January 12, 2025|

Filed under: Editorial, Featured

SG Roundtable – Our Top 2024 Games

2024 was a year. That’s the end of that sentence. But like all years, we gamers game, and game we gamers gamed. Sorry. But not all 2024 games are games worth gaming about. So we were inspired when we saw that Famitsu allowed people to submit games not from the current calendar year.

So! These are games we played through for the first time in 2024. Exceptions can be made for live service games with meaningful updates, or never-ending games like fighting games or shooters that created substantial experiences for our staff in 2024, enough for them to be one of the most memorable titles of the year. If we could just submit any game from any year regardless of if we’d played it before, it would obviously bias towards replays of our already favorite games.

This is going to be a long list of lists! So buckle up, and get ready for a long ride.

(#1) NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… (12.25.2023 – 01.05.2024)

It is truly a masterpiece of the medium in all aspects. Visuals that emit feelings of comfort, distance, and wonder. A cast of characters that reach out to every human emotion leading back to hope, either in their goals or just hoping to see and hear their voices again. Otherworldly music that pauses your pulse upon the sound of an instrument and encases your heart with its vocals. An unforgettable narrative that has imprinted not just my memory but also my dreams.

(#2) NieR:Automata (12.25.2024 – 12.30.2024)

Following up on a masterpiece is hard but Yoko Taro, SQUARE ENIX, and PlatinumGames managed to do it successfully to the point that people still to this day are experiencing the wonders that the world of NieR has to offer with Automata recently hitting 9 Million sales. I’ll never be able to know if playing this game earlier within the 7 years of my owning it would change my perception of it, making me feel even stronger about it or somehow less. But its turning point wrapped itself around my body and plunged me into a narrative and gameplay twists I could not have foreseen or imagined.

(#3) Silent Hill (10.02.2024 – 10.10.2024)

Horror games are innately challenging not due to gameplay but due to their utility of visual, sound, and camera to challenge not just how easily scared I may be, but my everlasting curiosity of the unknown and always active suspicions. Spending time with not just my first Silent Hill but the first Silent Hill left me appreciative of horror games, the visuals of the PS1, and my eagerness to tackle future horrors in October to come. In my mind, I still sense its danger but I embrace its dark warmth. Silent Hill.

(#4) Mouthwashing (10.29.2024)

Kawlun and [friend of the site] BriHard told me to play it in a voice call, I sat there on a worrying whim for two and a half hours and loved every minute of it. Non-chronological storytelling in one environment physically but taking different unforeseen psychological turns with its limited 3D graphical style, imprinting typography & sound design that gets topped off with strong, conflicting characters. Mouthwashing asks for only a small moment of your life but may stay part of it forever.

(#5) RIDGE RACER TYPE-4 (05.07.2024 – 11.07.2024)

Outside of Mario Kart, the only other racing game I love is WipeOut HD Fury. Outside of that, I don’t find myself playing racing games. However, curiosity from YouTube recommendations and wanting to experience PS1 games led me to NAMCO’s Ridge Racer series. Of the four PS1 titles from the franchise, Rage Racer left me the happiest but RIDGE RACER TYPE-4 made me fall in love. Its unique and diverse soundtrack follows me in my day-to-day life, the racing locales whisk me away to thoughts of distant roads, and the gameplay – WOW. That sense of speed, challenge, and perseverance is truly inspiring. Real Racing Roots is eternal.

(#1) Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

Like I’ve been saying, Rebirth might just be the best game I’ve ever played. All its prequels being essential reading is kinda annoying, but aside from that, I can’t think of anything else that manages to stay this fun across so many hours. On top of the combat, overworld, characters, and soundtrack being amazing, I’m actually a big fan of the absurd amount of minigames. Although I can’t wait for its follow-up, I wouldn’t be surprised if Rebirth remains the peak of FFVII. In the meantime, it’s probably time I gave another Final Fantasy a shot…

(#2) Astro Bot

Having replayed and adored Mario Galaxy last year, I didn’t expect a new 3D platformer to appear and challenge it as my favorite. Everyone already knows how great Astro is, and while I don’t have anything new to say, it definitely deserves its place as my runner-up. The fun levels and hundreds of PlayStation cameos are great, but what really blew me away is how satisfying it made holding a controller. Those sounds and effects never got old, and I really hope other devs learned some lessons from them.

(#3) Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

TTYD is in an odd spot, because although I played it for the first time this year and loved every second, my history with it goes way further back. But it qualifies, and I’d be crazy to exclude what’s probably the best Mario game ever made. Even if I still like The Origami King, fans were right to spend so long requesting a return to this style. And with Brothership being another recent highlight, here’s hoping they finally got the message.

