Relatively minuscule nitpicks aside, consider Absolum a must-play for any fan of not only beat ‘em ups but action games in general. Its build system is masterful, offering near infinite replayability, and if 2025 is the year of fantastic parry systems in video games, Absolum stands tall with the best parries of them all. This is the follow-up to Streets of Rage 4 that I’ve been waiting half a decade for, and it just so happens to have arrived in the form of a roguelite; arcade-styled games don’t get much better than this.
Ball x Pit might just be the most addictive game I’ve ever played. Whether that’s a good or bad thing is up to you to decide, but I can at least attest that it did not turn me into that lizard-brained, slack-jawed caveman living purely off of instinct and the desire to watch numbers go up that other games of this ilk do. Put that quote in your accolades trailer, Devolver. I dare you.
Rarely do I get so invested in an ongoing, long-running story and lore-based series like this, but the mix of interpersonal melodrama and larger-scale politics was handled immaculately here, to the point where I’ve had to fight myself from looking up what happens to certain characters on fan wikis in the hopes that I won’t be waiting too long until a hypothetical 2nd Chapter. Pair that with one of the most interesting, fluid, and fast-paced battle systems I’ve experienced in the genre, one which was constantly introducing new wrinkles and tools to play with, and you can consider me a full-on Trails fan now
I went into Herdling fully prepared to love it based on the developer’s previous work and applying that foundation towards a game about shepherding a pack of muppet elks across various biomes, but a lack of any real attempt at subversion, surprise, or strife makes the game feel disappointingly toothless. There’s still a lot to enjoy about the game, especially on the presentation end of things, but nothing that’s likely to stick with you for longer than it takes to play through it.
Come to Sacre Bleu looking for an above-average, speed-focused platformer with some extremely satisfying movement, and I basically guarantee you’re in for a good time, despite all the technical issues doing their best to drag you down. It won’t change your life, but it’ll make for a good weekend, and potentially much more than that if you’re the type to get swept up in speedrunning.
I don’t often get to be surprised by video games anymore, but I have to admit that Promise Mascot Agency really knocked it out of the park for me. I went in expecting some kind of meme game akin to Goat Simulator and instead got a game that took its hard-boiled yakuza mixed with magical mascot beings conceit seriously.
I don’t hand out 5-star reviews lightly, but there really is no better word than “perfect” to describe Star of Providence. In mere tens of hours, it captured my heart while repeatedly kicking my teeth in, daring me to come back after each aching defeat and keep learning how to speak its language.