"It's the end of the 20-twenty-2-2-2-2-2-2--2-2!" Cue the YU-GI-OH music.
This has been a wild year. Of course it was. We are in the 2020s. To think, people in the past envisioned us having flying cars and magic TV dinners. Instead, we got billionaires throwing hissy fits and Panera bread. I won't say this is the worst timeline, but we could use some improvements.
Anyway, it has also been a wild year for nerd stuff. I had the pleasure of trying more stuff that came out this year, and I was impressed how generally well rounded the big three mediums were. Usually, there is one that doesn't pull their weight, but I found all three to be at least decent in 2022.
Of course, I had a lot of favorites, so I will be separating each medium into three parts. Look forward to the movie and television one as they come out.
Now if you are new, know that the list will not exclusively have 2022 releases. Anything that I tried for the first time in 2022 is in the running. Of course, games I haven't played won't be considered, so you won't see God of War Ragnarok or Digimon Survive as much as I would imagine enjoying them. I also have to have either finished or played a considerable amount of the game. Sorry Elden Ring. But honestly, if I didn't finish it, chances are it wouldn't be good enough to make it here in the first place. Yeah sue me, I didn't think Elden Ring was that great.
With that said, I am pulling a Nostalgia Critic and starting at 11. Why 11? Well I played too many great games to fit just 10 you silly, and I got to make use of the wasted time that I could have used to go on dates somehow.
#11: Forgotten City
During my game pass splurge, the game that defied expectations the most was Forgotten City. It had all the fixings of things I'm not big on. It is a time loop game, and I couldn't count up to how many in that genre I thoroughly enjoyed on Mickey Mouse fingers. The animation looked pedestrian, and I'm generally not big on Roman settings. Being raised Catholic has me numbed to Rome as an adage let alone a setting.
My problem with time loop games is that they're so cliché. They claim to give player freedom by allowing you to experiment, but they usually devolve into trial and error. They go about the same tropes and rarely are there any twists that draw me in.
I found Forgotten City did a lot to click with me. It has some of the most immersive writing I've seen in a while. Games, even good ones, are guilty of feeling like a sandbox and not a window into a world. Forgotten City is deliberate in its word choice to where the player character never thinks beyond their own limits. It reminded me of the earlier sections of Disco Elysium where you are making realistic choices based on what you would do in that situation rather than making them based on the fact that games are a reactionary system.
For that reason, it's rare to ever get stuck in Forgotten City. The writing flows into another where it feels less like a game and more like a good book. Figuring out the next step is as effortless as turning the page.
Of course, this means the game is extremely easy, but I forgive it since the story is so engaging. What I won't forgive is the tacked on combat which is just slowly popping head shots with a bow with no additional mechanics to escalate it.
Still, to complain about the combat would be like complaining about the combat in Earthbound. It's not exactly what you play the game for. Sure, it is a game, but it is too unique which makes up for the weaker elements. So if you are hesitant to play it like me, consider giving it a try.
#10: Metroid Dread
Nintendo's NES pillar titles (i.e. Mario, Zelda, Kirby, Fire Emblem) are great for a lot of reasons, but they are also predictable. Maybe they will surprise you once in a while like playing as Bowser in Mario Odyssey, but their strength is usually the comfort of their formula. A same but different approach.
Metroid Dread follows the same philosophy but the "different" in "same but different" is much more emphasized than in other titles.
What I expected was a game with decent exploration, atmosphere, and bosses. What I got was a game with decent exploration, atmosphere, and some incredible bosses. On top of that, an unexpectedly good story with really fun new power ups. You also have easily the hardest Metroid game in the series. Ever since Metroid Prime 3, I thought the days of a hardcore Metroid title were over, so getting my ass kicked by this game was one of this year's most pleasant surprises.
This game is almost on the level with the best of Metroid such as Super Metroid and Metroid Prime but the EMMI keep it from being incredible. They're quite samey, and they don't instill fear into you the way the SA-X did in Metroid Fusion. And while I praised the difficulty earlier, the EMMI sections leaned on the cheaper side which was quite frustrating.
Other problems include a weak soundtrack, a cluttered design for the map, and janky analog controls. Collectables lean too heavily on shine spark puzzles which I was never a fan of in 2-D Metroid. And unfortunately, with Dread being a hardcore Metroid game also means the return of obtuse moments where you don't know where to go next thus hurting the otherwise excellent pacing.
That said, Metroid Dread certainly represents what Metroid is about, and it is the first entry since Zero Mission that I can say hits A-tier quality.
#9: What Remains of Edith Finch
I played a lot of story heavy games on Game Pass. And if I had to pick one that I considered the best among them, I would pick this one. Any game that can make me emotional is something to applaud, and What Remains of Edith Finch manage to successfully do it a couple times.
