10. Helldivers 2

Multiplayer? Shooter? Two strikes for me and yet here I am. For Democracy! Helldivers 2 won me over from its tutorial which teaches players how to heal by having them “activate the battle injury simulator:” a machine that quickly stabs the operator in the chest. Shockingly hilarious.

Helldivers 2 takes PvE and makes it fun for everyone regardless of skill level or playstyle. Besides there being different levels of mission difficulties, there’s also the option to end as soon as your main objective is complete or go hunt for more samples to use for upgrades later. This creates another layer of difficulty players can interact with to customize their sessions. The other aspect of Helldivers 2 that makes it approachable is that there’s no need to get meta obsessed, chase minmaxing, or implement a specific strategy. This is in part because its PvE and in part because your team can have whatever loadout of stratagems they want even if tools get repeated across players. But more than anything, it’s because this is how Helldivers 2 was intentionally designed: fun for casuals and the hardcore alike. 

Mechanically, Helldivers 2 never takes itself too seriously while still keeping players on their toes with sim elements like increased aim difficulty if you’re shot in the arm and different terrain significantly affecting your maneuverability. It keeps players engaged without fully frustrating them.

I can’t aim a gun to save my life and that doesn’t matter because the other day I got the laser and now I can just beam through everything. As a Splatoon fan, I have a second home in Helldivers 2. 

9. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

Haters will say every puzzle can be solved with the bed but in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom I’m chasing fun over efficiency. This Zelda game invites you to make your own fun by experimenting with echoes, items you can make appear in the world after learning them, albeit the scale is much smaller than the massive open world Zelda entries we’ve seen recently. 

Lighting everything on fire and tethering myself to enemies to drag them into spikes until they’re dead, I find myself asking what I can do more than what do I need to do. In that approach, Echoes of Wisdom shines brightest. 

Echoes of Wisdom’s biggest weakness is that its invitation to experiment is far too optional. The design itself doesn’t support all the player can do so there is little incentive to go that extra mile. And its biggest crime is being an inventory selection game with no good ways to access the inventory. It’s just one big horizontal scroll with a few sorting options to change the order. 

8. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is everything you loved about Yakuza: Like a Dragon except they made the combat a little better. The drama, the heartfelt stories, the over-the-topness, the weirdos, this franchise continues to deliver. One of the shining stars remains how compelling the story and antics are. It’s one of the few games where I want to do almost everything because it genuinely interests me and any rewards are just a bonus. And, with so much content available it’s easy to pass up the few things that don’t interest me. Much like the job system that underscores the combat, it’s up to you if you want to immediately find your lane or explore all the possibilities.

Frankly, this could go higher or lower on my list but I’m so early on I haven’t seen the best (or the worst) it has to offer yet. The curse of an RPG heavy year.

7. Animal Well

Compelling, creepy, serene. I felt smart, accomplished, but also found myself down in a pit of despair. By the end of my time with Animal Well I was bitter and frustrated by a combination of not being able to figure things out and knowing what I needed to do but struggling to execute it: thus getting caught in repeating things over and over again because some solutions required a lot of precision. Yet the design is, with a few notable exceptions, brilliant. Part Metroidvania, part puzzle platformer, and undeniably fresh. 

Animal Well has some of the most amusing and strange item unlocks I’ve ever seen like a bubble wand to create your own bubbles to jump on and a yo-yo to break spikes, distract animals, and plenty of other surprising usecases. These are just a few item examples, since Animal Well is a game about discovery, I don’t want to give too much away. 

What made this progression system so exciting was the way key items could feel game breaking despite working exactly as it’s supposed to. As a player you feel clever like some traversal Macgyver for, say, bubble wanding your way to the heavens: which takes a lot of finesse since only one bubble can exist at a time. Smart design makes players feel like they’re uniquely smart when really everything is working as intended. And in Animal Well the net of intended design is incredibly vast. It leaves a lot of space to play in.

