Links to full list of 2022 and 2023 games - here.

1. Games 1-3 (Marvel Midnight Suns, Overboard!, Lunistice)
2. Games 4-7 (Kine, Recursed, Alan Wake 2, Mario Golf: World Tour)

8. Weird West
A kinda ImSim from the lead behind Arkane's best game - Prey. Let's get this out the way...it's not as good as Prey. But, it is weird and cool, and often reasonably funny, and there are choices and consequences and the combat has something going for it.

A game I want to like more than I probably ended up doing, this is still far more interesting than most things I come across and I've seen enough to believe that Wolfeye (and Raphael Colantonio) have an absolute corker in them. [7]

9. Torchlight 2
Every so often I try and get into a Diablo style ARPG, a proper Number Go Up-athon where the objective is to loot and grind and repeat and collect and see how builds expand and change and grow. And then, eventually, you delete and repeat and go through it again.

But...while I see the appeal, I just get so bored before the games are supposed to actually get fun. I think i've had 4 separate cracks at Diablo 3 with the furthest I've gotten being a place with...sand, or sth? Dunno, was a while back, sure i will install and give it another punt in 18 months.



Anyway, this was my 2nd crack at Torchlight 2, the first having been on the Switch where I...got really bored again, as I always do with this genre. 

Something finally clicked this time, though, and for a while I was clicking my mouse and killing mobs and clearing areas and seeing that number go up. I enjoyed looking at loot and seeing what was better. It was a good time. And then I stopped for a few days and have zero desire to go back. [6]

10. Supermarket Shriek
11. Total War: Warhammer 2
It's clearly excellent. I have no idea what I am doing. [?]

12. Balatro
One of the games of the moment, this is a well-made game all about mathematical meta progression. It's about making numbers multiply and scale from the hundreds into the thousands, millions, billions, trillions and beyond. 



It is not a tightly designed Spire-like with an emphasis on challenge and balance. It's a game designed to be broken, a game where pure luck can have a massive impact on success or failure, a game that I suspect many people will absolutely cane, and then drop once every run starts to "feel the same". It's a slot machine, gamble responsibly lol.

But it is excellent. The 1 (one) song, the little wiggles and pops of the cards, the frankly stupid combos you can pull off, the speed at which runs start and finish, the deck variety - there's a cracking little game here and I can't help but feel it'll be overhyped on launch, and then dismissed unfairly afterwards for not being a deep and evergreen as StS. I'll probably end up putting a good 30 hours into this and then stopping. And that's ok. [8]  

13. Helldivers 2
The other Game of the Moment, and an early frontrunner (along with one other game in this bunch...maybe) for GotY. 



My time with this game has been a bit truncated - bought it day one as I was very excited for it, only to encounter spotty connections at launch. Then, 2 weeks in the UK for Spring Festival meant I effectively spent the first 3 weeks owning this game not actually playing it. 

But it doesn't matter. It's so goshdarn, mother flipping FUN. Like, actually fun. Stupidly fun. And when you are in party chat, and choosing to salute a nuke as it rises from the ground, when you're blown up by a minefield your "teammates" placed down, or killed by a grenade bouncing off an enemy and back at you, or when the entire sky lights up due to bombing runs and orbital strikes...you smile, and laugh and you think Fuck, this game is so good. You laugh together, do dumb shit, get constantly surprised, hold out against hordes of enemies with some of the juiciest, heaviest shooting in an age and regardless of whether you win or lose, you come away feeling like it was worth it. 

The variety in skyboxes, planets, mission types, the emergent gameplay situations, the emphasis on teamwork, the humour...everything punches so far above the weight of, lets be honest, a game many people didn't have on their radar. But, instead this is something genuinely gorgeous, that feels better to play than most AAA, has more variety than most AAA, has deeper multiplayer systems than most AAA, that actually does a real on-going galactic war that players are a part of, and it can be had for 30 quid. A Returnal-level overachievement. [10]

14. SCP-D38813
Playdate time. SCP-D38813 is a game about deciphering SCP documents. It's a simulator where you could effectively be one of the office staff in the Old House, before everything went bad in Control.



It's creepy paranormal items, science and conspiracy. The underlying gameplay is that of cryptology - you're given a long scrambled document, and you crank the crank to roll through the alphabet and change the letters in a word. Cranking will often change the associated letter in other words too, and so it becomes a process of experimentation and elimination.

