Hello! Welcome to the final Geeky Brummie Games Release Roundup of 2025!

This week, musical crimes, hellish skating and pixelated Austrians.

As I mentioned briefly last week, this is the final games release roundup of the year, as my calendar is currently showing zero games releases for the next three weeks due to the Christmas period. In fact, as I’m editing this, the next release date is the 8th January, so normal service will resume in that week.

However, this won’t be the last you’ll see of me before the end of the year, as I will be following my usual custom of collecting the 50 most notable games of the year and putting them in a big roundup of their own. I originally planned to release it next week on the 19th, but since I use year-end awards to help calculate the placements of each game, and the Indie Game Awards are on the 18th, I will instead be releasing it on Boxing Day for some post-Christmas reading.

So please enjoy these final releases (especially my final Game of the Week!) and I will see you in two weeks for the Top 50 Most Notable Games of the Year!

Re-Releases and Ports

The ongoing flood of Xbox releases to PlayStation continues this week as Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is now on PS5. So now you can fly planes with a DualSense if you wish.

In one of the more curious re-releases this week, a Japan-only PS1 minigame collection got a remaster courtesy of Marvelous. Milano’s Odd Job Collection (PC, PlayStation, Switch, Xbox) is about a girl who needs to fend for herself during her summer holiday. This leads to her taking on part-time jobs and decorating her uncle’s home. It’s the first official English translation since the game’s original release in 1999, put together by the team of fan translators who made the popular unofficial translation of Boku no Natsuyasumi 2.

New Releases

Dead Format (PC) is a horror game set in 1990s Scotland where you venture into the horror worlds of your brother’s VHS collection. Clearly inspired by the “video nasty” moral panic of the 80s, especially as these magical tapes are known as Video Ghastlies. Fun fact: that used to be the title of the game, and I’m mad that they changed it to its more generic title. Developed by Katanalevy and published by Oro Interactive.

Angeline Era (PC) is a top-down action adventure set in a world you can explore at your own pace. The world is full of secrets and you must discover them through the power of the Bumpslash, a technique that causes you to attack every time you collide with an enemy. Developed by Analgesic Productions.

Ultimate Sheep Raccoon (PC, PlayStation, Switch, Xbox) is a sequel to party platformer Ultimate Chicken Horse, only this time it’s bike racing. You and your friends build the course and then try and survive the traps you’ve set for each other. Developed by Clever Endeavour Games.

Death Howl (PC, PS5, Switch 1, Xbox X/S) is a moody deckbuilder that heavily draws from Soulslikes. You play as Ro, a hunter who is attempting to save her son, travelling a harsh world full of monsters to defeat with your increasingly powerful cards. Developed by The Outer Zone and published by 11bit Studios.

It’s a rhythm game heavy week, as three very different takes on the genre launched this week. First up, Rhythm Doctor (PC) from 7th Beat Games left Early Access. It’s a game about using a defibrillator on the beat to revive people in distress. You only press on the 7th beat and the whole game is controlled with a single button.

And then there’s Bits & Bops (PC) from Tempo Lab Games, which is more like Nintendo’s Rhythm Heaven series but with cute hand-drawn animation. Wait, did I say three rhythm games? Hm. Maybe there’s a clue in one of those trailers above. We shall see.

Skate Story (PC, PS5, Switch 2) is a surreal skating game about a demon in Hell that wants to eat the moon. Of course, the only way to do this is be turned to glass and use a skateboard to do sweet tricks. Standard stuff, obviously. It’s dark, it’s weird and it’s silly, and from what I’ve played so far (the first chapter, thanks PS Plus), it seems like something that’s worth losing yourself in. Developed by Sam Eng and published by Devolver Digital.

In probably one of the more unexpected licensed games, Terminator 2D: No Fate (PC, PlayStation, Switch 1, Xbox) sees Bitmap Bureau take the 1991 classic Terminator 2: Judgement Day and turns it into a game that could also feasibly have been released at the time. But make no mistake, this is a new game, not a remaster of the various Terminator 2 games that have come before. It features three playable characters, with Sarah Connor and the T-800 in 1991 and John Connor in the future, in a side-scrolling shooter. Remains faithful to the movie while adding in additional scenes.

Game of the Week

The final Game of the Week of 2025 is Unbeatable (PC, PS5, Xbox X/S), the third rhythm game released this week. OH! That’s why I said three! (And the clue was, the director of this game made the Rhythm Doctor trailer, and both games reference the other in some way)

Set in a world where music is illegal, you play a slacker named Beat who does crimes by forming a band with three other misfits. Using a two-track system, you whack strange creatures out of the air or beat up cops. All this while enjoying a scrappy story about surviving in the face of an oppressive government that culminates in a climax that has a lot to say about the joy of creating music.

I’ve been waiting (and waiting and waiting and waiting) for this game for months, and I’m happy to report that it lived up to my expectations. It’s not always perfect but it’s so full of heart that it’s impossible not to fall in love. D-Cell Games have done a fantastic job here and I’m about to make this game my whole personality. But I have a lot more to say over on Rock Paper Shotgun (yes, really!) but that should make it clear why I am ecstatic to make Unbeatable the final Game of the Week of 2025!