Additionally, Animal Well is just a lovely world to be in even when the animals are trying to kill you. The dark color palette is easy on the eyes and helps key elements pop. Blades of grass and tree tops have almost a neon glow to them and walking through dangling vines has the satisfaction of walking through a beaded curtain (minus the overstimulation of course). The art direction of Animal Well has the same ethos of “we don’t use the big light” interior designers, each hanging candle is like a bespoke lamp, enhancing the atmosphere. I love that Animal Well is a game where you’re a cute little blob with feet occasionally being tormented by animals with alarmingly long necks. And the sound design is just as charming.

My biggest critique is by the end I think it asks too much of the player and the lack of guardrails get progressively more dangerous in terms of frustration. And that it commits the puzzle game sin of having too big of a gap between trying, failing, and trying again. A more comprehensive fast travel system would’ve also gone a long way. Still a great game but puzzle dummies and navigational strugglers beware! Like many metroidvanias, when Animal Well’s walls begin to close in and it comes time to figure things out you may not have the answer and have nowhere left to turn. 

6. UFO 50

UFO 50’s structure of 50 games in one — as if you’re buying a retro virtual console — seemed like a charming idea but admittedly, I didn’t have high expectations for the individual games themselves. I was wrong.

These aren’t minigames, micro games, or game jam games. These are full experiences, of varying lengths, across a number of genres. And they’re all great quality. But even cooler than that is the fact that these titles span the entire life cycle of this imagined console, with each game having an associated year. There are even sequels that mimic the trajectory a franchise can go through (changes in dimension or genre) and pivots that work or fail.

Mortol, the side-scrolling puzzle platformer where you sacrifice lives to create platforms, is one of the more interesting games I’ve played this year. While Velgress is a more straight forward, but deliciously challenging, take on the same genre. Party house is a simple but funky take on puzzle/strategy where you have to balance inviting guests (earning money) with the chaos they might bring. Night Manor had me nervously ponting and clicking through a haunted adventure. And Pilot Quest is an idle game that makes me want to leave my Steam Deck plugged in at all times. This is just to name a few games from this excellent collection. 

I still have a lot to work through with UFO 50 but with such a breadth of enticing titles it’s a must own in everyone’s Steam library. 

5. Cryptmaster 

One of the coolest word games I’ve ever played: Cryptmaster is a dungeon crawler typing game where you fight monsters, guess words, and answer riddles. Its stark black and white artstyle combined with the titular Cryptmaster’s ability to respond to any word you type makes for a newstalgic game. 

It’s worth noting that a voice mode also exists.

The Cryptmaster, and various other NPCs, function like supped up versions of fortune telling toys. Every typed (or spoken) word gets a response. Impressively this is all done without the use of Generative AI. Instead, a bunch of voicework and clever implementations have led to a robust set of responses. That’s not to say there aren’t some canned replies, especially if you’re going out of your way to type nonsense, but it’s detailed where it counts. 

Exploration is all in first-person with only the arrow keys to move around. You’re a dead group of adventurers, summoned by the Cryptmaster, making your way up various floors. Your party consists of Joro (warrior), Syn (theif and assassin), Maz (bard), and Nix (sea witch) who — in true video game fashion — have lost their memories. 

You’re chasing your memories, an escape, and more importantly letters which are used to unlock more skills for your characters or add background lore to them. Each character constantly has several blank spaces by their name. You can input guesses anytime outside of battle with no penalty for incorrect guesses. For instance, Joro starts with 3 blank spaces for his first ability. Can you guess what it is? The answer is “HIT” but if you can’t guess that outright you can collect letters over time. If you get an “H” it will fill the first space, an “I” would fill the second, and so on. And this applies to all characters at once, so if another character has an “I” in their ability name that space would fill too.

This system provides constant engagement and makes every encounter worthwhile because one way you can collect letters is by fighting enemies. Each enemy has a name consisting of random letters (ex. PWOBB) and the number of letters represents their HP. Combat is real time but you can halt the action by pulling up any character's ability menu: which is increasingly needed as their ability list grows. You also have the option to toggle the combat to turn-based if desired. You attack by typing in the ability (ex. H-I-T-enter). Combat evolves early as fun twists get introduced to the typing frenzy, such as “the enemy will become big if S is entered.” This twist cuts both ways as you may get abilities that do extra damage when used on an enemy with a specific letter in their name. 

