The Game Awards 2025 nominees have officially been announced and naturally, we have thoughts. First and foremost, however, is what a fantastic year for new releases. From Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Death Stranding 2: On the Beach to Donkey Kong Bananza and Split Fiction, 2025 has seemingly had something exceptional for every type of player.
Among the most celebrated of these games are Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Death Stranding 2, Donkey Kong Bananza, Hades II, Hollow Knight: Silksong, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, all of which have been nominated for Game of the Year. On top of earning that coveted nomination, Expedition 33 made The Game Award history this year with a record-breaking 12 nominations.
But while these games might have received the love and celebration they were due, we’d argue that there are a few games that were woefully overlooked. As such, we’ve rounded up a list of our favorite games from 2025 that we felt deserved a bigger presence at this year’s The Game Awards. Though some of these titles might have earned a couple of nominations, in each case we felt strongly that there was at least one other category they should have been included in.
The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy
Nominations received: 0
What it should have been nominated for: Best Game Direction, Best Score and Music, Best Narrative
A dream team-up between Kazutaka Kodaka (Danganronpa) and Kotaro Uchikoshi (Zero Escape), The Hundred Line fuses a Danganronpa-style visual novel with a very enjoyable tactical gameplay component. But that straightforward approach to the first few dozen hours belies a significantly deeper game you eventually reach that represents one of the year’s boldest concepts and best twists since Inscryption.
South of Midnight
Nominations received: 2, Innovation in Accessibility and Games for Impact
What it should have been nominated for: Best Score and Music, Best Audio Design
If there’s one thing South of Midnight deserves its flowers for, it’s music and audio design. The action-adventure game makes remarkable use of oral storytelling via song, expertly conveying the game’s most-important messages while also immersing its players in a world where the lines between myth and reality are blurred.
“The sound design and music, more than anything, are a marvel,” Jordan Ramée wrote in our South of Midnight review. “The music is the star of the show every time–each lyric-driven song is extremely catchy, matching the cadence of something you’d hear and sing along to while around a campfire.”
Silent Hill F
Nominations received: 2, Best Narrative and Best Audio Design
What it should have been nominated for: Game of the Year, Best Game Direction, Best Art Direction, Best Performance (Konatsu Kato)
Prior to 2024’s Silent Hill 2 remake, Konami’s once-iconic survival-horror series had all but disappeared. This makes it all the more impressive that the company returned not only with a critically acclaimed remake, but with what I believe is its greatest mainline entry so far. Silent Hill f excels in abstract storytelling, creature design, and cultivating a haunting-yet-beautiful atmosphere. This is all then elevated by Konatsu Kato’s devastatingly memorable performance as Hinako.
“Silent Hill f is not just a return to form, it’s a remarkable evolution; it’s a visual spectacle, a mastercraft in psychological horror, a work of narrative brilliance, and a new benchmark for the Silent Hill series,” Jessica Cogswell wrote in our Silent Hill f review.
Dispatch
Nominations received: 1, Best Debut Indie Game
What it should have been nominated for: Best Narrative
Despite being one of the most recently released games on this list, Dispatch has already earned a lot of fans and success in the few weeks its been out. This is largely due to its fantastic narrative, which harkens back to the quippy-yet-edgy superhero films of the early 2010s while also adding its own spin on what a superhero-filled world might look like.
“I have my qualms with parts of it, but Dispatch is more than worthy of getting a second season,” Jordan Ramée wrote in our Dispatch review. “The writing and world-building behind its story are too good for this to be a one-and-done entry.”
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Nominations received: 1, Best Action Adventure Game
What it should have been nominated for: Game of the Year, Best Performance
Although Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was released in 2024, its December launch date prevented it from being included in that year’s The Game Awards considerations. Thankfully, judges didn’t forget about MachineGame’s latest title when it came time to nominate the year’s best action adventure games. However, we think Troy Baker’s standout perfomance as Indiana Jones–and the game as a whole–might have been overlooked.
“Indiana Jones and The Great Circle is the quintessential Indiana Jones game. It captures the look, sound, and spirit of the movies, presenting a riveting story with an unexpected focus on stealth and freeform exploration that satisfies even when certain aspects of its design are slightly underwhelming,” Richard Wakeling wrote in our Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review. “More than anything, MachineGames has successfully designed a game around its protagonist; its mix of improvisational stealth and combat feels distinct by adopting a fast and loose style that echoes Indy’s scrappy persistence.”
Deltarune
Nominations received: 0
What it should have been nominated for: Best Score and Music
There’s no denying that following his release of Undertale back in 2015, Toby Fox quickly became one of the most-notable composers in video games–and for good reason. Undertale is filled to the brim with phenomenal, frenetic, and moving tracks, many of which are sampled and utilized in interesting ways in Deltarune.
