Look, not all video games could be nice. In truth, many of them aren’t good, and a few even fail to be merely okay. When you’re in search of all issues good and nice, then take a look at our record of the best-reviewed video games of 2025. However this place, sadly, is just not the place they reside. No, that is the place I’ve the job of reminding you of all of the worst video games we performed this 12 months. The ones that didn’t fairly reside as much as expectations and obtained a rating of 5 or beneath from IGN reviewers. Possibly you probably did get pleasure from some of these, and to that I say, all the facility to you. Tell us within the feedback which video games featured on this record you probably did really love enjoying. However earlier than you scroll all the best way down there, let’s discuss IGN’s worst-reviewed video games of 2025.
5 – Mediocre
What higher approach to kick this off than with a welcome tour? A Nintendo Change 2 Welcome Tour, to be precise. A set of minigames and digital museum shows designed to provide you a greater concept of the tech powering your new Nintendo console, this one simply ended up committing a felony cardinal sin by Nintendo requirements — it simply wasn’t enjoyable. Our overview described this “interactive brochure” as “a muddled assortment of quaint tech demos and boring factoids”. Not precisely one of the simplest ways to get everybody excited a couple of new technology of {hardware}, was it? And it didn’t even come packaged with the console. A standalone buy isn’t precisely one of the simplest ways to ship your new spin on a digital handbook.
No less than the tech being proven off in Welcome Tour could be very spectacular, although, which sadly couldn’t be stated for Kaiserpunk. A city-builder that, sadly, suffered from important efficiency points at launch, starting from “large, save-killing bugs” to an interface that lacks “pretty primary performance”, it supplied unsolid foundations to construct any metropolis on. If a fully-built sci-fi metropolis is extra your vibe, then possibly you may be tempted by Metal Seed, an action-platform dripping in neon. However once we let you know that it’s really a “stealth motion sport cursed by mediocrity”, then possibly you’ll be much less . Therefore, the 5 out of ten score, which stands for “mediocre” right here at IGN. Alongside these traces, if “30 mediocre hours of dodge rolling and sword swinging” sounds interesting, then possibly you need to take a look at AI Restrict. A “soulslike with none soul”, this one simply lacked the kind of creativity you’d hope for in what’s develop into a reasonably played-out style today.
Talking of souls, Misplaced Soul Apart was a hotly anticipated PlayStation console unique this summer time, which sadly didn’t fairly reside as much as the hype. Whereas it did come filled with some thrilling fight, sadly, “repetitive story, spinoff characters, and bland stage design” couldn’t help it. One other sport that fell foul of repetition was Full Steel Schoolgirl, which you’ll not immediately see as a unfavourable when contemplating it is an motion roguelike — a style grounded in making an attempt the identical aims over and over — however whenever you hear that after “a pair runs, you have just about seen all of it”, that isn’t best.
Feeling like we’d just about seen all of it earlier than is strictly why we gave the Battlefield 6 marketing campaign a rating of 5, too. As our shockingly good-looking reviewer stated, the single-player providing is a “secure, boring reimagining of what Battlefield as soon as was, relatively than a daring reinvention of what it might be”, and I, for one, agree with him. It’s a brief string of missions that doesn’t embrace the chaos naturally created in Battlefield 6’s multiplayer, as a substitute feeling like a relic of a bygone age of FPSs. We additionally gave this 12 months’s Name of Responsibility Black Ops 7 marketing campaign a less-than-shiny rating, too, however it narrowly misses out on making this record on account of us giving it a 6, as a result of it not less than tries to do one thing new, even when it isn’t very profitable.
Now we head into the remaster, reboot, and reimagining part of proceedings. Yooka-Replayee aimed to carry the 2017 unique into the trendy day with some tweaks, however whereas enhancements have been made, we have been of the opinion that “none of its adjustments do sufficient to carry it near the 3D platforming requirements of right now”. Double Dragon Revive tried to breathe new life into the basic side-scrolling beat ‘em up, however ended up feeling “much less a miraculous resurrection and extra like exhuming a shambling corpse”. Comparable issues might be stated for Painkiller, a reboot of Folks Can Fly’s 2004 cult-favourite, which once more fell quick, as a substitute enjoying like a “mediocre resurrection of a basic making an attempt to place a brand new cowl on an previous e-book and hoping it nonetheless has some relevance 21 years later”. Shadow Labyrinth did not less than try to take one thing extremely previous and do one thing new with it. Sadly, this gritty, Metroidvania reinvention of Pac-Man was deemed to be “largely boring,” with crimes starting from “annoying checkpointing to the one-note fight”.