Combat isn’t the only way to get letters. Another way is by opening chests and recalling the name of the object inside.

While you can’t see the object you do know how many letters make up the word. The Cryptmaster is there to help and can answer up to 5 questions about the object. Here, you need to type a word that tells the Cryptmaster what to do with the object to help you identify it. The game itself provides some suggestions (i.e look, feel, listen, smell, taste, and remember) but you can come up with your own. Personally, I got a lot of use out of “wear” and “lift.” If you guess the object correctly you’re given the letters of that object, getting you one step closer to unlocking more abilities.

Lastly, riddles play a big role. You can get riddles from skulls stacked on stone pillars, hidden off to the side. You have the option to toggle on hints (for less rewards) but by default you’re only given the riddle and the amount of letters the answer is. For example, one riddle is “speak my name and I'm gone. What am ?”. The answer is a 7-letter word. What is it?” 

Again, there is no penalty for incorrect answers. Here, your reward is souls which function as MP needed to do certain abilities. There are plenty of other ways to get souls if riddles aren’t your strong suit. Admittedly, the riddles are pretty common so they’re less intriguing if you’ve heard them before. This is also how I realized I don’t know any riddles.

And these are just how the systems start off. There are plenty of other fun additions as you continue through the crypt. The voice acting is cheeky and over dramatic. The humor hits. And the character design is delightful and just the right amount of unsettling from rats with super glassy eyeballs to a big toad named Gorro the Moist (fun!... but also, gross!). 

What I love most about Cryptmaster is that it invites you to experiment and get creative while testing your word skills. And you don’t have to be a speed demon typist or a Scrabble king to progress because there are plenty of hints, easy letter opportunities, and ways to customize the game. 

4. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

A platformers paradise, a metroidvania without the messiness, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is one of the best in its genre. Admittedly, I have a bias towards anything that nails hard platforming sections but Lost Crown does so much more than that. While it has a few balancing issues with its bosses and a story that’s textbook fine every moment of moving through this game is superb and it only gets more magical as you unlock additional abilities. 

Mechanics that are usually grating for me, such as parrying, are telegraphed so clearly I can finally achieve them. And difficult combat can be tailored to your taste thanks to equippable amuletlets that add buffs or abilities. Plus, on a settings level, there are even more ways to tweak the challenge.

Best of all, it has a feature I am desperate to see every metroidvania adapt: the memory shard system. This lets you press down on the d-pad at any time to basically take a screenshot that gets pinned on that part of the map. So if there’s an area you can’t get to because you don’t have the right ability yet you can easily take note of it via this in-game system. 

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown exists in reference to so many incredible games that came before it (Ori, Celeste, Metroid) yet manages to have its own identity. It has the audacity to put off giving you a double jump for hours on end but I never felt like I was waiting for it. It has the gall to make the hardest optional platforming challenge reward a pair of useless ugly pants and all I did was laugh and keep playing.

You can read my full review here.

3. Balatro

I don't know poker. I am bad at video game card games, especially deck builders. I wince when I see a game will be a rogue-lite/like. And I love Balatro: a poker roguelike deck builder. 

Before I get into why it works let me briefly explain how it works. To win you need to complete 8 Antes which each have 2 Blinds and a Boss Blind (like how a game can have several worlds each with several levels). Each blind has a score you have to hit to win and the boss blind also comes with a trait that modifies the play experience (ex. Discards 2 random cards per hand played).

You have 4 hands and 4 discards that you can use to reach the score. Maybe you have to play all your hands to score enough points, maybe you score it all on the first hand. You also earn money throughout the game. At the end of each round, you get to shop.

This is where the real game begins because to score more points (remember, as the Ante goes up so does the number of points you must score) you’ll need to take advantage of multipliers, raising the power of playing certain hands, etc. This is also where the deckbuilding comes in. For instance, if you’ve leaned into a strategy that makes hearts really powerful maybe you want to add more hearts to your deck to increase your chances of drawing hearts. There are plenty more layers to the game but that’s a general baseline of how it functions. 