(#4) Stellar Blade

If you’ve heard of this game, it’s probably because of the pointless controversy surrounding it, so I’m here to tell you that it’s actually a great time. I love its balance of Souls-esque and character-action combat, can’t stop listening to its phenomenal soundtrack, and enjoy its admittedly shoddy world and cast. I’ve written about it before, and voiced my praises and criticisms there, so feel free to check that out if you’re interested in seeing a supermodel slay monsters and other supermodels in increasingly cool locations.

(#5) Sonic X Shadow Generations

I’ve been playing more Sonic games since Mania and liked Shadow ever since the Wii introduced me to him (Brawl, Olympic Winter Games, etc.), but this is the year I really became a fan. It’s impressive how Shadow Gens managed to take everything people like about Sonic games—stories, level design, music, and general aura—and condense it all into such a tight package. And thanks to the original Gens’ inclusion, you’re never wanting for content, making for a perfect companion to the movie and refresh the series was looking for (granted, I enjoyed Frontiers, but getting something this good with no growing pains attached was even better).

As a rule, I try to hit at least five new games every year. Enough to make a Top Five, but it’s good to get more than that. This year, like in 2023, I played eight—nine if you count the Ode to Castlevania DLC from Vampire Survivors. I enjoyed all of them, from the joyful Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley to the stylish Crow Country, but these five were, I think, the tops. Other than the one at the top, here are my five favorites games of 2024:

(#1) Lorelei and the Laser Eyes

A wonderful, mournful, gorgeous puzzle game. This strange mishmash of Resident Evil level design, complicated riddles, and midcentury European style, this feels and looks and plays like nothing else on the market and led to incredible highs with each puzzle I solved. This year marked a change in my gaming that led me to rely more on pen and paper notes in solving puzzles—it feels great, and Lorelei pushed it more than any other game.

(#2) Balatro

Balatro may not be my “game of the year,” but it is one of the most perfect games that I have ever played, an absolute masterwork of game design.

(#3) The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

While a somewhat lesser entry in the Zelda canon, this entry is remarkable with how well it goes about its main mechanic, that Princess Zelda can copy seemingly any game object and place it in the game like she’s doing programming in Unity. Echoes is happy to let players contrive demented solutions while also providing some more traditional puzzle design. This gave me a wonderful sense of agency and cemented the Tri Rod as one of the franchise’s greatest items.

(#4) Animal Well

Call it “Fez, but better” or “deconstructionist Metroidvania,” but this evocative exploration game delighted and confounded me in the best way. With no dialogue, cryptic notes, multiple layers of complexity, and, best of all, wildly unique abilities that demand experimentation, Animal Well challenges the conventional wisdom of the search action genre. For bonus points, in a year of playing complex puzzle games it was the only one I could beat without using a guide—not that it wasn’t rather hard.

(#5) Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

The Lost Crown is a bit shaggy; the writing and story’s pretty boring, and while it homages Hollow Knight, Celeste, Dark Souls, and even Devil May Cry well, it never surpasses them. But it’s on here because as a somewhat shaggy and derivative Metroidvania, it’s exceptional. Its platforming is mostly perfect, it features a surprising amount of nonlinearity, the combat is tactile and satisfying, and for all my criticisms of its originality, there are a few really imaginative curveballs.

However, this roundtable isn’t just about games from 2024. And I played a lot of games from years past for the first time this year, from grand BioWare RPG Dragon Age: Origins to time-looping pixel gem Minit to Xbox Live Arcade staple Mark of the Ninja. I even played through The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons, one of the few Zelda games I’ve never played (and Oracle of Ages will be there for 2025).

(#1) Plants vs. Zombies:

Like Balatro, there’s an immaculate quality that defines Plants vs. Zombies. The mechanics are clear, the loop feels great; it’s a fantastic reimagining of the tower defense genre. It’s an absolute shame that this series has sunken into the hell of hyper-monetization, but this original release still shines in its loopy glory.

(#2) Tunic:

It took a few false starts with Tunic, first in 2023 and then in early 2024, before I buckled up late in the year to try 2022’s acclaimed Zelda 1 / Dark Souls homage one more time. And I’m so glad I did, as I steadily became utterly charmed by its cryptic clues, imaginative world, and brilliant puzzles. I did end up relying on some guides by the very end after I felt a painful urge to see the greater ending, and I do feel a bit mixed about that, but hell, at least I managed both the windmill puzzle and the broken monolith on my own.

