IT IS TIME FOR THE GAMES OF THE YEAR 2022! I’m actually surprised at how good 2022 ended up being as far as games. There were a lot of good ones, so much so that I couldn’t play all the interesting ones. There was just no time. Not that all games were good, Sonic Frontiers and Return to Monkey Island exist, after all. But overall, there was plenty of good stuff.

So it is this time of the year where I can talk about all the great games I loved that came out that year. I usually do 6-7 GotY winners, one of which would be my grand TOP GotY choice, but I don’t know if I can do that this year.

I will also rant about the year as a whole, as usual, with a focus on the big 3.

There’s some games I was interested in during 2022 that I have yet to play, in case you’re wondering. Who knows if I’ll get to them, but if you think they’re really good and are sad they’re not named here, know that I probably hold no ill will against them, I probably just didn’t play it.

Amongst big games I haven’t played that could’ve had a chance: Digimon Survive (actually bought it but haven’t played it yet), A Plague Tale: Requiem, God of War Ragnarök, Horizon 2, Marvel’s Midnight Suns, Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher, Choo Choo Charles, Signalis, Soulstice, Sports Story… and many others. A lot of interesting games came out this year, was a bit hard to get to all of them.

So let’s go!

Click here to skip to the winners if you’re not interested in my inane rantings.

Rant

Well it’s my tradition, let’s complain about the console manufacturers! Or not, if they did well. It’s possible!

And, of course, click here to skip to the winners.

Sony released games this year! Games with an S! As in more than one! Whoa! This might be Sony’s busiest year in a long time with 3 whole first-party releases. We knew about these for a while, and they’re all multiplat (all coming to PS4 in addition to PS5, and likely all getting a PC release later), but hey, games coming out is a good thing… unless they’re shitty microtransaction traps like Gran Turismo 7, of course… but that’s besides the point I guess. What they continue failing to do at all is making the PS5 worth buying. If I can play all the games worth playing on PS5 on PS4 and/or PC, why would I get a PS5? There isn’t a reason. Maybe 2023 will be the turning point? I’m not seeing it, looking at the 2023 release list, there’s fucking nothing of note in there for the PS5. Sony needs to, you know, start doing shit. But they won’t, because people are wasting their money on this stupid console even if there’s nothing to play on it… so why would they put any effort? Hey at least next year has a sequel to that shitty Spiderman game and… R-Type Final 3 Evolved I guess? The one thing that is making me consider maybe getting a PS5 in 2023 is that FF16 is coming to PS5 first even though the PC version was announced first, but I’ll probably just end up waiting for the PC port (like I’m doing for Horizon and God of War). There’s also the second part of the FF7 remake, which is on my waiting list for when that whole game comes out (I’m not getting the separate parts, I’d rather buy one full game than 3 part-games). The big question for me is Stellar Blade, which was announced as multiplat but has since only been talked about as a PS5 game, that looks good so I do hope it comes to PC, and it’s probably not enough on its own to get me to buy a PS5. Overall for Sony: Make the PS5 worth buying, stop releasing PS4 games, try hating Japan less… stop being morons. Playstation is a brand that has been going in the shitter for a while now, I’d like it not to.

Microsoft continued Microsofting. They bought a couple publishers/studios that publish/make games that are popular but they’re doing nothing with them (it was really just to bolster Game Pass I guess?), and otherwise nothing… happened. Sony are currently whining like stupid fucking babies because Microsoft is buying Activision, although it seems Microsoft are (stupidly) not interested in making COD “exclusive”. Other than acquiring multiplat studios to let them continue to make multiplats… What was the big “Xbox” game this year? There wasn’t one. And I’m not even saying that because of the fact that there’s no Xbox exclusives (which there haven’t been in like 8 years now), even counting Xbox/PC multiplats there’s nothing. There is no big Xbox game in 2022, no matter how charitable I’m being. High on Life? I guess? Microsoft is now all about… Game Pass. Which is fine, I guess, it’s too expensive for my taste (enjoyed a whole month of that 3-month 1$ deal) but it’s not a completely terrible value if you space out subs (like, just sign up for a month at a time if an interesting game pops out on it). I just… wonder why they’re even there. If they were making games, sure… But they’re kinda not. Overall for Microsoft… I don’t really have comments. I’d recommend getting out of the console market since you don’t give a shit.

