my favorite games of 2024

01 Jan 2025

For four years in a row, I’ve kept a list of every video game I completed and shared the top 10 with my friends. I’m kicking off my blog with a web version of my 2024 list, since Instagram stories disappear pretty quick and people sometimes ask me to remind them what my list was (which is an honor!) These lists are based on when I played a game, not when it was released—although they tend to skew to new releases since I try to keep up with those.

Top 6-10:

10. PokéRogue

9. Parking Garage Rally Circuit

8. Cobalt Core

7. Shogun Showdown

6. Hades 2 (early access)

On to the top 5:

5. webfishing

webfishing is a cozy, modern-day Club Penguin except instead of kids, its primary audience is queer stoners. Somehow, webfishing’s vibe perfectly captures the charm of early internet chatrooms. Everyone I met on the game was either extremely nice or extremely weird in an entertaining way, so you can’t go wrong in either case.

4. Ori and the Will of the Wisps

Ori 1 was my #3 game of 2021, and its sequel, Will of the Wisps, improves on it in almost every way. My personal highlights from this game were the extremely satisfying platforming set pieces that made me feel like I was playing out a scene from a movie. The new combat and item systems give you so many cool ways to traverse its gorgeous map. Will of the Wisps still has the same charm as the original Ori, albeit with a slightly darker tone. The only reason it ranks lower than Ori 1 this year is because 2024 was such an amazing year for games!

3. Tiny Rogues

Of the many great indie roguelikes my friend Saideep recommended to me this year (I think there were like 5, including numbers 7-8 on this list), the bullet hell Tiny Rogues takes the cake. I was initially put off by the art style but after playing a couple runs, I was utterly sold on the game’s vision. That vision is to simply get all the roguelike things right - immaculately tuned progression, genuinely unique classes, wacky items that beg to be tried, and most of all, a perfect balance between complexity and simplicity in its systems. I was delighted by the amount of craziness this game pulled off without being overwhelming. This is a shockingly good game, and it’s still receiving regular content updates from its solo developer.

2. Balatro

Within the first 3 days of trying Balatro, I logged nearly 20 hours. This game hijacks your brain like no other. I would bring Balatro to study sessions and egg people on to try it, and before we knew it, it was 3am and we were taking turns collectively coaching each others’ multi-hour runs, projecting them on a big screen to debate which joker setups would get us furthest. Like a black hole that completely devours productivity, Balatro was genuinely detrimental to our work for at least a week after we discovered it.

Silly fearmongering aside, I can barely name a single flaw that Balatro has. Down to the tiniest details in how the cards jingle when you rack up points, or the way the score counter lights on fire when one hand is enough to beat a round, everything in Balatro is juiced up to be maximally satisfying. Surprisingly for a card game, Balatro gives you tons of freedom when choosing how to have fun—you can progress through its 8 difficulty levels, or dive into hand-crafted challenge scenarios with unique constraints, or just try to fish for crazy combos and reach infinity points. It’s insanely addictive like nothing else. I am surprised but grateful that the global economy did not crash due to productivity loss when they released the mobile version of Balatro.

1. Animal Well

In many ways, Animal Well ticks all the boxes for an archetypal “favorite game” of mine. It was developed by one person who executed his vision over 7 years. You can only truly play it once, because the game is about studying and exploring its world—progression is gated not by levels or bosses, but by knowledge. Many of the reviewers I trust waxed lyrical about it. I knew all this and more before trying Animal Well, and I was still not prepared for how much I ended up enjoying it.

I can’t talk about it too much without spoiling the experience, but there are two reasons this game is so special. First off, it oozes atmosphere. Its world is so quirky and delicately crafted that you’re constantly being drawn into the tiniest of details. Second, Animal Well trusts the player’s intelligence. This game knows it’s full of wonder. Its near-perfect level design sets you up for the joy of discovery without ruining things by nudging you too hard. Even when you think you’re done with the game, there are more layers to peel back if you so wish. Animal Well is a delightful labor of love, and it made me grateful that video games exist.