlining some clunkier systems and giving everything a fresh coat of paint (and newly recorded dialogue), but it really serves as a clean reintroduction to one of gaming’s most intriguing and affecting social allegories. It didn’t necessarily need updating, but we collectively needed this game.
• ‘Rematch’Image Credit: Slocap; Kepler InteractiveDedicated sports sims remain as popular as ever these days, with annual iterations ofMadden,NBA 2K, andEA Sports FC(formerlyFIFA) dominating livings rooms and esports spaces alike. But there’s something special about a good old-fashioned arcade-y sport game. Back in the day, series likeNFL BlitzandNBA Jamturned professional ball into bona fide cage matches, and Sloclap’s new streamlined soccer game,Rematch, brings that feeling back.Rather than controlling a full 11-person team,Rematchnarrows the scope to 3v3, 4v4, or 5v5 at most, with players controlling the athletes from a third-person perspective instead of an eagle-eyed view. The gameplay is aggressive, eschewing niceties like fouls, penalties, or offside calls — with all the action taking place in an enclosed virtual arena (meaning you can blast the ball off the invisible walls as a strategy!). Sloclap cut their teeth with complex martial arts games likeAbsolver(2017) andSifu(2022), and that experience carries over toRematch, which feels like a sports-based fighting game as much as it does straight soccer.
• ‘Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector’Image Credit: Fellow TravelerIt’s just a fact that cyberpunk settings make for great RPG storytelling. Early graphic adventures like Hideo Kojima’sSnatcher(1988) and of course, the tabletop gameCyberpunk(which inspired the modern video game darlingCyberpunk 2077), are obvious examples — and theCitizen Sleeperseries now runs with the torch. But unlike the actualCyberpunkgame, this indie duology leans harder into TTRPG design than all-out action.Set in a far future where humanity has colonized the stars,Citizen Sleeper 2positions players as a person whose mind has been digitized inside a synthetic body. As part of the lower class, Sleepers primarily do manual labor for corporate overlords; in this case, it’s on a station positioned amid an asteroid belt. After running afoul of a gang, the Sleeper is severely damaged, and it’s up to the player to escape and discover if freedom is more than a pipe dream. The game is mostly a visual novel, where players choose actions that play out in text and the theater of the mind, accompanied by dice rolls to determine success or failure. It’s a deeply affecting solo tabletop journey that goes down easy with its synthy cyberpunk vibes.
• ‘Split Fiction’Image Credit: Electronic ArtsThis was a stellar year for couch co-op games, with a bevy of 2D beat ‘em ups, two-player puzzlers, and even an entireCall of Dutycampaignthat really only worked with friends. But the most anticipated cooperative experience of the year wasSplit Fiction— an action-adventure romp fromHazelight Studios, the team behind 2021’s award-winning gameIt Takes Two. Like its predecessor,Split Fictionforces players to work together to make it through harrowing platforming challenges and team-oriented puzzles, weaving an emotionally riveting tale along the way.The story focuses on two authors, Mio and Zoe, who meet at Rader Publishing for an experimental simulation that could change the trajectory of their careers. Unfortunately, circumstances lead to a major error, and the two are trapped inside the program which becomes much more real than either would like to believe. Each level ofSplit Fictionis thematically based on each author’s writing (Zoe’s being fantasy; Mio’s is sci-fi) and bounces between genre settings and tropes and the duo learn to work together and grow closer as they fight their way back home. The mandatory co-op play can be a litmus test for the strength of your relationship, but if everyone can just get on the same page,Split Fictionends up being satisfying exercise in teambuilding.
• ‘The Séance of Blake Manor’Image Credit: Raw FuryFew things will make you feel as smart (or stupid) as a hardboiled mystery, andThe Séance of Blake Manorwill instill that thought repeatedly throughout its runtime. Set on Halloween of 1897, players take on the role of Detective Declan Ward, an outlier invited to a meeting of eclectic mystics who have gathered at a mansion in western Ireland to commune with the dead. Two days prior to the event, a woman by the name of Evelyn Deane disappears, and now it’s Ward’s job to unravel the yarn and ascertain what happened.Although it’s set in an eerie mansion, the game’s visuals are inviting, with a comic book-like aesthetic where its illustrated characters exist as 2D images within the explorable 3D world. With only 48 hours to crack the case, players will need to manage their time as each action expends a minute from the clock, meaning that every decision is crucial. By interrogating guests and gathering clues through observation, the many overlapping threads create a virtual corkboard rife with conspiracy.The Séance of Blake Manorpaints a world where nothing is as it seems, and rewards multiple playthroughs — which will be essential to unearthing every twist it has in store.