(#3) Ape Out:

Take the classic 1960s movie intros Saul Bass made for the likes of Psycho and Anatomy of a Murder, sprinkle in some Mark Rothko rectangles, and put it all behind a violent, rampaging gorilla, and you’ve got Ape Out. Its utter simplicity and precision is phenomenal; there really isn’t anything but grabbing and throwing and yet it managed to turn that into one of the most striking video games I’ve ever played. And a special shout out to its dynamic soundtrack, which features thousands of individual drum beats to give a unique score to everyone of your many, many attempts.

(#4) Celeste:

This was another one where I tried it for the first time after a very fitful failed attempt years ago, and I’m so glad I went back to it. Celeste is as incredible as advertised, from its super granular and specific Assist Mode to its impactful story to its unbelievably tight and responsive gameplay. I still haven’t gone through Chapters 8 and 9, but after well over a thousand entirely fair deaths I’m more than happy to boast about hitting its credits.

(#5) Into the Breach:

Alongside Balatro and the addictive Vampire Survivors, Into the Breach worked as my first real entry into roguelikes since playing Hades back in 2020. And what a roguelike it is; it turns something that should make the game easy—that you know exactly what every enemy will do on their turn—and builds the challenge around trying to exploit this as much as you can. The pixel aesthetics and soundtrack are killer, but the peak is seeing an upcoming attack turn into a riddle you have to unpack.

If we do this next year, who knows what I’ll pick. There are plenty of 2024 games I missed and some older classics I intend to finally experience. For now, though, I’m happy that a relatively subdued year for game releases gave us so, so much.

(#1) Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

A game so good, I played through it twice! While the over-arching story is middling (chasing Sephiroth) as it’s remaking the middle of a plot, the personal moments between characters, getting to explore them further, and diversions along the way is what sells the narrative aspects. How can you not smile every time Aerith and Tifa interact? Their friendship is palpable. One of my favourite moments is when Yuffie is trying to signal an airplane, and on the second attempt, Aerith earnestly joins in, “Come to me, airplane! Follow… the smoke!!” Endearing moments from all the cast (demonstrating and eliciting all sorts of emotions) really makes it special, and I understand even more why people fell in love with the 1997 original. Even if there are some differences with this reimagined (to an extent) trilogy.

But while the narrative does elevates it, gameplay is why I play games, and what I loved about the mechanics of Remake have returned and expanded. For one, Rebirth doesn’t interrupt you like Remake, nor are you restricted to a corridor for 90% of the game. You get to battle more (outside the story and Combat Simulator), and at your own pace, which wasn’t allowed before.

Synergies are the new mechanics and they’re great. Both the immediate actions and the special flashy cutscene moves. It adds more variety in battle, but also nice to see these characters team up together. Unfortunately, I don’t like how Red XIII or Cait Sith play, but Yuffie is fun and has some differences from Intergrade. Level 3 Limit Breaks are technically new, but outside an item and getting them quite late, you’re more likely to defeat a boss before you even meet the requirements. So I almost never got to use them. The mini-games sprinkled throughout are mostly fun, but Queen’s Blood takes the cake and I’m glad they’re going to expand it.

I’ve rambled enough, but while I have my issues with Rebirth, it’s an improvement to Remake in almost every way, and I already adored that game.

(#2) Marvel’s Midnight Suns

A turn-based strategy game where your moves are randomly pulled from each character’s deck of cards. Along the way you can gain more cards (moves), and can upgrade and modify them. Nearly all of the characters have unique mechanics that are fun to use and combo with other characters. My favourite was easily Magik, as she can open portals to knock enemies into other enemies/explosives for more damage. Along with being really useful to move enemies anywhere on the battlefield to setup for other characters. Venom is also great, being a powerhouse, AOE fighter that also has some “quick” (free within context) moves. I easily suggest getting the Legendary Edition or buying the DLC to have him from the start. You can also interact with the DLC characters in the Abbey (hub area) and they’ll comment on things that happen in the story. You will have to use The Hunter (player character) a fair amount, but they have an even bigger pool of moves, and there’s more than enough great ones to choose from.

The story is fine, and it’s cool to interact with characters “after work” (which nets you bonuses), but the mechanics take center stage, and I never got tired of mixing up my team, and thinking of the best way to maximize damage now, and plan a few turns ahead. Speaking of, individual matches can take some time, but luckily the game saves after each turn. It’s not a “pick-up-and-play” kind of game, but if you have to drop it for any reason, you won’t lose your progress. Even if you’re not crazy about Marvel characters, if you like strategy games, I highly recommend it as there’s a lot of depth. If you’re intrigued but new to strategy games, there are multiple difficulty options to make it friendly to newcomers, and no penalty for adjusting between matches. I about as much time here as my #1 pick, and to no surprise. There’s a lot of game, and it’s really good.

