Well, 2024. What a year, amiright? This year is one of the most dual-edged in games I've ever seen. On one hand, the game industry's reaping continues to sow seeds of collapse. On the other, the medium has seen some of its most interesting releases in ages - even compared to the juggernaut that was 2023.

It's only fair to address the former before the latter. After a literal bloodbath that was the industry job outlook last year, the industry only got worse. Layoffs continued all year, to the point that we saw them his teams before the games even released. Media isn't much better off, it too continues to bleed out in real time thanks to venture capital-inflicted wounds.

In addition to the human impacts, it's starting to look like the industry's mistakes are biting it in the ass directly. 2024 was another year of live service games crashing and burning-yes, especially Concord. Ubisoft is practically collapsing, and Square Enix is struggling to sell literally anything, and AI isn't helping. I don't know what will be the final bullet in the AAA sector, but we've gotten some real good candidates this year.

That is, of course, why it's so stupid and frustrating that we've had to spend all year suffering through a pathetic attempt to revive the GamerGate crowd. The entire year has been poisoned by opportunistic chuds constantly maulding over anything they can. And when they can’t, they once again target the marginalized voices of the community in unacceptable harassment.

These people have convinced a not insignificant amount of Gamers that the reasons they've noticed things are getting worse in the industry is because of some nebulous concepts like "wokeness" and "attractiveness" of a game's female characters. That's in spite of so much overwhelming evidence of mismanagement, mistreatment, and short-sightedness that the CEOs of the games industry have demonstrated.

However, I don't have interest in wasting my breath debunking these fucking freaks. I don't even have to, because the year 2024 is its own rebuttal. There are so many quality and interesting games that have escaped in spite of all this awfulness. I've barely scratched the surface myself, but you can see it in just how diverse other commentator's lists have been. We'll be experiencing and discovering games from this year for years to come. Trust, there's some gem out there that none of us have played just waiting for a video essay to go viral and make us all look like idiots. Hell, given how Mouthwashing took off, you could argue it already happened! 

So how does this rebut the "anti-woke" set? Because these games do not make themselves! After all the layoffs and closures, the profit seeking designs, and all this harassment, why is anyone still here at all? What other reasons would people have to stay here and make all these wonderful games because they want to.

Anyone who's ever shipped a game has already put more into this medium than I ever have. Anyone who's still doing it now, from the solo work of LocalThunk to the impossible odds afforded Firewalk, do so because they love video games. They want to put their best work forward for the sake of this art, regardless of the outcome. If they were trying to destroy games or those who play them, there's far easier ways to do so. For example, they could simply pretend to be making a game and instead spend all their time making up cultural war talking points on Twitter.

More than anything, as I share the games that spoke to me the most this year, I hope you see that same love that I see. 

Honorable Mention: Hades II

So here’s a weird question I keep having issues with: when the hell does a video game actually come out? I’ve long maintained that games get one launch, once it’s out there it’s out there. But that paradigm has shifted. Early Access, a concept that once was like a den of hucksters, has really begun to lead to some stellar games. Hades is one very good example, and Supergiant is looking to repeat the feat with a direct sequel. This creates a dilemma for me, because Hades II is already a fantastic follow up in just about every way, even with missing pieces of the whole. 

What am I supposed to do with that? Did Hades II come out in 2024 or not? I have hours and hours that sure say that it did, but I also see in Supergiant’s updates that they don’t consider this remotely close to done. That’s pretty wild to consider, because the game is already larger than its predecessor and even more mechanically deep to match. I can’t ignore what’s great, but I don’t want to be unfair either. 

I’ve also long maintained a “no honorable mentions” rule. Cutting these lists down to ten is tough, but makes the final list fruitful. Adding exceptions kind of defeats the point for me. But, if Hades II is going to operate outside convention, then I should do the same. So congrats to Supergiant on its first (and hopefully last) honorable mention from this blog. See you next year. 

Buckshot Roulette

Buckshot Roulette is an extremely simple setup: Russian Roulette, but with a shotgun. There’s more around that – an opponent with a terrifying penchant for mask wearing, rougelike elements, bumping house music in the background – but it all is in service of putting the barrel of a shotgun in your mouth. The tension is palpable in a way that other games with similar elements (including on this list) can’t replicate. It looks and plays like something your parents should have been mad about in the 90’s too, which is rad as hell. 

For me, what’s really notable is that most of my time with the game has been spent watching others play the game on stream. It turns out the only thing just as palpable as putting a gun to your head is watching someone do the same. I don’t watch much game streaming, because I generally prefer to play them myself, but Buckshot Roulette does definitely scratch the itch in the transitive ways too. It’s really fun to see how other people count shells and get tricky, and I think a part of it comes from the inherent tension. 

Pacific Drive

Very few things in life give me anxiety quite like hearing a noise in my car that I don’t recognize. Car maintenance is fucking expensive, to the point where any joy driving might give me has been lost over time. That’s why Pacific Drive deserves note just for being able to capture my attention. Pacific Drive is, of all things, a survival game that ties that survival to the vehicle that the player will have to rely on to escape a creepy sci-fi take on the Pacific Northwest. That means scrounging for material while weird shit is going on, then rushing back and praying you didn’t damage the car too much. 

