Written by Alex Castellanos

DCL ’25 – End of June

The 1st half of 2025 is now complete – do you feel like this year is flying by?  In the last few weeks, we’ve seen the release of the Nintendo Switch 2, as well as a plethora of gaming-related shows that have widened the list of possible games for us to choose from for this year. Hopefully, you have taken some time to evaluate what was shown and have added some worthy game(s) to your “Publisher’s Release Calendar” for 2025. This 2nd half of the year is when we really start separating the contenders from the pretenders.

Here are the League Standings as of June 30th:

And these were the 4 games that were released in June which contributed to these overall scores:

  • “Mario Kart World” Frozen Headlights Studios (16.3 pts)
  • “The Alters” Dougsvest Digital (16 pts)
  • “Rematch” PixelPioneer Studios (4.4 pts)
  • “Death Stranding 2: On the Beach” Suladin Software Ltd (20.7 pts)

First, I’d like to congratulate everyone for picking great scoring games this month! (…Except for me of course…) Three of the four games released this month scored equal or greater than 16 points, starting with the Nintendo Switch 2’s launch Title and Frozen Headlights Studios’ 1st Round Draft pick: “Mario Kart World” (16.3 pts). When Nintendo lines a game up for the launch of their new hybrid console, you’d better believe they have confidence in it. The confidence was well-founded. Reviewers and excited Switch 2 users alike, played and enjoyed this new, larger, fuller, and more diversly-casted Kart racing game! Congrats, Nate, on the launch and I hope that you’re having fun with it!

Next, we should talk about the sequel that not a lot of people saw coming, “Death Stranding 2: On the Beach” (20.7 pts). It’s still a little crazy to me that Hideo Kojima was able to make a game with the main gameplay mechanic of delivering packages from Point A to Point B fun, with a narrative hook that kept players moving forward. But now, he has seemed to “1-up” himself by crafting a much more ambitious looking sequel to that game! Suladin Software Ltd. used its 1st round draft pick on this and the reviewers have definitely backed up that decision as a great one.

I think the most surprising game of this month belongs to Dougsvest Digital’s pick of “The Alters” (16 pts).The combination of survival & foraging mechanics, base-building, & major narrative choices makes for an interesting gameplay loop. The story that is being told is also intriguing with a space-miner and his many ‘alters’ or clones, and their journey to escape a planet that can kill them. It seems that reviewers really took a liking to all of it, so good job, Micah, on a great addition to your roster.

The lone disappointing game this month belongs to PixelPioneer Studios (me) and the over-the-top take on indoor soccer, “Rematch” (4.4 pts). I had some high hopes for this game. And while a lot of people seem to be enjoying their time with the game, many more people are complaining of server instability, bugs, and other various online dependent issues that could be easy for a development team like Sloclap to encounter on their 1st attempt at this type of competitive online game. I still think that this game could have a bright future, but I am quickly losing faith in its ability to improve on the review scores that they have now.

Now we look ahead to the games of July. Even though a lot of us picked up games to fill up our rosters via the many “Summer Gaming shows”, none of the additions were for this coming month. So, there are only 4 games releasing in July. The 4 games are:

  • “Donkey Kong Bananza” Frozen Headlights Studios (July 17th)
  • “Wheel World” Suladin Software Ltd. (July 23rd)
  • “Wuchang: Fallen Feathers” Ranch Walker (July 24th)
  • “Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound” Ranch Walker (July 31st)

As a 2025 recap of sorts, instead of what I would normally do and describe some of the upcoming games for the month, I would like to do something a little different. We just got through the first half of the year, and there have been some really great successes amongst them! So why don’t we take a look at some of those:

January (Luke & Eddie)

  • The BEST GAME was “Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector” by Iota Strain. It scored 16.1 pts at the time but has risen up to 16.9 pts now!
  • The 2ND BEST GAME was “Blade Chimera” by Crystal Cross Games. It scored 11.9 pts at the time and has settled in at 11.5 pts.

February (Nate & Alex)

  • The BEST GAME was “Monster Hunter: Wilds” by Frozen Headlights Studios. It scored 19.5 pts at the time and has settled in at 19.2 pts.
  • The 2ND BEST GAME was “Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2” by PixelPioneer Studios. It scored 19.4 pts and the time and has not fallen off that score at all – it’s still at 19.4 pts.

March (Adam & Eddie)

  • The BEST GAME was “Split Fiction” by Bearded Brethren. It reviewed into the 90s and became our 1st 20+ point game of the year – scoring 20.5 pts at the time. It now sits at an even 20 pts.
  • The 2ND BEST GAME was a Flex Pick of “Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition” by Crystal Cross Games. It had scored 17.8 pts at the time, and it now is settled in at 17.2 pts.

April (Nate & Adam)

  • The BEST GAME was what may be a GOTY contender this year: “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33” by Frozen Headlights Studios. It scored 23 points at the time, and has only gone up since then to a healthy 24 pts.
  • The 2ND BEST GAME was “Blue Prince” by Bearded Brethren. It scored 19.4 pts at the time and has stayed relatively close to that with 19.3 pts right now.

May (Eddie & Alex)

  • The BEST GAME was “Monster Train 2” by Crystal Cross Games. It scored 18.6 pts at the time, but has settled into a respectable 17.8 pts.
  • The 2ND BEST GAME was “Sea of Stars: Throes of the Watchmaker” by PixelPioneer Studios. It scored 17.2 pts at the time and has managed to creep up to 17.3 pts now.

June (Jeff & Nate)

  • The BEST GAME was of course “Death Stranding 2: On the Beach” by Suladin Software Ltd. As of June 30th, it has 20.7 pts.
  • The 2ND BEST GAME was the Switch 2’s: “Mario Kart World” by Frozen Headlights Studios. As of June 30th, it has 16.3 pts.

Okay – that’s what I got for this month & the 1st Half of 2025! The 2nd half of the year is here already! (Along with crazy heatwaves) May you all have a wonderful July 4th Holiday and why don’t we try this – Tell me what score you think “Donkey Kong Bananza” is going to receive in the bottom of this Newsletter!

Take care & God Bless,

Alex C.

UP TO DATE – D.C.L. 2025 Round 1 Draft Tracker:

  1. Bearded Brethren – “Grand Theft Auto VI” DELAYED TO 2026
  2. Iota Strain – “Fable” DELAYED TO 2026
  3. PixelPioneer Studios – “Metroid Prime 4: Beyond”
  4. Dougsvest Digital – “Unannounced Mainline 3D Mario Platformer”
  5. Crystal Cross Games – “Ghost of Yotei”
  6. Suladin Software Ltd – “Death Stranding 2: On the Beach” [90.4]
  7. Ranch Walker – “Elden Ring: Nightreign” [80]
  8. Frozen Headlights Studios – “Mario Kart World” [86.3]
  9. Agon Analytics – “Avowed” [81]

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