2024 was rough. I am not going to sugar coat it, things kind of blew up for me and the people I know this year. I have been inundated with a lot of mysterious health issues that I have no answers for and still have yet to recover from. Friends and friends of friends faced probably one of their worst years ever. And on top of that, any optimism I may have had at the beginning of the year was crushed pretty heavily towards the end. But, one thing that kept me going throughout 2024 was video games. My longtime favorite hobby proved to be a pretty big crutch this year with everything going on and although I didn't have the opportunity to play any new games per se, my sizable backlog more than kept me entertained, filling my year with long-awaited playthroughs and loose ends that needed tying up. And, you know, I have my favorites and I have my least favorites and to not linger on the negative going into 2025, I am only going to list the former. So, without further ado, my:
Top Ten Games of 2024
To preface this list a little bit, I will be leaving out one entry out of my actual top ten. I know, already breaking the rules of the assignment, wowie, but look. The ninth best game I played last year was not really a game but, rather, an epilogue to a game added in a later "definitive edition" rerelease. That being, Xenoblade Chronicles - Future Connected. Now on my personal record keeping, I am fully okay with considering this one of the best games I played this year, in my opinion DLC campaigns and stuff like that should be counted separately as they are separate releases that can, and often do, provide their own significant experiences divorced from the "main content", Geoff Keighley is right. However I also feel like doing a "top ten games" list, it feels just a bit dishonest to include what is an expansion. I will talk about it in my honorable mentions later on in the list but for now, just know numbers 10 and 9 on this list are really numbers 11 and 10. With that disclaimer out of the way, let's do this thing.
Number 10: No Straight Roads
No Straight Roads almost didn't make this list. Not only because, obviously, I had originally ranked it at number 11, but because for much of the year, No Straight Roads wasn't even close to the top ten. When I initially played it, I always liked it, but I initially was like "this game has too many issues to be like ranked super high", and I originally ranked it closer to an 8/10 than the 9/10 I would later come to rank it. But over the course of the year, I originally played this game back in March, No Straight Roads did not leave my head. I thought about it constantly, and every time I did the game got better to me.
No Straight Roads has you taking the role of Mayday and Zuke, the two members of a two-person indie rock group named Bunk Bed Junction. We open with them auditioning on a reality competition show, the titular No Straight Roads, in an attempt to gain a recording contract and make it into the big leagues. NSR, the competition show in question, is not only effectively the music industry but also the ruling body of the place where the game is set, Vinyl City, being an allegedly democratically elected governing body in charge of the city's infrastructure, so being approved by them is not only an excellent musical opportunity but a great chance to help people. The duo are, unfortunately, rejected, with the head of NSR, a mysterious woman with a rocky complexion named Tatania, stating that rock is dead and the only music people want to listen to these days is EDM.
The duo, while licking their wounds, go to the city's skyline and discover that a blackout is in the midst of happening, an apparently common occurrence in this city. However they quickly realize that power to the central hub of the city, controlled by the six leaders of NSR and home to the city's wealthy populace, is still online while the outskirts of the city, the "slums" as it were, are in complete darkness. Infuriated, the two begin a plan: start a rock revolution, take down the heads of NSR, and make a more egalitarian Vinyl City where blackouts stop happening. I realize this sounds like a very bog-standard "rock revolution" narrative, rock music being beat down by popular trends and rising up to prove it's the "true music" but trust me, this game has a lot of nuance as it goes on.
No Straight Roads really resonates with me though with how it tells stories through boss design. The game is something like a Cuphead where, while at first you think it's going to be one thing, in No Straight Roads' case a sort of character action hack n' slash akin to Devil May Cry or Bayonetta, what it actually is in practice is a series of very challenging and creative boss fights. These boss fights are not just superbly done, creating some of the most memorable bosses in gaming history and also 1010, but they tell individual stories, a Vtuber who is made of four distinct creatives who slowly come together to try and defend their creation from you onslaught. A child prodigy whose love for classical music is slowly being taken away by a literal controlling stage mom. EVE. Just. EVE. It's incredibly well done, made even moreso by this super charming visual style and incredible soundtrack. Many people compare it to the works of Double Fine, citing Psychonauts specifically as a comparison, and I think that if Double Fine had made this game, it would be the best game they had ever made. It's really something special.
Number 9: StarTropics
In StarTropics you play as Mike Jones, a kid who recently arrived to an island in the South Pacific to visit his uncle, the scientist Dr. Steven Jones (Dr. Jones, you get it?) When he arrives on the island, however, the residents of the local village tell him that Dr. Jones has disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Armed with a yo-yo and Dr. Jones' robotic buddy, the Nav-Com, Mike goes on a quest, solving problems for the islanders of the South Pacific and finding clues as to the disappearance of Mike's uncle. This game goes some absolutely insane places from that summary, things I was not expecting, but feel right for what this game is attempting to accomplish.
