For the last few years, I've been able to play 25-35 games in sufficient quantity to rank them for a GOTY list. I write at least a paragraph about my top 10, as well as short blurbs on my Honorable / Dishonorable Mentions. An unfortunate side-effect of this structure is that I fail to even note some games that are worth discussing. This is especially unjust for any early releases that occupy a top 10 spot until the annual autumnal glut of gaming options shakes up my entire list. With the mid-year mark coming and going over the long holiday weekend, I figured I would take this opportunity to pay tribute to some games that are unlikely to Hang (TM) when December rolls around.
(The numbers in front of each entry indicate where the game currently sits on my rolling GOTY Notes app list.)
10. Luck Be A Landlord (PC)
Most of my hours spent on this game were during early access in 2022, but Luck Be A Landlord quietly hit 1.0 this year. Much like fellow Jan Game Super Auto Pets, it is absurdly easy to sink a ton of time into it. I'm not sure of the full list of additions included in the official release, but the most important one to me is Steam achievements. Each one appears to be tied to a specific icon and a quirky way of using it, which made things novel for someone who had mostly grown tired of the game. From the simple (destroy a symbol before X turn) to the not-so-simple (have a Dwarf and a Pirate share a Beer), I had something to shoot for in every run. It's become a game I occasionally pop into when I don't have much play time, and it's always nice to have one of those on tap.
9. Hi-Fi Rush (Xbox Series X / PC)
I suspect we're going to hear this game discussed a lot around GOTY time, at least amongst video games media people. Personally, I wanted to like this game more than I did. Part of the issue was that I could never calibrate the timing right on my TV tied to the Series X, so I made it a PC game. The thing is, when I exile myself to the PC instead of hanging out with my partner, I'm usually looking for a different vibe than Hi-Fi Rush offers. I'm not close to finishing the game, and I don't know if I ever will, but I can't deny that it's a good overall game. It's squarely in the Subnautica zone of "game I didn't personally like that much but recommend to everyone when it's on a subscription service".
8. Terra Nil (PC)
Ah, the weight of expectations. I thought this game was a shoo-in for my final top 10 list after playing the demo. It turns out, the game is much more puzzle than I expected, and with my brain fried at the end of every day, it's never what I'm looking for to wind down. I suppose if it were more like Dorfromantik, I'd have an easier time finding my way back in. I still love the core concept of building an ecologically diverse landscape out of a wasteland, then needing to pack everything up at the end. However, I think the game would have been better served by tracking a high score, rather than providing limited resources and potentially forcing you to wind everything back to finish the level. It was released around the same time as Resident Evil 4 (2023) and Dredge, which certainly didn't help Terra Nil's case for my limited time. But the game is really cool and novel, and if it ever caught your interest, it's slightly on sale right now.
7. Matthew Rorie's Tape to Tape (PC) [Early Access]
I just grabbed this over the weekend and have been having a lot of fun with it. A caveat is that it's very early in its early access, so it's pretty rough around the edges. But as someone who used to break out my still-functional Genesis to play NHL 97 until a decade ago, I'm always in the mood for an arcade-y hockey game that doesn't care for offsides or human decency. My main complaint is that the runs feel very similar to each other, so I only want to bank a couple before moving to a different game. It's definitely a game to keep an eye on, and once Rorie finishes programming / drawing / publishing the game by himself, it could be really special.
6. Like A Dragon: Ishin! (Xbox Series X)
This is a really good game, released in basically the ideal time of year for it, that is going to get absolutely buried after October. For a brief moment, it was my #1 Game of the Year. I entered the Yakuza (er, Like A Dragon) series with Ichiban Kasuga, so the ties to older games didn't do it for me... at first. I worried that its silliness couldn't compare to LAD, but the 19th century setting proved to be fertile ground for goofs and new experiences. The minigames occupies far more time than I'm willing to admit (partially because I could actually play those with the kids awake). At the beginning, I wasn't into the combat, but it ended up being one of my favorite systems of the year. As I neared the end of the story, I kind of didn't want to finish it, since I knew I wouldn't touch it again afterwards. But man, that Diligence Record just has too much stuff in it for me to ever complete, so finish it I did. I mostly enjoyed the story, but the ending (limited by history, to be fair) left me wanting. I think if you got part of the way through it, the game peaks while you're still solving the mystery of the killer's identity. Ending the game can be an afterthought, since the journey there is the real fun. I'm happy this series, made with care, by a loving developer, is getting its well-earned time in the limelight lately.
I'll keep my top 5 to myself for now. But I'm always interested in the Not-Quites that people have for their GOTY lists, particularly if stuff like Wild Hearts or Star Wars Jedi: Survivor end up on their lists.
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