The idea of doing a top 10 list of games every year makes a lot of sense: it’s a clear, simple way to share our favorite video games from each year. But for many of us, the story of our gaming years is more than 10 games. So, as I have done for a number of years now, my way of telling that story is to “rank the rest” of the games I played from 2022. This gives me a chance to briefly touch on every game I played, state why it did or didn’t work for me, from my favorites through my least favorites. It’s a cathartic exercise that I enjoy doing every year, and I hope it’s a fun read as well. Two final notes before I get started: first, I managed to play almost every game I wanted to from 2022 (and then some thanks to Game Pass), with only a few RPGs escaping my grasp (most notably Chained Echoes, which just came out in December). And second, while this is a “ranking,” don’t put a ton of stock in the exact order; it’s a fairly loose ranking. With that, here’s the list. Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a great day!

1-10. See my GOTY 2022 list.

11. Citizen Sleeper. I really wish I liked this one more than I did, as it had some great things going for it: the dice mechanics were clever, the writing was excellent, the music was wonderful, and many of the story beats were genuinely touching. I really enjoyed Citizen Sleeper for about half of my playthrough, but in the back half of the game, as I became powerfully flush with cash and items, I found myself mindlessly clicking through days simply to get clocks to advance. It completely broke the entire experience for me, both mechanically and narratively, and those rote final hours pulled a game which initially felt like a lock for my top 10 just off the list. I wanted to like Citizen Sleeper so much more than I did.

12. Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course. It’s more Cuphead! And it’s good! It doesn’t really do much new, and I’m pretty indifferent on Ms. Chalice as a playable character: she has pros and cons and is an interesting option who I did play as for nearly all of the DLC, but I don’t know that I enjoyed her any more or less than if I had continued to play as Cuphead himself. Still, the new bosses and weapons are solid additions to a game that is still great at its core. It turns out that new, good content for Cuphead is all I really needed to enjoy it again.

13. Melatonin. More than anything, Melatonin makes me pine for a new Rhythm Heaven game that much more. Don’t get me wrong; this is a perfectly good Rhythm Heaven-like (it’s impossible to not make the comparison), with some really fun and charming minigames to play through, and the entire package is very well-made. I enjoyed all the time I spent with it, yet it falls just short of Rhythm Heaven’s greatness. It’s not that long, and it’s not as weird as Rhythm Heaven, which I miss. Still, in our current Rhythm Heaven drought, Melatonin is a welcome game to help tide me over.

14. God of War Ragnarok. My full thoughts on this exist in my head as an essay spanning thousands of words, as it’s a lengthy game with a lot I like, and a lot I find annoying. My highest level takeaway is that it feels too safe, too much of a generic blockbuster – with all the ups and downs that brings – to really endear itself to me, and that’s true on both mechanical and narrative fronts. It’s so clear the sheer effort and talent that went into making such a massive, lavishly produced game, and yet as I was playing it, I often felt like I was simply going through the motions. So without diving any further into that theoretical lengthy essay here, I’ll leave it at this: God of War Ragnarok is a good video game that I came away from feeling very middling about.

15. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. Turtles in Time is a personal favorite, and Shredder’s Revenge does a good job at tapping into that classic while also feeling appropriately modern. It perhaps relies a little too much on nostalgia in spots, and the way you can spam special moves kind of breaks any difficulty balance it strives for. But overall I had a good time with this beat-em-up in the way that I can have a good time with any well-made beat-em-up.

16. Tinykin. Sometimes a lizard-brain collectathon is all you really want, and Tinykin is very good at satisfying that want. It’s a highly polished game that controls extremely well – which is worth praise! – that also doesn’t do much novel or exceptional beyond that. But I certainly had a pleasant enough time scouring each level for all the things, and being a tight, timely package helped me see it through to the end.

17. Metal: Hellsinger. I think I admire this more than I actually enjoy playing it, though I did enjoy it to a point. It has tight controls, exciting rhythm mechanics, and most importantly, a kick-ass soundtrack. More than anything, it's the way the music combines with the rhythm gameplay that makes Metal: Hellsinger stand out; it's the best use of music in a game I've seen in a while. There's nothing else quite like it, and if the final levels hadn't gotten quite as tedious as they did, this game could have cracked my top 10. As it stands, it's a game that needs something to help the pacing and variety down the stretch. I also probably need to get better at it.

18. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion. I’m still in the middle of this, so it could move up or down depending on how it pans out. So far, this has been a pretty rote action game; the combat is fine without being great, the level design is primarily dull corridor crawls, parts of it feel dated, the writing is rough, and not much has happened in the story yet. My hope – and the reason I’m playing this game – is that the story will pay off in the end, and fill in some of my gaps in Final Fantasy VII lore. I never had a PSP, and thus never played Crisis Core, so I was excited when this remaster was announced. And as someone who’s deep in the Final Fantasy VII rabbit hole, I need to see this through, for better or worse.

19. Rogue Legacy 2. I fell off the grind pretty quickly in the first Rogue Legacy, but stuck with it longer this time around. I don't know if that's more because the game changed, or because I did. Likely both. I've certainly gained appreciation for run-based games over the past nine years, and I also think Rogue Legacy 2 has smoothed out some of its variety and progression. It’s a game I usually have fun with while I’m playing it, and I will likely pick it up again here and there over time. Even if I never beat it, I’m happy to have Rogue Legacy 2 as a quick, fun game I can jump into any time.

20. Save Room - Organization Puzzle. Look, this is a silly game. Save Room is just the Resident Evil 4 inventory management system spun off into its own puzzle game that’s only an hour long. But, uh, I had fun playing it? It shouldn’t work as well as it does, and maybe my brain is just broken. But it nails what it’s going for, and I had a smile on my face the entire time I spent playing this goofy thing. I enjoyed Save Room more than a good number of games I played this year, and I don’t know if that says more about me, or about 2022 in games.

21. Infernax. I like a good throwback action game from time to time, and Infernax filled that role for a while for me (especially in the music department). I also liked the idea of having side quests and plot choices in a game like this; it was interesting to see those concepts applied to this style of action game. Unfortunately, I don't think the controls are as tight as I would like, and the end game became a bit too much of a grind for it to move up any higher than this. But Infernax is a neat game for a few hours.

22. Signalis. For the first hour or two of my time with Signalis, I was super into it. It had those good survival horror vibes that I’m a fairweather fan of: meaningful item scrounging, the tension of sneaking by enemies, the scrappiness of shootouts when they do occur, and an unnerving atmosphere. But the more I played it, the more its various tediums weighed me down, and the experience didn’t grow or change enough mechanically to offset those frustrations. The scale ultimately tipped just back over to the negative side of my survival horror preferences, and my primary feeling once I finished it was just one of being happy it was over.

23. Immortality. My stance on Immortality swung drastically during my time with it. For my first few hours playing, I was super into it: the FMV sequences were amazingly well done, and watching them to piece the story together was mesmerizing. However, once I was introduced to the game’s big “twist” or “reveal,” I lost virtually all steam. I enjoyed playing a grounded detective much more than trying to understand its larger metanarrative, which made the rest of the game feel like it was in service of a story I no longer cared about; not to mention the scrubbing felt very bad with a mouse. Which is such a shame, because the production level of the FMV scenes was kind of incredible.

24. Stray. The idea of playing as a cat can only carry a game so far for me, and once that novelty wears off, “the cat game” is a very short and simple action/adventure game. It does look great, and that cat animates real good, but it’s otherwise generic in a PS2 era B-game kind of way that doesn’t do much for me anymore. Especially with the guided nature of the platforming; maybe if I could jump freely, and it felt good, that would have helped. As it stands, there just isn’t much here for me to grab onto.

25. Dorfromantik. This is a chill and pleasant game that simply doesn't have enough going on to win me over. That's probably more a commentary on me than the game itself, as everything about Dorfromantik is well-made, and I appreciate how soothing the entire presentation is. But I need more to engage with in a game for it to really grab me.

26. Not for Broadcast. The acting in this one is the perfect amount of camp, and in my handful of hours with it, I had a few genuinely hilarious moments; that you have control over which camera is active allows you to play around with the acting in fun and novel ways too. It's a super clever game… that got more tedious the more I played it. As it introduced more gimmicks I simply found it more annoying to play, and ended up bailing once I realized how much more I had left. I think with a little streamlining and tighter pacing, Not for Broadcast could be kind of incredible. But this first pass didn't get there for me, which is a shame.