As mentioned previously, StarTropics sets itself both apart and kind of above its contemporaries in my opinion, is its tone and setting. I love fantasy adventure games, don't get me wrong, you will see at least one such game on this list later on let me tell ya, but StarTropics' unique tone and setting really gives it an edge in the genre. In modern discussion, I've seen people liken to Earthbound, and its a comparison I find very apt. Both are games that balk their genre conventions, whereas everything surrounding them goes for a hard sort of sword and sorcery fantasy or a science fantasy, both games are set in approximations of the modern day. And, most importantly, their core philosophies are very similar, both choosing to use familiar trappings of modern childhood to make the adventure seem more immersive. Mike, like Ness, does not fight with swords or spears or axes, he fights with baseballs, yo-yos, and slingshots. He references modern pop culture and comes from a Flanderized US where everything is burgers and flags and it just all serves to make the game feel like an adventure out of the imagination of the child.
And, of course, we cannot talk about StarTropics without talking about the biggest thing about it. I'm so sad this is something that I could not experience for myself, because like. Okay. The letter in StarTropics has become so famous that I think we really don't think about it in terms of how cool it is, you know? For those who somehow do not know, StarTropics has a puzzle in it that has a very cool solution that further cements the treasure hunt nature of the game. The solution was that when you purchased StarTropics, the game came with a letter that setup the story, the letter from Dr. Jones inviting his nephew to the island, and when you get to a certain part of the game, you must dip the letter into water to find a secret code to progress in the game. A very obvious anti-piracy measure, admittedly, but also a huge part of the reason this game is so cool and so special. And I played on Switch where, obviously, there is no way to get the physical letter, but also no alternative like in previous rereleases where the game would show a graphic of you dipping a digital letter into water. I'm so bummed I didn't get to experience this first hand but it's a part of the game I will always find brilliant regardless.
Number 8: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game
I feel as though if you're reading this, you probably are already aware of the plot of Scott Pilgrim, but just in case, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game is an adaptation of both the comic book series "Scott Pilgrim" and its film adaptation "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World". In the Scott Pilgrim series, the eponymous character meets the literal girl of his dreams, Ramona Flowers, one day and begins pursuing a romantic relationship with her. Scott finds out pretty quickly though that it's not that simple, as Ramona is effectively being stalked by her various ex-partners, all of whom are video game-style bosses that Scott must overcome one after the other, in more or less chronological order. The main difference in the game's version of that narrative is that Scott, who otherwise has to endure the quest on his own, now has help from Ramona herself, friends Stephen, Kim, and Wallace, and Scott's own ex-girlfriend, Knives. And in single player you can choose freely who to play as, meaning that, you know what, Kim is going to fight for the right to date Ramona why not. I chose Kim, she's obviously the correct choice, I don't know what to tell you.
The number one thing that caused me to revisit and, by extension, grow to love Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game is the music. The soundtrack is handled by chiptune artists Anamanaguchi, who are arguably THE group that turned chiptune from a hobbyist genre for video game nerds to a serious genre of music worth standing on its own legs. The Pentatonix of chiptune, if you will. The soundtrack is great, packed with high-energy, iconic stage themes, I think about songs like Another Winter and Rock Club constantly. When I was playing through it, in fact I messaged friends about Rock Club because like immediately I was going "this is one of my favorite pieces of video game music I think I've ever heard".
On top of that, while I've grown to kind of roll my eyes at retro throwbacks, it feels like the indie market is just oversaturated with people only trying to remake old things these days, I'm also a hypocrite who will always turn out for River City style gameplay. The blend of RPG and Beat 'em up elements is just seamless, it feels so right. I love that you manage your stats by food and music and games, it creates a modern RPG world that has a lot of life and depth and makes you go "you know what, I also feel a bit stronger after eating ramen". Even if this game can be a little too rough at times and doesn't checkpoint enough in my opinion, it's just such a fun time, I can't help but love it.
Number 7: Gunstar Heroes
And I do mean for some reason, like, this is going to be the shortest entry on the list, I would not be surprised if some honorable mentions get more attention than this. Like, it's difficult to quantify a vibe, you know? Gunstar Heroes has a vibe I love, something that clicked with me inherently that no other game in the genre ever had. Like I'm sorry I'm not saying anything interesting but like, Gunstar Heroes is just good, it's fun, go play it. I don't know, number 6 I guess sorry this entry was so boring.
Number 6: The Next Penelope: Race to Odysseus
.jpg)
The Next Penelope: Race to Odysseus is an interesting take on the events of the Odyssey. Set in a distant future in a far off galaxy that represents mythological Greece. You take the role of Penelope, whose husband has been out for many years on a quest to hunt Cyclopes that dominate just outside of known space. Penelope has recently been tasked by the god Poseidon to do something about her wayward husband, offering her a single chance to find her husband and bring him home before he brings about his wrath against him. Penelope boards a ship and after a brief conflict with the suitors, takes to the galaxy, tapping the various planets surrounding her home planet of Ithaca for information on her husband's whereabouts.
