It’s almost the end of 2024 which means it’s time to reflect on what we’ve been playing over the last 12 months and determine what we liked the most. Many here at TheGamer will do that throughout December and today, it’s my turn to rundown what I believe have been the ten best games of the year.
Everyone on the site’s editorial team has compiled a GOTY list and later this month, the scores will be tallied up and a winner crowned. You can take a sneak peek at what our Game of the Year will be below because since I have such impeccable taste, they’re almost bound to match up.
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10
Star Wars Outlaws
The only thing left in a galaxy far, far away that people seem to care about is Andor, hence why many of you seem to have opted to give Star Wars Outlaws a miss. That’s a shame since it’s a fantastic game that occupied a far bigger chunk of my 2024 than I expected. Even after completing its story, I’ve continued to go back, just to live in its world. If you like Star Wars, it really is worth your time.
9
Echoes Of Wisdom
Tears Of The Kingdom was my Game of the Year in 2023 and while I never expected Echoes Of Wisdom to match it, it was a pleasant surprise to get a new Zelda game this good so soon after. The thought and genius that went into TOTK floored me, and to see some of that genius so expertly applied to a 2D Zelda game less than 18 months later has further proved the team behind it practices witchcraft.
8
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Including remasters and remakes on Game of the Year lists can be controversial, but I’m all for it when it’s a game as good as The Thousand-Year Door. Having not experienced much Mario outside of the core games, I didn’t realize this is what Mario could be. A side of the Mushroom Kingdom I’d never seen, characters I’ve never met, and storytelling I didn’t know Mario games were capable of.
7
Marvel Rivals
I feared which live-service game would be the next to eat up every last second of my free time, and here we are. Marvel Rivals made my GOTY cut based on its beta alone, but after playing nothing but for the past weekend, I can confirm Rivals is everything I wanted it to be. I’m a Marvel character in a Marvel multiverse fighting other Marvel heroes and villains. It might sound simple but pulling it off this well was a gargantuan task. Now let’s just hope it’s here to stay, although I will need to put it down eventually to play other stuff.
6
Neva
From the second I saw the reveal trailer for Neva, I knew it was going to be my kind of game. A beautiful 2D platformer with a story that would break my heart, it delivered on all those fronts. The story is moving, the art style is fantastic, and its combat starts off simple but gets gradually more challenging and satisfying throughout. Plus, it’s only about four hours long which, in a year packed to the gills with 60-hour RPGs, was very welcome.
5
Animal Well
Animal Well’s trailers did not have the same effect on me as Neva’s. It didn’t look like a game that would appeal to me at all, but since it was included with PS Plus, I gave it a whirl. It didn’t take long for me to realize how wrong my first impressions were.
Animal Well might look simple, but making your way through its world is complex. So complex that there were times when I told myself I was done. Hours later, I’d feel the pull to go back and overcome what had driven me away, eventually being rewarded with a level of satisfaction nothing in a game has come close to matching in 2024.
Honorable Mentions Because I Want You All To See My Cool Shadow Screenshot
4
Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown
Metroidvanias clearly pushed a lot of the right buttons for me this year. However, beyond sharing a genre, Animal Well and Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown couldn’t be more different. The industry has been crying out for smaller games like this from big studios, and Ubisoft Montpellier nailed the assignment.
Even though its story was lacking, everything else about The Lost Crown more than made up for that. The combat is satisfying, the boss fights are incredible, and the pace at which you learn new abilities is perfect. It’s a real shame higher-ups couldn’t see how important this game is for Ubisoft’s, and the industry’s, future.
3
Helldivers 2
While I was always going to be interested in a game where you drop onto a planet, kill aliens with your buddies, return to your ship, and do it all over again, I never could have envisioned the hold Helldivers 2 had on me. For a large chunk of 2024, fighting for Super Earth was all I could think about.
I quite literally lost sleep over this game. Not just because I was thinking about it in bed at night but also because someone would say, “one more round” over and over until I realized it was 3 am on a school night. The chaos, the humor, but best of all, playing online with people I haven’t played online with since the OG Modern Warfare 2 days, and all without having to go back to those toxic lobbies.
2
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
Final Fantasy 7 will always be a hugely important game to me and Rebirth was my most anticipated game of 2024. Despite all of that, what this middle chapter of the remake trilogy brought to the table blew me away. I laughed, I cried, I even stopped playing Helldivers for a bit.
I can’t remember how far I made it into the original FF7 as a kid. That’s why I expected, and would have been more than happy with, more of what Remake had to offer in Rebirth. To get so much more in terms of story, character development, its world, was incredible and left me with a gaming experience I won’t soon forget. I finished playing months ago and it continues to live rent-free in my head.
1
Astro Bot
When I finished my Rebirth playthrough, I was convinced my GOTY had been determined with eight months still to go. Then Astro Bot happened. Between its incredible reveal trailer and the taste of what was to come we were given via Astro’s Playroom, I knew this was going to be something special and that Rebirth’s crown-in-waiting was under threat.
By the time I was done with Astro Bot, I had made up my mind that it’s not only the Game of the Year, but it’s my favorite platformer of all time. Two months on from finishing it, my opinion hasn’t wavered. Much like my 2023 GOTY Tears of the Kingdom, there were things in Astro Bot that had me either in awe, grinning like an idiot, or both every few feet. If you own a PS5 and you haven’t played Astro Bot, pick it up as soon as you can. I promise you won’t regret it.
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