Game Of The Year Editor’s Pick, 2024

2023 might have taken the crown when it comes to sheer breadth of quality in video games, but 2024 was still a banger year for indies, major updates, and imported titles. Not only did I spend countless hours diving into games I knew I’d love even before they launched, but I was pleasantly surprised by a few others, too.

Another highlight of my year was going to conventions like San Diego Comic Con and both PAX East and West. I saw some incredible demos at these cons, and it only excites me more for when they eventually arrive.

10

Life Is Strange: Double Exposure

Personality, The Video Game

I was apprehensive about bringing Max Caulfield back into the fray, especially after nearly a decade of absence from the narrative adventure series. I was worried that her story had ended where it needed to back in Arcadia Bay, but a loving sense of quirky familiarity took over as soon as I jumped into Life is Strange: Double Exposure.

These games have always been carried mostly on the backs of their characters, and the same went for Double Exposure, but that isn’t a bad thing. We know and love the Life is Strange games for their dependable sense of quirk, and I found myself satisfied by Double Exposure’s heaping helping of it as I tried to work through another supernatural mystery.

9

Infinity Nikki

Like If Tears Of The Kingdom Had A Baby With Fashion Dreamer

When I downloaded the closed beta for Infinity Nikki in October, a game I took on to kill time before another entry further down on my list came out, I thought I was in for a quaint, simplistic fashion game. What I played instead was a magical open-world game where the intense fashion battles are but a piece of the whimsical whole.

Between wandering through the beautiful world of Miraland making friends and collecting resources, and progressing the main story by way of said fashion battles, I’ve never felt prettier while piecing together the lore of chaotic dead gods.

8

Ace Attorney Investigations Collection

No Objections Here!

With the launch of the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection, the entirety of the Ace Attorney series has now finally been released on modern systems in the West. Anyone who doesn’t list Miles Edgeworth as one of their favorite characters from the series is lying to you, and I’d never have said no to more time with everyone’s favorite sassy lawyer man.

7

Pokemon TCG Pocket

I Know More Now Than I Have In 25 Years

Like other kids in the late 90s and early 2000s, I collected Pokemon cards because I liked the show and the games, but I never really knew how to actually play the TCG. As such, when Pokemon TCG Pocket launched, I gave it a miss.

But I’m glad my partner gently nudged me into trying it out, because having a few Pokemon TCG battles, which felt impossibly complicated as a child, has become a part of my daily routine. The game does a fantastic job of diluting a lifetime of rules down into something I can click with, and I’m already breathlessly awaiting the next digital card series.

6

Stardew Valley

The 1.6 Update Brought Me Right Back To Pelican Town

Stardew Valley has been out for years now, but the 1.6 update in March of this year breathes new life into a game I had tucked away on the shelf for a while. We got a handful of new festivals, plenty of additional dialogue with the townsfolk, an endgame mastery system to keep working on our skills, a new farm type, the bookseller, the prize machine, and so much more. It took a bit to hit consoles and mobile, but I’ve played two entire playthroughs from start to perfection this year, and I loved every minute of doing so.

5

Chicken Police: Into The Hive!

One Of The Best Cluckin’ Point-And-Clicks I’ve Played In A While

Chicken Police: Into the Hive! followed up on everything that made the first game such an iconic indie detective noir game. It has all the same style as the first game with additional dashes of sass and character, with a rolodex of returning faces and plenty of new perps and poultry to come to know. The only thing I liked better than the characters themselves was the puns they made as I got to know them.

4

The Sims 4: Life & Death

Play With Life, Before And After It Ends

The tenth anniversary of The Sims 4 came and went this year and then we learned The Sims 5 has been put on indefinite hold. As someone who’s been on the front lines of the buggy packs and updates, that made me nervous; I didn’t want more of what The Sims 4 had been doing.

But then the Life & Death expansion launched and turned my opinion around. After a handful of lackluster expansions and messy releases, Life & Death’s content was everything I’ve ever wanted from The Sims 4.

3

Super Mario Party Jamboree

You’ll Find Me At Rainbow Galleria

On Super Mario Party Jamboree launch day, I went over to my partner’s house, and I didn’t go back home until 48 hours and seven 30-turn rounds of Super Mario Party Jamboree later. The game’s maps feel more alive than they have in several entries, the minigames are fun and varied, the game’s occasionally quirky board mechanics feel justified, and they even let my girl Daisy feel like her own princess for once!

2

Animal Well

A Creepy Sleeper Favorite

When Animal Well launched earlier this year, it absolutely consumed me for a week straight. I was apprehensive about starting the game because I knew next to nothing about it, but I was assured that the less I knew before I entered the titular Well, the better.

Throughout the game, I got annoyed, I felt accomplished, and I yelped in terror when that freaking Ostrich was suddenly on my screen running at me. Developer Billy Basso couldn’t express enough how grateful he was for the community’s reaction to the game when I spoke with him about it at PAX West, offering plenty of insight into the creation of the title. I can’t imagine another indie game sneaking up on me quite like Animal Well did, because I played the game six months ago and still can’t stop thinking about it.

1

Persona 3 Reload

Even Before Episode Aigis, 2024 Was A Race For Second

This remake of the 2006 PlayStation 2 classic breathes new life into a game so completely centered around death. We got to know the members of SEES in exciting new ways that added layers of depth to the characters, and that death hurt even more after spending so much extra time with them.

Persona 3 Reload was already poised for my top spot even before the Episode Aigis DLC launched in September, but having another several dozen hours with SEES to work through the realistic emotions we were left lingering in at the end of the base game only solidified my love even more. Sure, I still wish we’d gotten the FeMC from Persona 3 Portable, but her absence didn’t detract from my enjoyment of a beautiful reimagining of my favorite JRPG.