(#3) Astro Bot

A 3D platformer that’s all around a delight, from Astro Bot’s animations to the use of haptics in the controller for satisfying clicks and pulls. It’s just fun to move, jump, and use abilities in these worlds, and it’s nice to see a game that shows appreciation for, and makes use of PlayStation’s history in a fun way. There were even some collectible characters I was unaware of.

If you enjoy games like Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy, you’ll enjoy this… because it takes a number of platforming elements and power-ups straight from them. Granted, no one is exactly using Cloud Mario or FLUDD’s Rocket Nozzle, so those are far from being cliché. It’s just very obvious when you see, and a bit disappointing that of the common power-ups, the more unique ones are ones I’ve seen before. There are two others that are/seem new that I liked, but they were seldom used. There’s also “uncommon” power-ups for special levels, and those levels (after defeating a boss) are a real treat the whole way through. The game isn’t “new”, but if you got it for Christmas like I did, I don’t want to spoil it (if trailers haven’t already).

(#4) Penny’s Big Breakaway

It came as a surprise to some, but I was eagerly anticipating it after its debut trailer, and I wasn’t disappointed. A momentum-based 3D platformer that centers around using a yo-yo to move and attack. It took some getting used to, and I’m no expert, but it was fun advancing my skills and simply just using the right-stick in a unique way. Although you can swap for buttons if you prefer, but give the joysticks some time. While the worlds have the general grass/water/fire biomes, the twists make it much more interesting and less generic. Like a bathtub level for “water” or a floating books in a “space” themed level. These choices (alongside others) help it stand out it probably could’ve gotten away with less.

(#5) Cocoon

If Inception was a game, this would be it… albeit with a little bug guy instead of Leonardo DiCaprio. Would people still love Leonardo DiCaprio if he was a bug? …Getting back on topic. It’s a puzzle game where you jump in and out of worlds (shown as orbs), to find other worlds and jump in/out of those to solve puzzles. It strikes a good balance of being linear enough to avoid easily getting lost, but still requiring thought to complete a puzzle with this new way of thinking. I wish it was longer, but it’s worth playing, especially if you have GamePass.

(#1) Astro Bot

When choosing the games I would talk about for this list, I decided early on that I would give myself a bit of a challenge. I’d only pick one big, AAA release from 2024 to talk about, and one big, well-known game that I played for the first time in 2024 to talk about. The other three? I wanted to highlight some smaller-scale releases from this year. You don’t need me to tell you that Sonic x Shadow Generations is one of the best 3D Sonic games ever made. You don’t need me to tell you that Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is gorgeous to look at, written with love, and so jam-packed full of content that I actually still haven’t finished the damn thing.

You probably also don’t need me to tell you that Astro Bot is a good game. I’m still going to.

Astro Bot is incredible. I 100% completed it twice, started a third playthrough with my youngest sibling, then started a fourth playthrough with my partner. Recently, I came back to run through the post-launch content, and still left that play session wanting more Astro Bot to play. In a world full of platformers with free-flowing movement systems and momentum, Astro Bot is a very simple title, with simple core mechanics and movement. That simplicity is supplemented by some incredibly creative power-up gimmicks, and made up for, tenfold, by incredible game-feel and level design that consistently keeps the player engaged while still being accessible for a younger audience.

As someone who grew up playing on PlayStation, this game was absolutely bursting with references, cameos, and full-on playable tributes that had me popping off and pointing at the screen multiple times in every level in my initial playthrough. Seeing characters that I thought I would never see again in any capacity, like Alundra, or Jaster Rogue from Rogue Galaxy, took me back to a time when I held Sony Interactive Entertainment’s library of characters and games with the same respect and reverence as Nintendo or Capcom. It would have been so easy for this to feel like a cold-blooded marketing tool, a way for a publisher who has not earned the right to dangle these keys to say “Look! We haven’t forgotten that thing you like! We LOVE inFAMOUS, too! We dug up and roboticized Ico and Yorda’s resting corpses and made them do the Carlton Dance!”. But that universe isn’t the universe where they licensed out Thunder Force music from SEGA, just because they thought it would be cool. The game is chock-full of genuine love and passion that radiates through every single moment of its gameplay. I can only think of maybe two cameos or references that made me groan rather than grin. Outside of that? This is the PlayStation All-Stars that I always wanted, in the form of a fantastic platformer.