27. Kirby and the Forgotten Land. I only played maybe two hours of this, as the player two to a child at that, but even in that amount of time with limited capabilities I came to appreciate the craft on display here. The Forgotten Land looks great, runs well, and its more open structure seems like a good change for Kirby. I even found myself interested in going back to collect things we missed in levels, and to see the next upgrade for a few powers. I’ve never been a big Kirby fan, but I probably would have loved this one as a kid, and even as an adult I can see the appeal. Realistically there will always be other games I will prioritize over playing this one through to completion, but I respect it all the same.

28. Norco. I struggled with more text-heavy adventure games this year, Norco chief among them. I only made it through the first act, and while I do think this is a well-written and worthwhile story, I still found myself bored with it after just an hour or two. This is almost certainly a result of me and my tastes more than any fault of Norco specifically; I’ve never been all that into text-heavy adventure games or visual novels, and it’s rare for one to grab me. Unfortunately, Norco didn’t turn out to be one of those rare exceptions, and more broadly I found myself wanting to play games even more than normal in 2022.

29. Hardspace: Shipbreaker. This is a game that I think I have to be in the right headspace to enjoy, as it can often feel a bit too much like work (which, I suppose is the point). I think as a simulator, it pulls off what it's going for pretty well, and the idea of taking spaceships apart is a good one. But after I had successfully dismantled a handful of ships, I was already bored of the repetition; seeing how long the game is also didn't get me excited to finish it out. Still, Hardspace: Shipbreaker definitely has some neat ideas.

30. Trombone Champ. What a dumb game, albeit an amusing one for an hour or two. It's more a comedy game than anything else; the rhythm mechanics are mediocre at best, and it doesn't feel all that great to control. But I might argue the rough feel is intentional and in service of creating comedic moments. Trombone Champ has a number of such touches, and I was certainly amused by it for the couple hours I played (especially while streaming for Extra Life) – it turns out trombones are funny! But it also doesn’t take very long for the joke to run its course, and once you’ve had a couple laughs, you’re left with a pretty unremarkable game.

31. Prodeus. This is a throwback shooter – a "boomer shooter" if you will – with fantastic feel, some fun weapons, and a neat look. Past that, it simply didn't do anything new or interesting to keep me hooked for more than a few hours. Prodeus is a game that clearly knows what it is and executes it fairly well. But there's just not much here that I haven't seen a million times before, and I'm not a big enough fan of the genre to stick with another generic boomer shooter.

32. A Plague Tale: Requiem. I also played A Plague Tale: Innocence this year, so in retrospect, maybe I was setting myself up for burnout on this one: even with Innocence’s fairly short runtime I was ready for it to be over before it was. With Requiem being a noticeably longer sequel, rolling straight into it was always going to be tough, but I also think Requiem doesn’t make enough of the improvements you would expect from a sequel to a game that felt like an interesting but flawed first pass. Its stealth mechanics still feel stiff and tedious, and the linear and repetitive nature of the levels still wore thin for me after a few hours. Requiem is a visually impressive game, and there’s a pretty good story being told here. But the act of playing it always felt like a slog, and I fell off after a half-dozen hours.

33. Neon White. I’ve never been a score-chasing or speed-running guy, and I admittedly only checked this out due to all the hype. But I probably should have stuck to my gut: I bounced off Neon White pretty quickly for the same reasons I bounce off most games in this mold. I didn’t have much interest in replaying levels repeatedly just to try and get a better time; it was often pretty clear the route I needed to run, and I didn’t care to run it over and over to shave off a few seconds. And if you’re not chasing those times, there’s not a lot here for you. After giving it a real shot for a few worlds, I was just bored, and never came back.

34. Kaiju Wars. At first glance this seems to be a tactics game in the spirit of Into the Breach, but it doesn’t take long to realize there are some very different mechanics at play here. And unfortunately for me, it fell pretty flat after a few hours. It feels weirdly balanced, where you have to get the right moves early on before they snowball, and even then the way enemy movement paths are randomized can decide your fate all on their own. More than anything, the game really drags; a single level feels like it takes way too long to go through, especially since it’s often obvious what the result will be after the first couple turns. A brisker pace and some RNG tweaking would have gone a long way here, but as it exists, Kaiju Wars was far too tedious for me to stick with.

35. Pentiment. This is one I expected to like, but it has a very slow start that I struggled with immensely. It’s very possible that, had I gotten past the first couple of hours, it would have picked up and I may have enjoyed it. But after trying multiple times, I just couldn’t muster up any more enthusiasm for it. Navigating its space took too long and wasn’t fun, and the dialog was overly wordy without any real narrative thrust; I’ve heard there is a murder early on, but I never got there. Maybe the problem ultimately lies with my impatience, but regardless, Pentiment failed to keep my attention past its opening hours, which is a shame.

