Ep. 376 - Game of the Year 2024

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Ep. 376 - Game of the Year 2024

Frank Cifaldi of the Video Game History Foundation, Ash Parrish of The Verge, and Brandon Sheffield of Necrosoft Games choose and rank the twenty-one best video games of the year 2024. Hosted by Alex Jaffe, with Frank Cifaldi, Ash Parrish, and Brandon Sheffield. Edited by Esper Quinn, original music by Kurt Feldman.

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SHOW NOTES:

Credit Report (03:42)

1: Frank’s first nomination (09:45)

2: Ash’s first nomination (14:06)

3: Brandon’s first nomination (19:47)

4: Frank’s second nomination (24:26)

5: Ash’s second nomination (30:54)

6: Brandon’s second nomination (36:35)

7: Frank’s third nomination (42:18)

8: Ash’s third nomination (47:37)

9: Brandon’s third nomination (52:49)

10: Frank’s fourth nomination (59:10)

11: Ash’s fourth nomination (01:09:29)

12: Brandon’s fourth nomination (01:18:01)

13: Frank’s fifth nomination (01:24:33)

14: Ash’s fifth nomination (01:33:31)

15: Brandon’s fifth nomination (01:37:49)

16: Frank’s sixth nomination (01:44:37)

17: Ash’s sixth nomination (01:51:22)

18: Brandon’s sixth nomination (02:02:44)

19: Frank’s seventh nomination (02:09:58)

20: Ash’s seventh nomination (02:14:52)

21: Brandon’s seventh nomination (02:23:48)

THE INSERT CREDIT GAME OF THE YEAR 2024 TOP 21:

  1. Indika
  2. Astro Bot
  3. Crow Country
  4. UFO 50
  5. Balatro
  6. Animal Well
  7. Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess
  8. Metafore ReFantazio :it:
  9. Queen’s Blood (from Final Fantasy VII Rebirth)
  10. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
  11. Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
  12. Mouthwashing
  13. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
  14. Neva
  15. Infinity Nikki
  16. The Crimson Diamond
  17. Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore
  18. Fantasian: Neo Dimension
  19. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
  20. Zenless Zone Zero
  21. Stellar Blade / Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 (Winner of the Xbox 360 2-In-1 Bargain Value Pak Award)

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Insert Credit flavored question that is too stupid for the dirtbag: which game will you finally get around to playing once you’re on death row for podcasting?

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The panel should check out 1000xRESIST and Nine Sols.

I know they didn’t get much attention because they were snubbed at the Geoff awards for being from Hong Kong and Taiwan¹ respectively and threatening to upset the Black Myth Wukong crowd. But they really are fantastic, and two of the best games I’ve played in years.

¹ - Red Candle Games had their previous game delisted from Steam and GOG for sneaking in a Winnie the Pooh reference. You can still only buy Devotion on the dev’s website.

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Not far in, but shout out to Jaffe’s “Oh it’s Balatro” while discussing how to pronounce Gris. No one else seemed to appreciate it, but I did.

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Interesting that only eight of my top 21 games are on this list.

It feels like there weren’t any historic 10/10 games this year (maybe Astro Bot?), but there were hundreds of 8/10 games and everybody’s favorites seem to be different.

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I think it’s cool that everybody on this panel approaches video games pretty differently. Brandon samples (he’s got stuff to judge for things), Frank dives deep into whatever he likes but doesn’t play a whole lot, and Ash has the wide view of somebody currently working as a game’s journalist.

I’m only about halfway through the episode, but I’ve already got a couple games to try and some opinions to consider.

EDIT: I just realized that through the entire Crow Country conversation I was thinking about Late Homework. I had just swapped them in my head.

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My son has a top 20 for colors that stays consistent when we ask him. While I have a favorite (blue) and a couple of other well-liked colors (green, orange), my order changes all the time, and after a “top 5” I’d be coming up with random colors. He can say, “Oh, that’s my 11th favorite color” and really mean it. And he seems genuinely puzzled when I say, “No, I don’t have a seventh favorite color. Gray?”

All this is to say I admire anyone who has a top X where X is larger than 5. Better yet, I admire it when the sample size is so much larger than X.

