We’re finally down to it. What follows is the best of the best, the absolute cream of the crop of what 2024 had to offer.

Note: You can listen to a podcast where Jenn and I discuss these awards! Check it out here!

1. Game of the Year: Bronze Award (Third Place)
2. Game of the Year: Silver Award (Second Place)
3. Game of the Year: Runners-Up
4. Game of the Year
5. Additional Commentary!

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Game of the Year: Bronze Award (Third Place)

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown – Here’s where, as usual, I take a moment to say that while the game designers at UbiSoft do wonderful work, the executives at this company are some of the slimiest folks in the industry, who still haven’t answered for the numerous abuses they’ve put their employees through. Case in point – after Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown was released, and proved to be what was arguably the most polished game of the year, with outstanding graphics, superb performance on Nintendo Switch, a wonderful soundtrack, great voice acting and story, great gameplay, and a long-awaited return to a beloved series that’s well worth the wait… after all that, UbiSoft laid off the developers of this game due to underwhelming sales likely caused by Ubisoft’s own questionable pricing practices. What a tragic ending to one of the greatest games of the year.

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Game of the Year: Silver Award (Second Place)

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom – While nowhere near as massive and ambitious as last year’s The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Echoes of Wisdom is still bursting with creativity, taking the spirit of Tears of the Kingdom and applying it to Nintendo’s smaller, 2D Zelda formula, resulting in something truly wonderful in its own right. And it’s fitting that after waiting decades to appear in the game as its protagonist, Princess Zelda finally takes the lead not as a pandering marketing move, but because the game designers at Nintendo and Grezzo came to the realization that the gameplay they were working on was better-suited to Zelda than Link. Let’s hope this isn’t the last we see of Zelda taking a more active role in her own game series.

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Game of the Year: Runners-Up

Neva – Neva improves on the gameplay of its predecessor Gris, but doesn’t lose sight of what made Gris special in the first place – this is a game that is all about giving the player a beautiful, profound experience. And I believe that it absolutely accomplishes this goal, and with only one word, “Neva”, gives players a gripping story you’ll want to see through every change of the seasons.

Balatro – I have repeatedly heard people say they have bought Balatro on multiple platforms, so powerful was their need to play it regardless of where they were. If you’re one of those people still scratching your head wondering why people are getting so enthusiastic about this “just a Poker game”, you need to try it for yourself – you’ll likely understand once you do.

Super Mario Party: Jamboree – I absolutely never thought I’d see the day when a Mario Party game would get close to the top of one of my “best of the year” lists. But Super Mario Party: Jamboree isn’t just a Mario Party game, it is the Mario Party game. If you enjoy multiplayer games at all and haven’t played a Mario Party game yet, this is the place to start. If you played earlier games and didn’t like them, this one may just win you back. In any case, it has never been a better time to play Mario Party.

Unicorn Overlord – I was ready to hate this game. Clearly, that never happened. Unicorn Overlord takes everything I hated about Ogre Battle and turns it into something wonderfully joyous, making for a mix of RPG and Strategy that’s truly unique and delightful, with a wonderful presentation and a huge world to explore. Do not miss it.

Pentiment – I’ve already spoken about this game’s incredible attention to detail, its excellent presentation, its wonderful wealth of choices that lets players feel like they’re an active part of this historical time period. Pentiment is a Graphic Adventure that you can only get when its creators truly love the topic matter, and that love shines through in this game, making it a truly remarkable experience.

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Game of the Year

Animal Well – No other games in 2024 compelled me the way this game did, to see all of its fascinating world, to plumb all of its secrets… and by “all”, I mean “probably only a small fraction, because I’m not one of those real obsessive types”. Yes, as I’ve said before, Animal Well is a game that provides players with layer after layer of puzzles to solve, and it gives you the freedom to delve only as deep as you desire.

However, let me talk a bit about the layer that thrilled me, the one at the tippy-top. Where I would explore its strange world and encounter some dangerous creature I couldn’t see any way to defeat or get past, or some odd puzzle I couldn’t even understand. And so I’d head off in another direction, and eventually I’d find… a piece of junk. A child’s toy that’s not a weapon or some special new form of traversal, but just some little thing that doesn’t do anything useful.

Eventually, I would come to discover that toy did indeed have a use after all, and not just one, but often many. But those uses would have to be discovered, like a puzzle unto themselves. What good is a slinky when all it does is drop down a staircase and just sit there useless at the end? What good is a frisbee that doesn’t hurt enemies? These are the sorts of questions in Animal Well that hold some of the game’s most amazing answers.