36. Vampire Survivors. I’ve never been a fan of idle or semi-idle games, but I checked this out due to the hype (and it being on Game Pass). It took at most 30 minutes to realize it also wasn’t for me, as there wasn’t much to engage with on any given run, and I’m never going to grind out that kind of repetitive progression. I’m sure Vampire Survivors is as good as any such game for those who like them, but I bounced off it the same way I have bounced off many others before it.

37. The Looker. This is meant to be a parody of The Witness, which is a great idea that has potential; it’s also nice that The Looker is free. But I just didn’t find it funny or entertaining enough. It only takes an hour to play through, but even in that short time I was bored more than anything. It needs better jokes, or something of its own rather than pure parody, to make it worthwhile. Or maybe it’s just not my type of humor. Regardless, The Looker did nothing for me.

38. Soundfall. My partner and I were eager to check this out, as it seemed like a neat idea for a co-op rhythm/action game. But it didn’t take long for the repetitiveness to set in. There just really isn’t much here, and once you’ve played a few levels – which only last a few minutes each – you’ve basically seen the entire game. We continued to play for a couple of hours, but nothing improved, and if anything dealing with loot only got more annoying. I like the idea of timing your actions to the beat (see: Metal: Hellsinger above), and I think the music in Soundfall is perfectly good enough. But everything surrounding that core idea was a let-down.

39. MultiVersus. Similarly to Vampire Survivors, I tried this out due to the hype, and it being free. And also similarly to Vampire Survivors, it took at most 30 minutes to realize I didn’t like it. The core issue here is that I don’t think it controls well at all; even ignoring the obvious comparisons to Super Smash Bros., which has decades of polish to build on, MultiVersus just straight up feels bad to play to me in a way that I will never want to play it again. Maybe that is partly inexcusable as a completely free game, but my time is still best spent elsewhere.

Bonus: Some non-2022 games I played and enjoyed in 2022:

Into the Breach. I gave this a shout-out on my actual top 10 list, but allow me to quickly say it again: Into the Breach: Advanced Edition is a fantastic update that got me to play dozens of hours of Into the Breach again this year, and is easily one of the best video games I played in 2022.

Monster Train. I got a Steam Deck this year (it’s great!), and I spent a decent chunk of time trying out a handful of older games on it (of different genres) to put the device through its paces: Dark Souls II, Civilization VI, Dicey Dungeons, and Dragon Quest XI are among the games I played a meaningful amount of while trying out the Deck. But the game that really took off on the Deck for me was Monster Train. I’ve always wanted a portable way to play it (without double dipping on the Switch), so the Deck was the perfect excuse to dive back in. And it pulled me back in deep: I spent dozens more hours playing Monster Train, including finally buying the DLC. It remains one of my favorite roguelikes, and I’m happy to now be able to play it on the go, which I will almost certainly continue to do into 2023.

Resident Evil 4 and Hollow Knight. I’ve had an itch to replay both of these for a few years now, and I finally did so at the beginning of 2022. And they both hold up! It’s probably been 15 or so years since I last played Resident Evil 4, and I was surprised both by how much I remember from it, and also how good it still feels to play. It remains an all-time favorite. And Hollow Knight I haven’t played since my initial playthrough when it launched in 2017, so in addition to replaying the entire base game, I also experienced all its DLC for the first time this year (one of my proudest gaming moments of 2022 was completing the Pantheon of the Knight). It’s a nice suite of new content on top of a fantastic game, and if anything, I like Hollow Knight more now than ever. I’m happy I made time to revisit both of these classics.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and A Link Between Worlds. I’ve replayed a handful of Zelda games over the past few years, and 2022 continued the trend with a pair of more (relatively) recent Zelda entries. The catalyst was seeing the first substantial trailer for Tears of the Kingdom, which inspired me to finally play the DLC for Breath of the Wild, which I hadn’t touched. In fact, I hadn’t touched the game at all since my initial playthrough, but it was a real treat revisiting that world again; it’s just as magical as I remember. I followed that up with a replay of A Link Between Worlds, which remains a fantastic (and underrated) Zelda game that holds up excellently (though I could do without that damn baseball minigame). I’m happy I made time for both of these in 2022. Hot take: Zelda is still good.