Absolum

Original illustration by Samantha Greer Recommended read: It Eats Planets From the author: None of us are free until all of us are free. Free Palestine

Absolum is a game about resistance, just as much as it’s a game all about beating the hell out of monsters and bandits through many side-scrolling stages. I’ve always had a fondness for the beat-em-up genre — the hook of putting a badass brawler through their paces by decking fools and overcoming some gnarly bosses is something I can never get enough of. But what the developers do with Absolum is hone that concept into the structure of a high-fantasy roguelite campaign. Building off the super entertaining Mr X’s Nightmare DLC from Streets of Rage 4, Absolum really leans into the balance of high-skill ceiling combat with some slick build crafting with the four main rebels. You can really reach some truly ludicrous levels of power by learning your favorite fighter and tuning them with the spoils that can come from a new run. A good roguelite experience really taps into that “just one more run” feeling, and Absolum’s fantastic combat and encounter variety give it a unique take on the beat-em-up genre that reinvigorates it.

But where Absolum elevates its concept of a roguelite beat-em-up is with its storytelling, taking place in a world that’s slowly been overtaken by a tyrant. Absolum is not just about felling power foes, it’s also about seeing the heroes form bonds with each other through their many treks across the corrupted lands. In the process, the band of rebels will mend old wounds, reconcile with past trauma, and form a stronger community of allies. It’s about resistance in the face of oppressive times when all seems lost. In many ways, the act of giving it another run to see the crew of rebels fight and try to improve things in a world that seems doomed is a powerful conceit, and one that feels so timely now. And honestly, landing a fist into the face of a tyrant’s goon goes a long way in helping keep that fighting spirit alive.

By Alessandro Fillari Recommended read: Control Resonant steps into a larger world that’s inspired by Neon Genesis Evangelion From the author: F***** AI, **F*** ICE, and Free Palestine

VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action

Two years ago, my words first touched upon the people of Glitch City. The struggle to get through each dark day of their lives. The pasts they reckoned with. The drinks they sipped to warm up another cold, lonely night. The parallels to my own time mixing drinks and seeing lives change.

This year, those words have extended into an entire book. About forty thousand of them, to be specific. My blood, sweat, tears, and a little karmotrine poured into a complete compendium. Written during the single hardest year of my life thus far. But I kept the fire burning, despite it all. Thousands await it, having already spent their limited, mid-recession cash on it. One said they’ll stick around just to see it. That pressure is not lost on me. I can only hope it will be good enough for them.

Next year, I’ll be leaving the very bar job that I first compared to Jill Stingray’s, after four trips around the sun working shifts that hid it from me. At some point, when the sun is high, I’ll be able to hold that book in my hands. Published. Proven.

I thank you, Glitch City. I mixed drinks, and my life was changed.

Through the storm, I found a way.

By Ashley Schofield Recommended read: I Don’t Want to Be This Kind of Animal Anymore From the author: Read, follow, support, say nice things, and donate to Unwinnable, Stop Caring, Plant or Beast, No Escape, Bloomed Wings, Madeline Blondeau, Inner Spiral, and Mik Deitz. As the best writers and publications in the field (in no particular order), they more than deserve your attention, appreciation, and cash.

That we continue to persist at all is a testament to our faith in one another

Brush Burial: Gutter World

The huntress descends down the vines. A knife stuck to the map, like brush on a canvas, marks the spot. Future corpses for burial. She enters a portal to the world of gutters. Blunderbuss gunfire, colliding swords. A forked tail whips, snatching gold and keys. The word “KILL!” superimposed on a target. It all ends the same way: a heel in someone’s crotch, their head between the assassin’s meaty thighs, a twist of the neck, a loud ‘crack!’, and back to the house, where “I love you” is softly spoken between partners. Even in a world of sewers and violence, romance is still possible. Love never perishes. But you will, time and time again. So go ahead and die, and may you have unconditional patience for your mistakes. There’s no midlevel saves in Our World either.

