Games my kids loved in 2025 ► Ludology Now!

After finishing Dispatch (which was quite fun once I turned off the quick-time events) all I’ve played is Dark Souls and Red Dead Redemption II for the past few weeks now. If you’ve read the last two issues of Ludology Now!, you know this already. Because of this, I don’t have much new to bring to the table this week. But my kids do.

Our kids (ages 3, 6, and 15) all love playing games just as much as I do. The oldest has been playing Dispatch as well (and was the one who urged me to do so) and, while we took our characters in different directions, I’m glad she enjoyed the game as much as she did. She’s introduced me to so many good games this year, including – but not limited to – No, I’m Not A Human, Alice: Madness Returns, and Mouthwashing.

On gambling, horror, cozy, videogames ► Ludology Now!

The six-year-old is where the real spread lies. Dark Souls, Hogwarts Legacy, Minecraft, Red Dead Redemption (not the second one, he doesn’t like the way Five-Finger Filet is presented there), Plants vs. Zombies, Dead Rising, bloxed.io, Wheel of Fortune, the list goes on. The boy loves it all.

Playing Minecraft together, though, that’s his favorite thing to do. I don’t know if you’ve played Minecraft lately, but it’s still an infuriating game on Survival, and I consider it a real test of will to not lose my patience in front of the children when I suddenly get killed by a creeper explosion out of nowhere, or an arrow knocks me to my death from a narrow ledge over a drop, or one of the hundreds of other ways you can die suddenly happens right when I’m in a good groove of building something neat.

Our three-year-old has the fewest favorite games out of all of us, but she loves them deeply. Astro Bot and Astro’s Playroom, obviously, but she prefers Astro’s Playroom over the harder full game. The Paw Patrol game (the open world one, not the mission-based one) is fun for about fifteen minutes each day. And then there’s her current favorite, The Grinch: Christmas Adventures, by Outright Games, who also created the Paw Patrol game and many other 3rd person titles based on children’s media.

I want to say this as politely as possible, so please press play on the following video and then read along with the music.

You’re a bad game
Mr. Grinch
You really are a waste

You’re as playable as a brick
You’re as optimized as a shoe
Mr. Grinch

Your lines of filthy code were
written by a heartless dead soul

You’re unplayable
Mr. Grinch
Your game is full of slop

Your controls are unintuitive
Your powers are inconclusive
Mr. Grinch

I wouldn’t play you but, my poor daughter,
you brainwashed her soul

You’re a vile one
Mr. Grinch
That part still
works here

You have all the gaming gratitude
of an AI CEO
Mr. Grinch

If I had it my way you’d never
set up camp on this hard drive

You’re a bland slog
Mr. Grinch
You’re a sloppy, spiky skunk

Your dog is rather useless
Your rocket jump is lame
Mr. Grinch

If I was to review you
in a gaming publication
I would have to grade you
worse
than
bunk

I don’t mean to be rude, I don’t. I know Outright Games tries, I do. I also am well aware they recently went through a round of layoffs just a few weeks ago, and I am well aware of the reports that, according to GameDeveloper, “multiple Aheartfulofgames employees accused Outright leadership of mismanagement and negligence.”

As someone with multiple young children, as someone who has come across and interacted with Outright Games products in the wild more often than you’d expect, I would absolutely and 100% believe any and all claims of mismanagement and negligence. These games always try, but they always fall short. When the Outright Games logo appears before a new game I bought for my kids, I am always a bit internally disappointed.

Again, I don’t mean to be rude. To reiterate, my three-year-old LOVES The Grinch: Christmas Adventures. Her older brother LOVED the Paw Patrol game with Chase and Rubble a few years ago. There is an audience for this. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am not that audience. And these games, as shallow as they can be at times, are still ‘games’ in the proper sense of the word. It’s still better than that Bluey game we got last year – but there’s a new Bluey mobile game out now, isn’t there? Maybe we need to check that out next.

See me next week.