Happy Holidays, everyone! It’s me, Jeff Bakalar, with my yearly reminder to you all that I do indeed still play video games – just maybe not as many as I’d like to these days.
I want to thank you all for your camaraderie, participation, and support throughout this roller coaster ride of a year. So now that we’ve all shared in the highs and lows of another 12 months of “living through this,” let’s take a look at some of my favorite games!
And no, you cannot expense anything on this list.
I’m surprised this one didn’t make more of a tangible splash this year. It’s a zero-fluff game that doesn’t waste time with a lofty narrative dump, but instead gets right to the point and sends you on your way through an absolute technicolor vomit roguelite bonanza.
And that’s not to say the world it builds isn’t appreciated. You know exactly the vibe and the points it’s trying to make right away. It’s got insane style, unmatched fluidity, and a sense of momentum that at the very least is worth checking out for an hour or two.
CotS has the aesthetic set pieces of a Knocked Loose music video and a gameplay and style that is fresh in its own right. I’m not a hyperviolent guy, but the puzzle-solving bonafides and general moodiness of this one allow me to look beyond the fact that I’m just mercing fools in the woods.
I loved Animal Well’s lo-fi presentation and just how frankly unsettling it is. I think it takes some interesting risks by assuming a lot about the player’s Metroidvania education, but it’s a design choice that I think was uniquely rewarding.
Overall there’s a lot to like about it, not just its moment-to-moment beats, but also the game’s development, layered complexity in its presentation, and of course, the success-story of its publishing. You love to see it.
I guess 2024 is a big Metroidvania year, with Animal Well and Prince of Persia making all the lists. But it’s well-deserved. Pound for pound I think TLC is the best one-of-these I’ve played in years, commanding an overwhelming sense of discovery and accomplishment, backed by a super-satisfying combat system. Where Animal Well was just a more interesting environment, TLC demonstrated the technical chops that really dazzled.
I’ve got really great memories of playing Laser Eyes this year that feel like they’re going to stay with me for some time. But there’s a part of me that wishes this mathy, walking-around puzzler was available during my college years – which was a point in my life where I’d probably have been able to carve out more space for this one. If you’re a spooky boy like me you’ll want to, at the very least, start this one. But be warned: this is probably not a game you can bounce off of and return to later on without having to completely restart it.
I’m surprised by how much I came to enjoy this one, mostly because I really had no idea what I was walking into from an expectation standpoint. MachineGames captured the Indy trappings here in an incredible way, and the storytelling and performances here are all world-class. There’s a healthy amount of melee and platforming jank peppered throughout though, which I found myself noticing more and more as I played through the game. But its areas, systems, characters, and puzzle-solving antics had me plugging away at it almost every night in December.
When it’s all said and done I think I’ve sunk more hours into Balatro than anything else in 2024. It’s just SO easy to play and lose yourself in– and the fact that it’s playable on nine devices I own doesn’t hurt either.
I can’t tell if I’m good or bad at Balatro, but I guess that’s not the point. For something so simple, it has so many branched paths and possibilities at your disposal. You never really have a similar run, and I think the fact that it’s inexplicably able to stay so fresh and surprising after dozens of hours is really an incredible achievement.
Give me one of these a year and I can be happy. I started this one with the family on the couch one Friday night and we wound up passing the controller around until we saw credits. Front to back an absolutely hilarious and compelling little story that’s equal parts adorable and absurd.
I love how unafraid and silly this game was. We need more stuff like this.
I’ll admit I barely remember playing through the original in 2001, so this was essentially a brand new game for me. Sure, there were the familiar plot points, areas, and a pyramid person or two, but beyond that, Silent Hill 2 was hitting for what felt like the first time.
If you know anything about my gaming tastes, then you know that I’m an absolute sucker for survival horror. And if it’s competent, moody, and has the right amount of little freaks stumbling around inside, I’m gonna fall for it. Hard.
It’s tough for me to “enjoy” Silent Hill 2’s story, but where that doesn’t register, there’s an endless amount of beautiful clockwork traps, puzzles, and just the grimiest environments imaginable to rummage through and get lost in. Oh, and the sound design of this game is INSANE.
Sony finally has its flagship mascot with one of the best platforming games I’ve ever played. Astro Bot is tremendous in every way, and feels like we’re still only scraping the surface of what’s sure to be a long and healthy run of games.
It’s tough to dethrone a game like this – something that’s just so enjoyable from every perspective. It’s inventive, smart, and mixes in the right amount of collectable exploration. And now that it’s gotten nearly universal acclaim, I’m really looking forward to what else sits in store for this franchise, and have to wonder if the next Mario game has been watching.
