The Plucky Squire is a cute and creative game developed by All Possible Futures. I really enjoyed the concept of hopping in and out of a storybook to solve puzzles, and its art direction was among the best this year. Unfortunately, it fell short in several key areas for me. While the puzzles were charming, they didn’t feel particularly clever or challenging. I didn’t get much satisfaction from solving them compared to other puzzle games. Additionally, I don’t think any of the characters were fully realized as I’d have liked them to be. Violet and Thrash are both cool concept characters, but we barely got to see them until the last couple chapters. The game often felt overly guided, but the developers recently released an update allowing players to toggle off some of the guidance, which will hopefully address that issue. I think this is a solid first step for The Plucky Squire, and I’m confident the team can refine many of these issues in a future game.

Astro’s Playroom serves as a sandbox demo of everything the PS5 controller is capable of. From incredible haptics to adaptive triggers and so much more, Astro’s Playroom feels like a joy to play. As a demo, it is a very short game. Team Asobi did manage to pack over 50 trophies into the game, though. I think I spent more time collecting trophies than actually running through the game once. I played this game after completing the more recently released Astro Bot, and it was truly shocking how different both games felt to play. In my mind, they both felt exactly the same, but in reality, Astro Bot played much more smoothly and quickly than Astro’s Playroom does. While the game is cute and a good demo of what the PS5 can do, I don’t see myself coming back to it anytime soon in a post-Astro Bot world.

This is where my takes become controversial. Portal 1 is a fun puzzle game that introduces us to the Aperture Science Center. I had a good time with this game; using portals to solve puzzles is objectively a good time. The mystery had me locked in the whole time, and the final boss was a lot of fun to fight. That said, I really wish the game were longer. Another issue, which may be specific to me, is that in the back half of the game, flying through portals started giving me a headache. The constant motion, flipping around the camera 180 and 540 degrees, gave me whiplash, and I had to put the game down a couple times to recover. Oddly, I played Portal 2 immediately after this game, and I never had any issues again. I want to revisit Portal and see if it was a one-off. Overall, playing with portals was fun, but the headaches I experienced brought my enjoyment down a bit.

It really hurts to put this game this low. As someone who has loved the Mario & Luigi franchise since Superstar Saga, I was beyond excited when Nintendo announced the first Mario & Luigi game not on a handheld console. I was doubly excited for it because, ever since Alphadream got shut down in 2019, no one thought we would be getting another Mario & Luigi game ever. This game has a lot going for it. It has a great OST, fun characters, and an interesting world concept. As a computer engineer, you know I was obsessed with Concordia and all the electrical people and puns throughout the game. I enjoyed the battle system throughout the game; it was a fun mix of new and old ideas and gave me the nostalgic feeling I was looking for from past Mario & Luigi games.

Many people complain about AI Luigi and Luigi not being controlled by the ‘B’ button anymore, and while I do think these are unfortunate, they didn’t ruin the game for me. Unfortunately, the game’s biggest grievance is the pacing of the story. My final playtime ended up being around 40 hours, which is on par with Dream Team, which already felt too long. There were many main quests in the story that felt unnecessary and simply added to the playtime. Aside from those moments, the moment-to-moment gameplay also felt especially slow. For example, I’d press a button to solve a puzzle and the screen would pan over to something 10 feet away from me and then pan back over to the characters as if I couldn’t figure it out myself. Though it seems like a small issue, it happens repeatedly in a 40-hour game. I felt frustrated when I had to redo a puzzle 3 times not because I had to redo it, but because I knew I would need to sit through pointless cutscenes again. Even outside of puzzles, I often felt the NPC’s stopping me to reiterate things I knew already all the time. Similar to The Plucky Squire, this game felt incredibly hand-holdy. I think this game could be amazing if they shaved 8-10 hours off the playtime. Despite all my complaints, I did enjoy the game and am glad I played it. I think it’s important to remember this is the new team’s, Acquire, first time making a Mario & Luigi game. I think this is a good starting point, and I hope they take all the feedback from this game and use it to make an incredible second one.

I wasn’t sure if I would include this game on the list initially since it’s not a single-player game. After beating the 4-hour story mode and playing countless hours with friends, I felt like I had a good enough grasp on the game to place it here. I am a HUGE Mario Party fan, but many of the most recent entries have been disappointing. Fortunately, Nintendo has been on an upward trend with the Mario Party games, slowly returning to what was great about the franchise. Mario Party Superstars was the closest return to form we had gotten since Mario Party 8, but even that felt like a glorified remake. Finally with Super Mario Party Jamboree we have a game that feels like a worthy entry in the franchise.