It is astounding at how much brilliant gameplay has been squeezed into a game that’s under 100MB. How much gorgeous pixel art scenery, how much wonderful sound design, and how many incredible secrets, all wrapped in a game that keeps rewarding players for thinking about exactly how it works.

When this game was announced as being published by YouTuber Videogame Dunkey of all people, it was hard to take seriously. When his advertising for the game involved him going onto game sessions of Counter-Strike and trolling gamers by talking incessantly about the game and making bizarre and clearly false promises about it, I just had to roll my eyes. But behind all the absurdity and silly jokes, Dunkey deserves all the credit in the world for spotting what a rare gem this game is and making sure it saw release.

And of course, we can’t give credit without recognizing how amazing that this entire game, from the gameplay to the level design to the visuals to the sound design to even the built-from-scratch game engine… all of it was designed by one man. Billy Basso, if ever one work instantly established its creator as a Renaissance Man, this is it, and you deserve to be applauded for this absolutely insane display of talent.

Do yourself a favor and play Animal Well. You won’t get any Wonder Bread for buying it, but you will get an absolutely brilliant game that is worth every bit of hype it got. Even if it’s nothing like Halo 2 or Halo 3.

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Additional Commentary!

Okay, I know what many of you want to hear about here, so let’s get to it: games that weren’t named Game of the Year (or even a runner-up) and why.

Thank Goodness You’re Here! – If I had one more slot on the list, this would be on it. I loved this game, and while I could criticize it for being aimless and seemingly pointless, that was kinda’, well, the point of it. Even wandering around lost, I still ended up finding my way to where I needed to go and having a blast getting there. At $20, the game seems a bit too pricey for how short it is, but darned if I didn’t enjoy every minute I played it. I suppose the only real reason it didn’t make the list was… well, because the other games on my list did.

Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble – Yet another one that came very close to making my list. The best game in the series since the original two, I feel like the lack of the great minigames this series is known for having was a mark against it, the soundtrack wasn’t nearly as good as Banana Mania, and some of the online modes didn’t work well. Minor nitpicks? Sure, but it’s enough that it allowed other games to edge it out for a spot on my Best Of list.

Stray – Another top contender, and an all-around great game. I think the semi-automatic Platforming had somewhat mixed results, and this is an inferior version of the game compared to other platforms, even if not significantly so.

Nine Sols – Another excellent one. It slipped off my top list because while the combat and presentation are outstanding, I felt like the Metroidvania elements could have been stronger.

1000xResist, Quilts and Cats of Calico, Lil’ Guardsman, Sonic X Shadow Generations, Peglin, PlateUp!, Promenade, Crypt Stalker, Berserk Boy – Look, there were a lot of great games this year, and they couldn’t all make the list, okay?

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and Braid, Anniversary Edition – Both disqualified from winning this award due to the age of the original release. For the record, Braid might have made the list if this wasn’t the case, but Paper Mario probably wouldn’t have – I like this game, but I don’t have the huge amount of love for it that some people do.

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes – Was never going to make it on my Best Of list. I get why some others loved it, but I was not anywhere near as enamored with it as others were.

A Time Traveler’s Guide to Past Delicacies – Ehh, no. This game is a great piece of art. But it’s not a great game.

Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story and Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord – Eiw, no. Look, I have a ton of respect for what Digital Eclipse has done with these two games, but what they’ve done doesn’t make the games housed within them actually enjoyable. I still feel like Digital Eclipse’s best game this year is Tetris Forever, but even that wasn’t good enough to make my Best Of list.

Mediterranea Inferno – Ugh, no. Overrated, pretentious, and not something I found enjoyable in the least.

As for other stuff to say… wow, it is so hard finding original things to say when you’ve recorded five days of podcasts, and then talked about the same game for a half-dozen awards. Yes, I really liked Super Mario Party: Jamboree, it’s the best Mario Party game, it has great multiplayer, it has tons of variety, it’s great for kids and casual players… what the heck else am I gonna’ say about it at this point?

It certainly doesn’t help that some of the games I really liked, like Unicorn Overlord, I played much earlier in the year, and so while I have strong memories of how much I liked it, the details are a bit fuzzier. And yes, I could replay it, but… I don’t have time for that, I’m already rushing to try to put all of this together.

At this point, I’m glad to almost have this all behind me. Next up… well, I have another project or two I need to work on, and then… well, probably the Nintendo Switch 2, it looks like… maybe one of these days I’ll get some honest-to-goodness rest.

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That’s all for the eShopperReviews 2024 Game Awards! If you missed the other awards this week, be sure to check back at the Awards’ Start Page to see the other awards that have been handed out!

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