Games Inbox: What has been the best game at Gamescom 2025?

The Friday letters page is upset there weren’t more Sony PS5 games at Gamescom, as one reader is very excited by Kirby Air Riders.

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Missing in action
Some interesting games and coverage from Gamescom but there’s some stuff I was hoping to hear about that doesn’t seem to be anywhere else yet, particularly 007 First Light. Did you not see it, was it not there?

The other thing I’m really looking forward to is Wukong sequel Black Myth: Zhong Kui, but I haven’t seen or heard anything more about that either. I guess that was the best game there, for me, but I’d like to have heard more.

I know Opening Night Live and Gamescom itself are two separate things, but it seems like there was less connection between the two than usual this year. Although I guess the fact that there’s more I’m impatient to see shows that it must’ve been good overall.
Benson

GC: Some of the games we saw were embargoed until next month, which is unusual for Gamescom. You could speculate it’s because of an upcoming State of Play, but while the embargoes are close together they’re not all on the same day. Black Myth: Zhong Kui wasn’t there at all though.

Outside hype
I will counter your preview of Silksong by saying that I’m a big fan of Hollow Knight and that I’m really looking forward to Silksong. However, I’m not surprised to find it’s similar to the original and am not disappointed either, as I always knew what it was.

I think the problem is that Team Cherry has taken so long to make it that people have got carried away, and it’s gained this sort of mythological status that they never asked for. Team Cherry are only a little team and they’ve done almost no hype for the game themselves – everything has come from fans and the press.

So I’m not disappointed, I’m just realistic and will be looking forward to another top notch Metroidvania meets Dark Souls when it finally comes out.
Tarragon

No show
I know they skipped out on it around the time they stopped going to E3, before Covid, but I really wish Sony had been at Gamescom or, more importantly for someone that didn’t go, they’d done something unexpected for Open Night Live. Every opportunity they get for a flex they just let it slip by and it’s really demoralising as a fan.

I know Ghost Of Yōtei was technically part of it, but I haven’t seen any previews or anything, so I assume it wasn’t playable. Not that I expect there’s anything particularly mind-blowing to learn, which is one of the problems. The only game we actually know about at the moment from them and it’s what looks like the same game again but with a different character.

At this point it’s going to take a lot more than that to get me excited about a new Sony exclusive.
Focus

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Apples vs. oranges
So, I’ve finally acquired Astro Bot. Yes, I haven’t played the highly-rated platformer yet but I just had to see what the fuss was about and I’ve finally started it. Hopefully it’s as spectacular as everyone says it is. It doesn’t seem the case for Hollow Knight: Silksong however. Owing to the preview posted by GC, I’m with the same opinion that Hollow Knight is decent, but it’s certainly no masterpiece.

I’ll even say that I’ve always been of the opinion that it seems a bit boring. It’s well crafted, but I don’t see it as a contender to Astro Bot or even Super Mario Odyssey. Silksong is heavily anticipated of course. It’s the GTA 6 of platformers. But is it too soon to say it could very well become a disappointment? Or not meet the astronomical expectations of the fans who are clamouring for it?

It’s never matching Astro Bot, but what do you say GC? Will Hollow Knight: Silksong measure up to what Team Asobi, achieved with Astro Bot?
Shahzaib Sadiq
PS: I will be playing Silksong. I’m just hopeful it’s an improvement. Only hope for the best.

GC: There are no similarities between Silksong and a 3D platformer, so there’s no comparison to make. We don’t dislike Hollow Knight or Silksong, we just find their level of notoriety a little puzzling.

Old techniques
This is a cool game. I have backed it on Kickstarter, it is a platform game that looks like Yoshi’s Island and Super Mario World and it is releasing on Switch 1 and 2 and Steam. It’s called Dono’s Tale and you play a tiny dragon If they get to the £30,000 stretch goal Soyo Oka, the composer of Super Mario Kart, Pilotwings, SimCity and VS. Excitebike is going to be a guest composer on the game for a Mode 7 style level in the game, like on the SNES.