Well, just in case you need it, click here to skip to the winners.

Nintendo had a pretty crazy year, I have no idea why the others even bother. Truly all you need is whatever console Nintendo is making, and a decent gaming PC to not miss basically every worthwhile game that’s not on the Nintendo platform (since it’s better to play those games on PC than consoles). 2021 wasn’t a bad year at all for Nintendo, but 2022 was way bigger. Xenoblade 3, Mario+Rabbids 2, Fire Emblem Warriors 2, Mario Strikers, Splatoon 3, Kirby, Pokemon SV, Pokemon Legends Arceus, Live A Live, Bayonetta 3… and that’s just what Nintendo’s publishing/making, there was some non-Nintendo exclusive stuff (like Dragon Quest Treasures, Triangle Strategy, and Chocobo GP which was just updated to not have microtransactions anymore). Compare that to Sony just releasing 3 games, Nintendo is crazy. And this isn’t mentioning that the Switch continues being the best option for indies and not-too-demanding multiplats (PC being the best choice for multiplats otherwise). I really can’t fault Nintendo’s performance this year. Yeah the BotW2 delay was unfortunate, but it’s not like it was the only thing the Switch had going for it in 2022. The fact that it’s still a fantastic year without BotW2 just shows Nintendo is doing what others aren’t. Like, imagine if Sony had the same year they did, without God of War. That’s probably more than half their year’s value gone.

One thing Nintendo has gotten a lot of criticism about this year, more than ever, is needing a new console… And the bad framerate of Pokemon Scarlet at the forefront, it looks like there may be a point there. As well as overall Switch performance as so few games reach the 60fps mark (which should be a bare minimum), with graphics been a bit… old… at this point… yeah people MIGHT have a point. To be completely fair, the fact that the Switch is a potato when it comes to actual physical hardware and runs the games it does the way it does is still extremely impressive, I’m pretty forgiving to the Switch as far as performance. And to be fair to the Switch, Pokemon Scarlet is a bit horrendously programmed when it comes to performance, the Switch itself isn’t all to blame (considering Legends Arceus was very similar and didn’t have the same framerate issues). And I don’t fully disagree with this general sentiment, though I find it hard to believe Nintendo would release a new console while the Switch is still outselling its competition so handily all the time (it is currently the third highest-selling console ever). When Nintendo releases a successor, it’s a big deal for them. They don’t waffle around like complete idiots like Microsoft and Sony do, releasing all their first-party games on both the new and old hardware at the same time for years. Instead, Nintendo tends to completely abandon the old platform like a year BEFORE the new one comes out, with no major releases before the new console comes out, as development has pretty much completely shifted to the new console (with maybe one cross-gen title, like Twilight Princess and Breath of the Wild). This doesn’t seem to be happening with the Switch, with 2023 getting many big first-party releases (Fire Emblem, Pikmin, Zelda, the possibility of Prime 4 and a few smaller ones like Return to Dreamland Deluxe and Bayonetta Origins).

So… Yeah, I don’t know what Nintendo could possibly be planning for a Switch successor. I don’t think 2023 is the year, but I do think we’re basically right at the point where better hardware would be appreciated. Don’t change anything about form factor, the Switch concept is great. Just put a nice big APU in there that’s a big step up from the Switch (wouldn’t even need to be very expensive at this point, as they obviously won’t go crazy and put something like a 6800U in there (which is way stronger than what’s in the Steam Deck, the Aya Neo 2 is using that)), with solid DLSS. We just need Nintendo to not… pull a Nintendo and release a shitty console after releasing a successful one… This should be the hardest thing to fuck up, but Nintendo likes fucking up in the dumbest ways possible sometimes. All they need to do is a Switch but way stronger. And maybe design the analog sticks a bit better (even though drift is a problem with all analog sticks as long as they keep using the same shitty stick from ALPS, the Switch is a bit worse on that end).

So overall for Nintendo… Keep it up I guess. You’re clearly not perfect, but the fact that you’re releasing a steady stream of games every year is pretty fucking nice compared to the competition.

As far as games, there’s only a few games I found to be genuinely awful. Sonic Frontiers is one of those, being one of the most boring games ever made considering it has no gameplay design. Return to Monkey Island was a big FUCK YOU to the fans of the series, which is extra disappointing since it was developed by the original creator of the series (so it wasn’t newcomers shitting the series up unlike so many recent shitty sequels, it was the original guy saying to the fanbase “I fucking hate you and this series”). MultiVersus had potential but is just awful gameplay-wise (excessively floaty, attacks have wonky hitboxes, attacks have no impact). Monark was hugely disappointing, I played it for a while but yeah, not a good game unfortunately. There were also some games that weren’t bad, just meh. Shovel Knight Dig, Ghostwire Tokyo, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, Dawn of the Monsters, all a bit disappointing overall, but not terrible. Just kinda… there. Amongst others of course.

And there’s games I didn’t play that seem to have been not too great. Dying Light 2 sounds like it had big problems, Babylon’s Fall is getting shut down in February (so less than a year of life), Gran Turismo 7 sounded like it had pretty bad microtransactions, Overwatch 2 is just Overwatch 1 but considerably worse (Overwatch has just not been the same since Overwatch League), the Saints Row reboot was a legendary-level disaster (not just awful game design, graphical design, sound design and story, but even technically it barely even functioned), Scorn seems to not be that interesting gameplay-wise despite its really cool graphics…

Oh and WTF Squeenix? I talked about Nintendo releasing lots of games this year, but holy shit Squeenix. Star Ocean, Valkyrie Elysium, Live A Live (published by Nintendo), Triangle Strategy, 2 Voice of Cards games, finishing off the Pixel Remasters, Babylon’s Fall (oops), Chocobo GP (the microtransactions were bad but they removed that, like, yesterday I think), Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition, The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story, PowerWash Simulator, Dragon Quest X Offline (please localize), The Diofield Chronicle, Harvestella, Tactics Ogre: Reborn, Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song Remastered, Dragon Quest Treasures, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion, a pile of shitty mobile games… This company was on fucking FIRE this year. Some of these are in-house, some of these are published, but that’s a lot of fucking games for one company. Good job. Many of them were good too, which is even more surprising than the sheer amount.

So anyways, let’s talk about all the good stuff now!

Games of the Year Winners

Well. Okay. So. I usually do something like 5-6 Games of the Year winners, followed by one TOP Game of the Year. It’s all a bit arbitrary, as anything I have in the “Games of the Year Winners” section is just about viable as the actual “TOP Game of the Year” to be the year’s Top game. This year though. I’d say there’s a lot of really good games worthy of the title, but I legitimately can’t choose.

So this year I’m doing a never before seen by me, TOP 10 GAMES OF THE YEAR IN NO SPECIFIC ORDER BECAUSE PLAYING FAVORITES IS WEIRD. Fuck choosing, here’s all the best games!

Sifu

This is a game I was not excited for, at first. But closer to release I saw a few clips, read a bit about it and it was kind of a random buy. I didn’t think I’d end up playing one of my favorite games this year. So there you go. It has a great fighting system (like a take on the Arkham combat, but way more interesting and varied), a cool upgrade system, and one of the more interesting difficulty systems I’ve seen, where your character gets older each time you die (and spawns you back where you were), and you have until a certain age to be able to beat the game. Being old makes you stronger, but reduces your HP. And being young has you hit less hard, but obviously you have more leeway if you die so you have endurance. But you can replay older levels to try and be younger on later stages, which is really fun and unique “git gud” mechanic. It’s a cool balance that this game strikes perfectly. I really don’t have anything bad to say about this one.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shredder’s Revenge

Something of a nostalgia bait kinda deal, but man this was fun. It plays much like the classic arcade beat ’em up TMNT games, especially Turtles in Time, but quite a bit smoother and it looks so nice. If I had complaints about it, it would be, weirdly, that it’s too long. But the challenge is nice, the music is good, the nostalgia hits just right… I like it. But I prefer it in arcade mode. Good shit. Really not much to say about this one, you know what you’re getting based on little more than the title.

Elden Ring

I don’t think I really need to say too much about this on. It’s probably the souls game I had most fun with overall (though there are elements of Bloodborne and Sekiro I prefered). It does the open world thing decently (it’s too big, but otherwise, it works well), the overall gameplay is what From Software have already pretty much mastered after releasing this game 6 times so far, it has good balanced challenge where you losing is usually your fault, and… yeah… I don’t think I need to praise this one much, everyone else has been doing it.

My regards to reformed orthodox rabbi Bill Clinton, who totally deserves this award.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land

Kirby had a really shit game before this. Kirby Star Allies is the FIRST bad mainline Kirby game, it was just horrendously designed and stupid (to the point of being insulting to the player). So while I was hyped for Forgotten Land, it was the first time I was cautious about being hyped for Kirby. But the caution wasn’t needed, because this game was fantastic. It takes the usual Kirby concept and gameplay, but puts it into Mario 3D World style of levels (but I’d say more interesting since the levels feel less like random floating platforms), and somehow this works even better for Kirby than it does for Mario. The secrets are fun to find, the bosses are pretty cool, and there’s a decent amount of content too. Yeah, Kirby is back.

Neon White

I was pretty excited for this one. I thought it looked good and had a really interesting gameplay concept based on the one trailer I had seen. This is very much a speedrun-based game, where your weapons are based on cards you find placed in specific parts of the levels, and you have to use their limited ammo in specific (or imaginative) ways to go through the levels. Some of the weapons are movement based like stomping and dashing and double-jumping, or have secondary features like rocket jumping. Not only is it fun to figure out each level, but after finishing it, you try to do it again, but FAST. And finding shortcuts. And there’s rewards for doing that. Such a great, satisfying gameplay loop. Also speedruns of this game are insane. When I played through just a few levels, I knew this was gonna be in the GotY post, no question.

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin

I really liked this game. Even though it was on my previous PC and the PC port job was horrendous (I should try it again just to see if it got better with patches and with a better PC), this was a weirdly fun game. The CHAOS memes were fun, sure, but I don’t want to take anything away from the game itself. It was just a pretty cool game and concept. It’s kind of the perfect storm of cheesy dialogue, cheesy story and cheesy gameplay, that still ends up being very fun and well-designed, mostly. There’s a level of jank to it that is just good. And you get to fight CHAOS! I think people are not talking about this game enough. I was actually thinking about putting this up as THE TOP WINNER for this year’s Games of the Year post. But I figured a lot of the other games were about as good. But yeah, this was a blast to play and deserves more love.

Pocky & Rocky Reshrined

Pocky & Rocky is a classic series that actually started on the Famicom, but is probably more well known for the SNES games. They’re scrolling shooters, but you can kinda scroll the screen as you want (though you wouldn’t really want to stay in one place too long since enemies spawn infinitely), and in addition to shooting you also get a melee attack that reflects bullets/enemies and each character has a different charge shot. This was sort of marketed as a remake of the first SNES game but also not. And that’s basically accurate. While it does feature a few of the same bosses, the overall mechanics are a little bit different and the story is not the same either. This game is super fucking good. Buy it now. Please.

Evil West

This is a game that almost surprises me with its presence here, and I’m the one making the list. Because it’s a game that, yes, I enjoyed a lot as I was playing it, but one that, as I kept thinking about it after being done with it, I realized just how good the overall gameplay design of this was. It’s not perfect, there’s a few things I would’ve liked to seen fixed, I think having a camera that’s not uncomfortably close to the character would help for example. But yeah, this is a really solid, interesting action game with some interesting mechanics. A rare example of an action game with a ton of attack options, that are all useful! Wow!

Pokemon

Pokeymanz? In a GotY post? Whoa! Yeah, this is not a normal occurrence for me. I actually do really like pokemon (been a fanboy of it since… whenever the first time it popped up in Nintendo Power was), but this is not something that… happens. Pokemon tends to be a known quantity, it doesn’t change much, and usually doesn’t merit being here. It exists, it’s good, and will make it in honorable mentions. This year though, there were somehow 2 Pokemon games that were both good and unique enough to be worth giving a solid highlight to.

Legends Arceus takes an “open world” approach I like, which is using several smaller open worlds that are small enough to be fun to explore, but big enough that there’s still plenty to look for. It also changed the entire concept of Pokemon by not making fighting as core a mechanic as usual (but still have the combat be as solid as usual and adding a new element to it with the style selection), making it way more about catching and research, and it involved the human character way more in the actual combat.  This game was really fun.

Scarlet and Violet might have shit framerate, and very minor visual glitches if you’re playing online… But that’s not THAT important, especially since some of it is getting fixed. This is a more traditional Pokemon experience, but the open world is integrated very well, the ability to do things in any order is cool and mostly well integrated (though might require balancing… and by that I mean making all the challenges harder, not level scaling… level scaling is dumb). I really had fun with this one too. I think this is getting pretty close to the big open world Pokemon game people have been wanting for so long. Just a bit of an annoyance that people WAY exaggerate the issues it has… except for the set seed thing in online battles, that’s really stupid.

And I think the game that may have influenced this choice most… is TemTem… A pokemon-like that is… not bad. But despite some interesting combat changes (removing all RNG) and QOL features, it didn’t really do anything actually different with the Pokemon concept, which put it, at best, on par with any other Pokemon game (I’d say not as good as any Pokemon game). Meanwhile, Pokemon itself was actually trying different things this year and was way more interesting.

Overall

Yeah so… I think I’m putting all these games at around the same level. There’s some I prefer, but not in a way where I can actually name a proper top GotY. These are all good. There’s no number one or number ten or anything here. I  couldn’t even decide which of these to bring down to Honorable Mentions to keep it to my usual number of 6-7 winners… so the only solution was to not do that.

There’s plenty of other good games that came out in 2022, which is why it’s time for the HONORABLE MENTIONS!

Honorable Mentions

Again, in no specific order. These are all good games, but they’re not at the level of the ones I put in the GOTY section. Though some of them ARE very close. I decided not to put comments to any of these, but I think I did review almost all of them.

HoloCure
Xenoblade 3
Infernax
Triangle Strategy
Getsu Fūma Den: Undying Moon
Windjammers 2
Rogue Legacy 2
Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising
Kao the Kangaroo
Seven Pirates H
Fire Emblem Warrior Three Hopes
Little Noah: Scion of Paradise
Spidersaurs
High on Life
Captain Velvet Meteor: The Jump+ Dimensions
Cult of the Lamb
Super Bullet Break
Frogun
Azure Striker Gunvolt 3
Rollerdrome
Live A Live
Pac-Man World Re-Pac
River City Saga: Three Kingdoms
Soul Hackers 2
The DioField Chronicle
Atari Mania
Metal: Hellsinger
Mario+Rabbids: Sparks of Hope
Freedom Planet 2
Star Ocean: The Divine Force
Harvestella
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection
SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash
Biomotor Unitron
Mega Man Battle & Fighters
River City Girls 2
Valkyrie Elysium (note: review incoming)
Temtem
Bayonetta 3
Gotta Protectors: Cart of Darkness