By Artemis Octavio Recommended read: THE WORLD IS NOT MY HOME From the author: FUCK ICE Editor’s note: Read and support Stop Caring

Wanderstop

Wanderstop wears the trappings of a “cozy game.” Its resources are abundant. Its tasks simple. Its aesthetics whimsical. Its star, however, is in the wrong genre. She’s supposed to be in a fighting game, or action adventure at the very least. Her sword has been torn from her hands. It is not simply an extension of herself; it is a synecdoche, the embodiment of her identity, or so she thinks. Dropping it is inconceivable. But she does.

Alta is more than her weapon, more than whatever tasks she can complete (despite her role as a quest-pursuing player character). What she needs is rest. Like many others, I saw myself in her. I, too, had been burnt to a crisp. But I faced her from the opposite side of a river — I’d already dropped the sword of my own volition.

What Alta let me do was pick it back up. To write again,and publish my first game review. Rereading the article now, I see I was still regaining my sea legs. But it doesn’t matter. Wanderstop gave me the opportunity to push open a door I had shut, and cross the threshold into something new.

By KM Nelson Recommended read: Alien Minds

Image by Taylor Hicklen

Wannabe

“It’s a shared setting,” I tell my husband that morning. “My dreams keep rotating locations.” Cruise ship flows into livestock barn flows into shopping mall flows into college dormitory. The same fear: starting too late, falling behind. An ensemble cast of disappointed classmates, friends, family members.

I’m scared of falling back asleep, even though I need it. Feet aching, head throbbing. Days crumble into weeks. Six more hours of slumber, still scraping the bottom. I see scattered constellations of old games media coworkers, industry peers. More stable. More scheduled. Seemingly self-sufficient.

Awake, I walk slowly, work slowly. I’m so goddamn tired. Music feels safer than games. But Jessica Winter’s “Wannabe” pokes the bruise:

I wanna be you I wanna be youuu-uuu But I’m not Guess I’ve got to be me

It smarts enough to get me out of bed. Next year I will stop chasing someone else’s professionalism. Next year I will grow into this permanent limp, this knothole of neurodivergence.

By Taylor Hicklen (Bluesky – Portfolio) Recommended read: Bambas! is a city playground that doesn’t judge my walk

Type Help

There are no ghosts in Galley House.

2025 marked the release of many excellent detective games, and Type Help certainly deserves its place in the roster. Deceptively modest in its presentation, Type Help is spun of magic and HTML. An impossible mystery resides within an old computer terminal, locked behind a vast network of puzzles for you to untangle, and every turn of the narrative reels you in deeper with questions that multiply like spores as you progress. It’s an exhilarating text-based adventure that takes full advantage of the power of discovery to tell a captivating and, yes, haunting story.

By Bee Wertheimer Recommended read: Don’t Let an Algorithm Pick Your Next Game For You

Blippo+

Blippo+ is a reminder of the joyful slowness of TV’s past.

One of the best games to come out this year wasn’t really a game at all. It was a channel-surfing simulator, and it was one of the best experiences I had this year. It reminded me of an unabashedly weird kind of TV programming we don’t really get anymore. Not only that, but I was reminded of television used to be like: thoughtful and slow.

Blippo+ captures a feeling of discovery that we used to have with television. It was organic. TV programming these days feels like… well… programming. We have the awesome, but paralyzing choice of any show on any streaming service at any time. We aren’t really discovering things, though. The algorithm is suggesting them to us, based on what we watch. And the process repeats, leading to less natural discovery.

The beauty of *Blippo+ *is that it resets that relationship. If you want to watch something, you have to wait for it to be broadcast. This is even better on the Playdate version, where you’re stuck with “reruns” until the next week’s broadcast “packette” is ready to download. Patience makes us anticipate the next episode of “Realms Beyond” or what the latest rumors will be on “Small Talk”.

It’s a reminder for all of us to slow down, digest what we watch, and learn to love anticipation. “Absence makes the heart grow fonder,” as the old saying goes. Blippo+ also allowed me to discover new favorite shows, like I used to experience when I was much younger. We don’t necessarily need to flock to cable, but maybe we should consider slowing down and discovering new things. Not just on TV, but in all parts of our lives.

By Justin Grandfield Recommended read: Optional Gay Men From the author: Give cash to your local food bank! It goes a lot further than donated goods!

