Having proclaimed that 2025 was The Year of Games That Are Co-op and/or Action and/or Rogue-lite (scroll to the section on Risk of Rain 2 if you missed it), the time has come to look back and evaluate some of the games from 2025 that fall under that heading. 

As a note: I determine whether something is an action game by asking “Do you have fine control over a character’s movement, and does that movement affect your chance of success?” If yes, it’s an action game.

As for what a rogue-lite is, that’s really a matter of vibes. Is the game run-based? Are you frequently given a choice of 2 or 4 but usually 3 things? Do you collect something that you can spend to become stronger on future runs? If yes, it’s probably a rogue-lite.

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