The most immediately striking thing about the Next Penelope is how it reinterprets Greek mythology to match its sci-fi setting. One of the many areas Penelope goes to, for instance, is an asteroid belt where ships are known to disappear. She quickly discovers the area is ran by a band of space pirates who have been luring ships in with promises of trade, only to catch them in their tractor beam, murder the pilots, and scrap their ships for parts. Another planet is a giant octagonal fortress ran by a cyborg who ran afoul of the goddess Athena and now lives surrounded by machines, ready to lash out against any gods that come within striking difference of her. Still another planet in a massive, confusing prison planet ran by a giant aggressive warden who uses his superior strength to make sure no prisoners escape. These aren't like game-changing interpretations by any stretch, one may even think of them as obvious, but they are cool nonetheless and really enhance the worldbuilding of this universe.
The game is also an incredibly challenging and rewarding sci-fi racer. From what I understand, this is an entire genre of games I just don't really know about, the top down sci-fi racer. But either way I'm really into this, the track design in combination with the powerups you're given makes racing so satisfying. There's something infinitely compelling about figuring out a strategy for a race through your failures and then watching it come together in a perfect run, it's so sick. And on top of that the boss fights using your powerups in super creative ways, having to teleport between lanes and lay down mines and stuff? This game is fun, I would love to see some sort of expanded version because it is, unfortunately, very short, but still excellent.
Number 5: Final Fantasy XII - The Zodiac Age
Final Fantasy XII sets itself apart from most Final Fantasy games in that, while the previous entries in the Final Fantasy series tended to focus on either a ragtag group of nameless protags who need to kill god to fulfill their employment qualifications, or a group of emotionally scarred anime people who need to kill god to resolve their trauma, XII has basically no god killing in it! XII instead opts for a geopolitical storyline, focusing on the internal politics of the setting, the world of Ivalice. I realize that sounds incredibly boring but also y'all watched Game of Thrones so I don't want to hear it. Ivalice has recently experienced a pretty big political shift, an empire from the northern part of the land has been expanding more and more into other territories and has, in the past several years, overtaken the small independent kingdom of Dalmasca, a centrally located kingdom between the three main land masses that encompass Ivalice.
After a brief prologue, showing a firsthand account of the fall of Dalmasca, we enter our story a considerable time after the fall. We start by meeting Vaan and Penelo, two teenagers in the post-conquest capital city of Dalmasca, Rabanastre. Vaan and Penelo are both street urchins, poor orphans who do odd jobs for various people in Rabanastre to make it by. After returning home from one such job, they find the city is in an uproar as, after all this time, the Empire has appointed a governor over Rabanastre and this arrival of the new governor sets in motion a series of events that eventually leads Vaan to being caught up in the midst of a rebellion to restore the Kingdom of Dalmasca, led by the missing princess Ashe.
Final Fantasy XII is, narratively, nothing special, but honestly I find it very compelling anyways. You don't really get a lot of JRPGs that focus this hard into geopolitics, frequently the genre is dominated by, well, as previously mentioned either simplistic fairytales of a ragtag group of heroes taking on the world or incredibly, for lack of a better word, anime storylines full of trauma and big emotions. XII, meanwhile, focuses on the world, something very unique for a Final Fantasy game but just something that sets it apart from the genre as a whole. Throughout the game, random NPCs comment on the shifting political landscape of Ivalice, and opinions are surprisingly deep and nuanced for random bits of incidental dialogue. It's not just one thing ever, people aren't like "Empire good" or "Empire evil" or what have you, they talk about money and opportunity under the empire while also mentioning dissatisfaction with their lack of independence and the increase in military control. Some people are pro-empire while others are against it and still many more others are indifferent. Even the main narrative, the rebellion, has a constantly shifting and evolving purpose as Ashe must decide whether or not another bloody war is even good for her people or if it's better for now to exist as an independent state under the Empire.
Where XII really shines though is its gameplay. Final Fantasy XII is a real-time action RPG inspired heavily by MMO combat. This part evoked a sense of familiarity with me, as I am a big fan of the first Xenoblade Chronicles and, although the two systems are very different, this sort of AI-controlled auto-attack while I make decisions on what to do made me feel very at home. But where XII's combat gets really good is in the Gambits. Gambits allow you to program your characters to automatically do specific actions when they see different checks occur. So as an example, you can, say, tell your healer "if party member HP is less than 20%, then cast Curaga on party member". You can program them with up to 12 (heh, get it) actions, which they will fulfill in order of when checks are reached so if your first slot says "cast blizzard" and your second slot says "normal attack" the party member in question will continuously cast blizzard until they run out of MP.
This system is incredibly in-depth, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of possible commands to program the party with as well as three different build slots for each party member. At first this was intimidating but as it went on I found it to be one of the most rewarding RPG combat systems I've ever experienced. Planning out a specific strategy against bosses and watching it be executed in real-time, fantastic, simply fantastic. There are so many nuances to experiment with, so many situational "ifs" to put into a build to let it do crazy stuff, just an absolute joy to play. And fortunately, at least the Zodiac Age version has a fast-forward button, keeping gameplay fast-paced, as it runs pretty slowly at its base speed.