There isn’t a scarcity of checkpoints in racing video games. Sorry, that’s the perfect segue I’ve for this one. Mission Motor Racing is the newest sport we now have on our record to attain a 5 or beneath, because it didn’t excite our reviewer, who stated that “there are definitely glimpses of a reliable racing sim right here, however it’s drastically unfinished”. On the opposite finish of the racing spectrum was Wreckreation, not in phrases of high quality, because it additionally obtained a 5, however in its very “arcadey” method to motion of 4 wheels. Disappointingly, it simply didn’t attain the heights of the likes of its Burnout inspiration. As an alternative, “overflowing with ambition however finally plain and with no fashion to name its personal, Wreckreation appears like a grocery store model homage to a collection of higher arcade racers.”
Let’s head into fantasy nook now and try these sword-swinging video games that simply weren’t fairly sharp sufficient this 12 months. Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade was yet one more motion roguelite to come back out in 2025, however one which didn’t depart a lot of an impression, because of “repetitive ranges and a flimsy story”. Blades of Hearth took an fascinating method to third-person motion by putting an emphasis on creating your individual bespoke swords by means of an concerned blacksmithing course of, which was admittedly fairly good, however its “overly simplistic fight and a mediocre story imply it doesn’t forge a pointy sufficient edge to place its customizable weapons to good use”. And, lastly, rounding out our record of video games that obtained a overview rating of 5 from IGN this 12 months, is Sport of Thrones: Kingsroad. A microtransaction-riddled interpretation of George R.R. Martin’s world, during which the recreation of HBO’s visible fashion is admittedly impressively carried out, it’s sadly hampered “by an excessively grindy, pay-to-win reside service mannequin, and each its fight and homestead administration are too tedious to maintain issues fascinating on their very own”.
4 – Dangerous
Heading into the video games that bought a 4, which represents “unhealthy” on the IGN overview scale, let’s stick to one other beloved piece of fantasy literature that struggles to supply good online game diversifications. Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Sport was an try to “cosify” Tolkien’s world and requested the age-old query, “What if Animal Crossing, however Hobbits?”. The reply, sadly, was a powerful “no”, as we described it as “a promising concept that turned out dreadfully boring and very buggy”.
Arguably, no different sport arrived with as heavy a thud as MindsEye did in 2025. The brainchild of former GTA dev, Leslie Benzies, this throwback third-person action-adventure was not solely extremely boring, however borderline damaged. Certain, it seemed like a blockbuster when seen from a really particular, slender angle, however on the entire, it didn’t reside as much as any expectations that will have been held for it. “MindsEye’s flashy graphics and cinematics can’t disguise its critical lack of substance and main efficiency issues”, says our overview, and that tells you all it’s good to know.
To spherical issues off, we now have a handful of early entry video games that we gave a rating of 4 to this 12 months. These embrace Hyper Gentle Breaker, which we described as a “roguelite that presently feels hyper mild on content material and the mistaken type of damaged”, and La Quimera, an “FPS model of a direct-to-video film, with dialogue that’s each poorly written and badly acted, middling fight, and an unfinished marketing campaign”. Then there was EA’s reboot of Skate, which we referred to as a “trustworthy facsimile of the unbelievable really feel of the previous video games, however its cellular game-style development, dud dialogue, and cutesy artwork fashion make its early entry debut drastically inferior to the originals in all different methods”. Sadly for Hyper Gentle Breaker, comparable responses from each different critics and gamers finally led to developer Coronary heart Machine bringing improvement to a detailed. As for the opposite two, they continue to be growing tasks, so let’s hope that these video games repair their respective points and have a greater time in 2026 within the run-up to their full launches.
And that’s it, all of the video games that we at IGN scored a 5 or 4 out of ten this 12 months. Imagine it or not, nothing really scored decrease, so I’m glad to say there aren’t any twos or threes to report this 12 months. Did you really love any of the video games listed right here? Tell us within the feedback. For extra, take a look at the best-reviewed video games of 2025, and our sport of the 12 months awards.
Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can primarily be discovered skulking round open world video games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing on the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Comply with him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.