I love movies, but I really love games as well, so I figured I may as well follow up my 2024 movies of the year post with something similar for games. I’m not going to rank these, but I’ll give a few words on each one to give you an idea if I liked it and if it could be fun for you.

Games I particularly loved have star ⭐️ next to them.

Games from 2024

Pepper Grinder

This was the first new game I played this year and it was a lot of fun! It’s a short 2D platformer that has you drilling through all sorts of materials through expertly-crafted levels and has very fun boss fights. One of my favorite little games of the year.

Neva

From the makers of Gris, a game I loved, Neva builds on that chill side-scrolling vibe with more combat and light platforming. A great game for those with kids or pets.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

I generally find Call of Duty campaigns over the past decade to be soulless, miserable affairs, which is why it was so surprising for me to find this year’s Call of Duty to actually be quite fun. The levels are generally pretty linear shooting showpieces, which are fun, but there are also some more creative missions where you’re doing some light espionage that breaks things up nicely.

Flight Simulator 2024

I’ve played hundreds of hours of the 2020 Flight Simulator, and I think that game is an outstanding achievement. The new version of the game is hard to rate right now since it’s coming in very hot. Weeks after release there are quite a few bugs that make it hard to play at times, and I’m not talking about preference things you might not mind, I’m talking about literal breaking bugs that make you unable to play the game. I’m hoping for this to be an amazing game in 2025, but for now it’s not there yet.

Persona 3 Reload

I only put about 15 hours into this, but it’s a very good version of an older game that I never played. If you loved Persona 5, you’ll love this, although you really need to dedicate upwards of 100 hours to it to complete the main story, which was too much and a big reason I bounced off it.

⭐️ Balatro

What can I say that hasn’t already been said about Balatro, the most addictive game I played all year? This card game is spectacular, and much like Vampire Survivers a few years ago, is the sort of game that you would expect to be riddled with in-app purchases and user-hostile design decisions to eke out more money from you, but it simply isn’t…buy the game, play the game, just have a ton of fun…perfection.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth

I’m working my way through this one right now and I’m really enjoying it. I loved the last game (Remake) and this picks up right where that one left off. It’s a big Japanese adventure and I love being in this world.

TopSpin 2K25

This isn’t the deepest game in the world, but it’s a very fun tennis game nonetheless and if you enjoy tennis games this is totally worth it.

Animal Well

A lot of people love this game, and I feel like I should too, but I guess I’ve just never been in the right head space to enjoy this one. I loved the art style and the music, I just need to get to the place where a game like this clicks with me.

F1 24

I love the F1 games and while I do still have some quibbles with how this series has regressed since the 2021 version, this year at least saw the franchise ditch some of the totally lame additions they’d added over the past few years. I loved driving an F1 car and I love working my way up the order, so this game consumed a ton of my time this year, and it will continue to do so until F1 25 comes out next summer.

⭐️ College Football 2025

I really enjoy football, but I truly despise the Madden franchise, which I think is one of the worst gaming experiences possible, and they somehow manage to make it worse every single year. That said, College Football 2025, which is built on the same game engine is a breath of fresh air and was clearly made by people who love college football and wanted to make a clean experience fans like me would enjoy. It’s not absolutely perfect, and I hope they continue with this franchise so they can iterate on this formula, but I truly loved most of my time with this game.

F1 Manager 2024

Steam tells me I’ve played this game for over 600 hours, which is a little misleading and I treat this game a bit like an idle game. I like to set up my weekend and then let the simulation run while I work my day job. It’s just off the side, and is a minor distraction if I need it as I work. They’ve made some good changes this year as well, including adding custom teams, garages moving from season to season based on results, and a bunch of smaller gameplay tweaks that add up to the best version of this game so far. Rumors are it’s not selling great and it might be done after 2025, but we’ll see.

⭐️ Astro Bot

It’s as good as any Mario game and will hit extra hard for anyone who has nostalgia for PlayStation history.

