Editor’s Choice: 10 Best Games Of July 2025

With another passing month, you can count on two things. An extended backlog of new games on your wishlist from the month just past, and a wealth of new games upcoming that threaten to grab your attention. It’s a vicious cycle, but it does mean that there is an abundance of choice if you’re looking for something new to play.

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July has been no different, offering something for everyone. We have traditional Soulslikes, arcade skaters, psychological thrillers, and much more in the line-up this month, and while you might not have had the chance to check them out, we have.

We have collectively taken the time to sit down with the finest titles this month has to offer, and we want to showcase the best of the best so you don’t need to waste your time playing duds. So, without further ado, here are the games to add to your wishlist from July 2025.

10 The King Is Watching

Long Live The King

If you’re someone who got a kick out of the Kingdom Builder meets tower defense game, 9 Kings, then you’ll find that The King is Watching is more of the same in the best way possible.

You’ll need to build and protect your kingdom from any other band of knights from rival kingdoms that would dare try to breach your walls. But it’s more than just a tower defense game, as you’ll need to actually build resources and command your subjects to gather the resources you need.

Plus, you also have a wealth of new lands, which come with their own challenges, tricky enemy encounters, and strategic hurdles to clear. Chances are that your kingdom will fall, but seeing as this is a roguelike, a new run is just a click away.

Heavy is the head that wears the crown, but if you can bear the burden, then take to the throne.

9 Luto

Go Outside, Touch Grass

Whether it be a sense of agoraphobia or a burden of depression that is keeping us down, many of us will have felt that overwhelming feeling of being unable to gather the strength and resolve to leave our home. But in Luto, this inability to leave your home comes with terrifying consequences.

Alongside being an eerie, claustrophobic horror with ever-changing environments that mirror games like P.T. or Visage, Luto is also a methodical puzzle game that offers quentessentially obtuse horror puzzle design. All of which offer that coveted ‘eureka’ moment that we all crave to feel like geniuses for a second.

Not to mention, this is a well-paced, all-killer, no-filler experience that keeps you hooked from start to finish, offering memorable moments at every turn. You won’t find all that many pulse-raising jump scares, but believe me, this experience will stay with you long after the credits roll.

8 Word Play

Triple World Score!

If you’re familiar with The Gamer’s Toolkit, you’ll know that the popular YouTuber has pivoted into the world of game development, having recently produced Mind Over Magnet, and then followed it up with this new vocabulary puzzler, Word Play.

It’s perhaps a little reductive to label this game as ‘Balatro Scrabble’, but in truth, that’s the best way to describe this one, as the player will work to use their thesaurus-like brains to create the longest words they possibly can, while also being mindful of the effects of various titles, modifiers and round stipulations.

It’s simple in premise, but much like Balatro, it’s devilishly addictive as you try to push through each round and empty your bag of tiles with efficiency.

It’s amazing how these well-established games like poker, slots, Scrabble, and more are being re-imagined, and this one is arguably the best since Balatro, which is more than enough to warrant a few rounds.

7 The Wandering Village

They Used To Ride These Babies For Miles

While Discworld and Terry Pratchett undoubtedly popularized the fantasy of an entire world existing on the back of a giant creature, not many game developers have given you the chance to interact with a world like this. At least, not until The Wandering Village.

This audacious city builder has you build a society on the back of a wandering dino-like creature called Onbu, and this wandering home gimmick is what makes the traditional resource management and ‘playing god’ gameplay so interesting, as you’ll need to adapt to your surroundings.

Your hospitable carrier might saunter into poisonous wastes, leading to huge issues for your townsfolk, or they may head into scorching climates, which might affect your crop yield.

Throw in an aesthetic that feels very much cut from the same cloth as Studio Ghibli flicks, and you have something that is a must-play for city builder fans. So, hop on Obnu’s back and see where you end up.

6 Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream

Stick To The Shadows

We are living through a gaming era where stealth as a sub-genre is criminally overlooked, and mechanically, stealth is usually awkwardly crowbarred into open-world adventure games. If you too are annoyed by this, then Eriksholm might be the salve you need.

This isometric stealth epic is fueled by political corruption, deathly illness, and mystery, and you’ll reveal more and more of this world mainly by keeping your head down and being neither seen nor heard.

The main criticism of the game is that it’s pretty short, and the stealth isn’t all that open-ended, making it more of a straightforward puzzler with one clear solution for each encounter. But finding these solutions and executing them with precision is still very satisfying.