Unionization

Call that metagaming: the workers of the games industry have made huge strides in their unionization speedrun any%. From further teams unionizing at long-standing industry giants like Blizzard and id Software, 2025 has been a banner year for industry organizing. March of 2025 saw the announcement of United Videogame Workers-CWA, the industry’s first direct-to-join union in the US and Canada associated with CODE-CWA and the Communication Workers of America. Since they marched through GDC, UVW-CWA has amassed almost 600 members and elected their first executive board. They even went as far as staging a picket line outside Geoff Keighley’s The Game Awards in LA, decrying the way that executive greed has gutted the industry and artform.

However, while there is much to celebrate this year, the fight continues. In late 2025, 34 members of Rockstar Games (31 from their Scottish office, 3 from their Canadian office) were fired in an alleged act of union busting. While Rockstar alleges no wrongdoing, claiming that the 34 in question were in violation of their confidentiality agreements, the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain strongly contests this claim. But with initial data from GDC/Informa’s “State of the Games Industry” questionnaire showing a strong positive view of unionization from those who responded, 2026 could shape up to benefit from the incredible velocity already gained by the efforts of organized game developers worldwide.

By Anna Webster (Bluesky – Website) From the author: JOIN UVW-CWA! PARTY UP AND BEAT THE BOSSES

Dispatch

Hope is not a strategy; otherwise, Oscar Piastri would have won the title of world champion in Abu Dhabi, James and the four rookies would have reached playoffs in Budapest, and I would have found a job in this cold winter. So how can one meaningfully situate the frustrated self alongside the more accomplished others? Dispatch offers an answer by refusing Superman’s moral certainty and Homelander’s twisted cynicism.

It begins by stripping Robert Robertson of the powerful suit, exposing an ordinary body in an extraordinary world, and casting him back into the mundane routines of everyday life. But even so, Robert and his teammates still dare to follow the faint trace of hope with a weary but unyielding patience. Whether they truly believe in an upward-looking optimism or simply perform it as part of the job, I treasure that passion to seek out a glimmer of light, especially in today’s weather of stagnation and restlessness.

By Zonghang Zhou (Bluesky – Twitter) Recommended read: Corrupted Hero, Corrupted Dream From the author: “Hope cannot be said to exist, nor can it be said not to exist.” – Lu Xun

In March of 2025, I married my best friend after nine years together. By September, I was living alone and over 20 hours away while I started a new job and she wrapped up her PhD. It has been my first time ever without the comforting bubble of life outside my head from family, roommates, or significant others.

I’ve flown back once and have occasionally seen regional friends, but those amount to just nine days of socializing out of the past four months. The loneliness damage modifier isn’t helped by the fact that 99 percent of my furniture is still half a continent away, arriving with my wife in a month.

I picked up Dispatch on a whim. Being an absolute sucker for “found family” stories, it didn’t take long to win me over with its cast of loveable misfits. Then, in the game’s second half, a concentrated dose of LCD Soundsystem “All My Friends” arrived to knock me flat as everyone comes together to throw a surprise housewarming party for a sad man trying his best.

I’ve played through Dispatch four times now and whenever Robert Robertson’s pad grows crowded with friends my heart fills to the seams in anticipation of getting to do that in my own life once again.

By Wyeth Leslie Recommended read: 56: Mad Max From the author: Shoutout to everyone continuing to hone their art in this age of AI-assisted atrophy.

Building a PC

You ever feel like you got to experience the end of something great?

That’s what building a PC in December of 2025 felt like. After all, in the two days between when I started pricing out a machine and bought the parts the price of RAM increased 100%. In the time since, it’s increased even further. Before the end of the year, GPU prices also started to jump (thanks to Nvidia announcing plans to cut consumer GPU production by 30% to make room for more AI investment).

I worry that others won’t get to experience “their first builds,” an experience I found to be a stressful, exhausting, surprisingly emotionally attritional nightmare. Because it was also probably the most rewarding thing I have done in years.

