Comment by Udo

    mysite.com/games/test_game

  instead of something like

    mysite.com/games?id=test_game
  
  Which would be the PHP solution?

I fail to see what this has to do with using PHP or not. The entire question has a background untouched by any knowledge about either Node or PHP. The answer, however well and reasonably written, is about Node only. The title implies a discussion about why to prefer Node over PHP which is just not there.

Contrary to the title, the subject here is not PHP at all.