The Specialty Awards, for lack of a better term for it, are awards for games that excel in a particular way that has nothing to do with their genre or any technical part of the game, but that I still feel deserves to be singled out for doing something above and beyond what most games offer, whether that is a particularly good port or collection, the best game for kids, best multiplayer, or simply the game that made me laugh the most. These are games that put in an extra special effort in places that deserve to be recognized for it.
As mentioned previously, some of today’s nominees include games released in 2024 on Nintendo Switch, even if they have a prior release on another platform (some categories, like Best Port/Remake almost require it). Also, awards like the 2023 Second Chance Awards and Most played Games of 2024 awards are not restricted to games released this year at all, because of what these categories represent. Anyway, on to the awards!
Note: You can listen to a podcast where Jenn and I discuss these awards! Check it out here!
- 2023 Second Chance Awards
- The Top 10 Games I Wish I Could Have Played Before Writing This, But Didn’t Get Around to Doing In Time
- Best Port / Remake
- Best Compilation / Collection
- Best Sequel
- Best Game for Kids and Casual Players
- Best Multiplayer
- Best New Free-To-Play Game
- Best Value
- Funniest Game
- Most Underrated
- Most Overlooked
- Most Original
- Most Efficient Use of File Storage Space
- The “Wow, this game was way better than I expected!” Award
- Best Third-Party Publisher
- Top 5-6 Games That Would Win a Lot More Awards This Week if They Weren’t Disqualified Due to How Old Their Original Release is
- My Top 10 Most-Played Games of 2024
- My Top 10 Most-Anticipated Games of 2024
- Did Last Year’s Top 10 Most-Anticipated Games Meet Expectations?
- Additional Commentary!
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2023 Second Chance Awards
What follows are games that came out in 2023, but I didn’t get around to playing them until 2024, after doing my 2023 Game Awards. As such, these games did not win any awards from me, but after coming back to them I felt they still deserved recognition. These are the top 10 games that would have been most likely to have been nominated (or even win!) awards in 2023 if I had actually played them that year:
10. SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake
6. Chico and the Magic Orchards DX
5. Cobalt Core
3. Pizza Possum
2. Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo
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The Top 10 Games I Wish I Could Have Played Before Writing This, But Didn’t Get Around to Doing In Time
I’m never going to be able to play every game that comes out in a given year, and some of the games I tend to miss tend to be some of the bigger releases, sadly. However, just to show that I’m well aware of the stuff I’m missing, here is my list of the top ten games I wish I could have played in time for this article, but haven’t been able to get around to:
10. Steamworld Heist II
9. Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore
8. Hatch Tales: A Heroic Hookshot Adventure
7. Tavern Talk
6. Little Kitty, Big City
5. RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic
4. Bloomtown: A Different Story
3. World of Goo 2
2. Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake
1. Princess Peach: Showtime!
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Best Port / Remake
Stray – In a year where Nintendo Switch is showing its age more than ever before, Stray is a lone example of a port from modern platforms that still manages to sacrifice very little in its trip to Nintendo’s underpowered hardware. This game still looks and plays fantastic on Nintendo Switch, and this alone is an incredibly impressive feat that seems increasingly rare.
Runners-Up:
Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord
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Best Compilation / Collection
Castlevania Dominus Collection – Castlevania Dominus Collection goes above and beyond in so many ways it’s absurdly impressive. This would have still been great if it were just a straight port of the three Nintendo DS Castlevania games, but this bundle tossed in the original Haunted Castle, as well as a much-improved remake of that game. There are numerous ways to display the games, there’s full touchscreen support in handheld mode, there’s a wealth of extra content… in short, Castlevania fans were absolutely spoiled with this wonderful collection, making this a highlight for 2024.
Runners-Up:
Saints Row: The Big Purple Package
Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection
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Best Sequel
Super Mario Party: Jamboree – I like the Mario Party series, but have never been thrilled with any games in the series until Jamboree. This is not just a better game than both previous Mario Party games on Nintendo Switch, it is the best game in the entire series. If you’re a Mario Party fan, you absolutely do not want to miss out on this game!
