The biggest games might all be 3D nowadays, but games in which the screen scrolls from side to side – like it did exclusively once upon a time – have never gone away. And if you like your gaming two-dimensional, 2025 has been an exceptional year.
From traditional action-heavy platformers to mind-bogglingly ambitious Metroidvanias, some of my very favourite gaming experiences this year have been with 2D games. So, it’s about time I gushed about some of them.
Hollow Knight: Silksong
For a long time it felt like Hollow Knight: Silksong was destined to remain a meme forever, but the feverishly anticipated sequel to one of the most beloved indie games finally arrived this year – and it’s incredible.
Once again, you play as a bug tasked with exploring an enormous interconnected world full of mystery, traps, and lots of other bugs of all varieties – most of which want to kill you.
The land of Pharloom is larger and even more intricate than Hollow Knight’s Hallownest setting, and Silksong is frequently comically difficult. But the acrobatic Hornet’s thrilling moveset means that, with patience and practice you will eventually overcome the game’s many challenges.
Not everyone will appreciate Silksong’s more punishing design choices, and I’ll admit that the devilishly long runback sequences to boss fights push me to the edge at times, but Team Cherry’s stunning 2D worlds are so ornately designed and brimming with atmosphere that I keep coming back.
Shinobi: Art of Vengenace
Paris-based Lizardcube has proved itself to be something of a master at reinvigorating retro game series for a modern audience, as anyone who played 2020’s Streets of Rage 4 or its remake of the Sega Master System classic, Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap, will know.
This year it turned its attention to Sega’s Shinobi series, with what might just be the studio’s finest work to date. Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is, much like its name-sharing predecessors, a 2D action platformer in which you play as a ninja on a fairly run-of-the-mill quest for vengeance.
Story is not the draw here, but everything else is. Joe Musashi is something of a one-man-army, able to combine his katana-based close combat skills with magic abilities and throwable weapons. He’s also able to clear an entire screen’s worth of enemies with one special execution move, which remains just as awesome to behold throughout.
The eye-meltingly gorgeous hand-drawn visuals elevate the experience even further, and while some needlessly frustrating platforming bits hold the game back a bit later on, Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is another smash hit from Lizardcube.
Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound
If you’re a fan of retro-flavoured side-scrolling ninja-based action games, 2025 has seen you eating real good. As well as the reawakening of Sega’s Shinobi series [above], we also got a brand new 2D Ninja Gaiden game.
Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound is a supremely slick modern take on the classic NES-era entries in Koei Tecmo’s long-running series. It manages to honour the uncomplicated arcade thrills of those early games, while ironing out the rougher edges and adding some extra mechanical depth.
Ragebound is an old-school treat for the eyes and ears, with its fantastic pixel art visuals and soundtrack full of bangers. There’s just enough depth to the gameplay to keep it from going stale, especially once you get to swap between the two playable characters and their different abilities on the fly. But I also like the freedom of not having to memorise endless combos.
In the spirit of its forebears, Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound is hard as hell, but unlike in the ‘90s, you now have accessibility options that let you dial down the difficulty if a particular boss is humbling you on repeat. I won’t tell you if I made use of them.
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