(#2) Mouthwashing

If you’ve been active on social media since September, you’ve likely been exposed to Mouthwashing’s existence. Despite showing up too late to the party to get award nominations, and being too small-scale of a release to take the greater gaming journalism world by storm, Mouthwashing has already seemingly secured a legacy as a cult-classic.

It’s hard to talk about what makes Mouthwashing so compelling without spoiling it. All you really need to know is that it’s a psychological-horror narrative-adventure game that tells its story in a non-linear order. Frankly, I would recommend even skipping the rest of this entry if you’re already interested, though I’ll try and keep things vague. A few simple puzzles and a few tense “encounters” act as the gameplay glue holding together a very well-written tragedy about a group of deeply flawed, human people in a hopeless situation, featuring one of the most despicable, frighteningly realistic main villains in any video game I’ve played.

But what makes Mouthwashing so compelling isn’t just that it’s well-written. It’s well-framed. Characters don’t just act and interact naturally, the situations they’re placed in and the decisions that they make often reflect each other, or the greater themes. One character’s fate mirrors their complacency in another character’s situation. Every character is simultaneously going through their own conflict, but is so intrinsically connected with the overarching story that removing any of them would topple the tower. Themes like substance abuse, and the reality of being poor in a dead-end job, run throughout the entire narrative, but there’s a single conflict and thematic thread that forms the heart of the story, and when a certain late-game reveal happens, you will notice the veins of that heart branching all throughout the body of the story you’ve already experienced. Most of these things are presented with beautifully ugly honesty, for the player to chew on and think more about after the fact. If any of this has interested you, please try Mouthwashing. There’s an argument to be made that our modern-day “fandom culture” isn’t ready for some of the discussions this game is trying to open up, but in a way, I think that makes titles like Mouthwashing breaking into the mainstream even more important.

(#3) Psychopomp GOLD

Talking about this game off the heels of Mouthwashing feels difficult. Despite their shared genre and somewhat similar low-poly, artifacted aesthetic, they couldn’t really be farther apart. While Mouthwashing is all about the themes and the narrative substance, Psychopomp GOLD is a raw, unfiltered display of unhinged creative expression. The unique style of Psychopomp bleeds out of every surface of its world. A bizarre, uncomfortable world that only bothers to explain itself, its rules and internal logic, or the actual story to those who are willing to dig around looking for answers. The core dungeon-crawling gameplay is simple, even somewhat purposefully cumbersome, leaving most of the horror down to the player’s fear that a monster will emerge from the darkness or from around a corner, leaving the player trying to deal with the threat, their nerves, and the game’s tank controls all at once.

So much of Psychopomp’s appeal comes from its personality. Each of the six levels (and the many optional side areas) are full of grotesque enemies and just-as-off-putting friendly NPCs to interact with. There’s plenty of strange things to see or weird characters to interact with that don’t even carry a gameplay function, instead just being there for some symbolic reason, to spout some exposition, or just to provide some darkly hilarious or nonsensical flavor text.

The game is somewhat aware that its brand of horror can only carry it so long, so the later areas start to get a little less scary and a little more… abstract. Like I said earlier, Psychopomp GOLD doesn’t seem as interested in providing direct narrative themes to latch onto, as much as it’s interested in leaving a strong impression. Most of the many optional side areas just pull you aside to show you something, go “Isn’t this cool?”, or “Isn’t this fucked up?”, and then don’t really elaborate. The only thing left to do in that room is just turn around and go back where you came from, wondering “Huh… I wonder what that was about.” to yourself as you leave. And somehow, it almost always IS about something. On repeat playthroughs, you’ll recognize just how many of the bizarre things you saw were foreshadowing. Parts of a puzzle rather than just something strange for the sake of having something strange.

Want a tip? Stick around on the title screen after beating the game to see something neat, then hit the “Continue” button.

(#4) Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered

Is counting this as a 2024 release that went under the radar cheating? It might be, but the other option for this slot was Crow Country, which is an incredible survival horror throwback in its own right, but I wanted to avoid having three titles in a row on this list be retro-influenced indie horror games… So, anyways, here’s a duology of horror-themed games from two decades ago.

Every October, I make it a point to primarily watch or play things that are on-theme for the Halloween season. This year, that meant finally getting into Legacy of Kain for the first time. While Blood Omen wasn’t much to my tastes on a first playthrough, Soul Reaver immediately hooked me in. I was captivated by the world, the gameplay that blended 3D platforming with world and dungeon design akin to Ocarina of Time, Raziel’s cool design, the incredible voice work, the mountains of optional areas and upgrades to reward exploration, and the unique (if a bit clunky) combat system that turned any encounter with an enemy vampire into something of a puzzle. Soul Reaver 2 didn’t hit quite as hard, unfortunately, but was still a great narrative chapter in the Legacy of Kain story, and a decent-enough title in its own right.

