Games Inbox: Is 2025 the best year for indie video games ever?

The Monday letters page asks whether Nintendo is now a spent force, as readers worry about the future of Warner Bros. game developers.

Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk

PLEASE NOTE: We are currently preparing articles to run over the Christmas and New Year break, so if you’ve been thinking of writing a Reader’s Feature now would be the perfect time to send it in. It can be on any subject you want, as long as it’s a minimum of 500 words long.

Year of the independent
Thanks for the Horses review. I don’t think it’s for me but, like you said, it’s got that daring games like that exist. I feel that at the start of this generation indie games had become sidelined to a degree. Maybe it was something to do with Covid, but it felt like for a good few years there weren’t really that many indie games making an impact, even though there were more than ever.

But this year has been amazing. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 gets all the attention, as it deserves to, but there’s Blue Prince too, Hades 2, Hollow Knight: Silksong, Dispatch, Sword Of The Sea, Monster Train 2, Absolum, and so many others.

I haven’t played all of them, obviously, but looking at the reviews and the diversity of what the games are, it seems so much healthy than the triple-A gaming business. Constantly the same game, again and again. This year we had Battlefield 6 vs. Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7 (actually the 22nd game in the series) and which one was the most popular? The pluck new indie rival, Arc Raiders.

I’m certain that big publishers won’t learn anything from this, but triple-A games feel like they’re becoming increasing irrelevant. What’s the point, when indie games are cheaper, better, and more innovative? If this isn’t their best year ever, I don’t know what it is.
Colin

Unhappy memories
RE: Silksong. I gave up on this eventually, after I’d finally gotten to the citadel, after around 60, probably closer to 100 hours. When every encounter ramped up and felt like a mini-boss (those giant hovering grasshopper things, three in a row!

I’d found my way to two paths in opposite directions, both leading to bosses, by then I just could not be bothered dying again and again, no desire to see more, no desire to learn their patterns and just spending the entire session spitting and swearing at the screen, coming away more stressed than when I started. I moved on… to Blue Prince, lordy!

Looking back on it now, there’s no fondness, no warm feeling welling up in me, just angry memories of frustration and vitriol.
big boy bent
PS: Clair Obscur… game of the year, in fact I already voted for it.

Predictable outcome
So if the Warner Bros. deal will complete in June/July time we can expect lay-offs to start in August, because, as we know, that’s what happens when a company gets bought out; they start cutting costs to start getting some of their money back and its normally the ones that work on the games that face the chop.

I really don’t know why company’s get the go ahead from the regulator when they know what’s going to be happening with jobs and cuts. Oh well, another company swallowed up by another company.
David

GC: The regulator did try to stop Microsoft buying Activision Blizzard, and every negative thing they warned of has come true. The current US government seems far less concerned with such things though.

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Christmas favourite
One of my Christmas traditions is to play through Zelda: A Link Between Worlds on my old 3DS, to get me in the Christmas mood and give me a bit of nostalgia for older times, when I had a job where I actually liked the people I worked with…

Anyway, this game seems criminally underrated as no one ever talks about it. It set the scene for Breath Of The Wild, with all the items and dungeons being accessible from the start and has such a great soundtrack. It’s the last Zelda game I can remember where I got stuck in the dungeons, which is a sign of a great Zelda game, in my opinion.
For me, it is peak Nintendo and I wish they would go back to making games of this calibre, as from everything I’m hearing about the Switch 2 at the moment, it is a dud and going down the PlayStation 5 road.
Simon
PS: I forgot to add how the 2D painting mechanic isn’t just a gimmick, but a major part of the gameplay and really enjoyable. It’s such a good game.

Secret mode
I can’t remember the name of the fellow reader that wrote in about the items choice update on Mario Kart World but it’s putting a real smile on my face.

Setting the items to only Kamek, it’s just stark bonkers crazy and a real change of pace. It gives me hope for further updates that make a real difference to the initial releases gameplay modes.
Nick The Greek

GC: It is really good fun. We’d love to know whether it was intentional or not.