Jamboree does an excellent job keeping that Mario Party experience from games past while also incorporating many new elements. Starting off with the most characters available to play as ever. We’re still a few characters short of perfect, but with a cast this size, it’s hard to complain about a couple missing (we’ll get you someday, Dry Bones). All of the boards are really fun to play and well thought out. Rainbow Galleria and Bowser’s Keep are among the best Mario Party boards ever, in my opinion. Mario’s Rainbow Castle and Western Land were both wonderful picks for the retro boards as well, both standing out with unique events. Almost all the minigames are really solid in this entry too! There’s a great mix of newcomers and previous minigames, my personal favorites being All The Marbles and Domination.

While the game is overall better than the other two Mario Party games on Switch, it has a similar pacing issue to Mario & Luigi: Brothership. A single 10-turn game usually lasts about 90 minutes, around double the length of a 10-turn game in other Mario Party games. This is usually due to people spending time practicing minigames or the addition of Jamboree Buddies. But even without those, I think the game wastes a lot of time on unnecessary animations. For example, in past games, you buy an item at the shop and it immediately enters your inventory. In this game, you choose the item, there’s a purchasing cutscene, a ‘Got Item’ cutscene, a little dance, and then watch the item enter your inventory. It takes what used to be a 2-second moment and turns it into a 15-second ordeal. When everyone is getting items and that’s not even the entirety of their turn, these 15 second ordeals pile on making the game longer than necessary. This isn’t a huge issue though, especially if you have a lot of time on your hands, and I still think this is by far the best Mario Party on the Switch and a great direction for the franchise.

This year I got my first Macbook because I was taking a Mobile App Development class in college and needed to use XCode. Either way, the purchase of a new Macbook came with a 3 month free trial of Apple Arcade. Though I didn’t have much interest in it, it was free, so I figured I’d browse the library anyway. You can only imagine my surprise when I’m scrolling through the games and find “Shovel Knight Dig,” a rogue-like Shovel Knight game by Yacht Club Games. I love the original Shovel Knight Treasure Trove, and this game must have flown under my radar while I was busy in college. I immediately had to play the game, and it became a great way to multitask while listening to my professor’s lectures.

Shovel Knight Dig was an exciting return to the world I’ve loved since 2015. It is a rogue-like where Shovel Knight finally uses his namesake and ventures in the only direction that makes sense: deeper and deeper underground. It’s filled with 6 new worlds that bring back many well-loved characters while also introducing fun new ones. Each area is filled with secrets to discover, treasures to acquire, and pivotal choices to make as you create the perfect build to reach the bottom. Jake Kaufman composed the OST for this game and once again proves how talented he is at creating 8-bit soundtracks. Every world has a new song, and each one is phenomenal, perfectly capturing the essence of the environment.

At first glance, this game doesn’t look like it would take that long to beat, but it is deceptively difficult. Shovel Knight often feels too large for the area he’s exploring, and there were many times during my playthroughs when I got stuck between a rock and a hard place with nowhere to go. It is really easy to make a small mistake and ruin your entire run. Often, if I lost too much health in the first area, I’d restart the entire run from scratch. I think I only beat the game once or twice, and once it was only because I used a skip to start in the last area, rather than going through the whole game. Despite its difficulty, it was still super fun to play, and I even bought it on Switch so I can return to it whenever.

Every once in a while, I play a game fully blind. No reviews, no expectations, not even a clue about what the game is sometimes. That was the case with Cocoon. I decided to buy it on New Year’s Day almost a year ago and give it a shot since it won Indie Game of the Year at The Game Awards. The game looks simple at first glance. You play as an insect in a strange world (no this isn’t Hollow Knight) who carries a glowing ball on its back. You soon discover that you can place the glowing ball down and enter it as an entirely new world unfolds before you. Soon you’re hopping in and out of glowing balls, solving puzzles between them. While the puzzles start off straightforward, the game quickly picks up as you gain more worlds and eventually have to juggle three, then four different worlds to solve puzzles. It all culminates in the end with mind-boggling puzzles to wrap your head around new ways to interact with the world. Not to mention several boss battles that keep you captivated throughout the gameplay. All of this, with not a single word spoken or piece of text read after you leave the title screen. My only complaints with the game are that I wish it were longer and that I understood the story better, as the ending left me thoroughly confused. If you’re looking for a short game with puzzles that will make you feel like a genius, this game will scratch that itch.

One of the main things that makes indie games great is the feeling of dedication, thought, and love that developers put into them. This has never been more true than with Animal Well. It’s a gorgeous 2D Metroidvania where you play as a tiny blob exploring an underground area filled with puzzles and secrets. The game is set in a vast cavern, home to dozens of animals, all brought to life in a beautiful art style. Squirrels, cats, a kangaroo, a chameleon, penguins, and plenty of dogs are just some of the animals you encounter in the game. Each room in the game is thoughtfully designed with puzzles and secrets. Whether it’s a cute animal or a lamp in the background, everything in the game is added with purpose. Completing all the clever puzzles to reach the credits is a great experience in itself, but stopping there only scratches the surface. The secrets in this game go deeper and deeper. It’s so exciting to see a game that has so many underlying mysteries to uncover in the well. I do wish the game featured more music, aside from the sporadic ambient sounds. Nevertheless, I had a wonderful time uncovering every mystery I could find.

