So I'm a bit late this year with my GOTY list. Just to take a brief moment to plug my cohost account, my new social media of choice post-twitter collapse and summarize the last little bit of my life, I got extremely sick in early December, resulting in two hospitalizations in January. I had meant to spend December finishing up a few games but given the state of my health I couldn't do much other than rest.
Anyway, I don't want to dwell too much on it here (that's what the cohost is for), but let's briefly talk about some games that didn't make the list:
With that out of the way, on to the list!
Showing 1-10 of 10 items
Number 10 Not since Namco Museum on PS1 has there been an old-game compilation with nearly as much character, care, and sheer amount of information crammed into it. Sure, turns out a lot of old Atari games haven't aged particularly well, but when the collection itself is packed filled with amazingly in-depth interviews, fascinating behind the scenes looks at various aspects of Atari, and interesting supplemental advertisements, arcade operator's manuals, and anything and everything in between, it's hard not to wish every retro collection had this much care put into it.
Number 9 Splatoon 3 isn't quite as much of an improvement over Splatoon 2 as Splatoon 2 was to Splatoon, but I also played it way more compared to Splatoon 2 (though still probably not as much as Splatoon, hilariously). With even more refinement on the weapons and supers, a vastly improved Salmon Run mode with fun and exciting new super-bosses, and a genuinely fun single player campaign, Splatoon 3 marks another fantastic entry in one of Nintendo's weirdest series.
Number 8 When I was a kid I always thought running an arcade would be the coolest thing to do. Turns out while it's not the /coolest/, running your own arcade in Arcade Paradise is in fact, pretty cool. Each new game brought into your arcade is the right kind of janky for the era, and barring a few absolute stinkers is generally pretty fun, as well. The management side of things is also pretty fun to handle, setting up your arcade to maximize quarter-profits by tweaking difficulty, prices, and locations. While I wish there was a little more to do after the end of the "story", I can't say I didn't greatly enjoy developing my own little arcade paradise.
Number 7 It's weird to start talking about Ghostwire: Tokyo with a complaint, but there are some really cool parts of the game that I think just don't go on long enough. They have such visual splendor and interesting ideas that I wish they made up more of the game. Now I say this for two reasons. One: Even thinking "I wish the cooler stuff was longer/more frequent," there is still a pretty solid amount of cool stuff in the game, and what's there is in fact extremely cool. Combat is exciting, there's a bunch of really neat small touches to the game, like using street lights as an enemy-awareness meter, and I think the world that gets set up is fascinating. It's a much better first-IP-outing than The Evil Within was. And two: given how incredible The Evil Within 2 was, it makes me think if a Ghostwire: Tokyo 2 happens, it will knock it out of the park.
Number 6 While the game was in an absolute technical state at launch, that didn't stop me from having a blast with this reboot. I think the main reason for that is genuinely liking the crew of this game far more than almost anyone in the past games outside of Kinzie. They gelled together as a fun group of friends building their criminal empire, as opposed to the more friends-by-virtue-of-being-business-partners style of most crew members in the past Saints Row games. Combat, while pretty rote, was enjoyable enough, especially with some upgrades to make the weapons more exciting, and, especially in the third act of the game, some of the best missions in the series, including one I might genuinely consider the best (After Party).
Number 5 Every once in a while, one of the increasingly common retro-throwback games just sticks with me. This year, it was Shredder's Revenge. I find the best way to stick with me tends to be both exemplary in re-creating the best of the genres they're presenting, as well as having a history with either the license or style of game being represented. I have tons of fond memories playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games with my siblings, and in addition, Shredder’s Revenge is just an insanely fun ride. Each level is jam-packed with details from the rich history of the Turtles, beautifully sprited and with a fantastic soundtrack. Plus, the game is just darn fun to play. Enemies wall bounce and get juggled in super satisfying ways, each character’s super moves bring in aspects of their personality in fun ways, and the whole game just comes together to be a joy.
Number 4 As I’ve been doing these lists for basically a decade now, I feel like one trend that should be noticed is that I enjoy stories about telling stories. Storytelling is powerful, and of all the video game developers out there, I think Obsidian may be the one that grasps that concept the most. They consistently make exciting narrative adventures with actual choice and consequence systems that don’t feel as faked or lacking meaningful variation between the choices that you make as other developers’ attempts. While the extremely open-ended murder mysteries in Pentiment maybe aren’t as consequential as some of their other outings, they do provide a solid backdrop for the game’s over-arching mystery and the key interactions between the player character and the constantly evolving and changing town is where Pentiment really shines.
Number 3 I like Pokémon. I like when game series decide they’re gonna get weird. Turns out, when Pokémon decides it’s gonna get weird, I think it’s pretty darn fun. Transplanting the rather modern series trappings into a much older time period works surprisingly well. Being able to sort of sneak around, launch Pokéballs at a group of Pokémon and keep moving is very satisfying and fun, although unlike most people I think I prefer that system remaining as a side-game thing rather than making it into the main series. Some smarter simplifications of main series mechanics, at least compared to the slightly over-simplified Let’s Go, are also pretty appreciated. They should bring that Link Cable item into the main series though. Make trade evolutions a thing of the past, please.
Number 2 Bayonetta 3 is one of the closest games to actually being placed at number 1 on my list, but there’s just a few too many “buts” to actually commit to it. Bayonetta’s combat remains second to none in terms of character action fun, but unfortunately new addition Viola needed a few more options or time in the oven. Which is a shame, because I think Viola is a fantastic character, but there’s something off about her presentation that makes me feel like not too many people at Platinum agree with me. Most of the new weapon types are pretty fun to use and there are some really unique demons to play with, but then I just think about the weird train one and how it’s pretty hard to use the times the game needs you to use it to solve puzzles and I get sad. With most of the buts out of the way: I think the various alternate universes are pretty fun to go through, I really can’t overstate enough how much fun the combat is (at least as Bayonetta), and the fact that all of Jeanne’s stages are just Elevator Action is genuinely my favorite Platinum-Trademark “What if we just stick a different arcade game in our game?” side-game. It’s so close to being my favorite game of the year. But I really, really wish it could have been.
Number 1 This ongoing thing of me mentioning how much I dislike a certain genre in one year’s list, followed by placing another example of the genre even higher the next year has finally hit its peak. Last year, when talking about Fights in Tight Spaces, I mentioned that I wasn’t a big fan of deck-builders. And here we sit in 2022 (well, at this point writing this 2023 but hey, extenuating circumstances) with a deck builder sitting as my favorite game of the year. There’s a lot of Fights in Tight Spaces in Midnight Suns, and I think that’s part of the reason I find it so appealing. Setting up your combos by knocking dudes around the map with attacks was my favorite part of Fights in Tight Spaces, and it’s taken to a pretty crazy extent in Midnight Suns. Magik, for instance, can just teleport people willy-nilly and set up portals that can completely redirect people into objects at crazy angles. And that’s just a single character’s power, each other party member has fun and unique abilities and attacks that make any team set-up interesting to play. As much fun as the combat is, the sections of the game out of combat, where you’re just meandering around the abbey your character calls home, picking various flora for crafting recipes, finding collectibles, and interacting with your team are probably the high points. Firaxis has nailed the small interactions–stuff like playing video games with Tony Stark or stargazing with Nico Minoru gives meaningful little conversations into both characters’ headspaces at the time, and they’re all very well done. All in all, Firaxis outdid themselves by making both a grand-scale, world saving strategy game coupled with incredible small-scale, character driven moments. And the game’s deft balancing of both, in addition to just being extremely fun to play and strategize with, is why Midnight Suns is my Game of the Year. Thanks for reading!