I’ve had the pleasure of playing the recent remaster of these titles, which released this December, and for my money? This is the best way to play the Soul Reaver games. There’s a ton of never-before-seen production material, including explorable versions of some of the first Soul Reaver’s infamously cut levels. Both games run like a dream, a far cry from their previous ports, and they have updated visuals that can be toggled back to the original graphics in real time with a single press of ‘R3’, even during cutscenes. I felt Soul Reaver was better left as-is, but toggled them a lot during Soul Reaver 2.

I’m currently playing Defiance, the fifth and final game in the Legacy of Kain saga, and a hack-and-slash title with clear influence from the first Devil May Cry. So far, it’s a great time, and might be my second-favorite after Soul Reaver. With the Soul Reaver titles remastered, and the Blood Omen titles now available on PlayStation Classics, Defiance is the only title left without an accessible modern release. But if this team ends up remastering it, I’d say it’s in great hands.

(#5) NieR: Automata

Now, this is my big “I played a popular game from a previous year” title. NieR Automata, like it was for most people, I imagine, was my first exposure to the Drakengard legacy. Now, it’s the first Drakengard game I’ve played to completion. Most of the other titles on this list have some level of recency bias. They’re games I played for the first time within the last four-ish months. I played NieR: Automata in February, and it’s stuck with me for the entire rest of the year. Next year, I plan on playing Replicant.

I don’t know what I could say about Automata that hasn’t already been said. The fun, free-flowing combat that, while somewhat easy and able to be broken in a number of ways, is still really enjoyable. The interesting world and characters, the great soundtrack, the multiple campaigns to finally reach a conclusive ending that had me in complete awe of what I had just played. I’m pretty sure I’m not even going to be the only person who has NieR: Automata on their list. This could have been Pseudoregalia, which I played four times and loved the hell out of. Could have been Neon White, which has left me with a consistent urge to return to it. But it had to be Automata. Pick up a copy. Play it until you can’t play anymore, and trust me, you’ll know when that is. You won’t regret it.

(#1) The Legend of Zelda: Ultimate Trial

This is my favorite game released in 2024, a mod for Ocarina of Time focused on a roguelike combat experience and it works so wonderfully well. Aside from the titular Trials, there are other elements to this game that make it an incredibly rich experience and probably my favorite Zelda mod of all time.

The game has a narrative and writing that feel at home in the Zelda series, which is surprisingly uncommon for romhacks, and flavor text and dialogue for every one of the tens of NPC wandering the Sanctuary. It made me feel strong emotions and intrigue that an actual new game in the series hasn’t done in years, and made me long for the Zelda combat of old. I highly recommend this mod to any fans of classic Zelda.

A little trinket for longtime fans: Ultimate Trial actually tries to situate itself in the real Zelda timeline, which most fangames do not, and has numerous references and allusions to other games in the series that start to unravel as the adventure goes on. Things aren’t exactly as they seem. All of the mysteries culminate in a finale and ending that genuinely had tears coming to my eyes, as someone who has cared for about the speechless protagonist of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for so much of their life. I cannot say this enough: you should play this.

(#2) Honkai Impact 3rd

As my new favorite game and a live-service game that continued delivering content into 2024, it would feel wrong to not have this here. While I started my journey as a Captain in 2023, I have apparently only missed 3 login days since then. So this is about as much of my life as eating and sleeping is.

Anyway! Honkai Impact 3rd is an incredibly emotional game that has tugged at my heartstrings time and time again, and this year was no exception. I finished up Part 1 of Honkai Impact 3rd, which actually wrapped up in 2023. As someone who loved the main cast of characters, seeing them grow into independent people and mature was such a liberating experience for me. What I honestly did not except was to enjoy the new storyline, Part 2, quite as much as I actually did.

Part 2 begins and you’re suddenly thrust into a new cast of characters, along with a nameless protagonist whose gender you chose, quite like Mihoyo’s later games after Honkai Impact 3rd. But that nameless protagonist actually had enough character to keep me invested, and the plights of others and their continued struggles kept me engaged. Chapter 3 of Part 2 alone was enough to secure its space on this list, with one of the best boss fights in any video game I’ve ever played. And the twist afterwards was the icing on the cake, solidifying Part 2 as a fully-fledged Honkai experience.

