5 Most Disappointing Video Video games Of 2025

On the entire, 2025 was a terrific 12 months for video video games. The darkish fantasy RPG “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33” made a giant splash and there have been a number of underrated video games that did not get sufficient consideration. Nevertheless, there have been additionally some hyped-up video games that did not reside as much as the thrill when gamers lastly obtained their palms on them. These vary from long-awaited installments in fan-favorite franchises to sequels and compilations that did not do previous entries justice.

To be clear, not one of the titles listed below are among the many worst video games of 2025. Fairly, these are video games that launched with a certain quantity of anticipation and ended up disappointing gamers for one cause or one other. In strolling away from taking part in these video games, we weren’t offended, we had been simply unhappy, as a result of we needed a lot extra from them. Listed below are the 5 most disappointing video video games of 2025 that simply did not reside as much as fan expectations.

“Name of Obligation” has grow to be a yearly success for Activision, however the franchise is in a decent spot following the discharge of “Name of Obligation: Black Ops 7” in 2025. Eschewing the interval piece setting of its predecessor, “Black Ops 7” jumps forward in time to 2035, veering into gentle science fiction. Along with its futuristic single-player marketing campaign, the sport additionally revamps the franchise’s multiplayer expertise, with the builders opting to retool the mechanics to supply some contemporary twists on acquainted modes.

“Black Ops 7” feels prefer it may very well be the dying of the “Black Ops” sub-series for the foreseeable future. The sport includes a totally convoluted single-player marketing campaign and a futuristic setting that nobody actually needed, particularly after the partaking ’90s setting of “Black Ops 6.” Equally, the multiplayer expertise hasn’t been fascinating followers, with the sport reportedly dropping a lot of its lively person base in a matter of weeks. If “Name of Obligation” goes to remain on high of the first-person shooter pile, it should must study some arduous classes from the response to “Black Ops 7.”

It had been over 25 years since “Deadly Fury” followers noticed a brand new entry within the combating sport collection, with the final installment being 1999’s “Garou: Mark of the Wolves.” Within the interim, its characters had been relegated to visitor appearances in different video games — for instance, Terry Bogard debuted in “Tremendous Smash Bros. Final.” That each one modified with the announcement of SNK’s “Deadly Fury: Metropolis of the Wolves,” the long-awaited sequel to “Mark of the Wolves.” The follow-up was a disappointment not due to the gameplay, however due to some weird character inclusions, with one particularly inflicting controversy.

Among the many visitor characters becoming a member of the fray for this entry was real-life soccer participant Cristiano Ronaldo, which was met with numerous head-scratching. Ronaldo has hyperlinks to the Saudi Arabian royal household (he performs for Saudi membership Al-Nassr), which owns nearly all of SNK by way of the MiSK Basis, created by Saudi crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman. Each the studio’s hyperlinks to Saudi Arabia (which has been accused of violating human rights) and Ronaldo’s personal controversial historical past proved divisive throughout the gaming neighborhood and seemingly impacted gross sales, which led to SNK CEO Kenji Matsubara stepping down from his management function.

The historical past of “Mortal Kombat” was set to be celebrated with the compilation title “Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection,” gathering the franchise’s ’90s and early 2000s video games. “Legacy Kollection” additionally comprises quite a few house and handheld console ports of the video games. This consists of the obscure Sega 32X port of “Mortal Kombat II,” “Mortal Kombat Advance” for the Sport Boy Advance, and the WaveNet arcade model of “Final Mortal Kombat 3,” which has lengthy been thought of to be “the holy grail of MK misplaced media,” NetherRealm’s lead QA analyst Stephanie Brownback mentioned on BlueSky. The compilation additionally consists of the single-player, story-driven video games within the franchise, “Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero” and “Mortal Kombat: Particular Forces.”

“Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection” works higher as a chunk of interactive historical past than an entertaining revisit of the franchise’s early days. That is underscored by a powerful documentary chronicling the beautiful transformation of “Mortal Kombat,” together with developer interviews and behind-the-scenes footage and artwork. What’s far much less spectacular is the title’s lackluster on-line options and performance. Enter lag makes the controls irritating, after which there’s an unforgiving CPU opponent. In case you’re trying to dive into the untold reality of the “Mortal Kombat” franchise, “Legacy Kollection” has you lined, however the historical past lesson is best than the gameplay expertise.

One other eagerly anticipated sequel launched in 2025, “Mario Kart World” launched on the Nintendo Swap 2 in June. It is probably the most bold entry within the franchise thus far, introducing an open-world strategy with off-road capabilities as an alternative of maintaining gameplay confined to track-based racing. The sport additionally affords extra strong on-line performance, together with races with as much as 24 members, considerably growing the gameplay’s breadth. Regardless of these options, nevertheless, “Mario Kart World” was a letdown.

A part of the problem was that the value of Nintendo Swap 2 video games killed the hype, with “Mario Kart World” beginning at $80 on Nintendo’s digital storefront. However that wasn’t the one disappointing factor concerning the sport. The web modes had been roundly criticized as gamers started making an attempt them out, as was the free roam mode. Publish-launch updates solely appeared to exacerbate the problem: The sport was review-bombed by customers in response to the modifications made in patches, deflating enjoyment of Nintendo’s most-hyped 2025 sport.

Nintendo has a powerful historical past of placing its finest foot ahead with its console pack-in titles and software program showcasing what its new platforms are able to. The Wii launched with “Wii Sports activities” and the Wii U launched with “Nintendo Land,” each of which highlighted the {hardware}’s artistic strengths. The Nintendo Swap 2 has its personal {hardware} showcase launch title with “Nintendo Swap 2 Welcome Tour,” designed to information customers by way of the brand new console’s options. A single-player expertise, in distinction to the Wii and Wii U’s titles, “Welcome Tour” has gamers reply trivia questions, take part in minigames, and think about exhibitions demonstrating the tech in motion.

If this all feels like an interactive demo somewhat than a enjoyable expertise, it is as a result of that is actually all “Nintendo Swap 2 Welcome Tour” quantities to. The sport principally exists to hype up the console’s peripheral {hardware} and may solely be accomplished if customers have a few of these peripherals interfaced with their Swap 2. To make issues worse, not solely is “Welcome Tour” not bundled with the console it is selling, however the digital-only title really warrants an extra buy. Which means customers are paying for an prolonged, interactive industrial for a console that they’ve already purchased with out a lot enjoyment to indicate for it.