People sometimes say that videogames are a form of art. That statement has never been truer for me than playing Neva this year. Neva is a puzzle-platform game developed by the same team behind Gris. The game can be completed in about 4 hours but that doesn’t lessen the impact it has on players. You play as a young woman named Alba, who ventures through the world with her wolf companion Neva. The puzzles are fun to solve, with some action sequences mixed in to keep the gameplay engaging. The star of the game is absolutely the artwork though. In the 4 hours I played the game, I took around 20 screenshots – more than I’ve taken in games I’ve spent 100+ hours on. Stunning stills of the mountain backdrops and dynamic action shots of Alba and Neva exploring the world together. The game also has an excellent soundtrack to accompany every awe-inspiring setting. Neva does a wonderful job telling a story without any text or dialogue. I had heard that the game’s story tugged at people’s heart strings, but I was skeptical that I’d care about the characters in such a short time. I was sorely mistaken, as I found myself in tears by the time the credits rolled. This game was clearly made with a distinct vision, and the developers never strayed from it. It’s neither too short nor too long. I can definitely see myself replaying the game just to experience its art and story again.

Back in 2020 I kept hearing constant rumblings about Final Fantasy VII and how amazing it was, even though I had never actually played or seen it myself. So when the Remake came out, I had to know what the hype was all about. At the time, I didn’t own a PC or console that could play it, so I had to just watch a Let's Play. That was enough to get me hooked on the story and characters, and the ending, especially, left me so excited and bewildered, that I had to know how the rest of the story played out. I bought the original FFVII on my switch and played through the entire game.

Fast forward 4 years later, and I finally got a PS5. There were only two games on my mind that I NEEDED to catch up on immediately: Elden Ring and Final Fantasy VII Remake. I had so much fun getting to experience the game myself for the first time. The game does a great job fleshing out Midgar and introducing the player to the characters. The combat is really solid as well; they did a great job taking the original turn-based system and restructuring it to real-time combat instead.

There were some slower parts of the game, and I didn’t get hooked into the sidequests often, but I admittedly rushed through the game so I could play Rebirth. Intermission was a really fun addition to the game as well. I had never actually seen the DLC, so I went into it completely blind. Yuffie is a wonderful character, and she has one of the best combat styles in the whole game. I skipped most of the Fort Condor quests, but I got my fair share of the game in Rebirth anyway.

This game has so much charm and personality that I’m always excited to see more from all the characters. Exploring Wall Market with Aerith, grappling through the air with Tifa and Barrett, and simply exploring Midgar as a Wutai ninja bring so much joy. Not to mention all the fantastic newcomers to FFVII. I love Roche and Jonny and everyone else this game brought to life. I will say, though, I’m conflicted about the remakes being separated into 3 games. I almost wish Remake and Rebirth were combined, as Remake feels just a little too short, but I also understand why they needed to be split up. Plus, we definitely wouldn’t have gotten such a deep dive into Midgar had they been combined.

One last thing: I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the phenomenal soundtrack. Every single song has been upscaled beyond measure, and I can – and have – listened to the OST for days on end.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is a triumph in role-playing games of this generation. There has never been a game that offers a degree of freedom even close to that in Baldur’s Gate 3. I think it’s nearly impossible to have the exact same experience as anyone else playing; it’s a game where everyone’s experience can be, and often is, vastly unique. While the game doesn’t feature the same enormous open world as Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom, it makes up for it in depth. Every Act, every city, even every building is filled to the brim with places to explore, secrets to discover, lore to learn, and conversations to be had. This is a game that not only lets you play however you want, it also incentivizes you to want to go back and play every possible outcome of a scenario. While most open-world games end once you’ve explored every nook and cranny, this game has near infinite replayability to see everything it offers again from a different perspective.

With so much going on in the game, I knew this would be a huge game to get through. I ended up playing it over the span of four months, while still playing some other games in between. It was a rough start at first for me. Dungeons & Dragons’ combat style is especially ruthless at the beginning of the game since you're at such a low level. I died repeatedly in many encounters. Normally, this wouldn’t be an issue for me; I can get over a skill issue and just get good. The combat felt particularly frustrating because it didn’t seem like a skill issue half the time. My characters would get unlucky, fail a dice roll, and miss half their attacks while the enemy landed every hit. Even with karmic dice toggled on, I still barely felt like they were doing anything to help my luck. After several failed combat encounters, I was beyond done with the game’s combat, but I forced myself to see the game through anyway. Once I got past Act I and moved into Acts II and III, the combat became much more manageable. Suddenly, I wasn’t losing encounters due to bad luck, but because I’m bad at videogames, which is perfectly fine.