As a game with over 8 years of content, it’s extremely daunting to start these days. But if you do, the Hoyostans Story Guide can help you get situated, and tell you when to play certain content as it was released. It also has archives of all the stuff that was available for a limited time only, and links to the untranslated visuals novels, fully fan-translated. If you ever do pick up the game and play on the American or European servers, hit me up! My User ID is 107919961 and you can use my code 107919961FQ for some extra bonuses.

(#3) Judgment

As a fan of the Like a Dragon games who has not really appreciated the games getting sillier and less realistic over time, this is what I needed. Judgment may have a few moments that made me raise an eyebrow, but how seriously it took the plot and how expertly it crafted the main character of Takayuki Yagami made up for it.

Though Judgment is in many ways a step back from Yakuza 6: The Song of Life, it is a step forward in a few key ways, and one of those ways is how much time is spent building up all the major players of the game. I love Kaito. I hate Hamura. And that’s the game doing its job. I’ll never forget the first time Kaito facetimed Yagami and had his face right up to the camera, and how he did that every time he calls. It’s so endearing.

Funnily enough, starting this game, I hated Yagami. I thought he was a punk. I was taken aback at how much I liked him in his flashbacks, and I began to realize that was the point. Yagami had regressed, and his growth over the course of the adventure into someone better made me cheer! His determination to continue fighting against the forces of corruption at play cemented him as a worthy successor to the legend. I wish he was the new main series protagonist we got…

(#4) Metroid: Other M

What the hell is this game doing here? It killed my dog, ate my homework, and burned down my house!

Nah dude. Get filtered. In all seriousness, I played the game with a retranslation mod, which accurately translates the Japanese dialogue and re-adds the Japanese voice acting. The difference in the storyline was unreal, even down to how it feels. Adam Malkovich is a great character not done justice by the English script, and experiencing this game’s true intent made me lament just how much hate he gets online. Samus actually acts more like her Super and Fusion self here than she does in Dread. She has agency, and her motivation and actions make sense. The only glaring issue in the storyline now to me is the Ridley scene, which may play worse in Japanese just because Samus’s seiyuu is screaming her heart out.

But even getting past the storyline, which is most people’s major gripe with the game, I found Other M to be a very competent action platformer, and really enjoyed my time with it. While some gripes with the controls remain, it plays so fast and fluid that I found myself longing for a new game with its same gameplay style, one that could be unshackled from the constraints brought about by forcing it to be played with a sideways Wii Remote. It feels like a proper 3D Metroid game, one I’ve never gotten before, and unfortunately due to its reception, probably will never get again.

(#5) Dragon’s Dogma II

The last game I’m here to talk about is Dragon’s Dogma II. Earlier this year I talked about how people were blowing its performance issues out of proportion, and yeah, they were. That’s not to say the game doesn’t have a poor framerate, but it really doesn’t get in the way of me playing the game, at least with low settings. It still looks gorgeous!

A couple of years ago Dragon’s Dogma impressed me as the best open world game I had ever played, with its overworld feeling like a bunch of linear levels stapled together while still being a coherent and consistent world. This is the same with its sequel, and I absolutely adore that. Surprisingly, this game has even more caves and weapons not found in the original, and turns some traditional RPG tropes on their head. My favorite one being that the Slime is probably the most dangerous common enemy type due to its ability to just nuke your health by catching you in its grasp.

The giant bosses are as good as ever too, with the ability to scale them and disable specific parts of them being a highlight of the experience. I love the feeling of being flung up into the sky to grab hold of a Drake or Griffon while it’s trying to soar away and then command it back to the ground with my blade. There’s nothing else quite like Dragon’s Dogma.

As an honorable mention I would just like to shoutout Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Due to the game requiring hardware ray-tracing, I have not played it myself! But I watched my friend play through it from start to finish and absolutely adored it. The way that Troy Baker captures the mannerisms of Indiana Jones, and MachineGames captures the minutia of Spielberg’s direction, is unparalleled. I look forward to playing this game in 2037 when graphics cards are affordable again.

2024 releases:

(#1) Emio: The Smiling Man – Famicom Detective Club

Still blown away by the surprise nature of this game’s announcement and release. But what’s even more surprising is how great the whole thing turned out. I won’t go too in-depth, since I already wrote a whole review for this game. But it was great to see Nintendo and MAGES not only revive the Famicom Detective Club trilogy, but also just give us a glimpse at what I can only call like the only modern AAA graphic adventure game. An incredibly thrilling story full of all sorts of windy and twisty narratives that implicate every character you meet and by the end, you’re flipping through the in-game notebook trying to connect the dots and solve the case(s). And a soundtrack so good I had to import the Japan-only Collector’s Edition of the game for the dual CD. I don’t know if I want an FDC 4 and 5 and 6 and 7, but I would really love to see more games like this come from Nintendo.