I often think about what makes something deep verse something that is pretentious, and this game served as a good case study on that question. At no point was I asking myself discussion questions you would hear from a high school English class about themes or symbolism. When I finished Edith Finch, I was left with questions about myself. How I've approached life and regret. How my mortality has shaped, hindered, and freed me in all my life's moments. I took my own meaning, and I didn't feel the game judged me for it. That's art.
For a while, Gone Home was the gold standard of the typical walking simulator, but Edith Finch might be my new benchmark. It's beautifully well written and one of the most emotionally gripping games I've played in a while.
#8: Mighty Goose
While story games are great, they have a tougher time competing with games where you play as a goose operating a mech suit.
Mighty Goose is a quick and satisfying run & gun. There is so much eye candy in the animations and the sound design. The sense of scale is insane especially when you consider the number of people on the development team. You could have told me this game was Metal Slug 8, and I would believe you assuming you explained why we are playing as a goose.
I would have loved to put TMNT: Shredder's Revenge on here, but Mighty Goose snuck in to be my favorite arcade style experience this year. I loved this game.
#7: Tunic
When it's 2 a.m., I have to get up early for work, and I am still playing through a game, then that game must have the special sauce.
Tunic is my game of the year if we are talking strictly 2022 games. The mechanic of using a retro style game manual is one of the most genius game design premises I've seen, and it carries it effectively throughout the entire duration of the game.
Weak Dark Souls combat, clunky menu inventory, and weak late game puzzles aside, Tunic pulls on an unique gaming nostalgia that I surely miss. I will never be able to play a 'game' for the first time, but Tunic lets me remember that feeling of playing something completely foreign to me.
I made me think of the days when I played Pokémon Stadium and Donkey Kong 64 before I learned how to read. I didn't know what Dizzy Punch was, but I knew when I chose that attack Kangaskhan did a little dance and completely obliterated the opponent.
#6: Looney Tunes: Sheep Raider
I hate under the radar games. They are often phenomenal games that hit every button, but their one flaw is that no one is around to recommend them to me. I have to get lucky and wait for some YouTuber to happen upon it and recommend it in one of their Underrated Gems compilation videos. And even then, sitting through those videos don't always yield great results.
I have to give special thanks to Gamechamp3000 for recommending one of the best yet most obscure games ever.
Sheep Raider is a puzzle platformer where you play as Wile E. Coyote. Or wait, Ralph Wolf..."holy shit, they were two different characters."
Anyway, Sheep Raider involves the player stealing sheep and escorting it to a finish circle. Of course, there are obstacles. The main one being Sam the Sheepdog who guards the sheep in every level. And so, the player has to work around the environment and use gadgets cleverly to complete the level.
I always put Looney Tunes games in the same category as your average third party license game. But holy cow, this game does not mess around. Sheep Raider is such so authentically Looney Tunes. This game is "makes you feel like Batman" on crack. I love how this game translates the feel and charm of Looney Tunes into not only the aesthetics and animation but also in the game design too.
Because you are playing as a Looney Tunes antagonist, the game likes to fuck with you. Bridges over giant chasms will collapse under you. Items that work swimmingly in one level will backfire in another level. The game will just drop random monsters just as you think you are about to beat the level. It's troll-y but not in a way that it will frustrate the player. It's too tongue and cheek to be mean spirited or annoying. Granted, it doesn't avoid the annoying all together. Certain sections have quite a lot of trial and error which could waste precious time. However, since I used save states, this become mostly a nonissue.
Camera issues aside, this game has aged superbly. Every level is so cleverly designed. It's the right balance where the player has to apply the basic lateral thinking of a puzzle platformer but must also apply a cartoon logic, and the game does a great job at putting you in that space. It was so great playing in this sandbox trying to figure out how to outsmart the game. And despite the same premise in every level, the creativity and variety in puzzles and obstacles means Sheep Raider never got stale.
#5: Lost Odyssey
Is there a term for an RPG where the story is whatever but the gameplay slaps? Like a reverse Earthbound? Well whatever it's called, I would put Panzer Dragoon Saga and Lost Odyssey in this category.
I was unsure about if I was going to talk about this game on this blog. This blog could have appear as an entry to an Ode to More Stories I Haven't Finished. I had the bad luck of starting this game before having to change my living situation, so I had to pause this game for a few months. And if you play games, you know pausing a game for that long can be a death sentence to that play through, so I am happy that I stuck it out to talk about it here.
Despite getting far less free time this year, I made it a point to finish this pretty lengthy game. I figured might as well. If I can put almost 150 hours into another game you will see on this list, I can put at least forty in this one.
