Top 25 of ’25: Donkey Kong ’94

While most of my top 25 games of 2025 were actually released in 2025, some of them were not. The oldest on the list by a country mile is Donkey Kong ’94.

  • Release Year: 1994
  • Developer: Nintendo
  • Platform: Game Boy

Okay, so right off the bat, let’s cover the big questions on everyone’s mind: yes, I have played this game before. I’ve played this game many times before, in fact. I had the original Game Boy cartridge as a kid, and it was one of my absolute favourites on the system. Right up there with Pokémon Blue and Wario Land 2. The last time I had played it was, I believe, in 2011 when it was released as a Virtual console title on 3DS, and this year, it was added to Nintendo Switch Online’s Game Boy library, so it was definitely time for another run.

What is, at first, seemingly just a remake of the classic arcade Donkey Kong game, is in fact a massively expanded version of said game. You’ll play as Mario, climbing the the four classic stages that you know so well to rescue the fair lady Pauline from her captor, the titular gorilla, Donkey Kong. But then, just when it seems that you’ve defeated DK, he hops back up, snatches Pauline again, and runs off toward a whole new set of stages.

Nine new sets of stages, to be precise. Mario will chase DK all across the lands, through biomes such as the big city, a jungle, an airplane, and an iceberg, all culminating in a final battle atop a giant tower that is adorned by a massive statue of DK’s head. I don’t know when DK got this tower canonically or where in the Super Mario World it’s located, but I’ve certainly never seen it on DK Island.

Unlike the raw action of the original Donkey Kong game, this one is a puzzle-platformer, with each stage requiring you to find a key and then bring it to a locked door to continue your chase. Mario has like a billion different jump techniques in his arsenal, and he can pick up and toss enemies and objects, much like in Super Mario Bros 2. The puzzle elements often show up in levers that change the way platforms move or open doors, and blocks that temporarily create floors and ladders. Sometimes just getting from one end of the stage to the other is the challenge, and other times you have a strict time limit to deal with. Each world has not one, but two face-offs against the big ape himself, usually requiring you to dodge junk that DK throws at you and then chuck it back at him.

Like I said before, this is one of my all-time favourite Game Boy games, and coming back to it after so long did not disappoint. It’s honestly a little bit easier than I remember, but I do have many, many more years of video game experience under my belt at this point. Playing through this one again made me really happy, and also made me consider giving the GBA sequel, Mario vs Donkey Kong, another shot as well. But that’s a story for another day…

Top 25 of ’25: Prison City

Some retro games are just retro as an aesthetic. Other retro games are retro because they are top-down love letters to the 80s. The next entry on my list, Prison City, rests firmly in the latter camp.

  • Release Year: 2023
  • Developer: Retroware, Programancer
  • Platform: All of them

Prison City, as per the Steam store’s description, is a “dystopian, action-packed side-scroller with tight mechanics and intricate level design.” That’s all 100% true. It’s also more or less Escape From New York but with the serial numbers filed off. And I adore that about it.

You play as Hal Bruzer, a retired solider who has been called back to duty to infiltrate Detroit, which has been turned into a gigantic prison colony, and take down the techno-terrorists who have taken over the city and are presumably plotting something nefarious. The game opens with eight stages that you get to choose from freely, and then gives you a few more stages that serve as the finale, Mega Man-style.

The initial eight stages can be explored rather freely, and your goal is typically to find one of Hal’s allies, then locate and defeat the boss. Each stage also has a hidden power-up that will improve Hal’s abilities permanently, and a mini-game that you can play afterward to earn extra lives. One of the final stages is a huge map that you can roam around freely, where your objective is to place a number of bombs in specific locations. It reminded me strongly of the NES G.I. Joe game that I had as a kid and could never beat.

There’s also a ton of replay value in this one, with several different difficulty levels, a rather large list of achievements to earn, and even an extra “bomber mode” that unlocks once you beat the game.