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I just said 21 to match the episode, but it’s actually my top 102 games of the year and counting, because I still have a few installed that I haven’t gotten around to playing.

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More thoughts during my listen… I think Stellar Blade is now the prime example of a toxic fanbase ruining a game for those who haven’t played it. I have no interest in playing the game due to the fanbase that formed around it.

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It’s funny how important a “favorite color” is to kids. I remember having anguished decision making over whether blue or green was my favorite color. I eventually decided on purple but came to regret that choice and switched back to blue. Around that time we were moved to a new house and my parents let my brother and I pick the color to paint our bedroom walls. This would be the first time we weren’t sharing a room together so it was a big event. I picked the a very saturated and obnoxious blue that has no business being used inside a house. My bedroom walls stayed that way not only through high school but to this very day. When I go home to visit I have to sleep in my old childhood bedroom and it feels like I’m in a seafood restaurant. Moral of the story is colors are context dependent.

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On the Balatro conversation:
Growing up reading video game magazines in the 2000’s (namely Club Nintendo, PlayMania and Hobby Consolas), as I’m guessing a lot of people here did, I remember the frequent use of “addictive” as a compliment to games or, at the beginning of the social gaming era, as the ultimate goal a game should achieve. You played to get hooked.

Now, I have been -and in a way still am- hooked to some games, namely Not Tetris and Peglin, but for the last year or so I started to feel bad sometimes playing them, like some sort of guilt coming from the nothingness of a run through them.

I didn’t feel this with Balatro tho! The one thing I love about that game is how done it made me feel at some point, like I had experienced to the end of where I wanted to experience it -getting all the jokers- and I haven’t felt like coming back to it since.

I felt a similar way with Lumines, but on a smaller scale. Lumines is, to me, a perfect game, but the moment I hit game over it’s done for the day or even the month. I think it has to do with how long its sessions are, by the end of one I always feel satisfied and even a bit tired. It’s exhausting, but in a fun way.

The one thing that Lumines has over Balatro though is charm. Balatro can be funny at times, but Lumines is joyful at all times. Whenever Shinin’ starts playing I get at least a little bit happy and, at most, ecstatically emotional to the point of tearing up.

I appreciate that Balatro doesn’t pull the trigger with loathsome addiction mechanics, but it’s always showing you its hand, reminding you that if it wanted to, it could be a game to ruin your life with, and that’s something I haven’t experienced before.

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Shit, just before Jaffe made the association, I heard Frank mentioning the game and I thought:

IT’S ME, METAPHORE RE:FANTAZZIO

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Frank’s biggest Italian fumble by far was calling Indika a Catholic

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My background in Italian makes me unironically say Fantazio like Frank. I’m sorry it’s just more natural to me lol. There are dozens of us!!!

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OK so finished listening. Stray thoughts I had…

I expected Brandon to nominate Crow Country and I’m glad he did not disappoint. (It’s a game I’ve been meaning to play.)

Balatro just seems like a game where the whole point is to break it by making big numbers, and that’s the strategy. Not my kind of thing. The only streamer I follow, who is big on strategy and always playing games on harder difficulties, actually got their Balatro purchase refunded. Just didn’t find it entertaining.

Thank you, Brandon, for shouting out Slice & Dice. It’s an amazing game for mobile, but also runs on old PC hardware and even on Linux. Buying it on Itch is an amazing value. (Though Steam is fine too, of course.) For the old hardware example, I had it running smooth on a Pentium 987 mobile processor from late 2012. No dedicated graphics, just that. Amazingly flexible game.

Ash mentioned Slay the Spire. Didn’t realize she was a fan. Love that game even though it is frustrating.

Also want to echo everyone’s sentiment at the start of the show about how great an addition Ash has been. Love the different opinion and perspectives! Always love hearing her thoughts.

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I wanted to play it! The steam only thing meant it’ll get played once my steam deck comes out of its package.

As for nine sols, that’s more of a frank game - I did figure he’d play it since he’s awaiting for the next hollow knight, but it seems not.

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It’s also on Switch, if that helps.

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switch don’t work!!! ha ha

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Fine I’ll play this stupid Prince of Persia. As well as various other interactive entertainment content noted on this episode

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