But going back to my previous point, this is an RPG with really good gameplay and a whatever story. Granted, it is not as whatever as Panzer Dragoon Saga. The story has the minimal requirements of having likable characters and a plot with stakes. But on a deeper level, the plot is a tad convoluted and extra backstory is told through long text dumps that interrupt the gameplay too often. Cutscenes also start to drag especially in disc 3 where it might as well have been a mp4 file.
But like I said, the story is whatever. In that, it can be completely ignored in favor of the game.
For an RPG, I expect the gameplay to do three things right. Min-Max leveling has to be lenient to where spreadsheets aren't required to progress the game. The systems have to be deep but intuitive. And finally, random or extra encounters have to have ways to easily be minimized or avoided entirely. Panzer Dragoon Saga, for example, nails all three, so how does Lost Odyssey fare?
First, min-maxing is very simple. At its worst, there are certain equips that are necessary to manage certain fights. However, this is only egregious in the earlier sections when you are less equipped. As you progress, as long as you are capable of doing basic crowd control, contingencies for status effects, and heal stall strategies, you will be fine.
Second, systems strike almost the perfect balance of deep but easy to use mechanics. Lost Odyssey is a layered sandwich of mechanics, but all of it is easily understandable. There is a formation mechanic where back row units have a defensive boost which weakens as the front row endures more damage. This mechanic cleverly applies to enemies lending itself to some of the more interesting boss fights. Certain characters can learn skills and spells from other characters lending to some very customizable set ups. And of course, there is standard RPG combat (i.e. elemental spells with its weapon triangle, stat boosting mechanics, status conditions, and items).
Unfortunately, it doesn't quite fulfill the encounter part. It certainly has the pieces. The random encounter rate isn't Persona 1 level of constant. You can equipped a run away skill to avoid battles. Experience gives a clear indicator when to stop bothering with enemies so you organically don't over or under level. That said, it still commits the nearly unforgivable sin of having to watch an unskippable animation at the beginning of every random encounter. So even if you can skip all battles, it will take almost a minute to do it. And over the course of a 40 hour game, that adds up severely.
Thankfully, this is about as bad the combat gets in Lost Odyssey. To reiterate, this is the first time I got engrossed in an RPG system since Panzer Dragoon Saga. And like Panzer Dragoon Saga, it is a bitch to get since it is exclusive to the XBOX 360. Hopefully one day, we will see a solid remaster to this game. If only we lived in a universe where poorly sold RPGs got ports.
#4: Inscryption
Contains Major Gameplay Spoilers
Another last year title that I unfortunately couldn't play at that time until the beginning of this year.
A lot of what is expected from a game is its gameplay loop. The cycle of a level and it repeats itself. It is a structure as common and ubiquitous as the 3 & 5 act structure or sitcom equilibrium. While Inscryption does a lot of impressive subversive things throughout its ten hour runtime, I think its strongest trick is how it interacts with the gameplay loop. I've never seen a game so brazenly and consistently take gameplay loop after gameplay loop and just throw it out the window.
You start out with a pretty run-of-the-mill roguelike. And with how well developed the atmosphere and gameplay loop is, you figure that, at the very least, that most of the game will be set in this creepy cabin. Well not so. It is not long before you're thrown into a pre-N64 RPG complete with free form deck building. And just when you think it is going to commit to this direction, it throws you into something completely different. If this game had more resources, I wouldn't be surprise they kept up this act till your blue in the face.
I believe this above all things is why Inscryption is on this list. While there is nothing wrong with a gameplay loop in the same way there is nothing wrong with the three act structure, there is something exciting to when the rug is pulled right under you, and you are forced to interact with a different set of rules. And more impressively, it manages to do this while revolving around this in-universe card game.
Sure, the roguelike elements aren't my favorite (even among the candidates on the list as you will soon find out). It is not a very challenging* game once you overcome the learning curve. And yeah, the story is pretty pedestrian when you take a step back and look at is as a whole. But in short, I think Inscryption puts its pieces together elegantly creating one of the more memorable experiences I had this year.
*I am aware of the Kaycee's Mod which includes more difficult challenges. However, at the time of writing, I haven't played it. Whoops, I guess.
#3: Dicey Dungeons
The danger of roguelikes is how easily they can take over your life. And in the ones where you can play with just a keyboard and trackpad, it's tempting to just turn on a game while you're at school or at work. I'm surprised then that I didn't get fired over Dicey Dungeons because I certainly snuck a few runs of this during my forty hour work week.
