The Questyen

7. Pokémon Legends: Arceus (Switch)

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I'm not the hugest Pokémon fan mainly because I feel like each successive game has added on way too many convoluted mechanics systems that take away from what made the first few games great. So hearing that Arceus was going to be a revamp for the series and have them redo how encounters and evolutions work along with getting rid of the standard gym battle system piqued my interest. The majority of these changes ended up being for the better as Pokémon Legends: Arceus ends up being probably my favorite Pokémon game ever. Gone is the regular boring Pokedex now replaced with a far more engaging encyclopedia with a number of research tasks included for each Pokémon which gives you an in game reason to want to catch multiple of the same type and in inventive ways. The battle system is changed also with the Pokémon acting more like wild animals and you having the ability to sneak up and catch them with out battling. Unfortunately like the most recent Pokémon game Scarlet/Violet the environments and textures look ugly with a lot of pop-in and Pokémon you see in the distance look like stop-motion until you get extremely close to them which is jarring. With these issues fixed this might have been a top three game for me but I still enjoyed Arceus's updated systems and fun take on a Pokémon open world. Hopefully we get a follow-up where they can improve upon the framework of this game.

The Questyen

6. Stray (PS5)


A game where you play as a cat with robots in a rundown town is like a game that was made specifically for me. Thankfully they really nailed the "cat" part of the game. The way your character traverses and interacts with the world is perfect and I love they got that aspect down. The story of Stray went in heart-wrenching directions I was not expecting and the robots were given personality and interesting quests for you to deal with. The world building is top notch with a highly detailed town based on Hong Kong's walled city. Stray ended up being a high quality puzzle platformer that while fairly linear did encourage exploration and I would really love a sequel.

The Questyen

5. Tinykin (PS5)


For anyone who knows me besides Mario the Pikmin series is my favorite game series. And every year or two we get one Pikmin-like game that I enjoy. This year we got Tinykin which is easily my favorite non-Nintendo Pikmin title I've played. This game is a perfect mix of Pikmin and 3D platforming with a nice sense of speed and some wonderful character designs. There are a ton of things to collect with fairly large areas and a fun storyline. Tinykin was a perfect length and made me want to explore every nook and cranny. So much fun!

The Questyen

4. Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope (Switch)


A game with the Rabbids in them really shouldn't be this good but even with how much I enjoyed the first game Kingdom Battle the sequel improves upon it in every aspect. The overworld has been changed from a more linear path in the first game to a more fully realized 3d open world with tons of things to explore and collect. The quest system has a lot of variety and I enjoyed how it forced you occasionally to use characters you weren't otherwise using. The Rabbid versions of your standard Mushroom Kingdom characters are given unique personalities and the new characters introduced are really well done. The turn based strategy combat has been fine tuned and the combos you can pull off with your characters along with the number of abilities you can unlock and level up makes for some fun battles. Even as someone who is not the biggest strategy game fan this game is a good time so I would recommend it to pretty much everyone.

OldBoy

I just downloaded Stray a few days ago based on one vid I saw. Have yet to play but I’m eagerly anticipating now.

The Questyen

3. Horizon Forbidden West (PS5)


Horizon Zero Dawn was one of my favorite games the year it came out and really surprised me since it was made by the developers of Killzone a series I did not care for. I was highly anticipating this sequel and where they would take the story and it managed to hit all my expectations. The lead character Aloy is one of my favorite leads out of any games I've played. She is well written, fantastically voice acted and motion captured with a very distinct look. The side characters are expanded upon in this sequel and play a larger more important role. The graphics are breathtaking and the open world is fun to explore with tons to keep you busy. In a lot of years this could have easily been my favorite game of the year.

davidh777

HFW is a game I played this year!

Goldberg74

Me too!
Nice list so far... but if numbers one and two are Elden Ring and God of War: Ragnarok, I'm gonna scream.

Decker

Gotta wait and see....

Decker

I just picked up that Mario + Rabbids game. Haven't played any yet but will give it a try. Liked the first one.

The Questyen

2. Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Switch)

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I enjoy the Kirby series and have had some games in the series on previous lists but Forgotten Land is easily my favorite Kirby game. It is a perfect mix of your regular Kirby enemies and abilities combined with a Super Mario 3D World style land to explore. I really like the idea for this game with Kirby exploring this post apocalyptic previously human world combined with some of the bosses gives off some serious Akira vibes. The world is fun to explore with lots of secret areas and the new larger items that Kirby can "swallow" such as cars and pipes make for some interesting puzzle solutions. Like most Kirby games just making it through the levels is not overly difficult but getting 100% on each level adds some reasons to replay them. You have the standard Kirby abilities for the most part but as you go along you can upgrade the abilities and use amped versions of these once they are unlocked. I feel like this is a must play for Switch owners.