Final Fantasy XII - The Zodiac Age also contains a job system that is effectively the best of everything I loved in previous Final Fantasy games I've played and liked. I grew up on Final Fantasy X so my heart will always belong to the Sphere Grid, and XII's license board really invokes the same vibes for me. The license board is a sort of chessboard that the characters are placed on, corresponding to a selected class (and later on a second class if you so choose, which you probably will) and as they defeat enemies they gain license points which go towards unlocking new licenses. Licenses range from major stat boosts to abilities and magicks to even your armor. It's like a more expansive version of the Sphere Grid but it also limits the characters to specific grids so as to not be too intimidating. But also it rewards creative building as by combining classes in certain ways and being smart with your unlockables, you can get secret licenses which massively buff your characters, it's so good. Final Fantasy XII is just such an underrated entry, y'all.
Number 4: Owlboy
Owlboy is set in a land entirely in the sky, around the floating city of Advent. In this land, humans coexist with a humanoid race of owls, a wise, ancient people who centuries ago built massive temples and structures around the sky world. What these temples are for is, in the present, mostly lost knowledge, and the Owls themselves have become fewer and fewer in number. We take control of one of the last Owls, Otus, the eponymous Owlboy, a young, danger-prone owl who only recently earned his cloak, allowing him limited flight, who is attempting to prove himself to his overly strict master. After his village is attacked by a band of pirates who are seeking to learn all the lost secrets of the Owls, Otus must set out on a quest to stop the Pirates' captain from amassing the secret power of the Owls and destroying the Skylands as we know it. Joined by his self-proclaimed best friend Geddy, the former pirate Alphonse, and enemy-turned-ally Twig, the group must seek redemption and uncover the truth of the Owls.
Owlboy is rather unique in the pantheon of indie games in that it has a relatively niche inspiration. Owlboy is somewhat of a retro throwback, attempting to revive a style of game that we haven't seen in a long time. This is a pretty common theme in indie game development, but Owlboy has a unique inspiration, that being the original Kid Icarus games. The developer was, reportedly, driven to explore this very vertical platforming by the renewed interest in Kid Icarus that came in the wake of Smash Bros. Brawl and the subsequent demand for a new entry in the series. And I think as a successor to Kid Icarus, Owlboy works much better than what we actually got, but that's a conversation for another day. This very vertical action adventure, focusing on flight and the platforming opportunities it gives you is a lost art, I really dig it.
Puzzle solving in Owlboy is also superb. You have a lot of puzzles built around Otus's ability to carry things over large gaps due to his flight, but these are not exactly changing the game even though they are rather fun. The puzzles truly shine in how they utilize the partners. Otus can freely swap between his three comrades during gameplay and each is equipped with a projectile. Geddy has a peashooter that fires weak but fast pellets, being the only weapon of the trio with no cooldown. This not only makes Geddy very effective in combat but also lets him kick around various objects for puzzle solving. Alphonse has a large, powerful musket which has incredible destructive capabilities for both combat and puzzle solving but needs to recharge after use, during which it can be used as a torch to move about dark areas easily. And Twig shoots his webs, which can stun enemies so Otus can deal with them more easily but also functions as a grappling hook, allowing Otus a quick, convenient way to get to and around obstacles that either he cannot normally reach and/or allowing him to get around the limits of his flight. Combining all these movesets together, you get a variety of puzzle solving tools that are used incredibly effectively throughout the game.
You also can't talk about Owlboy without talking about its theme. Owlboy is one of the "cute indie games that's about depression", after all. Otus spends much of the game feeling like he is a failure, due to his strict upbringing, his tendency to make mistakes, and, of course, the crushing weight of being possibly the last of a dying race being place upon his shoulders. While Otus himself is mute, the game communicates him having particularly rough episodes by making him lose his ability to fly, forcing him to walk for various periods of the game. Frequently this is accompanied by him huddling up under his cloak and looking sad. While I'm not going to say this is the most deep portrayal of this theme in gaming, it is rather effective for what it is, adding a lot of depth to what would otherwise be a blank slate protagonist.
Number 3: A Hat in Time
A Hat in Time follows the adventures of Hat Kid, an extraterrestial scientist who is in the midst of a return trip home on her spaceship which is powered by time. Hat Kid ends up passing by a planet and, as she does, she is met with one of the planets' residents, a large Russian man who states that he is of the mafia and that he is here to collect a toll for passing by the planet. Hat Kid refuses this absurd demand, which causes the Mafia man to break into her ship, causing her collection of "Time Pieces" the concentrated time needed to fuel her ship, to scatter down to the planet below. Hat Kid starts her adventure to reclaim her time pieces, and quickly meets an ally in the form of a little red hooded girl with a mustache, appropriately named Mustache Girl. After a few adventures together, the duo defeat the mafia and Mustache Girl finds out that the Time Pieces are concentrated time and, if used in a certain way, would allow one to travel through time. She quickly becomes infuriated that Hat Kid has so much power that she is unwilling to use to help people while she is living under the rule of an organized crime boss who overtook her home, and decides to hoard the Time Pieces for herself, intending to use them to "fix" the world. Hat Kid must, of course, travel around the planet to get her lost Time Pieces before Mustache Girl can use them to destroy the time stream.