Obviously the old-school action-platformer gameplay is the main thing that caught my attention, but I also ended up being completely charmed by the 80s aesthetic and references to movies and games of the era. Each boss is radically different, and quite honestly, I accidentally started with the hardest one, and it almost frustrated me enough that I was going to quit the game. But I pressed on, and I’m so glad that I did, because everything that came afterward seemed as if it was crafted specifically to my tastes.

The thing that really won me over, though, was the fact that there’s a cheesy (but incredible) rap song that plays over the credits. Which is just so very 80s, in all the ways. The whole soundtrack is pretty damn good, actually, and it’s available on Bandcamp. I played this game all the way back in January and I still listen to the soundtrack all the time while working, drawing, and driving.

So yeah, there’s no question here. Prison City is absolutely one of the best games I’ve played this year. It’s a rock-solid platformer that boasts a killer soundtrack and has character to spare. What else could you even ask for? …Some spare time to play through it again, would be my answer.

Top 25 of ’25: Fatum Betula

The first game on the list that didn’t actually release this year, Fatum Betula is also the game most likely to be misconstrued as a drug trip. But like, a really good drug trip.

  • Release Year: 2020
  • Developer: Bryce Bucher
  • Platform: all of them

Fatum Betula is a very experimental… adventure game, I suppose you would call it? There’s a plot in there, something about feeding a tree to determine the fate of the universe? I don’t know, it’s not important.

What is important are the puzzle and exploration aspects of the game. It’s all about roaming around the world and trying to see which objects interact with other objects. The world isn’t particularly big, but it does have a very diverse selection of little areas to explore, and a whole bunch of weird characters to meet along the way. You help some, kill others, and even be horribly disturbed by one or two.

The goal of the game is to find various different liquids, which you’ll then take back to feed your little sapling to see what happens. These liquids include things oil, blood, tomato soup, and immortality. Each one you bring back will give you a different ending, and those endings range from creepy to silly to philosophical to nihilistic. It runs quite a gamut, and while earning them all is a bit of a repetitive task, they’re definitely worth seeing, and I think that puzzling out how to find all the different liquids is definitely a reward in itself. There’s also a super-secret ending that will give you a lot of hints on how to find the others, so if you happen to discover that early, it’ll be either a huge boon or a tidal wave of spoilers, depending on your perspective.

I quite enjoyed my time with Fatum Betula. It took me just shy of three hours to discover all of the endings, and I think that was just the right amount of time to spend in this delightfully odd world. While it didn’t have a particularly cohesive narrative and several aspects were a little more obfuscated than they really needed to be, the thrill of discovery was more than enough to keep me going. It was a video game experience that felt completely fresh and unique to me, and that’s something that I’m finding harder and harder to come by as time goes on, so I really appreciate it.

Top 25 of ’25: A Lakeside Walk in the Dolomites

If the last entry was the weirdest one, this is going to be the most unlikely. You wouldn’t expect a 20-minute-long game to make anyone’s Top X list in any year but here we are, and I’m about to pitch A Lakeside Walk in the Dolomites to you.

  • Release Year: 2025
  • Developer: Emad
  • Platform: PC

Yes, that’s right, A Lakeside Walk in the Dolomites is only about 20 minutes long. It’s a walking simulator with absolutely zero gameplay elements other than looking around to find documents. But I really liked it! I hate to say it, but I think maybe it’s mostly because I had very low expectations going in, but it surprised me in the best ways.

Oh, and obviously, this falls into the indie horror genre, which I think is more than enough to tell you how I even ended up playing it in the first place.

So the basic premise of the game is that you’re some random person going for a walk at night. You stroll down this nice, relatively well-lit path next to a lake, pass by a park, yadda yadda. But then things get a little weird. You start to find documents about missing persons and strange cult-like behavior in the area. Ducks randomly vanish into the lake. You hear whispering, seemingly from nowhere, and you start to see movements in your peripheral vision.