“The most important piece of the puzzle is the soundtrack. Toby Fox samples his own music from Undertale in both subtle and overt ways to great effect, almost like callbacks to remind you that these two worlds are somehow bound together,” Michael Higham wrote of Deltarune – Chapter One. “As soon as ‘Field Of Hopes And Dreams’ starts, you feel a percussive momentum complemented by a bold, catchy rhythm and piano lead. And memories of Snowdin Town begin to sink in when the melody transitions, as if to empower you with a sense of familiarity to explore uncharted territory.”
Blue Prince
Nominations received: 2, Best Independent Game and Best Debut Indie Title
What it should have been nominated for: Game of the Year, Best Game Direction
There are few games that possess the power to infiltrate nearly every online gaming community the way Blue Prince did earlier this year. The intricate puzzle-meets-roguelike game quickly became a phenomenon after its release, sending players into a delightful frenzy as they examined every note, clue, and scrawl tucked away in Mount Holly. Blue Prince is not merely a fantastic indie title–it’s one of the best games of 2025.
“Blue Prince is one of the most memorable video game experiences I have ever had. It is at once accessible and impenetrable, frustrating and euphoric. Like each of my dozens of permutations of the Mount Holly manor house itself, it is truly one of a kind,” Steve Watts wrote in our Blue Prince review.
Promise Mascot Agency
Nominations received: 0
What it should have been nominated for: Best Independent Game
Promise Mascot Agency is a major departure from developer Kaizen Game Works’ Paradise Killer, blending together the unexpected combination of open-world collectathon and management sim. This is done within the context of a surprisingly wholesome story about an ex-yakuza member taking on the management of an agency that facilitates work for living mascots, including a walking piece of tofu who is continually crying. Excellent voice work from its cast, led by Kazuma Kiryu actor Takaya Kuroda, helps to elevate the experience into something every bit as memorable as the premise and eccentricities suggest.
Skin Deep
Nominations received: 0
What it should have been nominated for: Best Game Direction, Best Score and Music, Best Independent Game, Best Action Adventure Game
Some of the year’s best comedy in a game gets blended with top-notch immersive-sim action, and there are cats. This latest game from the developers of the brilliant Quadrilateral Cowboy flexes both your mindgrapes and your smile lines, as you seek to deal with increasingly complex scenarios in which pirates raid spaceships you’re tasked with protecting. Did we mention there are cats?
“Skin Deep doesn’t reimagine immersive sims, but it takes the level design principles that players have enjoyed for decades and recontextualizes them for its brightly lit, goofier-than-usual world,” Mark Delaney wrote in our Skin Deep review. “Sometimes, preferred routes to success can become too reliable and make very differently shaped spaceships the settings for some familiar outcomes, but much more often, it’s a game of clever actions and surprising reactions. It checks all the boxes of a great immersive sim, where each level is a puzzle box and you hold any number of figurative keys to unlocking it. And, yes, you can flush the toilets.”
Wheel World
Nominations received: 0
What it should have been nominated for: Best Sports/Racing Game
Wheel World combines open-world elements and a lighthearted narrative with some of the year’s most enjoyable track-based racing to make something that feels distinct. That’s due in part to its cozy nature and wholesome world, which keep you wanting to stick around for more reasons than just improving the stats of your supernatural bike.
Spooky Express
Nominations received: 0
What it should have been nominated for: Best Mobile Game
Although not exclusively available on mobile, Spooky Express is the ideal game to play on a phone or tablet: digestible in short bursts, well-suited to touchscreen controls, and engaging on the merits of its gameplay, not because of any kind of insidious monetization hooks. Its puzzles are consistently challenging but fun, leading to a series of “eureka!” moments that fuel the best puzzle games.
Split Fiction
Nominations received: 4, Best Game Direction, Best Action Adventure Game, Best Family Game, Best Multiplayer Game
What it should have been nominated for: Game of the Year
With Split Fiction, Hazelight Studios proved that it just keeps getting better and better. You can clearly see where the studio learned some great lessons from its previous game, It Takes Two, and expanded on those ideas to create one of the best multiplayer games around. Considering It Takes Two won Game of the Year back in 2021, it’s surprising not to see Split Fiction nominated in the same category, all things considered.
“Split Fiction could very well be the best cooperative game I’ve ever played. At the very least, I firmly believe it sets a new standard for the genre,” Jessica Cogswell wrote in our Split Fiction review. “And yet, it’s more than that. Split Fiction is a love letter to creativity–to stories, games, and the people who make them.”
Keeper
Nominations received: 0
What it should have been nominated for: Best Art Direction, Best Score and Music
Double Fine Productions is known for its bold, experimental titles, and Keeper is no exception. Though it’s difficult to assign a genre to this atmospheric experience, it’s clearly guided by a deep love of art, and the desire to push what video game visuals can look like to their absolute limits. Furthermore, Keeper boasts a phenomenal soundtrack, which ultimately elevates title to even greater heights.
“Keeper goes to places I never would have expected–both mechanically and, especially, visually,” Steve Watts wrote in our Keeper review. “Believe me when I say that there are visual moments in this game that are unlike anything I’ve ever seen in video games. I’m not even sure I could describe some of them. You just have to see them for yourself.”
