Bonus Video: Game of the Year 2022 (Patreon)

Hey Patrons! As usual, your December bonus video is a look back at the best new games I played this year. 2022 has been a bit of a slow year for new releases, I reckon, but I've still found a lot to enjoy. So please click the video above to see what I picked.

Or, if you prefer, you can read it as an article below:

Citizen Sleeper

Citizen Sleeper is a micro RPG about an escaped worker on a lawless space station. It's got a clever dice-based mechanic where each morning you wake up with a handful of dice, on random faces. You can then spend these in different places - perhaps to advance a quest, to talk to someone, to buy an item, or to pay off a debt.

It creates an interesting resource-management puzzle, where you have to make difficult decisions about how to spend your limited time.

Later, that aspect does tail off, due to some wacky balancing issues. But by that point I had become invested in the characters and their stories - and was happy to keep playing to see how it all resolved. Like other tiny RPGs, like Disco Elysium and The Forgotten City, the small scale allows you to focus on the individual characters, and build strong bonds with them.

Elden Ring

I love FromSoftware's games, but have never cared much about the boss fights or the crazy difficulty spikes. For me, the best thing about Dark Souls has been the sense of adventure, freedom, and curiosity. So, Elden Ring feels like it was made for me: an open world adventure that's just all about exploring a dark, menacing, fantasy land.

And so I absolutely devoured this game. I stumbled into weird tombs, followed cryptic quests, discovered secret cities, and had a blast all the way. And every now and again it turns back into Dark Souls, in the more linear, and very well-made legacy dungeons - and that was great too. It has its issues, as I discussed in a video this year, but nothing stopped me from adoring this game.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land

From one post apocalyptic hellscape to another: this time we're with Nintendo's pink puffball. He's usually a B-tier character, but this Switch adventure is good enough to stand with Mario and Zelda. It's a creative, delightful, and imaginative game, packed with puzzles, cool power-ups, and a nifty new mechanic where Kirby can become a car, or a vending machine, or stairs.

It's still pretty easy - that's always the way with Kirby. But it made for a great co-op game to explore with my wife. Not in the actual co-op mode: playing as Waddle Dee wasn't much fun. But passing back the controller from level to level, with the non-player scouring the screen for signs of secret routes - it was a really good time.

Fortnite: Chapter 4

Ok, this one is probably going to get me some skewed looks. But stick with me. For one, while Fortnite originally came out in 2017, the game goes through so many changes that new chapters can feel like entirely new games. Chapter 4 has added a whole new map, a complete visual overhaul, dirt bikes, a pogo stick hammer, and new mechanics like random perks and capture the flag mechanics.

And, sure, it's got some icky monetisation techniques like the FOMO-fuelled battle pass and the expensive item shop. But that's not why I play: this year, me and my family have been able to connect through this game while playing a top notch shooter with excellent movement, cool weapons, and a compulsive premise to be the last ones standing.

Neon White

First-person platformers are like catnip to me. From Mirror's Edge to Ghostrunner... heck, I even suffered through the slog of Dying Light 2 this year, to get to the fun parkour bits. Neon White is up there with the absolute best: it feels fantastic, and the clever insight system encourages you to try again, optimise your run, find shortcuts, and play better.

I have to admit that I found the art style, story, and dialogue just... let's say, not for me. Luckily you can fast forward the whole thing and ignore everything but the brilliant, and utterly moreish speedrunning fun.

Haiku the Robot

I'm still torn on whether this game deserves my love! Or if it should even be in the game of the year list. Like I said before, Haiku the Robot is so indebted to the influence of Hollow Knight, that it feels like the devs should send Team Cherry a big Christmas hamper.

But as I also said: I just really liked this game! It's a cracking Metroidvania, which crushes the genre down to its bare essentials. Interesting locations, good combat, useful abilities, secret areas, and a map that's easy and enjoyable to explore. I kind of know if I like a game if I can't put it down, and in this case Haiku was like glue.

Patrick's Parabox

I'm a sucker for a puzzle game with a smart concept. And Patrick's Parabox has one of the wildest I've seen in some time: the game plays with recursion, which means the level can be a pushable block inside the level... inside the level, inside the level... inside the level. The game also plays with infinity, and infinity plus one, and infinity plus two. Just thinking about it makes my head hurt.

But as I said in the last playlist video, the game is far from impossible. The elegant puzzle design leads you gently through the concept and in each world you'll be given a showcase of different parts of the underlying system. It's tough enough to give you strong "aha!" moments, but also easy enough for most puzzle fans to get to the end.

Escape Academy

Escape Academy does what it says on the tin: this is an escape room, in digital form. You and a friend work together to pick up items, solve riddles, fiddle with machines, and - hopefully - escape before the clock hits zero.

I'll level with you: the game is kind of ugly and the story is silly. And the puzzles will be familiar to anyone who's played, well, a video game. But I can't deny that me and my brother had a great time playing through it online. We even got the DLC pack and munched through that in a couple evenings - and we'll definitely play the next one in the spring.

Tinykin

I never knew that I was missing collect-a-thon 3D platformers until I played Tinykin. What a joy! Like Banjo Kazooie, or something, the game is about exploring a big open level and finding secrets, completing miniature quests, hoovering up coins, and solving simple puzzles. One of the best bits is just how speedy you can be: with generous jump mechanics and an infinite snowboard to ride, it's easy to zig zag around these huge areas at lightning fast pace.

But the other inspiration is, obviously, Pikmin. Not only are you a teeny character in a giant human house - those ant-like proportions are always fun to play with. But you also have an army of alien followers with special powers. This leads to some fun moments, and is actually less fiddly than Nintendo's original.

Signalis

And finally, this is a throwback to retro-style survival horror games. It's got resource management, simple puzzles, clunky combat, and those oh-so comfy save rooms. But it takes more cues from Silent Hill than Resident Evil, with its psychological horror themes, and its ominous and unsettling vibe.

It's just a good time! But... don't do what I did. At some point the game ends, with a definitive final cutscene and full credits... and so I uninstalled it from my Xbox. Only to learn that I still had a third more to play. If Signalis was merely ok, I would have happily left the game unfinished - but it was good enough to warrant another download, and for me to finish up the rest of the title.

A few honourable mentions.

I did enjoy and finish God of War: Ragnarok - Odin, played by The West Wing's Richard Schiff, is one of the most menacing video game villains in a long time. 

Return to Monkey Island was a nice nostalgic treat, with some top-notch point and click puzzles. Rollerdrome was brill, and I'm proud that it was a GMTK Game Jam alumni. 

I liked Stray and Tunic, too. And Vampire Survivors, which came out at the tail end of 2021, was good fun - though, it proved too addictive to stay installed.

There are also a few games I haven't had a chance to get to, like Strange Horticulture, Curse of the Golden Idol, and Wanderer. Stuff to play over the Christmas break, then! See you next year.