Come the end of February, as the last of the already allocated stock dries up at the end of the fiscal quarter, the games industry will have to reckon with the fact that it’s outside a particularly nasty bubble. More and more people will be priced out of this hobby and art form, so some pissant can generate Mickey Mouse with big boobs or whatever Grok does. The thing I worry about is that being outside a bubble might mean you aren’t making ludicrous money off the backs of idiot venture capital types, but if 2008 taught us anything, it’s that being the splash zone when it inevitably pops… that’s where the real damage happens. I just hope we can prepare ourselves for that.

In the words of that depressed reporter filling three minutes of airtime for his local news affiliate, ”February is the worst month of the year, but it’s an honest month… something great happened here, but it’s over with.”

By Lex Luddy Recommended read: Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Review: Soulless and Soul-destroying From the author: Donate to Transgender Equality Network Ireland Editor’s note: read and support startmenu

Keep Driving

Your first car is a gateway to freedom – go anywhere! Explore! Make your world so much bigger than it used to be! It’s also a tremendous liability: Gas! Insurance! Repairs! Try not to die behind the wheel! Keep Driving captures the thrilling youthful wanderlust and the painful material minutiae of the automotive experience – you’ll get lost, get stuck in traffic, get pulled over, and most importantly, you’ll go a lot of places you’ve never been before. Life is a journey, and Keep Driving makes it so that even when you get to your destination, you’ll still want to keep on moving. Never slow down, never stop – this road could lead you anywhere.

By Ryan Stevens Recommended read: Doomed Vaporwave Future From the author: Free Palestine, if you use AI you’ve given up your own humanity, shoutout to BDS Movement

Ōkami HD

There’s no room to ease into this: our world is dying. This shouldn’t come as a shocking revelation; 2025 tips us closer to the critical 1.5°C global warming threshold that the Paris Agreement has warned us about for the last decade. That’s a horrifying notion. How do we heal this broken world?

We need direct action.

Ōkami, amongst all its other endearments, beautifully illustrates this. Rejuvenation. Bloom. Greenspout. Ammy’s brushstrokes bring life back to devastation, and it feels damn good to heal Nippon this way. The Celestial Brush’s effects aren’t as immediately tangible as blowing up a Mako Reactor, sure — but who among us has a freaking Buster Sword? Brushes are in much more ready supply.

“Amaterasu, now is the time. We have never needed your power more. Shine your divine light upon this broken and polluted world.”

There’s no room to ease into the fact that our world is dying, but Ōkami eased me into the idea that direct action is fully within my own means. It’s within yours, too.

By Perry Gottschalk Recommended read: Eternal Summer From the author: Ammy knows Power Slash, too. To all my Mako Reactor-hating friends, check out Andreas Malm’s How to Blow Up a Pipeline. I’d also like to link to the US branch of the Rainforest Foundation

Atomfall

Set in a dystopian alternate reality, Atomfall begins in the aftermath of a cataclysmic event, gives you a blank-slate, amnesiac character and says, “Figure out what the hell happened here and save the world – or not. Whatever.”

It’s got Fallout-Bioshock-Metro-S.T.A.L.K.E.R.-Heart of Chornobyl vibes, with enough multiple paths, outcomes, and achievements to satisfy my little completionist heart. I love that Atomfall throws you into the game like it just tossed out the trash. No slow character build, no meet and greet with the neighbors, no gentle tutorial.

Atomfall births you into a broken and unfriendly world, no name, no memory, and asks — who are you going to be? Discovering all the possible ways to answer that question is what makes playing and replaying this game so delightfully satisfying.

By Heather Labay (Portfolio) Recommended read: Raptured Memory

Promise Mascot Agency

If you’re anything like me, the quickest way to interest you in a game is by telling you it’s kind of indescribable. I’m hoping that’s enough to sell you on Promise Mascot Agency, because getting into the details of this game tends to make you sound like a raving maniac. It’s an open-world driving game, but it’s also a magical mascot management business sim with card battle minigames, but it’s also a crime drama that plays out like a manic Japanese fever dream. Does that help? Not really? How about this: just get Promise Mascot Agency already and let the fever dream overcome you. I guarantee you it’s like nothing you’ve ever played (and you’ll never look at tofu the same way again).