Balatro's challenge is in the ever-changing, but always intriguing, variables. What strategy comes across the shop and what do you go with? Maybe you buy a Joker that isn’t that useful on its own but becomes clutch when you level up the right hand or build the right deck. Maybe you don’t and kick yourself later. You’ll start winning big each round with a strategy that is so powerful it feels like you’re breaking the game only to be hit with a Boss Blind that renders your strategy not just useless but actively harmful to your build.

What sets Balatro apart from other rogue games to me (a self-proclaimed rogue hater) is it doesn’t feel like I’m grinding to get good or hoping for enough luck to propel me to the end. Balatro makes me feel like a god almost every run and then puts me face to face with the most diabolical Boss Blind I’ve ever seen. But because it feels so fair and different each time I never get mad at the game. I simply throw my hands up like, “you got me!” This isn’t to say it's the only rogue game that finds that magic but it's something many fail — or never attempt — to capture.

As someone who literally forgets which cards are more powerful between the king, queen, and jack, Balatro has the perfect amount of support. You can sort your hand automatically which helps you see what you’re working with. And at any time you can view the run info which tells you how much each hand is worth and what each hand is. Don’t know the different between a Flush and a Full House? Fear not. All that info is available to you. You can even see what cards are left in your deck which can help you be smarter about how you use your discards. 

I was carried to my first win with the help of my Remap friends on stream but even when I’m failing on my own Balatro is fun every time. Its wavy backgrounds, CRT filter options, and single-track OST are hypnotic; its sound design is delectable. And the rush of seeing all your multipliers add up, the flame animation under your score when you’ve won the round, is an unmatched thrill.

The beauty of Balatro is it convinces you that you were totally right there so you can’t help but try again. And a bad run still feels valuable because you can use it to try new strategies and discover more cards which builds toward a more completionist level of game progression. I have literally lost sleep over how good this game is.

2. Metaphor: ReFantazio

Metaphor: ReFantazio’s brilliance comes from its day structure, Archetype combat system (similar to classes/jobs), thoughtful quality of life choices, and intriguing story. All of this makes time fly, justifying its beefy 65 - 100+ hour campaign. 

For those unfamiliar with the format, you have deadlines to main quests that drive the action which is turn-based combat through dungeons. For instance, you might have 12 days to finish a dungeon but the dungeon only takes you 3 days to complete. It’s up to you how you spend your time. If you go into a dungeon you’ll need to rest when you return at night. But if you aren’t in a dungeon you have all day and night to do various activities. Some activities, stores, etc may only be available at night. It’s a fantastic formula that keeps players from burning themselves out on content or getting caught up in repetition. More often than not I wish I had more time which feels ridiculous in a game that’s so long. Essentially, Metaphor: ReFantazio is a mix of combat and casual life sim. It works beautifully because it all feeds into each other.

You might listen to a fairy tale from a local to increase your imagination stat, which can open up doors for you later, or talk to a companion to strengthen your bond, unlocking new Archetypes and abilities. Plus, learning more about the world and characters is its own reward in this compelling story.

Metaphor: ReFantazio manages what many games want but few accomplish: it made me care about the lore. Plenty of games have interesting lore if you’re willing to invest into it but few games make me want to invest. Metaphor does this by piece mealing out anecdotes about the world and its characters at a pace that I opt into based on how I spend my day. So suddenly I’m listening to one person talk about their race and religion to increase my tolerance stat and then later I’m meeting someone from that race and making the connection to my earlier conversation. It all happens naturally.

Narratively, Metaphor: ReFantazio is straightforward while fostering curiosity. We need to stop Louis from being king and hopefully save the prince. But the path to success continuously changes in a way that keeps me on my toes, strengthening my connection with these characters because we are all in the same boat of unknowing. 

It’s also an examination of racism, prejudice, and power as you try to build influence and change minds as a member of an extremely marginalized group. And while some may critique elements of this exploration to be surface level, I can point to a number of examples that feel authentic: from a NPC expressing a desire to learn cooking to a Paripus but not wanting to become ostracized at work for doing so to a kid on the street making a fucked up comment to you. The bigotry is wince-inducing and that’s what makes it real.

