There are so many indie games released every year that keeping tabs on them all is nearly impossible, and as we’ve just passed the halfway point in 2025, now is a good time to take stock and look back on all the great stuff we’ve been able to play so far.
From hard-as-nails platformers and GBA era-inspired throwbacks, to a football game that makes FIFA look bland, here are three of our indie picks from the year as it's unfolded so far.
Bionic Bay
Fans of Limbo, Inside and Super Meat Boy should definitely circle back and check out Bionic Bay on PC or PS5.
It's a 2D precision platformer in which you play as a silent scientist who has to escape a mysterious (seriously, the game tells you almost nothing) biomechanical world. This is done by quite literally launching yourself around levels full of insta-death hazards – hence some carefully timed jumps.
Bionic Bay is a physics-based platformer but one that's happy to defy science in favour of fun. You get a range of different abilities throughout the eight(ish)-hour campaign, but the game’s big party trick is a swap mechanic that lets our hapless hero swap places with items he’s first tapped with a special tool.
This leads to some really clever puzzle scenarios, and while Bionic Bay is comically difficult at times, an extremely generous checkpoint system means you’ll rarely feel frustrated by your many (many) deaths.
Despelote
A football game like no other, Despolete is a stunningly realised slice-of-life adventure about the hazy memories of an eight-year-old boy (now an adult) named Julián.
The game is set in a neighbourhood in the city of Quito in Ecuador where he grew up, specifically during the qualification campaign for the 2002 World Cup in which the South American country made its long-awaited debut. Naturally, everyone you meet in the game is obsessed with the country’s sporting endeavours, none more so than the football-mad Julián.
Despolete is played from a first-person perspective, and for most of the game’s short runtime you’ll be doing the kind of unextraordinary things a child gets up to: going to school, running away from older kids, ignoring your parents’ curfews and generally causing mischief. You’ll also get to kick a lot of footballs, with the game’s endearingly wonky physics only adding to the charm.
It's easily one of the best games we’ve ever played about being a child, and available across a vast number of gaming systems – so there's no excuse for missing out.
Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo
The memorably named Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo definitely came out in 2025, but if you didn’t know any better you’d probably guess it was a cult classic from the Game Boy Advance era.
Certainly, if you have fond memories of playing games like The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap on Nintendo’s iconic portable, you owe it to yourself to give this one a try.
It’s an equally colourful, top-down adventure game in which you play as a little bat named Pippit, who also happens to be an under-appreciated yoyo master.
After some nefarious types steal from the wealthy family’s energy business, Pippit has to play the hero and his (now cursed) treasured toy becomes both a weapon and a traversal tool.
Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo has everything you want from a throwback Zelda-like: fun overworld exploration, smartly crafted dungeons, excellent music, and simple but engaging combat, resulting in one of the best games the GBA never had.
It too is available across all platforms: Switch, PlayStation, Xbox and PC,
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.