A Lakeside Walk does atmosphere perfectly. It starts at zero, then slowly builds the tension as you follow the path, and then (very stupidly) veer off into the forest. More than once, the unexpected little noises made me jump. And then you come out to a clearing by the lake and… the unexpected happens. I’m not going to spoil the ending, but I absolutely did not see it coming. It’s not a particularly wild twist, but it’s done really well, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

And so, that about wraps up everything I have to say about this game. It may be a little too heavy on the notes, but other than that I have no complaints. It’s a free game on itch.io too, so obviously I recommend going to check it out for yourself. I only wish I weren’t so desensitized to horror, because I know this would have scared the pants right off of seven-years-ago-Ryan. Big ol’ stamp of approval here.

Also, keep an eye on my YouTube channel for my let’s play of the game, coming… March 2nd, 2026? Oh jeez, that’s pretty far away, isn’t it? All the more reason for you to play it yourself!

Top 25 of ’25: Supermarket Simulator

Continuing down the list of the games I liked most that I played this year, we get onto probably the most unexpected choice of them all: Supermarket Simulator.

  • Release Year: 2025
  • Developer: Nokta Games
  • Platform: PC

Yeah, this is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a game about running your own little supermarket. It’s going to be a bit of a challenge to stretch my rambling out for this one!

So, the premise is that you’re opening up a little mom-n-pop-style supermarket in the big city. You have your little space, a checkout register, and some shelves. At first, it’s up to you to buy some things to stock said shelves, put out your product, and then ring customers through. You may even have to take out a loan to get yourself up and running at first.

Over time, and as you earn enough money to expand, your little store will grow. You’ll be able to order new products, buy some storage space, increase the square footage of your store, and even hire staff. Let me tell you: once you hire a cashier and you can focus your time on other things, the game changes dramatically. No longer are you locked behind the register, watching as your products slowly deplete and have no power to replenish them. It’s an amazing feeling.

Of course, there’s a little more to it than just keeping products on shelves and customers happy. Eventually, you’ll get big enough that shoplifters will start to target you. Installing security cameras and hiring a guard help, but it’s a lot more fun to chase them down and beat them with a baseball bat to get your product back. If only that was allowed in real life… You’ll also eventually start getting delivery orders, which is the bane of my existence, since you can’t hire a courier to do them (at least not yet), and you’ll have to choose between running across town to deliver two cartons of milk, or just ignoring them.

Lastly, you get plenty of options to customize your store, from simply changing the name, to repainting the walls and floors to whatever colours you like, to adding in speakers so you can torture your customers with generic muzak. It’s not something I’ve spent too much time or money on yet, but I appreciate the options.

This is one of those games that isn’t super deep, but is incredibly hard to put down. It’s one of those absolutely deadly “just one more day” kind of games that can keep you hooked for hours if you don’t set a hard timer for yourself, and I have lost entire afternoons to it. As a modern PC game, the dev team is putting out regular updates, and though they’re mostly bugfixes, a big new update actually came out fairly recently with a bunch of new stuff. I wouldn’t be surprised if the game keeps growing and getting even better over the next year or so. Possibly even longer if the player base sticks around.

Top 25 of ’25: Bloodbark

For 2025, rather than doing a Top 10 Video Games article, I’ve decided to do something different and do a countdown list of the games I liked most of all the games that I played throughout the year. That incudes all games I played, regardless of release year, if I’d played them before, etc, etc. No rules!

So, of the 99 games I’ve played from January until the time of me writing this, I’ve narrowed it down to a list of 25. The first of those being Bloodbark.

  • Release year: 2025
  • Developer: SirTartarus
  • Platform: PC

A short experience that will take maybe half an hour to beat if you goof around, Bloodbark is an indie horror game where you play as a lumberjack. Your goal is to look for special trees that bleed when chopped, which, if I’m remembering the lore correctly, are very rare and worth a ton of money. So your dude wants to collect a bunch of this lumber, sell it, and retire early.