I’m glad I stuck with the game because everything after Act I was incredible. I loved the cohesiveness and overall feeling of the Shadow-Cursed Lands, and Baldur’s Gate in Act III is without a doubt one of the most involved and well thought-out cities in any game I’ve played. The game features a fun cast of characters to accompany you (even though I only met half of the party in my playthrough), and the music enhances every event perfectly. I had a few other complaints with the game, such as the movement speed feeling too slow and the game giving little weight to some important events, but they’re mostly overshadowed by the game’s memorable moments. From killing Ansur with only three characters to running out of the Githyanki Creche after stealing the Blood of Lathander, there are countless moments I look back on fondly. By the time I beat the game, I was ready to start a new playthrough as a new character and witness some of the moments I missed, such as seeing some of the party members I barely met. Perhaps I’ll do another 120-hour playthrough someday, especially with crossplay coming in patch 8.

I love music, and I especially love video game music. It’s odd, then, that I’ve hardly played any rhythm games. While I’ve heard many great things about the Rhythm Heaven series, I never had the opportunity to play any of the games. You can bet that once I had the chance to play Rhythm Heaven Fever, I was all in. Now was my chance to prove that all the music I listen to has given me a good sense of rhythm.

Or so I hoped.

Rhythm Heaven Fever is a collection of fun and quirky rhythm minigames that test how well you can keep up with and switch rhythms. The game does a great job keeping you locked in and wanting to beat minigames to see everything it has to offer – and it has A LOT to offer. It has 50 main minigames to play, with several unlockable and multiplayer minigames to dive into as well. Every minigame starts with a practice mode to help you learn the rhythms. What the game doesn’t tell you is that every minigame has a twist once you get comfortable with the rhythm. Sometimes it blocks the screen so you can’t see the visual cues. Other times it changes up the rhythm, keeping you on your toes.

I had a blast unlocking every new minigame and learning not only what the song/rhythm was but also discovering what tricks the game had up its sleeve each time. Some of my favorites were the seals and Captain who belts out random numbers to confuse you, and the full-screen story synopsis during Samurai Jack’s levels. The game has so many cute and entertaining ideas, and the remixes provided a great challenge to truly test how well I knew the songs.

I went back and earned a Superb rating on every main level, both as an excuse to hear the songs again and to ensure I truly could follow every rhythm. Perfecting every level is beyond me, though; I think I’d go insane by level 9. This game is imprinted into my mind. I can recite every song at any moment, and I see the rhythms in places where I’m not even supposed to. This game has great replayability potential, as I repeat Remix 10 in my head at least once a day since beating it.

I had a great time with the first Portal game, and I immediately jumped into Portal 2 after finishing the first game. I expected a similar experience to the first game. A short 4-hour game with little story and just some more portal puzzles for me to solve. I underestimated how much more Portal 2 had to offer.

Portal 2 took me over double the amount of time it took me to beat the first game. It did, of course, have more portal puzzles to solve, but the puzzles here felt much more fleshed out and with a ton of new ideas implemented. Where I was most wrong, however, was the story. Portal 2 has only about 3 characters that you hear from during the game. Yet those 3 characters elevate the portal experience to a whole new level. GlaDOS’s dialogue is just as sharp as in the first game, with new secrets discovered about her throughout. Cave Johnson is this wild eccentric character who reveals much about the Portal world. Wheatley is one of my favorite characters in gaming. Built to be an idiot, he is a perfect addition to bounce off GlaDOS and keep the game engaging throughout.

This is by far the best puzzle game I played this year, and I now fully understand why people consider it one of the greatest games of all time.

I once saw a comment under a YouTube video about Pizza Tower that said “Sometimes you play Pizza Tower, and sometimes Pizza Tower plays you.” I think about that comment often. Pizza Tower is, quite possibly, the most chaotic, anxiety-inducing game I’ve ever played. This game has absolutely zero chill, and it doesn’t pretend to. The gameplay moves at sonic speed, the artwork is intricately bizarre, and the music never dips below 200 bpm. Some of that may have been an exaggeration, but you get the idea. The name of the game in Pizza Tower is to get in and out of levels as fast as possible while also collecting pizza ingredients and maintaining a combo the whole way through. This may sound difficult… because it is. The highest score you can earn on a level is P rank, and I never earned a score above an A. While retrying levels over and over to perfect a combo isn’t quite my cup of tea, it’s not required at all to have a good time with the game. Every level offers a completely unique environment and mechanics to play around with. Flying around as a ghost being chased by a giant pillar, riding a giant rat through Pig City, and playing mini golf with a chunk of pizza dough are just some of the wacky moments I experienced while playing this game. I’m really bad at fighting the bosses in this game (because I’m bad at video games) but they were all so much fun to fight.

