The RPS Selection Box: Mark's bonus games of the year 2025

Here we go. The picks of mine which made it into the advent calendar weren’t embarrassing enough, so now I get to flick a few extras at you like discarded bits of liquorice I’ve found down the back of the sofa. Open wide.

I jest, of course. These are almost exclusively fun little games which have eaten up my hours because they’re just so damn pleasant to dip into in short bursts, making them ideal for over the holidays. Go see the in-laws, play an hour of one of these, go see the other in-laws, play another hour, go see the in-laws’ in-laws. Wash, rinse, repeat. Then realise it’s January and the relentless onslaught of time stops for no one.

Once Upon a Katamari

My first encounter with a Katamari game came at an afterschool club. I recall falling for its weird charms almost instantly, but could not remember what it was called to ask my parents to buy me a copy to play in my own time. You’re a tiny prince. Your dad, the record-scratch talking egomaniac King of the Cosmos, somehow mucks up the galaxy. So, you head to earth and roll up balls of items to form new planets and stars.

Once Upon a Katamari is that, but this time you’re rolling through levels set in different historical eras. Feudal Japan, ancient Egypt, the American west, the ice age, they’re all here, each with unique stuff for you to roll up as quickly as possible or to form as big a ball as possible. Some levels also offer weird twists in that simple formula, such as one in which you’re caught in the middle of a war between samurai bears and cows. The challenge there, assuming I didn’t hallucinate the entire thing, is to roll as big a ball as you can without picking up any of the ubiquitous cows or bears until the very end.

Along the way, you collect the prince’s cousins to give you more weirdly-shaped characters to play as and customise using cosmetic gear you pick up as presents. Ban-ban’s my favourite, because he’s just a little doughnut bloke.

Stick It to the Stickman

Stick It to the Stickman’s a game I’d not heard of coming into this year. I played its demo and haven’t been able to get enough since of Anger Foot devs Free Lives’ stickperson office brawler. The idea’s simple. There’s a tower block where you, a stickperson, get a job. Then, you lose your rag, and have to brawl your way up through floors of homicidal colleagues so you can fight your boss and take their place as the red person who wears the swanky top hat.

Along the way, a bunch of snicker-worthy corporate satire happens. Being a bit roguelikey, the game’s tower evolves as you battle your way up it as different character builds – all of whom are based on office worker stereotypes – with purchasable upgrades adding new areas or extra design features to make the thing easier to scale as enemies get tougher. Meanwhile, weapons range from kicks and punches to chainsaws and fire extinguishers, which you gradually enhance or add to your arsenal on the way up.

Each time you reach the top, you replace your old self as the corporate drone who has to report to a set of vindictive godlike overlords or defy these overlords and suffer their wrath. It’s in early access as of writing, so Free Lives are still adding in late game features that spice up the wonderfully satisfying central loop even further. It’s great now, so naturally I’m really looking forward to the day it’s fully fleshed out.

Promise Mascot Agency

I have to credit Nic (RPS in peace) for putting me onto Promise Mascot Agency. He waxed lyrical about it back when I was in my old home, blissfully unaware that mascot management games existed. Interestingly, he was disappointed by the full version. He found its central loop of driving around retrieving stuff and relentlessly managing mascot jobs grating. I, meanwhile, found the cadence of the game’s collectactivities and bossing about very hectic at times, but managed to push through to a point when I had enough spare cash that I could take time to smell the roses in the wonderfully atmospheric rural Japanese climes of Kaso-Machi.

Most of the characters are mascots and townsfolk that the dynamic duo of yakuzaman Michi and angry thumb mascot Pinky meet as they get the titular mascot agency running in a bid to help the former pay to keep his gangster family alive following an underworld deal gone bad. Their charming and quirky personalities are the game’s greatest strength, with the degree to which they can carry the duller or more nagging aspects of running around town in Michi’s kei-truck and interacting with interfaces to make cash likely dictating how much you vibe with PMA.

I dig it. Sure, I sometimes wished it’d let me explore without telling me where everything is. Or if it could maybe not shake me down for money every five minutes. But I’m too invested in seeing whether this matcha ball cat can achieve her dream of starting a tea shop. I like Mottsun, a mascot who’s doomed to spend his life advocating for a smelly offal dish with the same sort of gusto Red Dwarf’s Dave Lister expresses in his love of curry. I like Karoushi, the ghost of office burnout past who talks in mysterious novel-esque metaphors and just wants to advocate for unionisation. They’re worth any stress mascot management inflicts.