By Kat (Pixel a Day / Bluesky) Recommended watch: Blue Prince is the Best (and the Worst) of Exploration Puzzle Games

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc

I’m not enough to define myself. I am because others see me and think about me. Thanks to their words and actions, I can be someone. Love can be something that revolutionizes what you feel about yourself and the world. And when you are in an unstable moment of your life, its outcomes can be devastating. Like a bomb exploding next to your head.

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc is all about this. It’s not only a terrific visual spectacle with some of the best artists in the industry, but also a piece of media that represents the explosive nature of falling in love with someone, with all the beauty and dangers that it brings.

By Axel Bosso (Twitter – Portfolio) Recommended read: Street Fighter 6 is the ultimate fighting game toolbox From the author: A Caputo en la plaza lo tienen que colgar

Tales of Rebirth

I didn’t have any expectations going into Tales of Rebirth. I wasn’t even aware of the “Veigue yelling Claire’s name” meme that most series fans, even those who never played Rebirth, seemed to know.

Tales of Rebirth is amazing. The combat is fun, but more importantly, its story about the conflict between Huma and Gajuma is moving, and more pertinent than ever. Claire’s amazing speech as she advocates for the Gajuma and Hilda’s journey to accept herself should be just as well-known as Veigue’s yelling. I don’t usually get my hopes up for remakes or remasters, but Tales of Rebirth could really do with a revival.

By Niki Fakhoori (Bluesky – Portfolio) Recommended read: Final Fantasy Tactics Memes Prove Video Games are Art

How Fish is Made

Why does every adherent of the “nothing matters” mindset act like they were the first to discover nihilism? Look, I’m sympathetic. We were all fourteen once; we’ve all been awed by the depth of a sharp edge’s cut before we came to realize that functional blades depend on shallow angles. At least this aggressively feel-bad freeware excursion treats its hopeless subject matter with an appropriate amount of humorous disdain. Despite moments of genuine hilarity, How Fish is Made’s message (such as it is) has stuck with me less than its fishy protagonist’s intentionally unpleasant animations.

By Alexander B. Joy Recommended read: Legend of the River King

Final Fantasy Tactics – The Evalice Chronicles

The original Final Fantasy Tactics is worthily regarded as one of the best games ever made, a cornerstone of tactics RPGs and one of the most nuanced and captivating stories in games. It is also aggressively obtuse, difficult to play and often ponderous. These are all issues mitigated in its latest presentation. Onboarding is refined, quality of life features abound with updated pixel art, rendering, and UI.

However, the most pronounced addition, in my opinion, is its new voice acting. In this form, Final Fantasy Tactics realises its true calling. A playable, dioramic play. The game’s story of class inequality and struggle is one to take heed of in current times and once you have dispatched an encounter by some fine margin you’ll get to sit back and luxuriate in its exquisitely written dialogues and highly dramatic deliveries.

By Gregorios Kythreotis Recommended read: Eteo Archetypes

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Growing up I never beat The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. I got stuck somewhere around the Ice Palace — until this year, when I played the SNES version through Nintendo Switch Online. I beat it after Ocarina of Time, another classic I started as a kid but never finished. Playing these major Zelda games in reverse order, and so close together, highlighted how each game gives nod to those that came before.

This extends beyond elements and motifs re-appearing, things like the princess’s wisdom or the hero’s courage. Even the music recurs: Breath of the Wild’s Hyrule Castle interior theme reuses selections of “Zelda’s Lullaby,” originally from ALttP and appearing in Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, Skyward Sword, and more. In this way, Zelda matches form to content.

In-game I search for these Easter eggs; IRL, I ask: In what ways am I reliving patterns of my own? And then, perhaps more importantly: Do I want to relive these patterns, or is it time to let them go?

By Natalie Schriefer (Website – Bluesky – Twitter) Recommended read: Nintendo Has a Silent Problem With ‘Zelda’ Film

Predator Badlands

“Yautja Codex: Yautja are prey to none. Friend to none. Predator to all.”

On the planet Genna, everything is prey, including you. Friends can teach you to observe, understand, and work with the world around you to become more than just a trophy hunter (and can save your butt if you make a bad first impression with their family). Predator to all… there is a gaping chasm between trying to show yourself as a warrior in the hopes that your clan accepts you, and making your own honor that proves that no one, not even other predators, should underestimate you.

