Another year has passed, another year of me doing this specific thread.
Every single year I make this thread, to post about the best games you happened to play, in 2024. The only rule, as always, is that it has to be games that you played for the first time (for a significant amount of time) in 2024. So as to not be able to choose games you've played regularly for years, but also to not negate games you just happened to play a small amount of in the past. But that also means the game didn't have to actually release in 2024.
I tend to think too much on these and rank them in order from best to "worst" (worst generally still being an 8/10)
1. Super Mario RPG remake: I feel really annoyed at this choice. This is the 2nd year in a row I'm doing a remake of a game I've played before as my favorite, which I don't want to include unless they feel different enough. I guess this one does in places, but despite some gameplay tweaks, most of the time I felt like I was just playing the SNES game with updated visuals and music. But I guess it did affect how I enjoyed it, and it did have something new I kinda loved. The post-game rematches. These are so tricky to learn but really fun to master puzzle bosses where if you do them wrong, you're screwed. Considering the games is otherwise fairly easy, it was a real nice change of pace.
2. World of Goo 2: This game deserves more love. It just came and went and most people didn't notice it feels like. Which is a shame, because this is a fantastic little game. At least once you realize its much better in handheld mode than its questionable attempt to recreate pointer controls. For a while, I was a tiny bit disappointed it felt like a samey sequel. But I realized that A. Yes I did just want more of World of Goo and B. It is by design. World of Goo 2 is about being a sequel. It uses its own sequel nature to have a genuinely clever commentary of how insincerely corporations will do the same thing but say they're being environmentally friendly and also about how a series can just continue to the point of no longer reflecting much of what the series was. And underneath all that clever commentary, is one of the best puzzle games you could play.
3. Pizza Tower: Aka...the best Wario Land? I'm not entirely sure, Wario Land 2 is wildly ambitious for its time in a way I respect and 3 apparently even moreso. But of the last couple of games Nintendo put out where levels all end in a just rush to the exit like you're trying to be Sonic, it is the best of those, by far. It is as brilliantly aesthetically in its ugly way as Shake It was in a clean way, and with even better music. It's also less frustrating than Shake It to replay (...unless you try for those round 2s I guess) and is better than 4 by having more than 2 hours of content.
4. Pikmin 4: 1st Mario RPG, 2nd game in series, 3rd game in specific type of Wario Land, 4th game in series. I like the order this list came out. Anyway, Pikmin 4's great. Part of me does really question if the game needed to have as much as it does, but while the answer is probably no, it did about as competent a job of overly extending playtime. When Batman: Arkham Knight did this for its series, it nearly ruined the entire game. This at least doesn't risk ruining the gameplay formula I enjoy in this series. And it is more great Pikmin fun, after a very long wait, being to 2 in a way that 3 was to 1, I guess. It sometimes feels like a giant best of Pikmin more than an adventure, but it never fully turns into JUST that either. There's still plenty to love on its own, but even with all the great changes (and controlling as well as I could reasonably expect without Wiimotes (that's two games that make me miss pointer controls tho)), I'd still prefer something a bit shorter with its extra content away from the main adventure next time. At the very least, I would've cut much of that last main level and put the best/most interesting parts of it as an extra part of the previous on.
5. Steamworld Dig 2: One of the final games I downloaded on my 3DS, it does live up to the hype. Mostly. I'm not gonna call this one of the greatest Metroidvanias, and I haven't even played a lot of the most beloved modern games in that genre. But it is still a pretty great one, especially for 3DS (reasonable chance its better than Samus Returns tbh). I've never gotten into Minecraft or Terraria or the many other digging focused games, except for this series. But I do its appeal in this context, its a cool combination. And this one is a real improvement, honestly adds content to the game more naturally and less exhaustively than Pikmin 4 even (I just prefer Pikmin as a whole more, hence why its higher on this list).
6. Golf Story: Why did I take so long to play obvious 2017 indie games? I only played Yooka Laylee in 2023 too. Anyway, yeah I also liked GBA Mario Golf, thank you indie game! Seriously though, this game's really cool. Maybe even better than actual Mario Golf, this is the best example of making a fun Nintendo adventure for...golf. It's an adventure, they take full advantage of various themes and area types and all the goofy things you can do with that, with a world map to explore Mario 3/World style and everything. It's maybe not as funny as it wants to be, but its not annoying and otherwise the personality is fairly charming.
