In the first year back for WhatsOnTheShelf, we’ve journeyed together through a plethora of the playable, a gambit of the games, and a mountain of the musical. Coming back to writing about media has felt like a genuine homecoming. In honor of WOTSes past, we’re going to look back fondly on some things, poorly on others, and questioningly on even more.

The Good

Indie Games

It was a hell of a year for the indie games that passed through my PlayStation. Not only did several titles win the coveted and highly respected Top Shelf Game Award, but some games I haven’t had a chance to review yet would more than likely have taken home the golden prize too.

Balatro, Animal Well, and Dispatch all took home the top honor, while several other titles are still waiting in the wings. Hollow Knight: Silksong, Neon White, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and Ball X Pit are all very successful titles in their own right that never got the full WOTS review treatment. Hey, maybe in the future.

My Ears

Like a lot of people, I fall into the pitfall of only listening to music I already know I love, without really pushing into new genres or albums. In 2025, I made a real effort to expand my musical horizons, and I’m glad I did. I heard the dulcet tones of Brian Wilson on Pet Sounds all the way through for the first time, listened to some incredible covers of already incredible songs, and surprised myself over and over again with what ended up becoming a new favorite.

All in all, more than 50 songs made the Chillers listing, with another 10 or so getting a Cover Up treatment. That doesn’t even include the trove of albums and songs that came out in 2025 without getting a Chillers review—or that are still in the queue.

The Bad

Workers’ Rights

Say what you will about the positive or negative aspects of the capitalist world we inhabit, but it’s hard to deny that the video game industry right now is rife with worker exploitation. It felt like you couldn’t open a news article or alert without seeing some new, gaudy round of layoffs at a massive company. Thousands of people—with lives, families, and responsibilities—now need to stretch their money further or scramble for new positions in an already difficult field. The sheer scale of some of these “reorganizations” really does boggle the mind.

Gatekeepers

A wise man once said that the worst part of any fandom is the fans. I think it was Laozi, but I can’t be certain. With the release of any difficult video game, you can almost guarantee that the fanbase will split into two camps. One side wants the difficulty reduced, either artificially or through in-game options. The other side just wants everyone else to “get better” at the game—as if we are all that skilled or have that much time to spare.

I’ll be honest, I used to be firmly in that second camp with the Dark Souls series. I would proudly pound my chest to the beat of “Git Gud, Git Gud.” But now that I’m a little older, some (fools) would say a little wiser, and with way less free time, I’ve shifted. Let people enjoy the games they want to enjoy. People who want to join your community of games and gaming should be welcomed with open arms, not shunned because they used the Mimic Tear to fight Mohg (absolutely hypothetical, couldn’t be me).

The Ugly

Video Game Review Scores

We saw the return of a staple of many millennial mailboxes this year: the gaming magazine Game Informer. That comeback deserves to be celebrated. Seeing the rebirth of that magazine fills me with hope and optimism that gaming is not just alive, but thriving. The thing is, you open your magazine, flip to the reviews section to read up on games you either want to purchase or have already purchased…only to be greeted with a sea of 8s.

I genuinely believe we are living in a time of unprecedented availability of games, and we are truly spoiled by the quality of the media we’re getting. However, when nearly every reviewed game lands in the 8 range, it starts to wash out the meaning of the scores. In the several months since GI has graced our doorsteps, I can remember a single score that really stood out one way or another: a 5/10. I’m not one to tell anyone how to run their business, but it would be more useful for readers—and probably healthier for the industry at large—if that scoring scale got stretched a bit wider.