Like many modern members of this genre, A Hat in Time does cite mostly N64 games as its primary influences, but I think the games A Hat in Time has the most in common with come a generation later. I was struck while playing it how much this game reminded me of games like Sly Cooper, a childhood favorite of mine. Hat Kid's diverse moveset and range of abilities provided to her via her changing hats really invoke the PS2/Xbox/GameCube era more than the PS1/N64, in my opinion. The platforming is faster paced and feels both very retro and very modern at the same time, akin to an era later than the golden age of Rareware. Hat Kid has a jump dive, a double jump, a wall jump, AND a grappling hook, it's such a good movement kit, moving about the game's world feels so satisfying. I love a platformer that has so many movement options that you can look at a place and go "can I get there in a really weird way" and you can! Player freedom, love to see it.
A Hat in Time is, famously, full of memorable characters. The heavily accented eccentric Western movie direct the Conductor, the over the top legal obsessed phantom the Snatcher, basically any member of the Mafia, these characters are immediately endearing and incredibly quotable. The Conductor's quotes have literally changed the language of one community I'm in, they're so iconic. But I think a very interesting note is that at no point in this story is any named character you meet a good person. They're all thieves and liars and murderers and what have you, a cast of absolutely insane, morally messed up people that Hat Kid is forced to war with as the game goes along. On the rare circumstances you are allied with them, in fact, it's often just because there's some worse person in the room that you need their aid to deal with. It really brings into question whether or not it's okay Hat Kid isn't doing anything with her power source and I like that. Morally ambiguous bright fun platformer, we love to see it.
A Hat in Time also accomplishes something that I don't always feel like the genre, even in instances I like, is great at: making the player want to collect everything. I think unfortunately most of the time collectathons end up assuming the player inherently wants to collect everything, and don't give them a great reason to want to accomplish that goal if they are not already going to do it, creating a lot of level design that is very obtuse or unfun but is packed with collectibles. Or in certain cases, more or less force you to collect everything to even beat the game, making you endure numerous unfun, tedious levels and objectives to even have an opportunity to face the final boss. A Hat in Time, though, has fun, approachable level design which makes you really want to go in and find every Time Piece while not making the levels feel too "video gamey". It makes for a fast paced, rewarding experience that makes the player want to collect everything because they want to experience more of this world and this gameplay. Like I basically never 100% games anymore and I happily did it for A Hat in Time.
On top of all of that though, A Hat in Time is also super experimental with its objectives and level design. The first world is largely this big open area but it only opens up objective by objective until you face the Mafia Boss and suddenly the entire world opens up to you. But then the second world is a series of contained, largely linear levels taking place on film sets, but then those levels have a ton of variety in them. There's a stealth level, there's a level where you travel around talking to NPCs to gain fans, there's an entire murder mystery level. The third world is a spooky haunted woods area where you are basically give free roam but the Snatcher gives you the down-low on what objectives he wants you to complete. And if you've played the game, you know how creative and amazing some of the Subcon objectives are. And then in the fourth and final world in the base game you are just given free reign, allowing you to find the objectives. It's such a cool design arc, I'm such a big fan, I love A Hat in Time.
Number 2: Kirby's Dream Course
In Kirby's Dream Course, you take control of the iconic video game protagonist Kirby. And you. Play. Golf. That's the summary, the summary is over now.
Okay, there's more to it mechanically than that, obviously, but story-wise that's basically it, there's something about King Dedede stealing all the stars and Kirby having to play mini golf to get them back but, honestly, it's just a rough setup to explain why Kirby is playing golf. The main reason this works so well is how it combines Kirby and golf gameplay. See, Kirby himself is the ball. You are attempting to guide Kirby to the hole in as few shots as possible, and you can spin, lob, even bounce him to accomplish this goal. I believe almost every hole even has a specific combo of moves to get a hole in one, I wouldn't know though, I ultimately ended up getting three of them, no biggie.
How you get to the holes though is not as simple as it would be in normal golf, however. The hole actually begins each "hole" hidden to the player(s). Instead, they are faced with an assortment of Kirby enemies. The player(s) must take shots firing Kirby (or Keeby if you're playing multiplayer) at enemies, attempting to take them off the board and replace them with stars. Once all but one of the enemies is off the board, the final enemy will then transform into the hole, which, when landed into, will net the player two stars. And this is where the game truly lies.
Kirby's Dream Course, while at first appearing to be a simple sports spin-off of the Kirby franchise, is actually a puzzle game. You as the player are tasked with the goal of trying to achieve the hole in as few strokes as possible, in single player to get par and finish the courses while in multiplayer, it's to try and get more stars than your opponent to get the high score. And to help you on this goal is a classical seed to Kirby copy abilities, each retuned to work in the context of golf. Stone drops you where you activate it, Needle causes you to stick where you land instead of bouncing, Ice causes you to slide and helps you get over water hazards, etc. It is so much fun strategizing how to approach a hole or when it just clicks for you and you go "oh my god, this is how I get the hole in one" and you execute it for a big score swing. It focuses on the right parts of virtual golf to produce what is not just one of the best sports games of all time, but one of the best puzzle games of all time.
