[Editor’s Note: Authors were told to approach their game of the year lists however they wanted, including listing their favorite games they personally played this year regardless of release year.]
This year saw a slew of delays for major titles, but that only served to open up space for innovative smaller titles to shine. Yes, some of the best games this year were iterations on familiar formulas, as they always are, but for those looking there were plenty of new ways to play games, too.
Honorable Mentions
- Kirby and the Forgotten Land
- The Quarry
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge
- Tinykin
- Cult of the Lamb
The best family platformer of the year.
Their formula continues to be the closest to the promise of interactive movies.
If you love the original arcade game, you owe it to yourself to play this.
There are few more pleasurable scenarios than being shrunk down to explore our world.
What if a city builder, but you know, also a cult sim with Zelda elements?
10. PowerWash Simulator
I have routinely referred to this game as the perfect “podcast game,” meaning you can play it while listening to something else because it doesn’t require your full attention. That may seem a slight, but it’s not in this case. PowerWash Simulator is a perfect relaxing break. There’s something deeply satisfying about cleaning its huge variety of locations. Games don’t always have to be twitch or story focused, and PowerWash Simulator is as good of an ambassador for this idea as you’re likely to see.
9. Midnight Fight Express
There were a few games I played this year that excelled at making me feel like a badass (including the overlooked Metal Hellsinger), but Midnight Fight Express did it best for me. This is basically John Wick the game, as you bash your way through levels using fists, feet, guns, bathroom sinks, and whatever else you might find lying about. I loved the retro fun of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, but Midnight Fight Express actually pulled me back long after I finished it.
8. Teardown
Teardown can be dismissed as more a tech demo than a game. Sure, there’s a game here as you bulldoze through the destructible levels so you can escape in the set time, but that’s not what will you keep you coming back. Instead, it’s the vast wealth of user-created content in levels varying from cruise ships to the skyline of New York City. That aspect along with its voxel nature reminder me a lot of Minecraft, another game that could initially come off as a glorified tech demo. But just as that game proved to be something more, I think Teardown features some of the most original gameplay I’ve experienced all year.
7. Arcade Paradise
There have been other arcade management sims, so what makes this one different? It takes place in a laundromat. There’s something about the nostalgia of a time arcade machines were literally everywhere mixed with pretty good riffs on classic coin-ops. You want Pac-Man crossed with Grand Theft Auto? A blatant Mr. Driller clone? Arcade Paradise has you covered. You acquire each new machine at just the right pace to keep it fun and fresh throughout. Not every machine is a banger, but then, they weren’t back then either.
6. Stray
The creators of Stray engendered so much goodwill with the words “cat game” that it really felt like the only place they could go from there is down. Yet remarkably, Stray is a better game than I expected. It’s a little bit of an adventure game mixed with Uncharted style climbing and action sequences. Not all these set pieces work (particularly a too-long sequence that has you carrying around a light), but so much of the charm of the rest of the game balances it out. Add in the cyberpunk trappings (this is the better cyberpunk game in both gameplay and story than Cyberpunk 2077) and you have a very good kitty.
5. Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration
Yet another Atari compilation didn’t initially garner my excitement, even with it coming from the collection wizards at Digital Eclipse (who also made this year’s excellent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection). I have at least one or two in my game collection, to say nothing of their ease of emulation. But that is a watershed collection—a moment where the game industry hopefully sees the true value in both preservation and presentation of their archives. It isn’t just the games here (which run from Pong to Jaguar system titles), but the in-depth way they’re presented in context with new interviews, archival footage, advertising scans, and more. I teach a course in video games, and this covers a good 20% of that course as well as I ever could. It should be in everyone’s collection.
4. Marvel Snap
I’m not much for card games. Occasionally I’ll play a digital one, but my time commitment can usually be measured in hours, if not minutes. Pokémon and Magic never roped me in. Then along came Marvel, and I’ve been addicted ever since its release. It’s such a wonderfully balanced title—games move quickly so by the time you’ve lost one, you’re onto the next you might win. The developers have also managed to keep its free to play mechanics unobtrusive. Yeah, you can buy unique variants of cards or invest in a battle pass, but the game never makes you feel like you must. It’s the best pure phone game I’ve played in years.
3. Elden Ring
The majesty of games rarely surprises me anymore. Sure, every once in a while you get a Grand Theft Auto 5, Skyrim, or The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild where the sheer scope and detail of the adventure truly amazes. Far more often game worlds are simply an obstacle to traverse. Not so in Elden Ring. From its earliest moments you feel lost in a terrifying fantasy setting where literally anything can (and will) wait for you around the corner. The character designs are unique and while the Souls type combat isn’t my favorite, this is easily my favorite of the genre.
2. Tunic
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but you’re an adventurer setting off to collect weapons and items while solving puzzles in a cartoonish world, all while dressed in your trusty, green tunic. Tunic wears its Zelda-influence on its, well, sleeveless tunic, but just as Elden Ring seems inspired by Breath of the Wild’s open world, Tunic borrows heavily from the 2D adventures such as A Link to the Past. The world is vast and interesting to explore, but what really won me over was the constant sense of discovery. From the interconnectedness of the world to the manual pages and the secrets they reveal, Tunic feels like a constant revelation. It’s the best moments in Zelda games distilled and shot directly into your veins.
1. Vampire Survivors
It was difficult for me to imagine any game topping Tunic for me this year, and yet here it is in the form of a $3 indie title. No title better says 2022 to me than Vampire Survivors. From the wealth of imitators (some quite good like Boneraiser Minions and Project Lazarus), to people plopping down $400 plus for Steam Decks just to spend most of their time playing this, it dominated much of game discourse this year. But that’s not why it’s my number one. If Tunic is a distillation of Zelda’s best moments, Vampire Survivors is a distillation of why we play games. Toss out complicated controls and level design and lets focus on the mechanics of leveling up our loot. It didn’t create the “auto shooter survival” genre, but it certainly took it mainstream, for this year at least.
