Cary's Best Games of 2024 Awards Show!
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 On 01/10/2025 at 12:47 AM by Cary Woodham See More From This User » |
It’s time for my “Best Video Games of 2024 Awards Show!” Keep in mind that this is my list only and no other outside opinions contributed. And if a game isn’t on this list, it either just didn’t appeal to me as much or I haven’t had a chance to play it yet. Ok with that out of the way, let’s begin!
BEST 2D ADVENTURE
When I first started playing Freedom Planet 2 for my review, the first thing I thought of was how much things have changed since then, as it’s been nearly ten years since! Gaming-wise, I reviewed the first game on a totally different console generation. Also, Freedom Planet was meant to play like a classic 2-D Sonic style game, at a time when there wasn’t a whole lot of good 2-D Sonic titles around. But since then we’ve got Sonic Mania and Sonic Superstars, both of which are fairly decent (although I still like Freedom Planet 2 more). My life has also changed a lot since then, as I have a different job and live in a different place than I did back then. Even the world has changed, thanks to the COVID pandemic and whatnot. And now we finally have a sequel to Freedom Planet, and it’s vastly improved over the original game. Also I’d like to add that I’m so thankful for XSEED, the publishers of this game, as they’ve always been supportive of me and this site since they’ve been around.
Runners Up:
As you all may know, I love retro gaming. Heck, I grew up during the Atari and NES days, so it’s part of my childhood. But I do have one retro game that’s on my ‘wall of shame’ because up until now, I never figured out how to play it. And that game is Yars’ Revenge. Oh sure I’ve tried many times to figure it out, especially when I would get a new Atari collection that it was on. And I understand the significance of the game, as it was the best selling game on the Atari 2600 that WASN’T an arcade game first. And the reason why it is called “Yars” is because that’s the name of Atari’s CEO at the time spelled backwards (way to butter up your boss, Howard Scott Warshaw)! But yeah, I’ve never figured out how to really play the game. That is until now, thanks to a new game in the series called Yars Rising. Strangely enough, Yars Rising is actually a “Metroidvania” title mixed with blocky, Atari 2600 style mini-games based on the original Yars. And it was made by WayForward, which really tells you all you need to know about the quality (yeah it’s good).
Jot is the Plucky Squire and the titular hero of a series of children’s books in the game. In the books, he goes on all sorts of adventures with his two best friends: an artist wizard named Violet and the rock n roll mountain troll Thrash. With guidance from the wise wizard Moonbeard, the trio are able to defeat the evil Humgrump every time. But one day, Humgrump figures out how to break the fourth wall and take over the book, sending things in from the real world and kicking things out. So now it’s up to the Plucky Squire to hop in and out of the book, manipulating the pages himself while solving puzzles and defeating enemies. The Plucky Squire is a (mostly) 2D action adventure game similar to Zelda.
BEST 3D ADVENTURE
Ys X: Nordics (PS4)
It was really hard to decide which game to give this award to, as there were a lot of good ones this year. But Ys X wins out for the grand scope of the adventure. Join Adol as he fights bad guys yet again in a Viking pirate themed adventure.
Runners Up:
Bakeru is set in an alternate version of Japan, where fairy tale heroes are real. You play as Bakeru, a shape-shifting tanuki who attacks enemies with taiko drumsticks in his human form. You’ll travel around this cartoony version of Japan in a 3D platformer style adventure. The Japanese themes remind me a lot of games like Okami and the Goemon games (Mystical Ninja in the US). In fact, Good Feel made Bakeru, and one of the guys who founded that company used to work for Konami and made a lot of the Goemon games. So many people say that Bakeru is like a spiritual successor to those. Good Feel also made many games for Nintendo, some of which include Wario Land: Shake it, Kirby’s Epic Yarn, and Yoshi’s Woolly World. And Bakeru is just as good as anything Nintendo has produced this year so far. I almost wanted to give this game the top award, too!
Princess Peach Showtime! (Switch)
A lot of reviewers have complained about this game, saying it’s too easy and made just for kids. But I don’t see anything wrong with that. Kids deserve good games, too! And I still had fun with it. Is it Game of the Year material? No, but not every game has to be. It kind of reminded me of some of the GameCube’s more experimental titles like Luigi’s Mansion or Wario World, and I thought that was pretty cool. Despite the sales numbers, I thought that era was a great time for Nintendo.
Little Kitty, Big City (Switch)
In this unique game you play as a regular old house cat. You are lying on your favorite windowsill when you accidentally roll over and fall out. You land safely via a string of comical incidents, but now you must figure out how to get back up to your owner’s apartment. So you must explore the big city below, helping out other animals and causing cat-like mischief as well. This game reminds me of a mix of Untitled Goose Game, as well as a PS2 game I played a long time ago called A Dog’s Life, which was kind of the same premise except you were a dog doing dog things. The game also has a bit of a Katamari Damacy vibe with the simple graphics and the Japanese style city setting. It’s a bit short, so it only gets runner up status, but it’s still a fun time.
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble (Switch)
I’ve been a big fan of the Super Monkey Ball games ever since the GameCube ones and the original arcade game (which was called just Monkey Ball and the joystick was a banana you had to hold…kind of embarrassing). The series is still going strong today and SEGA recently released Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble on Switch.
BEST PUZZLE GAME
Picross S Namco Legendary Edition (Switch)
It’s a couple of Picross games for this category. Ultimately, this one won out mainly for the theme. Because you know how much I like my Namco characters!
Runner Up:
Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons (Switch)
Even though this one didn’t win, it’s still pretty good. In fact, the presentation might even be better here than in the Namco one. But yeah, both are great Picross games!
