In my previous post I hinted that 2025 has been an immense year for new ZX Spectrum games. So what games have caught my eye? Well absolutely loads as it happens. Before I get to my own personal top 5, special mention must be made of some of the absolute belters the boffins have served up for Speccy fans during the year.
Yandex Supremacy
Firstly, the Yandex games will feature very highly in any Speccy GOTY polls. Cubix is dripping with accolades already and will probably sweep the boards. It’s not just a technical miracle, but it is a hugely playable game. The paeudo-Zoyza games Asymmetry and Travel Unlimited also build on earlier Zoyza titles, pushing at the boundaries of what can be done on the ZX Spectrum.
The Yandex games can be downloaded here: https://yrgb.org/
Arcade Perfection
Two real standout conversions of arcade games from the golden era were released this year in the form of Frogger RX & GORF. Both are so close to their arcade parents in every way, the kind of games we used to call “arcade perfect” before the pedants “well actuallyed” that term out of common parlance.
Download links:
Frogger RX: https://happycodingzx.itch.io/frogger-rx
GORF: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/zxdb/sinclair/entries/0044271/Gorf.tap.zip
Polished Platformers
Much like any other year since 1982, the Spectrum has been blessed with an abundance of quality platformers. Baby Man Vs Terminatots is an excellent addition to the Baby Man series that I enjoyed a lot. Speccy Saga & Hair Trigger from Lee “Micro” Chops are superb Cybernoid type affairs that really cement his reputation for polished games. Magenta Sky by Radical Reflux really impressed me with its visual style and addictive gameplay. Driar was an impressive remake of an NES homebrew. Steve Tyson served us up the brilliant but brutal Boni in Bat Hell and its even tougher sequel, Boni 2, in quick succession. A plethora of impressive games made with the new ZXGM engine were released in 2025 and for me Roshi Milk Course was the cream of the crop. Last but not least, RetroSouls have been up to their old tricks again, and by that I mean they’ve released a couple of jaw dropping “how did they manage that on a Speccy?” games with tunes and playability to match. Plyuk & Zak McDruken Saves the Chickens are both well up to their ridiculously high standard.
Links:
Baby Man Vs Terminatots https://puttycad.itch.io/babyman3
Speccy Saga https://chopz.itch.io/speccy-saga-code-name-rkw
Hair Trigger https://chopz.itch.io/hair-trigger
Magenta Sky https://radical-reflux.itch.io/magenta
Driar https://bitmagine.itch.io/driar-zx-spectrum
Boni in Bat Hell https://stevetyson.itch.io/boni
Roshi Milk Course https://xeif.itch.io/roshi-milk-course
Plyuk https://retrosouls.itch.io/plyukzx
Zak McDruken Saves the Chickens https://retrosouls.itch.io/zkmcdstc-zx-spectrum
Snake? Snaaaaake!
2025 was the Chinese Zodiac year of the Snake and appropriately enough a raft of surprisingly slick Snake based games slithered on to the Speccy this year. I’ve always liked Snake, but given the sheer quantity of clones already available it took something pretty special to grab my attention. The colourful Mega Serpentine introduced power ups and boss battles into the mix to keep things fresh and is well worth a play. The king Cobra for me though was ZXnake 2 an astonishing game full of clever retro references, puzzles and truly addictive gameplay. I genuinely think this is the greatest version of Snake I’ve ever played & I’ve played ruddy loads of them.
Mega Serpentine https://bytemaniacos.com/ficheros/concursos/2025_basic/mserpiente.zip
ZXnake 2 https://bytemaniacos.com/ficheros/concursos/2025_basic/zxnake2.zip
Puzzling Times
On a personal level, the big thing for me Spectrum wise in 2025 were the puzzle games. Master Piece seemed to come out of nowhere and took hold of certain sections of the community with its fiendish bite sized chess puzzles. Quadrax is a Slovakian puzzler in the style of Lemmings or The Humans that was originally released in 1994 but has been translated to English for 2025. The animation on this one is superb and I really enjoyed working out the puzzles on this one with my son. SkillTeam was a Sokoban-esque puzzler that I loved.
Master Piece https://tartessos-games.itch.io/master-piece
Quadrax https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/zxdb/sinclair/entries/0009403/Quadrax.tap.zip
SkillTeam https://davidprograma.itch.io/skillteam
KTB Retro Computing Productions
One of my favourite devs in 2025 was KTB. I have loved each and every one of the games they have released. They all have incredible playability and neat graphical touches and are well worth checking out. No fewer than 3 games were released in the Throbin’ series, Painter Man was superb, DiaTanX, Little John, Maisie Day and Chump Town round out a productive year with quality and consistency throughout.
KTB’s games can be found here: https://ktbproductions.itch.io/
Bubbling Under
No fewer than 3 new games with a bubbly theme were released on the Speccy in 2025. Bubble in Trouble is a superb puzzle platform game from Bitmagine Studio. I really enjoyed this one, the 26 levels are perfectly pitched and present a hugely enjoyable challenge. Bubble Cop by Gabriele Amore is similarly superb. It plays a bit like Flicky and Teddy Boy on the Master System and is as colourful and addictive as a packet of Opal Fruits. Finally some cheap Bubble Bobble rip off called “BubbleBack” was released, but the less said about that the better.
Bubble in Trouble https://bitmagine.itch.io/bubble-in-trouble
Bubble Cop https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/zxdb/sinclair/entries/0044314/BubbleCop.tap.zip
BubbleBack https://sloanysoft.itch.io/bubbleback
BASIC Brilliance
Ever since Alex Cooper , AKA “Animated Al” got his hands on RGL’s The Spectrum, he’s been churning out Sinclair BASIC games at a terrifying rate. Whether it’s BASIC versions of stone cold classics like Deathchase or Manic Miner; or original creations like Bird Strike or Find the Beer, Al’s games always have an entertaining edge. In addition, his friendly YouTube tutorials are extremely useful for those who are having their first forays into learning Sinclair BASIC.
Al’s games can be downloaded here: https://animatedal.itch.io/
And the rest…
Some of the other games that have caught my eye in 2025 were
Hit the Fan, the third (or should that be “turd”) game in Rich Hollins’ Turdsly trilogy and his best yet; S1NCLA1R C1TY, a stylish genre mashing epic by Javier Fopiani; Football Manager Revisited 2025, the latest highly addictive update to Kevin Toms’ classic management sim by Glen Anderson; and World of Spells, a “you won’t believe it unless you see it in action” first person shooter.
Hit the Fan https://df-design.itch.io/hit-the-fan
S1NCLA1R C1TY https://javierfopiani.itch.io/s1ncla1r-c1ty
Football Manager Revisited 2025 https://fm1982-revisited.yolasite.com/fmr-2025-26.php
World of Spells https://jtpl.itch.io/world-of-spells
SO…That top 5 then?
So what games made my top 5? Well that’s something I can only post in the new year, after all you never know what games will be released in the next few days.
Do let me know if any of your favourites are mentioned here or if I’ve missed anything amazing, after all, well over 200 brand new games were released for the ZX Spectrum this year!
As you know I have been holding off on Spectrum until my Magenta next arrives but I fear at that point I shall be swamped by games ive missed this and next year! So many releases, some def choice A grade, many not but thats any retro system since inception so not new.
Your above list though was a great read and made me grab some I have missed so far this year. Might have to boot the +2 so I don’t get too far behind though!
Great post!
Awesome! Yeah some of these are not objectively “the best” games and won’t be to everyone’s taste, but I’ve really enjoyed every one of them.