I spent only about 5-6 hours playing this game total, but those 5-6 hours were exhilarating. I frequently go back and play a level or two, just so I can get that adrenaline rush racing through the tower all over again. Every aspect of this game melds together spectacularly to create an exciting experience I can’t find anywhere else.

Being one of the most anticipated games of the year, I had to pick up Black Myth Wukong day one. It promised incredible real-time action combat, similar to that of FromSoftware games, with incredible environments and boss fights. It absolutely delivered on everything. This game had some of the best combat I played all year. The staff was such a unique weapon to fight with, and pairing it with so many options in the skill tree really allowed for a unique experience. The spells were all fun to use as well, though after I unlocked Spell Binder, I never really looked back. Wukong was a cool protagonist to play as, and the game features a bunch of fun characters to meet. Zhu Bajie and Xu Dog were among my favorites. Without a doubt, the bosses were the star of the game. The game features over 80 unique bosses, each their own spectacle, with exciting mechanics and moves to learn. Non-Able, a boss whose hands are tied and fights you only with his legs; the bloodthirsty Tiger Vanguard; and the drunken, agile Scorpion Lord were just a few of the highlights of the game. While the game overall isn’t as difficult as a Soulsborne game, it didn’t detract from the fun of fighting each boss. The story didn’t grab me as much as I would have liked and there were several points in the game (especially in chapters 3 and 6) where the frame rate dropped significantly. However, I don’t have many complaints about the game apart from that. I hear the developers are going to drop more content for the game next year, and I’m excited to jump right back into it.

This is the game I played most recently. I’m still not actually done with the game; I still have a couple more chapters left to complete. However, since I already played the original and know how the story plays out, I figured I could confidently add this game to the list. In the 25 hours I’ve played so far, I think I’ve gotten a good grasp of all the remake has to offer on top of what the original offered (Since writing this, I’ve completed the remake, and I only have even more good to say about the game). I love the original game to death; the first three Paper Mario games are among my favorite childhood games. Having played the original already, I wasn’t super inclined to purchase the remake as soon as it came out, but over time, the desire to replay the game became stronger and stronger.

The original Paper Mario: TTYD game serves as an incredible follow-up to the already amazing first game. It brings an exciting new world to explore, several fun new partners, and a great improvement to the combat system of the first game. This is one of the best remakes I’ve played recently. It brings back everything the original did well and adds several much-needed improvements to make the game even more enjoyable. The obvious facelift the game got is beautiful on its own, but where the remake really shines for me is the soundtrack. The original’s soundtrack is good, but it never really grabbed my attention like Paper Mario 64 and Super Paper Mario’s soundtracks did. The remake did an astounding job of taking the source material music and elevating it to a whole new level. Themes like Rogueport and Rogueport Sewers hardly ever crossed my mind, but now, with the remake, I can’t stop thinking about how good they sound. Every chapter now has its own unique battle theme, with a jingle at the beginning of the battle depending on if you get the first strike. Another great addition to the remake is the added central hub for revisiting all the chapters, which I think is a great solution to all the backtracking in the latter half of the game. This remake has been a super fun journey down memory lane, and I can’t wait to finish it and see everything else included.

I had high expectations for this game, as it’s the first Yakuza game I’ve ever played. I expected a cool story about yakuza syndicates beating each other up over a criminal empire and an interesting perspective into what it's like to be in the yakuza. The game delivered that to an extent, and so much more, though not at all in the way I expected. This ended up being one of the wackiest RPGs I’ve ever played.

While the story is a prominent part of the game and kept me engaged the whole way through, that’s only half of the Yakuza experience. This game is filled to the brim with minigames, side quests, and even more minigames to play as you explore Hawaii and Japan. Mahjong, can collecting, UberEats driving, dating app simulator, fishing, poker, baseball, and A LOT of karaoke are just a fraction of the games I played throughout my time with Infinite Wealth. That doesn’t even mention the two biggest minigames the game offers. One is its own version of Pokémon called Sujimon, where you collect and level up wacky dudes to use to battle against other players in the world. There is literally an entire line of sidequests pertaining to this game alone, and while it’s fully optional, you would be missing out on the true Infinite Wealth experience if you skip it. The other even larger minigame is Infinite Wealth’s own version of Animal Crossing, called Dondoko Island. You are brought to a once extremely popular tourist island, now plundered by pirates and filled with trash. Your task is to return the island to its former glory by helping clean it up and add more attractions to incentivize people to visit. Out of the 80 or so hours I spent in the game, at least 6-8 hours went solely into building up my island to a 5-star attraction. It’s really cool to see how much totally optional content the creators stuffed into this already massive game, and it’s part of what makes this game special.

