Wow, 2024 was a year. A whole one. That’s it: a year. Objective, non-judgmental; that’s me. I played video games this year. It’s often the only thing that numbs the, er, year. Yeah. A lot of them.
As I’m writing currently, I have put out 62 scored reviews throughout the year just on Destructoid. And that’s not counting unscored impressions and reviews I wrote for my own site. That’s how you know you can trust me; I have no other priorities. This is what I do.
That’s why you were correct to think, “Sure, all these publications have valid picks for their top games of the year, but what does Zoey think?” That’s what you thought, right? I’m so lonely. Here’s my list of the best games I played this year in no particular order.
Mullet MadJack
Here’s a game that has it all. It’s got great neon ‘90s cyberpunk anime vibes, a protagonist who spouts insipid truths and aspirations to keep your self-esteem up, kill-or-die-trying gameplay, and the goal of shooting robot billionaires in the face (or dick, if you prefer). Mullet MadJack leans pretty hard on the standards set by Post Void but expands upon them and adds a thematic layer that harnesses the anxiety of today while still being fun and upbeat about it.
I’m not really picking a top game of the year in this list, but if I did it would be Mullet Madjack. Please don’t tell the others.
Arctic Eggs
Arctic Eggs is entirely about flipping shit in a frying pan. Not literal shit; everything but. While the name implies that eggs are the central focus (and they often are), you deal with things like cups full of liquid, cigarettes, and cockroaches. It’s maybe about something deeper, I don’t know, I don’t remember. I only remember flipping stuff. It’s fun; that’s a great place to start. Any messaging on top is just gravy. Gravy on eggs.
Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom
A lot of games have tried to evoke the wonder of the platformer genre’s wonder days on the N64, but most that I’ve played have been missing something. They can wear the clothes but can’t walk the walk. Weirdly, Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom goes naked by omitting a jump button, but somehow feels like it would be at home on Nintendo’s drunken early-3D console.
Not entirely. Few games on the system were this colorful, and fewer were as energetic and weird. So, really, it has the sense of relentless adventure and a lust for collecting gewgaws, but comes in with a personality of its own.
Crow Country
PS1-inspired survival horror is well-trodden ground, but Crow Country is an exemplary attempt at it. Not only is it one of the tightest survival horror game I’ve played in a long time, it also has such a surprising and inventive narrative that it makes me jealous that I didn’t come up with it. So, screw you, Crow Country, you fantastic game, you.
Slave Zero X
I can’t say I thought much about Slave Zero, the 1999 PC/Dreamcast game about a big stompy robot. I can’t even remember what led me to playing its tardy sequel. But I do remember Slave Zero X. I distinctly remember voices that sound like they’re shouting into a tin shed and air-juggling dudes until they exploded. I remember its Sega Saturn/PS1 Strider 2-style aesthetic and its incredibly high skill ceiling. I remember sweating it out in the last couple boss battles, timing my parries with careful precision, and strategically using my power-ups.
And that’s impressive since the game was released back in March. Most of the year is a blur, but that time, in particular, is so hazy I wouldn’t be surprised if I spent the period breathing nothing but gasoline fumes. So, great job, whatever I was just talking about!
Earth Defense Force 6
Going into Earth Defense Force, I was expecting more of the same. After all, the series isn’t really known for evolving. And much of what is in Earth Defense Force 6 can easily be tracked back to the fourth title in the series. Truly, it is a lot of what has come before. You spend a lot of time fighting hordes of giant insects, robots, and alien creatures.
And then it throws a curveball in the form of time travel. And, at first, it kind of seems like a blatant way of reusing resources from the previous game, but rather than just be narrative deja vu, it paradoxically becomes the source of EDF6’s most surprising elements. It also informs the game’s greatest strengths. It is simultaneously both an incredibly stupid game and a completely brilliant one, and that makes it hard to look away. Easily, without a doubt, the best game in the series.
Killing Time: Resurrected
I love Nightdive’s remasters, even when they don’t pick the best games. I mean, I totally appreciate that they put their loving hands on PO’ed and The Thing, but playing them is a different matter. Killing Time: Resurrected might have been similar to that; a great remaster of an okay game. However, upon playing it, it became abundantly clear that it’s a great game, and the remaster just brings that out more.
It’s like a giant extrapolation of a level from Doom. This one big key hunt across a mass of interconnected maps that form one big island estate. But despite giving you run of the place, the action is right up there with the best FPS games of the ‘90s. I had trouble putting this one down. So I didn’t. I played right through to the end in one sitting.
Anthology of the Killer
This wasn’t a great year for me in my personal life (a softer way of saying it was shit), and at the bottom of it, I played Anthology of the Killer. I mean, it wasn’t what made it the bottom. It was that one glimmer of joy during an otherwise terrible time.
It might help that Anthology of the Killer has no grounding in reality. It’s a collection of short form horror games that, rather than adopt a Hollywood-accepted form of fright, is extremely absurd and dreamlike. It’s very weird, often funny, and strangely scary. In one of my rare, insightful moments, I described the horror as “the pure discomfort of not finding a reliable grip.” So, what I guess I’m saying is: the best escape from my misery was playing a game that finds fear in impossible things.
Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop
You would think I missed working in I.T. with how much I enjoyed Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop. It’s essentially a diagnosis and repair game a bit closer to what a mechanic does, but it applies to computers, as well. Come to think of it, there are a lot of computers in Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop, as well. Regardless, it’s a joyful work simulator that forces you to both learn and apply skills with the aid of nothing more than a manual.
It can be distressing. You’re going to make mistakes that result in failure, and that doesn’t feel good. However, it manages to keep emotions buoyed with extremely dark, funny dialogue and the satisfaction the comes when you do eventually get everything right. If that ever comes.
Parking Garage Rally Circuit
This is the first time a racing game has made my list, and that’s probably because so many these days focus on realism, and that’s boring. Parking Garage Rally Circuit takes you back to the days of the Sega Saturn and racing titles like Sega Rally Championship. Except it takes place entirely in a variety of parking garages.
It’s a great title to play if you love drifting. By that, I mean drift-racing. If you just like wandering from town to town, there are better games. What really struck me about PGRC is that it nails its central concept so perfectly. Like, maybe you don’t want a drift-racing game about carefully navigating a parking garage. But that doesn’t stop it from being the best drift-racing game about carefully navigating a parking garage.
Here’s to another year
Golly, it can’t get any worse, can it? I feel like calendars take that as a challenge. They’re really proud of the pain they put me through, so each time I say that, they respond, “Just watch me.” At least it was a great year for things to play. There were a few times this year where I was buried under just heaps of titles I agreed to review, and it’s the sort of punishment I’m willing to undergo simply because I love it so much.
In fact, there are a bunch of games I really enjoyed that didn’t quite make the list. Judero, Great God Grove, and Death Noodle Delivery spring to mind, but I know there are others that I’m forgetting.
We’ve got a lot to look forward to, which is maybe a topic for another list. So, no matter how hard 2025 turns out to be, at least we’ll get some great games from our favorite creators. Or at least decent attempts. Wow, it’s really difficult to be optimistic.
You can also check out my best of lists for 2022 and 2023.
Published: Dec 25, 2024 02:00 pm