Don’t Overlook These 14 2025 Games — They Should Be Game of the Year Contenders
These 14 games stood out during 2025 for their design, scope, or unusual approach to familiar genres. Below you’ll find concise, factual notes on each title — who made them, where you can play, and what each one does differently.
- The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy
- Peak
- Sword of the Sea
- Elden Ring: Nightreign
- And Roger
- Lies of P: Overture
- Koira
- REPO
- Tokyo Xtreme Racer
- Öoo
- Umamusume: Pretty Derby
Avowed
Developer: Obsidian Entertainment. Platforms: Windows PC, Xbox Series X; available on Game Pass.
Avowed is a first-person action-RPG set in the Pillars of Eternity universe. It features spellcasting mechanics, branching conversation choices, and a story that was developed during the COVID-19 era. The game launched in 2025 and was one of Obsidian’s major releases that year.
Despelote
Developer: Julián Cordero, Sebastian Valbuena / Panic. Platforms: PlayStation 4 and 5, Windows PC, Xbox Series X.
Despelote is a memoir-style narrative game that recreates a childhood in Quito, Ecuador, during the 2002 World Cup qualifying run. The art uses hand-drawn characters and photo-grain textures, and the game focuses on memory-driven scenes rather than conventional action mechanics.
Dune: Awakening
Developer: Funcom. Platforms: Windows PC.
Dune: Awakening is an online survival MMO set in an alternate-universe take on Frank Herbert’s Dune. It emphasizes environmental hazards on Arrakis, resource gathering strategies, and cooperative base-building. The game avoids extreme grind by giving players ample resources when they find them, while making safe collection and travel a core gameplay challenge.
The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy
Developer: Too Kyo Games / Media.Vision / Aniplex. Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Windows PC.
The Hundred Line combines visual-novel storytelling with tactics-RPG elements and advertises 100 distinct endings. It was created by the teams behind Danganronpa and Zero Escape, and it mixes sci-fi conspiracy with branching narrative paths that materially change outcomes across playthroughs.
Peak
Developer: Team Peak / Aggro Crab / Landfall. Platforms: Windows PC.
Peak is a cooperative climbing game where players must reach the highest point of an island to be rescued. The island’s layout changes, and players encounter environmental puzzles, artifacts, and hazards. Sessions typically involve short, tense climbs with an emphasis on player interaction and emergent moments.
Sword of the Sea
Developer: Giant Squid. Platforms: PlayStation 5, Windows PC.
Sword of the Sea focuses on momentum-based movement using a “Hoversword” and a scoring system that tracks tricks and speed. The team includes Journey’s art director Matt Nava and composer Austin Wintory. The game offers New Game Plus content that expands available movement tricks and scoring features.
Elden Ring: Nightreign
Developer: FromSoftware. Platforms: PlayStation 4 and 5, Windows PC, Xbox One and Series X.
Elden Ring: Nightreign reworks Elden Ring’s combat into a shorter, run-based format with live-service elements. Matches run about 45 minutes, include randomized boss encounters, and permit cooperative or competitive interaction with other players. FromSoftware has supported the title with regular updates that change maps and challenges.
And Roger
Developer: TearyHand Studio / Kodansha. Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Windows PC.
And Roger is a short narrative game that uses abstracted interactions and a limited viewpoint to explore a medical condition via gameplay mechanics. It opens with a character waking in an unfamiliar place and uses disorientation as a design tool to communicate the protagonist’s experience.
Lies of P: Overture
Developer: Neowiz. Platforms: PlayStation 4 and 5, Windows PC, Xbox One and Series X.
Lies of P: Overture is a prequel/expansion to Lies of P that expands the original story and adds new weapons, enemies, and areas. The release includes new mechanics and several high-profile new boss encounters, and it ties narrative threads back to the base game.
Koira
Developer: Studio Tolima / Don’t Nod. Platforms: PlayStation 5, Windows PC.
Koira uses musical instrumentation in place of spoken dialogue and pairs a young girl with a puppy as they navigate a dark forest. The game mixes stealth puzzles with light-and-sound mechanics to advance through levels and rescue other animals.
It draws a comparison to Disney’s Peter and the Wolf in how instruments represent characters, and the design centers those musical cues in both puzzle solutions and narrative moments.
REPO
Developer: Semiwork. Platforms: Windows PC.
REPO is a multiplayer game that combines proximity voice chat with light-horror mechanics. Players loot abandoned areas while avoiding monsters that react to sound. The game escalates in difficulty and emphasizes cooperative play and emergent, social moments during runs.
Tokyo Xtreme Racer
Developer: Genki. Platforms: Windows PC.
Tokyo Xtreme Racer is a revival of Genki’s street-racing franchise. The 2025 release intentionally echoes early-2000s visuals and design, with events that include straight-line races and character-driven night-world presentation. It was released in early access in 2025 and leans into retro styling and soundtrack choices.
Öoo
Developer: NamaTakahashi / Tiny Cactus Studio / Tsuyomi. Platforms: Windows PC.
Öoo is a platform-puzzle game built around bomb-based movement. The player character uses bombs to propel and reconfigure positioning through a large maze. The design introduces new movement concepts gradually and focuses on precision and puzzle-solving across short play sessions.
Umamusume: Pretty Derby
Developer: Cygames. Platforms: Android, iOS, Windows PC; global release in June 2025.
Umamusume: Pretty Derby is a sports-simulation mobile/PC game where players train anthropomorphized racehorses (called umamusume) and manage their careers across events. The title includes stat management, events, and race simulations and was originally released in Japan in 2021 before receiving a global launch in 2025.