OldBoy

Nail biting time…

The Questyen

1. God of War Ragnarok (PS5)

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The "original" new God of War really came out of nowhere for me as my favorite game of 2018. I enjoyed the previous games in the series but GoW took huge leaps forward in its storytelling and character development. So with that I expected great things from Ragnarok and I was not disappointed as it was easily my favorite game of 2022 and one of my favorite games of all time. The dynamic between Kratos and Atreus is so well written and incredibly voice acted and add in their interactions with the wonderfully realized side characters like Mimir, Angrboda, Freya, Brok and Sindri it makes for one of the best cast of characters in videogames.The graphics are amazing and the combat still feels great with a nice sense of weight to your attacks and gives you your blades and axe to choose from right from the start (not to mention some other weapons that come later). This game also nails some really emotional beats that a lot of games try but struggle to do. I'm actually pretty fascinated to see where they go from here with the franchise since I find Ragnarok to be an almost perfect culmination of this type of third person action storytelling.

So that's it. Another fantastic year for videogames in my opinion with a bunch of wonderful sequels and great new titles also. Thanks for reading!

spainlinx0

I didn't play Elden Ring, but I'm curious if you did and just didn't enjoy it, or you didn't get to it.

maxfisher

I'm a little surprised you ranked this so high. I found the general tone to be fairly charming, but it was one of the least challenging games I've played in the past several years. One of the things I love about Pikmin is the puzzle aspect and how it feels like there's always a slightly better way to do things. Pikmin 3 is one of the very few games that I have popped in on and off long after I beat it just to compete against my own previous times. Maybe my memory is being overly critical, but with Tinykin, I feel like there was exactly one way to do pretty much every task and it was always really obvious how to go about it. It wasn't a bad game, but I found it to be disappointing the further I got into it. At least we're finally getting Pikmin 4 this year.

Regardless, thanks for coming back by to share your list. It's always a fun highlight to start the year.

Jeremy517

Pretty sure he has said he has no interest in soulslikes.

The Questyen

Soulslike games are about as far from what I enjoy about gaming as a game style could be. I'm glad that they are made for the people who want them but zero interest.

The Questyen

Like my lack of interest in souls games I have zero interest in games being challenging. I play pretty much every videogame at the easiest possible difficulty there is so a game not being challenging doesn't make it any less good in my book. But yes I am super excited about Pikmin 4 and thanks for the comments!

OldBoy

Yes. Can’t wait to play Ragnarok. Probably play right after playing 2018’s GoW. Great list Quest! Thanks for keeping with tradition. Much appreciated and highly enjoyable reads.

Goldberg74

Great list Questyen!

My teenagers loved Pokémon Arceus, Kirby’s Forgotten Realm, and Mario + Rabbids: Spark of Hope.

Im in the middle of Horizon Forbidden West and Stray is on my playlist. Cult of the Lamb looks great, but I doubt I’d put the hours into it.

I’d be curious as to what your Runner’s Up would have been? Care to give us a shortlist?

😉 Grateful as always!

nickdawgy

It’s amazingly fun.

nickdawgy

I hated Souls type games before Elden Ring. I really enjoyed it though. I almost gave up on it but it was a lot of fun.

Adam Tyner

It is! The irony over here is that my wife loves it so much that once she starts playing, she can't put it down...but because it's so addictive, she's only fired it up a few times. She greatly prefers it to the original.

maxfisher

I think I've tried every Souls-type game from FromSoftware, including Elden Ring, and the only one that held my interest more than a handful of hours was Bloodborne. I would easily put Bloodborne among my top handful of games from the past 20 years, but nothing else they've done has been able to grab me.

The Questyen

I don't really have any runner's up this year. I enjoyed the Resident Evil Village DLC Shadows of Rose but not enough to put it on the list. I played way less games this year because of other hobbies taking precedent like I mentioned in the first post but also I quit way more games this year that just weren't doing it for me. I am going to try and play through A Plague Tale: Requiem in the next week or two and I loved the first one so if I end up loving the sequel I'll post in here about it.