The underlying mechanics are simple then, though the game is deceptively tricky. These documents are dense and long and filled with descriptions and terminology, meaning it can be hard to get a foothold into a text. The early portions of deciphering are easily the hardest. Once a text is fully done, you can read it from start to finish and...I honestly did. I rarely engage with lore too heavily in games, but the synergy between the nature of the items being discussed in the documents (often strange, powerful and dangerous) and the redacted, scrambled nature of the documents meant that taking your time to read the whole thing from top to bottom becomes akin to taking a victory lap. 

But what really makes it work is the sound design. Playdate audio has no right being that good, all clacking keys, creaking doors and buzzing lights. It is what turns a nice idea into a genuinely interesting experience. 

Will it stay with me forever? Not really. But it interesting as heck, nailed the vibes and only cost 4 quid. [7]

15. Under the Castle 
Another Playdate game, this one takes the roguelike dungeon crawler and turns it bite-sized. Leaning into the Playdate as a machine to be played for 10 minutes at a time, "runs" now consist of fulfilling mission criteria for 3 "dungeons". Go into the crypt to kill x number of enemies and level it up, where the next level with have more enemies and maybe better loot. Or, pick a different location to find an object or rescue some civilians. Once you complete your task, an exit appears and you are back in the overworld.
 


The result is a genuinely speedy little game, designed to be nibbled away at over time. Have 4 minutes of downtime? You can probably do a dungeon run in that time. 

Controls are simple, gameplay is...what you would expect from a turn-based roguelike dungeon crawler, and the art absolutely pops. A cracking little thing. [8]

16. Home Safety Hotline 
Oooooh, this one was a surprise. A good surprise, but a surprise nonetheless. I had have a weakness for games that place the player in front of a "computer" screen and make them interact with an OS ever since Emily Was Away. There's something so evocative about that setup, if you can nail it. And Home Safety Hotline nails a lot, though it doesn't lean too, too heavily into the 90s Windows interface vibe, instead mostly using that as set dressing.



You work for the Home Safety Hotline. People call you and talk about problems they have in their house. You have a list of possible causes in your database, so your job is to listen and then tell the caller what the likely cause is. Maybe there's mice in the walls, or perhaps even a Termite infestation, or perhaps...wait, does that say...?

A 3 hour or so experience, only on PC, and it costs more than a tenner - those facts alone probably already cut off interest from a fair bunch. But if you're in the mood for something short, weird and deliciously creepy, you could do far worse than give this a cheeky punt. [9]

Next / The To-Play List:
Growing my Grandpa
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty 
The Forest Quartet 
Spare Parts: Episode 1 & 2 
Unpacking
NUTS
Super is Hot
Neurocracy
Evolution
Slasher U
Cannelé & Nomnom - Defective Agency
Prodigal
Scanner Sombre
Vomitoreum
Moonring
Omen Exito: Plague
Marco & The Galaxy Dragon
Inquisitor
Kiryu's Karaoke Sim featuring Punching with No Name
Save me Mr Tako: Definitive Edition
Smushi Come Home
Sticky Business
Railbound
A Procession to Calvary 
The House in Fata Morgana (still going with this one...)
Solium Infernum
Jailbreaker
Psychonauts 2
Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak 
Remnant 2

Mute everything except the shireking.

I had headphones on and fully embraced the Shriek.

The co-op is great for the first few stages. It gets far too frustrating to be played much further than that with two imo - would pay to watch Elf and Muzzy playing it. I haven't tried the proper mp/parry mode, forgot it was in there.

I really need to get back on the Playdate.

Distinct lack of @Wariospeedwagon itt this year.

4. Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth - PS5 - 76hrs I didn’t pay full price for this game but even if I did I couldn’t complain about the value for money here. It is a ridiculously generous games, or really multiple games inside a single game, you have the main story, which is not as simple as it first appears, you have a Pokemon game (admittedly, I didn’t do much of this) and you have Animal Crossing. That is without all the myriad side quests (all well thought out and as mad as the original), mini-games (photoing island pervs? Yes please), Persona-like challenge dungeons, and something that long-time Yakuza fans will love, I think.

There is so much going on here, but it is all so wonderfully balanced with that addictive turn-based gameplay loop, like Yaklad. The systems have evolved and there are some radical design decisions made as the game progresses, with one character getting a great power that seems at odds with the rest of the game, but it works.

I honestly can’t think of a single thing to fault this game on. It’s a solid [10], I think if I’d played the earlier Yakuza games I’d have probably given it an 11.

P.S. stick around for the post-credits scene.

29. Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors - Switch (90mins)

A replay as I fancied something familiar.  I enjoyed it last time but something clicked on this playthrough as it's gone up in my estimation.  Ninja was most definitely my guy this time, not sure why I didn't think much of him previously as his safety nunchucks special absolutely wrecks.  If the Two Crude Dudes/Kung Fu Master flat 2D scrolling beat 'em up format appeals I think this may actually be the best in class.  I'm possibly forgetting something obvious but this is an absolute gem of a game nonetheless, especially considering it's built on the foundations of a relatively unknown SNES title (the devs tend to tinker and spruce rather than overhaul - the decent Wild Guns update was by them too - which means their updates are barebones but feel right and look legit).  It's a very tastefully put together redo, with sprite swaps and added details and whatnot. Having seen videos of the SNES version it was clearly a beauty then too - and that version was a remake of sorts anyway.  I'm pretty sure I remember the original Ninja Warriors arcade cabinet (a three screen Taito effort), but unless I'm confusing it with something else I wasn't actually tall enough to play it when they had it at my caravan site (toot toot the Romney Hythe & Dymchurch Railway massive) as the screens were positioned way off the ground.  It all felt very ONLY FOR ADULT EYES anyway, hence sulking about not playing it sticking in my head.  

I'd have no qualms playing this version a third time anyway, and I intend to try co-op at some point.  As a Segaboy the vast majority of my Super Nintendo playthroughs have come as retro experiences (or as nu-retro experiences when contemporary on GBA), which does put a different spin on things.  Retrospectively speaking I think simpler 16-bit games often age better than ground breaking ones as first time experiences in the modern era (confusedface.gif).  I'm having this in my top ten for the console for sure - the arcade energy is off the chart.  Despite its simplicity there's a good fight system here too, and of the five playable characters - two of which you unlock by finishing the game twice - only one feels like a novelty addition.  [8] for the modern do-over, but this would have been comfortably in the 90%+ range for me as a console game back in the day*

*Caveat: I was probably foolishly coveting polygons per second in 1994 and might have ignored it, so this may not be quite true, but would have been if I'd played it before it was remade for the first time in like 1993 or something (ScannersPop.gif).  TLDR: this is great fun and more people should check it out.

30. Gibbon: Beyond the Trees - Switch (1hr 15mins)

So you know you tend to get a deluge of random looking indie reveals on Nintendo Direct showcases? They often show a game or three that appeal to me, albeit struggling to get to the surface in a sea of JRPG farm cat deck builders. This was one of the ones I earmarked for the watch list, but then it arrived a few months later to muted sad trombones - reviews were iffy, and the Switch version in particular was beyond dodgy at launch. So off the watch list it went - I may have over 100 games on there but weeding out the duffers from time to time is the closest I'll get to videogame farming unless Tilly guilt trips me into a spot of Stardew Valley

Fast forward to last week though, and I spotted it for £2.69. I then Googled it, and found the devs talking about a performance patch that they'd released ages ago. I'd always liked the look of it, depspite the mixed reception, so I checked HLTB and decided to give it a shot for co-op anyway. Only it turns out it's not co-op at all as the second gibbon from the trailer is controlled by the computer. And the Switch performance is still fucked, so God knows what it was like originally. FFS. However! I did end up quite liking it, and played pass-the-pad with Tilly anyway, who also enjoyed it (mini badger guardians be warned though: there is A Sad Bit). It's an autorunner that's all about flow and motion, and while it's neither as good as it could have or as long as it should have been, I thought this was a short-lived goodtime. In fairness I wouldn't have wanted it to be too much longer anyway. A couple more stages wouldnt have hurt though.

The Switch version is a bit of a mess, admittedly (it's also the only one that was knocking around the sub-£3 mark, so in this instance I'm not too bothered), but on PC or proper consoles I reckon this would be a bit of a beauty. The colourful pastel aesthetic is really nice and there are moments of genuine excellence in the visuals (the heavy rainfall coupled with a superb lightning effect in a later level was particularly nice).

The whole thing pretty much boils down to making a character that automatically moves from left to right get there quicker, but the controls are fairly original, the nature-in-danger set-up is pretty well done and there's enough enjoyment to be gleaned from the motion of it all to recommend. It's from the Old Man's Journey devs, which probably won't sway anyone either way, but I thought I'd mention it. Try to avoid the Switch version (and paying full price) and there's a nice little [7] here.

31. Mystic Warriors: Wrath of the Ninja - Arcade (1hr)

Appealingly chaotic run & gun from the Sunset Riders team at Konami.  When I boot up a ROM on one of my emulation devices this is more or less exactly what I'm after - pure OTT arcade thrills that you can credit feed your way through while swapping between characters when continuing + PRESS START co-op.   Bold visuals, big choons and sampled speech aplenty.  Aside from the fact that the playable roster all seemed more or less the same (weapon upgrades might differ slightly but don't quote me on that) I thought this was a cracking experience - somewhere between the methodical shooting of Sunset Riders and the batshit bonkers of The Cliffhanger: Edward Randy. 