The Legend of Zelda: Echos of Wisdom

Nintendo has really been on fire in the Switch era, and this Zelda game is no exception. You play as Zelda herself, and you don’t really have a sword, so you have to fight using creations of your own that you generate with a magic wand. It’s really clever, and made me look at situations I’ve seen many times in Zelda games over the past 30 years and have to think differently about how to tackle them since I didn’t have a sword and shield.

Batman Arkham Shadow

This is the first VR game since Half-Life Alyx (more on that later) that has really grabbed me. It’s a genuinely fantastic entry in the Arkham series and everything you get to do in this game feels great.

Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket

I was a big Pokémon trading card game player as a kid and I was absolutely delighted to see this game capture some of that magic again. I enjoy collecting cards and the battle system is a good recreation of the physical game which h still remember how to play all these years later. There are plenty of IAP if you want them, but I’ve been able to collect almost all the cards available so far without paying anything, so at least for now the monetization is pretty easy to ignore if you want.

Games I hadn’t played until 2024

Horizon: Forbidden West

I really loved the first game in the series, but for whatever reason I bounced off this game when it came out on PS5 a couple years ago. But it released on PC this year and I’ve gave it another shot, this time completing the whole story. It’s very okay in my opinion. The story doesn’t really do anything for me but the combat is pretty fun and the game looks positively gorgeous.

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake

I’d never played the original that came out many years ago, so this was all new to me and I definitely appreciate why many people love this game. I really appreciated the clever puzzle design and the story is very impactful.

Luigi’s Mansion 3

I’d somehow gotten this far in my life without ever playing a Luigis Mansion game, but I finally started this one and I found it to be decent fun, but not something I was super excited to play so I bounced off it after a couple hours.

Final Fantasy XVI

Despite my love for some other Final Fantasy games (including one I played this year) Final Fantasy XVI just didn’t click with me. It’s solid there’s no doubt about that but I found everything to be kind of bland. I didn’t care about the characters, the story was uninteresting, and the gameplay was forgettable in my book.

⭐️ Metroid Prime Remastered

Metroid Prime for the GameCube has long been one of my favorite games I’ve ever played. Everything about that game was stunning when it released in 2002 and I think a lot of of it holds up today. Metroid Prime Remastered is a new version of that same game with modernized controls and updated visuals that look great on the Switch. I had an absolute blast playing this game again and think it was one of the best gaming experiences I had all year.

⭐️ Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Speaking of the best video game experiences I had all year, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was without a doubt the best game I played in 2024. I felt 2017’s Breath of the Wild was one of the best video games I’d ever played in my life and I thought making a sequel that elevated the game would be absolutely impossible, but Tears of the Kingdom shocked me by being better than Breath of the Wild in basically every way. This was a game that utterly transfixed me and is one of the greatest games ever made.

Sayonara Wild Hearts

Easily the shortest game I played all year, Sayonara Wild Hearts was a very nice way to spend an hour on my phone. The music is fantastic and the simple gameplay goes to some interesting places and never repeats itself too much so the game is engaging the whole way through. Fun little game.

Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap

My third Zelda game of the year was an old Game Boy Advance one that I never really gave a shot back in the day. I played this one on my Analog Pocket and I’m so glad I gave it a go. This is certainly one of the less astounding Zelda games in the franchise, but it’s absolutely a very fun ride and I thoroughly enjoyed my time in this world. I’m just a Zelda Stan and you can’t stop me!

⭐️ Dragon Quest XI

I’ve never played a Dragon Quest game in my life and Dragon Quest XI was a great place to start. It’s a very long 100 hour RPG and I haven’t quite gotten to the end, but I’m very close and hope to finish it up over this holiday break. What I really love about this game is that despite it’s lengthy runtime, it’s a game that respects your time and energy. Features like auto-run help you navigate large distances in a more casual way and you can also auto-battle for those fights that aren’t that important and you know you’re gonna win. The story is touching and while pretty cliché, is also genuinely touching. I love spending time in this world and with these delightful characters.