BEST CLASSIC COLLECTION/REMAKE
Pac-Man: Mega Tunnel Battle: Chomp Champs (Switch)
Of course this one’s going to win, it’s Pac-Man! Have you ever heard of the Google Stadia? It’s OK if you haven’t. It was a cloud based game console that came out a few years ago and bombed. Well, Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle was one of the exclusive games for it. I really wanted to play it, but I wasn’t worried because I knew the Stadia would fail and we’d probably get this game after that. And I was right! It’s not the best Pac-Man game in the world, but it’s a neat take on the battle royale format as you can use warp tunnels to go to other players’ mazes. Plus you can play as Pac-Man wearing a Klonoa hat while chomping dots in a Mr. Driller maze. So yeah, Namco knows how to push my buttons.
Runners Up:
Nintendo World Championship NES Edition (Switch)
It’s more or less very similar to the NES Remix games on the Wii U and 3DS, except with more of a focus on speedrunning.
Ace Attorney Investigations Collection (Switch)
This is a set of two games starring Phoenix Wright’s rival Miles Edgeworth. The sequel hadn’t even been released in the US until now! I remember at Capcom’s booth at PAX or E3 many, many years ago talking with an employee and asking them if there was ever a chance we’d get that sequel and she said probably not. But now we got it!
Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection (PS4)
Earlier this year, Capcom released a collection of their Marvel licensed arcade games. It was pretty surprising that they did this, seeing how Marvel is owned by Disney now and all. But they made it happen!
Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! (Switch)
This was originally a 3DS game and a really fun one at that. It was later ported to Apple Arcade and the Switch version is based off of that. The game combines solitaire with…horse racing? Yeah it’s a weird one, but incredibly fun. Even weirder is it was made by Game Freak. They made another little game series you might’ve heard of before called Pokémon. You know how in horse races, sometimes the horses have funny names? Well in this game, some of the names of the horses you compete against make references to Pokémon, like “Bulba Soarer” or “Volt Tackle.”
Mario vs. Donkey Kong (Switch)
It’s kind of a sequel to the Game Boy Donkey Kong game, which was one of the best arcade updates to this day. This sequel isn’t quite as good, but still fun.
Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD (Switch)
I just got this one for Christmas and haven’t even played it yet. But I have played the 3DS original and while it’s the worst of the Luigi’s Mansion series, it’s still pretty good. I wish they would’ve included the first Luigi’s Mansion game on here as well, then you could play pretty much every game in the series on Switch!
BEST RPG
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (Switch)
This was easily one of the best games on the GameCube, and certainly the best GameCube RPG (sorry Tales of Symphonia fans). The battle system was so much fun, with a unique audience feature. Lots of great set pieces. My favorite is the third chapter’s wrestling theme. And I don’t even like wrestling! And the script text is just as lively and fun to read as it was back then. They touched up the graphics and sound, but if you don’t like the new remixes, you can have the old GameCube songs, too. Really glad they remade this one so more people can play it.
Runner Up:
Mario & Luigi: Brothership (Switch)
Mario dominated the RPG scene this year. It was hard to decide which one would win, but Paper Mario did in the end. But Brothership is still a great game. A lot of reviewers panned this game at first, but I’m here to tell you that it’s really not THAT bad. They changed up some of the controls, which took me a bit of getting used to. And some parts can be a bit annoying and tedious. But otherwise I’m really enjoying it. Mario & Luigi are transported to a world where evil has disconnected a land into separate islands, and you must travel to them via a floating island that acts as a ship. The characters and themes have a sort of electrical plant vibe to them, and the game has an underlying theme about making connections and keeping them with friends and family, which is a good message that I like. In fact, one of the things I like about all the Mario & Luigi games is how the two brothers always work together and get along and care for each other. Which I think is a good message, too.
WEIRDEST GAME
Thank Goodness You’re Here! (Switch)
Thank Goodness You’re Here! is one of the weirdest games I’ve played in a long time. It was published by the same folks who also published Untitled Goose Game and the PlayDate, if that gives you any indication of what this game might be like. You are a little man, only reaching knee high to everyone else in the game. Your boss tasks you to meet with the mayor of another town to sell what your business provides. But the mayor is busy for a few hours, so you pass the time by helping out the townspeople. You do this by walking around, sometimes in an overhead perspective and sometimes in a 2D platforming fashion. You can jump with one button and slap with the other button. Yes that’s how you interact with things and talk with people is by slapping them. The game is like playing an interactive cartoon and it’s so chock full of British humor that I swear my Switch was going to start oozing bangers and mash.
Runner Up:
Fitness Boxing feat. HATSUNE MIKU (Switch)
There is a music synthesizer called Vocaloid that can replicate singing voices, and in Japan, they’ve created characters to go along with those voices. Probably the most popular of those characters is Hatsune Miku, an anime styled girl character with long blue pigtails. She’s been in a lot of other video games as well, and I’ve even reviewed a couple of them here and here. And now she’s appearing in another video game, and this time strangely enough, it’s the Fitness Boxing game series on Switch!
And now it’s time for my Game of the Year! Taiko drum roll please…
BEST GAME OF 2024
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Switch)
It really shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone since this is a 2-D top down Zelda game and I love those. And it uses the same art style as the Link’s Awakening remake, and that’s my number one favorite Zelda game of all time! But it’s also cool because you get to finally play as Princess Zelda, and the game takes a different approach by letting you summon monsters and objects to defeat enemies and solve puzzles. Between this and Princess Peach Showtime, 2024 was the Year of the Princess! Now is this my favorite Zelda game? No, it probably wouldn’t even make the top five. But it’s still a heck of a lot of fun and not too short but not too long either.
And that’s all for now! In the comments section, let me know what you think of my list, and tell me what YOUR favorite games of 2024 are. Later! --Cary
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