By Van Dennis (Bluesky – Unwinnable author page) Recommended read: Andor From the author: A friendly heads up to donate (some cash) to your local food bank if you can spare some!

Umamusume

In a year that had my guts twist and turn, be it through the current state of global affairs, the political climate in my country, or the simple fact that I felt utterly rejected and spit upon by games media and the industry as a whole, there were only a few bright spots. I know, woe me who’s at least not starving while the world seems to just shrug nonchalantly, or fighting in a war where all allies seem just all too eager to cut their losses and already plan how to chop up what’s left. This might be getting a little too dark, I’m sorry.

But it was also the year when I saw the internet fall in love with a retired racehorse who had never won a race. Cygames’ horse girl idol game introduced Haru Urara to the world. In the game, she’s a lively, clumsy girl with a can-do attitude who always seems to smile, even if she’s not particularly good at this whole racing thing.

Whenever I’m asked about the appeal of Umamusume as a media thingy, and I guess horse racing as a sport, I tend to reply with “The fighting spirit just gets to you.” Haru Urara, in and outside the game, is the purest embodiment of that. That unbreakable spirit, the almost arrogant courage to wipe that sweat from your brows and tears out of your eyes and stand back up again and again, no matter how hopeless things get. “The Shining Star of Losers Everywhere” may have passed away in September of this year, but her legacy will live on through the lives she touched.

Hers is the spirit I want to share with you and bring into the next year and beyond: the courage to fail and try again anyway. A reminder that even if our efforts and pursuits might not result in much, if we give our all, they are never wasted. True strength is the unrelenting resolve to stand back up. While this might ring hollow in the face of being constantly told that effort and compassion are fruitless endeavors, I can not allow myself to become bitter and give up. Haru Urara always ran her heart out and never gave up. Neither will I.

By Timo Reinecke Recommended read: Coming Behind Masks From the author: Слава Україні! FCK NZS!

Pokémon Legends: Z-A

2025 was, to me, a year marked by the sheer amount of loss I’ve experienced, which left me quite apprehensive about a lot of stuff, important or not. So when I got my hands on Pokémon Legends: Z-A, I wasn’t expecting much of it, given the decline in quality the series has seen in recent years. Thankfully, I was very wrong.

As you progress through the story and learn how to share Lumiose City with multitudes of wild Pokémon, the welcoming streets, narrow alleys, and tiled terraces present you with a lot of colorful characters who bring this vibrant place to life and make it an entertaining (albeit limited) environment to explore. The new action combat accompanies the atmosphere of this city and feels like a huge leap for the series that truly pays off, as the battles are the most fun the series had in a while. And kudos to GameFreak for perfecting boss battles after their first attempt in Legends: Arceus, because Rogue Mega Pokémon give you a run for your money.

With each new addition to my pokedex, an oddly familiar sensation returned to me: the thrill of collecting all those different monsters without burning out on quality issues or empty and dull open worlds. Underneath it all, Legends: Z-A felt like a needed fresh breath of air that still was a Pokémon game at heart, and it reminded me why I fell in love with the series as a curious 7-year-old. Despite the ups and downs of both this series and my life, being able to innocently enjoy running and catching Pokémon made me feel at home when I sorely needed it.

By Santi Leguiza (Bluesky – Portfolio) Recommended read: For Love’s Sake, Please Stop Making New Versions Of Old Games From the author: Fuck Valnet, now and always

Everdeep Aurora

LISTING Handheld Drill

Price – Free to those in need

Condition – Lightly used

Description Black, handheld, duracite-powered drill. Good size for small, lost cat-shaped paws. Can be used for digging through a mysterious, subterranean landscape filled with wonderfully realised creatures. Perfect for those looking to help re-affirm human connection in a world on the brink.

For more information, please contact Ribbert the Frog.

By Lewis Davies (Bluesky – Button Prompt) Recommended read: Burnout, Saving Daylight and The Wild Hunt for Enjoyment

Petscop

Something bad happened here, and it won’t be forgotten – the central theme to any video game creepypasta. Ben Drowned, Catastrophe Crow, and, needing no introduction, Petscop.

