The problem with the Game of the Year award is that it presupposes that we’re all adults with plenty of free time to keep up with the growing game releases. You would think that game journalists, of all kinds of adults, would be more interested in this than most… and you would be wrong! Like any other human being, we are lost, lost, procrastinated and backlog, spending hours playing this fascinating new thing called Skyrim instead of checking Elen’s ring.
If you are familiar with our regular sale backlog club series, you’ll know we’ve spent most of this year playing games that aren’t in 2022. So in honor of the games that dominated our 2022, but not enough. In this year’s GOTY event, we present to you a game with a terrible title “Best non-2222 transformation game we’ve played a bunch” Game Awards not this year 2022. Come on!
Jim Norman, editor
Winner: fear of Metroid
In fact, my answer to this question would be Metroid Dread – a little indie game that I’m sure you’ve never heard of. Except, of course, you’ve heard of it. Everyone has. I was very late to the party this time and only picked Dread in November of this year so I feel like I’m saying “oh, have you ever played Breath of the Wild? It’s really good!So I’ll quickly round it up before talking about anything else: great game, one of the best games on Switch, best Metroid ever?, Live it love like it, etc, etc.
If I type Dread based on the fact that of course it’s very goodthen I’ll have to go for owl boy to replace. How the heck I’ve never played this before is completely beyond my imagination! It has absolutely everything I look for in a video game. A beautiful art style, interesting combat system, a guy in a blue hat. If I could make it last longer I would do so immediately, but the few evenings I spend playing the title are among my top gaming memories of the year. It may not completely match Metroid Dread in terms of the best games on Switchbut I know which one makes me cry more…
Kate Gray, Staff Writer
Winner: Kill the tower
My GOTY this year is Solid V Metal Gearbox, a game that I adamantly ignored when it came out because of its legal brutal treatment of women (or “women”, since there’s really only one game). But god, it’s a beautiful little thing anyway—a masterpiece of “I wonder if this will work” system design. Shame about the sexism.
If we’re talking Switch games, though, my non-2222 GOTY is easily Slay the Spire. I played it on Steam when it first came out and I’ve played it for a while lots of back then, but turning it on to the Switch tripled my hours in the game with ease. It’s a perfect pick-and-play game, and I think games like that are omitted from the GOTY list because they’re so boring. It’s great though, and I’d love to be able to rediscover such a game.
Gavin Lane, Editor
Winner: show off
Earlier this year, I was reviewing my Conversions menu and decided to mark something off my backlog to make myself feel better. Something short, something sweet, something quick that I could finish in a few hours just to trigger that dopamine rush when you tick something off the list.
Stupidly, I saw Spelunky sitting there and typed in it. After enjoying quite a few roguelite games, I reasoned that it was time to return to the game that sparked the indie developers’ love affair with the genre — on consoles at least — a decade ago. It is good. It’s really good. You already know that, but if you’ve somehow overlooked it for the past ten years like I have, then I can safely say that Derek Yu’s Spelunky video game is a good one. I haven’t finished it yet, and when I do I have mystery 2 wait for me. By the time I finished that I could have bookmarked dozens of other games backlog… but none of them would be Spelunky.
So first thing first, right? Maybe Yu will finish development flying saucer 50 by the time I pass them!
Alana Hagues, editor
Winner: decompression
I feel like it’s cheating to put a game out in the last few months of 2021 here, but gosh, I wish I had played Unpacking when it first came out.
In fact, decompression is really stressful. One moment you’re packing your life into perishable cardboard boxes, the next, you’re trying to find new places for it in a whole new shell. Unpacking (the game) helps to remove stress but still preserves reflection – it’s a game that can tell a story without words. Over the course of ten hours, I carefully unloaded my luggage several times, filled the shelves and checked the rooms, while noting changes in both home style and furnishings – what was missing and what was left – and mood. It was a great game and gave me a little more hope and positivity for my next life-changing move.
What’s your GOTY-that-not-is- your TY? Tell us your catch-up candidates in the comments!
