Completing my training arc: 2024 roundup and my goals for 2025
Hello! It’s the new year and I’ve spent the last couple of weeks getting some much-needed rest.
Now that I’ve spent a while away from work, I’m finding it much easier to reflect on the progress that I’ve made over the course of 2024 and decide what I want to work on next.
Much like my goals for 2024 and 2023, I decided to post this one on my blog. It’s a long one!
Speaking of blog posts, I also wrote about Ghosts ‘n Goblins and The Punisher, and by extension, arcade action-platformers and beat em ups as a whole. So check them out if you want to hear me rambling about a couple of late 80s arcade game genres.
My favorite games of 2024
This week I've been playing way too much Shiren the Wanderer 6 and loving it! I'm a huge fan of the series and this might just be my favorite one so far. It's easily my favorite new game of the year, so check it out if you're at all interested in turn-based roguelikes. It's very accessible to new players too!
My other favorite new game was Shadow of the Ninja Reborn, an action platformer by Japanese veteran developers Tengo Project. Honorable mentions go to Angel at Dusk, a shoot em up with a tutorial that I love; Redneg All Stars Swing-By Edition, a cute and breezy boss rush shoot em up; Sylvie RPG, an endearing little bump combat action RPG; and Webfishing, which was fun to play in the background while hanging out with friends in a group chat.
I spent most of 2024 playing games that were more than a year old, but were nonetheless new to me. My favorites were Ghouls 'n Ghosts, The Punisher, SonSon, Mice Tea (18+/NSFW) and Melty Blood Actress Again Current Code (I play Full Moon White Len). I wrote blog posts about those first three games and I might even expand the post on The Punisher into a video that explains how to play the game, and by extension how to start going for 1 credit clears in arcade beat em ups.
If I had to narrow it down to just a few choices, I'd say my favorite games that I played for the first time in 2024 are Shiren the Wanderer 6, Ghouls 'n Ghosts, The Punisher and Mice Tea. I wholeheartedly recommend all of them, if they look like your kind of thing.
Anything else?
Joel Haver set out to create and release twelve feature films in 2024 and he somehow actually did it, releasing the twelfth movie on New Year's Eve. You can see them all here! I'm a huge fan of all the ones I've watched so far, and I'm looking forward to seeing the rest. My favorites are The Text, The 9th Movie and You're Point Girl, but I think that says more about my taste than it does about the quality of the other movies. It's unbelievably inspiring to see how much incredible art someone can create if they get help from their friends and don't waste their time on pointless production values or overthinking things.
That's about it. I'd love to jump back into working on my game but I really need a few more days of rest, so I'm going to go play some Melty Blood and hang out with friends until Monday. I hope you all have a great couple of weeks and I'll see you next time!