⭐️ Half-Life Alyx

Half-Life Alyx astounded me in ways very few games ever have in my 39 years on this earth. This is without a doubt, the greatest VR game ever made, and I was genuinely stunned on dozens of occasions as I made my way through this world. There was a moment where you have to hold a switch as a train speeds by inches from your face, and I was leaning my whole body away from it in fear of it hitting me. It sounds silly because I was in my office and totally safe, but it felt so real, and that was just one of so many moments that made me feel more bullish on VR than anything else I’ve seen in any headset.

This ranks right up there with playing Super Mario 64 for the first time in giving me truly new experiences that make me sit there mouth agape, unable to fully process what I’m seeing and experiencing. An astounding achievement.

C-Smash VRS

On a much lighter note, this is a fun mashup of brick breaker and tennis in virtual reality and I thought it was quite a bit of fun, but I only played for a few hours and thought I’ve gotten everything out of it that I could

Pokémon Brilliant Diamond

I hadn’t completed a Pokémon game since Pokémon Red in 1996, so jumping into Pokémon Brilliant Diamond was an interesting experience. I know this game did not review well with fans who thought it was too close to the original game, and they didn’t like the art style. I agree with them; the art style is really not my cup of tea. I appreciated that it was a relatively simple Pokémon experience that felt old-school, and I just was able to enjoy it. Later on, we’ll talk about a Pokémon game that I feel is very excellent, but this one was a solid reentry into the series for me.

⭐️ Pokémon Sword

Speaking of that Pokémon game that I enjoyed quite a bit, I thoroughly enjoyed Pokémon Sword and think this is a fantastic game. I feel like the reviews of this word not super positive, but I genuinely adored this experience from start to finish. The visuals in this game are gorgeous and I really enjoy the mega evolution gimmick. I just loved spending time in this world, and compared to the absolute abomination that were Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, this is incredible. I hope this is the direction the next Pokémon game takes because I think it was a delight.

Sea of Stars

I’m only a few hours into this RPG and I don’t know what to think about it yet. It’s certainly good and looks great, but I’m not 100% sold on the story, which isn’t landing with me for whatever reason that’s probably my own damn fault.

Games I revisited in 2024

⭐️ Half-Life 2

I just finished this one and my word is it amazing. It’s a different style shooter than you’d get today, but if you can adapt to a different style of gaming, I think it’s a genuine masterpiece. I’m having fun playing through it today, and you really need to take yourself back to 2004 when this originally released to appreciate how far ahead of the curve it was on so many things.

Celeste

I had played Celeste, but I’d never beaten Celeste. That changed this year as I powered through this marvelous game. A challenging platformer with accessibility controls that make it so anyone can get through it if they need the help (I did, absolutely no shame).

Halo Infinite

I’ve been playing the multiplayer on and off since 2021, but I finally jumped into the single player campaign this year. I regret to report back that while I did finish it, it was a bit of a slog. I just don’t care about the story in these games, and the missions weren’t engaging enough to really win me over.

That multiplayer is the best multiplayer I’ve played in 20 years, though, I love it.

⭐️ Steamworld Dig 2

I don’t even know what to say about this game other than to say it’s brilliant and I’ve beaten it 3 times over the years because the gameplay loop of digging slightly deeper down for more stuff over and over is addicting.

Monument Valley

The classic! I played this when it was new and loved it, but I think I appreciated it more this time. It’s so clever and so fun, and just short enough to leave you wanting more, which is good because…

⭐️ Monument Valley 2

Monument Valley actually impressed me more than the first. Its level design evolves past the Escher-style puzzles of the first and goes some really weird places. It’s coupled with a nice, story that you kind of have to tell yourself, but is really touching all the same. I haven’t touched the 3rd one yet, but it’s just a matter of time.