• ‘Despelote’Image Credit: PanicThe inherent beauty of game design is the ability to craft any kind of experience one can imagine. What if you wanted to relive your childhood memories from the perspective of your eight-year-old self? It might sound like expensive therapy, but the intimate storytelling ofDespeloteoffers players a chance to put themselves in someone else’s shoes for the formative moments of their life.Taking place in Quito, Ecuador, during the country’s bid for the 2002 FIFA World Cup,Despeloteis a first-person walking simulator that recounts the autobiographical experience of co-developer Julián Cordero. The dreamlike visuals recreate the city via scanned photographs while its people all resemble paper sketches cut from a notepad. There’s no real objective beyond kicking a soccer ball around and taking in this cultural time capsule; sitting at the dinner table with Julián’s parents arguing as the TV blares loudly with the sounds of the match. By the end, reality begins to creep through in a meta way, giving the whole experience a documentary vibe by way of plugging directly into someone else’s mind.
• ‘Absolum’Image Credit: DotemuThis was a big year for theretro revival experts at Dotemu. The French studio known for creating modern sequels to classic series likeStreets of Rage 4rolled out a whole slate of top-tier 2D throwbacks this year, but one in particular stands apart.Absolumis the publisher’s first fully original IP, although its fantasy inspirations will be familiar to anyone who knowsD&D(or basically any derivative media thereof). Co-developed by Guard Crush Games, who also worked onStreets of Rage 4, the side-scrolling action game has combat systems that feel like a natural evolution of the genre and a gorgeously illustrated aesthetic to boot.Absolumis set in the world of Talamh, where sorcery has been outlawed. Developed for either one or two players, you can take on characters that combine fantasy races like elves and dwarves with traditional classes like wizard and rogue. At its heart, it’s a coin-up style arcade game where punching, kicking, and air juggling enemies is a joy unto itself, butAbsolumtakes things deeper with a roguelike structure that forces players to complete the whole game in a single run, with selectable branching paths and randomized encounters cropping up. You could say it’s likeHadesmeetsStreets of Rage, but that doesn’t quite do justice to one of the best beat ‘em ups of the modern era.
• ‘Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves’Image Credit: SNKThe last few years have had the fighting game community eating good with a full-on renaissance for the genre. Fresh entries ofStreet FighterandTekkenarrived to cheers in 2023 and 2024, respectively, and 2025’s new challenger is a deep cut for the SNK faithful.Fatal Fury: City of the Wolvesis the first new installment in the classic fighting game series in 26 years, and bringsStreet Fighter’ssister seriesback into the zeitgeist in explosive fashion.Anyone who’s played a 2D fighter in the last 30 years will be able to pick upCity of the Wolves; like most modern releases, it has a decent suite of streamlining options that make pulling off crazy combos and special attacks a cinch. The game’s comic book-inspired art pops in way that’s sure to be timeless, with a colorful flare that makes all the action look intensively over-the-top without breaking pace. There’s been a lot of (justified) criticism for the inclusion ofcontroversial soccer star Cristiano Ronaldoas a playable character, but outside of the odd immersion-breaking choice, it’s just good to see an underdog series likeFatal Furyget the red carpet treatment it deserves.
• ‘Ninja Gaiden 4’Image Credit: Xbox Game StudiosSometimes, it’s just nice to play something truly dumb. That’sNinja Gaiden 4’sto a tee. One of threeNinja Gaidengames to grace us this year, the latest 3D installment ups the already garishly violent ante with increased speed and aggression courtesy of co-developers Team Ninja and PlatinumGames.The story follows newcomer Yakumo, a member of the Raven Clan, whose mission to free the Sky City of Tokyo from the endless poisonous rain stemming from the husk of now-slain Dark Dragon. His quest locks Yakumo into a collision course with the series’ main hero, Ryu Hayabusa, who is playable for a sadly brief stint later in the game. But while that regrettable decision mostly chalks up to a marketing misstep, the rest ofNinja Gaiden 4is a wild, blood-soaked ride in excess. While recent action games have trended toward methodical swordplay, the once-gold standard for the genre is here to remind players that too m