DualShockers’ 2025 Game of the Year Awards: Best Puzzle Games

Puzzle videogames have enamored players for decades since the dawn of the industry (Tetris anyone?), and they only continue to evolve and innovate while still keeping the heart of what makes them truly special among so many genres.

It goes without saying that 2025 was a surprisingly strong year for games all around, bolstered in large part by indie studios that have proved their mettle and then some, with some truly memorable IPs that have helped set a new standard.

Among those contenders are some truly unique puzzle adventures that utilize dynamic mechanics and blend elements of different genres to immerse players into a world that's not bound by those traditional four, straight-edge corners.

7 Sleep Awake

No Time to Rest Here

Our list starts strong with Sleep Awake, a visually stunning and unrelentingly immersive psychological horror sim that gives preference to puzzles and intuitive choices rather than combat.

The game drops you into what's left of a dystopian world, with just one city left on Earth while an otherworldly plague known simply as The Hush threatens anyone who dares to fall asleep, and claims poor souls who succumb to slumber. This threat has also warped the psychological consciousness of what's left of humanity, leading to the formation of death-centric factions and ruthless, unethical experiments that seek to find all manner of solutions to staying awake.

With sleep deprivation and the shadow of death ever-looming over everyone's shoulder, the line between reality and delusion is all but severely blurred, and you'll need to use any means available to you to escape the clutches of these factions. Despite the harsh environment, there's no combat to be found in Sleep Awake, and such vulnerability only adds to the terror. Instead, puzzles and stealth are your means of survival.

This incredible cinematic experience of a game is memorable from start to finish, with visuals that often leave you jaw-dropped and eyes wide open (as they should be). On top of that, Robin Finck of Nine Inch Nails helmed the game's sound design, so that alone warrants at least a glimpse.

6 Bionic Bay

Bend Physics to Solve These Mind-Bending Puzzles

Bionic Bay is a fast-paced, platformer-style puzzle game from two small indie studios (Mureena and Psychoflow) that aesthetically hearkens back to other minimalist side-scrollers like Limbo, while still bringing its own flavor of content to the table.

This time, you're put in the shoes of a scientist who seeks to escape a strange, biomechanical world by using his own practical creations to overcome all manner of obstacles. Whether it's teleporting objects or even yourself, slowing down time, or manipulating gravity to navigate through otherwise impossible paths, the game is just as atmospheric as it is mentally challenging.

As you traverse deeper into these hostile landscapes, the puzzles push you to innovate and manipulate the surrounding environment, just like any scientist would. Despite the otherworldly aesthetics, however, the game's physics are still realistically grounded, making it easier in that regard to formulate solutions when needed. The game even features a speedrun mode for players who want to truly test their skills and land on the leaderboards.

The developers took inspiration from other classic puzzle platformers such as Portal and Oddworld, while also drawing on influence from The Matrix (1999) film. That clearly all comes together into this surreal yet brutal adventure.

5 Keeper

No Words Needed For This Beautiful Journey

Keeper is an immersive and whimsically artistic experience that, while not as complex or thematically heavy as some of our other entries, still cleverly utilizes puzzles throughout its journey that seamlessly blend with the story's progression.

Furthermore, it's especially impressive for a game that doesn't use an ounce of dialogue. From start to finish, it's up to you to piece together the story that's happening around you, almost like a puzzle in itself. That inherent mechanic encourages you to pay close attention to the game's undeniably beautiful environments that can often pass for paintings, and the wordless actions of the few characters you encounter.

For anyone who's enjoyed the stories of artistic indie gems like Journey or this year's Sword of the Sea, Keeper is another charming tale that cozily fits on the same shelf. Its puzzles integrate with the environment itself and facilitate the story's progression, all while not feeling unnecessarily complicated or tacked on, as you travel to reunite Twig the bird with his companions.

4 Dead Take

A Mansion Full of Horrible Truths

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Dead Take earns its spot as a wholly unexpected sleeper gem that intertwines a truly unique type of horror with puzzles that vary from straightforward to borderline unforgiving headscratchers. However, the effort and attention they require are more than worth it for the captivating story at the center of it all.

An ominous first-person journey to find your actor friend Vinny leads you into the dark and lurid depths of a mansion owned by Duke Cain, a Hollywood mogul whose power and influence in the industry give way to some unsettling truths that get swept under the rug all too often in the never-ending pursuit of fame.

One element of Dead Take's gameplay that especially stands out is the surprising inclusion of brief live-action scenes depicted by some very recognizable actors such as Ben Starr, Neil Newbon, and Matthew Mercer. Their audition-style scenes add a unique gravitas to the central theme of the story, and the horrid, all-too-real truth of Hollywood that any actor playing the game will definitely notice.

While not overly long, Dead Take is a standout horror puzzle experience that leaves you with plenty to think about afterward.

3 The Alters

A Whole New Level of Trusting Yourself

The Alters stands out as a fundamentally different kind of puzzle game, in that the puzzle itself is survival. The developers at 11 bit studios have since mastered the craft of this niche society survival genre, which at its core requires meticulous management of various elements and piecing together solutions to survival in ruthlessly unforgiving environments.

This time, however, instead of the post-apocalyptic winters of Frostpunk, you must survive a deep space expedition on a hostile planet that's inevitably set for failure. In the shoes of lone survivor Jan Dolski, the key to making your escape is by creating alternative versions of yourself (or "Alters") to serve as your crew. However, managing the whims and idiosyncrasies of that crew is half the battle, as the last thing you need is a mutiny orchestrated by, well, your own clones.

The game brings various puzzle-centric elements that work well together, with the puzzle of the human mind at its center and how an otherworldly catastrophe affects it.

2 Lumines Arise

Feel the Rhythm and Solve the Puzzle

Lumines Arise earns its spot effortlessly as the big-beat spiritual successor and love letter to Tetsuya Mizuguchi and the original Lumines puzzle game (which was later remastered by these developers).

Lumines began as an innovative homage to Tetris, the puzzle game that started it all, and its melodically addictive gameplay lives on through this latest installment. Each level of the game has you complete Tetris-like puzzles while eclectic, club-style musical tracks play in the background.

The further you progress, the more vibrant the visuals and music become, making the objective of completing these puzzles an all-around addictively fun sensory experience while tossing mundane rules to the wind. It's a testament to why Lumines remains a staple in the puzzle genre, and this sequel once again hits it out of the park.

1 Blue Prince

Piece Together Your Family's Legacy

Blue Prince takes the crown as our top puzzle game of the year, as a game that has made an incredible impact not only within the puzzle genre but the industry at large. This sensational debut hit from Dogubomb truly took many players by surprise, as it essentially turned the traditional framework of a puzzle game completely upside down.

The game puts you in the shoes of a young man named Simon, who is summoned to a mysterious manor at Mt. Holly, once owned by his great uncle, Herbert Sinclair. The manor in question is actually Simon's inheritance from Herbert, but only if he can fulfill one seemingly impossible objective within it. Among its sprawling 45 rooms, you must find your way to a hidden 46th room in a day's time and uncover its secrets.

However, it's not just a matter of searching existing rooms for the right path. The house itself is an ever-changing anomaly that you work your way through via a special kind of investigative roguelite gameplay that has you construct various types of rooms that serve to help you progress through it. Along the way, there's plenty of fascinating lore that helps shed light on Simon's family and the otherworldly realm they live in.