Presented as a YouTube Let’s Play series, Petscop follows our narrator Paul as he’s thrown into a story, hiding behind the thin veneer of a children’s game, about trauma, abuse, and rebirth.

What can be said about Petscop briefly? Graves that rise from the ground, doors that are both open and shut, a rebirthing machine – Petscop is… complicated.

But it’s hard not to find a trans narrative in any story about a rebirth. If you got to choose this time, if you got to rewrite your own story, who would you be? More central to the horror of the story, what if you didn’t get to choose? And what if you had to relive it?

As Petscop puts it, sometimes recordings have the power to raise the dead.

By Paul Rullán Recommended read: Going Home

Z.A.T.O. // I Love the World and Everything In It

Visual novels live or die by their narrators. Thankfully Z.A.T.O. // I Love the World and Everything In It has a great one; Asya is a bullied 14 year old student who contains multitudes. She’s meek in class and yet insufferably grandiose in her running monologues. She sees the systems by which the world is made and unmade and yet continuously misses basic social cues. Her classmates lead her around by the nose to satisfy their own emotional needs. They are as aware as anyone of the limits of her point of view. But as the skies burn and everything ends, it is Asya who climbs to the radio tower and broadcasts her message of love for all the world to hear. I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to sit for a few hours in her brain. It’s not always a pleasant place, but it made me feel less alone. That’s why, for all its small imperfections, I Love This Game and Everything In It.

By Adam Wescott (Bluesky / Portfolio) Recommended read: A/S/L: Jeanne Thornton’s Saga of the Sorceress From the author: Don’t forget: it is our privilege as humans to make amateur art whenever and however we want

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

In 2017, I had entered my senior year of high school. I was in the process of figuring out my life’s plan, articulating every possible direction I could go when The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild launched. I put my planning on pause to immerse myself into this, at-the-time, new rendition of Hyrule.

I traversed the soaked grass of the Lanayru Wetlands with the curiosity of a newborn child; sprinted across the Gerudo Desert attempting to avoid a Game Over; inhaled the surrounding plains at the Central Tower in Hyrule Field. This all served as a break from arguably one of the most stressful moments of my life. A respite from all the tasks I had to get done.

It was bliss.

I am now 25 years old. Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to put my responsibilities on hold once again when the Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game launched. I was hesitant to revisit the game, worried I may not be able to draw on the energy I had almost a decade prior.

I was so wrong.

Immediately upon stepping foot outside of the cave, my shoulders relaxed. I found myself reflecting on dust-covered memories I didn’t know I had kept. I figured my brain’s cycles with time’s passage would betray me yet I would walk near a peculiar pond and remember the item patiently waiting for me at the bottom.

Just like I had done back in high school, I would finish “just one more shrine” before getting back to completing grad school homework.

Hyrule had remained exactly as I last left it.

By José Romero Recommended read: “I Swear”

CloverPit

CloverPit asks the question: What if Balatro was evil? In a year filled with many games centered around making a big number, *CloverPit *sets itself apart by placing you in what’s essentially a gambling dungeon, run by an entity that may or may not be the devil (after many hours with the game, I’m still not sure). This unholy overlord demands larger and larger sums of money deposited into the dingy room’s ATM — if you fail, the floor grate beneath you swings open, dropping you into a pit. Instead of manipulating a deck, players aim to control the probability of rolling certain symbols through the use of charms and deals made over the phone with a mysterious stranger, and there’s many satisfying synergies to be found.

Not only is it an absolute dopamine goldmine, constantly lighting up your brain with jackpots, but it also possesses more depth than you might expect. Soon, you’ll find yourself actively trying to roll 666 on the machine and collecting corpse pieces, as it’s the only chance you have of escaping slot machine hell — if you can bring yourself to stop spinning, that is.