Yet, the anxiety isn’t too overwhelming. The spooky threats of Pacific Drive avoid being about jump scares and being more about the atmosphere. Maintaining the car itself opens up more avenues for ways to complicate the survival needs – no hunger meters here. What’s more, the game’s narrative ties perfectly into how the game makes the player reliant on the old beat up station wagon it hands you: the strange cut out part of the world you’ve been pulled into leads people to hyperfixate on objects. There’s so much thoughtfulness put into these details that even when I normally wouldn’t look twice at a game like Pacific Drive, I instead had to know more. 

Thank Goodness You’re Here! 

Thank Goodness You’re Here! is one of those games that you can play over a single Saturday afternoon. That means a lot of people are going to miss out on the funniest game of the year, just because it doesn’t over extend the joke. Don’t be one of those missing out. The, uh, “slapformer” as developer Coal Supper puts it, is an absolute joy. 

The humor is very, very, very British; and while dunking on the Brits is the only American thing still worth doing, they’re way better at this kind of absurd yet scaled down style. Every resident of the town of Barnsworth has their own gag, and the ones that don’t even tie into the multi-scene punchlines might be even funnier. I laughed at a simple birdwatcher “looking for tits” for thirty minutes. Keep your eyes out for the surprise Matt Berry cameo, who Coal Supper wisely uses sparingly and very differently than his most popular roles have placed him. 

Balatro

I feel that at this point the only thing I can really offer in the discussion of Balatro is some sort of explanation why I don’t have this higher on my list. Simply put: I just haven’t played it enough yet. Much like my avoidance of Vampire Survivors until I knew I had enough off my plate, Balatro has hovered over me like the Sword of Damocles all year long. 

But boy howdy is the hype earned. Balatro takes the simplicity of playing poker hands and quickly breaks into a one-sided conversation about what even is a card? If it’s really just some paper we’ve assigned classifications to, why can’t we blow those assignments right the hell up? It’s the kind of deckbuilder that actually scratches that TCG part of my brain in ways that other deckbuilding roguelikes don’t. Instead of obfuscating that you’re ultimately playing a card game with artifice, Balatro strips away everything but the deck. 

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

I don’t know if Eiji Aonuma was intentionally being misogynistic in that infamous “but what would Link do” interview. Intentional or not, that’s exactly what his reaction was – to the point where one could easily read strict gender roles into how Link and Zelda are depicted. Echoes of Wisdom doesn’t make up for that flub, but it does finally answer the question with a better one: what can Zelda do?  

While that aforementioned gender issue might make it feel bad that she’s not just wearing the green tunic, I’m glad Echoes of Wisdom goes much further. The team at Grezzo took putting Zelda in the driver’s seat seriously and as such chose to adhere to what makes her different and built a game around that. As such, the titular echoes become her own way of interacting with Hyrule that is distinct from Link’s. 

Something else that I think is noteworthy is that this is a very digestible top down Zelda title in a moment where it looked like we might not get those anymore. I only just finally got my mom to play one properly (the Link’s Awakening remake) and I know full well trying to get her or anyone else in her experience bracket to try something like Tears of the Kingdom is a fool’s errand. It’s a good thing to not pigeonhole this franchise if we can avoid it. At least, for people like that. And me, because a 20 hour Zelda actually hit the spot real well. 

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes

The total collapse of Annapurna Interactive is depressing in any context, but especially in the context of one the publisher’s best releases. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is wanting to be about a lot of things, but it’s centralized around the obsessive pursuit of “pure” art. Art that transcends and disconnects from anything besides the creator’s own intent and satisfaction – including its funders. To be clear, the game doesn’t necessarily elevate that perspective as good, but it is somewhat ironic to be putting together a story about a person’s obsession with their art being impactful while Annapurna’s attempt to be the same plays out. 

As for the game itself, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is a deliberate experience. A puzzle game for those who got really mad that they actually put the Bombers Notebook in 3DS Majora’s Mask port, the game itself recommends a notebook. Even with the player character (who is also kept a mystery at first) having a photographic memory for reference, I’ve got pages and pages of notes. Yet, this is all with info the game provides to its players, much of it upfront immediately. The hook is figuring out how to put those pieces together, something even its other players encourage folks to figure out themselves in Steam guides. Easily, Lorelei is the game I’ve recommended to people the most this year. Between great puzzles and a Twin Peaks atmosphere, this one’s got the goods. 

Harold Halibut

So here’s another weird question: must a game be fun to be good? We often engage with these questions in the context of difficulty – not just in the Souls category, either. A game making its players frustrated through struggle is a given. But what about that frustration coming from something else, on purpose? 

I ask because when you look at player reviews for Harold Halibut, there’s something interesting going on. Pretty much everyone agrees that the claymation used to make up its world is gorgeous. They can tell pretty wholeheartedly that there’s something interesting in this game. But so many people indicate that they abandoned the game. The reason why isn’t hard to see, as developer Slow Bros. have created a mechanical experience to connect players to the apathy of the titular character. 