Honorable Mentions:
Note, the following are not necessarily the games after 10, this isn't like another top x list detailing other games, just random games this year I liked and think are interesting and want to talk about.
Walden, a game
One of, if not the most unique and interesting games I played this year, Walden is an adaptation of "Walden" by Henry David Thoreau. Framing the book and, by extension, his experiment as a survival game, you must survive an in-game year (around 6 hours) around Walden pond. It is a very honest, introspective piece about self-sufficiency, communing with nature, loss, life in the 1840s and so much else. I didn't ultimately think it was great as a game, but it's a rather wonderful little experience if this at all interests you conceptually.
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
Though I ended up more mixed on this game than most (and you can read my various thoughts on it here), it's still a beloved title that I'm very glad to have played and even though I feel like it has some really low points, when it works, it really works. I can see why it's so beloved if nothing else, even if I personally find it to be a bit overrated.
Metroid: Zero Mission
I've had a complicated relationship with many of post-Super 2D Metroids where I overall like them but there tends to be just one big thing about them that drags the experience down enough for me to make me go "this isn't a 5/5 for me". Zero Mission doesn't have that, Zero Mission is just the most good Metroid, it doesn't do anything spectacular like Dread or Fusion but it doesn't do anything wrong in my opinion either, it's just good Metroid, just good all around.
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
I feel Zelda II has gotten an undeserved bad rep for both not really feeling like a Zelda game in hindsight as well as its higher than average difficulty. In my opinion though, Zelda II is a hidden gem in the series. It's so tonally unique, once upon a time I read the suggestion of Zelda II getting a FromSoft remake, reconceptualizing the game as a Soulsborne and, at the time, I was like "that sounds terrible, who wants that" I want that. That's such a good idea. Like most Souls games, Zelda II exists in this dying, hopeless world. Monsters have overtaken the countryside, the few surviving Hylians are partitioned off in small, barren towns, the landscape is dotted with graveyards of fallen soldiers. It is practically the blueprint for the genre, it works so well.
Shining Force
For much of the time I was playing Shining Force, I was speaking very highly of it. An excellent turn-based tactical RPG on literally the console you'd least expect one of those to exist on, the Sega Genesis. It has so many unique units and a bunch of interesting if not a bit too difficult maps to strategize on. And on top of that, it has a world where people don't just believe in good vs. evil on this quest, the Shining Force is battling an empire and as they make ground they are facing people who frankly have their lives improved living under the empire and see the Shining Force as a group of rabble rousers trying to make the world worse on a quest for revenge. It ultimately didn't get there for me though as the last few chapters kind of fail to stick the landing, becoming too much of a bog standard good vs. evil narrative where the emperor of the empire is like "I didn't mean to be an emperor, I was being controlled by dark magic", disappointing.
Costume Quest
A rare Double Fine game which actually has pretty fun gameplay on top of its fun concept and hilarious writing, who'd've thought it was possible! Full disclosure, I played this at the right time of the year, which I realize why wouldn't I, it's literally a Halloween game, why wouldn't I play it around Halloween. But like, I guess I'm worried that I don't really like it as much as I do, I was just in the spirit of the season. Either way though, concept is insanely cool, turn-based RPG where you play as children who, in the midst of battle, become whatever costume they're currently wearing. Combat may be very simple but the charm makes you almost forgive it. And there's a hot goth lady as a villain, bonus!
Super Mario Advance
I can officially say after this year something I've kind of always knew but never knew for sure because I've only ever beaten Mario 1: Mario 2 is my favorite of the NES Mario games. Great music, fun gameplay, amazing art style, Birdo. And I have to give it up to the best version of Mario 2, the GBA port, which has all the goodness from the All-Stars version of Mario 2 while also having some voice acting you will either find obnoxious or endearing. And also an amazing remake of the Mario Bros. arcade game which makes it, you know. Fun.
Side Pocket
I almost wish I played fewer good games this year so Side Pocket could also make it onto my Top Ten, it would be so funny. Side Pocket rules, it's billiards but it's real good billiards, I have so much fun playing Side Pocket. Billiards games peaked on the SNES in 1993 and we've just been chasing that high ever since. Data East isn't known for having that many wins but Side Pocket is absolutely a big win.
20 Small Mazes
20 Small Mazes is probably the shortest game I played this year but man, is it real good. So many creative little mazes, it feels like the experience of getting a brain teasers book when you were a kid and solving all the little puzzles within. I know the devs of this are working on a Jigsaw puzzle game, super excited to see where they go with that.