Atlus also seemingly did the impossible; they made a RPG where all the characters are interesting and likable. When you have a party there’s almost always a stinker or two. And if there isn’t, there are annoying side characters you’re forced to interact with. Not here. They even made a fairy that helps you who isn’t obnoxious just to flex on everyone.

A good turn-based combat game is really a puzzle game in disguise. Metaphor exhibits this wonderfully by giving you options for how to approach combat and challenges that don’t have obvious answers. I remember taking on a tough optional dungeon that I barely got through by putting two of the same Archetype into battle. Others accomplished it by using an Archetype I hadn’t even tried yet. 

As expected, enemies often have specific weaknesses but Metaphor pushes back on players early with some enemies having no weaknesses at all: forcing you to get creative. The mix and match nature of the Archetype system also makes easier combat scenarios valuable. Suddenly they’re a great opportunity to experiment with new Archetype combos or gain Archetype experience for a specific party member (since they level up independently). 

There’s so much to love about the combat from the front line back line system, with more melee damage dealt up front but a stronger defense if you hang back, to the way exploiting a weakness costs only half an action point. And most of all I love how characters play off each other with one of the early examples being Hulkenberg using her passive ability, Guard Duty (unlocked at bond level 2), which allows her to occasionally take a critical hit for the protagonist.

Metaphor: ReFantazio is an epic and engrossing adventure with a combat system that never gets old and a fantasy setting that feels fresh. 

1. Astro Bot

Like all the best video games, there isn’t a singular standout attribute of Astro Bot. Rather, all of them are working together to create something superb. 

Team Asobi takes what makes 3D platformers special — unbridled joy — and explores it from every possible angle. Every design choice can be traced back to this: the invocation of nostalgia, the sensory delight of the DualSense, the saturated colors, the playful animations, the bopping soundtrack, and the inclusion of NPCs and assets for the sake of play rather than progression. It’s all there to put a smile on your face and it’s spectacularly successful. 

But Astro Bot is more than a cute, feel-good game. Because the truth is, anyone who is paying attention to this space knows the genre is full of personable, charming, and fun-to-play titles. And sure, Astro Bot pushes that to the umpteenth degree but it’s not the core of its appeal. It’s the most obvious form of its magic but that’s only part of its story. 

Astro Bot is a triumph, in large part, because the character is incredible to control. It’s seemingly the baseline for a good platformer but so many end up slightly off target. The game is easy enough that you might forget just how well tuned it is so the challenge levels are there to remind you. The ability to pull off pixel perfect jumps in 3D is no simple feat yet its here on full display. Not a cheap death in sight; no order too tall for these controls.

The diverse move set supports the fiddling platformer fans love. By default, we’ll jump, punch, and spin at every moment because — if you did your job well — the character is fun to control. You don’t even need a reason to move but Team Asobi always gives you one. These levels are packed with ways to let out that platformer fan energy: like a diving board to jump off, ice rinks to skate around, and a robotic pig to whip around inside a pile of sprinkles for some satisfying, crispy clanks while they fly offscreen. It cannot be overstated how incredible everything feels. 

The pitter-patter of his run is delightful and his hover makes platforming easier because you’re more in control of your landing. His punch makes combat simple because you don’t have to be skilled at jumping to fight and the ability to use it to spin can give you more hang time when making a leap or just provide a bit of dopamine for those old enough to revere Jak and Crash. 

But what was most impressive about Astro Bot was the second I thought all the best parts were behind me (turning into a mouse-sized version of yourself to explore at a new scale) it came up with a new brilliant idea (a day/night switch that flips the level’s orientation). And I don’t know how Team Asobi knew I wanted to vacuum the yolk out of the mini-boss trio of birds, still inside their shells, but I did. I really did. 

The collectathon format shines because Astro Bot has an environment worth exploring and completing these collections provides easter egg surprises and hub world incentives. Finding a bot Psycho Mantis is its own thrill but for me nothing beat getting enough puzzle pieces to unlock Safari Park: an area filled with adorable robot animals that also unlocks photo mode for the game. 

Astro Bot made me feel like a kid at a carnival: constantly in wonder and awe but never overstimulated. It’s one of the best 3D platformers of all time and is my current Game of the Year.