6. Mario Golf N64: Speaking of Mario Golf. I maybe shouldn't count this because I did play it for a couple of hours in the past. But on the other hand...that was the year it came out and never again until 25 years later, who cares? I'm tired. Anyway, despite what people will say N64 is not that dated. And this is a really good example because its...roughly of a similar quality to what came afterwards. It has its issues but much less than you'd expect I think, and it has a ton going for it for being the first...real Mario sports game. The first one where they were really focusing on that idea at least instead of just...sad attempt to sell Virtual Boy and "its the NES, might as well use our one real mascot". Also I think Jaraiya from Naruto's voice is one of the original characters.
7. Splatoon 3: Side Order It's a new campaign, I counted the last DLC Splatoon campaign too. This one doesn't quite reach the same heights as Octo Expansion, but it does join Shovel Knight Dig as me actually getting into rogue-likes now. Funnily enough, this one's arguably too easy vs. Shovel Knight being too hard. But...Nintendo game, sure why not? It did become an enjoyable time repeatedly trying new builds and upgrades to try again, more than I was expecting when I started it. It's pretty cool, especially figuring out how best to break it. (For me it was adding constant explosions and help from the drone)
8: Gris: Not kidding, I beat this a few hours ago. I just needed a short game to hopefully add to this list and unfortunately Sayonara Wild Hearts was hurting my eyes after just 4 levels. It's one of those sad, chill platformers putting atmosphere and art over especially involved or quick paced mechanics I guess. I missed out on this part of gaming tbh, I wish I had played Journey back in the day. And tbh, playing this makes me question if I'm much of a fan of this, kinda. I thought it worked well for what it was and had some cool gameplay mechanics, but it was slow and artsy in ways such as...trying to get around having it possible to die in your video game, in very obvious ways. I enjoyed it for what it was but I was unsure if I thought it was great enough for this. Two things pushed me over the top. One is the last time I felt a game trying this hard to make me care about its subtle storytelling was Teslagrad. Which was arguably better mechanically but actively annoyed me when I tried and failed hard to care. This didn't annoy me. And the other aspect is that...by the end, it finally hit and I finally felt something. Which doesn't fully change how I felt about it, but it did give me something to be invested in an emotional way and I think that pushes me to thinking its a pretty great game.
Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back (N'Sane Trilogy): I'm not the biggest Bandicoot fan, and the first and third games are still questionable experiences at best, but for some reason this second game just worked for me. It's also the only one I'd never played on the PS1 before. The difficulty and stage variety feels perfectly balanced compared to the games that came before and after.
Maneater: It's janky trash, yes, but very addictive janky trash. This perfectly encapsulates what I liked so much about video games in the PS2 era, and I lost countless hours upgrading my shark and hunting down powerful enemies and collectables in the game's various locales.
Marvel's Spider-Man: The version on PS4. Only played it this year. It's fun. Very, very fun. I almost completed a NG+ run on the highest difficulty setting before getting side-tracked by life right after beating it initially. The open world is very generic, admittedly, but the dynamism of movement and the strong theming in general really carried this release for me.
Prodeus: Brutal DOOM, but with much better level design and eye-popping visuals. Really enjoyed my time with this.
Coming Out on Top: A Western-developed gay eroge dating simulator, so not exactly the sort of thing most people will have experience with, but the quality of the writing was tops. The developer clearly understands what makes for a great eroge, and even if you're coming for the man-on-man stuff (badum-tish), you'll be staying for the genuinely hilarious writing throughout and various colorful characters you'll encounter. Just a great time.
Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising (Re-Boot Camp version): A bigger, better sequel to the original in pretty much every way. The dictionary definition of a fantastic iterative sequel. Not much else to say here: AW still has some of the best tactical combat I've encountered to date, and WayForward did a great job remaking this campaign. The art and music are genuinely gorgeous at times.
2024 games (ranked):
1. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth - phenomenal, the one game this year that I felt most invested in, and probably now my favourite game in the series. The world and characters are just so well-realised, and I'm tempted to say this has the best battle system of any JRPG out there.
2. Zelda Echoes of Wisdom - ingenious, and a reminder of why I love Zelda so much. It's magic is unmatched.
3. Paper Mario TTYD - fantastic remake of what is perhaps the best Gamecube game.
4. Persona 3 Reload - it's modernised Persona 3, what's not to love? Although I will say I didn't like it as much as 4 and 5.
