The Alternative GOTY Awards 2025

employee and it was sort of dared into existence by the developers are like you sure you want to have b mario in here and then before you know it they've built entire levels around b mario i just kind of wanted to hear what you thought about this emerging generation of designers because they must have all been in their 20s and 30s at the time yes they they are now they are now senior devs on the likes of donkey con bonanza i mean they they they're they're like hugely important figures that and that's what i love about these interviews is you read them and then it's like you know this guy who's relatively low on this team is now super important so the two big names from the junior batch to look out for here you've got heioshida who is basically in charge of like the general level flow of the games you get the feeling that beneath kazumi who is the director heioshida's probably got the most impact on what mario galaxy looks like he's the one who evangelizes

numenara um ps4 for four for eight pounds played for an hour about 10 years ago it haven't picked up since that's very relatable um dragon quest heroes 2 ps4 for six pound valkyrie elizium ps5 for 15 pounds the last guardian ps4 for 12 pounds 12 pounds more than matthew would pay for it i'll point out um bomb rush cyberpunk um cyberpunk cyberpunk ps5 for 10 pounds paid a few levels before realizing it wasn't for me wall groove on switch again developed by jay balis one of the developers on it and for 10 pounds finally four heroes of light on ds for 22 pounds professor latin and their specters called ds for 12 pounds i'm assuming digital purchase um don't count otherwise we'd all be in jail thanks for all the entertaining pods i look forward to a fair and equitable trial warmest regards tom quite a mix there matthew first thoughts it's a bad professor latin just half it's the last ds one but the beginning of a new trilogy and it didn't really

precious and you know is the thing that's keeping you alive suddenly having this character who can destroy everything becomes a bit of a liability and i think there's some interesting tensions there there's some wild visual invention to this game and i gave it four stars in my guardian review which is why i maybe wasn't thinking of it for for number one but what has happened since then is the release of the the dlc emerald rush now i know this is slightly cheating because the core game doesn't have the dlc i wish it did i think it's really really dumb that it doesn't i think at the very least nintendo should add emerald rush to the nintendo switch online subscription like they did with the splatoon dlc so if you have the core game you get this as a freebie because i think it is a quietly extraordinary mode in terms of unlocking the full potential of that character in his moveset and actually making a game type that makes maybe more sense for him than anything in the single player game emerald rush if you haven't played it is a rogue light mode so despite

after playing these missions again does it make sense that this is where rockstar decides to focus its creative energy for the next game matthew it is incredibly exciting like i obviously appreciate the massive leap to gta5 in terms of selling you on the fantasy of the heist like the build up to it in gta5 and the build up to each of those heists and sort of casing the joint and putting together your crew is so much of what makes them work and gives the mission like a real charge you feel super invested in them because you have planned them but i'd say this has enough of the magic in the moment like there is just something very otherworldly about emerging from the bank and the street is just clear of everything but policemen and it's probably one of the longest stretches you'll do in this game on foot you know unless you choose to get out of a car and go exploring like i drove everywhere and just being running across the road and then down the alley and through the trains and it also gives you you know it's an illusion and it's a scripted route