Time poor
That was a very interesting reader feature by Korey at the weekend with regards to game difficulty. Sometimes, when I encounter a really annoying difficulty spike in a game, I do wonder about the playtesting that went into the game that I’m stuck on. Some levels/sections are so frustrating and unenjoyable it’s hard to believe that they’ve been checked off as acceptable.

Do you know if developers hire playtesters of varying abilities?

Korey mentioned something about a lack of respect for the amount of spare time people have. That’s the core complaint that I have with regards to difficult games/sections of games. Wasted time. When I repeat a task in a game over and over again and I’m only punished and not rewarded I count that as a waste.

Where’s the fun in getting beaten down by a game again and again?

Time really is precious. Unlike real world currency you can’t regenerate lost hours. You can never get the time that you spend back, that’s why I personally avoid games that are known to be difficult.

I did give Dark Souls a try, due to the hype and the good reviews behind it. Needless to say, I didn’t enjoy that game at all.
Michael Veal (@msv858)

In the bunker
On November 21, for my birthday, my wife bought PGA Tour 2K21 from the Nintendo online store. We used to play Tiger Woods on the GameCube a lot and thought we’d enjoy this just as much. But wait, there’s no online connectivity at all, you can’t even buy your character a hat without a ‘no connection’ warning.

Turns out 2K took this game off sale on August 30 2025, and shut down the servers on October 30. But there it still is in the Nintendo store, £49.99. No refund though, T&Cs!
Best
Mick McMahon

Calibrate your pessimism
There was a comment in the Underbox of the Metroid Prime 4 review that said, ‘Nintendo could be a spent force’ and it has troubled me since reading it.

Since Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, and now Metroid Prime 4 are not exactly setting the gaming world on fire, what would happen if we are witnessing in real-time the beginning of the end of Nintendo magic?

(All great artists suffer a blip, such as my favourite singer Michael Jackson and his ‘Invincible’ album but most can usually bounce back.)

Yes, it’s still early days for the Switch 2 but what if the next 2D or even 3D Mario fails to excite?

(These are the games, alongside a new top-down Zelda, I’m specifically looking out for.)

Traditional Pokémon will always sell (won’t it?) but then does that mean Nintendo consoles are just ‘Pokémon machines’, as CameronAllOneWord said on YouTube?

I always wanted a free roam Mario Kart ever since wondering or imagining what was beyond the track barriers in the original Super Mario Kart and did love Super Mario Bros. Wonder but the reviews of Mario Kart World don’t fill me with wanting to go out and buy it.

For the record, I can afford the £400 for a Switch 2 but with nothing of interest to play, I have kept those notes in my Super Mario Bros. NES cartridge-themed wallet.

After Zelda: Breath Of The Wild and the very similar Tears Of The Kingdom, where can Nintendo go from here?

I liked the change of play in Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom but if Nintendo games are no longer as fantastic as they used to be, does this spell the end of fun in gaming?

Because from my understanding, there appears to be a massive first party games drought on the PlayStation 5 and does anyone care about Xbox exclusives?
LeeDappa

GC: The Switch 2 is the fastest selling console in history and Donkey Kong Bananza is the fifth best game of the year (and the number one full price title) according to Metacritic, if you discount the Switch 2 Editions of the two recent Zeldas at one and two. Mario Kart World is the 29th best, ahead of Ghost Of Yōtei, Arc Raiders, and Silent Hill f. Gamers need to recognise that it is possible for a game to not be the best thing ever or the worst.

Inbox also-rans
I can’t believe that any company would be crazy enough to give money to Yu Suzuki for Shenmue 4, after the complete disaster that was the last one. So far that reason alone I’m calling the leaked trailer a fake.
Freddy

I’m worrying about Rocksteady again, with all this Warner Bros. business. At least Hogwarts Legacy and Mortal Kombat are successful. When they’re looking to see who to lay off what are they going to think when someone explains Suicide Squad to them?
Tacle

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The small print
New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content.

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