(#2) Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

Cheating here a little bit because I have not fully wrapped up the game yet, but I’ve already logged about 30+ hours into the game and nearing the end of the game anyway. MachineGames really knocked this one out of the park. The last ten years of movie-to-games adaptations or follow-ups have been really great. Game graphics have evolved to a point where not only are we seeing games with movie-like CG fidelity, but careful attention has been paid to also replicating the visual language of said films too. Great Circle does its absolute best to make the player feel like they’re exploring not just real places, but film set versions of said places. It’s awesome and genuinely pushes my curiosity to actually explore these grand environments and see what little side excursions I can find. And I love love love LOVE the combat. Every punch, every crack of the whip, every object thrown has a real weight to it that you one can only find in VR games usually.

(#3) Mouthwashing

There’s already two other write-ups about Mouthwashing in this article, so that alone should tell you how good this game is. A two-hour, mostly narrative-focused first person horror adventure game that just absolutely assaults your senses and emotions. Only cemented by the game’s often repeated phrase “I hope this hurts”. It’s also, I think, perhaps the best looking game of the year. Which may seem a little silly to say, especially directly after talking about Indiana Jones. How can this short cheap, faux-PSX style beat out filmic realism? The answer lies in the incredibly strong art direction. I doubly loved and was absolutely mortified to explore the Pony Express ship, especially as the game bounces between its pre- and post-crash iterations over the duration of the story. The soundtrack is awesome as well. I read in one of the developer Q&As posted to Steam that they were inspired by the likes of everything from Twin Peaks to Cannibal Holocaust of all things. Hopefully the game makes its way to platforms other than PC as even though I played this on the Steam Deck, it really deserves to be played on a TV with nice speakers.

Non-2024 releases:

(#1) Snatcher (Sega CD) (1995)

After playing Emio and replaying the FDC remakes, I got the hankering to go back and play a game that’s been sitting in my backlog for at least a couple of decades now. Most physical copies of old games have ballooned in price over the years, but Snatcher for the Sega CD has always been a $400+ trophy of retro collecting, so finding a copy for myself has always been troublesome. The game also has not seen a single official re-release in nearly 30 years! (Although the PC Engine CD version did get thrown onto the Japan-only PC Engine Mini in 2020) Of course, the most notable thing about Snatcher is that it’s the second directing project from Metal Gear series creator Hideo Kojima (developed directly after the original Metal Gear). And even so early in his career, many of the staples of the later Metal Gear Solid games appear here. The story and setting of course are a mix of all kinds of ‘80s tech-noir and scifi like Blade Runner, The Terminator, and Trancers. But it is a BLAST. Thrilling and grizzly and, often times, quite funny too. I can kinda see why it’s never seen a proper re-release, mainly because graphic adventure games (including much older ones like these) are not the most loved to gamers who prefer fast gameplay over, y’know, reading text. Probably doesn’t help Konami and Kojima haven’t been on speaking terms for like a decade now. Maybe if Sega did a Sega CD Classics Collection, it’ll show up again. Because I do think more folks should play this, it’s really cool.

(#2) RoboCop: Rogue City (2023)

Yes, another movie licensed game. And one from the previous year, no less. I picked this game up initially on PC around the time of release and played most of it up until I lost my save around the ⅔ mark. Recently I procured a PS5 and decided to double-dip and ended up pretty quickly running through the whole thing in a couple of days. A lot of what I said about Indiana Jones can also apply to this game, as really great attention was paid to mimicking the look of the original Verhoeven film. It’s currently one of the few Unreal Engine 5 releases to not only look really great, but also actually run well, too. Of course, instead of an exploration-heavy brawler like Indy, this is primarily a slow but explosive first-person shooter. While it may seem like a bit of a narrative disconnect to make an epic shooter out of a film that effectively leans more into political satire, the game also makes sure to not shy away from the same topics. There are multiple instances where RoboCop is asked to choose sides on political issues and if the player picks the “I don’t want to get involved” option, the characters (and even the game at one point) reminds you that all of your choices and actions have political consequences. Which I think is pretty bold for an otherwise kinda janky and silly FPS to lay onto the player. So if you love those old films, you definitely should check this out. It’s at least leagues better than RoboCop 3.

I’m coming in here at the end to say that I made a video about this very topic, although looking at the Top 10 games of this year (+ Honourable Mentions). So, now that you’ve finished reading what everyone in the team picked for their top five games, I highly recommend you go and listen to this video to here about mine: