by Chris Selogy
2024 has been a terrible year for the games industry, but at least some great games came out in spite of all of this pain.
I’ll spare you from the unpleasantness of talking about the downsides of what 2024 has brought us because we can do that elsewhere in our Game of the Year content. I’d rather talk about more pleasant things here for the moment anyway. The games have been the main bright spot for this year and unfortunately, there are many other very cool games that didn’t make this Top 10 for one reason or another.
I’ll start with some of the big guns that nearly made this list, like Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Helldivers 2, and Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden. Prince of Persia was a cool Metroid-like that I enjoyed a lot, but ran into a fun situation when I took a break for a few months in the middle of a quest that didn’t point out where to go that lead to a fun few hours following a guide to see that I did both parts 90% of the way before getting lost and giving up on them. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and Helldivers 2 are mostly due to PS5 issues I had for a good part of the year where my PS5 crashed fairly often when playing PS5 games that made me stop playing some games until I traded it in for a new slim PS5 that worked perfectly and then never returned to those games until recently. Banishers: Ghost of New Eden is a poorly-named game from Don’t Nod that is their newest action RPG in the vein of the recent God of War games with a very cool spooky story that I wish I had more time to spend on it after getting it during Black Friday.
Let’s get to the games that I played a lot that barely missed the list. Halls of Torment brought a lot of good Vampire Survivors fun while being set in a Diablo II-style world that has been perfect on Steam Deck. The great Gold Series collections from Digital Eclipse like Tetris Forever and Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story are great stories of industry staples that more people should know. Then there’s Concord, which is the most controversial game of the year that I probably would have had on this list if it wasn’t shut down two weeks after launch due to all of the things that happened and didn’t happen for that game. Concord was the most fun multiplayer shooter I’ve played in a long time and the lack of FOMO-based unlock mechanics were a huge boon for how cool of a game that was, but the Destiny-style shooter action from a bunch of former Bungie devs was such a fun time. That game deserved better in every way, but sometimes I find myself loving games that don’t work out.
I’ll just end this with links to streams I did of more cool indies you should check out that nearly made this list. Cryptmaster is a cool dungeon crawler with a very cool typing mechanic and the titular Cryptmaster that responds to your nonsense. Pinball Spire is a fun pinball Metroid-like that is short but very cool. Lil Guardsman is a cool narrative adventure game with some fun Papers, Please style elements manning a security checkpoint. Castaway‘s a fun indie Zelda game with a short campaign and a challenging tower of combat to conquer. SteamWorld Heist II is a rad strategy RPG that expands more on what the first game did so well with more Steam Powered Giraffe music. Little Kitty Big City is a fun cat open world adventure game. Another Crab’s Treasure is a rad soulslike that takes place under the sea and doesn’t take itself that seriously until it wants to kick your ass. Botany Manor is a fun puzzle game where you explore this intricate house to solve its botany puzzles and open up more of the house.
With that said, here are my top 10 games of 2024:
10. Logiart Grimoire – PC, Switch
My Switch is mainly a Picross machine for most of the year, which is why Jupiter’s first Picross adjacent game on PC has led to me playing my Steam Deck much more than my Switch for the first time this year. Logiart Grimoire exited Early Access earlier this year with an interesting twist to the typical Picross formula that has you completing a crafting formula before you can take on each puzzle, which is mostly nonsense if I’m being honest. Even with that, it’s been great to have a Jupiter Picross game that is more challenging with more difficulty options than their Switch counterparts tend to have these days.
9. Cat Quest III – PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, PC
I’ve been a big fan of the previous two Cat Quest games when they’ve gone on big discounts, which are the perfect kind of chill action RPGs with plenty of cute cat puns in all of its writing. Cat Quest III takes that general approach and updates it to a more open world format as you’re a pirate cat that is exploring the world to find out there’s more to you than you might think. They’ve taken the formula to the next level with a more rewarding world to explore, a pirate ship for some fun ship combat, and even better combat that’s deeper than the previous games while still keeping the chill vibes of the previous games.
8. Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure – PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, PC
Arranger is that rare breed of puzzle game that takes the core mechanics it has to adapt it to another genre while having it all blend together amazingly well. Slide puzzles are typically not one that I gel with often, but Arranger does a great job of using those mechanics to create a fun way to get around its world and layers on additional mechanics for puzzles and combat that create more fun moments that surprise you the further you get into the game. Add in an amazing art style from David Hellman of Braid fame and you’ve got such a cool game that is deserving of more love and attention from puzzle game fans everywhere.