5. Sonic and Shadow Generations - one of the all-time greatest Sonic games is finally on Switch, alongside perhaps the best 3D Sonic since Generations.
Older games:
Hmm, on reflection, I only finished two older games this year that I'd never played before (I replayed a lot it seems). Let's rank them anyway:
1. Wanted: Dead - one of those "so bad it's good" games...although I'm not actually convinced it's bad. Gameplay is fun if a bit basic and sometimes frustrating. The game is just so quirky...definitely recommend if you have a spare couple of quid.
2. Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time - it's R&C, of course it's good. But I get the feeling I won't remember this one this time next year.
I'll make this post a little different from the one I made in a similar thread that @FishyS mentioned. I won't count Paper Mario: TTYD and Metroid Prime Remastered, since although I did enjoy playing those games on Switch, I put a lot of time into the GameCube originals in the past already. Also won't count Tears of the Kingdom since I played a lot of that game back in 2023, even though I finished it the year after.
Super Mario Party Jamboree - I love this game, and I'd say it's my favorite game from 2024. Definitely the best Mario Party game on the Switch, and I love how they brought back Western Land! Koopathlon mode is a lot of fun, too.
Princess Peach: Showtime! - A cute, charming game with a lot of variety. Love how Peach always dresses for the occasion on hand, and I was able to adapt to the different gameplay styles too... though the detective levels are tricky for me!
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom - A very solid classic-styled Zelda game with an interesting echo mechanic, though swapping between the echoes can be a bit clunky when you have a large amount of them. It's not quite the worst thing, especially if you're just using the most recently used echoes. It's another charming game for sure, love the art style that this game and the Link's Awakening remake has. And I do love a good classic Zelda game, so I liked it enough to put it on my favorites of 2024.
Splatoon 3: Side Order - This DLC can be a bit challenging at times, but I did enjoy playing it overall. I like its roguelike gameplay and it fits into Splatoon quite well, I find. I love its music too.
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp - Been a long time since I played this one. I started playing it again sometime after the server shutdown announcement, and it's a nice, relaxing mobile game. I liked it enough to get the Complete version.
The Legendary Starfy - Didn't play too much of this one, but I did like it enough to mention it here. It is a cute game for sure, and I'm glad it made its way to NSO. The entire game is in Japanese, but surprisingly I was able to make it through things from the amount of time I put into.
Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time - PC/Steam version. Took me a while to get to this one since I like a couple of the PS1 Crash platformers. I did like Crash 4 quite a bit actually, even though it gets super difficult! I did hear getting 100% is... not a great experience, let's say, so I won't be doing that. Also picked the mode that doesn't have limited lives.
I've gotten better with keeping up with single-player games in my backlog recently. Recently I've been coming back to the Mega Man Battle Network series via the Legacy Collection. I do wanna get to stuff like Sonic X Shadow Generations and Pikmin 4, as well.
Edit: Adding another game that I somehow forgot about.
Mario vs. Donkey Kong - Switch remake. I did previously play the GBA original on the 3DS ambassador program years ago, but I didn't touch it since then, I got stuck in one of the Mini Mario levels for some reason. The game is sort of fresh to me as a result. Anyway, I do really like the game, and it is nice seeing this puzzle-platformer style of gameplay that this game and Donkey Kong '94 were known for again. I'm not a fan of its boss fights, but I do like a lot of its levels. Would love to see Nintendo make another game like this instead of the ones on the DS, for example. The MvDK sequels were decent, I just like the first one and DK '94 more.
Warframe
My all-time favorite live service. Has been my favorite game for 11 years and running. While oh so many live services have launched and subsequently died, Warframe still remains. As healthy as ever.
Monster Hunter Rise
The first MH game I've played from start to finish. Has me eager for Wilds launch in February.
Infernax
I love Castlevania II, and Inferax is love note to Castlevania II.
Vostok Inc.
I've played through this twice in three years. This Asteroids sim-management lite hits me just right.
No Man's Sky
The tech in this 2016 game continues to make the tech in Starfield seem like trash-tier effort.
