The Worst Reviewed Games of 2025

Look, not each games tin beryllium great. In fact, galore of them are not good, and immoderate adjacent neglect to beryllium simply okay. If you’re looking for each things bully and great, past cheque retired our database of the best-reviewed games of 2025. But this place, sadly, is not wherever they live. No, this is wherever I person the occupation of reminding you of each of the worst games we played this year. The ones that didn’t rather unrecorded up to expectations and received a people of 5 oregon beneath from IGN reviewers. Maybe you did bask immoderate of these, and to that I say, each the powerfulness to you. Let america cognize successful the comments which games featured connected this database you did really emotion playing. But earlier you scroll each the mode down there, let’s speech astir IGN’s worst-reviewed games of 2025.

5 - Mediocre

What amended mode to footwear this disconnected than with a invited tour? A Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, to beryllium exact. A postulation of minigames and integer depository displays designed to springiness you a amended thought of the tech powering your caller Nintendo console, this 1 conscionable ended up committing a transgression cardinal misdeed by Nintendo standards — it conscionable wasn’t fun. Our reappraisal described this “interactive brochure” arsenic “a muddled postulation of quaint tech demos and boring factoids”. Not precisely the champion mode to get everyone excited astir a caller procreation of hardware, was it? And it didn’t adjacent travel packaged with the console. A standalone acquisition isn’t precisely the champion mode to present your caller rotation connected a integer manual.

At slightest the tech being shown disconnected successful Welcome Tour is precise impressive, though, which sadly couldn’t beryllium said for Kaiserpunk. A city-builder that, unfortunately, suffered from important show issues astatine launch, ranging from “huge, save-killing bugs” to an interface that lacks “fairly basal functionality”, it provided unsolid foundations to physique immoderate metropolis on. If a fully-built sci-fi metropolis is much your vibe, past possibly you could beryllium tempted by Steel Seed, an action-platform dripping successful neon. But erstwhile we archer you that it’s really a “stealth enactment crippled cursed by mediocrity”, past possibly you’ll beryllium little interested. Hence, the 5 retired of 10 rating, which stands for “mediocre” present astatine IGN. Along those lines, if “30 mediocre hours of dodge rolling and sword swinging” sounds appealing, past possibly you privation to cheque retired AI Limit. A “soulslike without immoderate soul”, this 1 conscionable lacked the benignant of creativity you’d anticipation for successful what’s go a reasonably played-out genre these days.

Speaking of souls, Lost Soul Aside was a hotly anticipated PlayStation console exclusive this summer, which sadly didn’t rather unrecorded up to the hype. While it did travel packed with immoderate breathtaking combat, unfortunately, “repetitive story, derivative characters, and bland level design” couldn’t enactment it. Another crippled that fell foul of repetition was Full Metal Schoolgirl, which you whitethorn not instantly spot arsenic a antagonistic erstwhile considering it's an enactment roguelike — a genre grounded successful attempting the aforesaid objectives implicit and implicit again — but erstwhile you perceive that aft “a mates runs, you've beauteous overmuch seen it all”, that isn’t ideal.

Feeling similar we’d beauteous overmuch seen it each earlier is precisely wherefore we gave the Battlefield 6 campaign a people of five, too. As our shockingly handsome reviewer said, the single-player offering is simply a “safe, dull reimagining of what Battlefield erstwhile was, alternatively than a bold reinvention of what it could be”, and I, for one, hold with him. It’s a abbreviated drawstring of missions that doesn’t clasp the chaos people created successful Battlefield 6’s multiplayer, alternatively feeling similar a relic of a bygone property of FPSs. We besides gave this year’s Call of Duty Black Ops 7 run a less-than-shiny score, too, but it narrowly misses retired connected making this database owed to america giving it a 6, due to the fact that it astatine slightest tries to bash thing new, adjacent if it isn’t precise successful.

Now we caput into the remaster, reboot, and reimagining conception of proceedings. Yooka-Replayee aimed to bring the 2017 archetypal into the modern time with immoderate tweaks, but portion improvements were made, we were of the sentiment that “none of its changes bash capable to bring it adjacent to the 3D platforming standards of today”. Double Dragon Revive attempted to respire caller beingness into the classical side-scrolling bushed ‘em up, but ended up feeling “less a miraculous resurrection and much similar exhuming a shambling corpse”. Similar things could beryllium said for Painkiller, a reboot of People Can Fly’s 2004 cult-favourite, which again fell short, alternatively playing similar a “mediocre resurrection of a classical trying to enactment a caller screen connected an aged publication and hoping it inactive has immoderate relevance 21 years later”. Shadow Labyrinth did astatine slightest effort to instrumentality thing incredibly aged and bash thing caller with it. Unfortunately, this gritty, Metroidvania reinvention of Pac-Man was deemed to beryllium “largely dull,” with crimes ranging from “annoying checkpointing to the one-note combat”.