7. The Rise of the Golden Idol – PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, PC
I did not get into The Case of the Golden Idol until earlier this year as I enjoyed such an amazing adventure game in the mold of other investigative adventure games like Return of the Obra Dinn that scratches a big itch that I have every once in a while. The Rise of the Golden Idol takes that same formula to the 1970s as the legend of the events of the first game are regarded as a myth and the weird stuff starts to happen once again as somebody obviously has found a new Idol to mess with society. They addressed some of the playability issues of the first game that make the Steam Deck version nearly impossible to enjoy because of how messy its controls are, which is my only real issue outside of my stupidity in figuring out puzzles without hints.
6. Metaphor: ReFantazio – PlayStation, Xbox, PC
It’s not really surprising that having many of the people responsible for Atlus’ best RPGs in recent memory led to a wonderful game that I unfortunately have not had the time to beat yet, but that’s not for a lack of trying and desire to spend more time with it. The writing is especially surprising here as the game is probably the most relevant story they’ve had so far with none of the usual awful moments whenever any character that’s remotely queer shows up. Even the combat has evovled nicely with less of a focus on catching them all and more on its job system that is flexible and rewarding as it grows. It’s nice to have one of these hit so well and be a breath of fresh air for the Atlus
5. Tales of Kenzera: ZAU – PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, PC
While I might say that the combat of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is more rewarding that what’s in Tales of Kenzera: ZAU, it’s the story that is what makes this game special. It is a tale of grief inspired by creative lead Abubakar Salim’s own pain in dealing with the loss of his father as a young man that definitely resonates so well throughout this game as young Zau fights so hard to bring his father back to life. The gameplay holds its own very well as this smaller Metroid-like features fun combat and a map that is reasonable without being overly stuffed full of collectibles to make it more of a chore to explore the world. It’s just that kind of special smaller game that we need more of in this genre.
4. Wilmot Works It Out – PC
While Wilmot’s Warhouse was completely my jam, it’s nice that the sequel is the exact opposite in tone as a comfy puzzle game. Wilmot’s taking a break from his warehouse job as he stays at home to complete puzzles from his mail order puzzle club that he can then display on his walls when they’re done. It’s perfectly pleasant and fun as you get new deliveries by your postal carrier, whom becomes a friend as she makes small talk with you each day before you finish every season and get to hang out with her. Then there’s the maniacal marathon mode that gives you packages containing pieces from any season’s puzzles that is pure madness the likes of which I haven’t seen since Wilmot’s Warehouse.
3. Balatro – PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, PC
If there’s one game that perfectly matches the chaos that was 2024, it’s Balatro. It first appears to be a simple poker roguelike, but once you see how you can bend its rules and the way the jokers let you exploit its systems for your own gain as much as it tries to screw you over, you see the genius in its chaos. I may have only spent 40 hours with it with a handful of successful runs, but I’m sure I’ll be back soon enough to take on this most vengeful of games.
2. UFO 50 – PC
There have been a lot of impressive indie games this year, but UFO 50 stands above them all as a massive undertaking by Derek Yu and some of his developer buddies who started this project several years ago to create an Action 52-style collection of 50 games made to be like they’re from a single developer in the 80s for an NES-style microcomputer. If you play the games linearly, you see them start with some simple concepts before they find some really cool ideas that they iterate on in some wild ways that are very impressive. Rarely do they repeat themselves nor do they make blatant clones of the hits of the NES era, but they do often break the conventions of the era to make the games more enjoyable. I’m not even going to say every game is a winner, but I feel like any of the games in this collection could be somebody’s favorite like Mooncat is mine.
1. Astro Bot – PS5
Team Asobi has made three amazing platformers in the last six years and Astro Bot is their latest banger. This entry is part of PlayStation’s 30th Anniversary and as such, it takes the cool stuff that they did with Astro’s Playroom and fills it with lots of bots to find that are cosplaying as many of Sony’s best characters along with many of their partner’s characters, minus Square Enix for some reason. Asobi’s done a great job with post-launch support in adding a great speedrun mode and a fun Winter Wonderland level that adds fun characters like Gex and Croc. It’s just that kind of perfect game that helped make 2024 not feel like the disaster it feels like, at least for a while.
2024 has been a rough year to follow for this industry as we’ve lost some great sites to the capitalish machine and many great developers, as well. I’m sure 2025 will be full of its own issues and bright spots, but I hope the lows aren’t as low as the ones we’ve seen this year. Thank you to everyone that makes it this far.