Kirby's Dream Land 3
Another entry in the "games I didn't think I would like as much as I did" category, I do not otherwise like the Dark Matter trilogy. It's not what I want out of Kirby, I don't care, give me Super Star. But Dream Land 3 really won me over with its adorable art style and how fun the powerup/animal buddy mixing was. There are so many cute, creative and powerful results, it kept me in that wow factor I had with playing 64 for the first time without letting me down like 64 always has.
Mini Metro
I spent a good chunk of this year getting addicted to Mini Metro, it was kind of a problem to say the least. I love this minimalist aesthetic Mini Metro has, it's such a vibe, you know. And it really juxtaposes how stressful this game can be. Fun fact, I played through most of the game without knowing you could pause it to rework your lines, I did so many stages in real time, I played hard mode and I didn't even have to, I feel so dumb.
Hyperspace Dogfights
There are a surprising lack of roguelikes on this list, given how frequently I end up addicted to the genre, and this one almost made the cut. It literally got knocked off by me moving No Straight Roads and Scott Pilgrim up late into the year. It's a roguelike shmup that plays like Asteroids and focuses on dogfighting, it's fun and challenging and like all shmups I am bad at it, hit a wall and despite really liking the game have to stop because my options are "only play this" or "say I love it and then move on to something I can beat".
Jet Set Radio
I'm not going to talk too much about Jet Set Radio, as I played half of it in 2024 and half of it in 2025 and as such it qualifies for the 2025 list, which it's like to end up on. But this game's cool, I'm now super excited for whatever Sega is cooking with the new Jet Set.
Xenoblade Chronicles: Future Connected
Here it is, my technical actual number 9. I have, unfortunately, kind of fallen out of love with the Xenoblade franchise, while I loved the original game to the point where I still consider it one of my favorite games of all time, the long time between that game and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 saw me change a whole lot as a person and I walked away from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 thinking it was one of the worst games of all time. Future Connected kind of brought me back a little, while I don't like some of the writing in it and don't feel like it's necessary, it was just nice seeing these characters again and finally getting to go to a place that was always just off screen in the main game due to time and budget constraints. I don't think I'm ever going to humor a new Xenoblade game, mind, but I'm glad I came back for this at least.
Slay the Spire
Another honorable mention that would've made the list if not for other circumstances, Slay the Spire is fantastic. The only reason it didn't make the list is because my personal data tracking (which you can find here) doesn't really allow for games I've been working towards for many years, which Slay the Spire is perhaps the biggest example, and while mostly I just start a new file, I picked up from where I had left off last time I had a Spire binge here. Game's great though, love Slay the Spire, stoked for the sequel.
Super Mario 64
Earlier this year, I fell back in love with Super Mario 64. I had always, like, liked it, don't get me wrong, but for a long time I was like "I like Super Mario 64 but it's aged a bit and there are so many parts I don't like about it that I think it's like an 8/10". I played it earlier this year, 100%-ed it no question, game is amazing. Holds up wonderfully. It holds up better than basically any other game on the N64, frankly. I still probably like Odyssey more than it, but it's way closer than I ever imagined. And did you know the speedrun tricks are pretty easy? Now I want to give 16-star a shot.
Alright, no more delays, here it is.
Number 1
On December 12th, 2024, the tenth annual Game Awards broadcast. In a surprising turn of events, the show which, a year before, had been nigh unwatchable and full of controversy was, against all odds, good. Not great, but, you know, good. Award winners got to speak, the pacing of the show, while still a problem, was a whole lot better, and by and large the announcements were popping off. The wildest Pac-Man game you could ever imagine, The Witcher IV, the first look at Slay the Spire 2, Tifa missing Tekken and I'm definitely okay with that trust me, Split Fiction, a new game by the guys who made ICO, one of my favorite games of all time. Genuinely, the night was going great, especially if you're me and you're definitely okay with Tifa missing Tekken, which I am, trust me, I am totally fine with it. But, I couldn't watch the whole show, my feed cut out and I was like "okay, I need to get stuff done anyways, I'll just be in chat mode and be in and out for the rest of the night". And about 20, 30 minutes later, my phone lights up with pings. Everybody I know @-ing me about one of the last announcements of the night, an announcement that shook them and, when I found out what it was, shook me. Shook me on a deep, personal level. For you see dear reader, a mere four days before the Game Awards 2024, Sunday, December 8th, 2024, I had finished, for the first time in my life...
...Okami
Okami lets you feed pigs. This is a weird place to start I realize but like, Okami lets you feed pigs. You get a little cutscene of the pig eating their little feedbag and it's an immediate serotonin boost and it just makes you happy to be alive and it was the first moment where I really adored Okami. There are a lot of big things in Okami that make it so special, but I think the little things are really where it shines. The world is just so beautiful that you want to make everyone in it happy, and in turn making them happy gives you more power, a feedback loop that just fills this world with joy.