It’s very rare we see a game champion stealth above all else, and much less do we see a non-AAA game give it a bash. So, do yourself a favor and dive into Eriksholm when you get a chance.

5 Wheel World

It’s Wheely Good

As someone who has played this one extensively, let me be the first to say, it’s a little rough around the edges, with weird bugs aplenty. But, even with all that in mind, I would still highly recommend Wheel World to anyone looking for an open-world game with a twist.

The storyline is pretty inconsequential in all truth, all you need to know is that you play as Kat and you need to gather bike parts, win races, and explore Wheel World to restore your magical bike and perform ‘The Great Shift.’

The gameplay is essentially the open-world excellence and graphical stylings of Sable, but with the cycling gameplay of Season: A Letter to the Future, albeit with a more arcade slant.

Warts and all, this game is still a wonderful time and will appeal to casual gamers, open-world fans, and racing enthusiasts alike. So, get into gear and race for the checkered flag right now!

4 Wildgate

Set Phasers To Fun

With so many live service shooters practically popping up and dying on the same day, I find it wild that developers are still gunning to occupy this spot. But when games like Wildgate pop up, you realize that, if the game is good, there’s more than enough room in the space for another shooter.

This game essentially offers a PvPvE experience that isn’t too unlike Sea of Thieves, albeit in the vacuum of space. Players need to either kill all other crews or extract with ‘the artifact’ to win the game.

They will spend their time working toward these goals, taking down enemies, gathering increasingly more useful resources, and performing heroic feats that will make your fellow crewmates cheer down the mic.

The joy of tactically outmaneuvering another crew is super-satisfying and never gets old, thanks to the variety of ways you can go about it, meaning one bout in space will never be like your last.

In a sea of multiplayer FPS games, Wildgate dares to be different, and that’s the main reason why it’s worth picking up and playing this month, because after all, the last thing we need is another COD clone, or worse, another Concord story.

3 Wuchang: Fallen Feathers

Embrace The Madness

While Wuchang was deeply affected by performance issues at launch, leading to a mass review bomb, I can report from firsthand experience that this game’s recent user reviews do not reflect the overall quality of the game, as this is one of the best Soulslikes on the market, period.

Offering visuals and style choices that feel very Black Myth Wukong, this game is far from a Wukong clone, offering gameplay that feels much more in line with a traditional FromSoft Souls title, complete with awesome bosses, lots of build variety, and interconnected world design.

I’ll concede, it has its moments where the deaths will feel cheap, but to be fair, what Souls game doesn’t have a few of those?

It’s visually stunning, combat feels fast and responsive, and the world is steeped in lore and intrigue that will have you reading item descriptions over and over for clarity. Performance may be iffy, but the devs are working on it, and we have every confidence this won’t be a lasting issue.

2 Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4

Do A Kickflip!

Even if the world is waiting with bated breath for the next Skate. Update, there’s always an insatiable hunger to jump into a classic THPS game, and thanks to the success of the THPS 1+2 Remake, a 3+4 follow-up was destined to follow.

The birdman’s latest outing has been a huge success, taking the iconic maps of THPS 3+4 and giving them a modern facelift before letting the gaming populace loose to manual, grind, and pop McTwists to their heart’s content.

There are small foibles I have as a skating game enthusiast, such as the spine transfers in this game being pretty damn broken, but all in all, this is a beautiful rework of a couple of classics, and one that is as addictive as the parent games were decades ago.

Just do yourself a favor. Don’t try to platinum this one. You know, unless you want to play the game 29 times over. Damn, Tony, why can’t you just put together a reasonable trophy list?

1 Donkey Kong Bananza

Time To Buy a Switch 2?

There may only be two games on the Nintendo Switch 2 that even borderline justify the purchase of the console at all. But, credit where it’s due, there are both pretty damn good.

DK Bananza is effectively a game that gives DK the Mario Odyssey treatment, allowing the Nintendo stalwart to star in his own blockbuster 3D mascot platformer where destruction, tight platforming, and collecting bananas are the order of the day.

True to form, the game is visually impressive, making the most of the jump to new hardware, and offers a wealth of content that will keep you exploring these open but varied environments for hours on end.

It’s the best platformer we have seen hit the shelves since the staggeringly good Astro Bot, and depending on who you ask, it might even be a touch better. It might not be enough to make you front up the cash for a Switch 2 just yet, but it’s a marquee release that will certainly make holding off a little harder.

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