Game Of The Year Editor’s Pick, 2024

Although most people would say that 2024 has been unarguably weaker than the almighty year that gave us Baldur’s Gate 3, Alan Wake 2, and Tears of the Kingdom, I resonated with many more games over the past 12 months.

While nothing has quite come close to my unending love for Chai and Hi-Fi Rush (if you don’t count the PS5 re-release, that is), 2024 has given me some solid games that met expectations, sequels and revivals I’ve been dreaming about for years, and huge surprises I wasn’t expecting.

Enough preamble, let’s get into why. You should also go check out the rest of TheGamer’s Game of the Year picks while you’re at it.

10

Thank Goodness You’re Here

Comedy is notoriously difficult to get right when it comes to video games, yet Thank Goodness You’re Here manages to be one of the funniest bits of media in all of 2024. Reggie’s wife could learn a thing or two…

Beyond its razor-sharp wit, TGYH has a soft spot in my heart for its overwhelming Bri’ishness that, even if only for a few hours, took me right back to tea, fish and chips, and hopping into hot tubs with cows. Ah, childhood.

9

Tekken 8

Although Tekken 8’s controversial post-launch has let it down a little after kicking off 2024 in such a big way, it’s still an incredible fighting game and, for my money, the series at its absolute peak.

Nearly 11 months later, I’m still not over how perfectly the climactic battle between Jin and Kazuya was handled. Mortal Kombat 1 could never.

8

Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster

I usually don’t like to put remasters and remakes on my Game of the Year list unless it drastically changes things up (looking at you, Resi 4), but Dead Rising is such a formative game for me that I just can’t leave it out.

Nostalgia goggles aside, Deluxe Remaster is a worthy update to Dead Rising that captures its charm, significantly sands down its many headaches, and proves how much life the series has left to give. Here’s hoping it sets the stage for something new in the future.

7

Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown

It feels weird to call a game that reviewed as well as Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown underappreciated, but it’s the only word that comes to mind for one of 2024’s most overlooked gems.

Aside from a weak story, The Lost Crown did everything right and is my personal favourite in the whole series. It’s somehow even better with the platforming-focused Mask of Darkness DLC and a surprising amount of solid post-launch updates.

6

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth

As I’ve already written about at length, no game this year (or perhaps ever) has taken me on quite as much of a journey as Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. After spending most of this year disappointed, I decided to give Rebirth another go following its Game of the Year nomination.

Going back without the pressure of seeing what happens to Aerith opened my eyes to how fantastic Rebirth truly is, with a genre-defining combat system, best-in-class characters, and a world you can’t help but get lost in. Magical stuff.

The Most Honourable Of Honourable Mentions

5

Astro Bot

Like pretty much everyone who played it, I adored Astro’s Playroom when I got my PS5 and prayed that Team Asobi was working on a follow-up that takes everything further. In 2024, that’s exactly what we got.

Astro Bot is still one of the best platformers to have released in the last decade, and one that constantly surprises and delights. I can only hope we see more of the best thing PlayStation has done in years.

It wasn’t my favourite platformer of 2024, though…

4

Antonblast

Coming in very fashionably late is Antonblast, which is about as close to platformer perfection as I’ve experienced in recent memory. I figured I’d love Dynamite Anton seeing as how I put Pizza Tower on my Game of the Year 12 months ago, but I didn’t realise just how much it’d fly up this year’s GOTY list.

What really makes Antonblast stand out to me is its core mechanics, which are endlessly satisfying to master and surprisingly similar to my favourite platforming mascot, Crash Bandicoot. Its final few levels and devilishly hidden collectibles made me want to scream like the loveable red guy pictured above, but the pain was more than worth it.

3

Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth

As someone who has tried and failed to get into the Yakuza games multiple times, I never expected Ichiban’s turn-based RPG adventures to be what dragged me in. And yet, here we are with Infinite Wealth, which I somehow love even more than Yakuza: Like A Dragon (that’s Yakuza 8, for anyone who’s confused).

Infinite Wealth takes what worked in the last game and makes it better in every regard – a stronger story across both characters, a more interesting world to explore, and vastly improved RPG and combat mechanics meant that I can’t help falling in love with.

2

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero

I’ve been a diehard fan of Dragon Ball since I can remember, and one that grew up on Budokai Tenkaichi. So I was confident that Sparking Zero would land somewhere on my Game of the Year list when it was first revealed.

What I didn’t expect was Sparking Zero shattering the expectations I built over a decade-and-a-half and end up easily being my favourite Dragon Ball game of all time. Stunning graphics, perfectly evolved gameplay mechanics from the PS2 trilogy, and a mind-blowing roster all fusing to make Sparking Zero something truly special that more than lives up to the hype.

1

Animal Well

So far, almost all of the games that have made my GOTY list have been ones that I was expecting to love. Of course I liked Dragon Ball, Dead Rising, and Astro Bot, they’re all about as George-core as you can get.

Animal Well is not one of those games. In fact, it’s about as far as you can get from what I usually look for in a game. And yet, it’s so masterfully put together, endlessly inventive, and just downright special that I knew it’d be my Game of the Year from the moment I discovered the flute was a teleporter.

There simply hasn’t been a game that surprised me as much as Animal Well in a very long time. Drop what you’re doing, play it yourself, and expect to think about it every day moving forward.

On a personal level (which I guess this whole list is really), Animal Well is also the first game that my partner and I played through blind together, which makes it even more special to me.