Dicey Dungeons is a game made by the same guy behind VVVVVV. You wouldn't know that immediately because the game has such a different style compared to the aforementioned game. Where VVVVVV is a game with primitive graphics, a simple story, and some basic controls, Dicey Dungeons is flashy, brimming with personality as well as narrative, and overall very different than from what I expect from the creator of VVVVVV.
There is however one similarity. Both games present you with a seemingly simple premise that is thoroughly explored. In the case of VVVVVVV, its single mechanic of switching gravity is taken to such a extreme you can't possibly imagine how it can be explored further without adding additional mechanics. For Dicey Dungeons, this mechanic is rolling a series of dices that can be used to activate cards that either attack, trigger special abilities, and or inflict status conditions. The expectation would be that Dicey Dungeons simply adds a ton of different cards, but Dicey Dungeons does a lot more than that.
On top of that, you also have different characters that interact with the dice in different ways, and this is where Dicey Dungeons shines. The differences start out minor, but it is not long before you're playing around Black Jack mechanics, a magic/mana system, or full on deck building. There's a learning curve. But once you get a hang of it, each character becomes immensely satisfying.
It's more than your average roguelikes where each character are different but more or less have the same feel. Each character feels like almost different games entirely. It's reminiscent of Slay the Spire where each character forces you to use the core mechanics in different ways.
You also have in my opinion one of the strongest final bosses in a video game as of late. It reminded me of Gruntilda from Banjo Kazooie where the villain that mocked you throughout the entire game is paid off with a challenging, involved, and interesting boss fight.
I love this game. With how many great rogue likes are out there, it says a lot that I consider this one as one of my favorites.
#2: Binding of Isaac: Repentance
Binding of Isaac was my most played game of 2022. And considering I played this game immensely throughout the 2010s should go to show how addictingly fun this game is. Oh by the way, my final tally was about 136 hours with 62% of the achievements completed.
Most of what I will say I have said in my retrospective. However, as a TLDR, here is a quick summary of what I think of Binding of Isaac.
Binding of Isaac is one of the few games I have a tough time putting down. Despite not liking time sink games, I can easily sink hundreds of hours into this brilliant game. There's genuine variety in both how you play and the decisions you are presented. Plus, on a cathartic level, the game has some of the best synergies in rogue like history. This is the only game I can think of where I can feel godlike and not make it feel dissatisfying.
The only reason it isn't number one is that I am technically grading the game on the Repentance expansion alone. And while Repentance is solid, its additions has some annoying problems such as the missed opportunities with the alternate routes and some badly designed new characters.
Still, the fact that an expansion alone made me go back to a game and sink another hundred hours shows the sheer value of this game. If you are an economical gamer, then Binding of Isaac: Repentance is one of the wisest investments you can make.
#1: Klonoa: Door to Phantomile
I technically finished this game last year on Dec. 31st. In fact, finishing this game was the last thing I did before the start of 2022. I thought I was going to have a deep debate on whether I should count it on technicality.
Thankfully, I needn't bother answering that question, because this year we finally got a rerelease fans have clamoring for. And so, with the game back as an eligible candidate, I decided to replay the game. And after finishing it a second time, I can say that this basically became my game of the year twice.
I heard about Klonoa for the longest time. It was commonly referred to as this amazing and overlooked mascot platformer by pretty every game pundit I watch. There is clearly a lot of reverence for this series, but the quality doesn't really show on the cover. It was from actually jumping into the series that I felt the last and biggest regret of 2021. That I slept on this series for way too long.
All people had to tell me was that this series was basically 2-D Banjo Kazooie, and I would have played it sooner. Klonoa has this sincere and childlike charm. Where in Banjo Kazooie you just accept that you fight carrots and harass camels for puzzle pieces. Klonoa has you ride a flying fish and talk to characters that make Animal Crossing noises. It's a simple game that's immediately satisfying. It's not bogged down by tedious collectables or poorly designed gimmick levels. It's pure platforming with puzzles that work effortlessly with the core mechanics.
The game is short, but it doesn't overstay its welcome because of that. It also lends the story a natural length avoiding the common problem video games have where the story has to contrive ways to prolong the game.
The story was the biggest surprise for me. It has a lot of rich sentimental value that blindsides you near the end. I know the term "Pixar quality" lost some meaning these last few years, but that's the only way to describe the cute and affable qualities of Klonoa's characters and writing while retaining its emotional effect on the audience.
If I had to give it one nitpick, the main collectable could have conveyed whether you accidentally skipped one. As it is now, you won't know if you missed one until you complete the level. Thankfully, I only had one situation where I had to repeat a level to find a missing collectable, but I wish the six collectables could have numerically filled each slot to reassure the player that they are on the right track.
I have enjoyed a few other Klonoa titles throughout the year, but none to me compete to the stunning simplicity of the debut title.