When you choose you character(s) at the start, an unchosen member of the crew will get kidnapped right there on the select screen, which is magnificent.  In my case the bad guy swooped down and ninja-vanished Brad, and the rescue chase was on.  Spoiler alert: towards the end there's a terrific self-sacrifice scene where I got to check out the balls on Brad, who goes out like a warrior partway through a boss fight while spouting sampled speech.  RIP Brad, I promise to select you if I ever play again. 

Eight way fire, the Shinobi high/low plane switch system, close range sword swipes, infinite shurikens that can be powered up, a slide move and endless set-pieces (ninja skiing, anyone?) added up to a wonderful time for me.  Smashing silly fun.  [5 out of 6]



32. In the Hunt - Arcade (1hr)

I'd never played this until a few days ago.  I almost pulled the trigger on a second hand copy on Saturn in 1996ish but a basic 2D arcade port wasn't really floating my sub at the time (especially as reviews complained about slowdown).  I'm still fairly happy with that decision (iirc I made my way to the till with the basic 2D arcade port of SF Alpha II instead) as this clearly isn't a dip in & dabble experience.  For first time players the torpedo weapons and the movement of the sub itself seem painfully slow, and the whole screen feels overly cluttered with chunky enemies for pretty much the entirety of the game.  It obviously has patterns that can be learned - it's not far from aquatic Metal Slug, after all - but its brutal difficulty isn't conducive for a whistlestop ploughthrough.  At 50p a pop I think it cost me about £25 in imaginary money.

So um...this is probably a really good game, if you're willing to devote plenty of time to learning success tactics, but for a drop-the-coins-in quickplay I actually thought this was a bit weak.  It looks gorgeous and the vertical stage with the crumbling ceiling was ace.  I can only give an opinion on what I played in the way that I played it though, so it gets a generous [3 out of 6]

Thank you Tilly, for a wonderful review!

I think people need to start using this:

Spoilers alert! Spoilers alert! Spoilers alert!

In their completed reviews

34. Pepper Grinder - Switch (2.5hrs)

Super little indie that turned out roughly how I'd hoped from the initial reveal.  The fast-paced tunnelling/flinging between chunks of scenery works well, as do the majority of diversions and extra mechanics sprinkled throughout the short campaign.  By modern standards it could easily be described as too short, but it's also surprisingly cheap, so as you were - £13.49 is baby bear's porridge zone for this one imo, and players inclined to item hunt can expect to double the runtime above.  The four worlds flew by for me - it's not a challenging game and most players will essentially speedrun a good portion of it first time as it has such a forgiving flow, but I had a blast.  Stages are simple reach-the-flagpole affairs and secret levels are clearly marked on the map so this is even more straightforward than I was expecting (I thought the map screen initially suggested hidden exits and so on, a la SMW or DKC etc. - nope).  Fine by me though.

Stylistically this is exceptional with everything from the stunning pixel artwork to the far-less-twee-than-expected music hitting the right notes.  Bosses are reasonably good - based on a comment Bob made last week I assume they've been highlighted as weak in a review somewhere.  A couple were a bit annoying but all fell with practice so they did their job.  Some things didn't quite hit right in fairness, but all gripes are minor.  Just quickly though: there's an abundance of gems and currency to find in the stages but not much actually worth spending it on.  Hooking and flinging always felt almost fiddly in tandem, rather than intuitive. Perhaps the muscle memory comes from practice but there's not really enough runway to master it en route to the last boss. Possible scrub caveat alert ofc. I noticed hitboxes for bosses and baddies would occasionally vanish, resulting in Pepper's grinder passing harmlessly through the spot that's supposed to deal damage. I assume this will be ironed out in a patch soon enough (along with the fact that you sometimes emerge on the map screen at a different stage to the one you entered). I'm not used to this day one malarkey. For the most part performance is great though. There's also a sticker album that lets you buy things to paste onto still images while changing filters *drops dead from boredom*.  Taking photos in games isn't my cup of tea at the best of times but placing motionless sprites onto 2D snapshots from the levels and rearranging them like some sort of tedious Art Alive! homage via MY FIRST DINOSAUR STICKERBOOK strikes me as something only a small handful of people in the world might be into. Even small versions of adults. Disclaimer: there may be more to this mode but I closed it a few seconds after clicking on it.  Assuming I jumped to conclusions correctly it's very strange.

In summary then, not an all-timer but another legit Devolver published offering. It'll be a good year if this ends up in the bottom half of my 2024 top 10. [8]