There is nary shortage of checkpoints successful racing games. Sorry, that’s the champion segue I person for this one. Project Motor Racing is the astir caller crippled we person connected our database to people a 5 oregon below, arsenic it failed to excite our reviewer, who said that “there are surely glimpses of a competent racing sim here, but it is drastically unfinished”. On the different extremity of the racing spectrum was Wreckreation, not successful presumption of quality, arsenic it besides received a five, but successful its precise “arcadey” attack to enactment of 4 wheels. Disappointingly, it conscionable didn’t scope the heights of the likes of its Burnout inspiration. Instead, “overflowing with ambition but yet plain and with nary benignant to telephone its own, Wreckreation feels similar a supermarket marque homage to a bid of amended arcade racers.”

Let’s caput into phantasy country present and instrumentality a look astatine those sword-swinging games that conscionable weren’t rather crisp capable this year. Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade was yet different enactment roguelite to travel retired successful 2025, but 1 that didn’t permission overmuch of an impression, acknowledgment to “repetitive levels and a flimsy story”. Blades of Fire took an absorbing attack to third-person enactment by placing an accent connected creating your ain bespoke swords done an progressive blacksmithing process, which was admittedly rather good, but its “overly simplistic combat and a mediocre communicative mean it doesn’t forge a crisp capable borderline to enactment its customizable weapons to bully use”. And, finally, rounding retired our database of games that received a reappraisal people of 5 from IGN this year, is Game of Thrones: Kingsroad. A microtransaction-riddled mentation of George R.R. Martin’s world, successful which the recreation of HBO’s ocular benignant is admittedly impressively done, it’s unluckily hampered “by an overly grindy, pay-to-win unrecorded work model, and some its combat and homestead absorption are excessively tedious to support things absorbing connected their own”.

4 - Bad

Heading into the games that got a four, which represents “bad” connected the IGN reappraisal scale, let’s instrumentality with different beloved portion of phantasy lit that struggles to nutrient bully video crippled adaptations. Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game was an effort to “cosify” Tolkien’s satellite and asked the age-old question, “What if Animal Crossing, but Hobbits?”. The answer, sadly, was a resounding “no”, arsenic we described it arsenic “a promising thought that turned retired dreadfully boring and highly buggy”.

Arguably, nary different crippled arrived with arsenic dense a thud arsenic MindsEye did successful 2025. The brainchild of erstwhile GTA dev, Leslie Benzies, this throwback third-person action-adventure was not lone incredibly dull, but borderline broken. Sure, it looked similar a blockbuster erstwhile viewed from a precise specific, constrictive angle, but connected the whole, it failed to unrecorded up to immoderate expectations that whitethorn person been held for it. “MindsEye’s flashy graphics and cinematics can’t fell its superior deficiency of substance and large show problems”, says our review, and that tells you each you request to know.

To circular things off, we person a fistful of aboriginal entree games that we gave a people of 4 to this year. These see Hyper Light Breaker, which we described arsenic a “roguelite that presently feels hyper airy connected contented and the incorrect benignant of broken”, and La Quimera, an “FPS mentation of a direct-to-video movie, with dialog that is some poorly written and severely acted, middling combat, and an unfinished campaign”. Then determination was EA’s reboot of Skate, which we called a “faithful facsimile of the unthinkable consciousness of the aged games, but its mobile game-style progression, dud dialogue, and cutesy creation benignant marque its aboriginal entree debut drastically inferior to the originals successful each different ways”. Unfortunately for Hyper Light Breaker, akin responses from some different critics and players yet led to developer Heart Machine bringing improvement to a close. As for the different two, they stay processing projects, truthful let’s anticipation that these games hole their respective issues and person a amended clip successful 2026 successful the run-up to their afloat launches.

And that’s it, each of the games that we astatine IGN scored a 5 oregon 4 retired of 10 this year. Believe it oregon not, thing really scored lower, truthful I’m gladsome to accidental determination are nary twos oregon threes to study this year. Did you really emotion immoderate of the games listed here? Let america cognize successful the comments. For more, cheque retired the best-reviewed games of 2025, and our crippled of the twelvemonth awards.

Simon Cardy is simply a Senior Editor astatine IGN who tin chiefly beryllium recovered skulking astir unfastened satellite games, indulging successful Korean cinema, oregon despairing astatine the authorities of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him connected Bluesky astatine @cardy.bsky.social.