Harold, generations removed from the decisions that put him and the ark he lives on out in space, is so over trying that he doesn’t even have the energy to complain. This manifests in, among other things, the character moving lethargically from task to task. He’s inefficient by design. This puts people into that headspace, and it makes sense that many would bounce off of it. But if you’re able to tough it out, what you’ll find is a touching exploration of one man as he learns to give a shit again. There’s some extremely touching character moments, humor only topped by Thank Goodness You’re Here!, and a not unexpected third act twist that doesn’t entirely land. I know this one’s a hard recommendation, but I promise it’s worth the experience. 

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

Right off the bat: I think the ending of Rebirth didn’t do it for me. Clearly, what the team at Square Enix were going for was very different than I was hoping after Remake’s ending. But, not only does not being what I expected not make a bad game, Rebirth is so much more than an ending. There’s a whole-ass game in front of that ending. And I loved most of that game. 

There’s no real way that Rebirth could recapture the feeling of opening up the larger world in the same way as the original FFVII. As such, it makes sense to instead try to refine the innovations in the open world space that have occurred in the nearly 30 years since then. Mostly, it works. Side quests fill the very important role of building the party’s relationship in ways the original couldn’t. Barrett really shines best in this: we don’t just get to see the weight of his adoption of Marlene in the expected emotional conflict with Dyne but in much more lighthearted scenarios. 

Plus, there’s Queen’s Blood! Of course I couldn’t get through this without mentioning my Queen’s Blood obsession, which takes Cloud to unexpected places through a wonderfully designed card game. I’d play this in real life, Square. Or at least in FFXIV?

Animal Well

Discovery is the entire point of Animal Well. This is a game where every moment of progression comes with the same high of pulling off the MISSINGNO glitch in Pokémon Red. No deeper lore (besides an already solved ARG) or even mythos driving this one. It’s just the sheer aspect of poking around someone’s game design looking for all the weird shit they put in it. As a result, while “Metroidvania” still sounds like the right explainer, it feels woefully incomplete. Gaining resources doesn’t equal being able to necessarily explore a new section or open doors. The trinkets Animal Well gives you are much more abstract, asking you to figure out how you might use them to proceed. 

That design creates moments where you feel like a god, or at least a genius. In reality, Animal Well rewards curiosity in the same way old school games do. Those were primarily meant to be toys, and I think that too extends to Animal Well, if unintentionally. Playing it is inherently fun in the rawest sense of the word. That fun just increases as more and more of its world naturally opens up to the player, practically bribing them to dig deeper and deeper. 

And all of this has absolutely nothing to do with its publisher, BigMode, headed up by gaming YouTuber Dunkey. BigMode definitely lent Animal Well clout, but by all accounts the game’s solo developer (the third on this year’s list!) was left to his vision in full. I have a mixed opinion of his channel (he’s funny when he’s actually funny), but he pitched this publishing effort as a way to get the games he wants to see put into the world. Gotta hand it to him, if this is the kind of game he wants to see, he’s got good taste.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth

Out of fairness, I think I need to highlight that putting this one at the top is partially righting a grievous wrong. Back in 2020 I rightfully praised the now confusingly titled Yakuza: Like a Dragon, but not nearly enough. I hadn’t quite fully engulfed the game to my satisfaction by the time I ran my list. Which means that I hadn’t yet realized I was playing one of the best games I’d ever play, a true love letter to the RPG genre while carving out a compelling story of its own. 

Infinite Wealth picks up that torch and continues without missing a beat. Sure, there are critiques that can be levied at its set-up; there are far too many contrivances as you get to the end game. But the game is a natural continuation of Kasuga’s arc as it begins to challenge his outlook more directly than his first outing. The same goes for the returning Kiryu, who not only gets to reflect off of Kasuga more directly this time, but gets the send off party that makes people who only jumped on the bandwagon recently (me) more interested in going back to his adventures. Side stories remain some of the best in the business as well, as Infinite Wealth has become the first game to use a diaper fetishist to make me bawl like a baby. 

The game also keeps up its tribute to video games as a whole. The franchise has always had all kinds of minigames and whole ass other Sega games emulated in them; but Infinite Wealth Goes further. The previous Pokémon joke has been expanded into an entirely separate combat system and the Animal Crossing boom of 2020 inspired Ryu Ga Gotoku to make their own one of those too. I’m not as convinced every game needs so much stuff in it, but I’ve lost hours and hours to all of the various absurd things Infinite Wealth has thrown at me without feeling like I’ve wasted a second. Easily, this is the most fun I’ve had playing anything all year long, and I can’t wait to see what Ichi gets up to next.

Another year down, another nightmare awaits us. Here’s to 2025, the year of the (possible) $500 Nintendo Switch 2.

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve sent anything out — I’ve been so crazy busy. So I don’t have much to suggest beyond donating this crowdfunding campaign for Dreams on a Pillow, a game about the 1948 Nakba.

If you’re anything like me, realizing the truth of the Israel/Palestine conflict is something that’s happened fairly recently. Media that can help properly contextualize the history of these horrible acts is very necessary for us.

The genocide in Gaza is ongoing, and in addition to this campaign I continue to urge you to seek out other ways to support those suffering under these hellish conditions.