2024 was a great year to be a video game liker. From monstrously giant and high-budget worlds to smaller scale and powerful indie games there’s been a lot to appreciate this year. These are some of my highlights that released in 2024.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
This one really came out of nowhere for me. I have a tumultuous relationship with the “Metroidvania” genre (the name sucks and a lot of them really don’t live up to the games that defined it, but I digress) so my expectations for this one were a blank canvas when I booted it up. What I got was world that was compelling to explore and combat that took just enough of the juggly Devil May Cry formula to be fun. It demanded Super Meat Boy style mastery in certain challenge sections with it’s movement abilities, but it felt generally fantastic even just traipsing through the world. It’s probably ridiculously cheap now (I suspect it’s low initial sales were thanks to the way Ubisoft routinely discounts it’s releases super quickly) and apparently runs fantastically even on Switch. It’s real good!
Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore
Arzette is what you get when a team of people sees the promise hidden inside the Zelda CDi games and makes good on it. Everything from the music style, intentionally hammy voice acting to the beautifully lo-fi animation style lovingly resembles the games to which it pays homage. If you’re a weirdo like me who spent far too much of his time watching deranged edits of CDi cut scenes in the past you owe it to yourself to give this a try. It’s even a fantastic game under the delightful stylistic tribute, to boot!
Emio: The Smiling Man
I had no idea what I was in for with Emio. Going purely on the recommendation of my friend James I found my way into maybe the most novel-like visual novel I’ve encountered. There’s not much in the way of decision making or branching story - it’s entirely linear. Emio does however allow you to reason through the mystery and unpack it as you play along. It’s a thrilling mystery that took a few hours to really get going, but really got it’s hooks in me eventually. Reckon I’ll grab the earlier FDC games based on how much I enjoyed this one.
1000xRESIST
Humanity is all but gone, decimated by an illness that literally makes you cry yourself to death. All that remain are a society of women living their life according to a strict dogma. 1000xRESIST really struck me. It’s a game about the things we carry with us and the way we pass things on to the people who are important to us. It’s also got some shockingly good looking scenes, composed with a cinematic eye, that have lingered in my mind ever since. It’s more visual novel than action game, but every chapter left me with something to marinate on - and that’s my kind of shit.
Crow Country
An odd little homage to PS1 era survival horror with visuals that strangely resemble Final Fantasy VII stylistically more than Resident Evil. A neat puzzle box with some fun twists and reveals as the story unfolds.
I was initially a bit apprehensive since it looked like a classic fixed camera game but in fact had full rotational camera control and a 3D environment. It got me on board eventually though. While the camera made the tank controls option basically redundant, it was remarkable how much it resembles something like a pre-rendered FF7 scene when the camera isn’t moving. I enjoyed the grungy noise/compression filter over everything too. Gives it such a ~vibe~ y’know?
Duck Detective: The Secret Salami
I vibed with this game from the word go. A down on his luck, recently divorced duck with a crippling bread addiction called back into the life of detecting that sent him downhill in the first place. It’s a classic detective noir setup - but the main character is a duck.
The mystery is fun to unpack over the course of an afternoon, and while I had some niggles with the specific method you use to deduce the situation, I found Duck Detective a delightful way to while away an afternoon.
Ufouria: The Saga 2
I rented the original Ufouria on NES as a kid. I never got very far, but it was that weird game for me that stuck in my memory but I couldn’t remember the name until recently. Regardless, Ufouria 2 was a delight. It’s visual style is wonderful in how everything has a tangible, material look. It’s a fairly light and breezy exploration centric platformer that I loved breezing through.
Dragon Quest 3: HD-2D Remake
For years I’ve known I’d enjoy Dragon Quest. Watching Tim Rogers’ DQXI review, and knowing several friends who adore the series made me pretty confident it’s something I’d love - but I’d just never gotten around to playing one - until I got this one in as a review. The music, the character and enemy art, the general vibe, the comfortable but challenging JRPG combat system - DQ3 rules and I can’t wait for 1 & 2 to come along.
Astro Bot
Team Asobi have nailed the platforming feel in a way that few aside from Nintendo ever have. From all the little in-level interactions, mechanical gimmicks and delightful little historical nods - Astro put a smile on my face from start to finish.
Mouthwashing
Like 1000xResist, Mouthwashing is about so much. It’s about the effect of capitalism on the people who need to work within it to survive. It’s about how people deal with their absolute lowest moments. It’s about feeding a horrendously disfigured not-quite-corpse painkillers in increasingly uncomfortable scenes. It’s a game that sets out to make you feel unease, and I love it for that.
So many varied and interesting games appeared this year, and so many I won’t even get to play for years to come I’m sure. Much of what I did play was immensely rewarding, especially those outside the AAA space. So many weird little gems out there to enjoy.