Another year, another game awards! Each year, I take the time to reflect on the year in gaming and write a detailed memoir of my experience with the year’s games. 2024 was a quiet year on the surface, but many games have managed to make waves in my mind and in the gaming industry. Here are the ground rules for my awards: 1. I create categories specifically for games. For example, I don't come into the game awards having a best action game category, but I might create a best action game category if there is a particular action game I liked. 2. Please know that these opinions are purely subjective. If you disagree, that's okay! I encourage anyone interested to make their own Game Awards. 3. When I say "best," I mean "favorite." My opinion is implied. 4. I haven't played every major game this year. In order to fund my gaming addiction, I have to earn money, and that takes time. 5. This list primarily focuses on 2024 releases but may sometimes delve into other games I finished or attempted to finish. Now that you understand the ground rules, here are my 2024 Game Awards! Indie Game of the Year: Balatro Balatro is a primary example of what indie games can and should do. A game like Balatro would never come out of the AAA sphere, but here it stands against titans of the industry as the magnum opus of a solo, debut developer. The game is so accessible, yet it is so complex with the builds and decks it offers to the player. The gaming industry will not be the same again, thanks to Balatro. Non-2024 Game of the Year: Marvel's Midnight Suns Midnight Suns came out in 2022 to little fanfare while also being well-touted by its players. Midnight Suns is yet another game in a long string of Persona-inspired titles that focuses on the crossover of different gameplay mechanics. What this game lacks in story it makes up for with the legendary battle system. The card system is genius and allows players to create their own style of combat. 2024 is simply the year of cards for me, as games like Balatro and Midnight Suns reversed my perspective on cards appearing in video games. It's hard to do the gameplay justice here; you just need to play the game. The standout characters to me here were Captain America, Blade, Magik, and Spider-Man, as each felt particularly broken in combat. The game's injury system does a great job of incentivizing players to try out most of the roster with enough characters left over for additional playthroughs. Seriously, go play Marvel's Midnight Suns. DLC of the Year: Final Fantasy XVI: Rising Tides Yes, I played Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree this year, but I came away with a different winner for this award. Elden Ring's critically acclaimed DLC was a positive, albeit choppy experience that had troubles balancing its difficulty, leaving the most interesting parts too easy and the least interesting parts too difficult. Rising Tides wins the award by just a hair based simply on the soundtrack, specifically the Leviathan theme. The theme had been shown in the reveal trailer for Final Fantasy XVI yet was nowhere to be found in the base game. The full version of the track is glorious and should definitely be listened to many times. The rest of the DLC is pretty good too. Binge Game of the Year: Astro Bot Astro's Playroom was one of the greatest tech demo titles of all time and had many, me included, begging for a sequel. Fast forward several years, and Astro Bot releases, winning many awards and receiving great recognition. The formula here is simple: Make a game feel good, appeal to nostalgia, and pack levels with fun things to see and do. This is a video game, and I mean a real video game. As someone who has more or less followed much of what Sony has done this century, the references were neat, but they didn't necessarily define what makes the game good. Astro Bot is good because it's fun and has inspiration behind its design. This is a good entry in the Super Mario Galaxy series. Reason to Buy a PC: Donkey Kong 64 - Tag Anywhere Donkey Kong 64 has been on my backlog since I was about 5 years old. I finally beat the game this year, thanks to the Tag Anywhere mod. Being able to swap Kongs whenever I wanted added a thick layer of convenience to the game and made a somewhat unplayable game into a stunning masterpiece of platforming and collecting. I'm so glad I built a gaming PC to play the cool Nintendo 64 game. Worst 2024 Game: Mario & Luigi: Brothership Brothership is a masterclass in showing when developers don't have any clue where to end their game. The latest Mario & Luigi game is far from awful, but it drastically overestimates the strength of its writing. This game far exceeds its welcome by nearly 20 hours. Not one, but two fakeout final dungeons must be played before finally getting to the dreadfully long trial near the end of the game. The combat here is pretty good, though it channels players towards 2-3 good moves by the end instead of using the whole system. This is a game I can't recommend. Multiplayer Game of the Year: Marvel Rivals I'm too busy playing Marvel Rivals to write this segment. Former Multiplayer Game of the Year: Helldivers II DUN DUN DUN DUNNNNN DUN DUNNNNNNN! DUN DUN DUN DUN! DUN DUN DUN DUN DU DUN! DUN DUN DUNNNNN! DUN DUN DUN DU DUN! DUN DU DUN DUN DUNNNN DUN DUNNNNNN! Game of the Year Runner-up: Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance I am so incredibly glad that I held off on playing the original release of Shin Megami Tensei V. I've never played another RPG with a battle system as good as Vengeance's. The exploration is incredibly rewarding and fun in a world that is dripping with tone and things to discover. The story is nothing to write home about, but it is worth an email to that one coworker who doesn't know your name. Atlus is the GOAT. Listen to Beelzebub's theme for a certified banging experience. Game of the Year, Best Soundtrack of the Year, and Best Narrative of the Year: Persona 3 Reload How could it be anything else? Reload was my second game in the franchise and is already a top 5 favorite game I've ever played. The balance of maintaining a schedule, a social life, and dungeon crawling is what makes Persona great and what will always make Persona great. Remove any of these things, and the greatness of the franchise crumbles (see the spinoffs for examples of this). The ending of this game had me crying, and it may make you cry too. I can't recommend this game enough. Other 2024 games I played with rapid-fire impressions: Animal Well: This game hurt my eyes. It's okay. The Plucky Squire: 99% of babies agree that this game is too young for them. Peglin: Cool idea, passable execution. Nodebuster: Great idea, great execution. Play it in an afternoon sometime. Princess Peach: Showtime!: Unlike Brothership, this game ends way too early. The game starts to get good and then ends right after. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom: Cool game, cool puzzles, will probably never play again. Other 2024 games I own but didn't play/have very few thoughts on: Stellar Blade, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, Persona 3 Reload: Episode Aigis, Dragon's Dogma II, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Unicorn Overlord, Sand Land, Super Mario Party: Jamboree, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Sonic X Shadow Generations. Now excuse me while I play some more Marvel Rivals.
