Look, not all video games will be nice. Actually, a lot of them should not good, and a few even fail to be merely okay. In case you’re on the lookout for all issues good and nice, then take a look at our checklist 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 the entire worst video games we performed this yr. Those that didn’t fairly reside as much as expectations and acquired a rating of 5 or beneath from IGN reviewers. Perhaps you probably did take pleasure in a few of these, and to that I say, all the facility to you. Tell us within the feedback which video games featured on this checklist you probably did really love taking part in. However earlier than you scroll all the best way down there, let’s speak about IGN’s worst-reviewed video games of 2025.
5 – Mediocre
What higher solution to kick this off than with a welcome tour? A Nintendo Swap 2 Welcome Tour, to be actual. A set of minigames and digital museum shows designed to provide you a greater thought of the tech powering your new Nintendo console, this one simply ended up committing a prison cardinal sin by Nintendo requirements — it simply wasn’t enjoyable. Our evaluate described this “interactive brochure” as “a muddled assortment of quaint tech demos and boring factoids”. Not precisely the easiest way to get everybody excited a few new era of {hardware}, was it? And it didn’t even come packaged with the console. A standalone buy isn’t precisely the easiest way to ship your new spin on a digital guide.
At the least the tech being proven off in Welcome Tour may be very spectacular, although, which sadly couldn’t be stated for Kaiserpunk. A city-builder that, sadly, suffered from vital efficiency points at launch, starting from “enormous, 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 can be tempted by Metal Seed, an action-platform dripping in neon. However after 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 ranking, 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 turn out to be a reasonably played-out style as of late.
Talking of souls, Misplaced Soul Apart was a hotly anticipated PlayStation console unique this summer season, which sadly didn’t fairly reside as much as the hype. Whereas it did come full of 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 Metallic 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 targets again and again — however whenever you hear that after “a pair runs, you have just about seen all of it”, that isn’t very 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, uninteresting reimagining of what Battlefield as soon as was, slightly 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 an alternative feeling like a relic of a bygone age of FPSs. We additionally gave this yr’s Name of Obligation Black Ops 7 marketing campaign a less-than-shiny rating, too, however it narrowly misses out on making this checklist attributable to us giving it a 6, as a result of it at the least 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 convey the 2017 authentic into the fashionable day with some tweaks, however whereas enhancements had been made, we had been of the opinion that “none of its adjustments do sufficient to convey it near the 3D platforming requirements of right this moment”. Double Dragon Revive tried to breathe new life into the traditional side-scrolling beat ‘em up, however ended up feeling “much less a miraculous resurrection and extra like exhuming a shambling corpse”. Related issues might be stated for Painkiller, a reboot of Individuals Can Fly’s 2004 cult-favourite, which once more fell quick, as an alternative taking part in like a “mediocre resurrection of a traditional 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 at the least 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 uninteresting,” with crimes starting from “annoying checkpointing to the one-note fight”.
There isn’t any scarcity of checkpoints in racing video games. Sorry, that’s the most effective segue I’ve for this one. Mission Motor Racing is the newest sport we’ve on our checklist 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 when it comes to high quality, because it additionally acquired 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 a substitute, “overflowing with ambition however finally plain and with no model to name its personal, Wreckreation looks 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 yr. Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade was yet one more motion roguelite to return out in 2025, however one which didn’t go away a lot of an impression, due to “repetitive ranges and a flimsy story”. Blades of Fireplace took an attention-grabbing method to third-person motion by inserting an emphasis on creating your personal bespoke swords by way 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 checklist of video games that acquired a evaluate rating of 5 from IGN this yr, is Sport of Thrones: Kingsroad. A microtransaction-riddled interpretation of George R.R. Martin’s world, by which the recreation of HBO’s visible model is admittedly impressively performed, it’s sadly hampered “by a very grindy, pay-to-win reside service mannequin, and each its fight and homestead administration are too tedious to maintain issues attention-grabbing on their very own”.
4 – Unhealthy
Heading into the video games that received a 4, which represents “unhealthy” on the IGN evaluate scale, let’s stick to one other beloved piece of fantasy literature that struggles to provide 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 intensely 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 uninteresting, however borderline damaged. Certain, it seemed like a blockbuster when considered 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 evaluate, and that tells you all it is advisable know.
To spherical issues off, we’ve a handful of early entry video games that we gave a rating of 4 to this yr. These embody Hyper Mild Breaker, which we described as a “roguelite that presently feels hyper mild on content material and the incorrect sort 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 known as a “devoted facsimile of the unbelievable really feel of the previous video games, however its cell game-style development, dud dialogue, and cutesy artwork model make its early entry debut drastically inferior to the originals in all different methods”. Sadly for Hyper Mild Breaker, comparable responses from each different critics and gamers ultimately led to developer Coronary heart Machine bringing growth to an in depth. As for the opposite two, they continue to be creating 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, the entire video games that we at IGN scored a 5 or 4 out of ten this yr. Consider it or not, nothing really scored decrease, so I’m glad to say there aren’t any twos or threes to report this yr. 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 yr 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. Observe him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.
