Hey, it’s me, your resident Giant Bomb Nintendo mark. But, what’s this? A top ten list with a bunch of indie (and Indy) games and nothing from Nintendo! What a year, huh?
Runners-Up
There were only three or four of these 50 games that I was able to get really into, but I LOVE the concept and it was pulled off masterfully. So many of these games felt exactly like the type of weird games I would try at a friend’s house or rent based solely on the box art growing up. It made me nostalgic for games that never existed until now.
I loved being a thinky investigator guy in The Case of the Golden Idol, but it turns out I like it even more when I get to do it in Detective Times instead of Satchel Times. Just feels a lot cooler solving murders when they involve scientists and dudes with sunglasses instead of like…cobblers or whatever they did back then.
Void Bastards was so good, and Blu Manchu made a successor set in a weird sci-fi version of the Old West with a ragtag group of cool gunslingers. For some reason, no one really talked about it, so here’s me again saying that it’s very good, it’s perfect on Steam Deck, and you should absolutely play it.
Wow, this was a whole lot better than I expected it to be! It did right by its license in a way few games outside of Arkham have, and Troy Baker contributes a wildly good Indy voice that does wonders for the experience. This game has you doing a ton of real Indiana Jones shit, rather than just slapping his hat onto a standard FPS protagonist and storyline. That said, I never want to do another instant-death underwater snake segment for as long as I live.
Maybe the funniest game I’ve ever played? I played through this in two settings from a hotel bed in Kansas City and was laughing out loud by myself the entire time, which I rarely do. Really thought it was funny to keep slapping that kid on a bench who just wanted to eat his sausage pop so bad.
Just hook this to my veins. It took roughly 15 seconds for me to realize I was going to love this game, and it just got better from there. I saw someone describe it as Zelda plus Geometry Wars and I immediately felt little Fantavision fireworks start going off in my brain.
Oh right, Call of Duty! It’s been a few years, old friend. I took a couple breaks from the series in recent years (including Cold War) so I wasn’t expecting to be blown away by this one. But holy hell, I had a blast with the campaign and didn’t plan on playing much multiplayer, but then I got SUPER into the multiplayer. It doesn’t even do anything too crazy this time around…I’m just playing plain ol’ Team Deathmatch and Domination and prestige-ing like it’s 2007 all over again. Just a top tier FPS package all around.
They’ve done some weird stuff with this franchise throughout its history, and it’s been like fifteen years since the last one anyone gave a shit about. And then Ubisoft was like “hey what if we just bring it back and make it one of the best Metroidvanias of all time?” (followed shortly by “nevermind, let’s disband the studio”). It kills it on every level that’s important for the genre – exploration, combat, and platforming. I’m not in love with the story or the characters, but it was easy to look past the game’s shortcomings when it plays like this.
It’s weird writing about Balatro as a game of 2024 because it’s hard to remember an existence before Balatro.
All I wanted after playing Astro Bot: Rescue Mission and Astro’s Playroom was an honest-to-god full-on 3D platformer from Team Asobi. And holy crap did they ever do it. It’s one of the best platformers of all time, standing up there alongside Mario’s best entries. Plus his little laser feet make me think of how Mario controls with FLUDD and that’s always a big plus. More than deserving of all the praise and awards it’s received this year, and I want sequels until I die.