By Deven McClure Recommended read: 2026 is the year of the frog game

OVER/UNDER

A dream both real and imagined. The one we lived in together. I was Sister Abigail – a tarot reader who flipped cards while peddling advice and served as a double agent in the local mafia for my Solarian Church spymaster, the Confessor Candescence. I had assumed that rising through the ranks was close to impossible for us. We were working in the deepest shadow – how could we be trusted in positions of power? But over the course of that month because of the people we’d spoken to, the information we had gathered, the trust we had earned, the plots we had executed, the over thirty tarot card readings and pulls I had accomplished for others, and the countless sleep-deprived nights where I’d raced to pass him new intelligence and he schemed and politicked, he was elected the Pontiff Corvus-Candescence (replacing the old Boss) and raised me up with him to become the Church’s Cardinal Draco.

I loved OVER/UNDER. I loved the Dream and its Dreamers. If I had to go back in time to do it again I would a thousand times over.

By Kyle Tam (Kyle Writes Things – Urania Games) Recommended read: In the Grim Darkness of the Far Future There Are Only Warriors

Super Mario Odyssey

I replayed the fantastic Super Mario Odyssey this year because I was so convinced that Nintendo would finally release a new 3D Mario game. The latest Mario adventure was released eight years ago, and we are overdue for a new one. Replaying the game reminded me of all the reasons why I love Super Mario Odyssey. It’s creative, whimsical, and wacky. I mean, the main gameplay mechanic has Mario “capture” enemies, creatures, and objects thanks to his new cap companion, Cappy, who temporarily becomes Mario’s new hat. Only in the Mario universe does that make sense.

However, that development didn’t happen, which is a shame considering this year also marks Mario’s 40th birthday. I couldn’t have imagined a better way to celebrate 40 years of Mario, but alas, Nintendo decided to celebrate by focusing on the upcoming Mario Galaxy movie and releasing overpriced reissues of Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2, wonderful games that are 18 years and 15 years old, respectively. With no date in sight for the next game, it’s just another frustration to add to the list that I have had with Nintendo over the past few years, which includes how they launched the expensive Nintendo Switch 2. Well, whenever Nintendo does tell us about the next 3D game, at least we have Super Mario Odyssey to lean on for now.

By Monique Barrow (Bluesky – Portfolio) Recommended read: Showtime

Angeline Era

*Angeline Era *is a game that was developed for Nihon Falcom sickos like me. Inspired, in the team’s own words, by games like Ys I, Ys: Oath in Felghana, and a number of other unnamed titles I can trace the game’s mechanics backwards towards. Yet it’s so much more than its inspirations, a game fully confident in its own ideas, and its own takes on what has been done before; having to “search” for the entrances to levels by noticing conspicuous spots on the overworld is a touch of genius, and all the little ways that the team plays with your own expectations lends the entire game a playfulness that fits perfectly with the game’s Fae-filled world.

I hesitate to say too much about the game’s story, but Tets Kinoshta’s journey is a fascinating allegory for the intersectionality of his faith, his ethnicity, and his own lived background. Angeline Era is not a Christian video game, despite its explicit subject matter. Yet, at its core, it is a game about faith – of what you choose to put your faith in.

By James Galizio Recommended read: CyberConnect2 – Fuga: Melodies of Steel 3 and resuming the Trilogy of Vengeance with Taichiro Miyazaki From the author: Gaming tech is a nightmare right now, buy and play more indie games which will run on a toaster instead of upgrading your PC

ENA: Dream BBQ

You start playing *ENA: Dream BBQ *and you find yourself in a desolate landscape with a red sky and a strange, giant humanoid figure looking down upon you. You’re on your own and you think you might know what you’re in for. Then you click on a mattress, which tells you it’s a door, and fall into a world with a giant floating eye in the sky, smoke everywhere, and a cast of characters so whacky AI couldn’t generate them in its wildest dreams.

You’re looking for the boss — to kill him maybe, I think. I don’t know. There’s a wizard and a weird horse and a giant man with many faces who can drive you somewhere. Now you’re looking for the bathroom, and now you’re at a dance party and you’ve turned into a weird fish thing with legs. It’s all one big run on sentence drenched in mania, a phantasmagorical fair of chaos.

By Farouk Kannout (Bluesky – Twitter) Recommended read: Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc Is at Its Best When at Its Most Intimate From the author: Wishing all of you well. Fuck ICE, and long live my sweet home, Chicago!

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