Focusing back on the actual story, what really makes this game stand out is all the fantastic characters you meet throughout the journey. Ichiban Kasuga has solidified himself as one of my favorite video game heroes of all time. He’s a ‘lovable loser’ who sees the best in everyone and always tries to do what's right and help others. He is accompanied by Kazuma Kiryu and a handful of fun new and old characters, like Tomi, Chitose, Nanba, and Adachi. I had a great time meeting all the party members and learning more about their lives and personalities. There were a couple of party members that felt a little forced near the end of the game, but I still ended up liking them too. I just wish they had a bit more screen time. With such a large cast, the game also does a great job splitting up the party into manageable chunks so that it never felt like I was leaving anyone out. Aside from the protagonists, the game also has a ton of awesome villains you meet. Yutaka Yamai is one of my favorite villains this year in gaming, and the villains really felt like they were worthy antagonists the whole way through.

There’s so much happening in this game; I’ve barely scratched the surface. Infinite Wealth ended up being nothing like I imagined it would be. It somehow mixes a serious story with such fun and silly minigames and mechanics throughout. The music also matches the vibes perfectly every time, whether it’s an intense battle or running through Honolulu city lights on a Friday night. I plan to play some of the other Yakuza games next year, starting with the first Like A Dragon (I’m already on Chapter 3). Many of the Dragon Remembrances didn’t resonate for me since I don’t know much about Kiryu’s past, but I’m excited to learn more as I venture into the other games.

A little-known fact about me is that I really enjoyed my time with Dragon Quest XI S, and I especially loved the casino in the game. I spent over 10 hours playing poker there over and over again. The combination of great casino music and the opportunity to double or nothing my winnings every time kept me hooked. I reached 1 million earnings, spent most of it, and went right back to poker. I don’t even enjoy real-life poker that much and barely understand how to play. I eventually moved on but never stopped thinking about that casino game. I’ve occasionally gone back to play it for an hour or so. I hadn’t found a good replacement for it anywhere.

Then I discovered Balatro.

I heard about Balatro for about 7 seconds in a TikTok video, and those 7 seconds convinced me to give it a shot. Balatro seems like ‘just another card game’ at first glance, which it technically is, but if you give it a shot, you quickly discover how the game sinks its teeth into you. You tell yourself you’re going to play a short 15-minute game, and then 15 minutes becomes 30, and 30 turns into an hour, and an hour becomes three. Time disappears when I play this game. I can’t tell you how many times this has happened to me. I get so caught up playing that I forget about everything else. There’s something so addictive about the game loop. Building your deck and jokers for the most optimal strategy, making it through Ante 8 and beyond. Balatro offers so much replayability through beating every deck at every stake, unlocking all the jokers, and completing all the challenges.

My obsession with Balatro wasn’t bad… until I downloaded the app. Having the game one click away at all times has tripled my hours since the summer. I’m sure I’ll eventually reach a point where I’m satisfied and move on, but I haven’t reached it yet. With a big update coming next year, I may never reach that point. Balatro has been a pleasant surprise this year, and I’m glad I finally found something to replace the DQXI casino.

I’ve been a huge FromSoft fan ever since my suitemate and I conquered Dark Souls I, II, III, and Elden Ring together during college. There’s a certain satisfaction you get from killing every boss and surviving each grueling area as you play through these games that you can’t get anywhere else. As an avid internet user, I’ve heard countless things about this FromSoft game, Bloodborne. Without a console to play it on, I had to take everyone’s word on how great a game it is. I had a friend in college with a PS5, so I spent $10 on the game to try it out on his console. As per usual though, I got caught up in college and never made it past the second boss. Now that I had my own PS5, I finally had the chance to experience all of Bloodborne myself.

In my opinion, Bloodborne’s weakest point is the bosses. There are a few standout bosses, like Father Gascoigne and the final boss, but overall, the bosses don’t stand out as much as in the other games. Since bosses are such a big component of Souls games, you’d think it would significantly impact the game’s experience. However, while Bloodborne doesn’t nail bosses, it does everything else incredibly well. Bloodborne’s dark, gothic, eldritch horror atmosphere is excellent, and it sets the mood for the entire game. The game isn’t inherently scary, but an unnerving feeling lingers as you traverse the regions. Central Yharnam is one of the best intro areas in the entire series, providing a great sandbox to learn enemies and combat navigation. Bloodborne’s combat has so much style as you dash side to side instead of rolling when locked onto an enemy. The gun is so satisfying once you learn how to parry attacks. Regaining your health for a short time after taking damage is a great addition, as it incentivizes aggression and heightens the game’s intensity. The costumes in this game are by far the best in the entire franchise. I usually don’t care about my character’s appearance in Souls games, but this game made me want to try out every outfit. In true Dark Souls fashion, the story was confusing yet captivating, and I happily listened to hours of YouTube documentaries on its deeper meaning.

