I never posted this list back then, so here we are two years late. At least I don’t have to worry about recency bias anymore. I’m limiting this to the top 6 games instead of the usual top 10 because that was the cutoff for games that scored at least 90%, and that seems like a good cutoff for what’s still worth calling out two years later.
6. This Way Madness Lies
Few games can boast a concept as silly as being a drama club of magical girls tasked with saving the works of Shakespeare from being corrupted by an inter-dimensional evil. Luckily, it’s more than up to the task of delivering jokes worthy of that idea. It’s a five to six hour journey through increasingly bizarre versions of classic stories and has a fantastic soundtrack to go along with its comedic consistency. It might have placed even higher if not for a combat system that’s too simple for how often it’s used, but that’s fairly easy to overlook with how good everything else is.
5. Neon White
Neon White is probably the closest we’ll ever get to a proper Mirror’s Edge sequel. I do prefer the longer levels of ME to NW’s short bursts, but there’s no denying that these levels are masterfully designed. It’s almost exactly as satisfying to put together a perfect run through a level and there dozens upon dozens of levels to play. Add in a solid story and great soundtrack and you’ve got an exceptional game.
4. Signalis
Signalis sets out to recreate the classics of late ’90s survival horror and manages to match the classics of the genre. Although movement is perhaps a bit more sluggish than it needed to be, its levels are a joy to explore and most puzzles have satisfying solutions. It makes you simultaneously excited to explore every corner of the map and nervous about what you’ll find there, which would probably have been even more true if the story wasn’t so determined to be incomprehensible by the end. Few games have ever needed “what did the ending mean?” theory posts as much as this one, and while some games are better for being mysterious, Signalis doesn’t really gain anything from being so obtuse.
3. Pokemon Legends: Arceus
I don’t have any screenshots for this one, so here’s a picture of the GBC classic Pokemon Trading Card Game instead. Arceus is a total reinvention of the Pokemon formula to be an open world exploration game, and it fully delivers on the promise of that idea. For the first time in the series, you really feel like you’re doing the research to put together an encyclopedia of magical creatures. Legendaries have memorable boss fights to go with them and even regular Pokemon get behaviors and placements that make them feel like a real part of an ecosystem instead of just annoying grass goblins. It’s easily the best this series has ever been and is only held back by the technical limitations of the Switch. Here’s hoping next year’s follow up can exorcise the tech demons and take this spinoff to even greater heights.
2. Chained Echoes
Chained Echoes is one of the least original games ever made. Many of its most important scenes are clearly lifted from Final Fantasy XII, and those that aren’t are often clearly from a different famous JRPG. Nothing ever rises to the level of plagiarism, mind, but you’ve seen this story and most of its ideas before. So how did it manage to be the second best game of 2022? Well, sometimes it’s enough to do one thing really well. CE might not have a memorable story, the music may not be stuck in your head, and you may run out of interesting character unlocks long before the credits roll, but it’s still a joy from start to (almost) finish because of its incredibly rewarding exploration. Nearly every map in the game is full of secrets, hidden paths, optional fights, and other goodies just waiting to be found. Some are less engaging than others, of course, but most are well worth the effort to find and they collectively ensure that every new screen and every mobility upgrade is immediately interesting.
1. nirvanA Initiative
The first Somnium Files game was rather underwhelming as a follow up to the Zero Escape trilogy. That might have been inevitable after ZE produced three of my favorite games ever, including my all-time favorite in VLR, but it didn’t do much to help itself. It gave far too much screen time to some unlikable characters, including the protagonist, and wrapped up with plot twists that were disappointingly predictable. All that is to say that while NI was coming from a developer I hold in extremely high regard, it still had an uphill battle in front of it.
Luckily, it corrects just about every problem from the first game. Puzzles are less clunky. The plot is far more elaborate and will almost certainly surprise you in significant ways. Characters are more memorable and a fan favorite takes over as protagonist. In short, it’s a better game in basically every way.