Runners-Up:
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
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Best Game for Kids and Casual Players
Super Mario Party: Jamboree – Mario Party is always a safe bet for kids and casual players, but this year it’s an absolute must-have for family-friendly Switch owners because of its massive variety of content and overall top-notch quality. I think that all of the games on this year’s list of runners-up in this category are a solid choice for any less-experienced gamers, but Super Mario Party: Jamboree is one they’ll be absolutely delighted with, and keep coming back for more.
Runners-Up:
Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley
Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble
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Best Multiplayer
Super Mario Party: Jamboree – This one can’t possibly come as a surprise, right? Mario Party’s entire schtick is its focus on multiplayer, and this installment in the series finds numerous new ways to make it even better, with a new co-op Music-Rhythm game mode, a new 1v1 motion-sensing “Paratroopa Flight School” mode, a new 8-player online co-op mode, and a new 20-player online competitive mode… all in addition to the fantastic traditional Mario Party mode.
Runners-Up:
Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble
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Best New Free-To-Play Game
Pool Blitz – This is a solid game of Pool with multiple fun game modes and a lot of personality, and it isn’t terribly bogged down by its monetization. In an age where free-to-play games increasingly seem to forget that the game has to actually be fun and not try to squeeze every last penny out of players through ugly monetization, this seems to be a rare breed.
Runners-Up:
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Best Value
Saints Row: The Big Purple Package ($30) – Let’s ignore the fact that this bundle regularly goes on sale for an insanely low price under $5. This is a two-pack of incredibly enjoyable Open-World games that (thanks to post-release patches) run great on Nintendo Switch and are a blast to play. If you enjoy games like Grand Theft Auto and Crackdown, this is a must-have bundle that will be incredibly easy on your wallet given how much great gameplay is contained within.
Runners-Up:
Pentiment ($20)
Crypt Stalker ($7)
Goliath Depot ($7)
Hole io & Paper io 2 ($8)
Fragrant Story and Papaya’s Path ($8)
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Funniest Game
Thank Goodness You’re Here! – This had to be the easiest call I had to make in the entire awards ceremony this year. It’s not that the runners-up this year aren’t funny, because they definitely are. It’s that Thank Goodness You’re Here! is the funniest videogame I have played in years. This game’s delightful absurdist British humor, it’s wonderfully ridiculous characters, and silly core gameplay where your sole way of interacting with the world is by slapping it all makes for a game that will keep players laughing throughout.
Runners-Up:
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Most Underrated
This is the award for the game I feel was most wronged by its Metacritic score.
Star Wars: Hunters (57) – Let’s make this clear – they asked for this. The “Hero Shooter” genre is highly competitive, as other games like Sony’s Concord found out the hard way this year. And if you push sleazy monetization in a Hero Shooter, you’ll turn off everyone, and hoo boy did Star Wars: Hunters push sleazy monetization. Yet, despite all of that, the core game underneath all the sleaze and cynicism was actually quite good, and while I absolutely agree that this game deserved to get dinged for its exploitative practices, I think a 57 on Metacritic is absurdly harsh for what is still an enjoyable Hero Shooter. Maybe if this game wasn’t so disgusting in its eagerness to gouge its players, it would have been easier for reviewers to see the good in this game.
Runners-Up:
Peglin (76)
Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble (77)
Super Mario Party: Jamboree (82)
Sonic X Shadow Generations (81)
Goliath Depot (79)
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Most Overlooked
This award is for truly great games that haven’t gotten Metacritic scores on Nintendo Switch (or at all), because not enough reviewers actually played the thing.
Crypt Stalker – This is a loving tribute to old-school Castlevania that got overlooked by critics, probably because publisher RedDeer.Games floods the eShop with their games, making critics far less eager to want to look at them. However, at least in this one case, they really should – Crypt Stalker is a loving tribute to a beloved classic series and its installments on not just one, but two platforms.
Runners-Up:
Fragrant Story and Papaya’s Path
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Most Original
A Time Traveler’s Guide to Past Delicacies – It’s a testament to how much this game belongs in the Most Original category that I don’t even know how to describe its gameplay to you in a concise way that would make sense. It’s a Walking Simulator… and also a Cooking Simulator, and also an FMV game… and there are occasional minigames that are deliberately bad, and that somehow actually adds to the game rather than detracting from it? Yeah, this game is weird, but it’s weird in a way that’s so incredibly unique that it demands to be played.
