Happy 2026! Can you believe it has been another year? Feels like just yesterday we were discussing our favorite games of 2024, but now here we are looking back on 2025!
So, as we do every year here at Netto's Game Room, our staff has once again sat down to share a quick word about their favorite 2025 title, and here is what everyone had to say.
Ben: Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter
This year honestly wasn’t easy for me. So many amazing titles launched in 2025, and I somehow managed to find the time to play 71 of them! How do you possibly weed that list down to a single game—especially in a year that saw the release of sequels in some of my all-time favorite series?
Monster Hunter Wilds, Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, Ninja Gaiden 4, Mario Kart World, Kirby Air Riders, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma and Battlefield 6—they all released this year and I couldn’t have been happier! We also had the outstanding releases of Clair Obscure: Expedition 33, Hollow Knight: Silksong, Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition, RAIDOU Remastered, Silent Hill f and Artis Impact. There were so many amazing games this year, but for the sake of this list, I have to choose just one... Which is why my Game of the Year is none other than Trails in the Sky the 1st Chapter!
I’ve already reviewed this title in great detail, but to summarize: 1st Chapter is everything I could’ve ever hoped for from a remake and more. It took the original story (a game I already loved), completely remade the world in 3D, introduced fully animated and voiced cutscenes, loaded the game with additional detail, and incorporated the series’ modern battle system.
The new, faster pace makes the title much easier for newcomers to get into compared to the original, yet it offers plenty of reasons for longtime fans to return as well. Despite putting hundreds of hours into the original, I found myself completely drawn into this reimagining of the world and story—I never wanted it to end.
If you are a JRPG fan who has never experienced the Trails series, or if you've been too intimidated to jump in, this is your perfect chance to put your fears aside and finally give it a chance. I honestly cannot recommend it enough!
Jonsku: Hades II and Hollow Knight Silksong
You might be thinking that it’s cheating to put two titles as my “game of the year”, and you would be correct. However, that is how close these two titles are to each other for me personally. It is no secret that this year in particular has been amazing for indie games, and how much the developers of such projects have evolved to the point that they are beating triple A gaming as a whole.
I have in fact reviewed both Hades II and Silksong in great detail, so I won't reiterate about them too much here. But, let me explain why I can’t choose between the two as my definitive “GotY”. For me both are amazing sequels to very amazing games, both elevate and improve on the original while also being a different enough experience to stand out by themselves. In fact they both make you want to experience the first game either anew or for the first time. Silksong challenged my platforming and reaction speed in a more narrative immersive way than most metroidvanias, while Hades 2 refined and improved on what you can do with a rogue-lite both from a narrative point of view and a gameplay one.
Honestly, I can’t really choose between the two, for me they are both essential with their own strengths and have equally given me an experience I won’t forget. All I can say is that if you haven’t still tried them, you really should ha ha.
Sagi: Aeruta
This is, thanks to life being life, I barely really got to play too many games that actually came out this year; Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves was fun, but not my favorite fighter. Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma was good enough to get me to beat, but it was incredibly clunky. Sonic Racing Crossworld was a great follow up to Transformed, but lacked the strong single player found in its predecessor.
Digimon Story: Time Stranger was probably the Digimon game I’ve loved most to date, with one incredible plot twist, but the DLC situation around it made me decide to go with another game—Aeruta.
While I have already reviewed it on this blog, as it was a game I received for review to begin with, I was actually surprised by just how much I enjoyed my time with it.
Towards the end, it ended up being quite repetitive, and the balancing may have been somewhat off, Aeruta was a game that simply had love, care, and passion seeping out of it all throughout, and I truly enjoyed the writing, presentation, and the gameplay right up to the final boss.
Even now, when thinking of memorable character interactions, of which there were quite a few, I can find myself smiling at simply seeing the characters interact with one another, and that tips the scale for me. It might come across as corny, but I can honestly feel just how much the developers actually cared for the project, which I honestly find quite touching.
And I am a sucker for such corniness.
Cat: Abiotic Factor
I played a lot of different games this year, mostly various small indie games, but a few from more established developers too. Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma and Digimon Story: Time Stranger both had me enthralled while I played them, and Megabonk and Ball X Pit were both incredibly addictive and took an enormous amount of my time. Despite all the gems I encountered, there was one game that really stood out for me.
Abiotic Factor is a love letter to several different things. The game is a survival crafter with gameplay reminiscent of Grounded, but with a setting heavily inspired by the SCP Foundation and an aesthetic inspired by the Half Life games. It entered early access in 2024, but fully released this year, and both the early access and full release have managed to be one of the best games I’ve ever played.
The characters and story are charming, and the gameplay kept me engaged for more time than almost any other game has. I won’t go into too much detail since I’m working on a full review of it, but I can vouch for the quality of it. If you are a fan of survival crafting games, do not miss this one; I consider it the peak of the genre.
A Message from Netto's Game Room
Before we put an end to this year's article, I just wanted to say thank you so much to everyone who has supported us over this last year.
It is because of readers such as yourself that we are able to do what we do, and you will never know how much we truly appreciate it. We never take a single view or visitor for granted, and it means so much to us. Thank you for all the kind words of encouragement during 2025, be that through private messages, social media, or comments here on the site, and thank you for being a part of the gaming community. We hope you'll stick with us throughout 2026, and in return we'll keep striving to provide the content you deserve.
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