I am old enough to know what Mode 7 is and they explain in the stretch goal what Mode 7 is, for those who don’t know, which makes me feel very old! They have only got four days to go and the game is fully funded already; it was launched on Kickstarter before and failed to meet the goal, so they have relaunched and this time they got fully funded in 72 hours.

With Kickstarter now you can do late pledges, so if you don’t back it in the next four days you can still back it when the time runs out this Sunday. It is only £12 for a digital copy, and you also get your name in the credits.

I like it when developers do that with the credits, as some Kickstarter campaigns expect you to pay a certain amount of money to get in the credits and sometimes that is a lot of money, but on this Kickstarter it isn’t, thankfully.
Andrew J.

Catnip for mouse fans
Very excited to hear about the fear regarding Resident Evil Requiem. Not sure I’ve got it in me, as the years fly past my ears to the extent that they positively flap now.

Speaking of flappy ears: Makeship are doing a limited run of Quill from Moss. I’ve just bagged one, not cheap but if you are a fan then this is catnip. I am in no way endorsed by this but wanted to give fellow Moss fans an opportunity. Keep up the good work GC and it was lovely to see D.Jenks back reporting.
D Dubya

Resident Pokémon
I would totally be up for a horror themed Pokémon game. I’m sure it will never happy but the games certain have plenty of monsters they could use for them. Including some with really bonkers descriptions.

Banette is basically Annabelle from The Conjuring movies but worse, Gengar is a dead Clefable, and Gourgeist sings a song about how much it loves murder while choking its victims. Oh, and Mimikyu is a Lovecraftian monster where you go mad if you ever see its true form.

I’m not making any of this up, Pokémon makes Silent Hill look tame, never mind Resident Evil.
Onibee

Impressed/not impressed
Just finished watching the in-depth Kirby Air Riders Direct and I thought it looked absolutely fantastic. There’s always something winsome and wholesome about watching Masahiro Sakurai expounding on his games’ modes and mechanics that I find captivating.

What really surprised me is just how multifaceted and feature rich the game is. With various game modes, an assortment of aesthetically alien and down-to-Earth vehicles with unique driving properties and copy abilities and moves distinct to each rider.

As for the track design, only a few examples were shown, but that water based one with the sea split in two, biblical style, looked incredibly imaginative and visually stunning.

The City Trial mode, especially, came closest to the more unconventional, adventure adjacent style of play that I wished for, in what is ostensibly a racing game.

You’re asked to drive around, swapping between vehicles, collect power-ups and upgrade your racing machines, battling other riders and participate in events like surviving giant spiky balls and dragon attacks, amongst other wacky looking alterations, culminating in a showdown at a mini-game stadium. It looks so wonderfully whimsical and bloody bonkers in the best way.

I think the game looks set to differentiate itself immensely from Mario Kart World, and in many ways I think it looks even more substantial than Nintendo’s flagship racer in terms of volume of content and the layered systems at play.

To say I was impressed with the Direct would be an understatement. The palpable passion and outside-the-box, dynamic thinking that has been clearly poured into the project is staggering. Like a racing equivalent to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, with its whole suite of broad-ranging game modes, rich gameplay systems and hidden depth.

I know some here will balk at the fact that the Switch 2 will see another cartoony racing exclusive appearing in the console’s first six months on the market.

But I don’t think it’s a case of creeping oversaturation or ill-thought scheduling at all, because Kirby’s Air Ride genuinely looks unlike any other racer I’ve seen before, excluding its 20+ year old predecessor. And even then this follow up looks like the full realisation of that small-scaled, niche effort.
Galvanized Gamer

GC: It’s the least impressed we’ve ever been by a Nintendo game preview, and by a considerable margin.

Inbox also-rans
Seems like Japan has been rumoured for Forza Horizon 6 for ages. Not that I mind, even if it is another game set in Japan that’s not made by Japanese developers.
Santini

I can get people liking Borderlands if that’s their thing but does anyone like Randy Pitchford? Why do they keep letting him talk? He’s like Phil Spencer but worse.
Tacle

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