Runners-Up:
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Most Efficient Use of File Storage Space
Animal Well (84MB) – While it may be a 2D pixel art game without music, Animal Well is bursting with beautiful visuals and impeccable sound design, with each of the game’s rooms bursting with intricate design, impressive visual effects, and a soundscape that paints a vivid picture of this strange place you find yourself in… and all under 100MB. And that’s not even beginning to look into all the stuff that was hidden in the game’s code for the truly dedicated puzzle-solvers to find! That so much was done with so little is truly impressive.
Runners-Up:
Buggy Off-Road Racing (317MB)
Cat Clean Ocean (212MB)
Lil’ Guardsman (1.1GB)
Thank Goodness You’re Here! (1.27GB)
Balatro (156MB)
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The “Wow, this game was way better than I expected!” Award
Unicorn Overlord – I try not to let my preconceptions color my opinions of a game before I play it, but I’m only human, and I expected to hate this game. Not only was this clearly a spiritual successor to the Ogre Battle series, which I dislike. It was also saddled with an absurd name that didn’t exactly instill confidence. Yet against all odds, this game not only surprised me, it became one of my favorite games on 2024 with its excellent gameplay (much improved from the ogre Battle games), and its phenomenal presentation.
Runners-Up:
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Best Third-Party Publisher
Just a note – this award is not about the way these companies conduct themselves behind the scenes. Rather, this award only pertains to which companies most consistently brought out great games on the Nintendo Switch in 2022.
Sega – (Unicorn Overlord, Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble, Sonic X Shadow Generations, Yakuza Kiwame) – Sega continues to prove that it is one of Nintendo’s best and most consistent partners. Sega wins this award for the second year in a row thanks to not only producing some of the best games in a few of its long-running franchises, but also by publishing the truly excellent aforementioned Unicorn Overlord.
Runners-Up:
UbiSoft – Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, Beyond Good & Evil 20th Anniversary Edition
Devolver Digital – Neva, Pepper Grinder, Gris + Neva Bundle
Yogscast Games – PlateUp!, The Holy Gosh Darn
Microsoft – Pentiment, Grounded
Untold Tales – W.A.N.D. Project, Chernobylite, The Cub, EcoGnomix, Servonauts, Otherwar
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Top 5-6 Games That Would Win a Lot More Awards This Week if They Weren’t Disqualified Due to How Old Their Original Release is
3. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
1. Batman: Arkham Asylum / Batman: Arkham City
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My Top 10 Most-Played Games of 2024
This is according to Nintendo’s own Year in Review page, which only includes stats through November 30. Here are my top 10:
10. Animal Well
8. Hero’s Hour
7. Peglin
6. Balatro
4. PlateUp!
3. Void Scrappers (23 Hours)
2. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (24 Hours)
1. Raging Loop (32 Hours)
For once, I’m not embarrassed by any of the games that topped my list this year. The hours listed for the top games are wayyyyy shorter than last year’s list, which has me thinking my time was spread between more games this year. Well, and also this year didn’t have The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom sucking 200+ hours of my life away.
Funny, I don’t even remember playing Slay the Spire in 2024, yet I do not doubt for a second that it deserves its #5 spot on the list – it has a way of eating massive chunks of time without noticing. PlateUp! was a favorite of Jenn’s, and she and I played it in co-op a lot. Balatro, Peglin, and Void Scrappers were games I would often reach for when I wanted to kill time with an enjoyable game that wouldn’t require me to think too hard.
Finally, I should say that I was surprised to see Raging Loop top this list, but after the shock wore off I realized it made sense – I got really into that game while reviewing it, and absolutely wanted to see its story through to the end(s).
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My Top 10 Most-Anticipated Games of 2024
10. Coffee Talk Tokyo
9. Capcom Fighting Collection 2
8. Guilty Gear Strive
7. Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition
6. Blade Chimera
5. Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma
4. Everhood 2
3. Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
2. Hades II
1. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
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Did Last Year’s Top 10 Most-Anticipated Games Meet Expectations?
10. Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story – Don’t know, I didn’t play it.
9. Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy – Don’t know. I didn’t play this one either.
8. Braid: Anniversary Edition – I would say this game met and exceeded expectations with not only a wonderful remaster, but a wealth of additional content.
7. Princess Peach: Showtime! – Yet another one I didn’t play.
6. Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution – Delayed to 2025.
5. The Gecko Gods – Unreleased. Don’t know when it’s currently due out.
4. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door – A solid remake of a solid Mario RPG. I think it met expectations.
3. Blade Chimera – Delayed to 2025.
2. Hades 2 – Not released yet. It’s number 2 on this year’s list for the third year in a row. Let’s hope I don’t have to consider it in next year’s list too…
1. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond – This one tops my list for the second year in a row, though this time around it has actually been announced and should release next year for sure! … probably…
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Additional Commentary!
Just going to comment on the categories I feel like I have more to add.
2023 Second Chance Awards
While I thoroughly enjoyed each game on this list, I’m overall pretty satisfied with the games that did make it into the 2023 eShopperReviews Game Awards – there’s no game that I felt made such a huge impact it could have reshaped the prior year’s awards like Chained Echoes did last year, though some of these likely would have become runners-up, at least.
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Top 10 Games I Wish I Could Have Played Before Writing This, But Didn’t Get Around to Doing In Time
Okay, I did technically play the demos for a few of these, but didn’t feel like I got a good sense of how the entire game would play and wanted to see more. Namely, Bloomtown and Tavern Talk seemed promising, and of course Princess Peach: Showtime! was such a major game for Nintendo that I’m sorry I didn’t get around to it.
Others are games that I felt pretty sure I would enjoy, like World of Goo 2, Hatch Tales, and RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic. I thought the idea behind Arzette was fascinating and was curious to try it. And I heard good things about Little Kitty Big City, too.
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Best Port/Remake
Sonic X Shadow Generations almost won this one, but I had to admit to myself that the content that I felt truly made this game great was Shadow Generations, which isn’t really a port or a remake.
Quilts and Cats of Calico felt like a bit of a subversive pick to put on this list, because it’s a port… of a board game. But darned if it isn’t a magnificent port! Both Wizardry and Shadow of the Ninja got absolutely incredible remakes, but Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord suffers from the original game’s absurd difficulty that just has not aged well, and Shadow of the Ninja Reborn‘s Platforming left something to be desired in my opinion. Mario Vs. Donkey Kong, on the other hand, is a phenomenal remake, and it could have won this year’s award if it wasn’t so disgustingly overpriced.
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Best Sequel
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a magnificent game… but is it even a sequel? And while I do think The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a very good sequel, I just couldn’t give it this award, not a year after Tears of the Kingdom, which was on a whole other level.
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Best Free-to-Play Game
I’ll be honest, this wasn’t a great year for Free-to-Play games on Nintendo Switch. I do think all of the included games have at least some appeal, but of the bunch I think only Pool Blitz and Star Wars: Hunters were truly excellent… except Star Wars: Hunters had to go and ruin that with its monetization.
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Best Third-Party Publisher
It’s kinda’ funny that two of Nintendo’s best third-party supporters this year were Sega and Microsoft. Maybe if Sony released more multiplatform games than just MLB The Show they could potentially make this list too! Man, imagine going back in time to late-2000, with the Dreamcast still selling and Microsoft set to announce the Xbox in a month, and telling gamers that 24 years later, Sega and Microsoft were going to be two of the best supporters of Nintendo’s latest console. Given enough time, quite a lot of things change, don’t they?
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Top 5-6 Games That Would Be Up For a Lot More Awards This Week if They Weren’t Disqualified Due to How Old Their Original Release is
Why 5-6 Games this year? Well, the two Batman games are kinda’ a special case, since they came out in a bundle the prior year. They’re both truly incredible games, but it didn’t seem quite right to list them separately.
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That’s all for today! to keep up with all of the eShopperReviews 2024 Game Awards, be sure to check back at the Awards’ Start Page, which I’ll be updating throughout the week!
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