The Old Hunters DLC is one of the best parts of this game. While many of the main bosses didn’t impress me much, every single DLC boss was excellently crafted. Lady Maria, Orphan of Kos, and Ludwig, the Holy Blade, were some of my favorite boss fights in the entire game. The areas in the DLC were also just as fun and challenging to run through. Not to mention, the OST was just as good as any other game, including possibly the greatest boss fight soundtrack in all of Soulsborne. The chalice dungeons weren’t as interesting to run through, but they are completely optional. I enjoyed the game so much, though, that I went through every chalice dungeon to beat the final chalice dungeon boss and platinum the game. Bloodborne is an unexpected and excellent entry in FromSoftware’s catalog, and I’m now in the group of people begging for a PC remaster so more people can experience it.

I was certain from the moment I watched the trailer in the PlayStation State of Play that Astro Bot would be a fantastic game. Sure enough, Team Asobi mastered 3D platforming with Astro Bot. This game takes what previous 3D platformers did right and builds on it while also taking what they did wrong and improving upon it. It has a stellar soundtrack and exciting levels to traverse, just like Super Mario Galaxy. However, it removes the life system, so if you die you respawn within seconds, never having to worry about a Game Over. It has similar abilities to Super Mario Odyssey and breathtaking visuals and audio design, just like Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. All of this, while almost never dropping below 60 FPS. It is by far one of the most (if not the most) polished games this year, so it’s understandable why it won Game of the Year at The Game Awards.

More important than all of that, however, Astro Bot delivers on the wonderful dopamine rush I look for while gaming. From the second I started the first level, I had a smile on my face, and it didn’t leave the entire time I played the game. Astro Bot (the character) is such a cute little guy who’s just trying to save his friends and have a good time doing it. There are so many charming elements throughout the game, such as cutout boards where you can take a picture with all the level elements surrounding you. If you let Astro Bot turn around and look in your direction for a couple of seconds, he’ll smile and wave at you adorably. You can even toss around the bots you find in levels as they cheer and celebrate.

Each level was made with such care to ensure they all feel fun and engaging. One part of the game I loved is that many levels have a ton of small little objects to play around with, like leaves or jewels. They serve no purpose other than to give the player something to mess around with as they run through a level, and it’s so fun! All the power-ups Astro Bot can equip are a blast and fun to use. My favorites were the stopwatch that slows down time, the sponge power that lets you soak up water, and the penguin backpack that makes swimming feel smooth as ever. Another subtle touch I appreciate, which may go unnoticed, is that if you fall back to the bottom of a vertical level by accident, the game adds a bird that flies you back to where you fell from, saving you from repeating the climb. It’s these tiny quality of life improvements, like this one, that elevate the game for me.

The controls felt stable, smooth, and natural. The improvements made to Astro Bot’s movement are subtle at first, but going back to Astro’s Playroom, I realized just how much smoother and faster this game feels. Doing a spin attack and punching feels way swifter than in the first game. The haptics and sound design for the controller are also phenomenal. I love the pitter-patter rumble when you walk across metal or glass; it reminds me of the rumble when Amaterasu runs around in Okami. While the main levels aren’t particularly challenging, they are all still fun to run through and explore. There is challenge to be found if you take on the extra levels in each galaxy, so that wasn’t an issue for me at all. My only complaint is that I wish the game were longer (this is different from feeling a game is too short), but with new levels coming out the past couple of months since release, I can’t complain too much. I earned the platinum trophy for this game, and I’ve already started another file to 100% the game AGAIN, simply because I love replaying all the levels. This game sets a high standard for 3D platformers moving forward, and I can only imagine what Team Asobi has planned next for my favorite lil’ guy.

I enjoyed every game I played this year, but Final Fantasy VII Rebirth has stood out as my definitive number one game since I played it in June. I spent a lot of time asking myself, ‘Why?’ What does Rebirth do so much better that I enjoyed it so much more than the other games? It has an incredible soundtrack, yes, but so does FFVII Remake and Astro Bot. It looks gorgeous, with incredible views and art direction. True, but Black Myth Wukong and Astro Bot are just as good. Baldur’s Gate 3 and Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth have just as good a story, if not better, as Rebirth too. I love Rebirth’s combat, but I also love the combat in Bloodborne and Mario & Luigi: Brothership. After some reflection, I concluded that while Rebirth does all of these just as well as every other game, Rebirth made me feel more and feel stronger emotions than the other games.