I didn't play a huge number of games in 2024, but that does mean I can remember most of the ones I did play, so I'll have a go at ranking the best of them:
1. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D - One of the few Zelda games I'd never played before. Although the time loop can be annoying, it gives rise to the best side quests in the series, and I love the uniquely weird vibes throughout. It also might be the most enjoyable Zelda game to get 100% completion thanks to the Bomber's Notebook and Sheikah Stone giving you hints on where to find side quests and heart pieces respectively, rather than just having to aimlessly wander around looking for stuff or google it.
2. Super Mario Bros Wonder - I got this for Christmas 2023 but I think I played most of it in January, so I'll include it. There are things I didn't love about it such as the paltry boss fights, pointless 'story' segments and lack of triple jump, but it's still a Mario platformer and therefore one of the most fun games available. The badge challenges were my favourite new addition, scratching the itch for quickfire, tight platforming stages built around a single mechanic.
3. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom - Not quite top-tier Zelda, but a delightful, charming, gorgeous game. Echoes are a brilliant mechanic and it was always fun trying out the new ones you find throughout the game.
4. Super Mario Party Jamboree - I only got this for Christmas so haven't delved too far into it yet, but from what I've played I'm impressed by the amount of content - the most minigames in the series, a story mode of sorts, several multiplayer modes, three large bonus minigames, achievements, unlockable decorations, and proper online. Whether all of this will live up to expectations remains to be seen, but the main party mode is as good as ever with some clever new board designs. Plus you can spam emotes while waiting for your turn.
5. WarioWare: Move It - Another Christmas 2023 pickup. I was disappointed by the amount of content in this one, especially now I have Jamboree to compare it to, but WarioWare is always great fun and this one uses the Joy-Cons in some genius ways. Certainly a game I'll come back to when I feel like waving my arms around like a fool.
6. Outer Wilds - Finally breaking up this Nintendo-heavy list with a third-party game. I talked about it in more detail in the Games You Recently Beat thread; it can be an annoying game to actually play at times (and the DLC even more so), but the sense of discovery and the satisfaction when you solve a clue are almost unmatched.
7. Gris - About the closest you can get to playing a painting. The gameplay is pretty basic and it didn't have a big emotional impact on me personally, but it's so beautiful to look at that none of that really matters.
8. Splatoon 3: Side Order - This was a bit easy for a roguelike (I beat it on my fourth try) and is quite lacking in variety, so I'm not sure how well it will hold up on replaying it as much as the game wants you to (I haven't got round to another complete run yet). It was really fun the first time round though, and I do want to gradually replay it with all the weapons over time, just spreading it apart enough that I don't get bored. The first and last boss in particular are fantastic.
9. Donkey Kong Land - I'd never played this before it hit NSO but it's a solid little game. It's not on the same level as the SNES games (what is?) but it feels impressively similar for a Game Boy game, like an extra level pack for Country 1. I hear the two following games are more closely based on their SNES counterparts but I'll definitely give them a go too.
Thank you Nintendo for giving us Donkey Kong Jr Math on Nintendo Music
Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising (Re-Boot Camp version): A bigger, better sequel to the original in pretty much every way. The dictionary definition of a fantastic iterative sequel. Not much else to say here: AW still has some of the best tactical combat I've encountered to date, and WayForward did a great job remaking this campaign. The art and music are genuinely gorgeous at times.
I also played the remake of 2's campaign in 2024, it was awesome on GBA, it was awesome on Wii U's VC, it is still awesome in the most unfairly criticized first party Switch release. Literally the only reason its not on my own list is because its just Advance Wars 2 again, as far as I remember at least, otherwise it'd be like at number 3.
Doing this before we get TOO far into 2025...
My 2024 GOTY is Sonic x Shadow Generations in regards to actual 2024 releases, but top 5 favorite games I played in general are:
5: Sonic x Shadow Generations (Series S): a great re-release of the original Generations, and a great new experience with lots of depth and content. Still need to 100%.
4. Pikmin 4: a great new entry in the Pikmin series, full of content and simple fun.
3. Paper Mario TTYD (Gamecube): a game that's practically as good as everyone says it is, with great, satisfying combat and really good writing. Chapter 6 was my favorite.
2. Kirby and the Forgotten Land: an incredible 3d platformer that's a blast to play every time I picked it up.
1. Oneshot: World Machine Edition (Switch): A incredible, emotional experience, with great puzzles, soundtrack, and an amazing narrative. Highly recommend to EVERYONE. Seriously, plz play
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