Of course, it’s not that simple. As you stay in the forest longer, and as you cut down more bloodbark trees, you begin to have hallucinations. And they only get more vivid and disturbing as the game goes on. Eventually you start to question reality, and if the trees that you’re cutting down are really even trees at all…

That vagueness is part of what made this game really stick in my mind. I thought about it for weeks after I finished playing it, just muddling over the details and trying to figure out what exactly was going on and what the meaning of it all was. I think, in the end, it’s perhaps supposed to be about respecting nature, but I really can’t be sure. There are also two fairly different paths through the game, with one ending that is significantly more ambiguous than the other.

While Bloodbark is effectively a walking simulator, it does reward exploration by containing a metric buttload of little secrets and easter eggs. There are also a number of in-game achievements, and even a series of collectibles that you might not even notice if you aren’t looking for them. I had a great time playing it, and I look back on it quite fondly. Hence, I give it the coveted first spot in my Top 25 of ’25.

Month End Video Game Wrap-Up: November 2025

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Pokémon Legends: Z-A (Switch2) – While it doesn’t quite reach the heights of Legends: Arceus, it was clearly going in a very different direction from the start. Not outstanding, but I had a lot of fun playing it! And will keep playing through the postgame and DLC expansion.

Ramona (PC) – What I’ve been calling an “escape house” game, this is the most recent Doesn’t Matter Games release, and it doesn’t disappoint. A creepy house full of puzzles and jumpscares? Sign me up!

Kromaia (PC) – A neat 3D space-shooter game that’s as dizzying as it is impossible to see what’s going on. While I could see myself playing it through in leaner times, there are so many other games I’d rather spend my time on. So I beat the first level and then tossed it on the “not really feeling it” pile.

Continue reading Month End Video Game Wrap-Up: November 2025

Let me tell you about balls

I’ve recently become more than a little enamored of an independent video game called BALL x PIT. To be quite honest with you, I’m not entirely sure how one is supposed to pronounce that title, but I’ve just been saying “ball pit” in my head. What I am sure of is that I won’t be capitalizing the whole thing every time I type it out. That’s just obnoxious.

Ball x Pit is, largely, a brick-breaker game. You’ve probably played one before. Arkanoid, Kirby’s Block Ball, Wizorb, uh… others. If these don’t ring a bell, the gameplay consists of shooting a little ball up a shaft, where it will bounce around a bunch, and if it hits one of the bricks in said shaft, the brick goes away. The goal is generally to clear all the bricks without letting your ball fall off the bottom of the screen. Ball x Pit works a bit differently, as waves of brick-shaped monsters will constantly spawn and slowly move towards the bottom of the screen. If they reach the bottom, they will attack your character, and if you lose all your HP it’s game over.

However! You have not one, but a small arsenal of balls to fire at the encroaching enemy, giving you a much better chance at success. And not unlike Vampire Survivors (and the many clones that followed it), enemies will drop crystals when they perish, and collecting enough crystals will net you a level up. This gives you a (random) stat increase, as well as a choice from three upgrade items. Upgrades come in two flavours: new balls with special effects, and passive items that confer all sorts of advantages. Sometimes one of the options will be a thing you have, in which case you’ll be able to upgrade it to further boost its effectiveness.

Continue reading Let me tell you about balls

Month End Video Game Wrap-Up: October 2025

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The Trees Holding Heaven (PC) – A teeny-tiny “horror” game, which is mostly just a parable about not disposing of science water in the forest. It did legitimately cause me to scream, so that’s a thing.

Ramona – Play With Me demo (PC) – You ought to know how I feel about Doesn’t Matter Games by now. This is the demo for an upcoming title. It’s… exactly what you’d expect if you’re familiar with the developer. I liked it!

The Moth Inside Me (PC) – A horror game made for the “2024 LSD Game Jam”, which should tell you all you need to know. Great atmosphere, and some parts definitely resonated with me. While I think it was often a little too hard to figure out what to do next, I did enjoy it overall.

Continue reading Month End Video Game Wrap-Up: October 2025