The characters are, by far, the star of the show in FFVII Rebirth. While I already liked each party member (Cloud, Barrett, Tifa, Aerith, Nanaki, Yuffie, Cait Sith, and even Cid and Vincent) from playing the original and Remake, Rebirth sold me on the characters even more. I got to spend time with each character individually to get to know them more personally. While they’re all fantastic characters on their own, they all connect and synergize with one another in a beautiful way. In almost all RPGs I play, there is a group of characters you meet and grow close with, but it is primarily the main character who interacts with the party members individually. In Persona 5 Royal, you have a fantastic party, but they only ever really spend time with the main character. Same with Baldur’s Gate 3: a fun group of characters, but they don’t really interact with one another as much as they do with your character. They’ll interact to a small degree – a conversation here or there or commenting on someone else’s story moments. This isn’t a bad thing by any means, but Rebirth elevates its characters to a new level. Yes, everyone talks to Cloud and has their own dynamic with him, but that’s just the beginning. Tifa and Aerith are best friends, Barrett and Yuffie have an unspoken father/daughter-type relationship going on as they can both relate to missing their respective people. Aerith and Nanaki have a special connection to each other, since they can both feel the world speaking to them. Yuffie looks up to both Tifa and Aerith as older sisters. Nanaki and Yuffie bring levity to the whole party in hard times, and Tifa and Barrett both relate to coming from the same destroyed sector. Their relationships reminded me of how I felt playing The Witcher 3 and witnessing Geralt and Ciri’s relationship grow in the second half. While Cloud is the leader of the group, everyone is connected to each other in one way or another. This game is made into a masterpiece by how it fleshes out each character and their relationships with one another. It makes you feel like you are truly a part of the team and everyone is just as important as everyone else. I could go on listing out my favorite character-to-character moments (like Tifa and Aerith gossiping about Cloud or Barrett and Nanaki going through the Cosmo Canyon trials together), but I’ll leave it at that. This is without a doubt my favorite cast of characters in any game I’ve played. This relationship with the characters was pivotal for making me feel like I was part of their team and in making me feel more for the party than in other games. I felt every moment of joy, every moment of anger, every moment of sadness, and everything in between.

As a remake, this game did an excellent job combining the new with the old. After the ending of the first remake, I wasn’t sure what direction the developers would take for this game. To my surprise, they followed the source material very closely, while still keeping many of the elements from Remake and adding its own elements as well. The story is just as fun and exciting as the original was. The game sometimes jumped from a heavy scene back into more light action a bit too quickly, instead of letting you sit with those emotions, but that’s a minor nitpick. The ending is a bit controversial too, but I don’t think it’s a big enough mistake that it detracts from everything else the game does well. Similar to Remake, they once again leave a lot of room open for speculation and theorizing until the final game. The game does an amazing job bringing to life so many places and moments from the original, and it has a great mix of fun, upbeat occasions and more serious, heavy events. At its core, this game has a central message about what it means to live and what it means to die that has stuck with me since I played it.

FFVII Rebirth has my favorite combat this year. I wasn’t sure how much they could improve it over Remake’s already-great system, but they found a way. They added more attacks for air combat and new synergy abilities between party members. In many RPGs, the main character can feel like a necessity in combat, such as in Xenoblade Chronicles. You don’t have to have Shulk in your party at all times, but the Monado is so strong, you’d just make your life more difficult leaving him out. In Rebirth, however, every character feels overpowered and a good option to have in your party. Barrett is a powerhouse and great tank, Aerith has crazy strong magic and healing, and even Cait Sith is great for increasing stagger percentage. My endgame party consisted of Aerith, Barrett, and Nanaki and they felt just as good to use as if my party consisted of Cloud, Tifa, and Yuffie instead. It feels incredible to master the combat in this game, and I’m always itching to go back.

The most controversial part of the game is the entire overworld and how repetitive completing all the various tasks in each region can feel. I understand where this sentiment comes from, but it just so happens that this is exactly the type of gameplay I enjoy. Right behind having a good soundtrack, I love games that give me a huge open world to explore. While getting all the Lifesprings and Remnawave Towers wasn’t particularly entertaining, they served as an excuse for me to run around each region and see every nook and cranny in the game. I loved riding around on my chocobo or driving the buggy to see each beautiful area hidden from the main story. There is also a great selection of minigames throughout the game. Queen’s Blood and Chocobo Racing are by far some of the best minigames I played this year, and it was exciting to see and find all the other minigames. Not all of them were home runs (I’m looking at you, Gears & Gambits), but the good far outweighs the bad. The score in this game sounds just as good as it did in Remake. It brings back so many beautiful songs while giving them a twist and adding equally excellent new tracks too.

A couple of weeks ago someone released a 9-hour-long narrative analysis of FFVII Rebirth, and, believe it or not, I listened to the entire 9 hours. When I drove 20 hours cross country in the summer, over half of those hours were spent listening to discussions about every single aspect of this game. I have not stopped thinking about this game and its characters, and I’m dying to replay it every day. While I know this type of game isn’t for everyone, this game felt especially made for me.