In 2006, both Okami and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess were released. I'm not going to act like I was there for both of them, god no, I didn't know Okami even existed until a content creator I watched circa 2011 did a Let's Play of the Wii version, but them both coming out in the same year is really interesting. Okami is very 3D Zelda inspired, and moreover obviously shares a big gameplay theme in common with Twilight Princess, being that both games prominently feature a main character that is a wolf. And with the two initially releasing on competing game consoles, for a brief time in 2006, something of a rivalry developed between Okami and Twilight Princess, with fans debating which is the better wolf Zelda game. No disrespect to Twilight Princess, it's obviously a great game, but like. If Okami was literally the exact same game as Twilight Princess just with Okami's combat system, it'd be Okami every day.
Okami's combat is insanely fun. This game was directed by Hideki Kamiya, a legend of the games industry who made both the Devil May Cry and Bayonetta series, amongst others. His style of combat is very fast-paced, combo-focused, and rather controversially tends to place the feeling of power in the hands of the player rather than the opponent. I have heard Bayonetta be described as a game where you're playing as the overpowered boss character in the past and it's an apt description. He brings that energy to Okami as well. Some may say Okami is too easy and I can certainly see how that assessment would arise, in my own playthrough the only challenging fights were post-game stuff and I never got a Game Over at any point. But I think where Kamiya tends to shine the most, and by extension where Okami tends to shine the most, is in making combat that is really fun and satisfying even if you are overpowered. Like, look, sometimes it just fun to be overpowered, there's no getting around that, but where Kamiya's work shines is focusing on learning a variety of weapons' individual strengths and weaknesses and combo potential. You feel safe to experiment with your kit because you don't have to really worry about enemies being that problematic, and it makes the fights that actually do challenge you feel that much more noteworthy and memorable.
Okami breathes Japanese mythology. It is so important to its identity as a work of art that, while I like the spin-off Okamiden quite a bit too, I know it's started to get a reputation among the fanbase of being a poor sequel and, in some cases, a straight up bad game and I don't agree, I think it's very good, I think it does miss the mark a bit by caring less about the Japanese mythology influence and more about producing a new story in this world. There are numerous characters, themes, sidequests, even the weapons Amaterasu wields, they are all some sort of reference to Japanese mythology. It gives every character in the game a lot more depth than at first glance, you get to look through this deep, rich mythology and see how they reference and adapt the original material to fit the game's hollistic world and story. As I have mentioned previously on this list, I am a mythology nerd, I grew up on mainly Greek mythology but I love learning about a culture's myths and legends and Okami more than fulfills that aspect.
Do I even need to talk about how beautiful Okami is? Okami's art direction is brilliant. To fit with its Japanese mythology theming, Okami opts for a cel-shaded, painterly look that is designed to make the entire game appear as if it's on parchment. It's a very unique art style that no other game has really done besides Okami. I always love looking out into the distance and seeing the world become less detailed and more like line drawings, it's a very clever way to depict far off geography. The wind also appears as brushstrokes, as if it's always being painted anew on the sky, really selling the effect. And this Japanese parchment scroll style is not just a great aesthetic, it is a meaningful part of the game.
Okami's main gameplay mechanic is that Amaterasu, being the high goddess of this world, can make things happen in the world. She accomplishes this by painting things into being. Paint a circle around a plant and it blooms, paint a line from a pond to somewhere else and a spout of water will move in that path, paint a crescent in the sky and turn the world to night, etc. These various powers make up the primary progression in the game, in the same way other action-adventure protagonists may gain items to help them solve puzzles and defeat enemies, Ammy gains brush techniques, lost powers that she once had but got separated from her many years ago after a bloody battle with her archenemy, the eight-headed demonic serpent Orochi. In keeping with the mythological theme, each of these Brush techniques manifests as a new god, taking the form of one of the many animals in the Eastern Zodiac, with an additional god being added in to represent the cat who was tricked out of being in the zodiac and the monkey deity separating into three to represent the three wise monkeys.
Okami is, without a doubt, one of the most magical games I've ever experienced. Just everything about it comes together to produce one of the finest games I've ever made. I have talked so much about it already and I feel like I could talk even more and still never say enough about it. Like I haven't talked about the music here, I've only barely touched on the story, barely touched on the characters, I'm missing so much. But in the interest of not making this just an Okami piece, I will stop here. Maybe someday I'll do a more expansive essay just on Okami. I always knew I loved Okami, even if I had never beaten it myself (not for lack of trying, I've owned many versions of the game over the years, another conversation for another day), and when I finally decided this would be it, I would finally finish this hanging thread I was almost worried that it wouldn't do it for me. I had seen the game many times over, through streams and Let's Plays, like I was worried that I had already become so familiar with it that finally playing it would feel like a seventh playthrough instead of a first. But, like, nah. I cried at the end of this. Just a big ol' cry. I haven't cried at the end of a game in a long time, since like, I played Earthbound for the first time. I love Okami, and I'm proud to rank it as my number one.
Thank you all for reading if you did. Here's hoping 2025 is a better year for me, my friends, and just everyone I know. But if it's not, I know there will be some good games to keep us going. Hopefully, I won't abandon this blog like I have so many others, I want to write more in 2025, I have so many thoughts about gaming that I want to put out there and hopefully, this blog will help me do that. Fingers crossed there'll be a next time and I'll see you then.
